Speaker 1: There was HRT, you know, one size fits all. Now
Speaker 1: it's becoming this industry because it's become a popular topic.
Speaker 1: So an industry is springing up and women just want
Speaker 1: their symptoms gone. And that's really kind of a dangerous thing.
Speaker 1: I mean, I actually call it hormone trafficking because women's
Speaker 1: processes are becoming an industry where a lot of people
Speaker 1: are getting very rich off this industry, and women are
Speaker 1: using hormones that are very very high dose that their
Speaker 1: bodies can't really absorb or process in a healthy, normal,
Speaker 1: safe way.
Speaker 2: You are listening to the Plant Based Diet podcast where
Speaker 2: we talk about all things plant based. I'm mister Garfin,
Speaker 2: the host of this show and founder of Alternative Food Network.
Speaker 2: Join me in my amazing array of guests who are
Speaker 2: a mix of healthcare professionals, industry executives, and people with
Speaker 2: an interesting story to tell about the plant based journey.
Speaker 2: Let us help you with your journey wherever you're at
Speaker 2: to learn the what, why, and how to eat plant based.
Speaker 2: You've hit your mid to later thirties, forties, fifties and above,
Speaker 2: and suddenly every headline says something different about your hormones.
Speaker 2: One article says you must start hormone therapy and other
Speaker 2: warns it's dangerous and you're stuck in the middle, not
Speaker 2: sure who to trust, and without real clarity, you're left
Speaker 2: guessing about decisions that directly affect your energy, sleep, weight,
Speaker 2: and long term health. In this episode, my goal is
Speaker 2: to get you clear, evidence based answers on what actually
Speaker 2: works before, during, and after menopause. And by the way,
Speaker 2: since hormone balancing isn't just a female issue, I'm devoting
Speaker 2: two episodes to this topic. Today's focus is women and
Speaker 2: part two is going to be men. I want you
Speaker 2: to be more confident in the doctor's office and navigate
Speaker 2: these phases in your life. In as my guest, doctor
Speaker 2: Kumar says the most therapeutic, cost effective and safe way possible.
Speaker 2: And yes, doctor Kumar is a proponent of a whole food,
Speaker 2: plant based diet as well, and she's going to be
Speaker 2: explaining why now. Before we get into the conversation, a
Speaker 2: few things to share with you. First, Alternative Food Network
Speaker 2: is launching a new series in Spanish called Medicina Culinaria.
Speaker 2: It's hosted by doctor Sabrina Falke, who also hosts Culinary
Speaker 2: Medicine and Recipe in English. So now our small but
Speaker 2: mighty indie network has three series, which is quite exciting. Also,
Speaker 2: in an attempt to keep up with our production levels,
Speaker 2: Alternative Food Network, which also produces this show, Plant Based Diet,
Speaker 2: has joined Buy Me a Coffee, which is a quick
Speaker 2: and easy way for our audience to support us. So
Speaker 2: if you're one of our many loyal audience members who's
Speaker 2: listened to Plant Based Diet for a while and you
Speaker 2: appreciate the content we're bringing you, please consider supporting Alternative
Speaker 2: Food Network on Buy Me a Coffee at buy meat
Speaker 2: Coffee dot com slash Alternative Food Network. The link is
Speaker 2: also in the show notes and it's just a couple
Speaker 2: of taps. Now getting back to our guest on this episode,
Speaker 2: Doctor Rose Kumar is Board certified in internal medicine. She
Speaker 2: was twice voted Top Doctor in Internal Medicine and Top
Speaker 2: Doctor in Integrative Medicine. She is a leading expert in
Speaker 2: bioidentical hormone balancing. Over the past thirty years, using precise
Speaker 2: and diligent scientific methodology, she has designed a safe and
Speaker 2: effective customized protocol for natural hormone balancing for her female
Speaker 2: and male patients. She has had over seventy thousand patient
Speaker 2: visits in the last twenty four years of leading the
Speaker 2: Omani Center, with the majority of her patients in need
Speaker 2: of hormone balancing. As always, I appreciate you sharing this
Speaker 2: episode with others who could benefit from this information. And
Speaker 2: if you haven't already followed this series on Apple or
Speaker 2: Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Speaker 1: Please do so.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the show. I am so excited to have
Speaker 2: you doctor Kumar. As you know, I saw you speak
Speaker 2: on a webinar with Michelle Stam who is a former guest,
Speaker 2: and I knew I had to have you on this show.
Speaker 2: So Michelle, if you're listening, thank you so much for
Speaker 2: making the connection. And doctor Kumar, thank you so much
Speaker 2: for taking the time from your what I'm sure is
Speaker 2: a very busy schedule to be on this episode.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Jessir for having me.
Speaker 2: So we are going to deal with a very big
Speaker 2: topic today, and I feel like this topic is a
Speaker 2: powder keg of topics. When we're talking about perimenopause and menopause,
Speaker 2: and you know, women don't know what to do, they
Speaker 2: don't know who to listen to. It's very confusing and
Speaker 2: So what I'm hoping from this episode and from your
Speaker 2: words of wisdom, based on your many years of clinical experience,
Speaker 2: is that women they'll hear what we're talking about today,
Speaker 2: and when they go to their next visit with their
Speaker 2: healthcare professional, they will be a little bit more informed,
Speaker 2: a little bit less confused, and hopefully this will empower
Speaker 2: them for their next appointment. With that in mind, what's
Speaker 2: the minimum that you would want women to know about
Speaker 2: hormones in the pre perimenopause and menopause postmenopause stages.
Speaker 1: Well, really, you know, when I was in medical school,
Speaker 1: I was never we were never really educated thoroughly on
Speaker 1: women's hormones or even men's hormones for that matter. And
Speaker 1: so not only was I not taught the nuts and
Speaker 1: bolts about, you know, what women's cycles are, what premenopause, perimenopause,
Speaker 1: postmenopause is. This is back in the day, forty years ago,
Speaker 1: but there wasn't a whole lot of context for us
Speaker 1: to really understand women's health and the different needs of
Speaker 1: women at different stages of their life. There was hrt
Speaker 1: you know, one size fits all. Now it's becoming this
Speaker 1: industry because it's become a popular topic. So an industry
Speaker 1: is springing up and women just want their symptoms gone.
Speaker 1: And that's really kind of a dangerous thing. I mean,
Speaker 1: I actually call it hormone trafficking because women's processes are
Speaker 1: becoming an industry where a lot of people are getting
Speaker 1: very rich off this industry, and women are using hormones
Speaker 1: that are very, very high dose that their bodies can't
Speaker 1: really absorb or process in a healthy, normal, safe way.
Speaker 1: And so all the words that you use to introduce
Speaker 1: this podcast are words that are true to my heart
Speaker 1: and my vision for healthcare is we want to be educated.
Speaker 1: We want to know what questions to ask, We want
Speaker 1: to understand our bodies. We want to understand our processes,
Speaker 1: maybe not as an expert, but enough to know what's
Speaker 1: safe and what's not safe. So what the bare minimum
Speaker 1: from my perspective is women should understand how their cycles
Speaker 1: work and what happens as they age, and why do
Speaker 1: women's bodies have an ovarian shutdown and a receptor down regulation,
Speaker 1: and what do we do to support our bodies during
Speaker 1: those processes, and how can we understand those without totally
Speaker 1: pathologizing them. So those are some of the things that
Speaker 1: I think are an important foundation for most women. And
Speaker 1: the good news is that we have a lot of
Speaker 1: information out there. The bad news is we have a
Speaker 1: lot of information out there, and women have to be
Speaker 1: able to sort through what's accurate and what's not because unfortunately,
Speaker 1: now opinions have taken over evidence, they've taken over science,
Speaker 1: and that's very scary for me to see. I've seen
Speaker 1: a lot of women that have come in on testosterone pellets,
Speaker 1: lots of high doses of bioidentical hormones HRT IUDs that
Speaker 1: are hormonal IUDs in their post mid life, and they've
Speaker 1: had just disasters in their bodies, some life threatening. So
Speaker 1: I think that it's really important for women to have
Speaker 1: a basic understanding so that they can differentiate and discern
Speaker 1: what's safe and what's not safe. So I'm really grateful
Speaker 1: that you have this.
Speaker 2: Oh there's so many questions. I barely know where to start, Okay,
Speaker 2: So I was actually surprised. I would have never thought
Speaker 2: that hormones, the hormones that we're talking about, start to
Speaker 2: already change in mid to later thirties. So can you
Speaker 2: walk us through what happens in premenopause and perimenopause what.
Speaker 1: We come in with about a million to two million
Speaker 1: follicles when we come into the earth. A lot of those,
Speaker 1: like half of them, are gone by the time we're
Speaker 1: in puberty. And then after puberty, you know, as we
Speaker 1: reach our late thirties, another huge amount of follicles are gone.
Speaker 1: And so what these follicles are, These are the parts
Speaker 1: of our ovary. You know, the egg that survives, the
Speaker 1: follicle that survives and gets fertilized is a rare thing.
Speaker 1: It's like winning the lottery. But there's a lot of
Speaker 1: the treasure of the follicles in the ovary to be
Speaker 1: able to create one follicle that can be fertilized so
Speaker 1: that a baby can be born. So as time goes
Speaker 1: on and the follicular numbers drop, our ovariant vitality in
Speaker 1: our over reserves drop. So typically at the end by
Speaker 1: the end of your thirties, you know, now it's earlier
Speaker 1: because of all the corrupted foods and the hormone disruptors
Speaker 1: that are going into our body, ovarian reserves are much
Speaker 1: lower than they used to be thirty forty years ago.
Speaker 1: So women are having issues with perimenopausal type symptoms in
Speaker 1: their late thirties and in their mid thirties, they're starting
Speaker 1: to notice things like breast tenderness and you know, feeling
Speaker 1: kind of the PMDD, which is the dysphoria prior to
Speaker 1: their periods, and that's usually a sign that the hormones
Speaker 1: are out of balance. And so by the time a
Speaker 1: woman is thirty eight to forty, they're at a different
Speaker 1: platform where the hormone imbalance is more significant. I know
Speaker 1: for me, it was at thirty eight where I started
Speaker 1: to feel like this black hole would open up before
Speaker 1: my period, you know, two days before, and I was
Speaker 1: kind of overwhelmed because it was like this emotional black
Speaker 1: hole that I had to navigate, which is very hard
Speaker 1: to do. So, you know, so at that point is
Speaker 1: when I started doing hormone balancing for myself. And it
Speaker 1: was like a miracle almost because as I transitioned into
Speaker 1: my forties it was much improved. But then I noticed
Speaker 1: I had to take a higher and higher dose as
Speaker 1: I progressed into my fifties, and so I became very
Speaker 1: interested in what women are going through and did tedious,
Speaker 1: very methodical study of my patients of the literature that
Speaker 1: was out there, literature that was not out there, what
Speaker 1: is safe, what is not safe. You know, there's no
Speaker 1: generalized way to prescribe hormones. It's all customized because every
Speaker 1: woman's body is different. So when women go on the
Speaker 1: internet and they want a testosterone pellet and it's one
Speaker 1: size fits all, you don't know how your body is
Speaker 1: going to process that versus your friends. So we can't
Speaker 1: really compare how hormones are going to be metabolized by
Speaker 1: our body versus somebody else's body. And this is what's
Speaker 1: so important for us to be able to gain insight
Speaker 1: into how our body works and it's how we feel
Speaker 1: on how much hormone And that's why you need someone
Speaker 1: who's skilled and who is dedicated to customized hormone balancing
Speaker 1: versus replacement. There's a huge difference between the two.
Speaker 2: So women shouldn't necessarily be researching or looking up in
Speaker 2: terms of who to go to someone who knows hormone replacement.
Speaker 1: It's right. Hormone balancing makes a big difference, and hormone
Speaker 1: balancing is with bioidentical hormones that are molecular matching the
Speaker 1: hormones that our body produces, and bioidentical hormones are derived
Speaker 1: from mostly wildm. But if you eat wild m, you're
Speaker 1: not going to get the hormones. The pharmacists, compounding pharmacists
Speaker 1: go through a procedure where the phido hormones, the plant
Speaker 1: based hormones in the wild m, are then converted into
Speaker 1: the same molecular structure as estrogen, progesterone testosterone DHA for example,
Speaker 1: versus HRT, which is synthetic hormone replacement therapy, which is
Speaker 1: synthetic and you cannot balance with HRT. It is not
Speaker 1: set up for that. It's set up for replacement.
Speaker 2: Now BHRT versus HRT and FDA approval. So are bioidentical
Speaker 2: hormones FDA approved?
Speaker 1: They're not because they're not patented through the pharmaceutical industry.
Speaker 1: So FDA will only approve synthetic pharmaceuticals that they don't
Speaker 1: approve nutraceuticals or anything compounded or anything natural.
Speaker 2: So what would you tell if there is a physician
Speaker 2: listening or physicians listening, what would you tell them in
Speaker 2: response to their concern? While I'm not comfortable prescribing something
Speaker 2: to my patient that's not FDA approved.
Speaker 1: So then send your patient to someone who is. So,
Speaker 1: you know, because really over time, those of us that
Speaker 1: have done diligent work with hormone balancing have seen the
Speaker 1: clinical response. I've had about seventy thousand patient visits in
Speaker 1: my practice over the last twenty five years. That's a
Speaker 1: clinical study that's way bigger than any study that the
Speaker 1: you know, even women's health, and it was a ten
Speaker 1: thousand patient study. So I've seen over time and tweaked
Speaker 1: over time, how women respond, how even I respond, because
Speaker 1: I've been taking these since I was thirty eight and
Speaker 1: i'll be sixty four, so you know there is in
Speaker 1: my practice, I have not seen harm from these hormones
Speaker 1: the way I've seen when I used to prescribe HRT.
Speaker 1: So it's really it's really like because we're using a
Speaker 1: minimum amount for maximal balance. I mean, this is not
Speaker 1: about replacement. This is really about enough to create balance,
Speaker 1: enough to create a therapeutic response without increasing the blood
Speaker 1: levels of estrogen safe in a postmenopausal woman beyond twenty
Speaker 1: and progesterone beyond one or two. When a woman is menstrual,
Speaker 1: her estrogen is anywhere from one hundred to two hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty, and progesterone is anywhere from like a tenth
Speaker 1: of that so twenty to thirty after menopause, it's a
Speaker 1: big zero, or it should be. If it's not a
Speaker 1: zero after menopause, your liver is not really doing its job.
Speaker 1: Neither is the microbiome, because they are supposed to deactivate
Speaker 1: and excrete estrogen. And if your estrogen is elevated and
Speaker 1: you're not on estrogen, then there's a problem with your
Speaker 1: liver or your biome. So and that's where the lifestyle
Speaker 1: piece comes in, because this is not just here's your
Speaker 1: hormone and have a nice day. This is what do
Speaker 1: you need to eat? How do you need to shift
Speaker 1: your lifestyle, How do you need to stimulate the synchronization
Speaker 1: of your organs and your microbiome and your liver communication,
Speaker 1: That whole axis needs to be restored because all of
Speaker 1: that changes after menopause, and as a woman is approaching menopause.
Speaker 2: Only want to get into the lifestyle and the food bit.
Speaker 2: But I first have some other questions about what you
Speaker 2: were talking about with BHRT. Are there studies that have
Speaker 2: been done with BHRT that people could perhaps look up
Speaker 2: if they want to satisfy themselves that this is perhaps
Speaker 2: the route they want to take.
Speaker 1: You know, The good news is that there are European
Speaker 1: studies that they can access, because we don't do studies
Speaker 1: on nutraceuticals or anything natural in our country. The books
Speaker 1: that are written, there's several references that you can access.
Speaker 1: One is a set of books by John Lee that's
Speaker 1: years ago. That's where I got started, and it was
Speaker 1: fascinating and made a lot of sense. But some of
Speaker 1: the information that he put out there is outdated. Like
Speaker 1: what he was talking about is checking sal hormone levels,
Speaker 1: They're not as accurate, and so I do only serum
Speaker 1: levels blood levels of hormones. That's really been something that
Speaker 1: I've tweaked and I created a protocol that's been very
Speaker 1: safe for my patients, and it was based on my
Speaker 1: own clinical dedication to this area. Chris Northrop wrote a
Speaker 1: book back in the day, really great book, Women's Bodies,
Speaker 1: Women's Wisdom, and the Wisdom of Menopause. A lot of
Speaker 1: what she referenced, some were studies, some were anecdotes. Again,
Speaker 1: this is a very unaddressed area that is unfortunate because
Speaker 1: these hormones are life saving for women, and even though
Speaker 1: they're not FDA approved, a lot of things that are
Speaker 1: FDA approved are harmful for our bodies. So I don't
Speaker 1: know why that should be the standard, because a lot
Speaker 1: of physicians are using these and are having good results
Speaker 1: with them. So I think that, you know, you have
Speaker 1: to really use the scientific method, a good amount of
Speaker 1: common sense, the data that is available, and your clinical
Speaker 1: experience with it.
Speaker 2: And I know you're saying, obviously everyone is an individual
Speaker 2: and they have individual needs. Requirements are there again, I'm
Speaker 2: just thinking for general practitioners who have someone come into
Speaker 2: their office. Maybe they're not referring out. I don't know,
Speaker 2: but are there minimum dosages, like any any sort of
Speaker 2: standard to start with.
Speaker 1: Well, you know what I do, and I can just
Speaker 1: speak for myself. So what I do is when I
Speaker 1: say a patient comes in, you know, thirty eight, thirty nine,
Speaker 1: she's having, you know, a lot more symptoms prior to
Speaker 1: her period. So what I typically do is check their
Speaker 1: blood levels in the luteal phase of their cycle, which
Speaker 1: is the second half of your cycle. So the first
Speaker 1: half year of your cycle, of your menstrual cycle is
Speaker 1: day one of your period through on average day twelve
Speaker 1: to fourteen, So that's the follicular phase of your cycle.
Speaker 1: You're not producing progesterone during that phase of your cycle.
Speaker 1: You're only producing estrogen. The middle of your cycle ovulation,
Speaker 1: you know, ding ding ding, that happens, and then that
Speaker 1: progesterone levels start rising. So it's during that phase where
Speaker 1: you're fertile progesterone level increases. It kind of hangs out
Speaker 1: at it peaks around the same place as estrogen peaks,
Speaker 1: or it should. That's balance. But if a woman is
Speaker 1: having symptoms, usually the estrogen to progesterone ratio is wider.
Speaker 1: It's not like a one to one ratio. It's not
Speaker 1: like if your estrogen is a hundred and your progesterone
Speaker 1: is three, that's a very high ratio of estrogen to progesterone.
Speaker 1: If your estrogen is one hundred and your progesterone is say,
Speaker 1: you know, twenty, that's a ratio of five. If your
Speaker 1: estrogen is one hundred your progesterone is ten, that's a
Speaker 1: ratio of ten. E to p ratio is ten. If
Speaker 1: the ratio is far greater than ten, that's typically a symptom.
Speaker 1: Women will have symptoms, and so checking their hormones around
Speaker 1: day twenty one to twenty four of a twenty eight
Speaker 1: day cycle or about seven days before their cycle is due,
Speaker 1: is a good rule of thumb to check that ratio
Speaker 1: between estrogen and progesterone, and then, depending upon what that
Speaker 1: ratio is a good starting dose for progesterone. If the
Speaker 1: ratio is not that bad, not that horribly widened, is
Speaker 1: to start with twenty five milligrams of progesterone of bioidentical.
Speaker 1: The max that I go up to, and that's typically
Speaker 1: in a women's late forties, is about two hundred of progesterone.
Speaker 1: A lot of women don't need that because as you
Speaker 1: reach your late forties, your estrogen level starts dropping also,
Speaker 1: so then the ratio narrows a little bit. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: so you don't need that much progesterone. So really we're
Speaker 1: not treating the absolute level of progesterone. We're treating the
Speaker 1: ratio between estrogen and progesterone. So that is something that
Speaker 1: women can track or educate their physicians about, or physicians
Speaker 1: that are listening to this can kind of take note
Speaker 1: of that and see how their patients do when they
Speaker 1: try this. Because a lot of medicine is a practice,
Speaker 1: and we practice our craft and this is a completely
Speaker 1: different milieu that we were not trained to do. I
Speaker 1: did it out of necessity because my patients were really
Speaker 1: suffering and they were getting progesterone off the shelf and
Speaker 1: I didn't know what they were doing and whether that
Speaker 1: was safe or not. So I took it upon myself
Speaker 1: to go down the rabbit hole and study as much
Speaker 1: as I could of what was available and start really
Speaker 1: low and see what was happening and if it was
Speaker 1: harming them or if they weren't doing well. I was
Speaker 1: going to be done. But what I found is just
Speaker 1: like this miraculous response. Yeah, and it was incredible for
Speaker 1: me to be able to help my patients have a
Speaker 1: better quality of life and actually reduce their risk of
Speaker 1: disease because a lot of conditions are a result of
Speaker 1: estrogen dominance.
Speaker 2: Speaking of symptom of estrogen dominance, what kinds of symptoms
Speaker 2: are you talking about that maybe a woman might be
Speaker 2: experiencing which she doesn't realize what's going on.
Speaker 1: Right, You know, there's a whole myriad of them, memory issues,
Speaker 1: breast tenderness, weight gain, wastline increase, sleeplessness at night. Sometimes
Speaker 1: women with estrogen dominance will have like hot flashes. It
Speaker 1: doesn't make sense, but they will or they'll have more anxiety,
Speaker 1: they'll be more irritable. Like me, I had that black
Speaker 1: hole feeling where emotionally I was just dropping into an abyss.
Speaker 1: A lot of women do that right before their period.
Speaker 1: I would start having night sweats right before my period.
Speaker 1: So those are some of the some of the symptoms.
Speaker 1: Other symptoms are heavy periods. So if your periods are
Speaker 1: super heavy or your doctor said, oh, you're anemic, well,
Speaker 1: anemia is a sign is usually a result of very
Speaker 1: heavy periods. So when your periods are super heavy, you're
Speaker 1: not producing enough progesterone. And so what's happening is a
Speaker 1: lot of women are getting oblations or hysterectomy's done because
Speaker 1: their periods are heavy. But it's really a hormonal imbalance.
Speaker 1: So it's really I mean, this is such a critical
Speaker 1: issue that it's really important for women to understand this and.
Speaker 2: Sort of on the flip side of things, Can you
Speaker 2: have no symptoms but still have hormone imbalance?
Speaker 1: Yeah you can, and that's women that are say plant based.
Speaker 1: The plant based DIEDE will offset some of those symptoms.
Speaker 1: So like when I went into metopause, I think I
Speaker 1: had two hot flashes with everything I was plant based.
Speaker 1: I was pretty vegan at the time. I'm not as
Speaker 1: vegan anymore, but I was very vegan at the time,
Speaker 1: very strict about my diet because I was my body
Speaker 1: was changing and my waistline was expanding, and I was going, oh,
Speaker 1: what is happening. I need to like really watch what
Speaker 1: I'm eating and eat really nutrition dense foods. And around
Speaker 1: the same time, I was getting my plant based certification
Speaker 1: and really learning a lot about the effects of a
Speaker 1: plant based diet on the body, and it all made sense.
Speaker 1: So a lot of my patients that are not having
Speaker 1: symptoms are on a plant based diet, but I check
Speaker 1: their hormones anyways, because you can have estrogen dominance and
Speaker 1: it'll spring up stuff. But you know, it's always a
Speaker 1: good idea to be balanced.
Speaker 2: To clarify, because this is the plant based Diet podcast,
Speaker 2: Can the foods we eat help to balance hormones or
Speaker 2: help with the symptoms?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 2: Which one?
Speaker 1: Is it both? So? Yeah, So when you're young like you,
Speaker 1: by young, I mean thirty five to forty younger than me.
Speaker 1: Young of the some of the issues with hormone balance
Speaker 1: are coming from the way that your hormones are being
Speaker 1: metabolized in your body. So when there's a very slight
Speaker 1: variation or a slight estrogen dominance, a lot of times
Speaker 1: just changing your lifestyle will make a huge difference in
Speaker 1: your hormone ratios. And I've seen that in my patients
Speaker 1: over and over and like countless times where they don't
Speaker 1: need hormones. They got off meat, they got off alcohol,
Speaker 1: they're eating a Mediterranean diet that's plant heavy, plant based.
Speaker 1: You know, if they're gonna eat chicken or fish, it's very,
Speaker 1: very infrequently it's more medicinal rather than as a source
Speaker 1: of protein. But adding tofu soy to your diet, which
Speaker 1: is a phytoestrogen. So all of that gets so the
Speaker 1: liver will process estrogen, deactivate it when it's done, when
Speaker 1: it's done with its use, send it into the gut,
Speaker 1: and the gut microbiome, if it's healthy, will eliminate it.
Speaker 1: If the gut microbiome is not healthy, it will reabsorb
Speaker 1: the estrogen that's been deactivated, and estrogen levels will go
Speaker 1: up and hormone imbalance will continue. I mean, it's really
Speaker 1: a fascinating mechanism. So that's why a plant based diet,
Speaker 1: whole food based plant based is really important to balance
Speaker 1: not just our female hormones or male hormones too, but
Speaker 1: all hormones in general. The endocrine system relies on the
Speaker 1: microbiome in the gut and the liver to keep things balanced,
Speaker 1: to keep things homeostatic, so that our body can function
Speaker 1: as a system.
Speaker 2: That's fascinating. Two points about what you're just saying. One,
Speaker 2: and I've said this a couple times on different episodes.
Speaker 2: When we're talking about soy, we're talking about organic organic soy. Yes, yes, okay, yeah,
Speaker 2: because otherwise soy is a heavily sprayed Yes, right, it's.
Speaker 1: Heavily sprayed, and it's heavily genetically modified. So of soy
Speaker 1: in the US is genetically modified, and genetically modified soy
Speaker 1: does not behave like organic soy in the human body.
Speaker 1: Our body is. Our body is organic. It's designed for
Speaker 1: organic food that's regenerative agriculture. You know, it's got organic
Speaker 1: food has just a much greater nutrient density, and it
Speaker 1: doesn't have the residues, the pesticide residues or the insecticide
Speaker 1: its built into them, which is what the GMO foods
Speaker 1: have that disrupt the microbiome and lodge in the fact
Speaker 1: as hormone disruptors. As you know, these are endocrine disruptors.
Speaker 1: They're mimickers of estrogen. They're mimickers of hormones, so they
Speaker 1: occupy the receptors in our body. Even at very very
Speaker 1: teeny tiny minute doses, they will occupy the receptors and
Speaker 1: block the binding of your own hormones on those receptors.
Speaker 1: So it disrupts the endocrine system's function. And if one
Speaker 1: system is not working well, no system is going to
Speaker 1: work well. I mean, our bodies are like this biomachine
Speaker 1: that has five gears, and if one gear isn't working,
Speaker 1: the rest of them aren't going to work. So I
Speaker 1: kind of see those pesticides and those hormone disruptors like
Speaker 1: as dirt in the machine. They just like get they
Speaker 1: If you take a bucket of sand and throw it
Speaker 1: in your car engine, it's not going to run. Well.
Speaker 1: It's the same with your body, and so the body
Speaker 1: gets disorganized and uncoordinated, and then our symptoms and a
Speaker 1: lot of the health issues in our country that we
Speaker 1: have now are a result of the way we eat
Speaker 1: and what we eat.
Speaker 2: Okay, so in terms of what we eat, in addition
Speaker 2: to organic soil. What other fruits. Yeah, we talked about
Speaker 2: whole food plant based, but are there particular fruits and
Speaker 2: vegetables that we should be focusing on.
Speaker 1: So we really want high fiber, low glycemic index fruits
Speaker 1: and vegetables. So we're talking about dark leafy greens, you know,
Speaker 1: plants that have insoluble fiber, and lentils and beans, I
Speaker 1: mean lentils and beans. They're complex carbohydrates, they are loaded
Speaker 1: with fiber and protein. They're a complete food. So when
Speaker 1: you eat those insoluble fiber foods, that actually helps your microbiome.
Speaker 1: Your microbiome lives off of insoluble fiber, so that's food
Speaker 1: for your microbiome. And there's one particular organism called Ficicalobacter presnitzi,
Speaker 1: which is a sort of the kitchen mother of your biome.
Speaker 1: So Ficalobacter presnitzi choose up that insoluble fiber and it
Speaker 1: feeds the rest of your gut that fiber, and then
Speaker 1: all the other organisms in the gut, including ones that
Speaker 1: produce GLP one, they get happy, so they start doing
Speaker 1: their job. And so when people eat a low fiber
Speaker 1: diet and are not eating organic and you know, have
Speaker 1: ultraprocessed foods and lots of sugar. The microbiome, which is ultrasensitive,
Speaker 1: it just gets regulated and disorganized and good organisms die off.
Speaker 1: And what we really want is these organisms that regulate
Speaker 1: our hormones, that are ninety percent supporting our nervous system
Speaker 1: because they produce all of nearly all of our neurotransmitters,
Speaker 1: and ninety percent of our immune system depends on the
Speaker 1: microbiome's health. So ninety percent of it exists in the
Speaker 1: lymphoid tissue, in the intestinal lining. And so when we
Speaker 1: don't honor that, when we don't feed that, we land
Speaker 1: into the troubles that we're landing into in the US.
Speaker 1: So no amount of like high dose hormones or HRT
Speaker 1: or anything that's like, I mean, that's not going to
Speaker 1: be it's going to be helpful symptomatically, but it's going
Speaker 1: to end up causing a lot more trouble if your
Speaker 1: gut and liver are not functioning well because you're not
Speaker 1: feeding it the foods that it needs.
Speaker 2: So then in addition, so you mentioned whole food plant based,
Speaker 2: SOI I'm just repeating it for the benefit of listeners.
Speaker 2: It's a lot to take in nut seeds, lentils, beans.
Speaker 2: I have read also about cruciferus vegetables, yes.
Speaker 1: And that those are loaded with insoluble fiber, like when
Speaker 1: you're eating broccoli, like a cruciferous vegetable, broccoli, Brussels sprouts,
Speaker 1: they have fabulous antioxidants, but they also are like the
Speaker 1: stalk of broccoli, it's insoluble fiber. So don't throw it away,
Speaker 1: peel it, chop it up and throw it in your
Speaker 1: stir fry or in your soup or whatever it is
Speaker 1: that you're eating it with. What I tell my patients though,
Speaker 1: is try not to eat those vegetables raw because they're
Speaker 1: hard to digest. If you flash steam them or you
Speaker 1: stir fry them, like kale and collards and broccoli, they
Speaker 1: will get really vibrant green. That's when you know the
Speaker 1: cell walls are broken and all the nutrients have been mobilized,
Speaker 1: so it's really much easier for your body to incorporate
Speaker 1: those nutrients. And then the insoluble fiber when you chew
Speaker 1: it up and it goes into your gut, it's feeding
Speaker 1: that mother hen in there that's creating short chain fatty
Speaker 1: acids from the insoluble fiber and feeding the rest of
Speaker 1: the biome, so it's just cruciferous. Vegetables are sort of
Speaker 1: this must. I mean, the array of vegetables available is
Speaker 1: so great. We don't want to just eat iceberg lettuce
Speaker 1: because there's no nutritional value there. Some of my patients
Speaker 1: will say, oh, you're taking away all my meat. What
Speaker 1: am I going to eat? Well? Am I going to
Speaker 1: eat grass? Well?
Speaker 2: Then they should listen to this show, because.
Speaker 1: Eat I mean, it's the amount of vegetables is unlimited. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but just make sure they're organic so you're not getting
Speaker 1: the pesticide residues and the genetically modified stuff in your gut.
Speaker 2: That's wonderful information on the food side of things. What
Speaker 2: you were saying, you can't just take HRT BHRT and
Speaker 2: you go on your merry way. There are other lifestyle
Speaker 2: components which I'm assuming exercise is helpful in all of this.
Speaker 2: I mean, all those things, be it the hormones, the food,
Speaker 2: the whole food, plant based diet, exercise all good for
Speaker 2: the increasing wasteline that a lot of people are complaining about,
Speaker 2: right exactly, So when it comes to testing hormones, I
Speaker 2: want to circle back to that one because that's another
Speaker 2: massive issue, and I want to This is a personal
Speaker 2: anecdote which originally when I invite you on the show,
Speaker 2: i'd forgotten about this. And then I was looking at
Speaker 2: some old notes and I found this letter. And I'm
Speaker 2: not going to read the whole letter. I'm just going
Speaker 2: to read one sentence. It was a letter from a
Speaker 2: guynecologist that was sent to my doctor because several years
Speaker 2: ago I wanted to get my hormone levels tested just
Speaker 2: to know where I was at. I figured I should
Speaker 2: probably start to get to know what's happening in my body. Right,
Speaker 2: So I want to read you one line from this
Speaker 2: letter from the guynocologist to my doctor. There is zero
Speaker 2: value again, zero value in using hormone values to manage
Speaker 2: symptoms in a woman with regular cycles or in menopause,
Speaker 2: and I will not be ordering them.
Speaker 1: Okay, well this is what walks into my office women
Speaker 1: with those kinds of negations.
Speaker 2: Okay, So what do you recommend when they go into
Speaker 2: the doctor's office and they say I want to get
Speaker 2: my hornmont's tested. What should they be getting tested? And
Speaker 2: does that vary if you're let's say late thirties, forties, fifties.
Speaker 1: Well, it's pretty much. It's pretty similar. I mean, what
Speaker 1: I usually do in a younger woman is check their
Speaker 1: estra dial, their progesterone, their DHEA sulfate, and a free
Speaker 1: and total testosterone. If their hormones are irregular, I also
Speaker 1: checked a follicle stimulating hormone or FSH. And if they're
Speaker 1: trying to get pregnant and they can't get pregnant, I
Speaker 1: usually check an anti malarian hormone, so that gives me
Speaker 1: their their ovarian reserves and so what that's sort of
Speaker 1: the platform. Now if DHA comes back normal, free total
Speaker 1: testosterone comes back norral because a lot of times those
Speaker 1: are like the last ones to go. The estrogen and
Speaker 1: progesterone are balanced, we're fine for a while, and i'd
Speaker 1: let them know. You know what, if you're having symptoms,
Speaker 1: if you feel like something's different a week before your period,
Speaker 1: we'll check it again and we'll see if things are changing.
Speaker 1: So that's usually a for a thirty eight year old,
Speaker 1: that's like a yearly check unless they're starting to feel different.
Speaker 1: If they feel different, I'm on it, so I'll check
Speaker 1: the levels and you know, help them with balancing. In
Speaker 1: your forties, you're guaranteed to have. I mean, it's a
Speaker 1: very rare woman who doesn't have hormone imbalance, and that's
Speaker 1: a fortunate woman. Or it's a very healthy woman who's
Speaker 1: eating a whole food, plant based diet. But if in forties,
Speaker 1: as your forties progress, the estrogen and progesterone are the
Speaker 1: main two. And as a woman reaches her like forty
Speaker 1: five and beyond, I'll periodically check an FSH to see
Speaker 1: if the ovaries are starting to wind down, and that
Speaker 1: kind of gives us a sense of where she is
Speaker 1: in the pre periment apousal process. So the estradiole and
Speaker 1: progesterone are the two main ones to check. As women
Speaker 1: get older, like fifties and sixties, the DHA becomes a
Speaker 1: more significant factor. The DHA is an adrenal hormone, and
Speaker 1: that hormone over time, you know, so when you're young,
Speaker 1: your DG is really high. It's like a regenerative hormone.
Speaker 1: It's like what's called the aging hormone, so DHA as
Speaker 1: it As we age, the DHA levels decline. But if
Speaker 1: they decline too rapidly, like women that like myself, who
Speaker 1: have gone through like a very very stressful midlife and
Speaker 1: beyond I went through divorce and all of the trauma
Speaker 1: of a lot of things. DA was like fumes. When
Speaker 1: I was in my fifties, I was having memory issues.
Speaker 1: I could not like my short term memory was shot,
Speaker 1: and I was getting very scared that I was maybe
Speaker 1: developing early dementia. But my DHA was so low, and
Speaker 1: so I checked the DHA level, which what should have
Speaker 1: been one hundred and twenty was at twenty three. So
Speaker 1: I supplemented with DHA, not over the counter, but from
Speaker 1: a compounding pharmacy, and within a week my memory came back.
Speaker 1: It was so significantly life altering for me. It was like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, my patients that are complaining of this
Speaker 1: must I must check that. I must stay diligent with this.
Speaker 1: So so you know, to the gynecologist that said there's
Speaker 1: zero value, I would one hundred percent disagree with that.
Speaker 1: I mean, so I think that again, if you're a
Speaker 1: physician who's your wheelhouses hormones, and you're dedicated like I am,
Speaker 1: you know, by all means, find a physician like myself
Speaker 1: or others that are also dedicated to check those levels
Speaker 1: so that you can track with your physician. You know
Speaker 1: how to balance and how to stay aligned with the
Speaker 1: process of premenopause.
Speaker 2: And when someone is in perimenopause or menopause postmenopause, how
Speaker 2: often should they be checking wind holes.
Speaker 1: So when I have, say a postmenopausal woman come in
Speaker 1: and she's like not doing well, she's you know, depressed,
Speaker 1: she's not sleeping well, she you know all those things,
Speaker 1: feels very stressed, feels very agitated, is gaining weight, I
Speaker 1: check her estradil progesterone level, not progesterone because nobody postmenopausal
Speaker 1: has a progesterone level, because the ovaries are done. Estrogen
Speaker 1: level DTA free and total testosterone. And if their estrogen
Speaker 1: is high by high I mean twenty twenty five fifty,
Speaker 1: that's a problem. So then I look at their herbal
Speaker 1: supplements that they're taking. If they're taking any herbal supplements
Speaker 1: that are estrogenic, like my taki mushrooms can stimulate estrogen production.
Speaker 1: Ashwaganda can if you're taking too much of it. So
Speaker 1: there are and it's too much to discuss in this podcast,
Speaker 1: but you know, I'll have them do, say a liver cleanse,
Speaker 1: and then get off alcohol, go plant based, whole food,
Speaker 1: plant based, and then I'll check their level again like
Speaker 1: a month later. Invariably it drops and so once it's low,
Speaker 1: then you can start doing the balance. Then I can
Speaker 1: start adding progesterone to bring their level up to like
Speaker 1: one or two, and I typic will check the level
Speaker 1: two months after I start progesterone, and then if they
Speaker 1: feel well, then three months later I'll check it again,
Speaker 1: make sure it's stable. If everything's good, all is good.
Speaker 1: In six months I'll check it. So but at first
Speaker 1: there you have to be more diligent because you don't
Speaker 1: know how her body is going to process the hormone
Speaker 1: and you don't want to give too much or have
Speaker 1: some women they don't metabolize progesterone well and it converts
Speaker 1: into estrogen, they cannot be on progesterone, so or at
Speaker 1: least at that point. So there's so many different factors.
Speaker 1: That's why the customized approach is the best.
Speaker 2: And with someone who's post metopause. And by the way,
Speaker 2: menopause is the day that's twelve months after your last period, right,
Speaker 2: it's like one day by death. So by definitely so
Speaker 2: post menopause with someone if if let's say you have
Speaker 2: a patient you've prescribed BHRT. Are they on that for
Speaker 2: the rest of their life?
Speaker 1: So it's again hormone balancing, but it depends. So some
Speaker 1: of my patients, I mean again, that's customized, so they
Speaker 1: can be And what I'll do is like after three
Speaker 1: four years, you know, if the patient says, I want
Speaker 1: to see how I feel off this, get off it,
Speaker 1: see how you feel if you want to get back
Speaker 1: on it. If you don't feel as sharp, we'll get
Speaker 1: back on it. But you know, again, you have to
Speaker 1: be the pilot of your own journey. And if your
Speaker 1: inner intuition says, I want to see what happens when
Speaker 1: I stop it, by all means so I mean again,
Speaker 1: we can't say it's for your whole life for everybody.
Speaker 1: For some women it is, for others it isn't.
Speaker 2: So you know, customized, I know that we've reached the
Speaker 2: end of your time, but I just on that point
Speaker 2: in terms of how long do you add kate for BHRT,
Speaker 2: not just for symptom relief, but for prevention. Yes, I
Speaker 2: have some you know, like cardiovascular bone health all that.
Speaker 1: So for example, if all have a woman whose bone
Speaker 1: density is really reduced, Now the bone density issue is
Speaker 1: not just a hormonal issue. It's a food issue. So
Speaker 1: women that eat a lot of meat are going to
Speaker 1: have a more accelerated bone loss because the acidic pH
Speaker 1: that animal protein creates in the body triggers parathyroid hormone
Speaker 1: production because the heart and the brain cannot function in
Speaker 1: an acidic pH and so that stimulates parathyroid production. The
Speaker 1: parathyroid hormone mobilizes calcium out of the bones to neutralize
Speaker 1: the pH. If you're on a whole food, plant based
Speaker 1: diet that's more alkaline, you're not going to need the
Speaker 1: parathyroid hormone to dissolve your bones in order to neutralize
Speaker 1: your pH. And so for them for women that come
Speaker 1: in they've got osteoporosis early or they have osteopenia, it's accelerating.
Speaker 1: I'll put them on a whole food plant based diet
Speaker 1: and if they're not on hormones, the hormone that actually
Speaker 1: causes bone growth bone density improvement is progesterone, the bioidentical
Speaker 1: progesterone and testosterone if the testosterone is low, So if
Speaker 1: the free testosterone is low, I'll put them on progesterone
Speaker 1: and free testosterone and then check their levels have them,
Speaker 1: do weight bearing exercises, you know, put them on my
Speaker 1: you know, bone health regimen, and then we'll retest the
Speaker 1: bone density in a year or two years, depending upon
Speaker 1: what their insurance will pay, and nine out of ten
Speaker 1: times it's improved. So you know, so hormones are not
Speaker 1: like the primary cause of bone us. It's the primary
Speaker 1: cause really is the lifestyle, you know, the standard American
Speaker 1: diet that's heavy in meat and less fiber. But also
Speaker 1: remember your microbiome is the organ that absorbs calcium from
Speaker 1: your food. So if your microbiome is not healthy, you're
Speaker 1: not going to absorb the calcium that you should be
Speaker 1: absorbing because that is your nutrient absorber. So we want
Speaker 1: to keep that kitchen mother fed, those insoluble fiber, that
Speaker 1: insoluble fiber and the array of the rainbow in our
Speaker 1: plant based, whole food, plant based diet. So that's really
Speaker 1: how I do it. Some women are intolerant of progesterone
Speaker 1: that have bone loss, they can't do it, so, you know,
Speaker 1: so it's it's everything except the hormones then, because the
Speaker 1: hormones play a role, but not as big of a
Speaker 1: role as people assign them. What I would say, my
Speaker 1: observation not anything I've read, is that your lifestyle catches
Speaker 1: up with you, and it really catches up with you
Speaker 1: when your hormones leave because you don't have the reserves
Speaker 1: or the buffer to bounce back as fast. So you'll
Speaker 1: feel the effects of decades of not a great lifestyle
Speaker 1: after the hormones leave, So the hormones can't restore that
Speaker 1: you have to change your lifestyle.
Speaker 2: Interesting, all right. I know that people want to find
Speaker 2: you and talk to you, So please tell our audience
Speaker 2: where they can find you and if they want to
Speaker 2: make an appointment with you. Do you work virtually across
Speaker 2: the States.
Speaker 1: My website is www omanicenter dot com omm anicenter dot com.
Speaker 1: The number here is two six' two six five five
Speaker 1: three one, one so you can call to schedule an,
Speaker 1: appointment or go to the website and there's a message
Speaker 1: board there where you can send a message for an.
Speaker 1: APPOINTMENT i see women and men all over the. COUNTRY
Speaker 1: i do, TELEHEALTH i do phone, CONSOLES i do second,
Speaker 1: OPINIONS i do complex medical. ISSUES i do autoimmune. DISEASE
Speaker 1: i do functional. MEDICINE i, mean the list is. Limitless
Speaker 1: i've been in practice for over thirty. Years And i'm
Speaker 1: patient centered and very customized in my, approach SO i
Speaker 1: have a lot of patients with thyroid imbalances and thyroid,
Speaker 1: issues so that's sort of become a wheelhouse also for.
Speaker 2: Me and you also wrote a, book, Correct.
Speaker 1: Yes the book is Called Becoming, Real Reclaiming Your health In.
Speaker 1: Midlife you can go to my website and click on
Speaker 1: bookstore and order. It the kindle is more user friendly
Speaker 1: at this, Point i'm not publishing the paperback Through amazon,
Speaker 1: anymore but the kindle is On, amazon so please feel
Speaker 1: free to. Download it's nine ninety.
Speaker 2: Nine if someone is listening who's outside of THE, us
Speaker 2: is there a way to benefit from your expertise or?
Speaker 1: No, WELL i do do consults outside THE, us BUT
Speaker 1: i can't, prescribe so it's more of an educational and
Speaker 1: then they can talk to their physicians in their day
Speaker 1: in their country and see where they get with. That
Speaker 1: BUT i have, many many patients In, MEXICO i have
Speaker 1: some In. PORTUGAL i have a few in The United
Speaker 1: kingdom that just want a touch base to get information
Speaker 1: and so.
Speaker 2: To actually look at their blood test.
Speaker 1: RESULTS i, DO i, do AND i can kind of
Speaker 1: like explain it to them it's more, educational But i'm
Speaker 1: not really managing their head BECAUSE i.
Speaker 2: Can't, yeah, okay, WELL i mean this was. Wonderful thank
Speaker 2: you so much on behalf of myself and the. Listeners thank.
Speaker 2: You this really was a wonderful. Episode and for those
Speaker 2: listening who have men in their life who might be
Speaker 2: having a hormonal imbalance as, well we will be doing
Speaker 2: a follow up episode with Doctor kumar regarding male hormonal.
Speaker 2: Imbalance that will be the next episode On Plant Based
Speaker 2: diet and until, then until we meet again Doctor kumar,
Speaker 2: again thank you very.
Speaker 1: Much, oh thank you es sir for having.
Speaker 2: ME i hope you found this episode. HELPFUL i KNOW i.
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Speaker 2: or opinions expressed in this podcast or for informational purposes,
Speaker 2: only and are not a substitute for professional medical. Advice
Speaker 2: please seek advice from your doctor or other qualified healthcare.
Speaker 2: Practitioner