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Reset
How to Stop Fighting Your Hormones and Start Working with Them - Interview with Madison Dohnt
Reclaiming Your Cycle, Your Sanity & Your Health with Madison Dohnt
Feel like your hormones are running the show? You're not alone. In this episode, Madison Dohnt (Scientist, Naturopath & Women’s Health Expert) joins us to unpack what’s really going on with the pill, PCOS, and your cycle. Expect science-backed insight, real talk, and practical tools to help you work with your hormones, not against them.
* What is the pill and what does it actually do to our bodies?
* Do you think the pill is still the right option for some people?
* If someone is listening and is keen to explore alternative forms of contraception – what would you suggest looking into?
* What is PCOS - How common is it and what do you wish more women knew?
* Our hormones get blamed for a lot of things especially acne. How can we help to nourish our bodies so our hormones stay balanced?
* What foods should we all be eating more of?
* What are some of the other myths around women’s health that are currently circulating on the internet you’d love to clear up for us.
Madison's Book Recommendation, The Mountain Is You: https://amzn.to/3GeQN4E
Free Resources: https://www.modernbalance.co/resources
Hormone Balancing Masterclass: https://www.modernbalance.co/masterclass
Instagram Madison: @MadisonDohnt (https://www.instagram.com/MadisonDohnt)
Instagram Modern Balance: @ModernBalance.co
(https://www.instagram.com/ModernBalance.co)
Website: https://www.modernbalance.co/
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Watch this episode on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/@Reset.Workplace
No one's going to spend as much time looking into your health and getting answers as you are. So you can't just put that responsibility all on somebody else. It's really important for you to jump in the driver's seat and take control because there's no reason why you can't. Madison, welcome to Reset. Thank you so much for having me. I am so excited to be here.
SPEAKER_01:It is so good to have you here. So Madison is a naturopath who also has a science and a teaching degree and spent, correct me if I'm wrong, but spent over$40,000 learning how to improve your own skin.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, well, that's just the going back and becoming a naturopath part. Like if you add up all of my degrees in total, you don't want to know how much my Hex debt is. It's a bit scary, but I mean, it's not like I intended to go and do all those degrees at once. It was just kind of like a natural progression. And now I have this cool little combination, this little bucket.
SPEAKER_01:It's so good. Well, thank you for coming on the podcast and sharing all of this wisdom with us today. You get to help women live happier, healthier lives for a living. Why are
SPEAKER_00:you so passionate about that? It definitely stemmed from my experience, my health journey. And I think Also, I'm like a natural teacher at heart. Even before I became a teacher, I just love to share what I learn. And I just think like if I've got something that is fascinating and I'm like, why don't more people know this? Then I just need to share about it. And so when I was going through my journey, I was already really into health and fitness when I went to uni the first time, did my science degree. And I was in the fitspo days and, you know, back when you're 20 years old and experimenting with all of that stuff. And then I was on the pill. Yeah. the pill is really what was kind of the catalyst for my acne journey. And then when I started breaking out and getting like the really deep cystic ones on my chin, I went to the doctors, they gave me antibiotics. And so then that was another thing, but there was the rebound from that too. And none of these things were really like long-term solutions. And I was getting really frustrated with it over a while, especially as it did, I couldn't stay on antibiotics forever. So whenever I tried to come off like the highest dose, even if I tried to drop dropped to the lowest dose. It was just getting worse and worse. So that's where I was just like fed up and had to navigate it all myself. And fortunately, because I did have my science and research degree, instead of taking to Google to Google my symptoms and get lost, I actually went straight to the research. So I was fortunately able to kind of find a bit more of a linear path. And because I had that science backing, I almost had... bit of a stigma around naturopathy which is what I'm trying to break now because you know it does some people do think that it's like woohoo who don't know much about it and when I was researching and learning that about the root cause approach and the natural way and learning the science behind it, I was like, there is actually science behind this stuff. And the root cause approach logically makes sense to me. And so I was like, why don't we know this? Why aren't we taught this? Why are we just kind of given a bandaid approach with the pill and the antibiotics, et cetera. So that's where I was just like, I have to start my YouTube channel. I need to scream this from the rooftops. More people need to know about this stuff. And yeah, I just went back to uni and just needed to dive in further and help more women feel in control rather than feeling helpless.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and it's that combination of the science and the naturopathy that really excited me to bring you here today. I think it's such a beautiful combination. And so let's dive deep into hormones, the pill, women's health, acne, like all the things. But let's start with the pill. So I remember when I first went on it, I was going to the US on student exchange and I said to my mom, hey, while I'm there, I want to skip my period. I've heard that you can go on the pill. I've got friends that are on it and she said yes fine like I went to the GP and pretty standard process they're like yeah sure he can go on the pill and didn't really explain and anything about it. I get this like leaflet in the box, which is the size of a dining table. And I'm 16 years old. I'm like, oh, well, my friends are on it. I don't need to read this. It'll be
SPEAKER_00:fine. Do you accept the terms and conditions? Yeah, just like,
SPEAKER_01:sure. And yeah, I feel like I had an interesting journey on like all different types of pills up until my mid twenties when I finally went off it. And honestly, I haven't looked back since going off it. But what is the pill and what do we need to know?
SPEAKER_00:So there's a few different types, but basically you can have the combination pill, which is, well, when I say estrogen and progesterone, it's the synthetic form. So synthetic estrogen and progestin is the synthetic progesterone or one of them. So you can have the combination of the two, or you can just have a mini pill or other forms of hormonal contraception, which is just the progestin, not the estrogen. So Basically, it's designed to override your natural hormones. And therefore, if you're getting a set amount of those hormones every day throughout the month or throughout the cycle, then your body doesn't then need to produce its own. So it has this kind of feedback loop where your body is like, okay, well, we're already getting those hormones. So we're not going to keep making more. The basis is it's trying to thicken your cervical mucus to prevent the spread sperm from being able to swim really easily and fertilize the egg. It's trying to thin your uterine lining so that if you do get pregnant or like the egg is fertilized that it can't implant properly. And then also majority of the time it's trying to suppress ovulation. And again, that can depend on the method of hormonal contraception. But yeah, there are pros and cons. The big pro being, you But the cons, as you've said, like a lot of women have had a negative experience with the pill and have had some sort of side effects. And I think that's like with all medications is we focus so much on what we want it to achieve and also the trust in the doctors that we're just like, oh, we'll just like deal with the side effects without actually taking them seriously or saying like that will never happen to me. But it's actually a very, yeah, real thing.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and so if I was to read that leaflet that is the size of a dining table, and I'm sure everyone that's ever been on the pill or is currently on the pill knows what I'm talking about, what are some of the side effects that would be listed on there?
SPEAKER_00:So for those that contain the synthetic estrogen, for example, probably one of the more common ones is blood clots. So estrogen, especially the synthetic form, will increase blood the production of blood clotting factors through the liver. And that's why they say any women with risk of blood clotting shouldn't take that. It also, because of the increase in histamines and stuff, you've got things like migraines, you've got things like eczema, PMS, lots of fun... The combination pill with the estrogen as well also stops ovulation. So that one, when it does have the both, is designed to stop it in like 99% of cases. And when we stop ovulation, ovulation is required in order for our body to produce natural progesterone. Natural progesterone is beautiful. It has so many benefits. One, for example, is even just calming our minds, producing a chemical called GABA and reducing anxiety so that we're nice and chill and not stressed. And progestin, the synthetic form of progesterone, it doesn't do that. So even though you might think, well, we're getting that synthetic progesterone anyway, so what's the big difference if we're not actually producing our own? And it just, even though they're similar, they're not bioidentical. So they don't have, they don't perform exactly the same way in the body. The synthetic form doesn't have the benefits that the natural progesterone does. And it just interrupts like the signaling between your ovaries and your brain, because it's not just all about the ovaries, like our body all talks to each other. Yeah. Yeah,
SPEAKER_01:interesting. And I feel like when you are 16 years old or whatever age people typically go on the pill, your priority is to not get pregnant, right? Like most people. Whereas I know so many friends and women that have then gone off the pill later in life in preparation of pregnancy. actively choosing to fall pregnant and it's taken them a very long time for their bodies to work out what their natural rhythm and cycle is how long does it usually take do you know like
SPEAKER_00:it can vary like it yeah it varies between woman to woman and that depends on her body's ability to adapt to that change I mean I consider it like second puberty your body is learning how to do that signaling and communication again and make the hormones in their perfect right amount and all of the things. So I would say like three months is normal. Like if you don't get your periods and If you stop the pill and then get a period, that's often the withdrawal bleed. It's just like a withdrawal of all of those hormones. So that's not technically someone's first period, but it's the one after that. If it comes straight away amazing, you may still experience those post-pill symptoms like acne and all the other fun things, but it's very common for it to take a little while. And that's just your body figuring itself out. That's natural not to be worried about. But I think, yeah, what women... want to focus on is not having those post-pill symptoms. And also in the case of fertility, when you're going off the pill to have a baby, it can take up to a year for your body to figure itself out again, make sure that it's ovulating. Just because you're having a period now doesn't mean that you're ovulating. Your body still needs to work out all of that signaling and communication. So yeah, I think if someone is planning to get pregnant, they should think about coming off the pill minimum one year before. they want to start trying. But yeah, it depends on the tools that you have as well for your body to be able to cope with that stress and that change. Because the healthier you are before coming off the pill, the more likely your body is to be able to balance itself quicker. So a lot of women that come to work with me, they're like, should I go off the pill and then start working with you? And I'm like, if you want a smoother transition, let's start getting you as healthy as possible sooner so that when you go off, your body is already in a better state to be able to handle that stress and that change as opposed to getting off the pill, throwing that huge change onto your body, your body freaking out. And then we have to be like reactive. It's like proactive is always better and like easier than reactive.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Those are some really good insights for sure. I feel like the media is throwing around some headlines right now and I don't know if there's truth to it, but there's things like if the pill was, you know, created today, it wouldn't get approval to be released into the world. Do you think the pill is still the right solution for some women?
SPEAKER_00:I mean I don't know what the TGA's criteria is for whether it would get approved or not so I can't tell but I just know that I don't want to be taking it now like knowing what I know now. For some women though you need to just weigh up the pros versus the cons and quality of life is a really really important thing and I don't want to dismiss those women who are experiencing debilitating pain where they feel like they're dying for half the month and particularly like those with endometriosis. And so those women may choose to take it because it may just make their day-to-day life easier. And I think when I first started discovering natural medicine and the power, I almost like swung too far the other way. And I was like, I can't believe I didn't know this about the pill and all these medications. And now we've got to be fully natural. And then I think over time, I just realized that like integrative medicine is really important. The tools that we have in modern medicine are like pretty effective and, you know, it's awesome that we have them there, but I feel like they should be there for emergencies and to, you know, really be used as the last resort because they do come with side effects. But yeah, I think it just all comes down to the individual woman. I actually got diagnosed with endometriosis last year. And so that was like another condition that I had to navigate myself. And fortunately, I already was a naturopath by that stage. So it was a lot faster than if that had happened before I was a naturopath, like with the PCOS diagnosis. But I did get very strongly recommended by my gyno that I go on the pill and I chose not to, and I am symptom free now. So it just depends. I think that if women want to choose to take the pill because it's going to help them faster in the short term. They just have to consider the long-term ramifications of that. The fact that when they go off it, like if I went from not being on the pill and then last year went on the pill, it would, my hormones would then not, like they would unlearn all of the balance and the communication with like my brain and that they had learnt. So then I would have to relearn that. And I was just like, that sounds like a lot of effort to have to then rebalance my hormones and figure it all out. I'd rather just work out the root cause and fix that and not have to like chop and change between methods or worry about the side effects.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. If someone's currently on the pill or wanting to seek out alternative types of contraception, what are some of the things you'd recommend looking at?
SPEAKER_00:I highly recommend the fertility awareness method. So that is basically all natural. We can only get pregnant six days of the month, like six days of our cycle, which when you hear that for the first time, you think, That's wild. Like, why are we taking the pill every single day of the month if we can only get pregnant six? And I mean, the answer to that is obviously because your hormones need to be, or ovulation needs to be consistently muted, I guess. But with the fertility awareness method, if you know when you're fertile, you can either just avoid sex on those days, or you can use things like a condom, which is non-hormonal. It doesn't have I mean, you know, if you've got a latex allergy, you use the non-latex ones and it's a lot easier to kind of mitigate any side effects around condoms. And that is how I usually do it and recommend for people to do it. Having that knowledge of whether you're ovulating or not as well because you're doing the fertility awareness method and you're tracking your basal body temperature is really empowering because you kind of can track what your hormones are doing every day of your cycle as opposed to only when you get a hormone test. You kind of have... yeah, more of those insights day to day. There is like the copper IUD. Obviously the pro is that it's non-hormonal and it's long-term, so you can keep it in for a while. It's also very effective, but it does also have side effects. So the copper ions can cause zinc deficiency. It works by causing inflammation in the uterus. And if that's its method of action, like why would you want to put something inside of you that like its job is to cause inflammation. So even though it's not meant to stop ovulation, I still would prefer not to kind of have anything in my body. But again, if the effectiveness is like 99% and that's what people want to go for, then that's a really good option. So it just comes down to, again, weighing up the pros and cons for each individual woman and like what they want to endure for what benefits and
SPEAKER_01:yeah yeah awesome lots of alternatives out there for people to research and think about you mentioned PCOS can you talk to us a little bit about what it is how common it is how to know if you've got it
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so PCOS, for those who don't know, stands for polycystic ovarian syndrome. But that's a little bit deceiving because you don't need to have polycystic ovaries in order to have PCOS. So one of the criteria for diagnosis is called the Rotterdam criteria. So people can Google it if they want to actually see the list. But it's basically three criteria. criteria and you need to meet at least two of the three in order to be diagnosed so one of them is you have high androgens so androgens is the collective term for things like testosterone like the male hormones so if you have high testosterone or other androgens then you would meet that criteria and you can either meet that criteria either through doing a blood test or And keep in mind that your testosterone levels on bloods might come back normal, but you may have other elevated androgens. So like when I was diagnosed, which I've now since reversed that, like I don't meet the criteria for PCOS anymore because it's not a chronic condition. It's a hormone imbalance. Once you fix that, you can reverse your PCOS. But I also understand that when you are sitting in the doctor's office and you're being diagnosed, it's like doomsday and it just feels like the end of the world. And I went home and I just bawled my eyes out, even though I'd done like so much research prior, because I guess it's like, it's new and it's unknown and it seems like a challenge. But yeah, so that's the first one. You can either see whether you have a high androgens based on the do it clinically. So looking at your symptoms, like do you have excess hair growth? Do you have acne? Just like those high testosterone symptoms is enough to kind of tick that box. Then the next one is, are you ovulating? If you're tracking your basal body temperature, you can know if you're ovulating, but often that is determined based on whether you're having irregular cycles. So if you have irregular cycles, you'll tick that box, regardless of whether you know that you're ovulating or not. And then the last one is polycystic ovaries. So on the ultrasound, do you have more than 12 follicles or cysts as they call them, but they're really just follicles on one or both ovaries? So 12 on each that are like over two millimeters. When people do an ultrasound for PCOS to find it, it's really important. I recommend for them to do it in the second half of their cycle, because in the first half of your cycle, it's multiple cysts are meant to be developing and then one takes over as the dominant. So I've had some women who like went and got an ultrasound and they didn't go to like a women's specialist ultrasound place where they know what they're looking for. They just go to a general one. And again, depending on like if the person doing the ultrasound is specialized or not, they may not know this, but if they spot multiple follicles, they might think, oh, polycystic, but really they might just be in the stage of their cycle where they are. developing multiple follicles before the dominant takes over and ovulates. So they may not actually be polycystic in terms of a PCOS diagnosis, if that makes sense. Yeah, lots of things to consider. But if you just remember those three, it's like high testosterone, irregular cycles, and the polycystic on the ultrasound.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's so interesting that you said people will receive that label and then just think it's something that sticks with them for life. Can you talk to me a bit about how you... healed your own PCOS? Yeah. So
SPEAKER_00:with the root cause approach, again, this is just how my logical science mind works is I'm like, okay, I actually thought of this analogy driving down today is like, say you've got like a bucket on the roof of a high rise building and then that bucket like falls off the building. It's like, well, did that just happen? no, something needed to actually cause that bucket to fall off the building. The bucket didn't just like walk over to the side of the building and jump, like it's a bucket. So it must have been something to cause that bucket to move from sitting on top of that building to then falling off. Was it the wind? You know, was it rain? Was it something else? Was it someone actually going over to the bucket and like throwing it off? It's like, there's always a cause and effect. And so symptoms don't just happen for no reason. It's like, okay, but what caused them, what triggered them. And sometimes in terms of the initial trigger, it can be really hard to know for certain because there can be multiple factors. For me, I believe like going off the pill triggered my PCOS, but I was also really stressed at that time. So it could have been a perfect storm. But then you can look at, okay, well, what are the root causes that continue to drive what I'm experiencing, continuing to drive my imbalance and my symptoms? And logically with the root cause approach, I was just like, okay, well, if I find out what my type of PCOS is, if I find out what hormones are out of balance, then if I just address those and fix those, then the cause isn't there to result in the effect. And that's kind of what I did. Like I just reverse engineered what was going on. And that's kind of my approach with any symptom now and any condition is like, like even with the endometriosis, I'm like, okay, well, I'm going to do a hormone test. I want to know for certain. And then I'm like, well, let's just address those hormones. We don't need to go freak out about it. Let's just fix the problem rather than focusing on the problem and dancing around it and freaking out. Let's just be a problem solver and try and work out what the path is. And the path is going to be different for each woman because every woman has a different root cause. There's no two people with the exact same diet lifestyle. et cetera. For me, my type of PCOS was, and you can have more than one type, but I heavily had the adrenal PCOS, which is basically saying that stress is one of my major root causes. And that was shown through, so my testosterone wasn't high, but my DHEAs were high, which is another form of androgen, which is why I also say, if your testosterone comes back normal, doesn't mean you stop looking and you're like, well, we don't know. So yeah, I was like, oh, okay, well, yeah, clearly the type of androgen or testosterone that's high for me is the one made in the adrenal glands, which is like linked to stress. So I need to seriously work on my stress. And I did lots of other things as well. Like I made sure that my nutrition was optimal and I was really nourishing my body with all of the nutrients that it needed to heal, focused on my gut health. That was a big part of it as well. Changed up my exercise to stop doing HIIT because that was causing me more stress and when it comes to the actual stress component rather than just like taking a bubble bath and being like tick I'm now addressing my stress I went deep and I really had a look at okay what's driving my fight or flight because you can have a bubble bath get out of the bath and still be in fight or flight so I had to really look at my thoughts and my subconscious and my anxiety and be like what am I stressed about what am I worried about what am I anxious about and um Yeah, that's a whole personal development journey on its own, but the mind and the body are so linked.
SPEAKER_01:I love that. It's such a... proactive refreshing approach and I think a lot of people listening are probably like Mads how do I work with you but yeah I think it's so easy to be like we were talking about before given a label and just think like okay now I need to live with this and maybe I need to band-aid the symptoms but actually bringing it back to like well why is my body behaving like this and how do we navigate it our hormones get blamed for a lot how do you like to test hormones with your clients what's the process
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so my favorite hormone test, the most accurate one that you can get for any practitioner in Australia is the Dutch hormone test. So this is through urine, which is awesome for those people who don't like blood tests like me. And it tests a lot more than a blood test tests because it... looks at the metabolites as well. And what that basically means is like all of the chemicals in between the hormones, because you don't just have estrogen, progesterone, testosterone in separate buckets. Like your hormones can go through conversion pathways where they convert from one form to the other. So testosterone or like that family of androgens can then convert into estrogen. Progesterone and cortisol are very closely linked on the map. So if you are really stressed, to make more cortisol, your body can take structures from like progesterone and turn that into cortisol, which is called progesterone steel. So another reason to reduce your stress as well, if you want to have healthy levels of progesterone, which you absolutely do. So yeah, that's what the urine can test that bloods can't. When I'm sure most of us have had a blood test with our hormones and it's basically like maybe four or five lines. And it's like, yep, that's your estrogen, that's your progesterone, done. Whereas if you've ever seen, and I've got a sample report on my website as well, but just go in and have a look at the sample report and your jaw will drop. Like you've got so much information through the urine. And something that I'm really passionate about is providing those tests to self-order on my website because I'm like, you know, it's not dangerous to give people data on their own Like, sure, it's dangerous to give, you know, blanket advice to everybody, but to give them information on their own body like that, I feel like that should be more widespread. So usually you need to have a practitioner and go and get a consult. But through our website, you can just go and buy your own Dutch test without having to then also pay for a consult and you'll get sent the report. And then if you don't feel like you can analyze that report, even though it is analyzed for you and there's all notes on the end of it, if you then want further guidance into your treatment plan, then that's when you go seek further support, which is what I do with my clients through the Balance Your Hormones program. But the test on its own to get that information is invaluable. And that was the first thing that I did when I got diagnosed with endo. I was like, I'm not playing the guessing game. I'm going to know exactly what I need to do because you can infer a lot from symptoms, but there are also a lot of cases that I've seen with clients and myself where you will have a symptom and you'll be like, oh yeah, that's estrogen excess for sure. And then you'll test the hormones and you'll be like, Interesting. This is completely opposite. And so it's just always good to get that final data. But some people, that hormone test is over$500. So it is an investment into your health and into getting that data. So some people who that might not be within their budget, you do use the symptoms or you do use the blood test that you can get for free through Medicare if you're in Australia. And you just, you work with what you can in the data that you've got. But if you are in the position to be able to get yourself one of those advanced hormone tests, the information that they can provide can be incredible to forming your treatment plan.
SPEAKER_01:Awesome. Knowledge is so powerful. So we'll definitely link to that in the show notes. I think there's going to be a number of people who are like, okay, yeah, give me the information about my body. You mentioned before that health is a combination of our mind, our body, our nutrition, like all of it. I know that we don't want to be giving general advice But are there kind of some things that you think all of us should be doing more of to take care and balance out our hormones?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, absolutely. I mean, a lot of people do know general health things. You know the importance of eating healthy, or I hope that's pretty obvious. You know that you should be getting sleep at night. You know that you should be reducing your stress, like all of the general things. And then beyond that, the treatment that you do will depend on your root cause and what needs to be done. In terms of something beyond that that I think everybody should focus on is I really think every single woman should know whether she's ovulating or not. They refer to it as the fifth vital sign. And it's like it really provides an insight into how healthy you are. And it's not just related to the pill or particular symptoms. It's like if your body doesn't feel– because if we really go back biologically, it's like women– are naturally meant to reproduce the species, right? So that's like the biological function. So at the very core, ovulation is peak of health and at the very core of biology. So it is really like a fifth vital sign to our health. And if our body doesn't deem us healthy enough to carry a pregnancy or not even us, if our body doesn't deem our environment like stress-free enough, right? to be able to successfully carry a pregnancy, then ovulation is going to stop and our body's not going to allow that to happen because why waste an egg? Why put energy into that process if your body's like, well, we're not going to be able to carry that through anyway? So that is like even outside of the hormone-specific tracking, just knowing whether you're ovulating or not through ovulation fertility awareness method so it's as easy as tracking your basal body temperature is just one of the most important pieces of information that a woman can have on her health and in order to do that you can use so many different devices out there or apps i use natural cycles i just like the interface i feel like it's really clean you can do it just by getting an ovulation thermometer and measuring your temperatures as soon as you wake up every morning And a lot of women do that. That's how I started. And then I wasn't very compliant with that. And I got lazy, as a lot of women do. And I'm just like, so many days would go by where I wasn't tracking my temperatures. And you need to be consistent in order to get all of the data day to day and see the curve. So I just got an aura ring because I was like, then it does it for me. I don't have to think about it. And that's my lazy girl hack.
SPEAKER_01:Good tip. We all need more Lisa Girl hacks. What about food? Are there some certain foods that you think more women should be consuming? I
SPEAKER_00:really like how you asked that question because when people think of health and healing, they focus usually on what to restrict and they think less is best. I think with diet culture, most of us grew up in a world where we were told, don't eat that, don't eat that, eat less. in general. But yeah, the way that I work with my clients and through my programs is focusing on, well, what should you eat more of? And along the line of diet culture, I don't think that women are eating enough either protein, fats, or carbs, sometimes all of them. But the micronutrients in terms of your vitamins and minerals are so important, but your macronutrients, they're called macro because they're needed in larger amounts. So They're so essential, each one of them. And diet culture, different diets often focus on making an enemy out of one or more of those. So they'll say, go low carb or go low fat. Often I haven't heard low protein, but some people, if they aren't educated, they might think that stopping eating meat might mean when they go vegetarian, they might not know to replace that with a plant protein. You still need protein. It doesn't matter whether it's from plant or animal, you need protein. If you're not having animal protein, then you need to have plant protein to make sure that you're getting that protein. Healthy fats are so important. They have anti-inflammatory properties. Whereas if you have inflammatory fats, they can do the opposite effect. So it's also knowing the source of these different foods and carbs. Carbs are your body's preferred fuel. So that glucose is what your body runs off. And it's what, if you're going low carb, you might find yourself really tired because you don't have that glucose to make that energy or you're not getting enough. You're getting it from other areas. So having carbs that keep you fuller for longer, like whole grains, like rice, for example, particularly like brown rice or even basmati rice is better than jasmine. It keeps you fuller for longer and keeps your blood sugar levels more stable as opposed to carbs like white bread or, you know, jasmine rice or whatever that will spike it suddenly because when your blood sugar spikes suddenly, it then retaliates in a crash. And some people are just in this chronic blood sugar cycle where it's like spike, crash, spike, crash. And they just like they'll crash and they'll feel really moody and unmotivated and tired. And then they'll be like, I'm craving sugar. I just want something sugary or I need a coffee or they try to go for that quick fix and they get it and then it sends them back up here and then very soon they'll crash again and they're just like, yeah, in this cycle. Whereas blood sugar balance isn't something that just diabetics need to know about. It's something like we all need. have that mechanism. We all need to know how to make it stable and balanced. So yeah, I just think there's a lot to nutrition more than people realize. They think, you know, apple's healthy, I'm being healthy. But if people can just focus on having whole foods and having sources that are, you know, they're having their protein, they're having their fats like fish and chia seeds and nuts, they're having their carbs, the whole grain carbs, then that's like a really great place to start.
SPEAKER_01:I'm getting hungry just talking about this. Are there any other myths that you kind of see circulating on social media at the moment to do with women's health that you'd love to just bust?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah, there's a few. I know that we were talking about cold plunging. Cold plunging absolutely has benefits. It does have more benefits for men than it does women, especially in women who are busy working They're in fight or flight all the time. They're near burnout. Their cortisol is already high. Cold plunging, it increases the stress response because obviously you're throwing your body into a stress state because it's freezing cold and you need to calm yourself down. And you do that through breathing. That can just contribute to the cortisol picture for busy women. And there's other ways to learn the power of the breath. and learn how to calm yourself down than throwing yourself into freezing cold water. In terms of recovery, if you go into freezing cold water and it restricts your blood vessels, then when you get out and your body starts to warm up, it's going to dilate them. So it can, from that perspective, increase circulation, which is why it helps muscle recovery. And it does boost things like your neurotransmitters that make you feel really good, dopamine. But I think aside from spiking cortisol, because of that vaso-restriction, the restriction of the blood vessels, because you're freezing cold, it can restrict blood flow to the uterus. So if you're on your period, absolutely do not go anywhere near a cold plunge. I just... Yeah, I don't do them unless I'm at an event and just want to do it for fun because I'm with everybody. But I just like to stay... I know my body responds better to warmth. So I just... I love to keep my womb warm. I love to just keep my body warm and circulation happening. Yeah, so there's cold plunging, pros and cons, but men also just have a greater tolerance to cold and to stressors than women. Women are a lot more sensitive to any type of stressor. So that's something to consider as well, where it can throw our cortisol out more than it would a man's. And that's also similar to like the next myth, which is fasting. Again, it's one where there are some pros to it. But with fasting, women, again, are a lot more sensitive than men. And a lot of the claims and the benefits and the research is done on men. And so we have to be really careful because, again, it can cause us to have a stress response because our body is like, where's the food? What's going on? And we need to– it can, like, disrupt thyroid hormone or I think we just need to really learn how to balance our blood sugar in a neutral way as opposed to relying on fasting for improving insulin resistance and blood sugar balance. It's like, well, we can also do that through food as medicine and just by learning about food. So yeah, there's lots of other things to it if people aren't doing it right. I mean, that's if people are doing it right. That's the pros and cons. If people aren't doing it right... it means that maybe they're not eating enough in general over the whole day or over the whole week. And so therefore, they're really deficient in a lot of nutrients that they need. They're under eating, which is going to lead to not just exhaustion, but your body is not going to get the building blocks and the fuel that it needs to actually do all of its normal functions because your body is doing a lot. And the protein and the fats and the carbs are the things that are fueling all of your cells. So yeah, it all just starts with with food. So if you're depriving yourself of that, then there can be a lot of negative consequences of that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. If people
SPEAKER_00:only learn one thing
SPEAKER_01:from you today, what would you like them to take away?
SPEAKER_00:I would really like women to advocate for themselves. If something doesn't feel normal, then keep digging. Look further. Don't just accept there's nothing that can be done. You just need to live in pain for the what's causing that pain? Why do I need to just live in pain for the rest of my life? Like, sorry, what? No, just advocate for yourself. And if you need to get second opinions, and that doesn't just go for like modern medicine. Like if you come to see me and you don't agree with something that I've said, go get a second opinion. Like, don't just rely on what one person says, educate yourself and make sure that you know how to make the right choice for you and your body and know how to advocate for yourself because no one's going to be as invested in your health as you. And when you do go to a practitioner or a doctor, they only have a set amount of time with you and for you. And outside of appointments, they may have some time to workshop on patient cases and whatnot, but they're not going to be sitting there all night researching for you. They're going to be living their lives. So If you have a complex case especially, but even if you don't, no one's going to spend as much time looking into your health and getting answers as you are. So you can't just put that responsibility all on somebody else. It's really important for you to jump in the driver's seat and take control because there's no reason why you can't. And every symptom has that cause and effect. There's always a reason. Things don't just happen for no reason.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I love that. Like a really beautiful reminder to just get curious and lean in. And I think as women, we often put everyone else's needs and health above our own. So that's a lovely reminder. When life gets crazy busy for you, running your own business, like leading life, what do you like to do to reset?
SPEAKER_00:I love my river walks. They, yeah, got me through 2020. You know what I mean? Just being by water. Just being in the sunshine. Also another non-negotiable for me is, yeah, leading back to that warmth is sauna, the magnesium spa, but the warm one. Just that's what relaxes my muscles, just relaxes my soul and lets me have that quiet time, that meditation time to just relax. Yeah,
SPEAKER_01:that's...
SPEAKER_00:That's how I do it.
SPEAKER_01:Beautiful. And is there a book that's had a beautiful, positive impact on you that you think more people should have
SPEAKER_00:on their shelf? I really liked The Mountain Is You. I think that, again, just really puts you back in control. But I think in general, it's just like a category reading fiction books before bed. was a game changer for my sleep because being someone who loves learning and loves personal development, I would always read like personal development books like The Mountain Is You before bed and then I would get all of these like ideas and downloads or get really motivated and I'm meant to be like drifting off to sleep. So yeah, I would just recommend for those who want to get a better sleep or maybe start there to just go with fiction before bed instead of personal development or business or something where you're like learning because your brain will just be like ping, ping, ping.
SPEAKER_01:That's such a nice reminder. And I also love The Mountain is You. I feel like that book is like a huge slap in the face, but in the best kind of way. So yeah, we'll link to that in the show notes. I think that's my learning style is slap in the face. Just Just hit me with it all at once. I'm loving how many people are sort of gravitating back towards fiction now. I think it's such a great escape to be off a screen and just like in that magical world. Mads, if anyone is looking for more individualized support after hearing all of your beautiful answers today, what are some of the ways that you support your clients?
SPEAKER_00:So I support my clients through the Balance Your Hormones program. It isn't like a one size fits all. You get a set meal plan or a set workout. It's actually empowering you with understanding your body and teaching you how to lean into what your body needs more of. So that personalization. So that is effective through teaching you how to be in control. I also have a lot of free resources as well. So I have a free hormone balancing masterclass. It's 90 minutes long, so people can dive into that first if they want. And I guarantee you're going to get so many aha moments, even just learning more about insulin and cortisol and all of the things that we kind of So yeah, go and binge all the free resources, go for gold. We've got the self-order testing on the website as well. So people can, there's also a gut test there as well as the Dutch hormone test. I encourage people to go and have a look at the results page on the website too. I just updated that and it's probably my favorite page. I just love it. Before and after is my love language. They're so satisfying.
SPEAKER_01:I'm getting such a good insight into how your brain works today from this conversation. But yeah, super intriguing. And like I said, we'll link to all of that in the show notes because I think there's going to be a lot of people who are keen to learn more. But Mads, thank you so much for joining me on the Reset Podcast today. It was absolutely
SPEAKER_00:wonderful to have you here. Thank you so much. I can't tell you how much it means to just help me see my mission through in helping women empower themselves to make that control So yeah, thank you.
SPEAKER_01:Hey, also, I wanted to say a big thank you for joining us today. My team, our guests, and I pour so much love and time into making these episodes for you. So it'd mean the world to us if you'd hit that follow button. If you feel like inspiring a friend today, you might like to share this episode with them too. I hope you have the most beautiful day. I'll see you soon.