Unlocking Hormonal Health - A Conversation w/ Lara Briden

00:00Real quick, the only ask I could ever have of you guys is to help spread the word so we can help more women lose body fat, build muscle, reach their goals, and feel insanely confident. And the only way we can do that is if you rate, review, and share this podcast. So the single thing I ask for you to do is if you could leave a review. It will take you 10 seconds, and it will mean the absolute world to me and may change the world of someone else. This sort of idea that it's absolutely fine to routinely put young women on a medication that suppresses their hormone production.

00:32I mean, for decades now, I've just found that astonishing that that's where we ended up. It would be like, you know, just say to young women, you don't need ovulation. Basically, you don't need your own hormones until you're ready to make a baby. It would be like saying to men, look, you know, you don't need testicular function or testosterone until you're ready to make a baby. So we're going to shut that down. And then we're going to replace your testosterone with this medication that's like kind of like testosterone, but a little bit more, really more like estrogen. And it's going to affect everything in your body, including your brain and your metabolic health. And it's fine because that's, you know, what we do.

01:03So that's where women are at at this point. What's going on, everybody? Welcome back to The WarriorBabe Show. Or if this is one of your first episodes, hey, you are here on a good one. I'm really excited to be honored by Laura Bryden, who is joining us here today. She is a renowned naturopathic, I always stumble on saying that word, naturopathic doctor and author and women's health advocate.

01:36She's got over 25 years of experience in women's health, and she's become a leading voice on the power of natural solutions for hormonal health and menstrual wellness and all of that good stuff. You know, we like to talk about all of this stuff on this podcast. So I'm really excited to have her here and to dive into her wealth of knowledge on how women can navigate hormonal changes and thrive at every stage of life. So, Laura, first, welcome to the show. Hi, thanks so much for having me. It's great to meet you.

02:06Likewise, likewise. So you've been a naturopathic doctor. See, I just got to say it once and then I can say it. Yeah, you've got it. You've been a naturopathic doctor for over 25 years, and you've become a strong advocate for empowering women and getting them to understand their bodies more. So what sparked your interest in this field and how has your approach evolved over the years? Yeah, that's a great opening question. I started out as an evolutionary biologist. So way back, I actually published a peer-reviewed paper in sex differences in foraging behavior.

02:42So I've been looking back. I realized I was very interested in female physiology from almost day one, you know, as a biologist. And then I realized at some point I really wanted to work more with people. So I trained as a naturopathic doctor in Canada. I'm Canadian, even though I live in New Zealand. So it's a little bit confusing for people. And yeah, and then when I started in general practice, 25, 27, whatever years ago it is now, I was just in a small town in Canada and just, you know, treating everyone.

03:16And I still treat everyone potentially. But mostly I was, over the years, I just had more and more experience with women and particularly with women with menstrual problems, with like perimenopause, hormonal problems. As you can imagine, because back in the 90s, they really weren't getting solutions from anywhere else. So I got to learn early on that what I'd learned as a naturopathic doctor, a lot of the nutritional approaches work incredibly well for female health. So then I was able to eventually harness that into my three books that I have.

03:51My first one was Period of Paramanual, which was now almost 10 years ago. Yeah. Thank you for sending me those books too. I can't wait to dive into them. Okay. So you mentioned nutritional approach. I cannot wait to pick your brain on that because as I shared with you very briefly, you know, prior to us hitting record, women that listen to this podcast are 45, 65 years old and they're going through menopause or prior to it. And I firmly always say nutrition is king and exercise is queen.

04:22Right. But a lot of people really struggle with the nutritional aspects. So I can't wait to like pick your brain on that. Mm-hmm. So let's talk about metabolic health first to kick it off. Okay. And you often talk about metabolic health as like a whole body project. So can you explain why addressing metabolic dysfunction requires a holistic approach? Yeah. You must have read my mind this morning because it's morning here, early morning here in New Zealand. And I was just, as I was getting up and having my coffee, I'm just thinking, I need to do a social media post on whole body versus, you know, a very prescriptive approach.

05:02Because of course we do see out there, it's like, all you need to do is boom, boom, boom, like 0.123 and, you know, you're good. And then people do those and then they're like, hmm, actually I'm not good. You know, there's still something going on. So a whole body approach is very much in period of perimenual, my first book, I made the, I put forward the concept that, you know, fix your health and you'll fix your period. Basically, you know, the menstruation in many ways is an expression of general health. I would say that's true also for perimenopausal symptoms to some extent.

05:35That's also true definitely for metabolic health. So having conversations with fellow naturopathic doctors lately, just talking about, yeah, it's, you know, it's like every other condition. You treat the person and you treat metabolism. So by metabolic health, I am in my book, Metabolism Repair for Women, which is really all about metabolic health, is I'm primarily talking about the very common problem of insulin resistance or metabolic inflexibility. That's what I mean by metabolic health. The term is much broader than that.

06:06And it does encompass a lot more than just, you know, insulin or the specific metabolic hormones. But yeah, I do take the approach in there in that book of, okay, you need to like look at the whole person. And I list about 24 different metabolic obstacles. Like for that individual, you know, what is the thing that's standing between them and their, you know, their current position of potentially metabolic inflexibility or difficulty losing weight or, you know, chronic fatigue, like fatigue symptoms or whatever you want to call it.

06:36Tendency to low blood sugar. And what's standing between sort of where they're at and where their birthright, what I would call their, where the body wants to be, which is to be metabolically flexible, which is to be metabolically healthy. There's always a way back. In the book, I call it the road home and it's there for everyone and it's not going to be the same road for everyone. Yeah. Why does, so there's like traditional ways you could go about it, but then there's like what I love about naturopathic doctors is you guys focus on the holistic side. Like why would addressing these metabolic dysfunctions, like what you just said, you know, there could be disruptions in certain processes in our body that are causing the whole body to be out of kilter.

07:19Why would that require a holistic approach? I'll give you a really concrete example. Yeah. I'll give you a concrete example. Just come straight out of my work with patients, which all my books do just came straight out of conversations. You know, a couple of decades of conversations with patients. Here's just a concrete example of what a metabolic obstacle, a big one is gut health. So people can be chasing, you know, perfecting their, you know, diet, perfecting, just perfecting, dialing in whatever they've decided is the best, you know, exercise for them.

07:53And meanwhile, they've got something called SIBO or small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. And that generates a lot of information. That situation in the gut causes something well known in science called metabolic endotoxemia, which is just a gut inflammation driver of insulin resistance. So certainly I've had patients for whom maybe they're doing everything else right. I'm just like, let's just fix your gut. And we do that. And then, you know, one of the patient stories in the book, she's like, oh, my sugar, my afternoon sugar cravings that I just plagued me for years.

08:27And I couldn't, you know, I was having to use willpower for years to withstand have just disappeared in her case. That's what it can, that's what it can be like when fixing one thing reverberates through the system and, you know, sort of everything fixes the whole system. And it's not always that simple. And I'm certainly not saying every single person, you know, it's a gut issue. This is what I mean by troubleshooting. Some people, their gut is fine. Some people, it's going to be, you know, something else entirely. But gut's a really common one, which is why I find I often do talk about it in interviews because it's, and also an interesting thing about gut problems.

09:01It's also one mechanism by which ultra processed food, particularly ultra refined carbohydrates tend to drive or promote insulin resistance or metabolic dysfunction. Of course, there's the way they, you know, stimulate blood glucose, but it's more than that. I think it's actually the way they, it's actually ultra refined carbohydrates that can ferment in the gut during SIBO or small intestinal bacterial overgrowth and generate a lot of intestinal permeability and inflammation. So I actually think for some people, if they go, just as an example, if they go lower carbohydrate or cut some of those refined carbohydrates, I think actually they're treating their gut as the primary mechanism that they're treating their metabolism.

09:41That's just one example. Got it. Love that. I love that example. I think a lot of people can totally resonate with that. It's like, okay, if I fix, if, if I'm dealing with gut issue things, or I recognize that my gut is off, then I take a holistic approach, which kind of is going to come into this next question that I have for you. Because it is a complex, like interplay of lifestyle factors, like what can correlate to a metabolic dysfunction in a human being. So could you elaborate? And this is where I want to pick your brain on like how nutrition, how exercise, how sleep, how stress management, like how they all work together to create a foundation for metabolic health and why it's so critical to address them like as interconnected pieces of the same puzzle.

10:27Yeah. Yeah. Well, so I'll talk a little bit about the nervous system now as another example. And just thinking, obviously, so everyone agrees. I mean, diet is important, but it's important for various reasons, not just, I'm sure we're on the same page. You know, it's not purely just calories, obviously, or it's not even purely just, you know, macros. There's a lot going on with diet. So like I do talk about food sensitivities in the book, and here's an example, like someone not, and of course, many people don't have food sensitivity.

10:59So that's not an issue for them, but some people do. And for people who do have, for example, a dairy sensitivity, I do talk about that in the book. That could be, you know, creating some mass cell activation or histamine response, and that interacts with the immune system. And that can, in part, dysregulate. It's sort of a two-way street, actually, with something called the autonomic nervous system. I'm currently working on some new content on the autonomic nervous system. Your listeners probably know a little bit about that.

11:30This is the parasympathetic versus sympathetic sort of balance in the body. Meaning like fight or flight. Yeah. Yeah. And we need both sides, actually. It's not like the – in fact, the sympathetic aspect of – the sympathetic nervous system or the, you know, adrenaline part of the nervous system is actually quite important for metabolic health and fat loss as well. So we need both, and we need this, like, kind of balanced oscillation between them. A lot of this will show up. People might be tracking their heart rate variability. That's what this is a marker of, right? I love my HRV.

12:01I got it up to 160 when I sleep. Okay. HR – right. So HRV is a direct – pretty – not direct – well, pretty closely to direct measure of what the state of your autonomic nervous system. And a lot of people, their autonomic nervous system has got – they've got things going on with that. There'll be things upstream from that that have sort of dysregulated that. I used food sensitivities as one example, but there's lots of others. And that actually has a huge impact on metabolic health. And it really does on, you know, certainly on blood sugar balance.

12:31A lot of young women in particular can get blood sugar crashes from autonomic – mild autonomic dysfunction, which is actually – I didn't – I sort of knew. But until I started working on some of this recent content, I didn't actually realize how widespread mild autonomic dysfunction is in women, especially in girls, like young teenagers. And then into women's early 20s, they do get a lot of blood sugar instability from the autonomic nervous system. And that's very different from what 45-year-old men might be getting from, like, insulin problems.

13:02Like, it's – you know, they're very different situations. So that's – I forget your original question. But, yeah, the autonomic nervous system is another, you know, really good example of a place where diet affects that. Well, you know, stress affects that. Circadian rhythm affects the autonomic nervous system. Lots of things do. And then that, in turn, you know, definitely feeds into, you know, blood sugar control and energy balance. It actually directly feeds into how much energy you, you know, burn on a day-to-day basis.

13:34It affects hunger to a large extent. So, yeah, there's – in the chapter four of my new book, I do – because I'm a biologist, so I had to explore the biology of metabolic health, of course, even though it's complex. And early in that section, I do talk a little bit about embracing the complexity in the sense that people do not have to – no one does, not even practitioners, I think, don't have to fully understand every single nuance or, you know, gear that's happening in this complex.

14:06Thing that is metabolic health because that would be impossible. And we can't micromanage every single aspect of it, every single hormone. You know, we talk about leptin and glucagon. Like, there's just so many hormones. But we can take away – by embracing the complexity, we can just take away this understanding that by addressing one thing, like maybe removing a food – avoiding a food sensitivity, for example. You can have all these knock-on effects that you affect your autonomic nervous system and you affect, therefore, your energy burning systems.

14:42You affect your sleep. You affect everything else downstream from that. So, that's the idea. Yeah. Yeah. So, kind of to unpack that a little bit, you mentioned the nutritional aspect of things, right? It's not just calories. It's not just macros. It's also like understanding that if we have these sensitivities to things and becoming aware of the sensitivity to the things because we can remove them and then that can kind of play into addressing like the – almost like the fix, essentially, right? So, to piggyback off of that, what would you say – okay, so that would be like one streamline of things for nutritional approach is like trying to figure out the puzzle pieces of which may be a symptom that's occurring in somebody that they can address to make the metabolic health better.

15:31Yeah. How can somebody recognize – I'm going to kind of get to that maybe in the next question. Yeah. But like because there's some things that they should start to recognize and maybe something is off. Like how would somebody know gut health is off or they have SIBO or like – Yeah. Like, you know? Yeah. Well, so some of it will be obviously just from symptoms. So, I have quite a big section on SIBO in my new book. Well, in all books I mention it, but in my latest one I do the biggest discussion because it's just so common.

16:03A lot of people with irritable bowel syndrome possibly have SIBO as an underlying diagnosis really. I mean, irritable bowel is such a – such a – like such an umbrella diagnosis. It's really describing all sorts of different things. So, I mean, some people can just tell by symptoms and I do list some of the symptoms of all the different potential metabolic obstacles in the book. But also some people may need the help of their clinician to help to troubleshoot or dial in what might be the best place to start.

16:37And I do have some – as in all my books, I have little sections on, you know, how to speak to your doctor about this particular issue or how to, you know, how to find out if you have gluten sensitivity. And I don't want to overplay the food sensitivity thing because it's not – certainly that's not even probably the most common obstacle. But it's one that gets missed and it's – yeah, one that I've had just good results with my patients. Yeah. Yeah, totally an example. I would love to kind of continue down that, like, path. But I'm going to link – I'm going to make sure, like, all your books are linked.

17:09But everyone can obviously go in, like, if they're interested in reading them and diving into a little bit more of what you're saying here and being able to read the symptoms or have confidence in talking to a doctor if they're recognizing anything. That seemed to be a little bit off. But one last question on this topic is, like, okay, so let's say, for example, right, because I think this is a good example. There's a lot of people that always ask me, like, Nikki, bring more gut health conversations to the podcast, is, okay, if somebody has SIBO or ear to bowel syndrome or something that's off in their gut, how can that play a factor in them not getting the results they want when they're – if something is off, right?

17:47And you mentioned insulin resistance. You mentioned, like, metabolic inflexibility. Like, if those things are off, it's going to be harder for somebody to lose weight, right? Well, yes. I mean, quite simply. And it's hard. It's hard. Anytime we try to, you know, really simplify something, it's to some extent oversimplified. But I will just say the main feature of insulin resistance, which affects at least 40% of the general population, certainly a much higher percentage in older people, is chronically elevated levels of the hormone insulin.

18:20And one of its effects, one of its many, many effects, is that it prevents fat loss, basically. It basically makes it much, much harder for the body to access body fat for energy. And that has then a dual, a two-prong negative effect, which is, one, it's harder to burn fat. And two, it's harder to get that body fat for energy between meals. And one important thing is that, as humans, our main, our preferred, our mitochondria is another sort of player in all this, but our, you know, our cellular energy, it's actually preferred baseline kind of fasting energy source is fat.

19:04So it will, I mean, obviously, after a meal, we're going to burn whatever was in the meal, including carbohydrates. And then we do have, you know, glycogen or carbohydrate stores to tap into with, especially with more strenuous activity. And as you know, like, we're always burning a mix of fat and carb, but in a healthy, metabolically flexible state, non-insulin resistant state, we should be in the resting, fasting state burning about 80% fat. So, like, that should be coming from, we should be tapping at the body. It's like, no problem.

19:34You know, I've got all this. Even someone who's not overweight has a lot of fat stores to burn for energy. And that's how we're designed. And that's how we're built. So it's, yeah, to lose access to that, that's one of the, I guess that's one of the main sort of ways I would characterize insulin resistance. It's the state of being trapped in carb burning, not able to, you know, access the fat that your body would really like to have, not just for, you know, body composition reasons, but just because it needs that energy. And so one of the symptoms that is of insulin resistance is not being able to go very long between meals, getting, you know, sort of quite fatigued and reliant on carb snacking just to get through the afternoon or, you know, maybe potentially to get through the night.

20:19I am working on, like I said, I'm working on some content, new content around such a common problem of people getting hypoglycemia overnight and sort of needing to snack at midnight. And that's not something, if that's what's happening with your physiology, that's as with anything, I'm sure, you know, from the work you've done with women, like it's, it's when someone's having hypoglycemia or is like really hungry or really fatigued, willpower cannot sort of help them at that point. You know, that is past the point of they can just, you know, they need, it needs to be, the treatment needs to be upstream from that to improve their energy supply to their cells in the first place.

20:57So they don't, yeah. Totally. Yeah. Like it has a cry for the body needing to address something internally that. Yeah. You can't withstand, we're animals, right? This is where my work as a biologist comes in. Like when your cells are starving for energy as they can be in insulin resistance and may need you to eat like a granola bar, that is, that can become pretty much non-negotiable at that point. That's not something people can be like, oh, I really shouldn't. It's like, you know, I'm, you know, the cells are like, we're in trouble here. We need, we need more energy.

21:28So quick break. If you're finding this episode helpful so far, it would mean a lot if you could hit pause for just a second, leave a quick rating or a review or share it with someone who could benefit from it. Your support helps more women discover these tools to build muscle, lose fat and feel confident. Thank you so much for being a part of this journey with me. Yeah. So going off of this, if women want to look to improve their metabolic health, what would you recommend that they, like, how do they start?

22:01Like, what would you say if somebody has, I don't know. I mean, it's like people should get tested first and foremost. People should get tested to see where, like, I just got recently tested and I'm excited to the next, I'm hopping on a podcast in an hour and a half and we're going to read my results. But it's really important to be tested to see if there are any, first of all, if you're recognizing the symptoms that you're having, you should get tested. But then from there, it's like, okay, well, how, how can somebody improve their metabolic health and where would you recommend that they start?

22:31What should they prioritize first? Even if they don't get tested. 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. 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.

23:09Imagine 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. That's warriorbabe.com forward slash apply. All right, let's get back to the show. Yeah. Right. So I agree.

23:39I mean, I do a lot of testing with my patients. You have to sort of know what you're testing. Have like specific questions of what you're testing for. Obviously, I guess one of the things I do talk a lot about in the book is, well, how to test if you have insulin resistance, which is the essentially the metabolic condition we've been talking about. I'll just make one takeaway for everyone. Is it a test for blood glucose? Glucose, even in tests for HbA1c is not, cannot rule out normal, normal blood glucose cannot rule out insulin resistance because it's actually a condition of chronically elevated insulin.

24:11So that's, so there's other ways to sort of look for that. So I guess that would be step one is to figure out if you do have insulin resistance or recently had it. And then the next couple of steps, I guess I'll, yeah, I'll just talk through what I would say are the next couple of steps. Step two would be to accept or like truly believe that it is possible to have more energy and feel less hungry. And that's the metric, right? That's, that's the, the goal. So that's, if that's the proximate goal in that that is what people are aiming for, even before the number on the scale changes or anything.

24:45Like the, I think the only way back, as I call it back home, the road home to metabolic health is to fairly early on in the process, have more energy and feel naturally feel less hungry. And that's just, and that you'll have seen that, you know, working with women that kicks in, if you're doing the right things for that individual, that will kick in and people will be like, oh, this is actually, that's why it's sustainable is because actually I feel a lot better. And then step three would be, and that's had to, I had to spread that out over two chapters would be getting what you need. So we are biological creatures.

25:17We all of us do have some, a number of non-negotiable requirements. And that would include, you know, social connection of some form. It looks, it looks different for different people, but that would include like a healthy circadian rhythm. There is a lot of science suggesting that misaligned circadian rhythm is a major driver of insulin resistance. So that's an easy one to just using light and timing of meals to make sure you're aligned with the 24 hour cycle of your time zone.

25:48And then I have a whole section on getting what you need nutritionally. And part of, you know, we talked about how all the different ways that food will influence metabolic health. Another big one is just actually getting enough of the micronutrients. So it's going a little, I mean, macros are important as well. I'm a big fan of, you know, getting enough protein. So that's, I think my section on food starts with, you know, very early on. It's like, get enough protein. That's an easy way to give your body something very important that it is looking for and needs.

26:22But even beyond that, like we, there's all these missing macronutrients in our, or sorry, micronutrients in our modern diet. And arguably that's potentially a big part of the problem for a lot of people is our diet is just to a large extent stripped of nutrients that our fairly recent ancestors had. And a number of them directly support metabolic health. So again, I would consider them non-negotiable. I do talk about supplementation. I have the five missing metabolic nutrients that I, I call them the five missing.

26:55I mean, there's more than five that are missing, but those are the big ones. I think when it comes to insulin sensitivity, which one are they? What are they? Yeah, I'm happy to give the five. People don't have to buy the book to get the five. Magnesium, the amino acid taurine, choline. Choline was a big one we used to get from organ meats. I'm old enough to remember back when liver was on the, you know, weekly rotation in my home when I was a kid. Inositol is the second one we get would traditionally have had from organ meats.

27:26So inositol, people might know it. It's a very popular supplement for insulin resistance and polycystic ovary syndrome or PCOS. And number five is glycine, which is also from animal foods. Glycine is the main amino acid in collagen. So a lot of people take glycine as collagen. You can also just take glycine on its own. And it has all five. So magnesium, taurine, choline, and acetal and glycine have support mitochondria, support directly support metabolic health via several mechanisms and also support sleep and do other good things.

28:00Love that. Thank you for sharing. Yeah. I mean, your books, they're all I'm excited to dive into them. And I'm, of course, like I said, I'm going to link them. There's so much I'm hearing from you now, like, you know, saying it's in the book. It's in the book. I'm really excited to dive in to see like specifics on like the topics that we're talking on and dive a little bit deeper into them. Yeah. So I'm going to put a pin on metabolic health. Yes. And I want to chat a little bit because I think this will resonate with some of the listeners that are listening. And like, you know, the books that you're talking about that you've written, they're really impactful in helping us understand how to better understand our bodies.

28:37And one of them includes period repair. Yeah. Which is your period repair manual. And I want to ask you a question, like, what are because there's so many myths and there's so many misconceptions around menstruation that women have grown up with. And so from your perspective, what are like the most harmful myths about period that you've come across? And how can you, you know, debunk them here with us on the podcast and help women understand their mental health a little bit better? Yeah. Great question.

29:07Well, I do have a number one thing that is a weird sort of paradigm that we've got locked into in the last 70 years. This idea that ovulation is not important. So ovulation, which is obviously the release of an egg, which is, you know, we think about that for making a baby, of course. But it's the main event of the menstrual cycle. And then, you know, the bleed that comes two weeks later is really just an inevitable result of ovulation. You're either pregnant or you have, if you, once you ovulate, you're either pregnant or you have a period.

29:42And ovulation is not just to release an egg, though. It's actually the engine of the menstrual cycle. It's how we make our two main hormones, estradiol and progesterone. So men are quirky in that they make their testosterone every day. You know, women, we make our hormones on a young women, make their reproductive age women, make their hormones on a monthly cycle. And, you know, the paradigm, when I say 70 years, that's really how long the pill has been around. It switches off ovulation and then it replaces menstrual cycles with this induced withdrawal bleed, which means nothing.

30:17Actually, there's no medical reason to bleed monthly on the pill because it's just mimicking something. So to this sort of idea that it's absolutely fine to put routinely put young women on a medication that suppresses their hormone production. I just I mean, for decades now, I've just found that astonishing that that's where we ended up. It would be like, you know, just say to young women, you don't need ovulation. Basically, you don't need your own hormones until you're ready to make a baby. It would be like saying to men, look, you know, you don't need testicular function or testosterone until you're ready to make a baby.

30:52So we're going to shut that down and then we're going to replace your testosterone with this medication. That's like kind of like testosterone, but a little bit more, really more like estrogen. And it's going to affect everything in your body, including your brain and your metabolic health. And it's fine because that's what we do. So that's where women are at at this point. I know that's maybe quite strongly worded, but I just know. Before I go on with this, I'm just like, what are we on this podcast? What are we doing? Like what is happening? Like, and it's, and so of course we're now, I think, I don't know, I'm curious to get your feedback.

31:28I mean, I think we're now finally breaking through. Like there are more and more young women just going, no, I'm not shutting down my ovulation. I mean, fortunately there are other methods. More, you know, more methods are coming where women can both reliably avoid pregnancy and also keep their own cycles, which are their own menstrual cycles, their own hormone production, which just, you know, to put it in context from a metabolic perspective are beneficial. So our own estradiol that women make is anabolic.

32:00It's metabol insulin enhancing. Like it's, it's a, it's really, as I talk about in my third book, estradiol is to a large extent, you know, metabolic superpower and young women have it naturally. And that's to a large extent what actually protects shelters young women from insulin resistance. But unless they shut it all down with the pill, and I'll just say like the, the, the medications and hormonal birth control are not as usually not estradiol and progesterone. It's never, they're never real progesterone. There are a couple of pills that use body identical or real estradiol, but most of them use different medic, something called ethanol estradiol, which does not have the same benefits for any part of the body.

32:41Really. First of all, I commend you and welcome those strong opinions on this podcast. I am down to have conversations. And if we have opposing views, as long as they're, you know, you have your opinions. I have my opinions. We both have perspectives. We can have a conversation around it. But this, this perspective, I completely 110% agree with you on. I, from a very young age, watched my stepmom struggle with getting pregnant. And it was because she was on birth control.

33:13Well, that was one of the reasons why we thought it was. Could be other things too as well. But she's on birth control from a very young age. And from that, I remember I was probably 14 years old and maybe even younger. And I was like, I'm making the firm decision right now. I'm never going on birth control forever at any point in my life. And I have never gone on birth. Actually, I lie. I had to take it. And I nearly had a conniption. I had to take it because I froze my eggs. And a part of the process or a part of one of their strategies, because I didn't have to do it the second time.

33:47But the first time I did it, I had to take it for seven days. And I was like, the first day that I recorded on social media, I was like, I am freaking out. I promised myself when I was like 13 years old, I would never take this. And, but I firmly agree with it and what you're saying, because you're putting fake hormones into your body. When on a monthly basis, we already generate so many of these amazing hormones that we need to be able to produce. So I hear you. And I agree with you 110%. So with that, though, because there are, and I've expressed this, actually, I had a soul episode when I talked about this.

34:20And I had a lot of feedback in terms of like, okay, if I'm coming off and people are kind of, I think, waking up a little bit more to this perspective. If I'm coming off of birth control, many women struggle with like the symptoms when they're discontinuing this hormonal birth control. So from your perspective, like what is, what's happening first of all, first of all, during this transition and how can women best like support themselves through it? Yeah. Well, that's, so first of all, I wrote a whole book on that. That's period of paramanuel basically is how to have, get your own cycles back without the pill.

34:55Yeah. So what's happening? I mean, I guess in simple terms, and again, it's always a danger in saying something simply because there's always other aspects to it. But I guess in simplest terms, a takeaway would be pill bleeds are not menstrual cycles. So like whatever the, you know, regular pill bleed has looked like for the last 10 or 15 years, however long people have been on, you know, a combined estrogen pill producing regular bleeds. That doesn't mean it like that means zero in terms of what the underlying menstrual cycle might be like.

35:32So with my own patients, for example, if they're wondering what is, what are my periods going to be like when I come off the pill? My first question is, well, what were they like before you went on it? Because that's what we're going back to essentially keeping in mind, you know, they're older and their diet may be different. And like, there may be some things that have changed, but we do have to like unmask the real menstrual cycle and see what is happening there. So, and one of, in terms of one of the concerns people might experience is, you know, they stop, they stop the pill and then their pill bleeds, their induced pill withdrawal bleeds stop.

36:06And then like, oh, my period stopped. But it's like, no, you're now just actually giving your body a chance to like, can it have a menstrual cycle? And so lack of cycles or irregular cycles is one of the possibilities coming off the pill is obviously others is like pain or premenstrual mood, or we could spend a whole episode talking about all the different troubleshooting you can do around that. But let's just taking the example of the period not coming. Then when I'm working with my patients, the first thing I would say is, well, how actually one of the most useful things I find is how many years of cycling did you have before you went on hormonal birth control?

36:41Because it does take a number of years, actually up to 12 years, which is quite interesting to fully mature the menstrual cycle. So in the first couple of years, a girl's, you know, 12 year olds getting her bleeds that can be quite irregular. That's sort of normal. They're usually what's called an ovulatory. So in those days, there'd be a lot of estrogen, but no progesterone coming online. So they'll often be heavier. And then, but over, you know, over time, if all is progressing normally, then they should become regular and start making a lot of progesterone, which lightens them and reduces pain and various things.

37:17So, so I'll say to my patients, like, how many did you, and that maturation process is important. So I'll say, how many years of actual cycling did you get under your belt before it was all sort of put on pause? Because that will help tell us what is it potentially going to be like now. And I do find that even though I've just said it takes 12 years to mature the cycle, the body's pretty resilient. And I have found that even if for patients who've had even two or three years of cycling as a young teenager, coming off the pill at 32 or something is will be a much easier road.

37:48Their body will be will often figure out what it's supposed to do a bit more easily. But yeah. Awesome. I appreciate that insight. I know that's going to help a lot of people that may be in that stage of life or questioning or, you know, wondering if they should come off of it or not. I want to come back to insulin resistance really quick. How, because a lot of women experience hormonal changes during menopause and pre-menopause. So, and that often affect insulin sensitivity and metabolic health of women.

38:21So like how specifically, how do these hormonal changes during that time, how do they affect insulin sensitivity? Yeah. So the perimenopause transition, especially the later phases of it, when cycles start becoming genuinely quite far apart, that is associated, according to the scientific literature that we have so far, with major metabolic upheaval. It's in my perimenopause book, Hormone Repair Manual. I do talk about the recalibration of the whole system.

38:52There's definitely a recalibration underway with metabolic, the metabolic system. It does push everyone towards insulin resistance. You know, how deeply they go into it will depend on all the other factors, right? Like how at risk of insulin resistance they already were. So the mechanisms by which that happens, it's, again, it's several. But I can, it is, it's the drop of first, first losing progesterone. So progesterone is a player in all this too.

39:22And then losing our main estrogen, estradiol, not losing it entirely, but it does reduce, obviously, significantly. And so that's a sort of a double whammy because obviously, we just talked about how estradiol normally enhances insulin sensitivity. It's a superpower that women of reproductive age have. And then, and also the drop in both estradiol and progesterone also lets testosterone shine through a lot more. So I will just say for what it's worth, there's a sweet spot with testosterone. Testosterone is good, you know, an important hormone that women have as well.

39:55But we do have a sweet spot with that and too much testosterone in women. And that would be the case in a couple of scenarios. So polycystic ovary syndrome or PCOS is one example. There's also kind of a relative testosterone excess that happens in perimenopause. That promote directly promotes insulin resistance in women and promotes visceral, hypertrophied visceral fat. So this redistribution of fat from the bum, that kind of estrogen fat to the inside the belly, like the up under the rib cage and that sort of visceral fat.

40:27And that I talk about that quite a lot in my third book. So that is happening to everyone to some extent. There's also can be changes with, you know, thyroid hormone. There's also, I guess, one other mechanism just to tie it back to because we talked about gut quite a bit earlier in the interview. One of our main, estradiol's main, not main, but one of its many, many benefits is that it reduces intestinal permeability. It actually thickens the mucus lining in the gut and changes the microbiome. So another effect of having to adjust to a lower amount of estradiol is increased intestinal permeability or metabolic endotoxemia.

41:05That thing I mentioned at the beginning where the inflammation from the gut drives insulin resistance. So the struggle is real. It's definitely real. You know, some women in their 40s get lucky, I think, and maybe not just luck, but, you know, if they're super healthy already, like maybe athletes or they potentially won't notice this as much. But and also I do talk about in my, in hormone repair manual, our ancestors probably didn't have to worry about this too much. A lot of the shift insulin resistance is in the context of our modern environment, including environmental toxins, the modern food environment.

41:39Which is already pushing the whole population collectively into insulin resistance. So then you combine that with what happens in perimenopause and it's, yeah, very real. Yeah. I believe the narrative, like, first of all, like all of the focus on hormonal changes is becoming so much more louder over the last couple of years. And I love that so much because I think women specifically need to understand this a little bit deeper and what's going on with their bodies so they can take a little bit more control. I think for so long, like, personally, like there has just been the narrative and testing and all the things has been around men.

42:15And there's so many studies around men and it's like, like about time, like women are stepping up and I appreciate you and the work that you do because it's just bringing more of this insight and knowledge to the table. So that women can better understand this and learn about this and gain knowledge on it and be able to take action on whatever they feel like they need to do for themselves. So with that being said, you mentioned lifestyle factors, right? You mentioned like toxins and all that stuff. They all play. Like, what role does all of those pressures, lifestyle pressures, stress?

42:49How does it all play in driving insulin resistance? And because I think women, like, they think, oh, I have insulin resistance. This is my fault. This is what I did to myself. They have self-blame. They, like, they think that they did it to themselves. But, like, what role are all these other things playing into it that can drive it? Yeah, for sure. Great question. And you'll notice chapter one of my latest book is called Metabolic Dysfunction Is Not Your Fault. The role that the modern environment plays is massive.

43:21But I do want to sort of put that in context. It's not just in the moment in current time. Unfortunately, it's been happening for a few generations. So there are, like, exposure to environmental toxins, which are probably environmental toxins probably account for about one scientist. It's estimated about 15, 15% of the epidemic of insulin resistance we're seeing now. Probably food environments responsible for a lot of the rest of it. And some of that food environment could just be things like emulsifiers and ultra-processed food and, like, in some detail and high-dose linoleic acid, which is another concern I have.

44:00That would be more on sort of on the topic of what has this massive shift to vegetable oil been doing over the past few generations. And, you know, so the past few generations have been something's been going very off the rails with metabolic health. And that is being passed on to future generations by something called epigenetics. I don't want to get too complicated, but I'm just saying, like, what's happening to us in utero, even what happened to our parents or our grandparents before we were born, from a metabolic perspective, does get passed on. So this is why we now have kids with insulin resistance and, like, teenagers with fatty liver disease, which was unheard of, you know, even a couple – even one generation ago, even two generations ago.

44:42So this is where it's amplifying every generation. So this is what I mean by it's not your fault. Some people have been born, unfortunately, just, like, with very challenged, metabolically challenged in this perspective. They were kind of – their blueprint was laid down to be more vulnerable to insulin resistance, not through anything they did wrong or not really through anything their ancestors did wrong. It's just like everyone's – if you live – the food environment you live in is the food environment you eat. That's what we consider sort of normal food. So, yeah, it does mean some people have to work a lot harder at it now, which is – I acknowledge in the book is just not fair.

45:18It's not fair when you see some people sort of walking around. They're like, oh, all you have to do is this little bit of exercise and you're fine. And, like, you know, you can have a little bit of junk food and it doesn't matter. And, like, that's not the – some people have – are facing a lot more. You know, some people have to make stronger choices around going forward. And I guess that does – there's a chapter quite late in the book on food addiction. So that is going to be probably about 20% of people maybe really struggling have got some degree of – you know, with their brain and nervous system, they potentially got the challenge of overcoming that.

45:56So I hope that answers your question. Yeah, there's – I forget what the question was. Yeah, just about how – it's not your fault. Yeah, it's – It's not their fault. People haven't done this to themselves. They've been born into a world where this is happening. And, yeah. No, that's a good answer. I believe that, too. It's generational and it dates back. And it's from – like, taking things on in uteral – in the uteral environment totally makes sense. So we touched on a lot here. We touched on – we touched on metabolic, you know, health and nutritional approaches there at the beginning.

46:32We talked about period. We talked about a lot of good stuff here. And I'm excited. I mean, I have your books here. I want to get the period one. I didn't get the period one. So I'm going to try and find your period one because I'm interested on that. But, you know, every – we talked about through various different types of things here. And they all present their own, like, unique – we all present unique shifts, whether it be hormonal or we're dealing with insulin resistance or what have you. So there's got to be some foundational habits or practices that serve women, you know, well across, like, their entire life.

47:06So what are some key routines that you would recommend or dietary habits or lifestyle adjustments or self-care practices? Why don't we just go over self-care practices that you believe that every woman should prioritize to maintain hormonal balance through the different phases of their life? Well, there's – as you say, there's so many. I mean, a lot of this is in my latest book in getting what – the getting what you need chapters. I will just – I'll start with social connection because we are social animals. We really are. And that's true even for those of us who are introverts.

47:36It is – our body really loves to have, you know, those people, to spend time around those people and get that interaction. And so I just think that's important to sort of prioritize for a lot of people. Other, I guess, lifestyle things – and I'm choosing some of the ones that in my book I talk about are as the easy fixes. So I rank every metabolic obstacle by high or medium priority and difficult or easy. So anything that are high priority and easy, I might start with that because that is – you know, you can get a lot of mileage for – and once you start feeling better by correcting one of those metabolic obstacles, then the feeling better makes it a lot easier to tackle some of the harder ones.

48:17So, again, I mentioned it already earlier, but circadian rhythm is just such an easy – I don't really use the word hack, but, like, it's, like, it's just such an easy thing normally. So depending on what latitude people live in and getting outside in the morning, I think getting some outdoor light is huge for people. And it can be hard if you work full-time. I get that. But, you know, like, if you have time, like, take your coffee outside on the deck, you know, take your dog for a quick walk before work. Or, like, in winter – I know you guys are heading into the shortest days here.

48:49So I think there is potentially value in getting us, like, a full-spectrum light of some kind. And certainly when I'm back home in Canada in the winter months, I like having that, you know, hit of full light by – preferably by, you know, seven or eight to signal to the body, to the whole body, including the nervous system, the mitochondria, the microbiome, everything that it's – it's daytime now. So that's an example, sheltering from blue light at night, timing meals, protein.

49:19The timing of protein can really signal circadian rhythm as well. This is why I actually think it's quite important. One of the reasons – one of the many values of having protein in the morning is circadian rhythm. So that would be true. This is why I'm a little bit nervous about fasting through the morning hours because then we miss that opportunity to get that, you know, protein. Preach that. To tell our nervous system. That loud and clear here, Laura. Are you agree? Yeah. Yeah. So protein – so I do see a lot of people – so I'll just share with you. I'm a meat for breakfast person.

49:49So I – and I have been seeing feedback from a lot of people just saying that one thing, like finding a way to eat proper protein in the morning, can be a game changer. I don't know if you can probably find that with your clients. Like I realize there's this thing now of like, you know, steak for breakfast is kind of one of the latest – Yeah. Steak eggs, baby. Things that are out there. And I would agree with that. And so for people – and I guess we'll just offer a troubleshooting tips around that because I eat leftover meat for breakfast, like whatever's in the fridge from the night before. I just – that's usually what I'll have.

50:21And so for me – and the timing of that is so much going to depend on chronotype and just like some people are ready for breakfast at 7 a.m. Some people are not. I'll typically – it depends on your lifestyle. Obviously, if you have – if you work from home or something and have the time to have a slower start to the morning and then maybe meat by 8.30 or 9 might be a – you know, something that I – suits my nervous system. But for people who are just – because some of my patients and followers, I say meat for breakfast and they're just like horrified. They're like, I can't face that in the morning.

50:52And so it's either then one of two – well, usually it's, you know, often one of two things. It's either you're trying to do it too early. Like I don't think meat at 6.30 is probably two – most people don't want that. And then the second thing is the state of the digestion. So when the digestion is healthy and the circadian rhythm is aligned, then digestive enzymes kick in. And so, you know, being able – hungry for, you know, some animal protein or being able to eat that in the morning is actually a good sign. So sometimes I'll be like – then with my patients, I'll be like, well, let's troubleshoot your digestion and find out why – or your nervous system and find out why you're not ready for protein in the morning.

51:30If people really can't face meat, they could do protein powder or something like that. Egg whites? Yeah. Yeah. Love that. Good stuff. Connections with people. So I took away circadian rhythm and potentially putting in some meat or definitely a majority getting some protein first thing in the morning, not intermittent fasting or doing fasting in the morning. Okay. Okay. So we're all on this. It's good when we're all – it's good when I – yeah, talking to other experts like yourself. Like that's what you see works for people. Yes. Totally. Totally. Totally. Totally. So as we wrap up here today, which again, thank you so much for the work that you're doing.

52:02I appreciate all that you're putting out into the world. It's definitely so important for women to understand their bodies more and more. So as we close, what is the core message that you hope readers and listeners take away from your books and everything that you share about women's health? Yeah. Yeah. One of my takeaways is that women's health is not as complicated or mysterious as we've been led to believe. Obviously, I'm a biologist. So as I said, I started out looking at female physiology pretty much as the normal version of human physiology.

52:36So female physiology is logical. You know, we've got – it works. And so we can – you know, understanding that can help us to trust – yeah, trust our bodies. So that's actually one of the final lines of peer-to-peer manual is trust your body, play the long game. You know, your body wants to be healthy. Oh, that's beautiful. I love that. Well, Laura, thank you so much for coming on to the show today. I'm going to link all your books below. Is there anywhere else where anybody can find you?

53:06Yeah, I'm easy to find. So my blog, which is also the home of my – I've got a podcast, which is just a short little like 10-minute explanations of things, is at larabryden.com. And all my social media is at larabryden. Awesome, Laura. Well, thank you so much for your insight, your knowledge, your education on this topic. I appreciate your time being here with us. Thank you. Thanks, Nikki. It was great to meet you. Bye-bye. Hey, really quick, before you go, I have one small favor to ask. If this episode brought you value or sparked something in you, take just a moment to hit that review button.

53:41Your 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.

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