Your Hormones: A Missing Piece To Preventing Chronic Disease

Introduction and Dr. Maitau2019s Background 0:00

Welcome back to the conversation today. We have Dr. Lorraine Maita. Welcome. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be on the summit to share whatever wisdom I have. I know it's going to be such a good talk. We're going to go we're going to talk about hormones today. And you actually really specialize in this. You specialize in hormones, detoxification, energy. You're a triple board certified physician, writer, author and speaker. Your programs really impressively have impacted over 300,000 people and three Fortune 100 companies where you served as chief medical officer or medical director of global health services, as well as the thousands of people that you've helped in your own private practice.

So we're really happy to have you here today to unpack this topic and really give our audience some clear, you know, workable information so that they can bring this back to their practitioners so they can really understand what's going on here with hormones. So as we get started here, what I'd really love to start with is can you just first share with us I mean, obviously we're talking about hormones, but what are the top silent killers? What's really affecting hormones here? Well, I tell people everything.

You eat your drink, how much you sleep, how much you exercise, the toxins you're exposed to, the stress you're under, all are going to affect your hormones. But when you look at overall health, you're going to have your hormones are going to change. And in a man's and a woman's life, you're you may have infections or inflammation which will cause immune dysfunction. You can have gut dysfunction, which many different parts of the gut we can you're the gut lady. And mitochondrial dysfunction. So all of these things are like they all have to be addressed because those are the things that affect your hormones and what isn't good and you're not absorbing nutrients.

It's going to affect everything. Yeah. You know, I commonly make disruptive statements like hormones are a distraction. Like you're focusing on hormones where you really need to be focusing on what's causing hormone dysregulation. And what I really want people to understand, walking away from here is that when hormones are dysregulated, it is a cascade process to chronic disease.

What Disrupts Hormones and Why It Matters 2:25

If hormones are dysregulated, you're setting yourself up for chronic conditions and we can talk about that. Osteoporosis comes to mind. Dementia comes to mind. I mean, there's many, many health problems that can occur because of hormone dysregulation. But at the end of the day, if all you do is try to regulate hormones with supplements and medications and you don't handle the the the sources of your hormone dysregulation to begin with, it's kind of like being on a hamster wheel. It's kind of like, okay, well, you're buying into this forever hormone supplement or yeah, right.

So what we need to do really is get under this and help people get those hormones back in balance, which is incredible. I couldn't agree more because I used to just when people came to me, they came out with hot flashes, night sweats, perimenopausal symptoms or adrenal dysfunction. And I gave them hormones, but not everybody did well. And I learned now I will not accept a patient and give them hormones until I fix their gut. I detoxify them. I have them have a healthy lifestyle. I make sure they're moving their bowels and they're eliminating and that their gallbladder is working.

I put all that in place first and then whatever's left over, if they still need hormones, they get hormones. You know, people sometimes come to me too late and they're they have osteoporosis. They're losing their memory. They're not sleeping. We need to address that so that then they can feel rested and energetic enough to adjust to other habits. Yes. And that's exactly why we're bringing you into this conversation, because you understand how important it is to solve the underlying issues. And sometimes because somebody is so miserable with their symptoms, sometimes you just got to give them hormones to get them to a place where you can actually address their gut and where you can actually start solving their toxins and solving their mitochondrial dysfunction.

So let's talk about let's kind of begin this journey with hormones today, talking about the changes throughout life that are inevitable. You know, you know, females going through some kind of bigger swings and changes than males, but, you know, both genders have some inevitable shifts and what we can do about that. So what is this kind of cycle of hormones in the human? I call them the four Ps. First, it's puberty and puberty and perimenopause are like two ends of the two sides of the same coin.

One, your hormones are ramping up and they're not quite stabilized yet. And the other one, they're ramping down. So there is puberty, post-partum perimenopause, which people don't realize can start in your thirties and it can go on ten or more years and post menopause. And menopause is just a definition one year without your period. But throughout those cycles, your hormones can be extremely erratic. A lot of it is based on your lifestyle, your environment, your habits. And we want to look at the underlying causes first to smooth it out.

But that makes when you go through those hormonal shifts, it can really wreak havoc with your immune system. And let's not leave out the men. So so what's happening with them? Men have a gradual decline. But, you know, the scary thing is I am seeing men in their thirties, twenties and thirties with big boobs, big, big bellies, and it's all toxins or they're really stressed out. And I see men with high cortisol and it drives your testosterone down. Toxins are a big, big issue. We're seeing precocious puberty in women.

Men don't have the clear demarcation that women have, but they have they have a gradual decline and believe it or not, I see very young men who have hormone dysregulation. And what I do is we tackle the lifestyle and environment first, you know, nutrients, gut, health, digestion, stress, all of that.

Hormone Changes Across Life Stages 6:30

And you know what, many people, because of the way I do a systematic approach before I even consider giving somebody hormones, because you know what? Once we clean everything up, they don't need them. They don't need them. But men have a gradual decline. And we you know, we call that syndrome kind of grumpy old men. They just feel, you know, they don't have that zest for life. They they're a little more irritable. They're They don't they don't have the motivation. They don't have the endurance or the muscle strength.

And it's not as dramatic as a woman having hot flashes or, you know, heavy irregular bleeding. But so men sort of become a little later in the game, so to speak. Mm hmm. I see. I see. So I mentioned earlier that hormone dysregulation is related to the development of chronic disease and chronic health conditions. And we also have established here in this talk that what's causing your hormone dysregulation is, you know, gut imbalance, environmental toxins. We have a lot of speakers on this project talking about all different categories of toxins for mold to metals, to environmental toxins.

So just know that in this conversation and we're going to focus on the hormone piece, but know that everything you're learning here applies to why hormones are dysregulated. So what I really want to spend our time with is why? Why do hormones being dysregulated cause autoimmune disorders? What's the link there? What's the link with osteoporosis? What's the link with dementia? What's the link with, you know, all these chronic health conditions that are directly impacted by hormones? Absolutely. You know, but I spent 25 years in occupational medicine and environmental medicine, so toxins were my thing, too.

But I know you're the toxin queen and we're going to talk about that a lot more in your through your other speakers. But women have estrogen, women have estrogen more estrogen than men. And estrogen is a big immune stimulator. And it was thought that that was developmental, that you needed more immune cells and more antibodies to protect the unborn child and to protect children after childbirth so that women are much more prone to autoimmune disorders because of their estrogen levels and because of the high numbers of antibodies.

And they even saw that men with two X chromosomes with Klinefelter syndrome, they had more estrogen because of that extra X chromosome, and they had the same symptoms as a woman in a Klinefelter Is is a man but it's has woman-like qualities. So when these these antibodies are meant to protect your unborn child but they surge they surge postpartum. And that's when women are more likely to get an autoimmune disorder. Wow. Yeah. And that is when. You have the more antibodies you're going to get, the more susceptible you are to autoimmune disorders.

But what I'm hearing you say is there's a direct correlation from multiple pregnancies to the increased likelihood of developing an autoimmune condition like Hashimoto's Thyroiditis, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, celiac disease. And you know, it goes on and on, on psoriasis. There's, there's an autoimmune disease for every system in the body. Right? So so that's what I'm hearing you say is that it's actually actually getting pregnant multiple times can actually increase our risk for this. Yes. And that's why taking care of the other things.

So your hormones bounce back sometimes after pregnancy. Women's hormones don't bounce back. They don't. There is some inflammation going on between the pituitary gland and the organs. And it's usually toxins, infection, inflammation, nutritional excess, nutritional deficiencies, stress, lack of sleep, all of these things. So and that's why women over after these four PS start gaining weight and men again it's not a clear distinction.

Hormones, Autoimmunity, and Chronic Disease 10:40

And the men suffer from these things, too. It's just not as dramatic. You know, it's interesting, I over the years as I interview more and more and more of our clients and patients as they come into our programs, and something that I hear often is my health was great until my pregnancy, my menses, something shifted and I never bounced back after pregnancy. I hear that a lot. And so, you know, every expert we bring on has a different a different piece to add to that puzzle. Right. So this is a very interesting piece to that puzzle that it could just be this connection between hormones and the immune system.

And you may not have a full blown autoimmune condition yet that's been officially diagnosed, but there could be one brewing there. Right. And yes, and I always ask anyone who comes to me with an autoimmune disorder, what happened before then? Let's trace back what led up to this. Well, they had an infection and, you know, chronic fatigue. They were, you know, trying to raise children, running a full time job. They were stressed. They were they weren't eating right. They weren't sleeping. So it's sort of the all of that comes down because it's one of my patients said, well, isn't everybody under stress?

Doesn't everybody go through that? But not to the same extent. Some people take better care of themselves. Some people eat healthier, some people get sleep. Some people have ways to relax. So almost everyone who came to me with an autoimmune disorder, it happened when your hormones were changing puberty, postpartum perimenopause, when the hormones a little going crazy and menopause where it's like you're in the tank and and it's usually something else layered on top of that. Oh, so good, so good.

So can we talk a little bit about a couple of those other diseases I mentioned, like osteoporosis and the link with hormones and hormone decline and brain? I think it's really important to talk about brain and the impact of hormones there because we hear a lot of people saying, you know, my brain just isn't as strong as it used to be after menopause. Yeah. So talk about bones a little bit. Let's talk about brain. Right? Well, you know, your hormones regulate your bones. You know, parathyroid your thyroid, cortisol, estrogen and progesterone.

All of them have to be in sync. You know, everything has to be I say it's like baking a cake. If you leave one ingredient out and one thing is off, your your cake's a plop. So it's the same thing with your body and it's, you know, your adrenal glands. If you're constantly under stress, it's going to rob your bones of calcium if you don't eat right. And you're not absorbing and you're under stress where you can either be in rest, digest, reproduce, regenerate or fight or flight. So the people who are multitasking and eating like this and, you know, answering the phone and they're not they're not digesting.

They're not they're not getting the nutrients that they need. The bone needs a lot of nutrients. And most people are deficient in magnesium. Magnesium is it helps with 300 enzymatic reactions in the body. So you need a little bit of everything. You have to make sure you can't look at just one hormone. You can't just look at estrogen, progesterone, testosterone. You have to look at cortisol, you have to look at thyroid. And a lot of the women who want thyroid to lose weight. I have news for you. It turns off the TSA age in your brain and you need enough of that to make bone.

So there are a lot of different hormone imbalances that are linked with osteoporosis. But after you lose most of your bone, when you shifting into menopause, when estrogen drops and that's where you lose the most. But you have to keep you have to develop it while you're young and preserve it. Yeah, for sure. And we're going to have some talks about bone on this on this summit as well. So tune into that because we'll look into that deeper. And then in terms of brain, any comments you want to say about brain health and hormones? Absolutely.

Your hormones are a potent neuro modulator and people just saying estrogen, progesterone, testosterone are just for sex, just for reproduction. No, you have receptors in your brain for all of these in your eyes, in your ovaries, in your skin, in your kidneys, in your blood vessels. You have receptors for these hormones everywhere. And there's a reason for that, because if you're lacking, you know, estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, thyroid, you can't think clearly a lot of the symptoms that people come to me.

So it's not just estrogen. It's not just estrogen, but you do need all of them. And even testosterone for men and for women, it's it regulates moods. It's associated with low testosterone is associated with depression and anxiety. The same thing for low estrogen. And unbeknownst to many people, that if you have brain trauma, progesterone is very, very healing for the brain, very young, very good for most because it helps regenerate the myelin sheath around your nerve cells. So there is they're potent neuro modulators and they are really important for memory.

And, you know, this kind of brings me as you're talking here, I'm thinking of the demonization of hormones of four women, post-menopausal hormone replacement therapy. And I can remember when I was working as a nurse practitioner in Western medicine, I remember it was about 2008 that the big, you know, backlash against hormones happened and everybody stopped them cold turkey. And, you know, it caused a lot of problems for people. And then, you know, then several years later, you know, the statements came out of, oh, we got it wrong.

So, you know, we kind of thought this was happening in the Women's Health Initiative Research, but now we know this.

Hormones, Bones, and Brain Health 16:50

So let's kind of dispel some myths here. I think this is really important. You know, fast forward, back in 2008 when I was in my forties, then maybe it was in my thirties like, oh, well, what year is it right now? And I and at that time I thought, I'm never going to take hormones, right? And so here I am at 51 going, Oh, give me my bioidentical hormones. Like I'm not about to experience the rest of my life without that. No way. No how. So I'm a huge fan of bioidentical hormones and working with a practitioner to find what the right amount is for you.

Also making sure that you're doing your gut gut rebalancing, that you're detoxing that you know. So let's talk about this a little bit. What it just felt the myths for us around here. Absolutely. Well, first of all, hormones do not cause breast cancer. I repeat, hormones do not cause breast cancer. That women's health initiative, when they compare, you know, the control group is what's the normal rate of breast cancer in the population. So here's the normal rate. Their control group, which they were comparing, had a lower rate than the normal population.

So that it made when they did, they examined women on hormones. They had the same rate as the normal population. But because the control group was lower, it made it seem like they had more. They only had a cases rate. And then when they subdivided into women on estrogen alone and women who because they had no uterus and that's that's another myth. If you have a uterus, you still need progesterone. So the women on estrogen alone actually had a lower rate of breast cancer and over the years, as they started studying some things with bioidentical is what they realized is synthetic progestins increase the risk and fast forward in I think it was 2017 the principal investigator from that Women's Health Initiative study came out and said, look, they the press hijacked this study.

They released the results to the public without us getting to review it and to put context around it. And then no statement that came out after that took traction. It just blew up and went viral. And it was misinformation. And it not only went viral to the public, it went viral too. Smart practitioners know better and this and they literally took myself included like I'm going to lump myself in that 2008 I think I was in my thirties. I'm sitting here doing math in my head. I was in my mid thirties.

That's fine. Oh my gosh. How time flies and, and I was one of those people was like get off your hormones. Right. I did not. I literally fell for it hook, line and sinker. It was crazy. Yeah, I know. And listen, I had a Department of Women in every stage and people were bouncing off the walls, but I was still taking mine because I've been studying this forever, you know? And you know, fast forward all the North American Menopause Society and so any other groups now say the benefits outweigh the risk, that it's cardioprotective, it prevents fractures, it helps with osteoporosis.

And, you know, I'm on the firing line every day because I am patients that go to other doctors and they say these are poison. These are going to cause breast cancer. These don't fix osteoporosis. And I'm like, really? I like doing. You're like. Well, actually they did fix osteoporosis. And I work in an osteoporosis clinic for 15 years. And yeah, my part of my career and I remember the moment that estrogen lost its FDA approval for the treatment for the treatment of osteoporosis, and it was reduced to the prevention of osteoporosis.

But we know it does treat there's a lot of reasons for osteoporosis. Don't get me wrong, nutrient deficiency is caused by toxins caused by chronic infections like this is that is never addressed in Western medicine. But the truth of the matter is that estrogen prevents bone loss and it can be used and it was used and it was proven in clinical trials that people that reduce fractures when they were on estrogen. So I mean, it's it's crazy. Yeah. And I've read osteoporosis specialists challenging me and, you know, I give them my tome of studies, some read it and some come around and just are all right, you know, and but my patients, my job is to educate them.

My job is to let them see both sides and make their own choices. But I have I support the studies and I've had you know, I hate to say it over 40 years experience. So I've been seeing people's health turn around and I've seen their bones get better. You know. Do I have to take care of the other lifestyle pieces? You do. You absolutely do. And I want to in the last 5 minutes that we have in this first part of our conversation here, I want to I want to expand on something you said. I think this is really important.

You said that hormones don't cause breast cancer. So I want to unpack that a little bit. And or you said estrogen doesn't cause breast cancer. So I want to unpack that a little bit. I want to leave people with some really good information here. So we know that there is there's estrogen receptor positive cancer in the breast.

Myths About Hormone Therapy and Breast Cancer 22:05

Right. So this is kind of where this comes from of like, oh, estrogen is is going to cause that. And so talk about that a little bit and then talk about some of the things that actually cause breast cancer. So if it's not estrogen causing breast cancer, what is it? And then in the second part of our talk, we'll get into some preventive strategies and some deeper stuff here. But I want to leave us with this. Well, you know, the studies do show that estrogen, if you look and subdivided, it's when you give it.

It's how you give it. It's what you give. It's the age you give it. Now, once you have women not on hormones, you get breast cancer, women on hormones can get breast cancer. And I tell patients, but it's not necessarily the estrogen that causes it. It's your it's how you eat. It's you know, it's the stress that you're under. It's the lack of nutrients. It's the toxins, especially toxins. I remember when there was a big outbreak of breast cancer at such an alarming rate somewhere in Long Island, and they found the water was tainted.

So these are these are so important because we were exposed to over 200 chemicals a day. And new ones are being introduced. And we have to always be in a state of detoxification. We're constantly bombarded by things that are damaging our DNA. So the one cause of breast cancer want know there are multiple causes of breast cancer. When somebody has breast cancer, I'm not brave enough to give somebody estrogen. I do know many doctor said do and God bless Suzanne Somers. She's she survived like ten, 20 years after breast cancer on hormones.

Yeah, she had a recurrence. But what was that? If breast cancer caused it or was a problem, it should have happened sooner. Yeah. So what I'm hearing is that, yes, there's estrogen receptor positive cancers, but it's not the estrogen itself that caused that. But the way I kind of wrap my mind around it is once you have an estrogen receptor positive cancer and you take certain types of estrogen, it may be like fuel to the fire. It may be like, yes, but it wasn't the actual cause. The cause was toxins.

The cause was trauma and stress. The cause was nutrient deficient. The cause was something else is causing cancer. And this is what's so lovely about bioidentical hormones as well as when you're staying away from the synthetic stuff and you're using hormones in the way that they're made in your own body, that's a huge difference. You mentioned also synthetic progesterone is a problem, but the natural progestins are not normal. It's safer. And there is some the last three years, two years, a lot more studies came out about bioidentical being safer and I had I was under attack by so many of the giants.

But then they see the results in my patients and they're like, oh, just go to her. You know, they they want to they they don't want to take the time they can. They're not trained in it. They want to know about it. They're looked to for the answer, but they just don't get the training. And it's a costly and time consuming to really delve into this. But it was a passion of mine. Thank you. Thank you for unpacking that. And Dr. Maita, I want to thank you for joining us today for this talk on hormones for our audience.

I hope you found our conversation insightful and helpful if you're somewhat purchase or stay right here, because we are going to dove even deeper into this discussion with Dr. Maita. If you're not, click on the button on this page to get access to a continuation of this conversation. And many others, and really get the tools you need to reclaim your health. If you're watching this continuation of my talk with Dr. Maita, thank you for being a valuable member of our community. And we're going to dove right back in.

And what I what I'd love to talk about now is a few of my own personal passions. I'd love to talk about hormones and mitochondria. And I love to talk about hormones and gut. And then I want to wrap a bow on this conversation with leaving our audience with some action steps that they can do right now, even if they're not working with a hormone practitioner. And maybe also some tips on what to ask and how to find a hormone practitioner. Right. So so let's talk about mitochondria because my last two big projects have been mitochondria energy.

You know, we can't heal unless we have mitochondria energy production. In fact, we can't even sleep unless we're making mitochondria. It requires energy to sleep. I know that blows people's minds. Like what? I thought I was supposed to be low energy when I sleep requires ATP energy to sleep. So why are hormones so important to our mitochondrial health? Well, believe it or not, estrogen controls mitochondria. That was a big surprise to me because mitochondria are extremely important. They're like, you're the batteries in your cell.

Imagine if you unplugged your computer and you didn't have a backup. How long would it take for you to boot up? You know, you need you need that constant juice. This is why the mitochondria, they're working silently to keep your cells alive. Without estrogen, they they get old, they die. Estrogen not only makes more mitochondria, it cleans out the old, inefficient ones that clog things up. It communicates with other parts of the cell. It helps the mitochondria communicate the danger response to the outside world, to the rest of your cells, and both internally and it helps with the mitochondria communicate with the nucleus, because that's that's where your genes are.

That's what makes or breaks you. It's just make more of this stuff. We need it. Don't make this stuff. We don't need it, you know. But estrogen has an incredible role. And, you know, you know, I don't I try not to get too technical because you can put glazed people's eyes over, but calcium goes in and out of the cells. And that keeps us all alive. That potential, that electric potential and estrogen control said. Absolutely. So, yeah, we want high level and easy to understand here. We don't have to get into. Yeah, I knew.

What I want our viewers to understand is that mitochondria and estrogen are linked and it's really important. And I don't know about you, but I don't want to go into the second act of my life, you know, into my 50, 60, 7080s without estrogen because I plan on being

Hormones, Mitochondria, and Cellular Energy 28:35

just as energetic, productive and get as much stuff done and have just as much fun as I did the first half on the second. So I want those mitochondria supported. So if that is if that is an argument for keeping your estrogen in a normal range, I don't know what is. And you know, I try to wrap my mind around this and I'm kind of going down a rabbit hole here. But, you know, humans live a long time and, you know, we have this natural kind of decrease in estrogen, which is natural. However, life is so much better when we have more estrogen.

So I don't know if it's a design flaw in the human body or if it's just that we're living way longer than people did when they first showed up on the planet. And we just haven't evolved enough to keep that estrogen going. I mean, I don't know if there's even an answer to this, but what's happening here? Well, a lot of the theories of aging, I mean, we were programed to reproduce and die because they were living in resources and people. And that's why I tell people middle age again, it's in your thirties.

You know. It starts in your thirties because people very, very, very rarely live beyond 40, 45. Right. So middle age, you know, I don't like using that term, but, you know, now we're living way beyond that. And that's why we're seeing more chronic diseases and mitochondria are linked to longevity. That's part of the one of the theories of aging. So when's your mitochondria start aging? And they have these zombie senescent cells, meaning that they're just like they're they're they're not working well.

They're just like chugging along dead weight and they clog things up. You know, that estrogen is like clean milk. These go, these go. Let's get some new bright guys that are really raring to go. And that's why we need it all. We need it all. And I have women that still have good estrogen in their fifties and sixties. Not because they're doing, they're detoxing. They have clean gut health. They're living, you know, a healthy lifestyle. And and there it's probably genetics to the way people's genetics are wired also probably has a role.

And I had terrible mitochondrial dysfunction after surgery. I had two operations, one on my foot and one on my shoulder, four days apart. And this body has never really seen drugs. But everything that they inject U.S. and all the IVs are all preserved with mercury. I came out mercury toxic. I couldn't exercise without like terrible pain. I couldn't think. I couldn't read a sentence without like, what did I just read? And I realized I was learning more and more about this. And I won this. I did the Mercury Detox boom.

My brain came back, my muscles came back, my energy came back. And I learned that I don't make do today. I don't I don't make it very efficiently. So I now know I need to be unglued and I own forever and ever. And that's small price to pay for my brain and my energy. I know that's a whole nother wormhole we could go down as the dangers of IV treatments and the toxins that you get, but I'm just going to leave that there. And so now I want to shift into gut health. So let's talk about hormones and gut health.

What's the link there? Why is it so important? Why do you why did you start out this talk by saying, I you know, when people want to work with me, they also get to work on their gut health. Well, after working with women and, you know, bringing them into balance their hormones, they're like, I don't want the diet stuff and just give me the hormones, right? Just give me the hormones. And you know, at that time I did and the people who had problems, they just didn't feel right on them or they all of a sudden they're going along very well and then they their breasts get big or they have irregular bleeding.

You know, one of the things I always ask people about how you behave, movements, and they say normal. And I said, no, tell me, how often do you go? What do they look like? And they go to every two or three days and they're a little ball. I'm no if you're not eliminating your body is making estrogen your liver is breaking it down and then it breaks down into subcomponents that are active. And if you don't move your bowels, they the visual I use, it's like flushing a backed up toilet.

Hormones and Gut Health 33:05

It's just going to go right back up into your system. You're you can't measure those metabolites, those breakdown products. You're just re absorbing and you're making yourself estrogen dominant and some people's liver breaks it down into a toxic form, which is a known carcinogen. So this is why your gut health is so important. You have to eliminate those things. You have to make sure you have that right microbiome in there because when when your bile is flowing and so many women have had their gallbladder now please don't don't do it if you have to.

But the bile will find these metabolites and your bowel movements would release them. But the microbiome in there, if you have a bad one, you have some bad gut bugs. They're just going to cleave it, they're going to break it off. And those things are going to get reabsorbed again. So you need a good gallbladder, you need a good microbiome. You need to make sure your liver is breaking it down in a safe way and you need to eliminate because the pipes have to be clear, everything has to move and flow.

And then there's the other side. Is that your good bacteria, the commensal bacteria in your gut, they help make hormones and they're unhealthy and they're not thriving. You're not going to make hormones in your body in the in the right amounts. And I mean, that goes for many things. You're not going to make enzymes. You're not going to make neurotransmitters. You're not going to make assimilate nutrients. I mean, it's going to screw up everything. So that's why, you know, no matter what we're doing in terms of detoxing, replacing nutrients, whatever your symptoms are, whatever your diseases are, we must begin with balancing that gut because truly it is involved in nearly every aspect of your wellness and it's connected to every system in your body.

Absolutely. So, so important. So okay. So you mentioned that you spent a career in environmental medicine, right? So tell us what that means. And what were your biggest takeaways from that time and how that applied to really helping people solve these foundational health problems? Well, I was frustrated in that. I mean, I helped a lot of people because I worked in companies where people were exposed to chemicals or they we I had to make sure that the job wasn't endangering their health and that their health wasn't endangering the job or other people.

Right. So I had to learn a lot about chemicals and when people would come to me to the health service, you know, we did a lot of wellness. We did a lot of preventive health. We did travel health, executive health, but occupational and environmental health. So we had to learn about all these occupational exposures. Some were where people worked with known products and some were with experimental products. So these were unknown entities. So when people came to me with symptoms, I had to be the detective.

And then I had a, you know, is this is this real? Is is not real. I always took people seriously because it was it's real. And I worked a lot with safety. And, you know, you could do a lot by just getting rid of the toxin. Your body does the rest. But some people are a little broken. Like like what happened with me after that surgery, I got rid of it. You know, I'm not pouring metals into me anymore, but people don't realize they're stored. All these toxins are stored, your bone and you're fat. And why women get sicker around menopause is they start losing the bone, the metals come out.

People want to lose weight. They feel crappy, you know, because their detoxification systems aren't working well. So I was frustrated in occupational and environmental medicine because I learned what these toxins did. We learned how to mitigate the risk, we learned how to protect people. But unless it was a very acute illness, they really weren't treated. And I knew I was doing people a disservice. So that's how I started learning functional medicine to be able to help them more. Wow. So I'm going to throw stones a little bit for a second.

You know, what's your thoughts and how did it feel about, you know, realizing that we really didn't have safe regulations in place to protect people? And the EPA, you know, is supposed to be in charge of all of this. And even as I research toxins and, I come across these statements online that's by the EPA that are like this kind of the kind of these, you know, brainwashing statements that say all about mercury. I use mercury for an example like there is no safe amount of mercury. It is one of the most toxic, lethal things that can ever be put into the human body, period.

We should have never made amalgam fillings out of mercury. We should have never put mercury in medications, IV fluids. We should never have use mercury. And yet it's defended by the EPA.

Environmental Medicine, Toxins, and Detoxification 38:05

There's a safe range of mercury for, you know, and you see these kind of brainwashing statements out there. What's your thought on this? You know, I'm I'm sure it frustrates you. It frustrates me. And, you know, I work within the system. You know, I, I do the best I can. I can always be out there, you know, trying to fight everything. Because the answer I get back, I mean, I was very lucky that when I came to my company, I said, this needs to be done. This is a problem. They listened and I was very grateful because I know other people in my position, other places, they were pooh poohed and they were like puppets.

And I am not a puppet and I will never be a puppet, but I will work towards some people can detoxify better than others. Okay. So that's why some people say, well, I smoke. My husband smoked and he lived and he drank a lot. You know, you'll always get those stories. The truth is always somewhere in the middle. One of my grandmother. Nods are safe, but detox education. Some people do it better than others. Yes, one of my grandmothers lived to 96 and smoked two packs of cigarettes a day and she was born in the 1920s and she didn't have the exposures that, for example, I had when I was born in the 1970s.

And she had obviously strong detox pathways. And you know she was like salt of the earth. I mean, she was indestructible. And is it safe? No, but it can. People live with it. Many people can, but you don't know. And then, you know, back then there were less chemicals trade. Now we're bombarded with more and more and more and everyday everything we come in contact with has chemicals in it. And you know, whether it's the air you breathe, the food you eat, even if it's organic, people don't realize organic foods can still have metals.

Yeah. Oh, yeah, metals. They just don't have the same pesticides and organic. You can use a certain amount of certain safer, safer. So I, I'm all about decreasing the load and increasing the detoxify taken out because this, this problem may not be settled in our lifetimes because you're always going to have the other people saying, nothing happened to me. Nothing happened to me. And, you know, my job was to be an advocate for the people who were vulnerable and were affected by this. I have a feeling many of our viewers vulnerable.

That's why they're the information seekers. That's why they watch summits. That's why they're listening to these talks, because they feel oftentimes like, hey, I'm the canary in the coal mine. Everybody else seems to be fine, but I'm not making this up. I feel terrible. And so this has been such an enlightening discussion in the last couple of moments that we have here. Could you just give any final thoughts that you'd like our audience to hear about, you know, solving the hormone crisis and supporting their and also let our audience know where they can find you.

Well, I'm The Feel Good Again Institute it has to be The and Institute at the back of the wise it comes up with some kind of drug rehab center. So I dates a name and it was like, oh my. God, why did I do that? So my, my, you know, my, I always end with something totally off the wall. You can choose all those check by it. Clean, drink, clean, remove your toxins, sleep, exercise, have nutrients, get all those things could be perfect. But you have to live life. You have to have joy and you have to have an attitude of gratitude.

Because once you respect yourself and respect others

Final Advice and Where to Find Dr. Maita 41:55

and you take care of your body, the rest is cake. Just have fun. Have joy in your life. Because a life with all the checkboxes, no joy is not really alive. That's how I like to leave things so thefeelgoodagaininstitute.com (thefeelgoodagaininstitute.com) I love that, The Feel Good Again Institute one time I did a one time I did a program called Feel Good, Look Good and it's just so it's so simple. Like we all just want to feel good. I love that. Yeah, I love that. Thank you. Dr. Maita, it's been wonderful to pick your brain and to speak with you and have a really just honest discussion about what's going on here and how to support people.

I always tell, you know, I'm a gut detox specialist. I'm cellular detox where I'm an energy specialist. People in my programs always want to know, like, should I be on hormones? Should I take hormones? And what I really encourage everyone to do is to build their team of health practitioners. Just like in the Western medicine world, you've got a cardiologist, a dermatologist, an endocrinologist, a primary care doctor, you've got a massage therapist. You maybe see a chiropractor do the same in the functional medicine world.

Find yourself a hormone specialist. And I do. I defer all my people. I say, I want you to work with a hormone, do the detox, do the gut work, do this and find a hormone specialist. So Lorraine would be or Dr. Maita It's all right. I'm so personal with you That's alright My patients call me Lorraine too. So I know, I know. So I don't. I don't need the title. I don't. You know. But I do have an educational program HRT for you so that people can make their own decisions and benefits. What are the risks when suffering from what good hormones help?

And thefemalehormonequiz.com is free Great So build your team. Yeah. So build your team. Find somebody who specializes in hormones to work with. I think it's really important I do myself I take bioidentical is myself I'm not going to stop. All right. Thank you so much. And until next time Yeah, until next time. Take good care. Bye now.