300 Episodes Later — The Hard Truths Every Woman Needs to Hear

00:00What's up, everybody? Hey, you guys. Welcome to the 300th episode of The WarriorBabe Show. Man, I can hardly believe that I am saying that out loud. 300 episodes. And get this, we're also approaching 1.2 million downloads. Like, what even is life right now? Whether you guys have been here from the start or maybe this is like your very first episode, I just want to say thank you.

00:35Thank you for showing up, for pressing play, for trusting me, this brand, this mission with your time, with your attention, with your energy, and with your journey. This platform has been one of the greatest gifts of my life. And while I may be the one behind the mic, I know without a doubt that this platform was given to me by God. To speak boldly, to serve powerfully, and to help you listeners step into the strongest, most confident version of yourself.

01:14So today, we're celebrating not just me, but you, us, this entire community. And what better way to celebrate that than by pulling the highlights from this past, from 200 to 300 episodes of our favorite guests, the ones that blew up the downloads and sparked some of the most, like, deepest breakthroughs and thought-provoking conversations, one being Dr. Stacey Sims. The episode was, this is why your 1200 calorie diet isn't working. That is still one of the top charts of being downloaded, one of the top episodes being downloaded.

01:52We had Alicia Erickson on too, and she talked about how to get ripped after 51. And Dr. Jolene Brighton, the truth about hormones, they never taught you. So we're going to compile all of this into one episode. And everyone, these, these women brought fire. They brought truth, they brought, they brought science. And I can't wait for you guys to hear, like, the best moments all over again and in one episode. So, you know, whether you're out walking, whether you're lifting, whether you're cleaning, whether you're driving, just lean into this episode.

02:23You guys are going to be packed with so much knowledge and so much truth. I hope you guys enjoy, and let's celebrate this milestone together. I love you all. Today, we're diving into how women can build muscle, lose fat, feel strong, and actually understand their bodies. And I just can't wait to get into Stacey's brain and her drop all of this knowledge here. Dr. Sims, welcome to The WarriorBabe Show. Thanks for having me. I've been looking forward to this.

02:54Let's go. So, first, I want to kick it off with some training because I feel like this is where most women feel totally lost. The things that worked in the 20s, the 30s, even sometimes in the early 40s, like a lot of women all do is cardio. They do HIIT. They do light weights. It's just not cutting it anymore. And the worry baby community is super hungry to build muscle, to feel strong, and to stop spinning their wheels in the gym. But they just don't know where to start, what actually is best for their body now. So, what actually changes in how women should train once they hit this stage of life, like perimenopause and menopause?

03:31Yeah. So, I like to bring people back to that conversation around puberty, right? Because we hear, and we've all been through it, we know that your body changes, and you have all these things that happen, and then you get your menstrual cycle. So, we're on the other side of things, where we're starting to see our body is unwinding our ovarian function. So, what does that mean, really? Like, we're having more and more anovulatory cycle, so we're not dropping an egg. If we don't drop an egg, then we don't produce progesterone. We're seeing that we're having more flux of estrogen, and our body has been affected by a continuous cycle of estrogen and progesterone for decades.

04:10Now, every system of the body is starting to be affected. We see it from brain changes, cardiovascular changes. We see it when you go get a blood test, and all of a sudden, you have high cholesterol, and you're like, I've never had that before. I don't have a family history. It's primarily because of estrogen and progesterone, and how they have an interplay in every system of the body. We also have the other side of things, where our body, by aging, is becoming less and less responsive to protein intake and to resistance training. So, all these women who up to this point have been, oh, yeah, I get 20 grams of protein after training.

04:44I've done my HIIT. I've done my CrossFit Metcon. I've, you know, done my 3x10s or 3x15s. I've gone into fatigue. None of that works now because our body's like, oh, wait a second. We need more protein to stimulate anabolism or to building a muscle. We also need to find a different stressor that's going to create adaptive response because our bodies are really kind of used to not being threatened. So, if we are able to create a stress that's going to cause a threat that the body's then like, oh, I've got to build more muscle.

05:17I've got to have a powerful contraction. If we're able to do a strong contraction, then it's going to respond in kind. So, when we take that into translation, it's like, okay, what are we doing here? We want to look at that power-based range of lifting where we want people to learn how to lift heavy properly. We want to do compound movements. We want to have adequate rest between our sets because we want a central nervous system response. Because if we're having a central nervous system response, it's the nerve saying, hey, wait a second. I need to be able to stimulate all of these muscle fibers for really strong contraction.

05:52How am I going to do that? Okay, I need some more of this neurotransmitter around so I can actually jump and contract these muscle fibers. In these muscle fibers, I also need my myosin and actin to be really on point. So, let's stimulate the myosin a bit more so the myosin and actin contract strongly and bond together. And then, by the nature of having to have more lean mass, if we are having continuous stress from central nervous system and also peripheral nervous system,

06:24then the body's like, okay, I need to be able to build more mass to keep up with what's happening from the brain. So, when we're looking at the training scope, it's no wonder that people who are used to doing like the HIIT and the higher reps and lower weights not finding a change. Because it's not the right kind of stress we need when we're starting to have these changes in our hormones. So, what you're basically saying is like lifting is essential. It's not optional, really. Right? Exactly. Yeah. Amen to that. Even young kids, right?

06:57Like, we have that fear of lifting and development, but it's about functional movement and getting them used to pushing and pulling and stuff because we don't do that in a natural environment anymore. Yeah, totally. Why is building muscle so important? Why is resistance training so important? Because cardio has had this like vibe for 100 years, right? We have to do all this stuff for our heart. And trust me, I know, I'm a retired endurance athlete. But when we start looking at being able to age well and not get old, so we want brain health, we want cognitive function, we want to be able to carry our groceries into our kitchen, we want to be able to be active with our grandkids or grow old with our partner and not grow old but age well with our partner.

07:40It's become muscle-centric, right? When we're seeing the push-pull load and what muscle does for us and the building of the muscle and how metabolically active it is, the more metabolically active tissue we have, the better blood glucose control we have, the better our blood lipids are, the more we aren't looking to store that visceral fat. So we have less of a threat for cardiovascular risk factors. We also want to build muscle so that we're pulling torque on the bone. Because if we have strong bones and we don't have that risk of having chalk for bones and stepping off the curb and breaking a hip.

08:14So as we talk about it, we're in that bubble, right? Where we're like, yes, strength training for the win. But we also want to remember it's not just for the now. It's protecting us to age well and not get old. Ladies, are you feeling frustrated with body changes you're experiencing during menopause? It's time to take control. If you're between 45 and 65 years old and tired of struggling with body fat and muscle loss, Warrior Babe is here for you.

08:48At Warrior Babe, we've helped over 18,000 women just like you lose body fat, build toned muscle, and understand their bodies better with personalized plans based on hormone and thyroid testing and more. Imagine knowing exactly what your body needs to see real results and results that last. Look, don't wait anymore. Take charge of your health and join our community of strong, empowered women. Visit warriorbabe.com forward slash apply today to start your transformation.

09:18That's warriorbabe.com forward slash apply. All right, let's get back to the show. Yes, I got full body chills there. Like so much alignment. And I love the knowledge you have, how you dive into the science-based things and what you stand for. Like this message just needs to continue to get louder and louder and louder. What would you say is like the ideal weekly training split for someone that's like 50 years old that wants to build muscle?

09:49A minimum is two times a week, minimum. And this is total body movements for that. If you are looking to actually build on top of the strength. So if we're doing total body compound movements, we're really focusing on the strength. And that's great. If we want to start accumulating more lean mass, and that's bone and muscle, then we're looking at three times. That's the minimum. You don't really want to eke it out to going every day, which some people are like, oh, more is better. Because we also really need to focus on recovery.

10:19You can't build without recovery. So people are always like, oh, I can't spend that much time in the gym. If you have an hour a week divided into 20-minute segments three times a week, you can get a lot done in 20 minutes in the gym when you're looking at strength training. Heck yeah. And so many women think like they're more about moving the body more. They've come from the age of I need to eat less and I need to train more. And now the narrative is like less is more. But let's shift our gears to nutrition because that's where I feel like a lot of women are stuck.

10:52Like I feel like every conversation I have with someone on the nutrition topic, it's like I'm looking at it like a deer is looking at headlights. You know, like women are eating like 1,100 calories, 1,200 calories thinking that it's going to help them drop fat. It's going to help them drop weight. But they're not seeing the progress that they want to see. And in fact, they're gaining weight. They're losing muscle or they're feeling just constantly exhausted. So with all that being said, many women, like I said, are eating 1,100, 1,200 calories and wondering like why they aren't seeing the progress that they want or losing fat. Can you speak to the one to the danger of that?

11:23And especially for women that are in the phase of menopause and going through that journey, but more so the danger of just eating 1,100, 1,200 calories. Yeah, it's not enough. Like we've been caught in this narrative probably from the 100 years of cardio stuff where, you know, calories in, calories out, eat less, burn more. And we have to remember that inherently we are biological beings that require food. And if we are not eating enough to support just general health, the body perceives it as being a threat.

11:55And the body is like, wait, I want to stay alive. So I'm going to start conserving every possible high metabolic cost that I can. So if you're only eating 1,100 to 1,200 calories a day, that's not really even enough to touch a resting metabolic rate. We see on average a resting metabolic rate is around that 11 to 1,200 calorie point. So that's like lying in bed and not even blinking, right? So this is just the basic amount that your body needs to survive from all its breathing and heart rate and blood circulating and brain and everything.

12:28But as soon as you get up to pee, you need more calories. It's like your body needs food to do all of these energetics. And if you're not eating, your body's like, I'm bringing it all down. I'm only going to allow the essentials to work well. So I need to preserve the brain and I'm going to keep trying to fuel the brain. I don't have enough blood sugar. So I'm going to start using some free fatty acids or ketones and amino acids. Where does that come from? It comes from your lean mass.

13:00Your lean mass is very metabolically active. And that's one of the first things the body is going to go after and say, hey, you're too metabolically active. I can't conserve you. So I'm going to break you down and use you for the sum of the parts. So when we start seeing women who aren't eating enough, we see this, right? They put on belly fat. They put on a lot of extra subcutaneous fat. They look a little bit puffy. They're losing lean mass. They're not responding to training. And then they can't sleep well, right? Because they're in this sympathetic drive where their body's in this really highly stressed state of there's no nutrition coming in.

13:35How am I going? Like I'm getting ready to fight or flight is that continuous feeling. When we get into the menopause transition, unfortunately, we see a big shift in body composition with this change in the hormones because the body is under a sympathetic drive. So that's why we are always thinking tired but wired because we're having these shifts and the body's under a little bit of normal stress from these shifts because it's starting to find a new biological set point. So we start seeing conversations between the liver and free fatty acids that are floating in the blood where now the liver is like, I need to store you in around the organs in case I need to be able to access you, which is why we get visceral fat.

14:20We also see that we have less ability for insulin to pull sugar into the muscle. We have more insulin resistance. And it's because the body's like, I need to conserve blood sugar. I need it for the brain. So there's all these things that are going because we're under a bit of stress. So if we're like, let's feed the body and let's train appropriately, we start to see better conversations across the organs, which allow us to not store visceral fat, but to take fatty acids and put it into the skeletal muscle to be used at rest.

14:54To increase our body's ability to pull glucose into the skeletal muscle and the liver without insulin. So we start to see better metabolic health. If we're not feeding it, we don't even start to have an impetus on that. I feel like everybody needs to rewind the last, that whole last bit and just listen to it over and over and over again. Like I'm over here, I have chills and I'm screaming yes in my head because of all that you just said. Like, I'm so glad you just said that. And the way that you broke it down makes it so understandable as to what is actually going on.

15:25Because it's not like a lot of women know like, hey, this is what's happening around my liver. It's visceral fat equals this. The brain doesn't compute like that for women that don't have the knowledge that you have or the bubble that we're in. And we eat, sleep, breathe this kind of stuff. So I just thank you. That's the exact message. I just want to continue hammering home so women can understand how important it is to eat food and eat the right amount of food. Ladies, are you feeling frustrated with body changes you're experiencing during menopause? It's time to take control.

15:57If you're between 45 and 65 years old and tired of struggling with body fat and muscle loss, Warrior Babe is here for you. At Warrior Babe, we've helped over 18,000 women just like you lose body fat, build toned muscle, and understand their bodies better with personalized plans based on hormone and thyroid testing and more. Imagine knowing exactly what your body needs to see real results and results that last. Look, don't wait anymore. Take charge of your health and join our community of strong, empowered women.

16:31Visit warriorbabe.com forward slash apply today to start your transformation. That's warriorbabe.com forward slash apply. All right, let's get back to the show. Today, guys, I have Alicia here with me. She's also known as the midlife maven. And at 51, Alicia completely transformed her entire health and fitness journey and proving that midlife is just the beginning. So let's kick it off. What initially sparked your decision to take this path? And what did those like early steps look like as you began such an incredible transformation?

17:05So I've always been about my fitness and health. Like from a very young age, my dad was very active. My mom, she did kind of the Jane Fonda thing. But they were both good models for me. But my dad was an Ironman triathlete. And so he was super inspirational to me. But he took me to my first ever fun run. And I remember that feeling when I was done with that fun run. I was like, whoa, I got a little boost of something. This is like, this feels good. I like, you know, that endorphin kick. I'm like, I like this. So that carried through my life. Like that was just the theme of I knew that I needed to be moving my body on a regular basis for my mental health.

17:40Not just my physical health, but my mental health. Fast forward to having kids, being a new mom, a stay-at-home mom. I was like, I need to do this or I'm going to lose my ever-loving mind. I need to sweat. Yeah. Like ever. I seriously, I was like, I am going to fall deep and go deep down that hole if I do not keep moving my body. Somehow break a sweat. Like daily, I need to do something or I'm going to lose my mind. So it's just been a theme throughout the course of my life.

18:11Probably in my early 30s was when I joined a gym. And then I really started to learn more about lifting weights. But I think what a lot of us women tend to do is what I tended to do. Even though I was, you remember Jamie Eason? Do you know Jamie Eason? I've heard of that name. She was on bodybuilding.com and I did her programs and I was like, this is amazing. But I kind of tended to go back to like the boot camp classes. You know, that a lot of women do. They kind of tend to, they want to be in community, which I understand. So I kind of tended to go back to that. So I kind of go back and forth.

18:42And then into my 40s, I really started getting into CrossFit. So I did CrossFit for about eight years and really loved that. And I loved everything that it taught me because I felt like it just taught me a lot about pushing myself, about trying new things that I didn't think I could do. You know, learning new things, new skills, how to move my body. And I know that that can be kind of a controversial thing with CrossFit and like proper movement and stuff. Our gym was really good about moving well. So I will say that. But as I was entering that perimenopause phase, I was like, this is just not, I just kind of felt like my body just wasn't responding as well anymore.

19:17And there was just also a lot going on with life, you know, running businesses. My husband also is a small business owner. So we just, you know, we're all about the entrepreneurial spirit, but it takes a lot of effort and then raising teenage girls. So then when they were finally, when my girls finally were gone and had left, I was like, oh, okay, well, what's, what are we doing now? Like, it's so all-consuming, you know, it's just so, you're just, you're going, going, going. Then I was like, okay, well, I'm going to actually, I want to really see what I made.

19:48I want to see what I can do with this. Like, this has always been a passion. It's always been a priority for me, but I'm like, let's take this next level. I'm going to figure out how I'm going to do this. And I was like, I need to go back to the, to the weight room and just start regular strength training. I need to get my, my protein in check. I need to up my protein. I knew I wasn't, my macronutrients were not where they needed to be. So I was like, I need to figure out what my macronutrients need to be, get back in the gym. I need to stop doing all this cardio. Cause I was always a runner and just all this high, intense, long cardio.

20:21I'm like, we're going to lift weights. We're going to prioritize our protein. I had cut out alcohol and then I, it kind of turned into sugar. So then I decided I was cutting sugar, just refined, you know, processed sugars. So walking nutrition and weightlifting. And I was like, laser freaking focused. I was like, we're freaking doing this. And I, I just was like on a mission and it just was like, the results started to come. And I was like, dang, okay. Like, this is really working. Like once I got super focused and honed in on what I want to do and stuck with it, it was like, it just wasn't, it was amazing.

20:57You mentioned the basics there. You mentioned back to the weight room. You mentioned protein intake and you mentioned macros. Yeah. And something I see too, that you do on social media, which is inspired me. Cause I'm only at 2000 steps today. Don't yell at me is to get out there and get my 10 K steps in walking too. Yes. Huge. Like walking has is my new favorite, absolute favorite thing to do. I do not run anymore. I walk and I hike. I live in Washington state. So we have like a million hikes here and we just, we hike all summer long. We're snowshoeing this winter.

21:28Like it's just my favorite. It feels so good. And my body loves it. Yeah. Okay. With strength training, when you got back into it, like a lot of people experience some intimidations, they kind of don't know where to start. They're afraid to walk out of the gym. We're coming up on a new year. What would be some, like, how would, how did you feel when you got back into it? And then what would be some like pieces of advice you could give somebody that's maybe just. I mean, I completely understand how that can be intimidating. Cause I had been at CrossFit for years. And so I hadn't been back to like the regular gym, but I was scouting out gyms in my area.

21:58And I was like, I know I want to go to like a hardcore kind of gym. Like I know I want to go to a gym that has people that are in there to win it. I just met you. But like, yeah, that makes so much sense. Right. Like, I was just like, I don't want to go to a dinky. I don't know. Like matters like the way if you're working at home, which a lot of people can do successfully, but it's like you, you have your TV in the room, you have your kitchen, you have your, you know, your computer that you can sit down and work at. Like your environment matters where you're at. I completely agree. It just gets you in a different mindset.

22:29It gets you locked in. And so I've been scoping out gyms and I found this one. It's like a bodybuilding gym and it's kind of gritty. It's called Dig Iron. And I was like, okay, I want to go there, but I'm super intimidated. Like, I don't know. And so then I made friends with a gal at the front desk. I'm like, can you just like, I just don't want to look like an idiot for the first time I'm in here. Can you just like make sure I know where everything is? And, you know, she said, oh yeah, of course, of course. So then I kind of started almost, there's like a back room. And so I kind of started working out more like in the back room or like with the barbells

23:01and the dumbbells. And then I was getting, as I was getting more familiar and more comfortable being there, I like expanded out more into the cables and the machines. And, and then I was like, Just take the run over the whole gym. Pretty soon. I'm like, what's up? Mama's here. I'm here to F it up. But you know what I mean? Like, it's so funny how we get in our own heads and we get so nervous about it. And we think people are watching us. And it's like, nobody, if somebody is watching you and judging you, that's on them. That's not on you. At the end of the day, like nobody cares.

23:31People are more consumed with what they're doing. Nobody's really watching you. So like take a deep breath, go to the back corner if you need to, and just kind of scope things out while you're in the back corner, check things out, you know, do like something small, like to get started. And then like, as you get more comfortable, you can branch out to new machines and new things as you're getting better and feel more comfortable. And pretty soon, everybody's going to know your name. Everybody's going to know who you are. You're going to feel like a badass and you're going to walk around. You're going to own the place. Amen. That's how it goes. Anything that you start at the beginning is going to be hard and going to be a change. Anything.

24:02You know, you just got to like, you got to, you got to, you got to push yourself over the edge. It's like, even just like how you walked into the gym and you had the confidence to go ask somebody, Hey, can you just show me around? Then you're not by yourself walking into the gym. You have somebody else. Are you around? And like, and people want to help, you know, at the end of the day, if it's a good gym, like the people are going to be helpful and friendly and want to connect with you, you know, kind of like piggyback off of that. Cause like building physical strength often has a ripple effect. So for you, like how has physical strength that you've built influenced other areas of

24:37your life, like regarding your relationships, regarding the, your career, like what you're doing with your people and, and your, and your own mindset. I mean, I can tell you, like, it's so interesting. I saw something the other day and it was like, it was like a before and after physique comparison. And it was like talking about how so much, it's not just the physical that changes. There's a whole entire mental transformation that changes when you are doing a physical transformation, like they have to go hand in hand. Right. And I honestly feel like this whole last couple of years, I've just shown, I feel like, um,

25:10what you said, I honestly have felt just unstoppable. Whereas I used to talk to myself in a certain way and I used to feel limited and I used to compare just like, as I, I felt like actually owning my own business before this helped me to, um, with just my, my mind space, but just the confidence that I have built and just that mental, like, I feel like I can do freaking anything. I just feel like this guy is the limit and I am 51 and I feel like I have the whole world

25:40ahead of me. Like I have my whole life ahead of me. I have so much that I'm going to do and I am so excited. And I don't, I don't feel there'll be a, every once in a while, I might have like a moment where I'm like, oh gosh, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this. And I'm like, heck yes, we can. We're doing this. We can do this. And I just feel like it's just giving me that confidence and that I can do freaking anything I want because you're going to be, you're going to blow your mind with what happens when you put a layer of muscle on your body. Say it louder. It's going to be, it's going to be crazy.

26:11It's going to be crazy. And it's like, it just, I, if I could just encourage that one thing and I, and I see it like with the women that are, I'm talking to every day, they're like, oh, I'm seeing this muscle coming. It feels so good. And I feel so amazing. And I feel so powerful. And it's like, they just didn't realize that they had it in them. Yeah. So I think a lot of women can be like, well, my ass is just, you know, what's one piece of advice that you'd like to leave the women with that are listening to this, um, that you'd like to leave them with as they're navigating the stage of life that they're going through.

26:43That it is not too late. You are still magnificent and powerful and you are actually just getting started. You have been pouring into everything else up until this point in your life. You've been pouring into your career, your spouse, your kids, everything, everyone else. Now it's your time. You're going to make you a priority. It's your time. And you are literally just going into that second half of your life. You need to make it the best. You want to be your best for the second half. This is the time when you get to like be you and do your thing.

27:15You want to feel good. You want to look good. You want to do all the things you got to have that high energy. And it's not too late. Like you can start now and completely change your life. One hundred percent. No doubt. Yeah. Amen. Thank you. Thank you for all your insight and your energy and your words. Thanks for having me. Hey, while you're listening, if you're getting value from this episode, take a moment to tap that review button or share this podcast with a friend. It's a small gesture that goes a long way in helping more women find their way to feeling

27:48stronger and more confident in their skin. I appreciate you so much for taking the time to support this show. Dr. Brighton is here today, everyone. And she is on a mission to help women uncover the root causes of hormonal imbalances and reclaim their vitality through informed science back choices. And today we're diving into all of the things perimenopause, hormonal shifts, mood, libido, energy, and what it truly means to take control of your health through every phase of womanhood. And I'm really excited for this conversation.

28:18Dr. Brighton, welcome. Yeah. Thanks so much for having me. I'm very excited to jump in and talk. Yeah. Everybody, she sent over some of the best questions. So I'm going to tell you right now that you're going to want to share this with your friends because we are going to bust so many myths and I'm going to give you everything that your doctor should have given you in every single visit you've ever had, but hasn't yet. Amen to that lady. I'm super stoked. Cool. Cool. So for many women, let's first start off in the bucket of hormonal imbalance.

28:49Perimenopause feels like it just like sneaks up on them. I've learned that it can start as early as in your mid thirties, right? So what are the earliest signs of hormonal changes that women experience? What should we be paying attention to? Yes. What every woman needs to know about perimenopause is that hot flashes are not the first sign. Irregular periods are not the first sign. The very first hormone to decline in perimenopause is progesterone. So progesterone is only made after ovulation.

29:22The onset of perimenopause is when our savings account of eggs is running out. When you're out of eggs, you enter into menopause, which is 12 consecutive months of no period. The next day you're postmenopausal. So you've got a birthday of like no periods. Yay, menopause. Next day, postmenopause. But before that, what we see is that progesterone begins its decline. What do those symptoms look like? Worsening PMS. So you're more irritable. Your partner chews their food loudly.

29:53You're like, I'm getting a divorce. I'm out of here. I can't be with this person anymore. I'm so irritable. Because what progesterone does is it stimulates the GABA receptor in your brain. So you make progesterone or you take oral micronized progesterone and your body converts that into allopregnenolone. That hits the brain. GABA lights up. GABA says, chill. You love this person. They're not that annoying. And we're going to get really good sleep. We're going to go to sleep and we're going to stay asleep throughout the night. So if you're someone 35 or older and two, three, maybe even five days before your period,

30:29you're having night waking or you're waking up much earlier. So instead of waking up, you usually wake up at six. Now you're waking up at four or five. That can be pointing towards a progesterone issue. The good news is, is that in that phase, in the early perimenopause phase, there's still a lot we can do naturally to get the ovaries to work for you and help mitigate these symptoms. How? What can we do? Yes. Okay. We'll go right into it. Give it to us now. Okay. So if you are experiencing increased PMS, you are having breast tenderness before your period,

31:03you're irritable, you're having insomnia or sleep issues. There's several things that can help. So number one is we increase our vitamin C, whether that is coming dietarily or coming through supplements, and vitamin B6. With vitamin B6, we're going to be looking at like 20, 25 milligrams coming in a day. Those are going to support the corpus luteum, the temporary endocrine structure that's left behind post ovulation to produce progesterone. There's an herb known as chase tree berry or vitex.

31:34We typically use that at 200 milligrams. That can also help with supporting ovarian production of hormones, and it can help during that luteal phase. Now, the other thing we got to look at is stress. Stress is absolutely the number one thing that will rob you of a really easy period. The reason is, is that when the brain perceives stress, your body wanting to survive no matter what says make stress hormones, survival hormones. Don't make reproductive hormones expensive, potentially gets us pregnant in a scary environment

32:09hormones. We need to survive. So your body being really wise is going to shift in that way. The problem is the modern woman is living under chronic stress day by day by day. And evolutionarily speaking, the way you actually developed your entire hormonal system does not match what is happening in your environment. So what can we do with that? We have to look at where we can mitigate stress and where we can cut out stress. You cannot control all stress, but you can control your response.

32:40So I have several articles on drbrayton.com, and one I would recommend people to check out is vagus nerve stimulation. I also have a podcast episode going through this of ways that you can stimulate your vagus nerve. So there's certain breathing exercises. There's massage exercises. The vagus nerve runs from your brain. It innervates your heart, and it innervates your gut. And this is a way that we can access the rest and digest aspect of our nervous system. We can hum. We can sing out loud. We can do deep breathing.

33:11That will shift us to more resilience against stress. And then I ask people in my practice, I say, can you go through and do basically a stress inventory? I just want you to brain dump all of the things that are causing you stress. And then I want you to look at what are you unnecessarily putting on your plate? Because we do that. We look at, we think like, oh, I'm the only one who can do this best. Does it really have to be you? Do you really have to sign up for that PTA thing again? Do you really have to volunteer for this extra thing? Like, where can you offload stuff?

33:42And then I want you to look at like, what is perceived stress and what's actual stress? Because the things that we sometimes are writing down and we're like, oh, this is a source of stress. When we write it down and we look at it, sometimes we're like, actually, I'm making that up in my head. That's not real stress. Like, I need to let that go. And then there's my favorite one, which is, you know, everybody talks about like a detox diet. I'm like, detox the people in your life who are toxic. So take a look at that. If there are people in your life that when you spend time with them, you feel more exhausted,

34:16drained. You go home, you think about the interactions, you hate on yourself about things. Those people, they got to go, especially if you're in a healing phase of life. And that doesn't make them bad people, makes them not the right people for you and your hormones. Yeah. Wow. So such good advice already so far into this episode. I'm sure many people are going to rewind and listen to that back. And you should, because that was a great, powerful answer. I want to ask you, what are your like most common myths and misconceptions that you often

34:46hear from your patients about perimenopause and hormone health? Actually, I hear this one from other providers. And then it's that perimenopause and menopause are just natural. So if you're having symptoms, you just need to like write it out. And you know what I find really funny as somebody who has been prescribing hormone replacement therapy or menopause hormone therapy for over a dozen years, this is part of my core training and my background in medicine is how many of these doctors, primarily gynecologists who

35:18are out here telling women just to raw dog their way through menopause, suck it up, get through it. It's natural. Don't use these hormones. They'll cause cancer. Some of them sending me nasty messages being like, what are you trying to kill this patient? Giving them HRT. I'm like, no, I'm trying to give them back their life and like, you know, let them not lose their mind and actually enjoy a fully lived life. Yeah. And now these people are like, oh my God, sign me up. I want this HRT and I'm also going to be an expert in it. And I'm like, could you just for a minute recognize the fact, I mean, there's like a few

35:52gynecologists out there who I think are in the menopause phase doing a great job. And they do talk about how they had no background, no training, and they did do a disservice to their patients. And I'm like, we have to have that dialogue to build trust with patients because the people out there that you denied hormones to, they absolutely remember you. So I think that is one big myth in that space is that, oh, you should, it's natural. So you should just deal with it. You don't have to just deal with it. And you don't have to use hormones if you don't want to. That's one option. We can also use, there's a lot of natural therapies that we can use.

36:26Nutrition and lifestyle go so far. And I will be the one to tell you, HRT is not enough. And I don't care about these people singing it like it's the gospel that's going to save your life. It is not enough. You have to be looking at nutrition and lifestyle as well. The way you show up every day to live your life has such a tremendous impact on your outcomes. And I think anytime we put basically this paywall between people of like, if you want optimal health, you have to see a provider, you have to get a prescription. It's very disempowering because there's a lot that you can do now with or without hormones.

37:01And there's also other medication options that we can use. If you're like, I don't want to go the hormonal route, I'd rather try something else. So you shouldn't just suffer through it. There's lots of options, lots of things that we can do. The other myth is that this is a new phenomenon, perimenopause, that it wasn't even a thing until this generation of millennial women who are talking about it. When really, I mean, it's been documented for hundreds of years. Perimenopause has always existed. And so the concept that our ancestors didn't have this, therefore you don't need to have

37:35hormones. Yeah. I hate to tell you this, but our ancestors died in childbirth a lot, a lot. And they also didn't make it like past their fifties. Like our life expectancy has been extended. And so with that, we have to pivot and we have to look at how to support women much better. The other thing I'll say, the other myth is that if you take hormones, you're going to get cancer. That's a big one. There was a study called the Women's Health Initiative.

38:07They used much older women than we initiate HRT with these days, and they already had the onset of certain disease processes. So we weren't going to reverse those. Hormones aren't going to reverse those. But the concept that these hormones cause cancer, we have to really peel it back. And as the new research is coming out, what we're seeing is that progestin, which you find in hormonal birth control, tends to be the one that is more associated with cancer than the

38:38bioidenticals that we use today. Premarin, which is a pregnant horse whose urine we took and extracted estrogen from, also not great. But using your own biological hormones doesn't show the same risk as we see with the synthetic hormones that we were using. So I just released a podcast episode. I have several where we talk about estrogen and breast cancer. And the latest one with Dr. Felice Gersh is great because she talks so much in detail about

39:10how estradiol, the form that we use in hormone replacement therapy, actually helps glue the cells together so that you don't get metastasis, which is what kills us in breast cancer. So this is one I know there's going to be people that are commenting being like, yes, it does cause cancer and you're going to kill people because this myth is so, it has been so perpetuated by the media. But medicine got it wrong and science got it wrong to make that blanket statement.

39:42And I want women to understand that smoking, drinking alcohol and binge eating ultra processed food, those are higher risk factors for breast cancer than using a very small dose of estrogen hormone replacement therapy with progesterone, HRT as well. They got to be balanced out. And when it's done right, because when it's done right, we're using the lowest dose to support your body. We are not trying to get your period back or get your levels back to what they were when

40:13you were still menstruating. Oh, gosh, thank you. That's that information right there. I think a lot of people overlook or believe the media, believe what people have to say about this, especially if people have status and they're sharing this as well. So I just love that breakdown. Let's jump into like the mood, energy and libido conversation during hormonal shifts. So mood swings, fatigue, the libido changes are common complaints during perimenopause. What's happening behind the scenes to cause all these things that drives these symptoms?

40:45Yes. Okay. So actually, is this normal? Has like the whole first half is about your sexual health and hormones and the second half is just about hormones. And so here is what is going on in perimenopause. It is very multifactorial. So firstly, cyclically speaking, it is normal for your libido to decline post ovulation. That is because estrogen drives a lot of our sexual desire, our sexual fantasies, vaginal lubrication, our arousal, all of it.

41:16Testosterone is also coming into play, but it's always the one everyone knows about, but like estrogen is important too. Once progesterone comes online, things shift and we may not, this is where I joke that like you'd rather get into sweatpants than get into his pants because it's just comfy time. Like it is just like, let's cuddle. Like that's, and that's what I always tell like women, like you need to tell your partner that they need to decrease your stress during this time and they need to up the type of love that you need.

41:47Whether that is physical touch, whether that is praise, whether that is just doing the dishes because it takes a load off your plate. That's going to help you be more receptive to any sexual advances that are made. Otherwise, if your nervous system is dysregulated, you're not going to receive those signals. It's just going to basically be like, you know, someone cut the phone line. Like they're trying to talk to you and it's not going anywhere. So that is something that's really important to know. Now in perimenopause, we are having, I told you that we start with a decline of progesterone.

42:20Now we're much more irritable. We're much more, uh, nervous system is much more primed to being sensitive. Uh, and maybe we're not getting good sleep. Now, the other thing that happens in perimenopause is then our estrogen keeps, is starting to go up and down. I like to joke it rocks harder than an ACDC concert because, uh, it is just up and it's down and it's unpredictable. Now studies have shown that the right amount of estrogen and you have sexual fantasies. You are like all about your partner. You're too much estrogen and you're actually more critical of your partner.

42:52You're much more critical of them and you're much more irritable. Some women have the extra added benefit. That's a joke. It's not actually a benefit of histamine issues too. So as estrogen goes up, histamine goes up. As histamine goes up, estrogen goes up. Histamine, we think about for allergies, but histamine in the brain, that can also make us feel aggravated. We can feel more irritable. And if you feel like you have like the period flu symptoms where like it's hormonally driven flu-like symptoms, you're going to be interested in sex.

43:25So there's those two hormonal pieces in early perimenopause. Once we get into late phase perimenopause, estrogen is down. Sexual fantasies down. Pain with sex comes on. We're not able to self-lubricate, which by the way, in the luteal phase, you don't self-lubricate either. That's also normal. So now we need lube. We probably need vaginal estradiol as well, which doesn't go systemic. So we don't worry about that. If you have a history of breast cancer, we don't worry about it. It's not going systemic. And it's going to help keep your vaginal microbiome healthy as well, which is so, so important

43:57so that you don't end up with yeast vaginitis, bacterial vaginosis, and UTIs. Because if you get that, you're also not going to have sex. If every time you have sex, you get an infection, you're not interested in that. So we see that decline. But there's also the effect on the brain. So we are feeling, we feel less happy, honestly. We know that women in perimenopause, menopause with the hormone decline that happens, 40% risk. We're seeing 40% of that population with new onset anxiety and depression.

44:27So we're not happy in our brain. Our brain doesn't feel good. Our body doesn't feel good. As estrogen is going down, insulin resistance is rising. Visceral adiposity is accumulating. We're getting belly fat. Our body's changing. Now we have body image issues. Maybe not yet true for you, but this can happen. Body image issues and threat of unintended pregnancy are two big reasons why women will get out of the mood, not be able to get in the mood, or have an inability to orgasm. They have a major impact on our mental health. Now with that said, for some women, vaginal estrogen, lube, and they have no chance of getting

45:04pregnant. They are in the mood all the time. And we also understand that testosterone, 50%-ish is made from the ovaries. They go, okay, but you got your adrenal glands. They make DHEA. DHEA gets converted into testosterone. So you may still have testosterone going. But if you don't, we need to look at that piece as well because testosterone plays a very important role in our sexual health as well. Now the thing that doesn't get talked about enough, I talked about this a lot and is this

45:35normal, insulin resistance and inflammation are very bad for your libido and your orgasms. We don't talk about this enough. When we have insulin resistance, damage can be done to the clitoris. When that glucose is elevated, the nerves in the clitoris can become damaged. Now we have an inability to orgasm. If sex is painful and sex is not fun and you don't even get an orgasm out of it, you're going to be less inclined to want that. Now the last thing that I will say on this topic is women are also going through a significant

46:08life change that causes them to reflect on their life and also recognize that in most cases they have been a caretaker to their children, their parents, to their partner. There's a lot of stress going on during this period of time. Stress, for some people, makes them want to have more sex, but for most people it makes them want to have less sex. So again, it's that robbing you of anything that is like reproductively driven. But the other thing is that relationships can become challenging and strained because women

46:40are tired after 40 something years, you know, of showing up for everyone else and maybe being in a marriage for 20 years where you have constantly let him borrow your brain. You've been his secretary. You've been his house cleaner. You've been his babysitter. You have been like all of these roles, right? That like as women, we have to pay people to help us do these things. But for men, they get to use women and their unpaid labor and it is exploitive. It really is. And I do want to say that there are lots of partnerships where this works beautifully.

47:13It works absolutely beautifully. But there are ones where it doesn't and it does feel absolutely exploitive and it feels like I have been used as a means to an end and not valued for the person that I am. And that can create strife in a relationship. So when it comes to libido, it's never just your hormones. And it's sometimes that hormones lead to a desire not to have sex or having pain with sex. And that leads to relationship issues. And even if we correct the hormone issues, the relationship issues have persisted.

47:46And so those also have to be addressed as well. So what I'm saying, what I want women to hear is it's not that you're broken and it's not just a you issue. There are so many factors, including societal stressors and inputs and expectations that we didn't even talk about that can be contributing to low sexual desire. Yeah. Wow. Such a great answer. Sure. You've spoken about the importance, too, of brain hormone connection. How can women support their mental and emotional well-being through this time when they're experiencing

48:19this? Oh, gosh. You know, OK. So I'm going to say I did Lupron. I have endometriosis, adenomyosis. I did an injection of Lupron for two months. Do not recommend. Zero out of 10. Worst thing ever. Because what Lupron does is a medication. It's chemical castration. And you essentially just go into menopause within a couple of weeks. There's no perimenopause. It is just boom. Here's your hot flashes. Here's your depression. Here is your brain fog. Here is your inability to do anything like that you used to do to the capacity that you

48:50would expect yourself to do. Wait. Can I pause you for a second there? I'm super interested. I used Lupron for I did. I froze my eggs. And is that is that the same type of drug? Like when you go through like the process of IVF with using Lupron, like I had to do it for the whole like cycle of it. Is that the same type of drug that you're talking about here? With Lupron. So Lupron is given so that you stop making hormones. You stop ovulating. You stop producing estrogen. You stop making all hormones.

49:22When you're doing an IVF cycle, they're usually injecting you with FSH and LH. So follicle stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormone to cause lots of eggs to proliferate. Using Lupron long term in that situation would stop you from producing eggs. So I doubt that's that's what they use. There's different like there's definitely different protocols. But the standard for IVF is follicle stimulating hormone, luteinizing hormone, get you to make lots of eggs. Then doing like the overdraw like trigger shot in some instances.

49:56You know, there's actually several medications that they can use to free up your eggs and then they're going to harvest them. Gotcha. Okay. Makes sense. Got it. Yeah. You would know if you're on Lupron because Lupron is it is you're going to have hot flashes. You're going to have all the menopausal symptoms. You're going to have vaginal dryness. Like everything hits you all at once. So to the mental health component, I actually am developing a supplement that I've just named Radiant Mind because when I went through this, I was like, I have to have something because

50:31I was like I was just in a spiral. So I started I leveraged saffron. Most of the companies that I have found didn't have enough saffron. So I was like doubling up on it. Then I was using things like Bacopa, leveraging acetylcholine, which is a certain form of choline, which you can get choline in eating eggs. We know this is really important for neuronal development of infants. It's really important for your neuronal health. So I'm actually coming out with this supplement soon.

51:02It's been in lots of lots of research and development. But because I went through that and I very much am like when it is my time for menopause, I'm going to have this. Like I'm this for me. I've had several friends who are like, oh, like who did you make? Who do you make this in mind for? I'm like me. Me. Because I don't want to end up on an SSRI with the side effects, which can be low libido, inability to orgasm, having withdrawals when I come off.

51:33Like certainly like SSRIs have a time and a place. But if I can do it without needing that, I already have to take a thyroid medication every day. So I'm like, that's enough. And then, you know, you're talking about IVF. I'm like, I've been through IVF. I've been through like my organized calendar of like taking this and taking that and like so many things that I'm like, you need to keep it simple. So anyhow, that's some things. Those are some of the supplements that I have utilized. Omega-3 fatty acids are another one super important for brain health.

52:07Make sure that you're getting one that is third party tested and that is actually distilled in a way to try to remove some of the environmental pollutants that just are inherently in fish and in fish oil. But we have ways like in our company that we can remove some of those so that we're not upping our exposure on those things. So making sure that you're also optimizing your blood sugar. If you have insulin dysregulation alone, you don't even have diabetes yet.

52:37You don't even have prediabetes, but we're seeing fasting insulin levels are going up. That can be affecting your brain energy and how your brain actually is able to function. Anything that supports mitochondrial health is going to support your brain health. It will support your ovaries as long as they're working. Also your heart as well. So we're looking at CoQ10 is a really important one, ubiquinol. Looking at like L-carnitine, alpha-lipoic acid, and then making sure you're eating a really

53:07nutrient-dense diet, lots of polyphenols. Polyphenols, it's so funny because I'm writing my next book and I was reading all this research about polyphenols and rosemary. And I have a ton of rosemary growing at my house. And last night I was like making tomato soup with onions, garlic, great for liver detoxification, had bell peppers in there. But I was like rosemary. And then rosemary, like garlic bread. And rosemary, I was like putting rosemary on everything. My husband's like, whoa, this is like rosemary night. I'm like, you don't even know the research I just read today.

53:38Like it's so important. It's so important. So rosemary, blueberries, pomegranates, green tea, polyphenols, great for your gut health, great for your brain health, great on the cellular level. Dr. Cara Fitzgerald has done, she actually has done research in this really groundbreaking research showing that high polyphenol diet for eight weeks reversed people's biological age by over four years. Like in just two months, loading up their polyphenols, they aged backwards cellularly.

54:13So this is why I'm like, your diet matters. And any doctor who tells you it doesn't matter what you eat, like just walk away from them knowing it's not their level of expertise. Yeah. Wow. Amazing. Dr. Brayton, thank you for sharing your expertise, for helping so many women feel seen, heard, and most importantly, empowered in their health journeys. Thank you, Dr. Brayton, for your time today and for sharing your expertise. Appreciate you. Yeah. Thank you so much. Hey, really quick before you go, I have one small favor to ask.

54:46If this episode brought you value or sparked something in you, take just a moment to hit that review button. Your rating and review make all of the difference, helping more women discover the tools they need to transform the fitness and their confidence. It takes less than a minute, but it can change the path of someone else's journey. Thank you so much for leaving that review. I appreciate you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

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