Dr. Cates: Hi there. I’m Dr Trevor Cates. Welcome to The Spa Dr. Podcast. On today’s episode of The Spa Dr. Podcast, we’re discussing how to reprogram your stress response so you can be more effectively adaptable and healthy. There are some people that are more sensitive distress, so you’ll find out from the guest today how to know if you are one of these people and even if you aren’t one of those that are more sensitive. Stress impacts all of us. So my guest is Dr. Heidi Hanna. She is the chief energy officer of Synergy, a company providing brain-based health and performance programs to individuals and organizations. The she is the executive director of the American Institute of Stress and a founding partner of the Academy for Brain Health and performance. She’s also a New York Times bestselling author of several books, including the Sharp Solution, Stressaholic and Recharge. She’s been featured at many global conferences including Fortune magazine, most powerful women in business summit, ESPN leadership summit, and the million dollar roundtable. Her clients have included Google, Starbucks, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, and WD40 as well as a PGA tour and the national football league. Heidi has also a certified humor professional with the Association for applied and therapeutic humor, although she won’t admit to being funny. She, her newest book is What’s So Funny About Stress. On today’s podcast, Dr. Henna shares signs indicating that you may be more sensitive distress than most people. You might be in that 15% of people that are more sensitive and these signs can include things that show up on your skin and she explains how stress leaves an imprint on your body and your brain. But don’t worry, she also covers how to reverse that damage and build a more, more resilient mindset and a healthier body and mind. So please enjoy this interview.

Dr. Cates: Heidi, welcome to my podcast. It’s great to have you on The Spa Dr. podcast.

Dr. Hanna: Thank you. I am excited to be here. I have to say I’m a fan of your podcast and I’ve watched many of the episodes before as I’ve been doing my research. So you’ve been hanging out with a lot of my friends and I’m excited to be here with you.

Dr. Cates: Yeah. Excellent. Thank you. Thank you. It’s, it’s, it’s so much fun doing a podcast. It’s a lot of fun being on them and interviewing other people. So, um, well let’s go ahead and dive in. We’re talking about stress today and I know we’ve talked about stress on the podcast before, but there’s so many different angles on stress that we can cover. And I know you’ve got some unique things to share with us today, but I think the first thing is we want to talk about is why is stress so important? And I know that a lot of times people like, oh, of course there’s stress. Everybody is stressed. Deal what you know, so what, but stress management is so important. I talk about it in a clean mind section of my book because of the, of the importance it plays in our overall health and our skin. So from your perspective, what do you see? Why is it that people really need to pay attention to stress?

Dr. Hanna: Yeah, I agree. I think stress management has gotten kind of a bad rap and in fact, when I’m brought into companies to work on stress, I always tell them, don’t put it in the title. Just had this conversation with someone yesterday. I said, let’s talk about recharging your brain and your business and your body. Because stress management just sounds like we’re going to sit and talk about our problems and complain like everyone has stress. Who are we to take care of ourselves? And I think especially as women, sometimes we have a tendency to just brush our stuff under the rug and focus on how we can help everybody else. That said, I have to say for me personally, my skin is one of the ways I can tell I’m stressed. I start to get breakouts and in fact even getting ready for this, I was like, oh, it’s been a stressful couple of weeks. I’ve got skin stuff here, I’ve got skin stuff here and there’s no question that that’s what’s going on. I think what I most want people to understand is that stress isn’t a bad thing. So we know we’re going to have stress, but really the goal is learning how to use stress as it’s intended, which is to fuel positive change. So stress is really just energy and information and we can master stress instead of managing it. We can actually use that energy and information in a more positive way. But if we don’t, we’re really pushing down and trapping and embodying this gap between demand and capacity, um, and it can radically change our brain and our body. So I think one of the most helpful things is just to understand that over time chronic stress can rewire the way that our brain and our nervous system function. And there’s actually three primary targets in the brain. One of the things like to to teach, it’s really easy for people to understand and remembers the triune brain. So we know that the brain is really organized in a specific hierarchy for how we process energy and information from the bottom up. So we have what’s called the lizard brain at the base of the brain. We have the monkey brain in the middle, and then we have the more human part at the top. And when we experience stress and it’s acute and we can do something about it, it doesn’t have a negative impact. We get a surge of adrenaline, we actually have better memory, better focus, better attention, better immune functioning, and that’s all good. But if the problem lasts a longer time and really it’s more than like 30 minutes and we’re forced to kind of trap that, the whole dynamic changes. And what changes in the brain is that we actually begin to grow and expand the connections between the monkey mind and that lizard brain. So we’re much more reactive, much more primal. And that can change actually the structure, the chemistry and the function of the brain, which we can see in scans. And then at the same time we start atrophy the areas of the brain, which we would call the human part, that really helped us to problem solve more effectively. So if you’re dealing with stress and it seems like, well everyone has stress, I’m not sleeping well, not eating well and not working out the way I should. I’m not getting a massage. And I know that would all be helpful. I just want people to understand that over time your brain is reprogramming itself and the brain, including the nervous system. And that’s where a lot of the challenges are going to start to show up with mental and emotional health and brain fog. And even that, the body tried to kind of express that and get your attention through things like skin irritation and skin conditions.

Dr. Cates: Right? And those are definitely skin to be a great indicator, like you’re talking about that something’s going on that we need to pay attention to. And it’s an, it’s an easy to see sign. And a lot of times people ignore it though. But are there other signs that people should look for? That stress really is a problem that you need to start paying attention that because how, yeah. How otherwise do we know if it is stress that’s normal, how do we know if it’s too much?

Dr. Hanna: I think a lot of what we call normal is not normal. And so I’d love for people to just be thinking about that when we’re off balance, when we’re out of our sweet spot. So it could be eating too much, eating too little, sleeping too much, sleeping too little. Sometimes exercising too much. People will overtrain when they’re dealing with a lot of anxiety and their body’s breaking down or maybe not moving enough. So I think there’s lifestyle things that people can take a look at. But I also think it’s when we feel like we’re not our best self. So I wake up every morning, or I should say this, I go to bed with the intention that I’m going to wake up every morning being patient, loving and kind like that’s who I want to be. That’s who I believe I am at the core of my being. But as soon as I start thinking I don’t have enough time to get it all done, that’s not how I show up. I get irritable and aggressive and I communicate this with my husband. I’m like, okay, I’m just, it’s not you. I’m just feeling kind of agitated right now. That’s not the way that we’re designed to walk through life. Like we should be able to choose the emotional experience that we want to have and how we want to show up in the time that we have. And I think most of the time we’re being hijacked so we can look at our relationships with people. We can look at our frustration, things like road rage or you know, sitting at work and just dreading, you know, talking to our boss or whatever’s going on where we don’t feel like we’re in flow and we’re living a life that that brings us joy. And I know that may seem like a big ask when you look around and see, well, most people are stressed out and you know, the majority of people are dealing with depression and anxiety and all sorts of things. And so we call those normal, but they’re really not. They’re normal cause they’re like the norm, but they’re not what we’re supposed to be doing. And I don’t think that that’s the way that the brain and the body are really hardwired. It’s just that we’ve been kind of reprogramming it over time by not taking care of ourselves.

Dr. Cates: Right. I think most people listening or watching this podcast, mom more than normal, I think. I think we want optimal, we want vibrant health. We want vibrant, glowing skin. We want those things. We want more than, you know, just okay. Yeah. There’s a lot more to life than okay. And certainly makes aging a lot more enjoyable too as we get older instead of these excuses of like, oh well, you know, it’s just part of getting older. You have less energy. You just don’t have the same kind of drive. You forget things, you know, it’s not settling for that, I think is important. I think stress plays a big role in those types of symptoms. Right. Especially as we get older if he take care of ourselves.

Dr. Hanna: That’s right. And I and I think a big thing piece of it is the story we tell ourselves about stress. I know it’s gonna sound like a stretch, but I always tell people really stressing is a blessing if you realize that it’s trying to get your attention to make an adjustment. The problem is we’ve gotten so used to thinking that that’s the way life is, that we don’t make these minor adjustments that can actually have a really major impact. And I think, I mean, I certainly, I’m married to someone who should not have the energy that he has at an older age and people are always shocked to hear how old he is. I mean, he’s just such a great example and he does a lot of the things from a mindset perspective. He’s very positive. He uses a lot of humor. He’s very mission driven. So I look at him, I, I lovingly call him my longevity project. I look at him and then I think about myself growing up with an anxiety condition. I had panic attacks all the time. Like just some of the things that have gotten me to the point that I don’t even have the energy, the glowing skin that I want to have. But I also know I can make the course corrections. And I know I’ve seen amazing, beautiful older women especially that just radiate from the inside out and there’s something beyond that’s really causing that glow. And I think that is that vibrancy, as you mentioned, it’s joy. And I think there’s part of us we have to get more comfortable with saying that that’s a good thing and it’s okay and we don’t have to feel bad that the rest of the world isn’t in their sweet spot. But what we can do is show up with that energy. Because the other thing I think people should is stress is highly contagious. So the research has shown that teachers who have high cortisol levels have students that have higher cortisol levels. We can feel when someone walks in the room and they’re stressed. And on the flip side, we can feel when we’re near someone who has that calm confidence and that joy in their life. And we want more of that. So taking care of ourselves shouldn’t be selfish. It’s something that really contributes to everyone who’s around us from an energy perspective.

Dr. Cates: Right. And I definitely want to talk more about mindset, but before we go into that, let’s talk a bit more about the brain and the changes that occur. And, and also I think, I think it’s important for you to know is it reversible? The changes that occur?

Dr. Hanna: So one of the fascinating things with the brain is that when you really get down to kind of a cellular level, the cells themselves, like if we actually destroy brain cells, we don’t bring those back. But we can actually create neurogenesis, which is the development of new brain cells. And more importantly, we can strengthen the connection between the neurons that we have. So a lot of the research now is looking at glial cells and how cells communicate with each other. So when I talk about like on the negative side the human part of the brain, the prefrontal cortex actually atrophies. We will lose brain cells and we will decrease the connection between the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus, which is actually what helps us to remember and, and problem solve effectively. So we’re losing our ability to navigate stress better. And at the same time, the connections between the hippocampus, our memory with the Amygdala and the fear center are strengthening. So when we feel anxious, it’s normal that we feel that way. The brain’s really trying to protect us. It’s those patterns or those networks that can radically change. And we’ve seen this even with people who’ve had this and brain damage, you know, they’ve lost function in certain parts of their brain and yet they can course correct and work around those. So for me, part of what makes it so personal in addition to growing up with an anxiety condition is I’ve had three grandparents with Alzheimer’s disease. And so it’s really, I was looking at the research in neuroscience more around that and cognitive decline before I recognized how powerful this was for mental and emotional health. Because studies have shown that people have the plaques and tangles of Alzheimer’s and never show a single symptom because they have the capacity to work around those roadblocks or speed bumps or however you want to think about it. So it’s really exciting. News it’s a good time to be thinking about brain health and performance. And I think about it as like brain fitness, you know, how are you training not only the structure, the chemistry, but also the function. Can your brain actually take you where you want to go? The way we think about physical fitness and our body taking us where we want to go.

Dr. Cates: Right. Okay, great. And so let’s talk about some of these tools in stress management. And I think, you know, one of the things that you talk about is with mindset is having a more resilient mindset. And I think I, I think that that’s an important thing, because I think we need some resiliency because we are bombarded by so many different factors that can play a role in our health and, and also our mindset.

Dr. Hanna: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. So, kind of going back to the brain fitness idea, I think about resilience as being flexibility. So cognitive and emotional flexibility. Can you deal with things when they don’t go well? So resilience, I look at that as our ability to prepare for, adjust to and adapt from. So like we’re going to have stress, things are going to go wrong. Can we proactively train ourselves so that we’ve got better capacity when those things happen? And can we reactively have some tools that will help us in the moment. So if we go back to the way that the brain is organized, we know that we actually received sensory information before we start to put thoughts together. So we worked from the bottom up. And the reason that’s important is we’re bombarding our system with these non-conscious cues. That process within about a fifth of a second to our brain, kind of from an energetic standpoint before we start having our thoughts. And I think a lot of mindset training is like, okay, just think different thoughts while you can’t, like your brain can’t do that if you’re hijacked in a state of sensing danger or perceived threat. So dealing with anxiety and then dealing with depression afterwards, I would talk with my friends who are positive psychology researchers and say like, that’s all great, but if my body’s hijacked, like I can’t, I can’t even lift myself to think and use positive affirmations, they’re not going to stick. So I really recommend people do what I call brain recharge process or brain recharge practice, and you work from the bottom up, which means you do breathing and then feeling and then focusing. It’s what I call BFF. It’s easy to remember you breathe in a pattern of about six breaths per minute, which is breathing into about five breathing out to about five and getting into a rhythmic state that feels comfortable. So not forcing, deep breathing, really kind of focusing, especially on the exhale because it’s the exhale that that gets us into that relaxation response. So doing a little bit of breath work and then you can shift from there to a positive emotion, thinking about someone or something that you feel grateful for and actually not just thinking about it, but trying to feel in your body what it feels like to be grateful in. The more you practice that these are, you can do it. Like I can shift right now into an emotion of gratitude without thinking of anything. Cause I know what it feels like because I’ve trained myself over time. And then the focus part is really now starting to work on mindset. So what do I want to be focusing on that’s going to allow me to stay in this ideal state? So usually I’m encouraged people to come up with a focus phrase, which could be a word or a series of words. It can be a color, it could be a symbol, but something that you go back to that allows you to kind of anchor in that. And I’ll use an example that I just knocked off my desk a minute ago, but like I have this little stress monkey that I love and I squeeze him and his heart pops out and I always have these with me when I’m speaking. If I’m doing an interview, I usually have them in my hand. This non-conscious cue becomes an anchor for me to do the breathing, to feel gratitude. And for me, one of the things I focus on is humor, so like humor and play also help us with creativity. Help us with that flexibility. But as much as you can make it really tangible for you, I think it’s something that really starts to become part of your toolkit, part of your routine. I do the same with aroma therapy. I create my own blends that lift and ground me at the same time. I always have them with me. Songs can do the same thing. So these are all techniques that really focus on sensory cues first, then emotional experience, and then mindset shifts that we can really make part of our routine without a lot of extra work.

Dr. Cates: Right. Great. So you mentioned a way like noticing the way that it feels to me in that state. Can you, I mean I think, you know, I think, I know you know and I think the kind of know, but do you have any tips for people and how to notice that, that, that you are in that place, does that, I think you can use your heart rate and that’s one thing you could do. Heart rate variability testing and things like that. Right? Do you ever use tools like that to help you?

Dr. Hanna: I do. I’m sure huge fan of heart math. So I use inner balance every day to kind of track my heart rate variability. And it is nice to get the green light that says you’re, you’re there just as reinforcement is especially to the logical part of our brain that wants to know. But what I would also say as like if you’re watching this right now and, and we can do the same thing, is if you just close your eyes for a moment and just think about someone or something you feel grateful for and focus on the area around your heart and just kind of connect with the sensation of that and not judge yourself. If your mind starts to wander, but just come back, like if it’s a person, imagine they’re next to you. Imagine just focusing on the space around your and what that feels like. I think. And you can open your eyes.

Dr. Cates: Yeah, I was just going to leave everybody in la La land.

Dr. Hanna: We can do that longer. But I think that for most people it’s a little different. And so I like to really invite people to just practice and not judge yourself. It doesn’t have to take a long period of time. I can say that for me, I usually feel a little warmer if I’m cool or a little cooler if I’m warm. It’s like your body and your nervous system start to recalibrate themselves. I feel a little bit of, kind of tingling, just like a light, comfortable tingling. But the main thing I noticed is I just start to smile. And even if it’s not on the outside, there’s an inner smile that happens. And in fact, that’s one of the greatest ways I just gave myself goosebumps. Inner smiling is one of the greatest ways to lift and rebalance your nervous system and no one even has to know you’re doing it. But if you just imagine a smile, you start to experience these beautiful neurochemical changes in your brain and body. Um, and if you smile on the outside than other people get a benefit from it too. So that’s not a bad thing.

Dr. Cates: Right, right. Absolutely. Um, when I do that, I think a lot of times I think of my, my kids, um, my youngest, when they’re sleeping like that sweetness and innocence and it actually, I’ve used that as a tool to help me sleep, to like, imagining how peaceful they look when they sleep and that just, I can feel just this relaxation. And, um, and then now that I have a puppy, I feel like puppies, my golden retriever puppy. they are so soft and so sweet. And that’s another one that like instantly can shift things for me if I just close my eyes and I, you know, pictureeither one of those. This was a lot.

Dr. Hanna: And those are helpful for everyone. You know, I encourage people to come up with your own recharge tool kit. What are the go tos for you? I have five things I do every single day to balance my brain movement. Meditation Mirth, which is another word, first humor. It’s the emotional experience of finding something funny. Music and sound therapy. And then massage. I do physical, like I’ll go into a bath or a hot tub with jets to physically get massage. And then I also use electric therapy, which is like a form of brain massage and it’s just a very low frequency current that helps to rebalance the nervous system. So I’ve kind of fine, fine tuned over time, what I call Heidi’s high five. It’s like every day. These are the things I need to do and I have a routine and I know if I do those things, then I’m the boss of my brain. My brain’s not being hijacked and it never fails. Something’s going to come up during the day where I start to get triggered and then I can anchor back by going to the aroma therapy or the stress monkey or getting, you know, outside time in nature. But I think really like starting your day with some sort of recharge routine and then ending your day with a recharge routine before sleep, which is going to help us to sleep more effectively is just critical because then we can shift more quickly during the day. But without those bookends are anchors. It’s really hard to do.

Dr. Cates: Can you go ever the m’s again, there was music, movement mirth?

Dr. Hanna: Yeah, movement, meditation, mirth and those are three like can’t live without. And then I also use music or sound I like my neural beat. Um, I actually incorporate a lot of these at the same time in my morning and evening practice and then massage. So I physically will go get massage every week. Someday I’m going to do it every single day and have someone who lives in my home that’s ready for like a chair massage at anytime because especially if you are stressed sensitive or if you grew up, you know, 15 to 20% of people have a genetic predisposition for stress sensitivity. And I happen to be one of those. So if you are one of those, you embody stress more than most people, you can actually see changes in a brain scan that are different from people who don’t have that sensitivity. So if you’ve been carrying that around, especially you know, for decades, there’s a lot physically that needs to be released and so physical massage can be a great way to do that. And for me it was rewriting the story that says like, I don’t want to tell anyone I get a massage that sounds so selfish or like indulgent. But the reality is I do it so that I can be kind. I do it so that I can speak on big stages and write books and try to share this information with people because that’s really stressful and overwhelming to me. So ultimately it came down to like, this isn’t an option anymore. This is what I have to do to take care of myself. And I would love, especially for women to start rewriting the script about when we take care of ourselves, we really can help others more effectively. I feel like we talk about that, but we don’t practice the strategies that really help us to do it as much as we could.

Dr. Cates: Right. And we do know that there are physiologic changes that occur with something like massage, especially if there’s touch, for example, the oxytocin released that helps us feel more connected and more satisfied in our environment. And um, you know, I think, I think you’re right. I think a lot of times we feel like that’s a luxury. I’m surprised how many people haven’t gotten a massage. I run into people all the time. I’m never gotten a massage. I’m like, have you ever had anybody, like rub your shoulders? And they’re like ya I have, but I’ve never gone in to get a massage. But uh, I think it’s, I think it’s such a great therapeutic tool part, it’s the touch, the relaxation. There are a lot of different components to massage that make it and you’re even talking about not even necessarily human touch, like going into like a Jacuzzi and you get the jets on your back or something like that.

Dr. Hanna: Those are also back rollers. I’ve got something somewhere that has, you know, like wooden ball nubs on it and I can just kind of roll my own back out, even a bath or Jacuzzi Tub, just getting that. I think that the getting them muscle tension to release because we do start to kind of holds everything tightly. I think also as women in particular, we’ve kind of been taught to not take up too much space and suck everything in and stand tall and that’s great. But like we’re walking around holding onto a lot of that tension. But you’re right. I mean you cannot under value, overvalue, whatever the right word is a physical touch. And I know for a long time I was, I didn’t get married til I was 42 and I would kind of joke about this and it was like, well at least when I’m getting a massage, like someone’s physically taking care of my body. It was really important for me to have that physical connection. And I think it’s one of those things we, you know, we just kind of like the stress thing. We brushed it under the rug and say, who am I to take care of myself? So many people are struggling out there and I think one of the best ways we can contribute to people feeling better is for us to show up with that loving kindness, intention and energy and, and also role model this. So I have started speaking out about my massage more to groups and I love that. Now they come back and they’ll say, you know what? I’m doing that to Heidi’s doing it. I’m doing it. It’s like, great, now I’ve got even more accountability to make sure I’m walking the talk.

Dr. Cates: Yeah, absolutely. So tell us more about this. This 15% of people are more stressed. Sensitive, Huh? How does somebody know if they’re in this 15%?

Dr. Hanna: So most people know. It’s really interesting. If I even bring it up, there’s some amazing research by Dr Elaine Aron and she first came up with this term, the highly sensitive person. So if anyone’s wondering about this, I would really recommend, you can go to hsperson.com and see her quizzes and things there. But this was quite a while ago. I want to see like the 80s, nineties ish, which doesn’t sound that long ago to me, but I know too many of you will. Um, and now there’s so much more that we know that the nervous system has what we call vantage plasticity. So this 15 to 20% of the population has a specific genetic predisposition for a more sensitive nervous system. And that’s shown in in brain scans, you can actually see that these people with this particular trait process emotion more deeply into the brain stem and even into the body. So it’s not just negative emotion, I should say that it’s all emotion. So higher highs, lower lows probably shows up in a lot of people as being bipolar or manic depressive. And I think with a lot of those people it’s a mislabel because we don’t understand sensitivity in that. So if you’re a sensitive child and really important … Parents, if you have one of these, which you most likely do, hang in there with me, I’m going to give you some tips. If you are a sensitive child and you enjoy things like you have more joy, more curiosity, there’s usually a connection with nature, spirituality, animals, those types of things. You also tend to absorb stress and tension in the family. So if you grew up in a stressful home life, it doesn’t have to be traumatic, but I don’t know many people that don’t have tension and their family. You can interpret that and start to embody that. And the nervous system changes. So sensitive kids who are nourished and especially kind of taught that they’re sensitive and that’s not a bad thing, and they’re taught how to set healthy boundaries actually excel in so many ways. It’s the sensitive kids that grow up in stressful situations, and especially if they’re taught that their sensitivity is bad, which unfortunately happened to me, not because my parents weren’t amazing, but because they didn’t want me to suffer. So it was kind of like, you know, we need to fix this. She’s too sensitive. She’s too emotional went to all these doctors. No one could figure out what was wrong. And I actually ended up fainting. I have a condition called Vasovagal Syndrome where I faint when I get over anxious that I believe we could trace back to the sensitivity trait. And I’m doing research on now. So, so for parents, a lot of times I’ll mention this and like, oh my gosh, I’m messing up my child. My child is that they’re a little anxious, maybe a little irritable sometimes, but usually very gifted, very creative, very loving. Very passionate. They just seem to have these high highs and low lows. There is a book Dr Aaron wrote about the highly sensitive child that has great tips. The most important thing is that we appreciate and nurture what makes us different and I think sensitivity can be a real blessing as long as we know how to set these healthy boundaries. So quick questions, people can do a quiz to find out if they’re stressed, sensitive. I also put together at stresssensitive.com a little free kind of online course that people can take to see some lectures, take quizzes, and then I just update that as we’re getting new research.

Dr. Cates: Okay, great. All right, well any other tips that before we end, do you want any other tips that help people with managing stress? I mean that we can just start today.

Dr. Hanna: Yeah, I think the last thing I would say, cause I’ve touched on it but I didn’t get into it a lot, is the value of healthy humor. So healthy humor is not about laughing at our problems and it’s never about laughing at ourselves, but being able to find what’s funny in life or look at the irony of it. So a great example, my two biggest fears or public speaking in flying, and I do that for a living now. So that’s funny. So instead of like, oh my gosh, why am I doing this to myself? I have my monkey with me on stage. A lot of times I’ll say something’s gonna go wrong. Cause I mean like, technology’s gonna fail. I’m a stress expert. So if you just kind of expect it, not wanting things to go wrong, but like if we can play with our pain a little more, a lot of times comedy is just tragedy plus time. If you can intentionally look for things that are funny and your day, it will help with your resilience. And for parents, I think this is really a tool that’s very helpful. A lot of times we’ll talk to our kids about gratitude and they like that. But you know, it’s kind of like, oh, here we go with the gratitude thing again. If you asked her kids to find things funny and even report back to you at the end of the day, what’s the funniest thing that happened to you? You’re actually helping their brain to look for things that are more playful and enjoyable and light about life and you’re actually training a really powerful mindset skill for kids and it’s something that you can do and benefit from as well.

Dr. Cates: Ya I love that. That’s fantastic. That’s kind of the mark, but I love it. Yeah. And I love finding the humor in things and um, that’s fantastic. Well, Heidi, it tell everybody where they can learn more about you and, and continue to learn from you.

Dr. Hanna: Thank you. Yeah. The best place is my website, which is Heidi hanna.com. It’s pretty easy and we’re updating it all the time. I’m actually just launching, in fact, in the next couple of months a stress 2020 initiative where we’re working with companies to build a more resilient workplace and a lot of the things you hear me talking about, we’re actually now working with some big brands to take into the workplace and then also out to the general public. So really excited about that. So anyone that’s feeling like, Ooh, I want to get involved with this, you can find out more information about how you can do that at my website. So thank you so much for having me. Love your podcast. I continue to watch and figure out how I can make my skin glow more and show the joy that’s happening on the inside.

Dr. Cates: Yeah, absolutely. Well thanks again Heidi for coming on and we’ll make sure that we have that link to your website up below the podcast interview.

Dr. Cates: I hope you enjoyed this interview today with Dr Heidi Hanna and got some tips on changing, shifting your mindset, some stress management practices that fit into your life that are easy to follow and ways to really know if this is working for you. So to learn more about her approach and about her book and her website, you can go to thespadr.com, go to the podcast page with her interview and you’ll find all the information and links there. And while you’re there, I invite you to join the spa doctor community so you don’t miss any of our upcoming shows and get some valuable information from The Spa Dr. And if you haven’t already taken the skin quiz, you can find out what information you’re skin is trying to tell you about your health and what you can do about it. Just go to theskinquiz.com also, I invite you to join me on social media, on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and youtube. And join the conversation there and I’ll see you next time on The Spa Dr. Podcast.

Dr. Cates: Hi there. I’m Dr Trevor Cates. Welcome to The Spa Dr. Podcast. On today’s podcast we’re talking about food and herbs for hormonal balance. My guest is Dr Stephanie Zgraggen. She is the clinical director of Lyman Lotus Healing Arts Center in Charleston, South Carolina. Her private practice is centered on functional endocrinology, lifestyle modification, and whole food supplementation. Her expertise includes functionally evaluating thyroid, adrenal, male and female hormone imbalances, and digestion. For mission is to empower women on how they can transform their lives and incorporate nutrition, supplements and positive lifestyle choices. She’s written for national publications such as Chiropractic Economics and National Awakenings and Nutrition Perspectives. Today’s interview focuses on women’s health and hormones and which foods, nutrients, and herbs are helpful for Adrenal, thyroid and sex hormone balance. So please enjoy this interview.

Dr. Cates: Stephanie, welcome to the SPA doctor podcast. It’s great to have you on.

Dr. Zgraggen: Thank you so much, Trevor. It’s so nice to be here. Thanks for having me.

Dr. Cates: Yeah, so today we’re talking about women’s health, women’s hormones and foods, herbs, things that help support our hormonal imbalance. And so before we dive into the material today, tell us what, what got you so interested in working with women’s health in your practice?

Dr. Zgraggen: That is a great question because I’ve been there. It was a really big challenge going through school for myself at the time I was in chiropractic school, it was four years of going to school 40 hours a week. I was also working in a restaurant on the side for 20 hours a week. I was studying for boards, getting ready to graduate, getting ready to move across the country, get married, start a practice, you name it. And I was pretty darn stressed out too, if you can imagine all those things going on in my life at that particular time. And I started waking up with hot sweats at night, night sweats and hot flashes both. And I would literally be drenched in sweat. And at 24 years old, I was just thinking, this is not okay. Um, so I went to the regular routes of, you know, going to the gynecologist, having the labs done, and they told me everything was normal. And then when we looked at my cycle, my cycle was very unregulated as well. I had a very heavy cycle, lots of cramps, lots of sitting in bed during that time. I got to the point where I was having nausea and vomiting every single month. So basically my period was ruining my life and I didn’t want that anymore for myself. So once I had the test done, the doctor said everything was normal. I said, this absolutely is not normal. So that really started me on a track to find out really what’s going on, how can the lab say a normal, but I’m really this way and there’s, there’s no way. And that’s when I got more into functional medicine, really looking at different labs to do for women. And I did some functional labs on myself and I found out that I was a hot mess. My cortisol was really high, my estrogen was high and my progesterone was low and have higher testosterone than normal. And from there I was able to look at ways to balance that naturally. And it took me about a year to fix myself. But, I’m happy to say now I need an App to know when my cycle’s coming. It’s much more pleasant to deal with. And now my period doesn’t ruin my life. And that’s really what got me on the mission to help women and educate them and empower them on different options, different choices in ways that we can start balancing things naturally. Um, so that’s the story and that’s, that’s why we’re here today.

Dr. Cates: Yeah. And so many of us have our own personal journey that leads us into specializing in a certain area. So I can definitely understand. And then also I think so often it’s confusing for women that are told your hormones are fine. There’s nothing wrong with you, it must be in your head, here’s a sleep med, here’s an antidepressant. You’ll be fine. You’re just getting older. I mean at 24 of course, that’s not exactly what you were told, but I think a lot of women are, they’re told, you know, it’s just, you know, it’s just part of being a woman or you know, this is, you’ve just been dealt a bad hand. I’m sorry, but your labs are fine. There’s really nothing wrong with you. And that’s a really frustrating place to be because like you said, it’s like wait now, there is something wrong here. I know there’s something wrong and you know when you’re told no, you’re fine, you’re normal, you’re like, no, it’s not right.

Dr. Zgraggen: Yeah. So as women I think were very intuitive creatures anyway, we just feel that something is off. And then you mentioned, you know, being given sleep meds are prescribed antidepressants. I can’t tell you how many women have gone through that route that I’ve seen personally that have said, you know, I know something’s off. The only thing they gave me wasn’t antidepressant. That didn’t feel right to me. That’s not what I wanted to take. And like I said, once we can really get some solid lab work for these women, we really find a lot of a lot of things that can be out of balance with them.

Dr. Cates: Yeah. So what do you, what do you feel like the gaps are right now with women being treated with health plans and things? What are some of the gaps do you feel are happening?

Dr. Zgraggen: I think some of the biggest gaps are really in testing. We’re not doing functional testing. We’re looking to see if women have maybe fibroids or endometriosis or polycystic ovarian disease. And some women don’t have the diseases at this point, but they still have imbalances. And so I think that’s where we’re missing. I call it the gray area. You know, you may not have a disease yet, but you have a lot of symptoms that are, that are moving in that direction. And I’d much rather get a woman to when she is out of balance, but not completely broken yet. Um, and really work on it from that perspective too because there’s so much we can do prior to that point.

Dr. Cates: Yeah, absolutely. And so with these especially lab testing, this is not something that most, well at least not conventional doctors are running. This is something that functional medicine doctors as well as naturopathic doctors are ordering. And can you say anything about the labs that you like? I mean, you don’t have to mention names of labs or if you, unless you want to, but what are you kind of looking for in your practice that you’ve found that really helps.

Dr. Zgraggen: We’re really looking at, so just the women’s cycle. So if a woman that still hasn’t period and menstrual cycle every month, I want to see that entire cycle front of entire month. You know, we go and get lab work done just on one day. We’re only seeing a very small shot of what her hormones look like. But there’s this beautiful dance of the hormones with your estrogen’s up just from the testosterone. And if we can do labs that track the entire month, we can really see exactly where there might be a problem in that woman’s cycle because she might be good at the beginning of the cycle, but come ovulation. So at a time her menstrual cycle starts again, it’s, it’s, it’s a total mess. So with those kind of labs, if you’re having a menstrual cycle and you’re seeking out someone to find some help and really look for someone that can do a full month cycle. So that’s one piece of the puzzle. The other thing I think we’re lacking of testing just in medicine in general, is looking at our adrenal glands. Our adrenal glands are producing cortisol women these days, we’re doing so much, I mean, we are powerful, amazing creatures, but we’re also really pushing ourselves and sometimes not taking enough time. So I really find it was a lot of women, their cortisol levels are off, their DHEA levels are off. So I’m testing those types of hormones a lot for them as well.

Dr. Cates: Okay. So you do the testing in there. A combination sounds like a blood or saliva or maybe some urine tests, are different tests that you run now.

Dr. Zgraggen: And I’m typically doing blood and saliva most commonly with women. We’ll do some stool samples when we need to, but that’s generally not the case for everybody.

Dr. Cates: Yeah. Okay. And so, you know, I think what we’re talking about here is that different tasks require different routes of testing for them, some is blood, some is saliva, some is urine and you learn different things in different places. For adrenals, the best places, saliva, right?

Dr. Zgraggen: Yes. I love the saliva testing for the adrenals because really when we’re looking at cortisol levels, that’s usually where it starts. For a lot of women within balancing their hormones, they get stressed out, cortisol levels go high, and if their stressed out long term, we can really track that. Cortisol is one of those hormones that has a nice rhythm daily. So it should be a high in the morning, that’s the hormone that helps get you out of bed, get you going for the day. And then it should start trickling down throughout the day and be lowest at night. So I love the saliva panels that will do all day testing because then you can see, well what is my total output of cortisol for the entire day? Is a good in the morning? Is it really bad at night you know? I’ve got some of my patients, I call them that the tired and wired patients where their cortisol should be dropping at night, but they shoot back up again. So we can really see that on lab tests and based on what the labs say, we can then really give some specific, either time for some prescriptions that we want to do as far as herbs or eating certain foods, or we will know if they need to raise or lower certain forms because so many times we might have a hormone that’s high or low, but it’s still gives the same symptoms. So just because someone tells me what their symptoms are I can’t necessarily tell them what hormones are necessarily out of balance due to that.

Dr. Cates: Okay. So let’s talk about this on the, I think in, when we’re talking about hormones, we’re talking about not just sex hormones, right? Like you were talking about cortisol, adrenals, we’re talking about thyroid. We were talking about these are the most common things that we talk about in practice, right? So let’s talk about some of these, because I want to talk about food because food is such powerful medicine and I think it often times gets overlooked. A lot of times women are like, okay, well do I need to go on hormones? And I’m like, well, hold on before you even talk about hormone therapy and if that’s even necessary, let’s talk about what you can be doing at home every day because your choices that you make every day are so powerful. And food is powerful medicine. So when it comes to, let’s talk about adrenals person, things like Cortisol, um, what are some of the foods that are really beneficial for helping with adrenals? Yeah, yeah.

Dr. Zgraggen: I think the adrenals are definitely the place to start because if those are out of balance, that really does give a trickle down effect to love the other hormones and I needed the thyroid gland. So my favorites I guess tips to give the ladies that are working with their adrenals. Getting enough protein. So making sure that each meal that you have … we have fat, we have protein, we have carbohydrates, but the adrenals really, really thrive on protein. And one of the signs that your adrenals might not be working to their speed and to their efficiency is if you crave salt a lot, that’s one of the hormones. We need a lot of salts to push those pathways. So women that crave salt or maybe just want to go straight for the salty food or potato chips? We can look at the adrenal glands. So really looking at making sure that we’re adding good salts, so if we areeating really clean foods. If we’re eating not processed foods, we really do need to add some good sea salts to the diet. So making sure we mad at that. And then as far as nutrients go that are going to help with the adrenal glands, your B vitamins, your c vitamins and selenium I think are the most important. Um, so the way that we can do that very easily on a daily basis is for the B vitamins. Just one good hearty cup of greens per day. So whether you throw it in your smoothie whether you have a nice big green salad and steam some veggies for dinner? That’s, that’s how we can get that in. For the vitamin C one citrus fruit per day, that’s it. So even just drinking water and squeezing lemon or lime into your water throughout the day would be perfect. One thing that I love to eat is mushrooms. They’re high in vitamin C as well. And then for selinium, … nuts, seeds, fish. But if we want to get our daily dose in the most efficient power pack, it’s Brazil nuts. So two brazil nuts per day is the daily dose just to get the selenium in. So those are really easy ways that we can add these foods in to really start affecting on a daily basis. And if you are just to these foods and keep just doing it day after day, you will, you will see the change. Yeah.

Dr. Cates: And I don’t want to remind everybody, because I talk a lot about skin on the podcast, is that my specialty, and I want to remind you that these are all important for skin. I mean first of all cortisol, balancing cortisol and again, and having healthy adrenals is important for healthy skin, especially skin inflammation issues, inflammatory skin issues.Balancing cortisol is really key in helping with managing those and B vitamins, vitamin C, selenium, those are all crucial for skin health as well and the right kinds of proteins. So when you talk about protein, what are good sources of protein and you’re in from your perspective?

Dr. Zgraggen: Yeah, we can obviously do meat. So, um, chicken fish and when we talk about me, it’s, I really encourage my women, especially when they have hormonal issues to eat clean sources of meat. I mean if we’re going to do beef or any kind of that meat, I really want to make sure it’s organic. We don’t have hormones in the meat because that can exacerbate some of our other issues. So really eating clean types of meats. If we’re going to do fish, we’re doing wild fish and not farm raised. And then we can look at nuts, seeds, legumes or beans, chickpeas, hummus, you know, all of those are going to be high in protein. We even have veggies that are high protein, Broccoli is a great vegetable that has a higher content of a protein as well.

Dr. Cates: Okay, great. It’s also a good source of vitamin C to, yeah. Okay, great. Um, and so that is with just kind of overall adrenal support, keeping the adrenals balanced, not one direction or the other. Right. And so what about herbs? Are there any herbs that are particularly good for that you recommend for adrenals?

Dr. Zgraggen: Yeah, so I love the adrenals. There are so many fantastic herbs for them and a lot of the herbs are what are called adaptogenic herbs. So what those are, those are herbs that you can take and whether or not your body needs to raise cortisol or lower it, the body will do what it needs to do with that particular herb. One of my favorites is Ashwagandha. It’s also called Withania. So that’s a fantastic herb. It’s a great adaptogen that can help raise or lower cortisol, whatever needs to happen. I love that herb specifically for women that are the tire and wires that we were talking about earlier. Those women that are maybe tired in the morning, they might get a second wind at night and they can’t go to sleep or they have sleep issues. Withania, Ashwagandha is a great herb for that. I also love the herb rhodiola. That is a fantastic herb for getting you going in the morning. So if you’re the one that needs those three cups of coffee, I’d rather cut down on the coffee and move more towards, you know, certain herbs like Rhodiola, Ginseng is also another great herb. You know eleuthero is fantastic. Licorice is a great adaptagenic herb as well. So we have so many great ones to choose from. So whether you do it in an herb form, a pill form or a tincture, or even doing a tea, all those can be effective at helping for restoring the adrenal glands.

Dr. Cates: Okay, great. All right, well let’s talk about, let’s talk about thyroid and you know what, actually before I move on, you know, it’s really interesting. When I was creating my skincare line, I actually used put some adopted to mimic adaptogenic herbs and the skincare products because your skin gets stressed and with adaptagenic herbs there’s actually HPA access on the skin. And so we believe that it has a balancing effect on the skin. So when your skin is stressed, it needs a little support too.

Dr. Zgraggen: It does and that’s probably where it’s going to show up first is your skin, hair and nails. Because as far as the body is concerned, it’s going to make sure that you’re breathing, that you’re digesting and that your heart’s still beating. Things you’ll see first is In your skin. So that makes perfect sense.

Dr. Cates: Yeah. Right. Yeah. So all right, let’s talk about thyroid. So what are some, some good foods for helping balance thyroid?

Dr. Zgraggen: For the thyroid, we once again need some selenium. We also need vitamin E, vitamin D and iodine for a lot of people. So those are what’s lacking in a lot of our patients. So as far as being able to create the thyroid hormones, but even more importantly, I think for thyroid gland is really looking at how well their liver is working because a lot of the hormones that we need that are active for the thyroid really aren’t made in the thyroid they’re made in the liver. So we shovel those hormones from the thyroid to deliver. We need to reactivate them in the liver. So if you have a really sluggish liver or you’re really eating poorly or maybe taken a lot of medications that can slow down the body’s processing ability to create those hormones. Um, so really looking at are we eating enough good liver support foods too. So liver support foods are going to be things like your cruciferous vegetables, your Broccoli or cauliflower, your Brussels sprouts or Kale. Once again, all good foods for your skin. Um, Avocados are great. So Lemons, ginger, Tumeric, you know, all those anti inflammatory foods, beets are fantastic. Or artichokes. So hopefully most of your listeners like a few of those and can start incorporating those so that will help the liver processing. And then as far as vitamin D, You know, getting out in a little bit of Sun, a little bit of sunshine, but of course using sunscreen where necessary. Cod liver oil is great for your vitamin A and vitamin D. We already talked about the selenium, but those would be some of the foods that we can start incorporating as far as the thyroid goes. And then for iodine, one food that we really don’t eat a lot of as Americans is seaweed and that has a lot of iodine into that can be really helpful for the thyroid as well.

Dr. Cates: Right. And of course if anybody’s listening, watching and you’re under treatment for a thyroid condition or any of these hormonal condition conditions, talk to your doctor about, you know, what’s best for you as far as the foods and how to prepare them. I think that, you know, for example, if someone might want to be avoiding the raw forms of these are eating those limitations. They might want to have steam versions of some of the cruciferous vegetables for some, some people with thyroid problems. Right?

Dr. Zgraggen: Yes, yes. I’m definitely recommending my hypo thyroids eat them cooked and my hyper is eat them raw. So it really just depends on what your labs look like working with your doctor, to get the right levels, especially with iodine you definitely want to be within the right limits and right levels for that as well.

Dr. Cates: Yeah, absolutely. Okay, great. An

Dr. Zgraggen: d what about herbs? Herbs for the thyroid gland? I love laderach, but that’s only if you’re hypo, that wouldn’t be one to take for the hyper side, but there’s good herbs for that. It really, all thyroid cases are also adrenal cases. I’ve never met a thyroid patient that didn’t also have some adrenal issues as well. So I think that it probably starts with the adrenal gland and then that then trickles down to make the thyroid gland work not as efficiently. So all of my thyroid patients, we also work on the adrenal glands as we’ll also using some of those other herbs so Withania, the Ashwagandha, the licorice … whatever that patient might need based on their lab work, we tend to create a protocol that will include some adrenal support as well to them.

Dr. Cates: Okay, perfect. Okay, so we talk about sex hormones, there’s some different ones. So we don’t really, that’s the same for the other glands too to a certain extent. But when we’re talking about sex hormones they get a little bit more complicated, but well, let’s hit on some of the, you know, some of the big ones, you know, estrogen, progesterone for women. What do we do for balancing those as well as testosterone? And, um, I’m always surprised that even though I say this all the time, women have testosterone, just someone’s always like what? We have testosterone? Yes, we need but not to the same extent, but um, the end of course there are some foods that we can eat with helping with the sex hormones, right?

Dr. Zgraggen: Yes. And as far as the female hormones go, if we’re looking at raising estrogen levels. Obviously we have all of our phytoestrogens, but soys, the legumes those kinds of foods. So that will help from a food perspective. But if we’re really looking at herbs, maybe you’re moving into perimenopause, maybe starting to get some hot flashes and night sweats, a little fatigue. I love wild Yam for that. That’s my first go to for a lot of my women with hot flashes and night sweats. I’ve also found that as long as they don’t have a thyroid issue, a lot of women are low in iodine and adding supplementing iodine … little amounts of iodine with some of the wild Yam or black cohosh, it really does help balance out those hot flashes for them. Um, so that’s been one of my magic tips, with the ladies to really help get them sleeping better because if they’re not sleeping well and they’re tired the next day and then that whole cascade of fatigue starts. And if you have a cycle still. We’re looking at maybe, you know, we’ve got too much estrogen and we need to balance out progesterone. I love chase tree for that. Vitex is fantastic, it’s also called chase tree. It’s great for balancing out progesterone levels. And not only does it help balance progesterone levels, but it also helps with Melatonin production. So ladies that are having issues with sleeping, I will always recommend that they take their chase tree at night, so we can get maybe a better, better night’s sleep. And then if we’re moving into menopause, one of my favorite herbs for ladies is tremulous. It’s one that we don’t talk about as often, but it is fantastic for increasing our estrogen levels. Sometimes DHEA starts dropping as we age as well. So really helping with stamina with energy for women that are post menopausal. And yes, we do have testosterone is ladies and sometimes some of the ladies have too much. Um, so if we need a lower testosterone for them, I’m white peony cause my favorite are for that. So women that have pcos issues too much testosterone, maybe they’re starting to have some hairs where they don’t want it. So typically what happens is hair leaves where they want it and shows up where they don’t want it. Right? But white peony can you really can help with the balance of the testosterone with that as well.

Dr. Cates: And what about foods? Are there any foods that you recommend for hormone balance? For sex
hormone balance?

Dr. Zgraggen: Yeah, the biggest thing for foods is really just eating a clean diet. Um, I think probably taking away more of the triggers are probably a better choice or better place to start really limiting alcohol. Eliminate sugar. Because as you know, with too much sugar, we get systemic inflammation that creates havoc on our body’s ability to make our hormones. And then really looking at stress levels as well because we’ve seen this cascade of when, when we get stress more cortisol goes high, that kicks our estrogen into gear, that messes with our insulin level. That depresses our thyroid gland. So really coming back to eating as anti-inflammatory possible. So trying to avoid a lot of processed, packaged foods, just eating cleanly, eating real food, you know, if it came out of the ground or, or you know, fell from from a tree, eat it and really avoiding a lot of the grains, the inflammatory foods and going more with fish, chicken, those kinds of things will be helpful as well.

Dr. Cates: Right. Okay. And then when we, we look at the liver and the liver function too, you mentioned that already, but you know, of course that plays a role in these hormones too and, and making sure that the liver is functioning properly, right?

Dr. Zgraggen: Yes. I think that’s a huge role just because if we have to, not only do we process thyroid hormones in the liver, we also have to process our estrogen in the liver. So we don’t have really healthy livers. We tend to keep the estrogen recirculating. And so I think this is probably one of the issues we have as ladies in America was having too much estrogen compared to our progesterone levels. So really looking at how can we keep the liver clean? How can we just make it work more efficiently? So beets, a couple of artichokes, all those cruciferous vegetables are all going to be helpful. And even getting just the fruits and vegetables in general, with the fibers are going to help conjugate those estrogens and allow us to be able to excrete them out through our digestive tract.

Dr. Cates: Right? Right. Cause there’s, there’s this feedback mechanism that happens in the body. If it’s not, they’re not breaking down properly and it’s about the whole feedback mechanism doesn’t work properly. And then your body gets confused and maybe you’re at a time when your body’s already confused. And then compile that. But add on top of that, all of the hormone disrupting chemicals that we’re exposed to in the environment, including skincare products. That’s just gonna make it even more challenging for the liver. So I always like to go back to the liver then really emphasizing that we’re taking about foods and herbs and hormone balance, right?

Dr. Zgraggen: Yeah. And some many women that come in with maybe, you know, 10 different things going on. They’ve got like a hormone issues, they have thyroid issues, they have adrenal issues, they have gut issues. I always need you to start with the foundation and because yes, we just dive right in and start working with female hormones, you may not be as successful with our protocols, you know, if we can make sure that the liver is functioning correctly, that the gut is working right, then I know that by the time we get to working on her hormones and balancing that, it’s going to be so much easier, quicker for, for that woman. So at so many cases I’m always starting with like with gut, with digestion, maybe some gut flora issues with those women. And then go on from there. And I know you mentioned the skin care products and what else does that, as far as estrogen goes, that’s huge right now, because it’s not only skincare products, it’s anything that we’re putting on our bodies and have extra estrogen. So if we’re not eating organic fruits and vegetables, if we’re eating meats that have hormones in them, if we’re using roundup at our house or having bug spray, you know all that compounds I think with, with creating this, this perfect storm, if you will, as far as hormonal balance goes.

Dr. Cates: Yeah. And it’s true. And you know, we don’t want to wait until menopause, perimenopause for paying attention to these things. The sooner we can start this, the better. And I know sometimes it’s tempting, for our human nature I think is, unless it’s broken, you know, we’re not going to really think about addressing it. But the sooner I think we can do that. And, and, and, it was unfortunate that at a young age you had these, these health challenges, but at least it made you pay attention early on because I’m sure that you see in your practice these patterns of women, maybe they’d go through their 20s and they have certain symptoms and issues. Maybe they go and they’re treated maybe conventionally or they’re put on birth control pills, and they get kind of like maybe they’re not having symptoms and then they start to go through menopause and all of that comes back, right, that if they didn’t address it earlier on, then it just gets worse. So the sooner, you know, we see these patterns of the hormone imbalances, the sooner we can address those better. Right. Don’t you see that in your practice?

Dr. Zgraggen: Absolutely. I think some of the patterns that we’re seeing with younger women now is patterns of more chronic fatigue, patterns of sleep disturbances, patterns of unexplained weight gain where they can’t lose it no matter what they do. And also patterns. They’re thinking that they’re going through menopause. They’ll their periods for four or five, six months in their thirties now. And the way that I explained that to them as your adrenals are so stressed out, that everything just kind of shut down for a bit. Um, you know, it’s not their time yet to go into menopause in their mid to late thirties, but their body just can’t do it anymore. It’s really interesting because once we can start with the gut working right, once we can start on supporting the adrenal glands their periods also please come back. So it’s not physiologically, you know, for us to go in menopause my thirties, but when the body is so stressed out, it’s going to conserve energy any way that it can. And that’s usually one of the ways.

Dr. Cates: Yeah. So what are some things to maybe like talking about the different ages that depending upon where someone is coming in, like a woman is, where she is right now, what are some of the things that people were places that people can start? So, to start making some changes.

Dr. Zgraggen: Yeah. I think at any age, really just cleaning up our diets would be good. Cleaning up our diets, clean up our toiletry items, cleaning up our personal care products that can be done at any agent’s going to be helpful no matter if you’re in your 20s, 30s, forties, 50s. But if you’re in your 20s really looking at, you know, do you want to have children one day? So really looking at is my, is my cycle regular? Am I balanced? Maybe doing some preconception care not only for you but also your husband or partner because the men are definitely involved in this as well these days. When you’re moving into your thirties, you know, we do see a lot of period changes. For some ladies it starts getting a little different. So if you’ve noticed that your period and has become more lengthier, heavier, those kinds of things, those are some of those symptoms to really look out for. So once again, the prescription would be the same as far as the Diet goes, you know, eating clean, eating lots of fruits and vegetables, getting enough fiber. Um, but I just want to impress upon people that just because we’re getting older doesn’t mean that you saying should necessarily be happening. So just kind of being on the lookout for that. If you feel like you want some testing on, find someone that does more functional testing and get your numbers looked at at that age. And if you are still on a cycle, once again doing a test that’s gonna include a whole month. So you really see the estrogen and progesterone dance throughout the month and really see what’s going on. As we’re moving into our forties and 50s, things start slowing down. I tell women just like, you know, puberty didn’t happen overnigh, menopause does not happen overnight either. Yeah. It’s usually a two to eight year process. So my ladies don’t like to hear that. But the whole point too, is not that you take away every single symptom that they’re having necessarily, but if your symptoms are to the point where it’s really affecting your daily life, where you can’t sleep, where you have no energy, that’s when there’s something that’s possibly out of balance that you might want to get looked at.

Dr. Cates: Yeah. and I know that one thing that comes up before menopause is birth control and, um, I’ve had a doctor Jolene brighten talking about Birth Control Syndrome on and talking about alternatives to birth control pills. And so, and do you have any thoughts on, cause I know that’s always a big thing before hitting menopause. I mean, even, even women in their forties, right? We’re done having children, but there’s still a possibility. And so, you know, but certainly when you’re in your twenties, uh, you’re trying to get, you know, go to college and you start, you started your life. So timing is always an interesting thing of that. Any suggestions, any thoughts on birth control?

Dr. Zgraggen: Yeah. I think that if you are taking birth control is really important to replace the nutrients that birth control is taking out. So I think that’s one thing, but that’s not really discussed very much when the gynocologist gives us the prescription. But a lot of our B vitamins are depleted. A lot of our minerals, selenium. It Is very interesting because the nutrients that are depleted with birth control are all nutrients that are needed for our adrenal gland support. So once again, putting those back into the body, If you’re going to take birth control if you’re wanting to get off birth control or a patient progress. And so I would always ask why is this really for birth control purposes isn’t really controlling your cycle. So we kind of work on the why. So if it’s due to controlling the cycle, then we work on balancing their cycle. If it’s due to I don’t want to have a baby, then we work on teaching people natural family planning. Cause I’m always happy to teach all my patients natural family planning methods.

Dr. Cates: Okay. Excellent. All right, well thank you so much for the information. Tell everybody where they can find you.

Dr. Zgraggen: Yes, the quickest and easiest way to find me is probably my website. It is drzgraggen.com and there you can get more information on me. Look at what we’ve been, what we’ve got going on. We had different programs online that we can look at that would be great for your viewers. So yes, I’d be happy to continue the conversation online or on social media.

Dr. Cates: Okay, great. Thanks again for coming on and sharing with us all kinds of information and tips on hormone balance

Dr. Zgraggen: Thanks so much Trevor, I appreciate it.

Dr. Cates: I hope you enjoyed this interview today with Dr Stephanie and you got some great tips on how to practically start balancing your hormones, things that you could be doing with your foods, your lifestyle, start doing today. Now, if you do believe that you have hormonal imbalances that are impacting that you have symptoms and it’s impacting your health, I do recommend seeing a functional medicine or a naturopathic medicine doctor who can really test and get to the root cause and help support you and a treatment plan. But the tips today should be able to help you on some diet modifications and some lifestyle things that you can start doing today to help with hormonal healthy hormones and hormonal balance.

Dr. Cates: To learn more about Dr. Stephanie, you could go to TheSpaDr.com, go to the podcast page with her interview and you can find her website there and some tips and tools that she’s got to help you with your hormones. Also, while you’re there on The Spa Dr. website, I invite you to join the spa doctor community so you don’t miss any of our upcoming shows and you can get some valuable tips and resources from us as well. And if you haven’t taken the skin quiz, I invite you to do that. Just go to theskinquiz.com and find out what messages your skin’s trying to tell you about your health. That might include your hormones. You can go to theskinquiz.com to find that out. And I also invite you to join me on social media, on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and youtube. And I’ll see you next time on The Spa Dr. Podcast.