Ep 597: Hormones, Muscle & Longevity: Future-Proofing Women’s Health with the Hormone Heroines

Podcast Intro and Guest Backgrounds 0:00

Welcome to the Health Fix Podcast where health junkies get their weekly fix of tips, tools and techniques to have limitless energy, sharp minds and fit physiques for life. Dr. Serena and Dr Heidi, welcome to HealthFix Podcast. Hi, thank you for having us. I'm like, gosh, how could I not? After we had such a fun time on your guys' podcast, I was like we have to geek out and talk a little bit more here on hormones and peptides. Now, of course I always love to start podcasts out about learning a bit about the two of you in terms of like what brought the 2 of You to naturopathic medicine and how did you end up becoming work besties?

How did this all go down? Did you study together? What happened? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, for me, I went to I always was interested in medicine growing up. And then I learned about naturopathic medicine when I was in undergrad, because I'm working for like a chiropractor and like getting more into like learning about all the different alternative medicines and He opened me up to it, and then I was like, oh, that does everything that I am interested in, because I really was into plants and herbs and how those have been used for medicine throughout history.

And anyway, so that's how I found out about naturopathic medicine. I can help people and learn all these other modalities that have I been drawn to. So that is why I went to natiropathy medicine But then we just met in school and I'll let you tell your beginnings. I have always loved medicine too, but I didn't know about naturopathic medicine at all until I had a friend who was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer and she was given like six months to live. And we did everything we could. Her youngest daughter was best friends with my oldest daughter.

And so we didn't everything. We could to try to find ways to, you know, prolong her life or maybe hopefully get rid of it. Um, we ended up getting her about three years. Uh, and one of the things or several of things that we. Did was she had seen an ND and like had done all of this natural stuff and we really got into it and then I started researching it, her and I just got into all these things that we were trying together. It got her about three more years. She did end up passing. she actually ended up.

A way she told me I needed to go to end school because I had already decided to. Back to school and the day she died was the that NUNM applications opened. So I was like, well, okay, I guess that's a sign. Maybe I should do it because she. Told me to and she literally died on the So I did it, and then her and I were in the same cohort. I was obviously a little older, but she is kind of an old soul, so we got along better than a lot of other people in that cohort, not that we didn't get along with the other We meshed better, you know?

We like to be like, we're in the same part of the classroom, because we both preferred to like alternate between the sitting and standing desks. And be in back. So proximity started the relationship. Yeah, and then we did birth students together. We delivered a lot of babies together while we were interning as birthstudents, which is bonding in its own way. Wow. being up all night and then be like, oh, let's go take a final. Yeah. Studying in between contractions. It was fun. And then we both have struggled with hormone issues our whole lives, and that's why we wanted to focus on women's health and specifically hormones.

Then we just became better and better friends and had really similar goals for when we got out of school and similar work ethics, which is helpful when working with someone else trying to grow a business. That's pretty much it. Oh, wow. You know, it's funny how, you know we develop the bonds in school and based on like studying and what kind of things you're grinding with together and yes, the nurse midwife and all that kind side of thing where, where you are up all night. I did not experience that.

And I did notice like a lot of people that that did that track and did those kinds of things were much more like connected. Because yeah, there was a a bonding there going on. Well, you also just spend like so many hours together because you're like, oh, this is good. We're going to be here for like 12 hours. So well, and you have to really work as a team when you are helping to deliver a baby, because. You have. To know everybody's roles and everybody has to do what they have do. so you. Have to.

Be able to trust who you were doing it with. I think that's why like when we did graduate and everything It was kind of a no-brainer to start a business together because we already trusted each other We already knew what our work ethics were like and it's how you respond under high stress situations. So yes, that's true That's that that you know something to be something you'd be sad something we said So now like looking at your practice now, are you guys delivering babies? Are you doing that too in this practice?

No, we so we got our certification but then we decided not to actually like maintain the license for midwifery because in like Washington and Oregon you can be an ND midwife and we just decided that we didn't want to be on call if there's two more of us we Yeah, if we will also if there was two more of us the where we could actually like because you have to be a birth team. You can't just like, we cannot alternate between each other being on call because You have two people like if something happens, you Have to have like one doctor managing baby one Doctor managing mom, If there's two emergencies for each and so we would be on Call all the time.

So if There was too more Of us to Have a separate birth Team, We would have considered it. But it would just be in the two of Us. It was like Yeah, we still work really closely with the birth center and all of the midwives in our area. So I'm the consulting pediatrician and consulting doctor for the Bridge Birth Center in Vancouver. And so we see a lot of pregnant women. We see lot a the babies and then we start doing all the pediatric care as soon as they're born too. so, We still get to have all fun.

we just don't have to be up all night or on call all Hey, there's something to be said about that. I mean, I know I was like, nope, not gonna do that I like sleeping way too much. So it makes sense. But yeah, it's, you know, It's I think for a lot of people who are listening to the podcast, they might not have known that naturopaths can help in, that arena. And so it was kind of fun to highlight. a little bit extra area there and in terms of pediatrics that's another area that a lot of folks don't necessarily realize that naturopaths can be helpful in this case and that we actually can help and now i'm also like opening my eyes up to like okay so you've seen the women you're working with hormones and you work with their kiddos so we've got a broad range here of like the whole the I'm gonna say the whole family, but also I wanna say all the women

Why Muscle Matters for Womenu2019s Health 7:18

in the family. And this is something that I love talking about ripple effect of how when we work with mom and then we can work kiddos, we could help educate kiddoes on this aspect of health too. Have you guys enjoyed working with seeing the kiddo's growing up and the teens and moms too? It's actually very weird seeing kids that like you saw when the mom was pregnant with those kids and you're just like wow. Are you already so old? It's because you don't see them every day, you know, so you see that these little snippets of time when they're coming in for their well child.

But we actually have several families where we see the grandma, the mom, that teenage girl, possibly another grandkid, just in the mix there or other babies and stuff. So we definitely lots of generations of families. Or you see the whole, like, help the mom get pregnant and then you her kid and get her pregnant again and now you got two kids with her and like all those fertility. So yeah, it's definitely layered in. Yeah. It's fun. It is so much fun, it's so fun and I love it when, you know, folks are doing that because definitely it helps with the education, which of course us naturopaths are all about, like teaching and helping, and definitely with a younger population, I think this is a really big opportunity for us to be able to share some of the wisdom there and not let it be lost.

Not that I don't think it is going to Yeah, for sure. Yeah. It is rewarding to work with kids and, you know, preventative medicine is the easiest to start when you're a newborn. 100%. 100% and that's kind of what I love for folks, to hear on the podcast is like preventive health starts with the newborn and then of course, then we sometimes go along our own little ways through life and we end up at perimenopause and menopausal and Now what do we do? You guys have this, you know, this great ability to know what to do with muscle.

And I think it's, a lot of people are hearing like protein, protein protein. But it is so much more than that. Tell us more. What is it more that the protein? I mean, so like muscle isn't just about like tone and power. It's a huge vital organ for your metabolism, your hormones, you brain. Healthy muscle helps you regulate blood sugar. it helps support bone health, it help support bones strength, keeps your hormone balanced. And after menopause or even during perimenopaus, maintaining muscle becomes so much more important because studies show that women with lower muscle mass are up to five times more likely to experience cognitive decline or dementia.

And that's really, to kind of put it together, like that because active muscles release key brain-supporting compounds like BDNF-alpha, which is brain derived neurotrophic factor, and IGF1, insulin-like growth factor. These help keep your brain nice and sharp, your mood balanced and your blood vessels nice, and healthy so that you can stay healthy for longer. And like less muscle also means less movement. So less independence and fewer chances for social and mental engagement. These are all essential for long-term brain vitality.

Muscle is not just looking good and looking tone. It's really about your longevity and how you feel and you get to interact with the community around you. That makes sense. I don't think I would have thought about all of that, you know? And I think, unfortunately, that's kind of how we're marketed to, right? We don' think about the ripple effect, all the downstream effect of having extra muscle. And also, just in general, I thing a lot of people are kind thought that to get protein in, they've got to just, and to build the muscle, to eat protein powder.

shakes, more protein. Tell us a little bit about how you're guiding folks. Yes, there's the workouts and those kinds of things. There's creatine. What kind of recommendations do you make on Whole Foods all the way up to supplemental level to help women tackle this? Yeah, so really it's multilayered. So if you're not working out, I usually say you should start with about 90 grams of protein per day, but it is super important to start a 30 gram protein meal for breakfast. And then divide those up throughout the day because if you just like mass eat protein That's not going to be great on your digestion, but um, so that's like the minimum but if your working out then That' when you increase protein because you actually need more protein to build the muscle Just eating protein is not gonna build a muscle.

We'll get into that in a second but for working you want to have like one gram of protein per your ideal body weight or like The bodyweight that you're shooting for when have all that muscle That being said, when you're building muscle, you have to actually go and do the strength training. If you are not doing strength, training, not really going to build any muscle. It doesn't matter what you eat or what supplements you take. You're not going build muscle unless you tell your body that you need to make more muscle fibers and how you do that is the string training and you lift heavy and you have to consistently increase the load as you start to max out.

Sorry, as that gets easy, then you need to go up and consistently load heavier weights each time to get the feedback to actually build the muscles. That's really important as well. And then the other thing, if you do want to talk about supplements, like, yes, creatine is going to be helpful. If you're working out without any rest or without good recovery support, then you are not going to be able to build the muscle because you just tearing it down all the time. So you do need to balance those like good supplements with rest periods with progressive training to actually build muscle.

And keep it yes and keep that yes, but that being said hormones also play a huge role in Being able to do those things so for one like estradiol is huge and people are always like Oh, it's testosterone testosterone helps you do all that. Yes testosterone is Huge to testosterone's gonna help you build and maintain muscle strength but estridiol actually is really important for recovery as well as maintaining the muscle string so a whole approach when it comes to building muscle throughout life, but especially in perimenopause and menopaus.

Makes sense, makes sense. You know, it's funny you had hinted on it because you're like, and to keep it, because I think a lot of people think like okay, I build the muscle, get the muscles, eat the protein, take the creatine, don't have to work out as hard, keep Yeah, that's not how it works. You really have to keep building, you have keep tricking your muscles, keep telling them that you're progressively adding more, adding, more so that they build more muscle. The other thing I will say really quick, because creatine is hard on some women, so it depends on the actual creatinine that So you want to get a creatine that is not going to give you migraines.

A lot of women cannot handle just regular creatinine monohydrate. It's hard on their system and it'll give them migraine or headaches or it just kind of makes them feel off. So there are certain kinds of creatines that women can process better. And one of my favorite ones is actually a design for health product. But it's Knox Synergy, N-O-X synergy. And it has got the correct creatine in it. It tastes like watered down grape Kool-Aid for all those old people out there that used to drink Kul-aid when we thought it was awesome back in the day in 80s.

You know? But, it kind of tastes a little bit of water down, grape kool aid. I just put it in my water bottle and I drink it all day long. And did you find that for yourself? You were getting migraines with the creatine? Yep, because I used to take the regular creatines and I would always get headaches afterwards and i didn't really put two and two together until I was doing some studies on something else and was reading about creatinine and how the monohydrate is harder for us women to actually Well, also on that note, a lot of women feel really bloated on the monohydrate.

And so then they're like, I don't want to take it if it's going to make me bloat it. So the other one is also less bloating. If that's the concern and that why you've been having trouble getting women to switch it up to that different form is going be helpful. It just needs, so like the one in NOx Synergy, it just need to be chelated with something. Because when it is chelaed with it goes down easier and we can digest it easier, and absorb it better. So like the NOx energy one is chelated with magnesium.

Good to know, good to now. Cause yes, I've had people talk about the headaches, have had, people talked about I seem like I'm swelling and then they're like, we got to check my kidneys because of course there's some talk how hard that can sometimes be on the kidneys. So then people think their kidneys are, are dying slowly because we have to look at it. And then, and I mean, then I don't know if you guys have heard this, but like a lot of fitness folks are like oh, you can take like 15 grams or 20 grams

Protein, Strength Training, and Creatine 17:00

a day of it and That will hurt your kidneys. That is too much for your kidney. Your kidneys have to process all of that, and that's just too. Yeah. It's one of those things. Hey, probably a good thing to chat about just because it's a thing that someone might see is on the metabolic panels when they look at their labs and someone's taking creatine, they might the creatinine go up. What kind of things do you say to folks when you see it and you're like, okay, so you are taking, you know, creatines.

This is a normal rise. We do see it a lot, and I see mostly in my perimenopause, postmenopausal women, because I do have them doing all of these things to try to keep their muscle and build their muscles. And so I'll see, but just a slight little rise I'm not worried about, especially if everything else in the kidneys looks fine. If it was a huge rise, then we're definitely going to have some conversations. But generally speaking, what I see is just a teeny little little dip above the normal range.

And we have to remember these normal ranges are built on older men, not our bodies. So. The range is, you know, they're neither here nor there. But if it's just a tiny little rise, I'm not too worried about it, especially if everything else looks good. Also on that note, if I retest them when they are well hydrated, it usually goes away. So making sure people are actually drinking enough water usually resolves that problem in those cases. And then really monitoring the EGFR. If that hasn't changed, then I'm like, okay, it's probably pretty good there.

We're not actually affecting the kidneys, we're just seeing the supplementation. I like that you said hydration. You could definitely call someone out on it on that one. That's kind of fun. All the time. Yes. Yeah, you've said this, but your lab showed me something very different. We are such great accountability buddies, aren't we? Yeah, it's quite fun. I love it, I loved it. So of course you had talked about estrogen and testosterone and its relation to muscles and how we kinda look at this, you know, because women and men, everybody thinks just testosterone for muscles, but like you said, estrogen has a big play here.

And I would love for you guys to kind of explain a little bit of that, But also kinda give us the thing, cause what a lot of women will say is like, i feel like i'm getting a pooch in my belly, and I used to never have that and i have the muscles but the pooch in the belly is happening It's got to be testosterone. It is not estrogen. I need more testosterone is what I'll hear from a lot of women. Yes. Help us. Okay. Explain that concept. Yeah. So, okay. First of all, I do like testosterone and I supplement women on it all the time because people always forget testosterone IS our number one sex hormone.

Our ovaries make four times more of testosterone than they do estradiol. So I do like testosterone, but it is not just testosterone. And if you are not having the correct pathways, if have inflammation, If you have other things driving in your liver, you're gonna convert that testosterone into estrogen. So then your belly pooch is gonna get a lot bigger. You have to do things all around the right way. Estrogen in and of itself. I love it. It's great for the whole body It does so much more than just regulate your cycle or help you get pregnant It also is a huge powerful muscle protector.

So like the main form estradiol, which is what the best one is I think except for if you're pregnant then it's estriol But estradiol, which is what everybody knows about because that's what's in the little patches and everything for HRT. It helps your body repair and rebuild muscle because it activates special muscle stem cells. So they're satellite cells, they are the stem cell of the muscles. it helps reduce inflammation and it help prevent muscle breakdown. So when estrogen levels drop, especially during perimenopause or menopaus, or if there's some other thing going on when they're younger, these repair systems slow down, and then muscles don't recover or grow as easily.

So it's not just testosterone that grows your muscles. It's also estrogen. And if you don' have these recover satellite cells going with you, then it leads to muscle loss, which is sarcopenia, And it is a higher risk of weakness, falls, fatigue. Testosterone helps in it too. So you kind of need like everything together. It can't just be testosterone that you do all alone because you need the estrogen. You need to progesterone. They all help in building and preventing muscle loss. Makes sense, makes sense.

Yeah, unfortunately, we definitely have some folks that are convinced that all they need is testosterone, and maybe a little progesterone, but estrogen gets like kind of demonized because, you know, the whole concept of extra estrogen, everyone's like, I'm gonna be popular. I mean, again, wait, well, Yeah, it's actually funny because you're more puffy and you gain more weight when your estrogen is too low. So with hormones, as you know, with hormone, there's optimal levels, right? And there are optimal balances.

If you are too high, you have all these symptoms. If you're in the middle, that's where everything's great. That's why when you are in your teens and your 20s, as long as nothing else is going on, like other hormonal issues, That is when feel great, when can eat a freaking whole pizza and not gain an inch. Those kinds of things. You have to have the balance. There's a lot of swelling that comes in perimenopause and menopaus because you aren't having enough estradiol. And yes, it can happen when you have too high of estrogen too.

It's all about the balance. And like with HRT especially, you're getting an optimal range. I'm going to put you so high that you are going have the estrogen dominance because we're also doing progesterone and we are also maybe doing testosterone depending on the person. So it's about keeping everything in balance and then you don't have those symptoms. Yeah, we actually joke all the time because I am pregnant right now and she is in perimenopause so it's like we have the same symptoms because mine are too high and hers are to low and it is like a really funny thing to live through together.

Yeah. It's quite hilarious. Part of why I love working with hormones, because it's a challenge. You're constantly thinking, are they too high or are too low? Which one is it? I think for a lot of people, it has been placed to them as being cut and dry. It is either this or that, but that's the fun in it. We have to sloop that out a little bit. Now, of course you were saying like they have to work together and you guys love peptides as much as I love Peptides. So looking at hormones and going, okay, sometimes we can dial in like the sweetest protocol, right?

We're like, this is going to be amazing. And we give them all the hormones, and they're, like yeah, I feel okay. But maybe you, guys get this one, but my libido is just not there. I've got the Hormones and the libidos not, there and my belly pooch is still there, what would you typically do then and be like, all right, what peptides can I throw in here to try to help out in this situation? And feel free to tweak it whatever direction you want. But I'm using those two comments, because that usually ends up being the like...

You can use me as an example. Like we, I am the guinea pig for everything. So like I've tried all the peptide,s I,m on hormone therapy, like all of the things. Yeah, well for one with the belly stuff, cause like usually there's I won't get into all of it. There's usually GI stuff that comes along with perimenopause. When you don't have enough estradiol, you can get more leaky gut. You're not breaking down your food as well. Like you, don t have as much digestive power in general. And so like the pooch that you're talking about might be because like we need to support your GI health.

And yes, being on hormones is going to do that. But one of my favorite things to throw in to like expedite things and heal up the lining and everything is to use BPC 157. I feel like it's the little magical, magical thing that you can give women when they're like, I you know I've been eating right and I'm on my hormones but I was still having like all this bloating or like my digestion just is like not great or the pooch that you're talking about I am like okay well let's do some BBC 157 and they're like oh yeah that worked everything got better.

And we're talking like it helps with food and like not not all food intolerances because people are different intolerant to different things, but like things that you were never intolerate to before just start becoming an intolerance. And like for me, it was gluten. I've eaten gluten my entire life, you know, and I eat very healthy. Very clean. But I couldn't even have the littlest bit of gluten without just blowing up. And I was swollen everywhere, all organic, none of the super processed stuff, right?

And, I had never had that before. And it just happened with perimenopause. As we know, you know like, esterbolome is part of your microbiome and so when you don't have enough estrogen to feed the estorbolone, All of those lactobacilli kind of die off and then you're not able to break down things the way you did before But when I started taking BPC 157 and I accidentally had some gluten, I didn't blow up like a balloon. And I don't have to run to the bathroom for an hour. So it really is great. I actually alternate with a bunch of different peptides and stuff.

But I'm sure we can get into that, too. But they're for all different reasons. I love it. It's kind of funny, because my family kind sees me as this weird peptide drug dealer. Because they are like, I got a peptid for that. They joke with me. But the truth is, is I saw the same thing with the BPC. Oh my gosh. So I was working with a trainer who was trying to dial in my macros because we were trying get me a little more bulky. whole nother story but anyway like we I ended up like I could not do any protein powders I couldn't like, I literally was like to the point where it was

Hormones, Belly Pooch, and Muscle Recovery 27:30

I had like three foods that I can maybe eat and I was okay I'm doing the VPC at this point because that's what you know I've tried all the other things and then now I do whey protein now i can do back to like same like you and so I just want folks to hear this Because, yeah, I got to the point where I was like, ''I am gaining weight and I'm not eating anything.'' Like, what gives? Astrovolum. That's what it gives. Crazy. So, okay, let's talk about a little bit of the peptides that you're playing with.

I love to hear what people are experimenting with, So, okay. So I did some research, of course, because I'm a geek and I love going down deep dark holes to try to find stuff. And I found some newer research that was talking about how, you know, peptides are not for every day, all day for 365, right? We usually do like a month to two months or two to three months, depending on what's going on and depending what you need and all those things. But I came across some research that was, they're in studies right now, and they are talking about how using all of the different kinds of, not all, but a lot of different types of peptides, like one one day, one the next day.

One the other one that day like kind of alternating them has really helped heal the body and restart everything, just kind like refresh everything. So I started doing that, Probably a month ago. No, because remember I was sick. I had pneumonia. So I didn't do it when I hadn't. Um, I think it was a, it wasn't about two, three weeks ago, beginning of January. She had an ammonia and I'm sorry. Yeah, no, but I did do until I got back from Hawaii. for a volleyball tournament. Anyways, so I do a volley ball tournament in Hawaii and then I came back and that's when I started doing it, at least religiously.

And so right now what I'm alternating, I take BPC every day because that just helps me so much. It helps with the myalgias of perimenopause and postmenopausal, it helps joint issues, helps muscle recovery because I lift heavy and I like a little bit of sore but I don't like as sore as I would be if I didn't have my urolithin A or my peptides. because I just probably wouldn't walk. I do a combo of BPC 157 and KPV and then I also do And then I have another one that I am getting, I haven't got yet, is the copper one.

So I'm gonna do kind of add that one into the mix too and basically just become a whole new human. But I only gonna to do that for a couple of months, right? And I gonna take some time off and then gonna see how I doing and I'll always take my urolithin A because that definitely helps with recovery and all of that. As far as the peptides go, you have to cycle them. You can't stay on them forever. And that you really don't need to either. You get to a point where you're great after, you know, a couple of months, maybe three months at that.

I probably were going to do it for three I had a lot more to get over. So I'll probably do it for the three months and then I will be off of it and see how I do. And then if things start, like if my hormones start kind of being wonky again, because peptides really help your whole body and they really helped optimize your hormones. I won't have to be on as high of dosing because my hormone receptors won' t be inflamed and everything in all the inflammation in my body will go down. It helps to optimize all of that.

So if, you know, in six months, maybe I need to do another round. Who knows? Yeah. But so like in summary, the alternating is like our latest little thing that we're trying. We have been using the KPV and the BPC 157 for like recovery, decreasing inflammation, just kind of like general regenerative aspects for women. And I mean, We see the dads too in our clinic. But we do see a lot more women anyway. So we have been using that. And then the TB 500 for really supporting the muscle building. When women are trying to really gain some muscle, doing a round of that too.

The alternating is our latest little My latest little geeky deep dive. It's yoga. I've not played with the alternating as of yet. Yeah. interesting to split it out and play with it. So now you've given me an idea to geek out on and we'll have to like share with the crowd. I'll let you know how it goes. Please do. Now you keep mentioning Urolithin A, and I'll be honest, I haven't mentioned it on the podcast before. It's not something that is, i would say, in my top repertoire of things that I use.

So let's talk about that, because I am very curious as to how you guys are using it, how your dosing it. What you're up to. Give us a scoop. I love it. It's my favorite. I call it my old lady crack. Its not just old Lady Crack. She loves it too. But I'm not taking it right now because obviously it's a newer supplement. We don't really know how it affects pregnancy or anything but it is derived from pomegranate so I think it would probably be okay but I am not. Before I loved it because it I feel like you can just feel how much it helps your mitochondria because the biggest issue I was having before was horrible brain fog.

Like after my first kid and just like recovery from that and I just was like, man, my brain is just not what it used to be. And so I started taking urolithin A with some CoQ10 and I was like, oh my gosh, I can think like I used to. They have more energy. Yeah, and just have More energy and i feel like when I Was getting back into like my strength training routine, like things were just easier. Like I just felt like pre-baby. I felt like myself pre baby maybe even pre med school when I started taking it and I was like this is amazing but it has other benefits you know I'll let you talk about that because yeah yeah definitely it helps with all of that but also my biggest thing for it I love it is and i will take it every day because I do lift really heavy and so I hate being so sore that I can't walk or sit or stand or go to the bathroom or anything because, you know, like I really do lift heavy and I love it.

And it's, it, how I get my crazies out. That's how, I feel great in my body, but it sucks the next day and the day. So, um, one of the things that really love about urolithin A is even at just 500 milligrams a day, It breaks down the lactic acid and removes it faster. So you are not as sore, but you're still gaining all the muscle. And it helps to keep the muscles, too. We just went to a conference, and we were talking to one of the distributors about their Urolithin-A product. They're actually coming out with 1,000 milligram capsule instead of just the 500 milligrams.

Of course, I started experimenting taking 1 ,000 milligrams And it's great, I love it. It clears your mind, it helps even more with the soreness, It's not even just the Sorenness. it gives you more stamina when you are working out. So you feel like you can do more and you actually can Do more. You can lift heavier, you It makes it so that you're actually able to do the things you need to Do to build the muscle that You need, to Build and help you keep it because it won't get broke down as much. Just like we talked about how estrogen helps with the satellite cells, Urolithin A also helps to get the recovery of those muscles too.

So it's amazing. You really should try it. I know. I'm like, well, it sold me. All right. Some would be like well give me that thousand milligrams, I want to try it out. Oh my gosh. It really helps with inflammation. So even if you're not working out or anything like that, It just calms inflammation down. Yeah. The companies that started, you know, offering it as a supplement had some really good studies that actually looked at and like I knew we talked about like you got to work out to build the muscle.

But the studies, they did some studies in like some 70 year old people and they were just giving them the urolithin A even without working out and their muscle density increased. I think it was just 500 milligrams too. Yeah and it's just the 500mg. They now have done more studies on the 1000 and are seeing more benefit but it just goes to show that like it has a lot of really great benefit.

Peptides for Digestion, Recovery, and Inflammation 36:30

And just so people know, like it is produced by your microflora in your GI tract. So when I said from pomegranates, I mean like when you eat the polyphenols from Pomegranates and then it goes through your microbiome and they break that down, they produce urolithin A. That's really where it originally comes from. You can make your own urolythin, but obviously you can't get to like a thousand milligrams. eating more pomegranates with polyphenols. So that's why you got to supplement it. But if you're thinking about whole food stuff, that is also how you can drive that too, is increasing your polyfenols, so.

That's cool to know. I mean, I feel like I've been geeking out on pommagranate lately. A patient sent me an article and I had forgotten about how pommegranate is a research for arteries and reversing plaque too. And I'm like, wow, there's so many amazing things with pomegranate and it helps with the hot flashes because Chinese medicine is always like drink your poma granite juice or eat your Poma Granite. And so I'm like, yeah, Pomegrant superfood of my year. Yeah. Yep. When you're a lip and a if you feel like Yeah, it does.

It does help with hot clashes and It Does help With vasculature too. They're finding in the the newer research with 1000 milligrams, especially it's helping with all of that inflammation. Well, guess we gotta add that one to the repertoire here because, you know, I mean, how could I say no to all that and how can I deny anyone from knowing about that? We have to tell everyone. Oh my gosh. So of course we've talked about lifting heavy. We've talk about different types of exercising and throughout the different stages of life, depending on where someone may be, there may better styles of lifting.

Um, I can speak to this and i'll turn it over to you guys Crossfit not so good for me anymore Probably more because I wanted to keep up with the 20 year olds and I forgot that I was pushing 50 That's that's on me But just looking at fitness because a lot of people will ask me like all right doc So what what does lifting heavy or resistance training mean for? Me at you know 40 50 60 70 and beyond and im like well that could be wide open, but I'm curious as to what you guys are recommending for folks and how you break it down for them.

Yeah, you want me to take this? Yeah. Muscle, so I was a master trainer and a nutritionist before I went to med school, I love it, it's my jam. So here's the thing, especially in perimenopause and postmenopausal and older men too. It's harder for us to build and keep muscle as we've kind of already talked about with all the other things going on in our body. So you don't want to stress your body to the point where it's going to break down more. So it is a very fine line when we get to that point.

And it isn't everybody. Everybody is different, so there's different things. But generally speaking, what I have everybody do is, one, they have to walk every day because they need to get movement. That's fine. just kind of a non-negotiable. They have to walk, they have do something, move their body. As far as resistance training, what I have them do is I do it four days a week so they're not overstressing their bodies at one time and I want them to really focus on one body area at a time. So we'll do a leg day, that includes all of the legs, glutes, abductors, adductors hamstrings, quads, calves, everything.

We'll do a chest and back day, we'll a core day. And I always remind people core is all the way around. So it's your back and your front. It is not just your six pack abs. There's a lot of different kinds of angles that you need to do. And then we have a biceps triceps shoulders day. You always want to do opposing muscles when you are working out because when contract one, you're stretching the other. So you always wanna make sure that you doing opposing muscle. I break it down into those four groups so that they're able to concentrate on those because, when do get older, The more you stress your body, the more cortisol comes.

And you want to talk about that belly pooch. Even with everything else optimized, if you are having high cortisol or in that fight or flight constantly, you're going to have that Belly Pooch and you not going get rid of it. You're also going cause complete and total inflammation throughout your whole body. So we want make it so that it's not as stressed, but we still want build that muscle. So I break it down into those four days. Four days is pretty manageable to do, especially because those workouts are generally like a half hour or less.

Because you're going to go, you know, I always use the example of like, let's use Planet Fitness as an example, because it's a gym that has all of the machines and a lot of people are starting out from scratch. So, i don't want them just heavy lifting in their garage when they don' t know what they're doing because they' re probably going t hurt themselves. So I'll use the example. Okay, go use all of the leg machines at Planet Fitness. And I have them do each exercise. What I them is, and everybody starts out at different levels, but each time you're going to go up, you are going up.

Because that's what's going trick your muscles into building more. So, I had them to do three sets of six each. So each sit, each set has six reps. And what I have them do is I had them start out and that first set is going to be, it's going be kind of hard. You know, It's gonna be like, Oh yeah, that kind burns. That's hard and you get the six out. Maybe you could do seven, eight, maybe, but you do the sex. Um, The next set you're going to go up, depending on what the body part is. You might go by five pounds, you might by 20 pounds.

Depending on your strength. Go up to that next one, that set of six. It's real hard to get that sixth one out, but you could probably squeak out a seventh one. That's how heavy you want to do. The next set, which is the last set for that particular exercise or machine or whatever, you're going to do six again, but you'll go up by another five or 20 pounds depending on what you are doing. So you're gonna increase that weight again. That's gonna be at a weight that you are doing. You're like at the fourth rep and you like, holy crap, I don't know if I can do this fifth or sixth one, but you barely squeak it out with good form.

And I always tell people, if you were at heavy weight, that thought you could do, you can only get four with with form, stop. That's good. I don't want you doing more and hurting yourself because then you're not going to do any. So, and if you do all of those things, if do you all those body parts, it's usually 30 minutes or less. And so you are not stretching your body too much. If you an hour to two hour workout where you really going and really it is going produce too cortisol on you and it will cause an inflammation issue.

So that's kind of where we start people and it just really depends on their weight and you know, where they're at athletically and that kind stuff. But that a general rule we have is we just want them to focus on one area at a time. Makes sense, makes sense. I mean, I think for a lot of people that that doable versus trying to think about and the fact that you said under 30 minutes I thing for lot people they are thinking they've got to be in the gym for like two hours or more. Right, and that's actually worse for you because it breaks down your muscle too much, right?

And it stresses your body too, much and then you have that cortisol picture and you're gaining weight and it's not all muscle because you've got all this extra cortisol going on. It's so disheartening. I mean, I think for a lot of women, they want to just go in the gym and do the elliptical or just bang out like some kind of bike ride or keep running because they've been doing that for so many years and sadly, It doesn't work. Honestly, I just feel like the cardio starts driving too much cortisol as you get older.

Not that you shouldn't be doing some cardio, but like, the heavy cardio workouts that everyone was like that's how you lose weight growing up. And all those messages is actually driving cortisol pictures when you're older and it's leading to more issues than in actually improving anything. well, and if you, you kno cardio, which you should h my warm up before I go d a sprint warmup. So I d at three minutes. I do o at seven minute or seven do one minute of walking running at seven miles per hour, and I do that for about 14 minutes.

And that is my HIIT workout. It's sprint workout, technically, because it's even. But that's how I get it. I have lost so much more weight doing that just for that 14 minute as my warm up before I go lift weights. Doesn't stress me out as much. Like, it doesn't give me that high cortisol picture. Yeah, if you're going to do longer cardio routines, it should be like low intensity, moderate, like risk walking, which is good for your cardiovascular system. And we should all do that. But that's not how you are going lose weight.

Yeah. I agree. It's interesting that you mentioned before a workout doing the sprint. something that I think a lot of people wouldn't think about. They would be thinking about, you know, like the finisher kind of concept. Well, no, because like, yeah, You don't want to do that because when you're finished, hopefully your muscles are very tired and you, especially on leg day, there's no way I could do it after leg. I'm not sprinting on my day. Yeah, no, you need to warm up your muscles before you work out your muscle.

So what what better way to get your little sprints or your your HIIT workout in at the same time? I don't have time to go to the gym more than four days a week. I do have the time. We run three businesses and we have kids. There's no way that we. Have the. Time to. Go more. Than that. so I get it in when I can and I already have to do a warmup to work up my muscles.

Urolithin A, Training Strategy, and Longevity 46:30

Why not do that as my warm-up so? It makes it easier for me. Absolutely. That's great to know because I definitely think that for a lot of women, they're going to be like, oh, sprint first, then lift because that's not what we hear as much. So oh my goodness, such good stuff. Now, of course, I want to round it out in terms of bringing it all full circle because we talked about muscle, we talk about some peptides, and we're talking about urolithin A, which now hopefully folks are all going be checking that out because it sounds fascinating.

And yeah, it's a new thing, but hey, you guys are getting results. And that's what I love to hear because there's one thing when the supplement companies are telling me stuff and I'm looking at research and going, okay. When I hear other folks talking about it, then I'll try it now. Now I will do a little animal study and then tell them what they think. So what are some things that you guys, you know, would look at in terms of future-proofing your health and longevity? And what would be like the non-negotiables that folks should be thinking about for that?

Oh, you want to take this one since I talked a lot. You can add into. Um, so the biggest thing, cause like, I think about this all the time. Cause I am in my thirties. I'm like I want. Feel this good as long as possible. So I. Huge on nutrition. That is always like my number one, like you nutrition, nutrition nutrition And that means whole food diet, healthy fats, high protein, hi fiber, and avoiding processed foods, avoiding food intolerances if you have them, keeping your GI tract healthy is like the center of your health.

So if want to future proof your heath, you got to have a healthy GI track. And so I always start there. The other thing is after that movement, like we talked about how important movement is. If you want a future-proof health you should start now. It's easier to build muscle now than it is later, so. But it's not too late to start. Yes. Ever. Never too to late start, but if you're future-proofing stuff, starting now is better than pushing it off. So those are the biggest ones. And then stress. I mean, we talked about how stress impacts.

We talked a lot about cortisol, and we didn't really get into all of it. cortisol and stress just wrecks every bodily system and so I Usually try to I mean with myself because like I like she said we're running quite a few businesses or I'm definitely not the perfect picture of like no stress type of person But I usually try and incorporate like a non-negotiable Every day so that way I am not in fight or flight all day long I have like 15 minutes a day or like That's my minimum. If you can get more, get it more.

But like 15 minutes a day where you are present and I don't care what you do that makes you feel present, but some, like a period of time where are you not scrolling, you're not thinking about the future or what should be doing or stressing about what happened yesterday. Like 15 and it's literally just being present. Whether that's a meditation, a walk, um, reading a book, because you focus on that and be present in the story. But yeah, just something like that. So those are like the biggest three things like foundations of health that are going to future proof your health for longevity throughout life and then all the things we talked about.

All right. Got it. And anything else there, Dr. Heidi? I mean, okay, I feel like we're kind of being mean to cortisol. Cortisol is great. We do need cortisol, we need it high at certain moments. Short term, it's great! The reason I brought up reading is because I cannot meditate. I am not good at sitting still or relaxing. So my non-negotiable is I actually read at least probably a half hour to an hour when I'm in bed. And that's how I get my mind to shut off. Neither one of us are really good about relaxing or doing any of the stress reduction techniques that we tell everybody else to do.

We are very bad at it. I think that is our biggest struggle. But it is one the biggest things that needs to be done. Everybody always forgets that because it's so simple. But yet it's so hard because putting ourselves first and actually doing something for ourselves where we're sitting alone or we are not taking care of everybody else at the time, I think we need to remind people that that is a huge thing and you need take that time in order to be the best person of yourself so that you can help other people.

Absolutely. I 100% agree. It's wild. the nervous system and cortisol like reducing stress relieving techniques like yeah I would agree I definitely have had my own struggles with trying to get those nailed down and you know just like you said finding what finding, what resonates with you and what works and that's definitely at the end of the day something that has to be part of of I would say whole longevity slash anti-aging. I hate that word, but everyone else uses it. So I'm going to throw it in that category health optimization.

Let's put it that way. Yes. category. Yeah. so as we round out this podcast, is there anything that I didn't ask you guys about that? You're like, I really want folks like to take away from this. If they could do one thing, if they. Focus on one. Thing that, you know, from all of this, because we've got the non-negotiables that you guys mentioned. If there's one thing, what would be the one? Find a practitioner that knows what they're talking about. To talk to them about all of these things that are going on with you and what you need to do to help it.

I think the biggest thing is that people will go to TikTok or they'll go Instagram or just Google it and then they end up doing the wrong things, thinking they are the right things and they get worse and other problems happen. It really needs to be with somebody who knows they were talking Not all regular doctors know about peptides or even honestly, this is really sad, but hormone optimization they don't know either. So you really need to do your research and find somebody who actually knows what they're doing and talk to them about it.

Tell them what is actually going on with your body because it is very different for everybody. And Google and TikTok and Instagram are not gonna tell you all the right things because that might not be right for you and it might be dangerous for depending on what it it You might also not look at yourself as a whole person because you're like, I have this one issue and you might not see how these other things are connected and why you would need to be doing these things to get that to better. And I feel like not to mention the new chat GPT doctor instead of Dr.

Google. They give you plans but they're not, you put in what you thought was the problem and if you are not medically trained or have a background in health, then you might not be putting in all the things. So that's also why those things can like fall short and why talking to a doctor who can treat you as a whole person is gonna be really beneficial. Love it, love it. Yes. Dr. Grock, Dr Chat GPT, Doctor Claude. It's very wild out there these days. Yeah. Impressive. And we thought Dr Google was one thing, but wow, whole new level.

So of course you gotta tell folks where to find you to, and especially if they're in Washington state, because I've got a lot of Washington State folks that listen to the podcast, You know a lot of folks worldwide and so I know you guys have a couple different derivatives of your business so tell us where they can find you and then of course we can talk about your podcast too. Do you want to go? Yes. So you can find us. We treat people in Oregon and Washington via telemedicine at Blossoming Longevity.

And so that is info at blossominglongevity.com. If you wanna email us or just blossominelongeivity. com is our website. You can also find Blossing Lungevity on like Instagram and Facebook. Lastly, our podcast, Hormone Heroins, is on all the major podcast streamings of YouTube, Apple, Spotify, our Heart Radio, and that's where we dive into all things hormones, but also cover other topics as well and how they relate to hormones. So if you're just looking to learn more about your hormones as you can just tune into that.

But those are the main ways to reach us. And to see you on there. Yeah. Because you were on our podcast. They can come see on their for more of a peptide talk. Exactly, exactly. We'll make sure we get all that linked up in our podcast notes at Dr. Spelled Out J-K-R-A-U-S-E-N-D dot com. So, oh my gosh, Dr Serena, Doctor Heidi, thank you so much for coming on and sharing such good stuff with my audience. And now I think everyone's going to be looking up Urolithin A. Thank you. And so much on the hormones too, because, you know, there's so many info out there and I'd love to like mind folks for what they're learning, what their seeing and just kind of keep the conversation open so that folks know that yes, if we look to providers who have done their homework, know what's going on, we can get better info than just quick one hit wonders on TikTok.

Oh my goodness, thank you so so for coming on. I really appreciate it. Thank for having us. We had a great time. Hey fellow health junkie, thanks for listening to the health fix podcast. If you enjoyed tuning in, please help support me to get the word out about the podcast, subscribe, rate and review and just get that word