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The Rejuvenating Health Podcast
Join Women's Health Nurse Practitioner, Lindsey VanSchoyck for a weekly dose of Precision Medicine as she addresses the hot-button topics specific to Women's Health, Fitness and Nutrition, interviews expert guests and hosts round table discussions with the team of dedicated functional health care specialists.
The Rejuvenating Health Podcast
E154 | Q&A with Lindsey & Laken: Volume 2 - Labs, Magic Pills & Sleep!
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“Your labs are fine” can feel like a dead end when your body is screaming otherwise. We dig into why so many women get dismissed by conventional reference ranges, how functional and optimal lab ranges change the picture, and why symptoms still count as real data. From thyroid markers like TSH to the day-to-day realities of stress, under-eating, and overtraining, we connect the dots between numbers on paper and how you actually feel in your life.
We also tackle two of the biggest weight-loss misconceptions in perimenopause and menopause: HRT is supportive care, not a weight loss drug, and GLP-1 medications are powerful signals, not magic. We talk insulin resistance, cortisol dysregulation, inflammation, protein intake, strength training, and why “faster” isn’t always healthier. If belly fat has become your main frustration, we break down why fat distribution shifts with lower estrogen, why visceral fat is metabolically sensitive, and what helps most when you focus on body composition over the scale.
Then we get practical: sleep anxiety and low mood root causes, bedtime runway, supplement quality control, and how to stop guessing with stacks that never get retested. We cover HRT delivery methods (oral, patch, cream, injectable), when vaginal estrogen matters for long-term tissue and bladder health, and even how to handle a partner who snores without sacrificing your basic need for sleep.
If you like clear answers with real-world application, we are your girls.
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Welcome And Q And A Setup
SPEAKER_00Any views, thoughts, and opinions expressed on the Rejuvenating Health podcast are solely those of the speakers and are intended as such. Please consult your trusted healthcare practitioner for medical advice. Let's go, girls.
SPEAKER_02Hey ladies, welcome back to the Rejuvenating Health Podcast. I am your mindset coach Lakin, and as always, I'm joined by Lindsay, our women's health nurse practitioner. What are we talking about today? It's our favorite episode.
SPEAKER_00Today we're gonna do a QA. We had lots of questions to dig through today.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I love the Ask Us Anything episodes. I feel like it's our chance to get, you know, real questions from clients. And I will say a lot of times the questions are uh they there's some that keep coming up, right? That which means that there's different opportunities for us to explain them in a way that resonates. Um, so I and there's obviously a reason why they keep coming up.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, they're definitely not random. They all kind of point towards the same root issues that these women are kind of having.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and a lot of that is like, oh, well, they're being told that they're fine, but they don't feel fine. And that's why a lot of women come to us to begin with. So I think uh it's a really good opportunity.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think I literally hear that on every visit that I do. Yeah, so today we're gonna break down the science of it all, because you know that's what we like to do, but also the real life application to it because you can know yourself into you can knowledge yourself, know yourself, have all the information, but you have to implement it. And that's where the struggle is for real.
Normal Labs Versus Optimal Health
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So let's let's dig right in. First question is, and this one we get from a lot of ladies, like we said. So I wanted to start with this one. Why does my doctor say that my labs are fine, but I still feel awful?
SPEAKER_00Well, I could probably do a whole podcast on just this question. We have done a whole podcast. Yeah, but I'll try to shorten it up. So this is the number one reason come to us, I would say. And it's because one, they're not ordering the right labs, right? Like your doctor's just looking at the basics of CBC, CMP, TSH, hemoglobin, A1C, lipid panel. Like they're not really digging in very far. And then when they are digging in, they're using conventional medicine reference ranges, not optimal, functional health optimal ranges, right? So when you go to lab core quest, your local hospital, whatever, they're using the sickest of sick, the greatest of greatest, finding those medium values and kind of sticking them where we're narrowing it down a lot and saying, no, here's what you need to, here's where this needs to be to be optimal. And they're two very different things.
SPEAKER_02Yes. Yeah, it's like most systems in conventional medicine are going to be trained to look for disease, right? Not optimization. So the idea of like, well, you're not dying is not necessarily the same thing as you're thriving, right? It's these are completely two ends of the spectrum, like you said. And a lot of women are functioning in survival mode all the time. And they're they're been in this situation where it's like, okay, I'm just fine for so long that that tends to become the standard. But what what is, can you explain the difference? Because I think this is where women get stuck. They think that a lab result is a verdict on what's happening for them, but it's not, it's just like one data point. But there's a very big difference between the conventional side of things and the functional side of things.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, the reference ranges are based on the average population. Well, the average population is tired, inflamed, overweight, and hormonally dysregulated. So if you want to feel like that and be normal, like you're you're average sick, just like everyone else.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, like normal is not the place to be. And and that might sound kind of harsh, but it's it's the reality of the situation, right? And in range can still mean not okay for you, especially if your goal is to be optimally healthy or to have a healthy lifestyle or to um have your to actually feel really good, right? This is like, this is just think about it as like I either don't feel sick or I feel really good.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00And I mean, we can just take a look at the thyroid, right? Like a TSH normal goes up to 4.5. If I had a TSH of 4.5, I would be struggling. Like most women do not feel good with a TSH of 4.5. You're gonna feel best closer to one to two, right? So if you're floating around out there with a TSH of 4.5, you're more likely to be tired, having weight gain, hair loss, fatigue, brain fog, and your doctor's gonna be like, yep, you're good.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and then women will think like it's all in their head, but symptoms, it's not just you, you know, something that's delusional or like you having an off day. It's like your body has all of these, all this evidence that's working against you that you don't see because it's it's kind of like being gaslit, honestly. It's like, well, yeah, everything's fine.
SPEAKER_00You can't treat just a TSH. Like, and you come to me and your TSH is five. Okay, why? Like, do you have a T4 of 1.4, which is optimal? And you're not converting it to T3 because you have gut health issues, inflammation, insulin resistance, and we need to focus on lifestyle stuff or give you T3 only medication? Do you have a T4 of 0.8 and a T3 of 2.8? Oh, well, you probably need medication then, and you need some T4 and T3.
SPEAKER_02But again, that takes it looking at the big picture, like you can't just look at the one thing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and you have to look at lifestyle underlying issues as to what's causing that. Like your thyroid, uh like I had someone earlier today with a suboptimal thyroid and she was in adrenal fatigue and she's like, I don't feel stressed. I'm like, no, but you're under-eating and overtraining and nutrient deficient. So yeah, your thyroid's downregulated.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So I think the the big thing is when we're looking at it, is are we treating numbers or are we treating humans, right? Because labs don't show the fact that you're uh stressing out over what's happening in your family system or your environment or you know what's going on with your career. It's not gonna show boundary issues, it's not gonna show like your brain beyond call 24-7. Like these are all things that have to be taken into consideration.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and this is also why you can't throw your labs into chat GPT because you have to look at your symptoms and patterns and what's causing things. Like, I can't tell you how many people tell me they put their labs in chat GPT, and I'm like, well, you can skew chat GBT to tell you really anything you want it to tell you. Like you have to look at the whole picture.
Thyroid Numbers And Whole-Picture Care
SPEAKER_02So yeah. Yeah. Okay. So this kind of goes right into the next question of I'm on HRT hormone replacement therapy, but I'm not losing weight. Why is that happening? Right.
SPEAKER_00So this is such a big misconception.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00HRT.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well, I think this goes with like what we talked about before of a lot of women wanting that smoking gun, right? It's like if they if they can't name the one thing, then they it gets frustrating because they just want a solution.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. HRT is great. It's not a weight loss drug. It's not. HRT supports hormone balance, it supports muscle preservation, it supports insulin sensitivity to a great, right? But it never overrides calorie intake, true insulin resistance, cortisol dysfunction, gut health issues, inflammation. Like you again, a lot of times I don't give people HRT right off the bat because their body is not primed to take that HRT and they could actually gain weight adding it in rather than losing it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, like HRT is gonna help your body respond better, but it's not gonna cancel out things that like keep your body defensive, right? So if your lifestyle is full of stress or if your metabolism is under attack because you're not supporting it properly, or if you're not training and you're not taking care of yourself and or you're not sleeping, right? Like you can put all the hormones you want in your system, but it's like a precursor, similar to how we talked about with genetics, right? Like genetics lay the blueprint, but it doesn't, it doesn't equal the expression of how your body actually shows up. It's like you have to do the action.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, HRT is it's support, it's just like a supplement, like it's support, it's not a solution. So, I mean, you just have to think of it as a tool to make your body more responsive to what you are doing, not something that is doing the work for you.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So what's happening under the hood, let's say, for well, for most women, obviously this has nuance to it. So each person is gonna have, you know, individual things that are happening. But what's happening for women when they are taking hormone replacement therapy and they're not seeing the results that they expected? Obviously, we had we had touched on the gap between expectations and reality, but what's potentially happening internally?
SPEAKER_00I mean, for one, they think it's a magic pill. HRT takes six, eight, twelve weeks, six months to actually like make you feel a difference. And if you're not doing the lifestyle stuff, like it's not gonna do anything. It it doesn't, if your insulin's 15, adding an estrogen isn't gonna make it drop to five.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00It's just not.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So if you still have insulin resistance, if you still have cortisol dysregulation, if you're still not eating enough protein to support your system, if you still have gut issues, right, then it's not gonna, it's not gonna solve for any of those.
SPEAKER_01And it can't support your body in the way that it needs to, because you're essentially kind of flushing that money down the toilet.
SPEAKER_03Okay, next question.
SPEAKER_02This one I think that like a lot of people ask. So I think this will be helpful, but like, why is the weight around the belly? Why does that happen for a lot of women?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, especially as you hit menopausal age, right? Yeah. So there's kind of three big drivers behind this. One is cortisol, right? Cortisol increases insulin, fat storage in the abdomen, right? Second one is insulin resistant. As we get older and our estrogen drops, we become more insulin resistant. Elevated insulin causes fat storage and it causes that visceral fat storage. And that visceral fat storage is that fat storage around your organs. So obviously that's gonna accumulate in your abdomen, right? And again, kind of comes back to your estrogen is dropping, right? And when that estrogen drops, you get that dist change in distribution of fat. Like think about men. Where do men carry their weight? In their bed in their abdomen, right? Yeah. So as you're shifting more towards menopause, you're shifting more towards that man's physiology where they hold their weight in their abdomen.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And it's not to say you're turning into a man, it's just saying like your hormone profile is mimicking more of a male hormone profile than you were because you have significantly less estrogen than you did before, right? Um, but it's, you know, it's not just aging. Your body's responding to inputs as well, right? It's like sleep, stress, insulin, inflammation, like all the things, like while the time is passing.
Why HRT Does Not Cause Weight Loss
SPEAKER_00It's metabolic signaling, right? And and you, this is why you can't outdo, you can't out-cardio belly fat, right? You can't out-starve it, right? Like it's metabolically sensitive tissue, so you have to build muscle around it. You have to stabilize your blood sugar, you have to improve your sleep, regulate your stress, like all of those things that we kind of consistently talk about.
SPEAKER_02I also want to name the story that often gets held around this a lot because it, you know, body weight can be really sensitive as to where we hold it. And I think belly fat is not just a complaint, but a lot of times it can get wrapped up as like an identity trigger. So for a lot of women, it can represent, you know, like, oh, well, there's nothing I can do about it, or I'm failing, or I'm just getting older, or like I've lost control, right? And or it can go to the place of like just believing that I'm not healthy or I'm not desirable. So, yes, the physiology is important, but I think it's also important to recognize if you're attaching a story to it, that's also keeping you in that stuck position of, you know, if if you believe that there's nothing you can do about it, or if this is just a part of aging and what happens, then that's not doing you any favors either. So it's it's both. It's what do I need to be doing to contribute to the healthy habits that I need for a lifestyle that gets me in the direction that I want? But also, what am I believing about? What am I doing in the results that that are happening? And if it's slower than what I expect, can I allow that to be okay and still recognize that I still need to be doing the things that are beneficial for me?
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. All right. This one is one that also is very prevalent. And we talk about GLP ones a lot, but we had somebody ask essentially like why GLP didn't work for me, right? Like I took a GLP one and I only lost five pounds. Why didn't it work?
SPEAKER_00Because just like HRT, it's not a magic pill. But it is a magic pill. Haven't you seen all the commercials, Lindsay? It's a signal. Like GLP is a signal. It like it's a signal, it's not magic, right? So GLPs work by slowing gastric emptying, reducing appetite, right? Improving insulin signaling. They don't fix poor food choices, low protein intake, muscle loss, emotional eating. Also, the people that I find that are on GLPs that aren't losing weight are chronically under-eating. So you can't under eat, under-eat more. Like if you're only eating a thousand calories, then you think you're gonna go on a GLP one to only eat 800 calories. Like if you weren't losing weight eating a thousand calories, the GLP one ain't gonna help you.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, right. Yeah. Well, we also have to look at the big picture of what is it? It's only addressing, again, one part of the equation, right? A lot of women aren't eating just because they're hungry, or aren't just undereating just because they're not hungry, right? Like they're either overeating or under-eating because they're stressed or overstimulated or lonely or resentful or depleted, right? And they're trying to soothe something or trying to override something. And so when the appetite quiets down, the nervous system still goes looking for regulation elsewhere, and that can cause some trickle-down effects too. So I think that's important to recognize. And a lot of women uh want to stifle that. There's a lot of frustration around that where it's showing up in other ways, like other coping mechanisms that may not be healthy. But it's also that even though people may be eating less on this drug, they're not necessarily eating better. And that makes a big difference. Like if we're not improving the quality of the diet and we're still, you know, just skipping meals and crashing at night, or we're eating things that are convenient because it's easy and maybe we don't have a big appetite. So we want to eat bars and you know, processed foods and quick things like that. That's not addressing the issue at hand either. And that's why we're not getting results.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. And again, it's it's a signaling tool. Like if your insulin's 30, it's not, it's not automatically gonna drop that, right? Um, a lot of people are not on the right dosage of it, they're not working with someone who's helping guide them. They're getting it from this online, I don't know, their provider, online thing. They're not tracking muscle mass, right? Like if you lose muscle on a GLP one because you're not weight training and you're not eating adequate protein, like your metabolism is gonna drop. Like, it's just the way that it is, right? And you're gonna have trouble losing more weight on it. Like, I have seen a lot of people on GLP ones that don't lose weight, and then they're kind of like, oh, GLP ones don't work for me. And I'm like, no, they work, but you weren't using it in the right context. You need to work with someone who can help them make them work with you.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Now let's play devil's advocate for a minute, Lindsay. Let's say, let's say we have somebody in the program that that we have prescribed a GLP one to after we've gotten a foundation of lifestyle habits, and they still are not seeing like the collapse of the timeline that they were hoping for, as far as the results coming faster with the aid of the GLP1 to support. So let's say they're doing the lifestyle things and they're on the proper dosage. Does that occur and why would that occur?
SPEAKER_00It's normally that it's not, it normally is working. You're it's just not working on your timeline. Faster, right? Like ideally, I only want you losing half a pound to a pound a week on a GLP1. And I want your body composition shifting. So maybe we're thinking you're gaining muscle.
SPEAKER_02Yes. Yeah, I was I was gonna say the the body composition factor is really important. And I think that this is a misconception for a lot of women because they truly believe, because of marketing and cultural norms and all of that, that they just want weight loss, right? Because we have an association with the specific weight that we're attached to on the scale. But what most women see when they look at the bodies that they put on a pedestal or that they aspire to, those bodies are have a much more optimal body composition. It's not, it would, they actually probably weigh a lot more than you think they do, right? And it's the composition or the body fat percentage that's the driver of the way that that body looks. And I think if more women, we say this all the time, focus more on composition rather than just weight loss, right? That you need to see that muscle and fat percentage distribution. That is gonna actually get you the effect that you're looking for, not the amount of pounds that you're dropping. And that is that requires food quality.
SPEAKER_00And that's why we encourage progress photos over like weighing yourself on the scale.
SPEAKER_02Yes. Yeah, 100%. All right. Sleep anxiety and depression. So, why two questions here? Like, why can't I sleep? Or why am I feeling really anxious or borderline depressed? Now, uh, disclaimer here like there are a lot of reasons that this could be happening. So this is, you know, a very vague question. We don't have all the nuance and industries, but uh that I want to name that first because there are a lot of things that could be happening here that we have no information about. So we're just speaking on a very general basis because your body can't rest essentially, like get true rest if your life feels like a threat. And for women, we perceive threat in a lot of different ways. It's not just, you know, physical danger. It can be pressure, emotional labor, like the feeling of walking on eggshells. And so for you know, women that feel like they have to hold it all together all the time, that could be a big stressor. It could also be something that's purely physiological, physiological.
Belly Fat Drivers In Menopause
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, yeah, without context, this is hard to answer. I mean, common root causes are cortisol dysregulation, blood sugar instability, low progesterone, neurotransmitter imbalances, inflammation, low nutrients. It could also be something as simple as you're on the screen too close to bed, you're eating too close to bed, you're exercising too close to bed, you're drinking wine too close to bed. Like without context, it's really hard to answer. There are general kind of common root causes that we just kind of listed above. But again, that's kind of they're very general.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And like, what does your lifestyle look like? What are you tolerating? Where are their opportunities for boundaries? Right. Like bedtime is not a switch that we just get to flip like the lights and we turn it off. And we're like, okay, well, we're just gonna go to bed now, right? Like you have to give yourself a little bit of runway. Like, especially as we get older, there are more things that are required. That's why we talk about a bedtime ritual. And I understand that sleep is something that can be really, really frustrating for a lot of people and that doesn't come easy for some people. And that's not to discount that or to invalidate those claims, but I would also be willing to apply a little bit of pressure there and ask, are you doing absolutely everything in your power to create a conducive sleep environment? And if there's an opportunity there, then take it and test it and give it time.
SPEAKER_01Yep. Yep. So this goes into like supplements as well, right?
SPEAKER_02Because people will ask all the time, like what kind of supplements do I take to get it?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, again, it depends on what the root causes. Like if it's adrenals, like magnesium glycinate's a good one, ashwagondola. Um if it's blood sugar instability, then it's like, okay, put a CGM on. Do you need to eat some protein before bed? Is your blood sugar dropping? Right? Like, I can't tell you what supplement to take if I don't know what's causing you to wake up in the middle of the night. You might need some progesterone. Like, who knows?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you might just need to put some boundaries around your phone.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02It could be as easy as that. Right. So it's like, don't discount any of the opportunities or the options that are available to you. All right. Hormones delivery methods. So kind of running back to HRT, when we look at hormone delivery methods like oral, transdermal versus injectable, what's what's the best option? That's what they want to know.
SPEAKER_00It depends.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00It that's always gonna be my answer. It depends on your preference. It depends on your lifestyle. It depends on your bio individuality. But overall, you can oral. You can do oral progesterone and estrogen. You cannot do oral testosterone. It's toxic to your liver. So oral estrogen, oral progesterone is what I always prescribe. Like love it, great. Oral progesterone at bedtime, do it. I don't necessarily like progesterone cream. I don't think it protects the uterus that well. Oral estrogen is processed through your liver. So it has a like 0.03 or 3% increased risk of clotting. It also impacts your lipids. Um, so if you don't detox well from your liver, your liver enzymes are a little bit elevated. You have any risk of clotting, not my first choice. It's really just not my first choice, anyways, because it bypasses the liver. Um or goes through the liver. Transdermal. So you can do a transdermal patch or a cream. The patch is my favorite. It's typically what I prescribe everyone to. Don't love the cream because it can transfer to others if you have kids.
SPEAKER_01Also, the dosing is really hard.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and like the your skin absorption varies. Like, did you rub it in good enough? Did you shower around it? Did you sweat? You know, whatever. A patch is the easiest. Like you stick it on, you change it twice a week, it bypasses your liver. It's super stable. It's often safer. You can swim, you can shower, you can sweat, all of those things. Now, testosterone does come in a cream. And typically, if I'm starting women on testosterone, I do kind of tend to start them on a cream. Like it's just less it's a little bit less invasive, right? Um, you get kind of get that daily peak and valley of normal testosterone. Again, patient preference, but I typically recommend like, let's start you on a cream, make sure you don't get any side effects, and then we can transition you to an injection later on. Um, then you have injectable. Personally, I use injectable estrogen, not standard. Like you have to earn your right to get injectable estrogen. What does that look like?
SPEAKER_02What does that mean?
SPEAKER_00Like you have to like fail other stuff, right? Like and like make sure that you tolerate estrogen. Like I can't do a patch because I have a really high metabolism and I burn through crap like no other. I also sit in a sauna like daily. I'm sweating my tushy off, working out. Like I'm super active. It just doesn't, it doesn't work well for me. I also don't absorb it. Like I was on a 0.1 patch and my estrogen was like 30. Like I would have had to stick like three patches on my body to get my estrogen up to 70. Injectable. You can do it injectable estrogen. Do ingestable estrogen and testosterone. It's easy. I stick it in the same syringe and I do it twice a week. The con of it is there are stronger peaks to it, right? This is why I said you have to earn it and why I said you want to start with lower this is why you need probably need to start with a cream or a patch for estrogen.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you like build up your tolerance over time.
SPEAKER_00Because it has stronger peaks, right?
SPEAKER_02It's a little bit lower what is a what is a peak of a like a hormone replacement therapy look like, or what can that cause?
SPEAKER_00I mean, you're just like so a patch and a cream, it's like getting that daily surge of it where you're getting like a 72-hour like peak in half-life. So you're just it's just a little bit more variable.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_00It's just yeah.
SPEAKER_02So does it mean like any like potential side effects you could feel more potently because of the phone?
SPEAKER_00Estrogen for sure. Like if you get an estrogen peak, you might get some bloating, breast tenderness, stuff like that. If you get your testosterone peak too high, you might get some acne, hair loss, right? Like so delivery, it depends on the patient. I don't like pellets. If you're gonna ask that, you have to earn a pellet. Like, earn a pellet. You have to go through all this stuff and earn a pellet. And then by golly, you better be working with someone that knows what they're doing. And there are not very many people out there that do, because I've seen people's whole head of hair fall off using pellets. Like it's yeah, because once they're in there, they're in there. And it just builds and builds and builds and builds and builds. Like the yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So it's they're good for some people, but yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah. I mean, some people swear by them. And that's that's the thing, right? There is a lot of nuance, there is a lot of personal, you know, preference. And the the best method is the one that not only fits your physiology based on what you've trialed and what you've worked with your provider on, but also one that you can actually be consistent with. Because if you're not going to be consistent with it, then it's all for naught. All right.
SPEAKER_01So continuing with the hormones, let's talk about estradiol.
Why GLP-1 Results Stall
SPEAKER_02What um, let's like, well, we've talked about estradiol before, but specifically, does low estradiol contribute to belly fat is what the question is from our audience.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, we kind of talked about that earlier, right? Like your physiology kind of shifts towards a man, but it's not just low estrogen. It's it's low estrogen combined with some reduced insulin sensitivity and low estrogen can cause, can cause that, right? So then when your estrogen drops, like your insulin sensitivity drops, you can get some altered fat distribution. And those aren't the main two drivers, but if your insulin is high, if your cortisol is high, even if I replace estrogen to get you back up, you're still gonna store belly fat.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So instead of trying to like target like one villain, essentially like think about building stability across all the things, like stabilize your blood sugar, stabilize your sleep, stabilize your stress response.
Body Composition Over Scale Weight
SPEAKER_01And then that's gonna help you identify what actually works for you. All right.
Supplements, Protein Powder, Organ Meats
SPEAKER_02Supplements, protein powders, and organ, uh, organ meats, right? So um, how do I know which supplements to take? Very general, very broad, right? Stop guessing essentially.
SPEAKER_00You don't. Now, caveat I would say 99% of people that we see we have to put on vitamin D. I would say everyone everyone should be on omega. I really believe every woman should take creatine five grams daily, and every woman needs some magnesium probably to support their adrenal glands. Like those are the four that I'm like, okay, if you want to randomly put supplements in your body, you can pretty much assume that you need to take those, right? Outside of that, they need to be based on your blood work, they need to be temporary, like you shouldn't be just stacking supplements on and never rechecking, and then at the end of a two years, you're on 30 supplements, right? So definitely need to be based upon you, your symptoms, your physiology, your blood work, right? They need to be third-party tested.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00You cannot go get your supplements at Walmart. Stop. Or Amazon. No, even if your supplements are Thorn brand from Amazon, you're there's a good chance that they're not really Thorn brand from Amazon.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. They're usually knockoffs or that who knows how long they've been sitting in a warehouse on a shelf somewhere. Like, just get them directly from the site. Yeah, yeah. It's just the best way that you can guarantee the quality of it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and not to say that it has to be.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00Like you could, you have to take the right dosage of the supplement or it's not gonna work.
SPEAKER_02Yes, yeah. Now for protein powders, the things, the things that I look for for protein powders are gonna be the ingredient list, right? Like I want to know what's in it that's making it taste the way that it tastes. Because if I were to just have, you know, plain whey with nothing in it, it's not gonna taste that way. So, like, how what kind of artificial sweeteners are they doing? Again, is that brand third-party tested, right? Like, what, and I want just like anything else that we're shopping for, minimal number of ingredients. Like, ideally, three to five, no more than that.
SPEAKER_00I also just don't love them. Like, yeah, I you should be eating food. Like, yeah, you're using a protein shake for after a workout, okay, but like it should never be replacing a meal. Like you should never be using a protein powder to replace a meal.
SPEAKER_02No, definitely not replacing a meal, but to be like you also have to be realistic. Like, there are gonna be some days where the schedule doesn't look perfect. It's like it, if we can use it as an accessory, right? It's like, yeah, I have a daily shake. I also put added gut fiber in my shake and greens powder. Like it's not just the protein, and that's like my pre-breakfast. It's like I, you know, before I can get to my big cooked breakfast in the morning, just so that I have something in my stomach within the first hour, ideally of waking up, you know, that's what's available and that's realistic for me, but I still have three meals in addition to that, right?
SPEAKER_00You also have good gut health. Like a lot of people cannot tolerate protein shakes in that yeah. Like the way is the way can be really rough on your gut.
SPEAKER_02It can be harsh, yeah. And you know, that's the thing. You also have to find one that works for you and that works that you can tolerate and that isn't causing other weird side effects. Um, organ meats was the other thing.
SPEAKER_00I mean, they're good, they're really nutrient dense, right? If you have low ferritin and low iron, awesome. If you need some B vitamins, vitamin A, they're not required though. I don't eat organ meat.
SPEAKER_02They're not required. Um, so I think of this was in specifically to like organ supplements, right? Because none of those are gaining in popularity, which I think can be beneficial.
SPEAKER_00But you have to test it because how many women have ferritin overload because they're inflamed?
Sleep, Anxiety, And Root Causes
SPEAKER_02Right, right. So it's like that's what I was gonna say. For me personally, like I I've supplemented um organ meat capsules, and I know at one point we did my labs and my ferritin was too like too high, right? So then I had to take them out for a while. So it's like, yes, it can be really beneficial, but again, are you doing it based on what your labs say that you need, not just because you saw a marketing ad on Instagram was like, oh, I need this. And as far as like it promoting like sexual organ health, that it to me is marketing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I don't think that's true.
unknownYeah.
Soy, Hypothyroid, And Vaginal Estrogen
SPEAKER_01All right. Uh, should I avoid soy if hypothyroid?
SPEAKER_00I mean, not necessarily, right? But you just don't want to over-consume processed soy, but you don't want to overconsume process anything if you're hypothyroid, right? Like you really don't want to be eating a lot of gluten or dairy or sugar or seed oils or anything that could cause any type of inflammation in your body. Yeah, you just want to stay away from if you're hypothyroid. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01We also had a question about vaginal dryness. Everyone should be on vaginal estrogen. Everyone's experiencing symptoms, yes.
SPEAKER_00No, like everyone in menopause should be on vaginal estrogen.
SPEAKER_02Like even if you're not having dryness, like not like you know, if you if you're a 30 year old, you don't have any paranoid. No, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00You don't need to be on no if you're menopausal, you should be on vaginal estrogen because otherwise you're gonna be 80 in the nursing home getting UTIs and being cray cray. Like it helps with bladder, it helps prevent UTIs, it helps with tissue health, it helps with prolapses. Like, if you're a menopausal, you should be on vaginal estrogen.
SPEAKER_02Boom. Yeah. Essentially, like, I also think there's a big stigma around this, right? There's a lot of shame, there's a lot of, you know, women feel weird about speaking out about this, and it's important to not feel like you have to suffer quietly. Like a lot of women normalize symptoms because they think, oh, you know, it's just a part of being a woman in peri-menopause. No, forget that. Like you deserve to feel better, and you and there's an option that's available to you. Speak up, say something because there are options, especially now more than ever.
“I’m Doing Everything” Reality Check
SPEAKER_01It's 2026, girl. You don't gotta go around feeling like that. We can we can help. Yep. All right, and then uh this one is also very general.
SPEAKER_02I'm doing everything. Why isn't working, right? Like I'm doing all the things, the weight should come off. When should I be able to expect the weight to come off? But this is we don't know what all the things are, and uh doing all the things is often uh a code for like I'm doing it intensely for short bursts of time, and then I don't feel like I'm getting the results I want, so then it kind of falls off. So I would also ask, like, are you doing it consistently over time?
SPEAKER_00I mean, I think that's the answer. That's the hard truth to it all. Are you doing it consistently? Consistently for six months to a year.
SPEAKER_03Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00Right? Here's the common issues. You're completely underestimating the calories that you're eating. You're completely overestimating your output. I'm sorry, but your fitness tracker is not right on how many calories that you burned, right? You're not addressing your stress, you're not getting good sleep, you're not giving up your alcohol. Like if you really had to come to Jesus with yourself, are you really doing all of the right things? And here's the thing: I'm not saying this to be harsh. You might really think that you're doing all the right things. Yeah. And you literally just don't know because no one has helped you get blood work and point out things that your body needs for you to be doing. Yeah. So you're really not doing all the right things.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and your mindset around it really matters because if you're chasing perfection, that's gonna create this like uh rebellious feeling in your body, like resistance, right? Like if your plan makes you feel extremely restricted or trapped, or like you don't have any wiggle room at all, then you're building something that is not repeatable and you're it's you're not gonna make it into that six months to 12 month range to be able to actually test it and see if it's actually working.
SPEAKER_00Yep.
SPEAKER_02This goes into the next question, talking about the 80-20 rule versus the 90 to 95%, which feels a little bit more stricter, right? So it's essentially like when should I go from 80-20 to 90 to 95? And I think women, a lot of women wonder this because they think, you know, well, stricter equals faster, but stricter can also equal, like we just said, resistance to that, a lot of mental noise, essentially more stress sometimes.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, this one's hard because 80-20 isn't weight loss. 80 20 is maintenance.
SPEAKER_02Maintenance.
HRT Delivery Methods And Tradeoffs
SPEAKER_00So if you want to lose weight, you're gonna have to go to 90-95, right? But the kicker is you don't stay in 90-95. This is where like you do cycles, right? Like you go down to 90-95 for 12 weeks, then you kind of level back out to 80%, right? But if you really want to lose weight, you're gonna have to go below 80-20. Like, and you have to be sustainable with it, right? So if you're too strict, you know, your progress might stall. Yeah, you have that like ricochet effect. Timeline of it matters, diet history matters, how many calories you're eating matters, lifestyle matters. Like, that's a very nuanced question. So it depends, is the answer, but I will also say 80-20 isn't weight loss.
SPEAKER_03Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's not, it's maintenance. And it's also why it's important to work with a coach when it comes to if you're restricting or if you're tightening up for a period of time. And also, like if tightening feels like a spiral, like it's gonna send you into this situation where you have a lot of shame or guilt or like self-punishment around it, that's that it's not where you need to be right now. There's something else that needs to be worked on before we go there.
SPEAKER_00Yep. Yep.
80-20 Versus 90-95 Cycles
Snoring, Sleep Apnea, And Boundaries
SPEAKER_02All right. Um, this contributes to sleep quality, but also more on the side of like relationships. Like, how do I how do I handle a husband who snores but won't get help about it, right? And this is like a this is a boundary conversation. Like your sleep should not be optional if you're if you especially if you're trying to heal or if you're trying if you're on your lifestyle journey, like sleep is such a foundational pillar. And a lot of women minimize what they need in order to keep someone else comfortable, or they don't want to, you know, go against the grain, they want to be more easygoing, but that's self-abandonment, essentially, at the end of the day.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Well, sleep apnea is a very serious issue. It can cause a lot of cardiovascular disease, stroke, early death. You should not go at this lecturing your husband, right? Like you should go at it with concern, with education, not pressuring them. You should also go invest in some Oslo earbuds because they will save your life. Yes, I know. Like amazing, they fit in your ears. I do not hear Matt snore at all anymore. So I do I if in Matt's defense, he went and got a sleep study. He's doing all the things to help him. We had a nice good conversation about the health benefits or health risks of it. But I also did what I had to do and got some like$200 amazing sleep earbuds.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and it that's the other thing, too, right? It's like, okay, can we look at options together? Can we, the conversation should be an opportunity to look at it as this is a problem that we need to face together because it's not just my problem that I can't sleep. Like you this should not be happening to you either, right? It's not healthy for you to be experiencing these symptoms because snoring to that level is a symptom of something that's going on, right? Whether it's a situation of mouth breathing or sleep apnea or whatever. Yes, the transparent conversation needs to happen, but not like Lindsay said, not a blame game of like you're doing this and it's causing me all this problem. Like, hey, this is this is what I'm experiencing. You may not even be aware of how bad it is, but it's not only causing me trouble with sleeping, but I'm worried about what it's doing to your health. So can we find a solution collaboratively together? And then again, okay, if the alternative is you don't want to go and have it addressed medically in any way, then we're gonna be spending money on some other opportunities that allow me to get quality sleep, whether that's more expensive earbugs or earbuds, or yeah, another bed or going, me having to potentially sleep in another room if that's an option for you, right? It's like you're not asking for luxury. This is sleeping basic human need.
SPEAKER_01Right. So it's important. All right.
SPEAKER_02I think that was all of our questions. And essentially, what we want you to take away from these guys, and we'll continue to do these month over month, because I think it's really nice to be able to answer your questions directly. But if you take away anything from today, it's like if you don't feel good, don't let a normal lab result or marketing or whatever you know you're being exposed to on a regular basis of something that's trying to sell you something, convince you to shut up and just deal with it, like your symptoms or buy some fancy supplement protocol and think that's gonna be the quick fix, right? There is no quick fix, there is no easy button, your symptoms are data, and you need to take the time to be an advocate for your health.
SPEAKER_00You you can't outhack your health. Like, like stop trying to do that with some of this marketing stuff, right? Like lifestyle medicine is the foundation, right? Hormones, supplements, all that type of stuff are support, right? So you gotta have the foundation and then we can add the support on top of it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, because you don't have to figure it out alone. So I think that's the I think that's the hardest part is when you're trying to figure all this out alone because there is so much information and there is so much input, and that's why we have teams like ours. So here show.
SPEAKER_00Love it. See you next time, guys. If this resonated with you, if you learned anything, share it, give us a five star review, and we'll see you next week.
SPEAKER_02Yes, have a good one, ladies.