Healthy Hormones From Puberty to Perimenopause w/ Brooke Welsh

Welcome to the Just Ingredients podcast. I'm Cara Lynn, and here we dive deep into the journey of healing and wellness. If you're ready to learn, feel empowered, and take charge of your health, you're in the right place. Welcome back to the show, everyone. Today, I'm super excited for our guest because she is a women's health practitioner, and I have so many women listeners that have so many questions. And so she's going to go through a lot of your questions for you. And so welcome to the show. It's Brooke Welsh. That's correct. Thanks. Glad to be here. Well, thank you so much. Will you just tell my audience a little bit about yourself? Because I know you worked in labor and delivery, worked with OBGYNs, but now you have your own clinic. So I'm curious what led you to open your own clinic? Correct. I was a labor and delivery nurse for eight years and then went on and pursued a nurse practitioner and licensure in women's health. I love women's health. I love working with women. Straight out the gate, worked in an infertility world for about five years. Loved that, kind of shipped it over to family medicine for about a year, year and a half, and then worked OBGYN. I started my own place because I got sick of somebody telling me how to practice medicine and that everybody fit into a box. I tried to fight a few fights with the company that I was working for, which is local, and it's kind of like David versus Goliath. So did they want you to stick like in a traditional medicine box and you wanted to add maybe a few alternative things in there? Yes, that and just looking at blood work differently with different patients through different ages or not following exact protocols. Like I'd have young women that would have a breast lump and we'd want to do an ultrasound and they required a mammogram and I didn't want them exposed to that radiation at such a young age. So tried to fight that fight and didn't work out. So I was banging my head on a wall. So you finally opened your own clinic to help women the best that you know how to. Correct. Well, I love that. Okay, so I thought it'd be fun today because I have listeners who have teenagers at home, girls that are maybe going to start puberty, things like that. But then I've got people in their 40s, 50s, all different ages of moms out there and women out there. So I thought it'd be sort of fun to just go through the ages of kids, daughters, sons, husbands, moms of different hormonal issues that they might be experiencing or dealing with. But before we begin that, I want to start at the very basics and just explain what hormones are. The best way to nail a hormone down and explain it is it's a chemical messenger, a hormone and we have tons of hormones in our body, but they run around and tell your tissues what to do. And I hear about hormonal imbalances all the time lately. So is it more prevalent today or we just have social media so it sounds like it's more prevalent? I think it's probably a combination of both. But genuinely, I think, I mean, over the last 30 years, we've seen a huge shift in how we're processing hormones and things that are blocking them. And it's nice that we actually have a little bit more awareness of it and that I think COVID was rough on us as a society. But like it made everybody question, which is kind of amazing. So now we have a lot of patients that instead of just following exactly what their doctor says to do, I'm going to ask why and why is this applying to me and what side effects should I have and where should this come out on a positive side for me? Oh, I love that. And I love that they're asking like, why do I feel crappy? The doctors say the labs are fine, but I don't feel good. So what else is going on? Okay, so what do you think is making these hormonal imbalances more prevalent today? Is it just that we have a bunch of endocrine disruptors out there? We do. I think there are a lot of endocrine disruptors. And when you talk endocrine disruptors, basically what that is is on a cell, when a hormone comes in to work on the cell, it's got to kind of plug in to almost fit through a doorway in order to get into the cell to work. Does that make sense? So you've got something kind of standing in the way, right? So it's trying to fit a square pig into a round hole and it cannot get into the cell to work appropriately. Maybe some of it can get in, but not all of it. So when you talk endocrine disruptors, we're looking at a huge part of that as diet, right? The quality of the food that we're dealing with now, we're dealing with higher cortisol levels constantly. Instead of the up and down and up and down and up and down that cortisol should be doing in our systems, we just run high consistently, right? So there are quite a few things that are blocking that hormone from working. Hormones, like you said, are chemical messengers. So they're going to go tell the cells what to do. And if we have an endocrine disruptor blocking the doorway for the hormone to get in to the cell, then the cell doesn't know what to go do properly. Right. Yeah, it only gets hard of its message in instead of the whole thing. The whole thing that drives me crazy with endocrine disruptors, or I should say products that drive me crazy, are all the smelly lotions, bath soap, shampoos, conditioners, the makeup, everything. Because I'm like these teenagers are just rubbing all of these endocrine disruptors into their body and don't even realize it. So it's like not even their fault. Right. Yeah. And we're doing that at young ages. Do you think beauty products are one of the biggest culprits for these younger girls or teenagers? My opinion on that, I feel like is more the food. Oh, really? Yeah, because I mean, like you think about it, right? So like they've come out and said, okay, we'll use deodorant that doesn't have aluminum in it, right? Like full disclosure, I've used aluminum deodorant for, I don't know how many years tried switching. I did not smell good. It did not work. It did not work. And I've tested my aluminum levels and they're insanely low. So I think it number one depends on the person, but I think it has more to do with like actually what we're ingesting. Interesting. And so I have a question about this. Do you think it's that they're not getting their nutrients or you think it's things like the pesticides, herbicides that's on our food? I think it's probably a combination of the two. In all honesty, if you think about the pesticides and herbicides that we're putting onto the food, right? It's kind of blocking that. And then it's damaging the soil and we don't do crop rotation like we used to do. I mean, you know, growing up in high school, you learn about all the history and how that crop rotate and farmers would kind of work that all out, but we don't do that anymore. So it's definitely changing the quality of food that's coming out of the ground, even when you're trying to eat really clean and really healthy. I'm curious then. So someone had told me a while ago that her daughter started her period at eight years old and she just freaked out, took her to the pediatrician. And as soon as she changed the daughter's diet, got her off of conventional dairy, conventional meats, things like that, it actually stopped and didn't come back until she was in eighth grade. And so have you seen that before? That's just a weird story. No, for sure. We're seeing average age of starting periods is about nine years old now. Oh my goodness. It's really young. That's so young. Which when we were growing up, it was like 12 or 13. Well, yeah, you were like in like seventh, eighth grade. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. And a lot of that has to do with we have a really high Omega six fatty diet here in the United States. And that's playing a big role. A lot of your hormones are metabolized in your fat cells. So it is one of your main metabolizing sites. So when you overfill that, right, the body's trying to adjust. So those Omega six are contributing to people starting earlier. Yeah. Okay. Well, this is interesting because non-conventional dairy, like organic dairy grass fed, the grass fed meats, they're higher in Omega threes than the conventional. Yes. That's your point. Oh, I never put that together. Yeah. So I'm trying to think of it was I did a training once from a, oh, Michael Lewis, Dr. Michael Lewis. He's a neurology expert, runs a clinic out on the East Coast from his teachings. He's kind of an Omega expert and trying to heal the brain with like Omega threes, right? And we're born with a one to one, Omega three to Omega six diet, right? We're born that way through breast milk, right? And then as we get older, that gap kind of widens, right? So on average, the average American has a one to 26. So one Omega three to 26 Omega sixes. Wow. Really high fat diet. Yeah. And I was reading the other day, it should be like one to two or one to three or even maybe one to four. But then yeah, I was reading that it was my, the one that I read said one to 20, but 26 that's crazy. Yeah. And so we're just getting not enough salmon in our diet and not enough of the grass fed meats, things like that. And eating, so we should just say like it's a lot of that ultra processed food out there, the packaged food that is full of those Omega sixes, the fast food with the seed oils, they have the Omega sixes, things like that. Yeah. So let's talk about different ages in the home and what moms should maybe expect. I was going to start with young girls and ask you what age should they expect, but you just answered that, which I'm still floored that you said nine years old. Because I have a 12 year old daughter and I'm like nine years old. That is so young. That would have been three years ago. So for those that have not had a daughter go through puberty yet, are there signs that a mom can look forward to know that it might be happening soon or not really? Yes, there are mostly, I think most moms notice the mood shifts, right? You'll notice little breast buds starting, they'll deposit fat in different areas, but that usually honestly the mood shift thing starts about a year to two years before they even start their period. Oh, interesting. So good luck to everyone. Isn't good luck to those with teenage girls. Okay, but why are the mood shifts happening? It's just the brain trying to figure out how to initiate the hormones, how to balance the hormones. The thing that's in charge of that is the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland. And the communication between the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland can kind of go back and forth and back and forth. And it's just really learning how to mature up. And for a girl that can last until they're 21. Oh, interesting. Right. So is there anything as moms that we can do to help with this? Diet, exercise, and great sleep are the biggest keys on both your girls and your boys. Keep them active, try to cut back on processed foods, high fatty diets, try to keep that low. And especially a little plug on PCOS. If you have more of a genetic tendency for PCOS, moms had it, other sisters have had it, then try to keep that little one, especially at a younger age, seven, eight, nine, 10, on a lower fat diet. Oh, lower fat diet? Well, lower fat, fat diet. Oh, gotcha. Yeah. Okay. So you still want peanut butter, avocado, like the good healthy fats, but yeah. Okay. Try to keep them. And the processed sugars, at a minimum if you can. I can attest to this because I have a 12 year old and on Friday nights, if she's at a friend's house and they're just eating junk or whatever, Saturdays, I'm like, what did you eat last night? Like, this is ridiculous. Your mood is like, oh, you know, where during the week when I'm feeding her and packing her lunches and she's having our breakfast and our dinners, I feel like she does pretty good. And then the weekend comes and I'm like, wow. Yeah. My 13 year old boy's the same way. He's got some bad ADHD. Does the same thing. Behavior is totally different when he's taken in a ton of carbs or he's tried to eat out or something like that over the weekend. Yeah. Yeah. It's just moms out there, if you have kids with just mood issues, things like that, really watch what they're eating. Yeah. So let's talk about daughters that have now hit puberty, like maybe till, I don't know, 18, 19 when they're in the house. I had a daughter, she's now moved out, but during that age time, I was blown away with her friends monthly cycles. They were so bad, they would skip school or they bled so heavy, they had to come home from school or it just seemed like everybody, every friend of hers was like this. And so are you seeing girls with worse and worse cycles than what it used to be? Yes. And traditionally the fix for that when you go into an OB-GYN, because I think that's your natural first step is I'll just take you into my OB, she's amazing or he's amazing and we'll get it fixed. And their immediate fix is birth control pills, which is not a great option. That is happening because the body is still learning how to cycle. Is that why they're so painful or heavy or they've got to be in bed? Is purely the body trying to figure it out? Some of that is genetics, right? But yeah, that's coming down on a cellular level, like the body's trying to figure out how to process the hormones the right way. It does get exacerbated or they'll become more intense when they do have like higher carb, bad fats when their diet's not great, which is hard on a teenager. I was going to say, I felt like my daughter's friends, it was all diet based. Where did a bit of it is? I mean, they're eating, they're drinking like energy drinks and diet, coax and skipping breakfast and then just going out for fast food for lunch. And I'm like, wow, you guys aren't even getting enough, you know, omega-3s or magnesium or things that could help. So all my kids, even from a really young age, I put them on magnesium at night and they're all on omega-3s, they're also on vitamin D, right? And that is a big thing here in like Utah that we have really low vitamin D and that is helping your cells. It's an initiator vitamin, so it's helping start cellular processes, one of which is hormone production. So it's kind of all the things combined together. There's genetics, the brain is still learning how to process hormones. So when you add additional really high sugar diet, right? Hormones are metabolized in your fat cells. So if that fat cell gets filled up with sugar, the cells are very intelligent. So they're going to prioritize what's going to keep me alive over what's going to make me feel good, right? And sugar for a cell is a fuel source. So it needs the sugar, it's going to snag onto that first. And then your hormones get kind of pushed on the back burner. Does that make sense? Interesting. Yeah. So it's almost harder for the brain to learn how to use the hormones and how to cycle the hormones if you're consuming a ton of junk. Makes sense. So we know why Omega-3s would help because we've talked about the fats, but I'm curious why magnesium helps. Magnesium is an enzymatic starter, right? So your vitamin D is your cellular starter and within that cell you have different enzymes that are going from cell to cell trying to help things turn on and off and that's magnesium. So magnesium is super important. And interestingly enough, I think statistically speaking, I think 90% of the United States is really low in magnesium. Which is crazy. I know I was reading the other day that over 800 processes in the body need magnesium. So for low in magnesium, well, no wonder why we've got some issues. Right, yeah. Okay, so let's go back to the hormonal birth control. I don't love that they're just doing that. To me, it's slapping a band-aid on a problem rather than figuring out the root cause. Totally agree. Totally agree. What we have and it's what we've always done. Does that make sense? So when you go through school, I went to school up at the U. I'm taught from somebody who's been in practice for so many years, right? They were taught from somebody who's been in practice for so many years and full disclosure, insurance really constrains how much time your physician can spend with you. Which is one of the big reasons why I left, right? I think I figured when I was working with the company I was working with and I tried to fight this a little bit, but I was given about six to eight minutes per patient to spend. Oh, wow. So it's easy when you have a problem and I can give the same fix to every person. But it's not a fix, it's a band-aid. And then it can cause other issues down the road. It actually can make things a lot worse. And why can't it make it worse? Well, you're kind of putting birth control on the hypothalamus, on the brain, your hormone control center is almost like a mute button, right? So you're muting that in a time when it's trying to learn how to work the right way. So like you take your toddler and that kid is trying to learn how to speak, right? I'm trying to learn these different words and you're just shushing them all the time. Oh. Does that make sense? Yep. Yeah. So you can't shush it, it's not going to learn how to process hormones the right way. Birth control doubles down in the fact that it can do, it's one of your main causes of damaging your gut wall. Oh boy. Right. So how much is connected to the gut inflammation, your mood, immune system, so many things. Right. Okay. So let's help these moms out. They've got a 15 year old, a 16 year old girl, painful periods, wanting to stay home from school because they're so painful. They come to you. Where do you start with them or what advice do you give them? Diet and exercise are huge. Prioritizing sleep is a big deal. Making sure vitamin D levels, magnesium are on board. My teenagers will not eat fish. It's not going to happen. So we give them an omega-3 every day. So making sure they have basic good vitamins in their system and this is variable on the person so you have to talk with your provider on this one. But I like a supplemental approach, especially on someone younger. In OBGYN we have this protocol where if you want to reset the hypothalamus and kind of take over from what it's doing, you give a hormone, you'd like a birth control for a couple of months. It actually works really pretty well where you'll reset the hypothalamus, take the birth control away and then things should hopefully kick back into a good rhythm, good cycle. I don't like that approach. I actually like more of a supplemental approach. So there's a good supplement that I really like called DIM. It's technically when you Google it, most of the information you're going to find is that it's an estrogen block or it's not. It's an estrogen balancer. It's actually what we call an aromatase inhibitor. So it's made to prevent your body from turning hormones into other hormones. So I'll use a DIM for a couple of months, like a low dose one depending on how much the teen weighs, right? And then take it away and see if you can reset that cycle again. Well, that's interesting. So we sell a DIM but we've never sold it as like a reset for younger people. Yeah, I'll do like a lower dose, like 100 milligram, 150 milligram and it's tricky to find. So I'll actually advertise it as for those that have like too much estrogen to help them clear some of that estrogen. You can. Yeah, it's definitely a great use for it. I'll use it on a lot of my endometriosis women. Interesting. Yeah. Okay. So hopefully that advice will help some moms out there, but I want to move on to sons in the house, the boys in the house. We're hearing a lot on social media, how testosterone levels are declining, how they've declined so much recently. And I've seen on social media people saying that a 70 year olds testosterone level in the 80s is comparable to what ours is today for a 20 year old. Sounds about right. Which is crazy. Yeah, it is crazy. And so does that mean these levels are dropping as young as a 15 year olds, 16 year olds, 17 year olds, they're already declining? Or they never rise in the first place. So what's contributing to the testosterone never rising? So for boys, they start puberty. I'll kind of go back to the beginning and maybe this will answer it a little bit better and a little bit more in depth, but boys should start puberty about a year or two after girls do. So if on average a girl is starting around nine, which really should be like 10 or 11, boys are typically starting about 10 or 11. And then their testosterone should go up by like 300% and goes 30 times higher than what it's ever been throughout their entire lives. So if these critical times when they're 10, 11, 12 and testosterone should really start rising as they're going into puberty, they're not active and they're consuming a ton of junk food, right? And they never sleep. These are preventers on keeping the brain from actually processing and producing the hormones there the way they're supposed to do. And then when they do produce the hormones, if they're, you know, again, crappy diet, something along those lines, not sleeping, not active, you know, glued to a TV screen all the time, then that is being blocked. That doorway is not all the way open to accept that hormone, to come in and tell the cell, whatever it is, the brain, the muscles, whatever, to do your job. Here's your role. Okay. So can we break this down a little bit? And why does sleep affect this? Sleep is your body's reset, right? So you're kind of go, go, go, go, go through the day is how you should be working. That's not how most people now are working, but you should be go, go, go through the day. And then at night, your body, all of your cells get essentially like, I just need a rest. We've got to charge my battery basically. So the cells and the hormones can work effectively the next day. Right. Okay. So then what does exercise have to do with this? Exercise is the biggest thing is circulation, right? For a boy specifically, when muscles get torn down, they're going to release lactic acid, right? And that triggers the brain to release more hormone, which for a boy is testosterone. So if you have a boy that sits in front of the TV and plays video games all day long, right? He's not doing anything in helping his brain make more hormones. He's not sending that signal. So everything in the body is a cycle and it all wants to stay really balanced out, but everything is kind of dependent on another cell telling it to do its job. So at 10, 11, 12, obviously they're not at the gym, but they could be outside playing. They could be on a sports team, right? Any of the things. Right. And then at 16, 17, 18, if they're done playing team sports or whatever, go to the gym. Go to the gym. Okay. So let's say now 20 year olds. I have a bunch of 20 year old boys that work for me. I mean, in their 20s, I should say. So the same culprits that's causing this testosterone? Yeah, from young ages. Right? Diet though, again. Not great in your 20s. Not great in your 20s. Yeah. Can we address sodas and energy drinks? Do we think this is playing a role in boys testosterone? I do. I do. Most sodas energy drinks have a decent amount of caffeine in them and there's a lot of research that backs the fact that caffeine is a damage to the gut wall. So most of my patients, if I pull them off of caffeine, it's a lot easier to manage their hormones. If the caffeine is damaging their gut wall, how though is that affecting the hormones? When the gut wall gets damaged, it then releases endotoxin, which is technically a protective bacteria for the gut wall called lipopolysaccharide. Lipopolysaccharide's job is to cause inflammation and tear things down. So when we damage the gut wall, inside the gut wall, you have these really tight junctions. The tissues are all stacked up. When they're open and they're cracked, that lipopolysaccharide that's supposed to aid in helping you break down your food can leak through that gut wall and circulate throughout your system and it will bind to whatever cell it finds. So if it finds a hypothermic cell, it's going to tear down how that hypothermosis is going to function. So it acts as an endocrine disruptor? It can. So any foods out there that are, I say knocking at the gut wall is what I say because eventually they poke through and then become this endotoxin, any of those then can mess with your hormones. That is so interesting because I've had doctors on here, a lot of doctors on here talking about the leaky gut, which is what we call it on social media and things, but they never talk about the leaky gut being contributors to endocrine disruptors. 100%, the gut is kind of your brain. It's just they're so closely linked together that in my practice, I kind of fix the gut first and then move up from there. So I will run into excessive barriers in trying to balance somebody's hormone or balance their thyroid or whatever it is we're trying to do as long as their gut is unhealthy. I know high fructose corn syrup can contribute to leaky gut. So artificial diets have been shown to do that. Some gluten has shown to do that. I mean, there's lots of different things out there. So all of those things can affect your hormones. Right. Yeah. A lot of doctors don't talk about that. Yeah. Lipopolysaccharide is kind of a rabbit hole. You could go down full disclosure, but it is a really damaging inflammatory cells, very beneficial when it stays in the place that it's supposed to be in, which is the gut. And when it leaks outside of the gut, it is very damaging. And typically inflammation cells, lipopolysaccharide, interleukin-16F alpha, these are all really common inner inflammation cells, right? That tear things down. They kind of work in a pack. Okay. So interesting. So I'm going to say to all those 20-year-old boys, it's got to apply to the 30-year-old, too. It can apply to any age, really. Really, yeah. That if they have leaky gut, they're going to have things that are going to help them have lower testosterone in life. Right. Yeah. Not process for girls. It's going to be not processing estrogen the right way, not dumping it out, right? Which is where you see more hormone imbalances as well, right? So yeah, the gut's a big deal. Okay. So I was just going to ask for girls what it is then, because I think most Americans, I'm going to go find a stat, deal with leaky gut. Oh, correct. Yeah. Because of the food that we have, like so many foods had artificial dyes, so much food used to have high fructose corn syrup. A lot of that is being changed into other things, but even too much sugar can play a role. And I mean, when you look at the data on leaky gut, the things that cause it, birth control is up there. I have personally, like in my career, written tens of thousands of prescriptions of birth control. I feel like there's a time and a place for everything, so I'm not completely anti-birth control. So keep that in mind, right? But on someone whose brain is learning how to cycle and regulate hormones, I think it's, you don't want to put a mute button on them. You don't want to turn that off, right? So birth control is a big one. Caffeine is a big one. Even over-exercising, right? Interesting. And over-exercising for women during the wrong time of life, right? Explain that more. So like through hormone cycles, mostly like perimenopause, right? My perimenopausal woman, I really encourage them to back down on high interval training because... Hour long cardio classes. Correct. Yes. Yeah, exactly. So you kind of have to back that down a little bit, right? And do more muscle training. Yes. Yes. Muscle training is big. Yeah. Okay. So in, let's say the 20-year-olds, can they over-exercise? You can, absolutely. Yeah. And that is variable on the person, right? So interestingly enough, in clinic, I have quite a few that run marathons or are like trail runners or really high-intensity mountain bikers, right? And what you'll see is their cortisol is high, their sugar is high, and then they can't balance hormones the right way. So that then becomes you don't want to take away what their love is. You've got to have some kind of passion in life, right? It brings everybody joy, and that's a big deal. But the balancer is keeping your gut wall very healthy to support what's going on. So when they go into beast mode or training mode, I'm like, we've got to ramp up on your gut wall. Otherwise, we're going to have a heck of a time balancing your hormones, balancing your thyroid, keeping your sugar slow. Interesting. So how do you help them with their gut wall? Magnesium is a big one, right? Good source of fiber. They're not going to get it in their diet, or they can't get at least 25 grams of fiber in their diet. I usually like to get it diet-wise, but then you can use a really good source of fiber. I like a guar fiber or an acacia fiber over like acillium husk unless they're really backed up. If they're really backed up, acillium husk will keep things moving, but doesn't do a ton for the health of the gut wall. Interesting. And then colostrum. That's the other thing I really like is colostrum for a gut wall. Okay. I actually really love butyrate for the gut wall. Do you know much about butyrate? I don't know a ton about butyrate, but I am aware that especially on the trainings that I've done, that butyrate can go in and heal a gut wall. I think most people need more butyrate in their life. Yeah, probably. Okay. That is so interesting, the connection with the gut and hormones. So I mean, it makes sense. The diet is messing with the gut. Therefore it's messing with the hormones. Yeah. 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You go from really, really high hormones and two weeks, they've done data, two weeks out, you pretty much have none, which is a normal response for the body, but it doesn't mean that you feel good and that your cells work really well that way. The approach that we've taken in traditional medicine in the past has just weighted out, you're a mom. So after giving birth, do you have zero estrogen and zero progesterone? Not zero, but very close. Very, very low. You're supposed to. Your main hormone that's coming out is prolactin, specifically on a breastfeeding mom. It's what allows us to make milk, breast milk. So that suppresses everything else. The body just knows how that works. So estrogen, progesterone, testosterone all bottom out on a woman. Well without those, you feel crappy. Yeah, absolutely. And so why I feel like some moms don't deal with postpartum and some do. Yeah, I think that's more where their hormones were initially. Pregnancy and how easily their system adapts to the hormone shift. Right? So you have to consider after you have a baby, you have a big hormone shift, you have a huge fluid shift, right? And then yes, your OBGYN is correct. You are not sleeping very well, right? But this is almost the time when you need a little bit more energy versus saying it's okay that you don't have any. Just weighted out American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. People say it can take up to 18 months for a woman to really rebound after she has a baby. That's a long time to wait. That's a long time. Really long time. So do you suggest during this time like some hormone replacement therapy? On a breastfeeding mom, you can't give them estrogen because it will deplete their milk supply, but I can give them small doses of testosterone. Any progesterone? You can give progesterone. I usually microdose that and kind of play it by ear. Every person's body is very different in what they do with hormones, but my finding is that progesterone typically just makes them more tired through the day. Oh, interesting. They don't love it. So testosterone they like better? Yes, yeah, for most of them. Or we'll rebound. Thyroid really tanks too. So thyroid hormones run really, really high in trying to help form that baby, right? And then, well, Santa comes out and everything just kind of bottoms out. The body needs a rest, right? Well, if diet, sleep, and exercise play a role in our hormones, they're not getting sleep because of the newborn and it's hard to exercise. Well, at first they can't exercise and then it's hard to exercise sometimes with the newborn. So they've really got to focus on their diet, it sounds like. Yeah, that and I'll use a little either a supplement to boost up testosterone or I'll give them a little testosterone, like something bioidentical, like a cream or something for a short amount of time just to kind of same concept as before that reset, random boost up that hypothalamus and see if it'll make it on its own. So typically I'll use it for a couple of months and then back it off. Okay, so there is help out there. There's help out there and I don't love the approach where like your mom, you're tired, you're fine, just suck it up and deal with it. Yeah, because then I feel like as a tired mom at 2pm, 3pm in the afternoon, they're running for their Diet Coke or their energy drink or something to get them through the day, which then isn't then helping their hormones. It's a vicious cycle. It's a vicious cycle. Yeah, and it's a lack of education in all honesty. Full disclosure when you approach hormones, when I was trained at the UU, it's a great school but we were trained bioidentical hormones are marketing scheme. Oh, interesting. That's verbatim what I was taught. And so we only use synthetic hormones. This is how I was taught in traditional medicine. When you get down to it and you look at all the science and the research that's behind it, it's absolutely not the case. Some women do really well with synthetics. Most women do better with bioidenticals because it's easier for the cell to process something that looks similar to what it's already had. The trick on, especially like you have a mom in her 30s, she should be making testosterone. She should be making estrogen. She should be making progesterone. There are some changes in perimenopause but in all honesty, our testosterone levels start to decline around 35. So if you're 37 and you're having a baby, you may not rebound. May go really high during pregnancy and then you may not rebound when it comes to postpartum time. Okay, I think it is a lack of education because I had my last baby at 39 and I didn't realize testosterone levels dropped starting at 35. So that would have been nice to know, oh, I just maybe need a little bit more testosterone. Postpartum after 35, they have testosterone levels that are equivalent to someone in their menopausal years. Wow. Okay, so is there a way to test these hormones? Absolutely. You can test them through blood work. Well, a lot of doctors out there say that those blood work hormone tests are a waste or a joke. More because that's a lack of education, right? It's not their bag and they haven't really been fully trained in how to look at those and how to read them through different times of life. So I'd have to disagree with that. Okay, so let's go back to all these ages then. So let's say this 15, 16-year-old girl who's having terrible periods, do you suggest hormone testing? You can do hormone testing, but 15, 16 years old, you know the hypothalamus is not fully matured, right? So that could change next month, right? Okay. So that's where I typically try to go more of a supplemental route. I really, really try hard in practice not to give anybody under the age of 25 hormones. Okay. I'm trying to find out why their system is not making them and boost that up. Okay. Because they should be making them in their 20s into their 30s same concept, right? And then as you start to decline, so if I have a 35-39-year-old sitting in front of me, then that's really kind of case by case. So if girls are in their 20s and they are missing their cycle or it's terrible and heavy, do you suggest testing then or not necessarily? Yeah. Yeah. Into your 20s. By 21, that hypothalamus is technically 21, 22 is fully mature for a woman. For a man, that's 25. Oh, okay. I was just going to ask. So before 25, is it worth doing any testing? It is on my men, I believe, because at younger ages, it's easier to boost up their hormones, right? You can make some really simple lifestyle changes, diet changes. So you see it a ton actually now and your teenagers who are just kind of like, I'm not motivated, just want to grow up and be a target worker, which is not terrible, but there's no motivation to succeed and to hang out with their friends or things like that, right? So if you can do diet, lifestyle, focus in on sleep, nutrition, you're going to boost that up. So is it easier for boys to boost up their testosterone than it is for girls to deal with their estrogen, progesterone and testosterone? Yes. The guys get off easy all the time. We're drawing the short straw quite a bit. Let's say these boys in their 20s that have low testosterone, it is easier to fix this. Yeah. I think it is a big culprit for my younger guys. Most of my younger guys have really low vitamin D levels. And that's playing a role. It's playing a huge role. It's initiating how their body can do certain processes, one of which is produce hormones. Just like the girls that you said earlier. Right. This is so good to know. Okay. I do have a question though about testosterone because I don't know if this is myth or fact. A lot of people on social media will say, well, once you start taking testosterone and you're telling your body not to make its own testosterone and your body learns not to make it. I wasn't making it in the first place. That's a true. Right. So, but on a younger guy, I definitely have that approach where I try not to give testosterone to my men in their childbearing years or definitely under the age of 30, 35. That then becomes kind of a case by case. You're again trying to boost up how their body is producing it. This is a hormone that men are testosterone dominant. So they should be making a decent amount of this. That study, I know what you're talking about. I think it came out of the Yale School of Medicine and it was a big study on 20 to 29-year-old men and pretty much the conclusion was we have more testosterone deficiencies than we've ever seen. Okay. So once you start taking testosterone, so to say they're like 35, then are you taking it the rest of your life? Not necessarily, depending on the person, but if I've got thyroid function really good, got health really good, vitamin D levels are great. We're sleeping great. We're exercising. There are other things you can do. There are supplements. There are peptides you can use that'll boost it up. There are medications that you can use that'll boost it up. So I usually try to go that road first on my younger guys to see if we can get their hypothalamus to make it on its own. And then if we don't, then yes, they're on testosterone. And the answer to that is you can go on and off testosterone, but most people once they start it, it gets them to a place where they feel normal again. If you get them into a healthy range and they don't want to go back to not feeling normal. Not feeling normal. Yeah. That makes sense. Okay. Well, I'm curious really quick about peptides. Since you mentioned that, is there a certain peptide you like to help them create their testosterone? Anything that's going to ramp up the growth hormone. My personal preference is a combo of CJC1295 and Ipumarallan. And so do you do peptides at your clinic? I advise on them. Okay. Yeah. I have a lot of other hands on. Quite a few of them are not FDA approved. So then the patient has to know they're using it outside of the world of FDA approval. Right? Right. I don't know if that holds a lot of weight with a lot of patients, but and then for sure, peptides can be done very wrong, very, very wrong. CJC is specifically one of them, right? So if you use CJC incorrectly, you dose it wrong, you use it for too long, it will shut down your hypothalamus. Oh, interesting. Yeah. You won't make hormones like at all after them. Do you recommend CJC for both girls and guys? Depends on the case for girls. It seems to not work as well on women, but it is a really good muscle builder. For both women and men. Because of possibly helping that testosterone increase. Are there peptides that you like for women to help with their hormones? Most of my women to help with hormones, I like Tessamarallan. It's going to do the same things, going to work, have the same mechanism of action, right? It works really well on their visceral fat, on burning through their visceral fat. So we get kind of a two for one with my women. Interesting. Is that similar to a GLP one? No, but you can use it in conjunction with and it actually works really pretty well. Helps them retain their muscle mass really well. Let's tell listeners what Tessamarallan is. Tessamarallan is a growth hormone analog, right? So it ramps up how your body produces its own hormones basically on the level of the brain. CJC is doing the same action, right? For those who don't know what peptides are, they're basically small chains of amino acids, right? So they're smaller than a protein chain, which is how it classifies peptide versus proteins, right? But back to Tessamarallan, it does work on helping your body burn through visceral fat. So most of my women like the two for one. So I'm guessing perimenopause because that's a lot of the time when people start seeing the waist expand a little bit. So that's when you like it. We could go down a rabbit hole on peptides. Sorry. Peptides have become very trendy lately. Yes, yes. Are you ever afraid to give them? Yes, it depends on medical history and kind of what's going on with the patient right then. But for the most part, most peptides are really pretty safe and they've been very extensively studied. Are they safe if they get it from a correct source? From a correct source and have someone guiding their dosing and their use of it. And so can you suggest for people where a correct source is? I usually recommend getting it through like a provider. So if you've got a provider who's been trained in that, I source from a pharmacy, right? Or I recommend a pharmacy to patients, right? Will the pharmacy make sure that it's a good source? Correct. Yes. Okay, because I'm asking this because I heard a group of women the other day talk about how they get their peptides from China online and it made me a little nervous. Yeah, that is a little nervous. But a lot of our peptides actually do come from China, Russia and I believe Australia. So that's where they're actually formulated and where they were found. But we have a lot of good pharmacies in the United States that will either obtain them from those places, right? I'm not 100% sure on where they're getting them because they're not going to tell you, right? But then they do multiple third-party testing on them that show like sterility and essentially what's in there is actually what's in there and there's no additives. Okay, so I want to say that if someone has hormonal issues, they should look at their diet, sleep and exercise like you've talked about. Supplementation, because you've talked about that, but now a fifth thing of peptides. Talk to their provider about peptides. So why have peptides become so trendy just the last couple of years? That's a great question. Like full disclosure, if you want my honest answer on that is it's a moneymaker, right? They've been around forever, right? One of our more common peptides, BPC157, it was FDA approved back in the late 90s. And then the FDA pulled it off the market a year and a half ago, almost two years ago. Peptides go in and they heal a tissue. So Big Pharma has an issue with that. Oh, makes sense, right? Yeah, if they don't want us healing. Right, yeah. And if you only have to use something for a short amount of time and it's not $10,000 a shot, right? Interesting. That's not going to make anybody any money. Sorry, but that's kind of my honest answer on them. That makes sense. Yeah. Okay, so if moms are listening to this podcast, some moms love them and some moms are a little weary of them. Is there an age range that people can start them at? I usually wait until they're a little bit older. I try to go more on a diet supplemental road, right, on my younger patients. So I usually try to wait until about 18, but I will use CJC on for like really short stents or something like a clomid, right, on my guys who have low testosterone for a really small amount of time and see if we can basically light a fire under the brain's butt to do its job. In theory, at a younger person's age, should be able to maintain it as long as they eat, ride, exercise, sleep good, prioritize those things, right? Okay, so quick question. It's almost like a tool in the toolbox because if you give a peptide, but they're still only getting four hours of sleep sitting in front of the TV all day long and eating Oreos, that peptide's not going to do much. It'll work for a minute. It won't work as amazing as you want it to. And then when you take it away and I always recommend taking them away, right? Then yeah, everything just goes right back to the way it was. But it might work more effectively and efficiently if they're taking care of the other tools in the toolbox. Correct. Okay, one last question about peptides. Everybody's concerned about side effects that like maybe haven't been tested yet. There are thousands of peptides on the market. The only ones that I will recommend to patients for certain conditions or symptoms are the ones that have been around for a while. And CJ's been around since the 70s, right? BPC's been around since the 90s. There's a lot of research on these, right? I too, I'm a little weary. I'm a little weary of peptides that come out of like I just bought it online and it was $20, getting what you paid for, right? So you have to be cautious with them. Okay. Yeah, so I love peptides. They're a tool in the toolbox, but you have to use them with someone's help who knows what they're talking about, right? And they have to be sourced really well. Because some of them have to be cycled where others don't. Some can be given daily. Some have to be given a certain amount of days on and then days off, correct? Correct. Yeah, the only time I'll recommend a peptide to be continued is for somebody over the age of 50. Thank you for that side tangent on peptides, but I'm glad we touched upon those just a little bit. I love that it can be part of the toolbox to help people with their hormones. Thank you for being here and teaching the moms about all the different ages of hormones in their house. Hopefully people have learned now what hormones are and how they help the cell and how those endocrine disruptors affect the cells. And I always end my podcast by asking five fire rapid questions. But before I ask those, is there anything you want to end with? Anything you want to close with? Specific to hormones, they can be done really wrong. They're very highly misunderstood and just seek help, right? You don't have to feel like crap. I think that's the biggest thing that I like people to know that these are signals that your body's imbalanced. So make sure you have somebody good managing your hormones, looking at those. The hormone levels are atrocious through the lab, the normal ranges. So go work with someone because you do not need to feel tired every day or feel like your brain isn't working or low libido or any of those things as we age. Just go get help. I love that. Well, thank you so much for being on this show. I always end my podcast by asking five rapid fire questions, I call them. And so number one, what emerging health topic are you most excited about right now? Peptides and food, they kind of match for me. Two, what's a piece of advice you'd give your younger self? Hone in on your diet and your exercise. Make health a priority. At a younger age. Three, what's the one health practice you'll never compromise on no matter how busy life gets? I'm 46, so hormone replacement therapy. Well, that keeps me married. Keeps you going. Next one, what's your favorite just ingredients, product and why? The only protein I ever recommend to my patients is your protein. Oh, well, thank you very much. It's just very clean. It's good quality. I think it's the cleanest one out there. And I'll stand by that. I don't disagree with them. I think most women don't get enough protein, would you agree? I would agree with that. And last question, what have you found to be the best ingredient to life? Find something that makes you happy. Find that passion and joy in life. Tell my listeners where they can find you. I'm at Avalwellness in American Fork, Utah, Instagram account, which is at Avalwell, or you can reach out to us online. So are you still taking patients? Yes. Yeah, we just hired another nurse practitioner, so it'll make it a little bit easier. And then they can come to you for hormone replacement, peptides, just overall health. Great loss. Yep. And do you take anybody over Zoom? Absolutely. All right, so good to know. Yeah. Well, again, thank you so much for being here. Thanks for having me. Thank you for being here and being part of this community. Don't forget to subscribe to the Just Ingredients podcast. We've got so much more to share with you. And if you're not already, come join us daily on all social media platforms at just.ingredients. Until next time, keep choosing what nourishes you.