Microplastics, Heavy Metals, and Autoimmunity – Everything That’s Destroying Your Hormones

Why are our hormones getting so dysregulated even in our 20s or 30s and obviously I'm now in my 40s? What the hell is going on? I just want to say like hashtag life honestly life and lifestyle unfortunately I always say hormones are dramatic hormones are like canaries in the coal mine They're the first to react and the last to respond they defix themselves and they react to everything So whether you're eating and sleeping your stress Environmental toxicants everything that goes on inflammation your hormones go. Oh, whoa this this is disruptive and they create all these symptoms that you feel in your body and That's why it can happen at any age And for people listening and women listening being like, you know, everybody's on the go so much. They're always on on on What are the subtle signs and symptoms that they can pay attention to that? Indicates that there's a hormone disbalance happening So since hormones we have over 50 hormones in our body Usually when we say hormones we're talking about the female hormones ester dial Estrogens progesterone maybe testosterone, etc. But we have hormones like cortisol. We have thyroid hormone. We've insulin hormone We have a lot of hormones. So really when we think of the subtle symptoms, it's like that ongoing fatigue the overwhelm the exhaustion Period problems your period is heavy. Your period is cloudy. You have PMS your breasts are tender your moody It's low libido. It could even be memory issues brain fog You're not as sharp as you used to your skin is breaking out Your skin is growing hair in places. You don't want it to grow hair You're losing hair on the top of your head You're gaining some weight and depending where you gain weight lower half of the body up or half of the body That's a different hormone. So you can see like all these symptoms that kind of get chalked up to Maybe life or stress or aging sure that definitely plays a role But what ultimately is driving it are the change in the hormones So given from let's talk about you know, ideally women in their 30s and 40s when it comes to your sex hormone What are optimal ranges because what your traditional doctor is telling you is not optimal, right? They have really wide ranges functional medicine The ranges are really tight and narrow because they're looking at people who are really optimal and optimized with their health So what are ranges when it comes to the sex hormones if you want to break them down? What ranges should people be looking at in their 30s and in their 40s? In its sex hormones, we're often testing them at a particular part of their cycle So this does apply to women who are still cycling or have a regular cycle because of course estrogen Estradiol, which is the main estrogen and progesterone. They change a little bit every day Actually, progesterone is like near zero for two weeks and then after ovulation it shoots way up So it changes even bigger. So what we do is we test hormones in the second half of your cycle Usually it's about five to seven days after ovulation And we're looking for a progesterone when you get your blood draw and i'm just going to talk really simple numbers You're looking for like to be in the double digits. So you want your progesterone to be like 10 11 12 something like that We want our estradiol. It's usually going to be above 100 150 200 somewhere in there and that's again assuming you tested at that part of your cycle Now if you tested in the first part of your cycle Right before ovulation, which some women might be doing for fertility purposes Your estrogen may be really high. You may be above 200 close to 400 So you can see depending where you get tested We'll make a big difference in how you view those numbers if you came to me and said carry My progesterone is a one I'd say well, when did you get it tested because if you told me you got it tested on your period? I would be like oh girl, that's normal. That's expected But if you told me you got it tested, you know a week before your period and it was a one I'd go. Oh my gosh way too low. We have to do something about that You know, it's so crazy that you're saying this about getting tested five to seven days After you ovulate so normally traditionally until I got into this whole fertility world for myself I would just go in get my blood drawn when they asked me to get it drawn and that was it I'd base it off that When I started getting into fertility and really trying to understand my body I learned that there's specific times and windows you need to chest your hormones and I'm like wait a minute So for like 41 years nobody told me this and now that I'm at this like I'm doing Fertility and these fertility doctors I'm very close to them. They're they're doing it functionally They're teaching me all of this stuff. So a lot of women are walking around thinking their hormone levels are fine Which is not the case because they're not testing at the right time There's even evidence to show your thyroid hormone is an example one of your big Hormones you get tested as a tsh thyroid stimulating hormone There's some evidence to show that it can increase a point or two around ovulation So you could be getting your blood drawn this month at ovulation and your tsh is a four Which is kind of considered in functional world too high Maybe you have a thyroid problem But let's say we wait three months and you get it tested on your period and now it drops back down to 1.5 1.8 perfectly in range no issue and really it was just situationally around where you were in your cycle and I think A lot of researchers and I think a lot of doctors forget That the menstrual cycle really drives her body and we have to pay attention to that All those little changes you brought up the thyroid so i want to jump into this a little bit So a lot of fertility doctors do not check A full thyroid panel which are all the different levels and it's so important So can I hear from you like why is it essential if you're thinking about conceiving or even if you're going through the route of IVF please check your full thyroid and honestly it for any age whether you're doing fertility or not I'm such a fan of a full thyroid panel So tsh is the communication between the brain down to the thyroid and the thyroid is the gland in your neck And there is great research to show that yes as it increases it definitely is how we diagnose Hypothyroidism or slow thyroid so as tsh goes up up up depending on the lab gets above four gets above five We're like oh you have a thyroid problem But honestly the the body works really hard to control tsh And therefore we may be missing the downstream active hormones those are known as free t4 And really the big gun is free t3. So if we don't look at those downstream hormones, especially that free t3 That's the the real potent active one then we're going to be missing out because free t3 really does help drive Cellular processes it helps drive the mitochondria it helps drive detoxification It helps drive so much in the cell at a cellular level And we're just completely ignoring it and I think that's ridiculous And why is it that a lot of doctors are not trained to check this stuff? That's a great question I don't know oftentimes my colleagues will say I was taught the treatment doesn't matter Meaning i'm going to put them on thyroid medications. So why would I check t3? Like why do I care? It'll it'll automatically convert carry. I'm just going to put them on t4 Like but it doesn't automatically convert and you're missing a big piece of the puzzle T3 really does help drive a lot of cellular processes. Why aren't we looking at that? And that's just those three that's not even talking about antibodies for example, I mean the amount of Colleagues of mine who are very conventionally trained who say Why would I check antibodies? Why do I care? Why do I care if she is Hashimoto's the treatment's the same? You just put her on thyroid medication like Because it's autoimmune. We have to address that Right and what is a root cause of the autoimmune? Can we reverse that for people through diet through lifestyle through through even supplementation? How can they reverse that autoimmune disease? There's so much that can be done for autoimmune and I and that's not taught in Really honestly in medical schools You have to get a lot more integrative holistic Natural type training really understanding the immune system in my opinion What the immune system is doing why the autoimmunity is happening in the first place? What else is going on the body and how can you support that? I mean even going back to hormones We know changing hormones can play a role in autoimmune women tend to develop autoimmune conditions In what we call the big peas puberty pregnancy postpartum perimenopause and menopause those big swings and big shifts in hormones can be enough of a domino to be like Unfortunately, you're going to develop autoimmune But so can other infections big time sicknesses illnesses You know g.i.bugs worms inflammation. There's a lot that can really drive the immune system to go Ooh autoimmune freak out If you know me, you know, I avoid sea-dwells like the plague they're everywhere Even in snacks labeled as clean organic or healthy But the truth is they wreak havoc on your metabolism your hormones and make you super inflamed. That's why i'm obsessed with Prima one of the few products I completely trust Prima was created to push back against processed artificial foods and bring us back to real Nutritional ancestral ingredients that actually nourish your body. 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So I want to talk about homocysteine levels again That's not something that's traditionally tested or watched out for First why is it again back to the fact that they're not checking homocysteine because they're not taught it And what is a role role of homocysteine when it comes to your overall hormone? Homocysteine actually plays a really big role one in cardiovascular health So it should be tested because unfortunately heart disease is still the number one killer of both men and women And two homocysteine is part of something called the methylation cycle And the methylation cycle is part of a detoxification cycle When when you're going through part of phase two Detoxification that largely happens in your liver Methylation is a step that it can go through So if your homocysteine cannot move forward in the cycle think of it like just a big circle And homocysteine's at the bottom of the circle And it's supposed to go up to the top of the circle and back around again And if it can't get to the top and convert into something called Methionine then it's going to back up and become increased Well, if you can't make methionine we can't keep going around the circle to help this whole detoxification process And so not only like I said, there's a give me heart feedback, but it gives me detoxification Methylation feedback at the same time. So I am a big fan of testine homocysteine And talking about things like detox I want to break this down a little bit more for people listening How much in your opinion because people can be like oh, it's fear mongering How scary are things like microplastic? PFAS heavy metals Other environmental toxins when it comes to damaging women's hormones unfortunately For us I mean men too. I don't leave them out Unfortunately, we now know that the microplastics the nanoplastics these forever chemicals are playing a massive role So I don't want a fear monger. I don't want people to think well great I'm never going to leave my house, you know, the earth is against me But I do want them to be aware so they can be proactive and I'm also extremely proud of the researchers Who have been willing the last couple of years to do this research and put it out there Whereas before it seemed to downplay The amount or level First we learned about nanoplastics or excuse me microplastics Then we learned about nanoplastics and we were like, oh, no, it's a lot more than we thought and so I applaud those researchers who are getting it out there and going. Yeah, it's playing a big role in all hormones It's not only harmful for the earth and you know the turtles and the fish But it's getting into your body as well and causing problems Where do these things most commonly lie that people might not be realizing? You mean in in their lifestyle or how does it show up in their body? Women's lifestyle in her environment. Where are these things most commonly found that they don't even think about it? So when we think of plastics, unfortunately or fortunately, we're lucky to have plastics They're everywhere and everything everything from our phone charger right to medical supplies to probably your computer stand Everything's plastic your phone case But what's causing the issue is when the plastic can get broken down So think about like plastic cutting boards every time you're chopping your vegetable on a plastic cutting board You're releasing little tiny itty-bitty pieces of plastic and then you're sweeping that into your salad or to whatever your stir fry I know I have you when you drink out of water bottles, which is not uncommon plastic anything containers containing food plastic line things plastic wrap over a to-go container or you put plastic wrap over something and put it in the microwave That's all now Seeping into your water or your food and then you ingest it ingest it Even think about your oils that we love to put on our body and our face and our hair and they're in a plastic water bottle If they got heated at all during shipping if your bathroom is hot if you live in a hot environment Now you pull the plastic into that oil because that's what oil does And now you're slathering on all over yourself. And so it's these tiny decisions Again, I don't want to scare people at all, but I'm like, hey look, let's start looking at glass Let's start looking for glass. Let's start looking for stainless steel. Let's not use that plastic wrap on everything Let's try to remember to bring a bottle instead of always buying plastic bottles as an example Let's not get coffee and something that's plastic. Let's let's try to try to if you're at an event Let's use a mug or bring your own. I mean, I know it can be a little cumbersome But honestly over time As we're learning like these little things do help And this is what adds up and I think also personal care products is a big thing checking what's actually in our personal care products because we ingest more personal care products because of our Body lotions and our in our perfumes and our face creams and makeup than men do, right? So that's why they have a lower toxin burn load than women do because we're taking it in from so many other places I absolutely mean just think about the lipstick or lip balm or lip anything you put on and then you chew on it Lick it talk all day long and swallow. I mean you have no idea until you read the ingredients and then you think, oh, no I need to start looking for cleaner ingredients. I love that you brought up perfume The fragrance that synthetic fragrance is has parabens phthalates. And so now we're it smells amazing Don't get me wrong But it's also an endocrine disruptor and everything we're talking about hormones is the endocrine system Just like we have the cardiovascular system, which is the heart and the gastrointestinal, which is our urines testens With endocrine or hormones and when we have these endocrine disruptors Then it's going to create hormone symptoms. So you might think it's your own hormones Oh, it's my own progesterone. It's my own estrogen going crazy. And really it's these outside sources Reaching all the havoc Right. I also saw this really interesting study and I want to bring it up a john hopkins report found that women are more likely to be misdiagnosed With mental illness when it can actually be correlated to hormone instability and it's being labeled as mental health That just blew my mind So the amount of people who put women on ssri's and one in four women After the age of 40 is on some form of an ssri And they're not looking at their hormones right It's devan and the amount of research coming out on periamentopausal women and depression or anxiety or pmdd premenstrual dysphoric disorder Is huge. I mean, we're just we're getting so many studies now that shows these change in hormones Can either bring on or exacerbate Some of these symptoms that women are having now If you are in a place that you absolutely need an ssri or an snri and that has saved your life I am all for it. I'm not against them at all But what I am concerned with are that women aren't being fully evaluated. It's like, oh, you're depressed Here's an ssri. That's just what happens when you get older It's common because of the amount of kids you have or you have kids and you're trying to work like all these excuses And i'm like, no It's also probable that her hormones are going crazy that her cortisol is going crazy Her blood sugar is probably not that great and they're all talking to each other going. This isn't working the hormones And it's manifesting in some women as depression as anxiety as premenstrual dysphoric disorder, which is significant Therefore, we need to significantly work them up right as someone who's testing and I was retesting for what works for my gut immune system and hormonal health I definitely do not mess around with any probiotics that die before they even reach my gut So this little guy just thrive is completely different. 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It's as significant as we think what I think is happening And I'm absolutely be willing to change my tune What I think is happening is that women are learning so much about perimenopause. Thank goodness And they're hearing all the hormonal symptoms and going. Oh, that's me and they're in their early 30s Nobody's told them though that those hormone changes don't have to be because of perimenopause It could be due to so many other things perimenopause is just one aspect associated with aging However, when I see somebody who's early 30s, I'm thinking other I'm thinking What's blood sugar like what's stress like what's sleep like? How are you taking care of yourself? What nutrients are you deficient in? I'm thinking more globally That I know all my 30 to 35 year old friends are going through right now And that's what I'm looking at now. Is it possible some of them are perimenopausal? Absolutely, some women go through early menopause, which is very unfortunate or even premature menopause premature ovarian insufficiency for sure However, I feel that the larger percent are getting pushed into the perimenopausal category Instead of getting worked up for what's really going on How early on should somebody then start? There's a lot of by the way, this everyone asked me this. Let me lead with that first hormone replacement therapy when it's bioidentical hormones versus synthetic. What's your take on it? So I'm a bigger fan of course of the bioidentical hormones, which means it's body identical It looks like the hormone made in your in your body. So estradiol is estradiol progesterone is progesterone testosterone is testosterone Now what's interesting is bioidentical is not a scientific term. It's a marketing term However, it's a great description for the kind of hormone that you're on and a lot of the hormones hormone replacement therapy on the market is bioidentical if you're on a patch If you were prescribed an estradiol cream or vaginal like that's usually bioidentical There are some synthetics. So the most common synthetic of course is like the birth control pill And then there's something else called we have Premarin, which is pregnant mayor urine. We shortened it to premarin Now there is research on premarin the original HRT study called the whi the women's health initiative was on premarin And provera provera is a synthetic progesterone And I will say in the study this synthetic estrogen the pregnant mayor urine Didn't show an increase in breast cancer like it didn't show some of the concerns That unfortunately made the news Provera the synthetic progesterone Seem to be the big problem. However, I will say that provera is a is an estrogen you swallow So any astrogens that you swallow being it's synthetic or bioidentical Does have some increased risk. It does have some increased risk of clot. It does have some increased risk of gallbladder disease So I I prefer bioidentical absolutely But I still also have to take the route of administration Into into consideration. Is it a patch? Is it topical? Is it vaginal? Is it injection? Like what are we doing with it? And then I can coach you through it And so this brings me to my second question. How early based on you know, kind of research and obviously to come to your body But how early can a woman start hormone replacement therapy with bioidentical hormones based on what's coming back through their dutch test or their labs? So when I'm looking so you mentioned that like 30 to 35 year old and I absolutely now I've seen a lot on social media Where 30 to 35 year olds are going up? I've been told on perimenopausal. I'm going on HRT And again, I'm glad they're getting evaluated for their hormones and they're recognizing its hormones I don't know yet that it's perimenopausal and I don't know yet That they need HRT. It's possible They they there's a lot of other stuff at play Again, like thyroid gi stress infection inflammation Nutrient deficiency like there's a lot that can cause hormone imbalance. So what I would prefer Is that women get that thorough work up? Unfortunately, I know it's not often happening But I'd prefer they get that work up See if we can get their ovaries to start doing their thing again because 30 to 35 is really young To me. I mean honestly even under 40 is young to me And then evaluate from there once she crosses over into the 40 range. She's 42 44 45 Often at that point. I'm like, yeah, I bet you're getting Into the perimenopausal transition Progesterone is usually a good place to start If you need it and then we go from there and then eventually I'm like, oh now we need estrogen Let's evaluate for testosterone, etc. Now. I know some people are going to want to fight me They're going to be like, nope. I started hormones in my 30s. I feel amazing and I'm not discrediting that at all I just want to point out Going on your going on hormones in your 30 with no other evaluation Does concern me because that means those issues are still there and we still need to address them person worse Yes age if they're not taken care of yes One of the things is for everybody listening when you say work up Where should people like because I would tell people advocate for yourself ask for what you need What are the labs that they should start with and what kind of blood work and or testing they should be starting with if they're listening to this and be like Where is my starting point? One thing I always point out is that you're probably going to go to your your Primary care or your ob gyn or whoever and you're going to say test my hormones I want everything right we always walk in it will go test me for everything And they'll you'll get a message back in your portal or the nurse will call you and say everything's fine And what will happen is they'll bring me the labs and it will be What's known as a cbc complete blood count, which is are your red and white blood cells And you'll have a metabolic panel which is your are your glucose your electrolytes liver enzymes calcium and that's wonderful And maybe maybe maybe they'll run a tsh thyroid stimulating hormone Um, and maybe they'll do cholesterol because you're that age and that's it and they'll be like oh, you're fine I'm like, okay. That's great except red and white blood cells and metabolic panel and cholesterol aren't hormones We we have to think bigger than this we have to think more and those tests are important I still recommend them you still need to check your red white blood cells to make sure you're not anemic Or have an infection. I still need to see your metabolic panel fasting Please go to the lab 12 hours fasting that includes coffee. Don't drink coffee. It's a 12 hours 12 hours You know again, they don't tell you this they don't tell you it should be they just say Don't eat that morning, but they're not telling you it should be a solid 12 hours Ideally it's a solid 12 hours and some people don't even get told that they're like just go to the lab so they go to breakfast and then they go to the lab and Yeah, please go fasting especially even for cholesterol ideal is fasting as we can Now I do add an extra so I will add in things like vitamin D And I will add in depending on if you I think you need it like an iron panel And I will run a b12 marker. I want to make sure you're not deficient in either of those I will add in the full thyroid. I will do tsh free t4 Free t3 and I might do the antibodies depending on your symptoms your age of family history If you've already been told you have a thyroid problem or your mom has a thyroid problem or everybody in your family Is a thyroid problem then I for sure will add on thyroid antibodies Then I will also look at again. Like I said hormones if you have a regular cycle I will say come back to the lab five to seven days after ovulation so estradiol progesterone Total and free testosterone and I will run a marker called a dheas I will also run an insulin. I don't know why insulin is not part of a primary workup The insulin is the hormone that gets glucose into cells to be used as energy And it you women become more insulin resistant Unfortunately, we can the older that we get estrogen And progesterone both play a role with our insulin. So I wish that was tested Right up front. So so you can see is I'm just like rattling these off now depending on your history I may add in in your age. I may add in more advanced Heart markers. I'll probably look at something called an apob apolipoprotein b Depending on your family history. I may do an apolipoprotein e Which is called an apoe. I may run other advance. I mean again, like we talked about homocysteine looking at your homocysteine especially if I suspect detoxification issues So I have a panel that I like some standard things And then again Based on you your history. What's going on? I will pull in these other markers to your age And really evaluate you and I am completely fine to start in the blood work. People will ask me should I do a dutch test? You're welcome to you're also welcome to start in the dutch test or in the in blood work Your dutch test can give you really great information about detoxification about cortisol About your testosterone and where it's going But let's say you've never done this before start with your blood work. See if your insurance will cover it Do you think everybody should do a dutch test every few months like six months or blood work as alone as suffices? It's fun. So I do love the dutch test However, I do know that it can be cost prohibitive and not every practitioner knows what they're doing with it or how to order it How to read it or how to read it? So if you are brand new listening to this podcast thinking I've never had any of those labs run just start with the blood work right keep a list go to your practitioner and say Here's my age. Here's my symptoms. Here's my family history. I love a lot of this blood work If you're more advanced you've been doing this for a while or your practitioner is pretty functional Ask them about it. Like hey, do you think it's time for me to get a dutch test? I would love to know this extra information I'd love to have my metabolites. I would love to have cortisol I would love to have this other stuff if you're spending hundreds of skin care by ignoring one of the most powerful Anti-aging tools out there. 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If vitamin D is such an interesting one because there's there's there people are very big proponents like you and me And then there are a lot of haters who are like it doesn't do anything Which I understand from a it'd be ideal if everyone could go out in the sun and get vitamin D But you don't even you're a bit all the time You don't and if you are is you know is pale as me You have to be really careful. Yeah, I can't go outside more than five or ten minutes I will turn bright red and that's not very fair fun to me So vitamin D is it is considered a pro hormone. It is I mean it's a hormone in its own right in the body We call it a vitamin, but it can it has vitamin D receptors. I mean it definitely acts all over the body There's so much research on even things like you know bone health Her muscles our brain our actual hormones ovulation Growth of the baby like vitamin D plays a really big role in all these areas. It gets relegated only to bone health However, again, it's definitely much more system-wide than that We also brought something else up that you test for which is dha now Yes When it came to I was taking dha previously and then when I got into this like functional fertility path My fertility doctors were like hell no you need to get off that dha You cannot be taking dha when it comes to fertility and then I started telling all my functional community doctors I'm like listen guys if you're giving this to your to your patients my fertility my functional fertility doctors are like No, you cannot be on dha. So have you heard about this about like the research with dha? So what's interesting is the ivf there are some studies that show higher doses of dha has been really supportive for women going through IVF now dha also is considered a pro hormone. So dha. Let me back up dha is largely a hormone made in your adrenal glands Although it can be made in your ovaries as well And the storage form is called dha s they put the body puts a little s on it and all of your dha s is made in your adrenal glands So you can see I've said adrenals twice. It plays a big role there Now dha can turn into other hormones. That's why we call it a pro hormone your body makes it or you take it and it can turn Into a hormone. I didn't name them. I would have named them something super fun like nail polish names But this name is andro stenodion And then andro stenodion can become testosterone and or it can become um estrogens So again dha can go down these different pathways But dha is also protective in the brain against cortisol. It is considered a neuro steroid in a good way So dha. I think there's a lot of misunderstanding around dha And also people tend to overdose themselves on dha the average woman makes about 15 milligrams of dha or less a day Men make a lot more than that What you'll see on the market though are dha at 25 milligrams 50 milligrams 100 milligrams and women go well More must be better. It might as well And that can come with a lot of side effects. They may notice hair loss cystic acne Anger irritation it can screw up their hormones and so I am a big fan of dha But I also know how to use it and I do use it in fertility Again, but it's depend lower dose usually 10 milligrams or less depends on the person not every woman needs it Like a woman with pcos polycystic ovary syndrome probably doesn't need dha I would not likely put her on it. So these little caveats are helpful to know Because you brought up brought up fertility. I want to go into a little piece over there Is it a complete myth or not that you can improve your egg quality? And you can improve You know, you can obviously and I've reduced my fsh drastically and improved my amh But is this a myth or not that you can improve egg quality with lifestyle changes the right supplementation Lowering overall toxin burn load. What's your take on it? Not a myth. It's an absolute truth And I say this I say this because Your follicles so women are as far as we know, we're born with all of our follicles which hold the egg and What the early early like the let's call them like the small follicles are called pre-antral follicles And every month they get a little bit bigger and then the next month they get a little bit bigger And it takes about three months for you to go from a very small pre-antral follicle that can't do anything To the one follicle that's going to pop at ovulation and release the egg So that tells me in that growth state of development I could do a lot. I can I can help improve the cellular health of that A lot and on the follicle itself are two different layers of cells the outside layer are called the feca cells And they're exposed to all the all the blood all the capillaries They get they get all the nourishment and the inside cells are called granulosa cells and that's where we make our estrogens and then once you ovulate Everything like like a non refundable Cinderella. Everything changes into Lutein cells and that's why we make so much progesterone And the second half of our cycle. So if you know that the entire follicle is bathed in blood and surrounded by cells Plus it has a lot of integration with your lymphatic system Lymphatic is a big system that moves trash also moves hormones like progesterone plays a big role in ovulation Then of course through all of the diet lifestyle nutrition body work Blood flow improvement lymphatic improvement. Of course it stands to reason you can improve those cells Thank you for saying that because I think for anybody listening and you you're going to go through fertility If you walk into a doctor's office and they say your fate is predetermined and you cannot improve the health of your follicles Please exit that doctor's office and run as far as you can because you can improve at quality Through making all these different lifestyle changes and adjustments because I did it I had absolutely like when I started my my journey I think it would be last august and I got all my testing done my fsh was like 23.49. I brought my fsh down to our 3.4 now Heck yeah, and my amh was you know 0.008 And I I brought that up as well. It's like 0.08 now So it's it's moved a little bit, you know, and I'm ovulating and I'm cycling and I Took out a lot of like little things like I removed all the plastics where we could from our house I changed our eating and cooking utensils storage containers took out any water that would have plastic in it Moved away from all of that stuff really went through my personal care products and said what can I really get rid of that is causing any sort of Intercrete disrupting effects to my body and Started on a release but precision. I think supplementation course like I brought in the vitamin d I cleaned out my system and started working on cellular health And that has made a difference. So I think it's such Bad advice when doctors are like well your fertility is predetermined. That's it. You can't do anything about it And I think this applies even to the woman who's listening and doesn't want to get pregnant But she's she we we mentioned the 30 to 35 year old earlier It's the same thing if you're not ovulating if you've terrible PMS if your periods are heavy If your your periods are all over the place, you don't know what's going on We I just said it takes about three months to go from a pre-antrural to a like an adult a full-ground follicle surrounded by cells Inundated with lymphatics and blood there's so much you can do so even if you're listening thinking well, I don't want to get pregnant But I do want to cycle. I just want to be healthy. I'd love to ovulate again and make you know hormones at the right time Yes, this is why I'm like I don't know that you necessarily need to jump right on HRT hormone replacement therapy Because I feel there's so much we can do 10 steps back that have just been missed And this is what it's fascinating to me. And I think I think more and more women listening to this If you're in your 20s and you're listening to this This is a good place to start because the more you do in your 20s the better impacts your 30s and your 40s So you age knowing your body But you also are so in tune with these little changes I mean I discovered all this stuff in my like late 30s early 40s And I was like damn it like why wasn't I taught any of this? But I was following the traditional medical system. They didn't tell me anything else I'd go in and get tested and they'd be like, oh, you're fine And then when I actually took all my test for fertility and started really diving into this space I was like wait no one told me all of this It was it was a rude awakening at my age And it's unfair to assume a woman is quote unquote fine just because on the outside she looks fine Or because of her age, I've had a lot of patients over the years who were told Oh, you're you're too young to have fertility problems. You're going to be fine. Why are you here? Like it's going to be fine just because on the outside they looked quote unquote the definition of fine I'm like, whoa, that's not fair. We cannot see Under the hood just like a car a car could be gorgeous But have no battery so it's not going to run but I wouldn't know that from the outside just looking at it It's the same. That's why we have to be such advocates and it is definitely unfair That we have to push so hard men Don't seem to have to push as hard but they were to walk in with very similar symptoms and they do I'm tired. I'm gaining weight. I have no libido. Wait men have these same issues. I'm losing hair immediately Immediately, it's like let's get you on testosterone. Yeah, let's get you work. That's also not a good thing either Because so going into so this is a mistake that happened with my husband. So he You know when we got together in his 30s was like, I'm getting weight this this this so we have this one doctor who just Gave him too much testosterone When we started getting to the fertility space and he started meeting with the doctor the doctor's like you cannot do that Because when you start injecting yourself with testosterone It reduces your body's ability to make its own which is really bad when it comes to fertility and actually destroys it So you cannot be doing things like that again I had a I had a lot of men in my practice where I same thing They would meet somebody wonderful in their 30s or be a second marriage and they would want to try for children But he had been on testosterone with somebody else and I'm like look testosterone really really reduces If not stops sperm production. So we have to really think about this or I would have men in their 30s who'd go Okay, I'm ready for testosterone now You know everybody at my gym has it or my brother went on it or you know, I'm just feeling like I need it But they hadn't started their fertility journey and and I you know, I'd know their wife or their partner And I was like, whoa before we do just testosterone one. Let's get to the root cause here second of all It is going to reduce your sperm count Significantly if not all the way So we have to think about that and that is that nobody tells men that Nobody tells and then they're trying trying trying and they're like, what's the problem? Yeah, what they don't have any sperm people aren't talking about this enough But I truly want to optimize your health. We need to be paying attention to emfs We are constantly plugged in surrounded by wireless signals radiation Frequencies that our bodies have never ever been able to handle at this level research has shown that emfs can disrupt sleep Impact cellular function and contribute to long-term health issues Yet we're rarely talking about this or how to protect ourselves from this This is why I was so excited when I first discovered lila quantum tech I met them two years ago at a biohacking conference in austin and was absolutely blown away by the founder philip mon Hearing him on stage and learning about quantum energy technology completely shifted my perspective I knew I had to try it for myself and now two years later I'm so excited to have them partner with me on my podcast one of my absolute favorite products They heal 360 capsule which I wear on my quantum necklace every day. This isn't just any pendant It's scientifically designed and quantumly charged to support your body's natural ability to heal Energize and protect itself from harmful influences people using it have reported more energy mental clarity better stress resilience And relaxation deeper sleep and faster recovery And that is also the feedback I got from our supper club when I gifted it to all our guests Lila quantum tech is leading the way in quantum Frequence healing with products designed to neutralize emfs Enhanced cellular function and help your body operate at its best I personally felt the difference since wearing heal 360 capsule and I think you'll love it too Check it out at lilaq.com and use code biohacket for a discount. That is l e l aq dot com and use code biohacket happy healing What is the best ways for men to naturally boost testosterone without taking any testosterone supplements? So again, it's this is very similar to women. I mean, it's it's honestly the exact same It's everything from diet lifestyle exercise stress reduction sleep men Make a lot of their testosterone like through the night into the early morning, which is why they wake up with morning erections That's a good sign. They've made good testosterone through the night If that has stopped and their sleep is bad like that goes hand in hand blood sugar insulin Inflammation goes hand in hand with a killer of testosterone Microplastics nanoplastics killer of testosterone heavy metals All of that can reduce testosterone. So when you add it all together, it's very very very similar what I'm doing with him What I'm doing with her Wow, I didn't know it was so similar that if they made the same exact lifestyle Dietary changes that they could have that much of a positive impact because men have like essentially this one key hormone That determines so much of their Well-being and mental well-being. Yeah, absolutely And men work on a 24 hour schedule, which is women tend to work on a monthly schedule if you're still cycling And in our cortisol. So our sleep wake rhythm We we if you're a day shift person you get up in the morning you go to bed at night And that is a 24 hour. So women have two cycles We have our daily because we have cortisol up in the morning down at night And then we have our monthly because our hormones change a little bit every day through the month until we get our period And then we start over Men have two Daily cycles their cortisol goes up. They're testosterone goes up at the same time. So they're like Ideally raring and ready to go and then they go down at night. So for men it can be it's not always but it can be quicker let's say easier to address men's health because they have these two 24 hour cycles that tend to react Very easily whereas women we're dealing with a 24 hour and a monthly cycle And I think with men I think they can drastically shift their hormones and their sperm quality just in 90 days like they can like Yeah, well sperm sperm production takes about 70 to 80 days to happen So like I said with women it takes about three months Which is why anything in women's health whether or not you're trying to conceive it doesn't matter I say give it three months because it's going to take about three months for your pre-antrospherical to become the new follicle the ovulatory follicle For men's sperm production is 70 to 80 days. And so it can be very very similar for him also now Obviously there are supportive nutrients their supportive herbs for men and testosterone that are different for women But as far as the diet the lifestyle the stress the sleep The environmental toxicants like that part is all very very very similar Thank you so much. Dr. Jones. I love speaking to you. I've been trying to get you on the show For a minute, I actually need to get you to Miami because we need to do this in person So the audience can ask you so many questions. Where can everybody discover you? I am online dr. Kerry jones.com all over social media at dot dr. Dot Kerry Jones. I have youtube at dr. Kerry Jones. My whole goal is education on hormones. I have you probably can hear With my voice. I'm very passionate. We didn't learn any of this at a young age in school and sex ed Nothing we learned, you know, if the p goes in the v you'll get pregnant Otherwise don't do that and that's it and women are struggling. So like you I'm here to help And this is what I love about your content whenever I watched in this way. I'd reached out to you so long ago I think you're such a great advocate for For really educating people on what they could be asking for and looking for when it comes to their health Signs symptoms what they need to be picking up on because it's so easy to just put somebody on a pill It's a lot more work to get to the root cause and until we start getting to the root cause of people's health This is gonna be it like we're just gonna be You know reliant on one thing or another So I think root cause medicine is the future if we're really gonna age in a healthy and a happy way And I think I hope everyone listening realizes like you have the power I always say this from from um the wizard of os glender the good witch says you always you had the power all along my dear And I feel that with women like we just we just need to listen to this podcast take notes and go All right. I got this. I'm gonna ask for these labs. I'm gonna work on these lifestyle things I'm gonna get rid of my plastic cutting boards and go to wood. I'm gonna drink out of glass You know, they just these little micro changes add up and they're huge Yeah, and bring awareness to How they're going through life It's always the little things that when you start you're like where because when I ran this environmental talks and burden Test on myself I came back with such heavy like PFAS and stuff. I was like where the hell is this coming from? I literally ransacked my kitchen. I ransacked my house and I said I need to get rid of any Thing that's an obvious intercringent disruptor I'm getting like a lot of heavy dose of plastics from here Micro and nano plastics and started removing them and my labs did shift and change when I did that Love that and like practical and tactical like how amazing is that you did the work? You right? You didn't you did the research and all your labs got better. Yeah Thank you so much. I love talking to you And um, I'm excited for people to hear this episode and find you and we're gonna get you over to Miami in the next couple of months In the fall. I love it. It's a date. Thank you. Thank you so much Thank you for tuning in to bio hack it if you've enjoyed today's episode Please don't forget to subscribe rate and leave a short review It really helps us reach more listeners just like you follow us on instagram at bio hack Dash it for exclusive content and the latest updates. Remember your health is in your hand and curiosity heals