The Hotflash inc podcast

65. Kate Deering: ‘Stop blaming your metabolism on aging’

March 11, 2023 Ann Marie McQueen Episode 65
The Hotflash inc podcast
65. Kate Deering: ‘Stop blaming your metabolism on aging’
Show Notes Transcript

Kate Deering is a San Diego-based personal trainer, holistic nutritionist and author of the ground-breaking book How to Heal Your Metabolism

Kate has some no-nonsense guidance for healing broken metabolisms and how to make the transition through menopause as easy as possible by drawing on the pro-metabolic approach to nutrition. 

That involves learning to understand your body and giving it the fuel it needs to function properly. She explains why menopause symptoms, and slow metabolism, can both come as a result of over-exercising, eating too little and putting yourself under too much stress in earlier life, and dispels popular myths such as the idea that eating carbs will make you put on weight. I watched a friend of mine transform in her 40s by doing this, and I’ve done it myself and felt the difference. Her take is that throwing hormones and supplements at the symptoms of menopause was never going to be an effective solution. Instead, her take is that we need to learn to look at healing any underlying issues, and and nurture and heal our body so that it can go through the process feeling healthy and strong.

Kate and I spoke last year as part of the first Menopause Shift Summit and I found her way of approaching this so helpful I wanted you to hear it. 

Highlights: 

  • Why she doesn’t blame slowing metabolism on age
  • What’s going on when perimenopause catches up with you
  • What the bio-energetic, pro-metabolic way of eating looks like
  • Pro-metabolic eating, organ meats and shellfish
  • Gut and digestive issues and peri/menopause
  • Why orange juice and dairy aren’t on this particular sh*t list 
  • “Anti-metabolic” foods, however, are
  • The issue with supplements
  • How to square intermittent fasting with pro-metabolic eating (hint: you don’t)

Where you can find Kate: 

Web: KateDeering.com

IG: @katedeeringfitness

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Maybe you haven't exercised enough and you just eat crappy food or you know, there's other stressors in your life. Could be trauma. these are all going to affect you. So in my view, it's just kind of this accumulation of happening. Hi there. I'm Annemarie McQueen, a menopause in midlife journalist. I have 25 years of experience covering science health, and. And I created hot flashing to inform, inspire, and entertain people who go through pairing menopause and menopause, and the people who care about them. This podcast brings you interviews with scientists, doctors, practitioners, entrepreneurs, thought leaders, and more. In the end, our menopause experience is about so much more than ours. Symptoms. I think it's a total and complete mind, body, and soul shift. It's taking radical responsibility for every single part of our lives. It's becoming who we were born to be. It's nothing short of a hero's journey, and I am here walking the path right beside you. We're gonna have fun. So first of all, I love when you say stop blaming aging for your slowing metabolism. Would you also say Stop blaming perimenopause and menopause for it too? Well, I always look at those as more like a symptomatic parts of aging. So yeah, I don't think they have to be a, a horrible part of how you move through this world and, and, and, um, and age on on some level. I, I think we put titles on them that they're just gonna be this miserable part of our lives, because they, they can be right and so, depending on, you know, your views and probably your, your current health. So I think you have to, uh, learn to look at it a little bit differently and, and see what part can I take into making this part of my life better? Okay. And it's incredibly complicated when it comes to nutrition. Like I feel. So many people just don't know what to eat anymore, and there's so many different competing ways. Can you just break down as simply as possible what your approach is? now, you know, wrote a whole book about it. if you elevator pitch. Yeah. Um, right, the elevator pitch. So everything, it's this buyer energetic view or pro metabolic. I mean, people like to label things. don't particularly like to label things, but everybody wants to know what you're doing. So you gotta label, you gotta give it a name. Um, it it's an energetic approach. So the entire pro thought process is, is how to support your cells energy production, because when your cells are producing adequate energy, then there's enough energy for all the systems of your body. To have fuel to do what they need to be doing. Because when we, when we look at the things that, the context of metabolism and metabolism essentially is how your body is using food to turn into energy so that it can function essentially. And since all the systems in your body require energy, how you are absorbing, digesting and then utilizing that energy is super important. And so it, it breaks it down to like, okay, well what foods will be most beneficial to that? Process and maybe what food maybe will be somewhat detrimental. I don't like to get into the whole fact of that, you know, there's good or bad foods, but maybe more of what, what are more supportive to you at, at this place in your healing process and what might be is more beneficial to you now. But I do believe that when somebody is healthy and things are working optimally, that you can eat a wide variety of diets and a wide variety of food and, and function properly. Um, it's when things are off that you might have to make adjustments and then it's, if you come from this. It's like, okay, well then how can I get my body use energy better and produce energy better? Because if I have more energy, then my systems will work better. Okay. And your premise is that, uh, or, or one of your premises is that by this, by we, the time we hit our forties, a lot of us have sort of harmed our metabolisms by calorie restriction by over exercising, burning ourselves out. Can you just elaborate, elaborate on that a little bit? Sure. Because when we look at something, Metabolic rate and how well your body is internally burning energy. I think there's a misconception of what that actually is. So people, I think, think that I can just work out a lot and that's gonna increase my metabolism, right? I'm gonna burn more energy, but that's not necessarily going to improve your internal metabolic rate. And so maybe I should like kind of differentiate between, um, like a basal metabolic rate or how your body is using energy at rest and. And when it's working right, everything's working right in your body. And that means like your digestion, your hormone function. So you have, you know, regular periods, you're sleeping well, you feel your mood is stable, your energy is stable, your hair is growing. All of those things are require energy. So all of those will be working if things are running optimally when we start having stressors. And those can be anything. Exercise can be a stress work, stress, relationship, stress, mental stress, whatever those are. Those actually take energy. Um, but they're external from our internal systems. But our body has to cr like constantly thinking like, well, how can I create energy for this exercise if she's not, if this person's not giving me enough fuel to run well then that means I'm gonna, if I'm gonna exercise and there's not enough fuel, then I'm gonna have to lower other functions in the body to create enough energy for me to get through this. Now that's okay if we do it periodically, but if we're continually undereating or under fueling our systems and then over exercising and then, you know, working 12 hours and taking care of a family over time, that's going to start chipping away at our health, and it doesn't happen immediately. Your body is super amazing and certainly just these acute stressors that we put upon it in a healthy place are not gonna have a detrimental effect. Exercise can have a very good effect if you are properly fueled and properly rested and so forth. It becomes a problem when the system isn't working properly and it's already overstressed, and then you add these other stressors on that start making it feel worse. And then we can't understand, well, I'm doing the right things. I'm dieting, I'm exercising, and I feel like garbage. Um, and again, that's usually an accumulation, right when our twenties, we can kind of get rid of. I mean, we can kind of get a, we can kind of do that and it ha not have an effect on us. Thirties might start having more in effect, certainly. And when we hit our forties, we're looking at decades of of having these habits. Um, and not everybody is there. Maybe you haven't exercised enough and you just eat crappy food or you know, there's other stressors in your life. Could be trauma. these are all going to affect you. So in my view, it's just kind of this accumulation of happening. And then of course when we do hit our forties and we haven't been taking care of ourselves and maybe we've had really bad periods and all this, then yeah, this scar gonna, now perimenopause is gonna be hitting and it's going to be not a great journey because our system is not working optimally at that point in time. So we have to. Work on trying to build that up and maybe nourish it or take some stressors off to see if we can kind of go through that process a lot easier versus, you know, throwing drugs at it or hormones at it, you know, and, and so forth. Okay, so I wanna get into that part later. But you said throwing hormones at it. So just off the top, be, uh, you know, hormone, we're hearing a lot about menopause hormone therapy and how it can help us through this and how it's sort of like a magic pill. But when you said throw hormones on top of it, it made me twig like, it seems like you're saying underlying things need to be sort of addressed too. If you add hormones to a system like this, what are you gonna get? Right. And let me just, uh, say I'm certainly not a medical doctor, so if somebody's on hormones, I don't certainly wanna tell you to get off of'em. Um, this is just a, a viewpoint of yes. I think if you are having a lot of issues going into perimenopause or menopause, the first thing that needs to be addressed is your health, your lifestyle. What are you putting in your body? Um, a big thing with a lot of people is they're just not regulating their blood sugar properly. Meaning they're, they're not eating enough, they don't know how to, Ingest enough carbohydrates per se, to keep their body fueled. Maybe they're not ingesting enough protein, their blood sugar is going all over the place all day long. They feel anxious, they're starting to feel depressed. All of those things can be addressed by properly managing your food. And if the person in front of you is not talking about that and they're saying, Hey, we can just put you on a hormone, and that might make you. Better It could. I'm not saying it won't, but is it really fixing the problem? I feel like on some level it's doing something to your system, but I don't really think it's fixing you. And again, doesn't mean you won't feel better. And I don't wanna get hate because be like, but I took my hormones and I changed my life and I. I'm not saying that that cannot happen to some women, but from my perspective, there is another layer that should first be addressed and to see if you can improve your health. And, and, and in my experience, if you do do that, then a lot of times they don't need to be going onto these therapies. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So what does the pro moving into this pro metabolic way of eating simply sort of look like? So, right. That's the simply, so the thought process, again, it's all about fueling your cells. And how does that, what does that look like? So one of the thoughts is your cells, and basically every cell in your body works best on glucose. Um, and so that means having a significant amount of carbohydrates in your diet. And people are, in today's world, are all very scared of carbohydrates. They're going to make a fat. And, and all of that is just complete fallacy, to be honest with you. And, and if you look at the data, um, you know, all these other diets you can lose weight on, at the end of the day, they're usually just calorie restrictive, right? If you remove an entire macronutrient out of your diet, take carbs away, you're going to eat less. And certainly you can lose weight that way. Um, however, that usually might come with some other consequences. But when we look at cellular respiration or cellular metabolism, right, your cells essentially breathe. They exchange gases at a cell level. Then the, the, the macronutrient, which we have three fats, carbs, and protein that is going to work best is the one that basically is glucose, which is carbohydrates. Carbohydrates. And I'll break down into glucose. So that's a sure sell's preferred source of energy. That's where it runs the best. That's where it's gonna produce the mu heat, the most a t p and other byproducts like carbon dioxide, which we won't get into that too much, but that is an important function of cellular respiration. So a decent part of the diet would say, Healthy carbohydrates. And what I mean by that are things like fruits and roots and some vegetables. Um, it, it, what works for an individual, um, is going to depend a lot on their current state of health. And one thing that is always addressed is how is their GI function doing? Um, that's a big component because obviously that's the entry fee, uh, entry place of all your nutrients and your energy. So we have to look at that too. And if their GI system is off or not functioning right, or every time you eat something, it's having, um, you're constipated then. We look at that and go, okay, we don't want your digestive system to have to be overly worked. Um, again, everything requires energy in your body. Usually when you're overstressed the GI system, your, your gut, your intestines, everything, or one of the first things that become compromised cuz you digest best in a resting state. So if someone's in a. Stress date all the time, most likely they have really bad digestion problems. So we kind of go there first and let say, all right, well, we don't want your digestion system to have to utilize tons of fuel to break stuff down. So one belief is, let's give you foods that are really easy to break down. And so that can be like fruits or simple sugars. Those are a lot easier to break down than rule. The starchy carbohydrates. Doesn't mean you cannot use them, but for some people that. Best initially. So that's where fruits and juices, um, honey, all of these things can be a, a decent part of the diet. Now again, it's very individualized and it depends on the individual and what kind of diet you're coming from, but that is usually a big component. Um, and then another component is using animal-based proteins. For your protein sources, cuz certainly that is also very important. Protein is your structure. Um, it's what your hormones and enzymes and all these things are made of, so that's pretty important. And we also know that animal proteins are far more bioavailable than your vegetable source proteins. Again, it doesn't mean that you can't have those in your diet. But those proteins are also gonna be a lot harder to break down. They're a lot harder to get the nutrients out of. They're a lot. You need a lot more of'em to get the same amount of protein from. So we wanna come from a place of how can we get you the nutrients and energy you need without taxing your GI system that much. It can be able to extract what it needs and to start healing their system. So those are two really big components of a kind of a pro metabolic approach. The other one is that we usually use a slight more saturated fat like butter and coconut oil. Um, tall, those are gonna be utilized over the, the vegetable or the seed oils, um, the premises that they're just gonna be, uh, less oxidative stress from those fats, per se. Um, They're kind of safer. And so there is certainly a lot of controversy over what fats are best. There's such certainly data on, on both for pro and and anti reasoning. But the primary thing is that essentially, you know, we are a hot human being and for putting in these like, uh, more volatile. Uh, uh, fats like the seed oils and the vegetable oils that they could create more damage in our systems. Um, so, so basically it's, again, it's more easily digestible carbohydrates, um, nutrient rich proteins, which are like animal proteins and, and seafood and shellfish and the organ meats and eggs and dairy. And then also, uh, more. Okay, so first of all, organ meats. This is like, I've been hearing this more and more and more, right? And I just never eat organ meats or thought of eating more organ meats where, what's the wisdom there? Um, well, I think it's more of like addressing eating the entire animal. I think each kind of organ has different nutrients. The primary one that's recommended is eating liver. Um, liver is the most nutrient dense food on the planet, so ounce for ounce. It has more nutrition than any other food. And again, some people cringe at that because they're like, Ugh, liver. I mean, for some it is certainly not the tastyt food, but does it? Packed full of nutritions that are very, that is very bioavailable to the person. So for someone that is really compromised and maybe has been living a life where they have been very nutrient and deficient or, um, and they don't want to eat tons and tons of food, you can get it, you can get it other ways, but it certainly, you know, when you have something so nutrient and dense, you don't have to eat a lot of it to get a big bang for your. So having something like that, because some people when they come to the space, their metabolic rate is compromised and at that point in time, maybe they aren't utilizing a lot of calories when you become in that resting state. Because if they're overly stressing their system, their body has adapted and so they are maybe just surviving and you know, on the thousand calories and, but maybe they need 2000 calories to fully heal. So for someone like that, you have to move them through the process quite slowly so that they slowly move up calorically, which can happen without putting a significant amount of weight on. And because you want them to get some nutrition density in there, you wanna give'em these kind of foods that get a big bang for the buck. It doesn't mean, again, you have to do'em. Um, but they, I have found that they are super helpful for people service. And you said dairy. I mean, this is another thing that I stopped eating dairy years ago because I felt that it was upsetting my stomach and I couldn't tolerate it. And I guess I was listening to what people were saying and you know, everyone's with the nut milk. What is with dairy? Why do we need to be having dairy? What kind of dairy this is seems neri almost to some people. Yeah. Uh, I mean to me dairy is like a superfood. Um, it has really good quality of nutrients in it. One of them specifically being calcium. Um, I think a lot of people have. Okay, so another theory is on dairy. Obviously there could be some sort of lactose intolerance, right? Maybe that we all shouldn't have milk after we birthed, cuz certainly no. Animals do that. Um, no animal, no other animals do a lot of other things, like we ride planes and look at the internet and all these other things. So I feel like that argument is just stupid But ultimately, um, yeah, a lot of people can't tolerate, or, or they might have some sort of lactose issue because under stress, the, the, uh, The areas in your small inte and can get damaged, and they aren't gonna be producing the enzyme to break down that lactose. So stress in itself can affect how you digest milk. Um, the quality of milk can also have an effect. So if I find it a lot of people, it's not really the lactose that bothers'em anyways. Maybe it's just the additives in the milk or the processing of the milk. So sometimes just trying a different milk can be the thing that helps them. And so using something like goat milk, which is usually a primary, like an A two milk. a lot of people find easier to digest can be better, or a raw milk, um, or a not pasteurized or a, uh, non-homogenized whipped milk. The the key at this point is just kind of to try different options for yourself, but also if you haven't been consuming milk for a long period of time, it's not normally smart to just go in and start consuming quarts of milk. You might have to work up that quite slowly, so maybe it, you can go as slow as a tablespoon a. or having some other dairy option that doesn't have lactose in it. So maybe some cheese or even Greek yogurt. Some of those options are usually can be better for someone than when they start to incorporate it back into their diet. Um, you have to always ask, you know, is it this, is it me? Is it my digestion that could be affecting? How this food is being processed. And in my experience, when you address someone's GI system and you start trying to fix their system and allow it to actually start working because now it's getting actual energy to it, then you can slowly incorporate dairy and have no issues. Do you, how big of a problem do you find? With the people you work with, that with gut and digestive issued problems and, and their perimenopause symptoms, because in a lot of ways they kind of mimic each other. They can, and I think a lot of it is, again, over time, and we, again, we come from this energetic system, it's like, okay, over time, and in today's world, right? So in today's world, women that are hitting their forties, 40 fives, they've been in the diet culture world for decades at this point in time. And whether they've been on repeated diets or they've been trying to exercise, or their life is just so stressful, um, you know, women are pushed in many different directions in today's world, whether they're mothers and working, or they're trying to just manage their lives on many different levels. it's a lot. And so essentially what's happening when they get older, their systems just aren't working. And these are probably the same ones. And what I might find is that people that have a really hard time in perimenopause are also the same people that have had really tough periods all their life or other issues. Usually when you sit someone down and they're starting to go through perimenopause and you go through their health history, this isn't their first thing that's ever happened to them. They've had a series of other things been going on for decades, and so it's like. You've been having these other issues, what could be possibly going on here? Right? Maybe your period has just been not supported, right? So maybe they're having some estrogen issues, maybe they haven't even been truly ovulating. Um, you can still have a period without ovulation. So certainly we track for a lot of women, it's important to track their morning body temperature to see if they're actually ovulating because. When progesterone is released post ovulation, you should get increased in temperature, morning temperature. If you are not, you are not ovulating, and if that hasn't been happening, then you haven't been producing progesterone, the latter part of your cycle, and that can create some. Massive hormonal issues in the system. And so we kind of have to look at that, right? And if that, so going back and then saying, okay, what can we do to support this cycle? What does this system need? And underlying, the first thing always is, is this person getting enough energy? To support their energy demands. And so we look, what does your life look like? What's going on? Oh, you work 12 hours a day? Oh, you have two children in addition and you also have a husband. Oh, and then you're trying to work out at 5:00 AM in the morning, fasted. I mean, these are all these crazy things. And then they're like, I feel like garbage. And I'm like, okay, This is why. And because you're just, and it literally, for so many people and so many women, it's like you're just not eating enough and you're putting all of these demands and your body. Always adapting because your body's number one goal is to keep you alive. It is not to procreate. It's not to have good, di good digestion. It's not even to sleep, it's not to feel good. It's to keep you alive. So that's the hierarchy of what's happening. And so it's doing its job. but it's doing it and it has to lower function on all of these systems in your body that aren't a priority. Your brain is pretty darn important. Your heart, your lungs, all those things are pretty darn important. But these other things like digestion and having a good period, or even being fertile, eh, you know, we don't need any of those to keep alive. Right? And so what, instead of, instead of what we've, we've done is instead of addressing why are these people coming out this way, we've created entire industries to support that, right? We have infertility clinics now, um, billion dollar industry. Again, not saying people shouldn't do those things or whatnot, but. You still wanna address your health. And again, if the person in front of you isn't talking about that with you and just saying, you know, and they're, you're like, I like to get pregnant and you work a 12 hour day and all this craziness. That to me is just insanity because your system is saying if you're not able to get pregnant, there's something in your system saying, I don't feel safe enough to carry a baby. Period. Um, again, there might be some medical conditions out out of that. Again, not a medical doctor, but certainly I don't find that that conversation is being had when people go in to get this help. So, Yeah, I feel like I got off on a tangent there. you talked about progesterone and I'm interested in perimenopause cuz I've seen you recommend, um, sort of a, a progesterone oil. Um, so I'm just wondering how you feel about progesterone in perimenopause. It's kind of an un um, it's kind of an un Yeah, that's a, that's a, that's a, that's a complicated topic. I, I would say it's, A useful thing to be available, again, not a doctor. Um, still, always the most important thing is to what can you do to support your, your own proje progesterone production, right? Which as women, now again, you will produce some progesterone through your adrenal glands, but primarily with women, it's produced ovulation through your corpus lutia. So once you, uh, drop an egg, your corpus lutian develops, and that's what's gonna produce progesterone. That's why if you are not ovulating, that needs to be addressed. And for the, for most payment, it, for most women, it is an energy production issue, and so that should be address. um, it could be a detoxification issue. So if there's an, an excess of estrogen going on in the system, um, we know that estrogen's being detoxed basically through the liver and then excreted through, um, your stool. And so if there's something in there that's not allowing for that, again, going back to your digestion, if you have a sluggish GI system, then you can get estrogen recirculating through your system, creating some, uh, hormonal. So detoxification is certainly important. Addressing the GI system is important. Making sure you have enough energy and nutrients because again, your body ovulating is a, a incredibly metabolic, uh, demanding process. It takes more fuel. And I think that's why a lot of women don't feel as well during the gluteal phase of their cycle, or they start having all these symptoms. And a lot of it is because you, you have this metabolic process going on that does require more energy. And if you are supplying your body with more energy, which most are not, then you're going to have symptoms. Right? They're like, Become a insomniac. You know, I don't feel good. All these other things start happening. I get headaches. I'm like, yeah, well all of those can be coming from le not enough energy in your system. Right? Those are symptoms of a body that is under fueled. So, and you talk about anti metabolic foods, like these are foods that seem to almost be working against you. I, you've mentioned soy, like what are some of these foods and, and why? Why are they so, yeah, so I mean, one of those are certainly the polyunsaturated fats. They have been sewn to certainly have an anti metabolic, uh, effect on the system. Um, you know, some of these pfu oils, even like soy EULs that are given and they're given to people like in, in cancer, you have cancer. They're given to you basically to help you put on weight. Um, so a lot. oils and fats are even given to cattle and pigs to help them fatten quicker. So they're basically also being sold to us. And the reason they're being sold to us is because they've been shown to lower cholesterol numbers. Um, so, and we have to always re that just because something lowers cholesterol or has some sort of, uh, Effect doesn't mean it always is necessarily good for us. I think we have to learn to kind of look at the entire system and not just look at this in this kind of isolated reductionist viewpoint and, and just say, Hey, just because this one thing does this, it's good for us. Well, what else does it do? And what other effects can it have on us? And I think that's always a big question to have. Um, some other ones that can be problematic to people are certainly things like soy or, um, Even some of these, I don't wanna say they're anti-me block, but can just be creating issues. And those can be the legumes or even raw leafy greens. Again, don't wanna actually say that they're bad for you, essentially, but in a person is compromised, that's having a hard time getting energy and fuel, giving them a lot of those foods that are really hard to break down and for the human body to extract what it needs isn't normally the best approach. And so I'm not saying that the nobody can ever have those. Forever, but in a compromised state, if you have a lot of GI issues, um, and you're eating a lot of green salads or a lot of beans, um, more than likely you're having some bloating and gut issues and all of these things. That might be, again, making your GI system work really hard where it's not really getting enough energy to do what it needs to be doing with those types of. So better to stick to the meats and the roots and the fruits, meat, fruits and fruits. Yeah. Yeah. Well, not even meat. I mean it's more, I would say some meat for sure. Um, but also a lot of fish, a lot of shellfish are good cause they're super high nutrient foods. Um, some of the organs, liver. Um, oysters are definitely recommending cuz they have super high amounts in zinc and then dairy is a good component. Again, it's going to be easier on the system to digest as long as you are able to digest it, meaning, but then we have to go back to the GI system. So it's kind of a healing is in layers and I think some people get into this space and then they all just throw everything, you know, they read a book cuz most like, you know, diets are like, do these foods and so, um, It's not quite that simple. It's kind of saying, okay, where are you at in your healing? And if you try something, if you try milk, it doesn't mean keep doing it. If you keep having a bad response, it means something else needs to maybe be addressed first, and then maybe then you can try it and very slowly added in. So there's, there's this kind of layers to the healing. Um, but the goal, essentially, that eventually you should be able to eat a wide variety of different foods and still be okay, right? I mean, you always kind of wanna base how your body feels on what you're going to eat, but if you are feeling well and you wanna go out and eat a big bowl of beans, go for it. You know? You might still have some issues and maybe that might be your deciding fact that you don't wanna. Do that again, but I don't wanna ever say that anything is off limits. Um, I think it just means that sometimes during your healing process, you might not be able to do something as much until you get better, and then you can start incorporating, uh, a variety of things in, sorry. Oh. I was fighting that for a long time. We'll cut that out. Um, how long does this healing process, how long can it take? Like what's the range? Uh, that's a good question because there is no true answer to that. Um, for some people it could be, They can feel better in like six months. Um, I think a lot of it depends on how long you've had your symptoms. Um, and if you've been dealing with some chronic issues for decades, then you can probably expect some time to get better. Um, I think it's important to note that people do start feeling better within 30 days to a few months, and I think that's gonna be the motivation for them to continue. Um, You know, we like to monitor things like not weight per se. We like to monitor things like temperature and pulse. Um, because how warm your body is and how much heat it's releasing is one way to monitor how well your metabolism is doing. It's certainly not a, a perfect measurement, but it's something you can do at home and y and and, and not have to go get a lab to do to see, Hey, am I getting warmer? And that is a good. Um, so yeah, so there are tools that is, are suggested so that you can actually monitor your progress. And of course the other part is monitoring your symptoms. You know, things like digestion, how is that improving? Is your period improving? Are you regular, are you ovulating? Um, all of those things are important. Um, obviously as you approach menopause, that's going to be irregular. It's just kind of understanding, you know, how do you best support yourself through those processes? You know, your body is now having a, uh, change because you are eventually gonna start, stop ovulating through menopause. And what does that look like? How do you continue to support your system, um, through that process again, because I think there's. Fallacy or that peop that women believe is that when I'm, when I go through menopause and I'm through menopause, that my body isn't producing any more estrogen at this point in time, and so I need to go get an estrogen or hormone replacement, or any of those thoughts or any of those things that they are told to do, but. That isn't necessarily what is really happening. Um, yes, maybe your ovaries aren't producing as much estrogen, but your body is still producing estrogen. Um, it can be produced in the cells of your tissue. You just might not see it in the blood. And so we have to understand that even in women postmenopausal, they have massive amounts of estrogen in their tissue. Um, and so this thought that we need more estrogen. Post-menopause, in my opinion, is not correct. Um, the, the hormone essentially is not happening is the progesterone because you are not ovulating anymore and you aren't producing progesterone like that. So, um, so making sure that the body is, again, in a more non-stress environment that's able to regulate his blood shirt. It's getting enough nutrients, getting enough energy, I think can get through menopause. Easily without all these symptoms. Um, but if you choose not to go that route, um, and you just get a hormone replacement therapy, that certainly can make you feel better. Um, but I'm not sure it's addressing the bottom issues and Okay. This is a space where there's a ton of supplements, like it's just supplement, you know, from magnesium on to like, My gosh, what did I try Saffron, um, this week? you know, where I think, I think, uh, the supplements, you've got a lot to say about supplements and, and our ability, even, even digestive enzymes. If you're having these gut issues, like where do you sort of, where does this fit in your plan? Well, I mean, I am all about food for first, right? I'm all about addressing lifestyle and habits and understanding your body and. First, are there some supplements that can be complimentary? Sure. Um, and I think it depends on that person what they need, but usually when I start talking to people, they're, they are already on like 10 supplements. And for somebody that has a really compromised GI system, Throwing a bunch of supplements in there might be making them worse. And you know, half the time when I ask'em like, have any of these made a difference? And usually they either don't know or I don't know, you know. And sometimes we're like, all right, well let's just slowly take'em off and see if you notice anything. And a lot of times they feel better because their GI system isn't all disrupted by a lot of these supplements that could be creating some GI irritation. Um, so again, not saying that they cannot be helpful, some. Not against them. Um, I think there's a lot out there that are garbage and, um, you know, I don't think that should be a first line of any sort of protocol. If somebody isn't really looking at the, the big picture of you, how your body's being regulated, how is your energy production? You know, are you getting enough fuel? Are you getting enough nutrients via food? Because that's always gonna be the best delivery source to anything then. And they're just saying you need all these 10 supplements. you know, I might question that, that protocol. Mm-hmm. but hey, but if it works for somebody, great. I mean, you know. Um, but a lot of times I think they, they get to a sticking point. I'm like, I am spending all this money and it's not really changing anything and it's not going to, um, if you don't address the, the underlying issues, How about intermittent fasting? Cuz you just hear all the time about how this good, this is how it gives our digestive systems a break. Auto, Fiji, I never know how to say that word. Auto. Fiji. Any, um, autophagy. Auto Fiji. Yeah. Autophagy. Autophagy. Yeah. Um, uh, yeah. Where in the pro metabolic eating sort of approach does intermittent fasting have a place? Can you over fast? Like how do you feel about. So I am not a pro intermittent fasting person. I think the best time to fast is when you are sleeping. We all fast every night when we're resting, and I think that's a safe place to fast. Um, and it, that's when your body, your GI system should get a rest. Um, you don't really need to push yourself. And through 12, 24 hour, are these really long fasting cycles to try to improve your health. I'm not, they're saying there, there can't be some benefit. I mean, some people certainly do it for religious purposes or maybe they get some mental clarity. Um, so I'm not gonna say you shouldn't, but if you think it's improving your digestion or in health per se, if you're already in a compromised state and you're, you're, you stop eating for long periods of time, that's a stress on your body. People feel clarity because they have adrenaline raging through their system to basically support their body. We have to understand if we don't. our body's primary job is to keep us alive, right? So if there's no fuel coming in, we still have to regulate. We still have to maintain blood sugar. Our system still needs fuel. It just doesn't, we don't run on air. And so if we're not feeding ourselves, then our body will start, is gonna start feeding off of us. It's going to break down our tissue to run. And for some people they're like, oh good, they're gonna use my fat as energy, yay. I'm like, well, it just doesn't work that way though. It's not that your body goes right to your fat stores, and that's all it uses. Fat can't regulate blood sugar. It's not. Sugar, it's fat and fat can't turn into sugar. Protein can turn into sugar. So your body says, we need to regulate blood sugar. You're not eating we'll. Break down some tissue, we'll break down muscle, your thymus gland, connective tissue, whatever, and we'll use that to regulate your blood sugar. Again, it's a survival technique of your. That, that it does that. Now, again, it's not necessarily bad and if you wanna fast, you know, it's like well do it on a day where you don't have to do a lot of things right? You can rest and, and become more cerebral and just lie and allow that process to happen. Um, again, Through a healing protocol. I, I would never recommend that. I don't think that's really what a system needs, not when you're under fueled and overstressed already. Um, it's certainly being recommended to uncertain to people on protocols, um, without really, I think, understanding physiologically what their body is going through at that time. So not something I would recommend. And again, it, it, people can do it for other reasons. Sure. Um, and I think if you are in a healthy place and your body does regulate and you wanna try doing it fast, cool. You know, your body is designed to withstand certain stressors for certain periods of time. Uh, it's cool that way and you can do it, you can put acute stressors on it and it recovers and. it does its job, but if you don't have to, right. And, and I think part of this, this process too is you're saying give your GI system a rest. I'm like, look, if you're giving your GI system enough fuel, right, to regulate the GI system still needs fuel. It has to have energy to function. It doesn't just, again, run on air. And so if you're giving it easy to digest fuel that doesn't have to work as hard, but still getting fuel and it's able to regulate, I think that would be a much better approach than just saying, Nope, none at all. You don't have to work but but now you're gonna add fuel back in. And again, you know, the body adapts when we, when we put a stressor upon it, like not eating. And we do it for even long periods of time, two or three days. Um, it adapts by again, releasing stress hormone's, breakdown tissue. But the other part of that where it adapts, it slows down metabolic function. Anytime you put your system under stress, it's gonna slow internal function down. And so that will, that's what happened. That's why people go on these long-term fast. They have to incorporate food back in slow and, you know, do it, don't want to eat a lot of really hard, nutty nuts and seeds and, you know, all these things that may more, more challenging in your system to break down. There's a reason for that because you've, you've slowed everything down again. Um, so not something that I would particularly recommend. And just getting back to autophagy, um, that is certainly a, a big word in the. intermittent fasting sphere, maybe the ketogenic sphere. And it's a basically your body's cleanup system, which is a good thing. Um, but you don't have to fast for long periods of time to go autophagy. You go into it when you're sleeping. In fact, your body is always trying to do some sort of cleanup. That's always happening. It just goes into a greater degree under fasting. And a lot of that is, you are breaking down more stuff when you're fasting, right? So it's kind of like saying, I'm gonna go mess up my room just to go clean it up. right? That's what that is. Because it's not that you're not going through autopsy sheet, and I get it, you do want to clean up the system, um, but you don't need to go mess it up just to have it cleaned up. Okay. Anything else you would like to say to perimenopausal, menopausal women who are watching and still having a hard time? Like any words of hope or wisdom or anything else? Um, what I, I would recommend is really trying to understand your physiology, your biology. I think if you do do that, cuz I've worked with so many women that just literally are 50 or 60 and just have never. Thought about I, I'm not eating enough for all the stress in my life and there's, there's so much looking for this like external pill or potion or hormone to treat them. And, and, and it sucks. I mean, when you don't feel good or you're starting to do with perimenopause, you're going into menopause and you're having all of these symptoms, hot flashes, you can't sleep and you're a saw in your mood and your brain fog. It sucks. And I get it, that you do wanna just feel better. And for some women, maybe it is getting under hormone replacement therapy first, just so they can feel normal and then maybe researching this or you can kind of go. Hey, maybe I need to really look at my life and maybe look in the foods that I've been eating and am I supporting myself and what does my temperature impulse? You know, am I 96 degrees? Well, that's not necessarily a great thing. So is there something I can do to take control of my health? To kind of support myself. I know, right? It menopause is still this kind of weird world that there's not a lot of answers to, um, other than you go to your doctor and they're like, what hormones do you want me to put you on? And you know, again, and that can be one path. Or you go to your natural path and you're like, what supplements you want me to put you on? And some of those can be helpful, but again, we have to address your whole body and we have to address, and it can be. Via food. And I think when we, especially this generation, because everyone's been so carb, sugar phobic for so long, that if you really understand it, that's your friend. And if you can learn to use it properly, it can make a world of difference in how you go through that process.

Ann Marie:

Thank you so much for joining me. If you like this conversation, I hope you'll check out some of my other interviews on the Hot Flashing Podcast, subscribe, give a rating, maybe a review, and come back for more next week. Hot Flash Inc. Was created and is hosted by Annemarie McQueen, produced and edited by Sonya Mac. The information contained in this podcast is intended for informational purposes only, and is not intended for the purpose of diagnosing, treating, curing, or preventing any disease. Before using any products referenced on the podcast, consult with your healthcare provider, read all labels, and he all directions and cautions that accompany the products. Information received through the podcast should not be used in place of a consultation or advice. Care provider. If you suspect you have a medical problem, ie. Menopause or anything else or any healthcare questions, please promptly see your healthcare provider. This podcast, including Annemarie McQueen and any producers or editors disclaim any responsibility from any possible adverse effects from the use of any information. Contains herein opinions of guests on this podcast. Are their own, and the podcast does not endorse or accept responsibility for statements made by guests. This podcast does not make any representations or warranties about a guest's qualifications or credibility. This podcast may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products or services. Individuals on this podcast may have direct or indirect financial interest in products or services. Referred to here in this podcast is owned by Hot Flash, Inc. Media.