Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
#135: Aisling Fox: Hormones 101: What’s really going on and how to balance them
293 Plays1 day ago
In this episode of the Kate Hamilton Health Podcast, I had the absolute pleasure of sitting down with Aisling Fox, a powerhouse nutritional therapist, herbalist, and the founder of AOK Nutrition. We chatted all things women's health - from hormones and fertility to the long-term effects of extreme dieting, the power of herbal medicine, and the small but mighty habits that support hormone balance and stress management. Aisling brings a refreshing and honest perspective to what it really takes to support our bodies in a holistic and sustainable way.
If you've ever felt overwhelmed by your hormones, struggled with your menstrual cycle, or questioned if your stress is affecting your fertility, this episode is for you. Aisling shares practical insights from her Dublin-based clinic where she blends traditional herbalism with science-backed nutrition. We also chat about the often misunderstood role of progesterone, why losing your period is a big deal, and how bodybuilding or photoshoot prep can impact your long-term health. Her personalised approach to hormone health is empowering and incredibly actionable.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:
[0:00] - Welcome and intro to this week’s guest, Aisling Fox of AOK Nutrition
[0:46] - Why women's health needs more honest conversations
[1:11] - Understanding hormonal imbalances and what your body is trying to tell you
[3:04] - Aisling's journey into nutritional therapy and herbalism
[5:44] - Hormone 101: the foundational things we all should know
[7:13] - How lifestyle choices directly affect your hormone health
[15:08] - The power of food: nutrition strategies that support healthy hormones
[21:07] - Intermittent fasting: is it hurting or helping your hormones?
[26:16] - How my own coaching supports women alongside practitioners like Aisling
[32:34] - Why healthy fats are crucial for hormonal balance
[34:10] - The darker side of bodybuilding and photoshoot prep culture
[36:14] - Why losing your cycle is a red flag, not a badge of honor
[40:28] - Navigating fertility challenges and holistic support options
[42:10] - When blood tests matter and how to interpret them
[53:07] - How herbal medicine plays a powerful role in personalized wellness
[59:53] - Final thoughts and where to find Aisling online
Links & Resources:
- Connect with me on Instagram here
- Connect with Aisling on Instagram here
- Learn more about KHH coaching here
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with friends who might benefit. For more health and fitness tips, follow me on Instagram and TikTok @katehamiltonhealth.
Music b LiQWYD Free download: hypeddit.com/link/xxtopb [http://hypeddit.com/link/xxtopb] Promoted by FreeMusicPromo [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbycji-eySnM3WD8mbxPUSQ] / @freemusicpromo
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Aisling Fox and AOK Nutrition
00:00:08
Speaker
everyone and welcome back to another episode the Kate Hamilton Health Podcast. So in today's episode, I chat with Aisling Fox. Aisling is a nutritional therapist, herbalist and founder of AOK Nutrition. A lot of you will probably have heard of her and may be following her already.
00:00:27
Speaker
She is absolutely fantastic. Her approach is extremely refreshing where she combines traditional medicine with science-based practices.
00:00:38
Speaker
She has a clinic In Dublin, she works with clients in person and online.
Exploring Female Health Issues: Hormones, Fertility, and Stress
00:00:44
Speaker
And we just had the most amazing conversation around the whole topic of female health.
00:00:49
Speaker
We talk about hormones. We talk about fertility. We talk about the effects of extreme dieting. We talk a lot around kind of the vital healthy habits and healthy lifestyle that's necessary to have healthy hormones and a healthy body.
00:01:03
Speaker
We talk about stress and how much of a part that plays in hormone imbalance, which then leads to a lot of other symptoms. We talk about herbalism and traditional practices a bit as well. And I found this just such an interesting conversation.
00:01:19
Speaker
And I think my biggest takeaway from it all is if you are experiencing any type of symptoms, whether it is irregular periods, really heavy periods, really light periods, even nothing to do with periods.
00:01:31
Speaker
You know, if you're experiencing no periods, if you're having fertility issues, if you're you're not ovulating, if you're like, or what whatever it is that's going on with your body, there's always a reason for it.
00:01:42
Speaker
And what Aisling does is gets to the bottom of what's going on, where with a doctor, you might perhaps be told it's not PCOS, it's not endometriosis, it's not whatever.
00:01:57
Speaker
And then that's it. And then you're just supposed to be like, okay, that's grand. i' That's normal. I'm a woman. I just need to deal with it. when that's not the case, when there's always a way to get to the bottom of it. And that's what she does in her clinics and with her practice.
Empowering Health Conversations: Balanced Hormones and Lifestyle
00:02:10
Speaker
And this conversation, I just think is so empowering because she digs deep in really important issues, but in a way that's really actionable for us. And, you know, so that we can take control of our health, we can take control of our hormones and that this idea of balancing hormones, which gets a bad rep these days, is a real thing. We can manage our hormones through living a healthy, balanced lifestyle.
00:02:38
Speaker
There are things that can be a bit out of our control. like fertility but what Aisling does is provides a path to take that feels empowering that is one step at a time and I'm just so excited to share this episode with you Aisling welcome to the podcast Hello, good morning. Thank you so much for having me. I'm delighted to be here today.
00:03:02
Speaker
I'm so excited to chat to you
Aisling's Therapeutic Journey and Chinese Medicine Integration
00:03:04
Speaker
today. For anyone who hasn't heard of you, and I'm sure there's lots of people listening who who do follow you and know your work, would you mind sharing a little bit about who you are, what you do, and you know a little bit about your journey?
00:03:15
Speaker
Yeah, of course. So online I'm known as A-OK Nutrition. The many people at the gas when I'm out, people are like, A-OK, like people just shout A-OK at me, which is nice to be known like that. So my business background, I'm in clinic now around 11 years. I set up my practice A-OK Nutrition around 11 years ago.
00:03:29
Speaker
I started off as a nutritional therapist. So all about getting to the root of the problem, using like nutrition as a form of medicine, basically, or not even medicine, a tool tool for healing, essentially.
00:03:40
Speaker
And after couple years in my clinic, I kind of fell into the world of like female health and hormones, which is very much what I would do now in my clinic. Now I have an amazing team who work for me. So I have like a gut health clinic as well. And I have absolutely unbelievable practitioners who are obsessed with gut health as much as I'm obsessed with like female health and fertility.
00:03:55
Speaker
We have a great team now working with us. I suppose my area of passion is definitely female health and hormones. and Very like you, Kate, like I'm so passionate educating people. I feel like it's an area that our generation just were... Literally, like, if you have sex, will be pregnant. And there was no other another conversation around it.
00:04:09
Speaker
So in my clinic, we work a lot with things like irregular cycles and PCOS, fertility, painful periods, heavy periods, endometriosis. I'm also a herbalist as well. So I went back in 2020 and I trained as a herbalist, which basically we to go back and study traditional Chinese medicine, which makes no sense in terms of science, really. Like my brain loves biology. I love looking at blood. I love looking at like how the body's working. And then traditional Chinese medicine,
00:04:33
Speaker
makes like it's it just looks at things from a teeth completely different perspective and I love incorporating like natural medicine like Chinese medicine with science that's kind of how we run our clinic now my mum is actually herbalist as well so like our my kind of my first background is we were brought up with herbal medicine my mum started as a nurse first she was a nurse for nearly 20 years before she jumped ship and became a herbalist and a naturopath so it's interesting that my upbringing we're very very respectful of medicine and conventional medicine and there's a place for both and then we're also very much into taking Echinacea when you're sick and vitamin C and everything like that as well. So it's a nice balance of both.
00:05:08
Speaker
And yeah, that's basically the clinic in a nutshell. So we are based in Port Marnik in Dublin and we do like, I see clients from all over the world now. So it's amazing. Obviously the same as you like access to clients everywhere. So yeah, it's great. I love it.
00:05:21
Speaker
It's amazing. So do you you work with people in person as well as online, is it? Yeah. Yeah. So we have a clinic based in Dublin and then online consultation as well. So it's lovely having
Importance of Personal Connections in Health Consultations
00:05:30
Speaker
both. Like, you know, I think that personal connection we kind of lost a little bit during COVID, but it's so nice when people come in and you're actually having the chats with people and, you know, form a different connection and in person, I think is really nice as well.
00:05:40
Speaker
Yeah, I think we forget about ah how important that connection really
Debunking Hormonal Health Misconceptions: Female vs. Male
00:05:44
Speaker
is. I'd love to just dive into the topic of hormones. It's interesting, you know, when you see a lot of content come up and a lot of, you know, health hormone content, and you see a lot of people putting up things online being like, if someone is telling you to balance your hormones, they're a fraud or they're this, you know, that there's a lot of hate on people talking about balancing hormones and, you know, different things that you can do lifestyle wise to look after your hormones, I suppose.
00:06:09
Speaker
So, I would just, I just love to dig into this topic altogether. And, you know, because I think there's so many PTs out there that just think that women are just the same as men and it really, really isn't the case. I know that, you know that.
00:06:23
Speaker
And I just think a lot of people are confused by this conflicting information. People are like, it's just calories in versus calories out. It's just do this, do that, you know, but we are so much more complex with everything that's going on inside us. So I don't even know where to start with this. Maybe you do.
00:06:36
Speaker
we do If I say hormones, let's dig in. where Where do we start? For an elevator, but you know what it is? That's something like women, we are not small men. Like we have a menstrual cycle. So, and even as you know, as women, if you're not on birth control,
00:06:48
Speaker
our our our cycle, if it's regular, is kind of almost like a four week cycle. Like you feel different in each kind of phase of like those kind of four weeks. When you get your period, it might you might feel a bit tired. Once you're kind of day, you know, four or five energy levels kick in or coming up to ovulation, you feel amazing around maybe the week of ovulation.
00:07:04
Speaker
Then the second week, then after ovulation, you're into the ulotel phase. So kind of afterwards, people might start to bit PMS-y or tired. And then often that week before your period, you could be absolutely wrecked. So I think it's important, even from say like a fat loss perspective, yesterday is calories in versus calories out. Like we can't argue with that. There's no,
Understanding Hormonal Phases: Energy, Mood, and Appetite
00:07:20
Speaker
you know what I mean? That at the end of it, that is what we're aiming for. But let's look at everything else that surrounds that.
00:07:27
Speaker
So if you're a female and you get really severe PMS and up to your period, like I've clients who suffer things like PMDD, which is called pre-mental dysphoric disorder, they're literally like a different person for the two weeks before they get their period.
00:07:39
Speaker
You try telling them like, you know, to the gym, go for that early morning and walk, like don't be eating all those carbs. Like certain people just can't do that. Like willpower, you know, people talk about that a lot. And sometimes people just can't do that when hormones have such a massive part to play. Like that hormone that kicks in in our luteal phase called progesterone, it's so important for making us feel calm, for making us feel happy, for having a pain in the body.
00:08:02
Speaker
So if you're coming up to your luteal phase you're lacking in progesterone and all of a sudden all of your symptoms get worse, it's really hard for people to kind of like keep up their kind of, their their or hit their goals or keep up kind of their their healthier routines or get up in the morning and you know even their sleep might be impacted. So I feel like if we're talking about personal trainers, for example, like that is a difference that we're not small men because we have our menstrual cycle. And I think it's important to take into consideration if you're working with someone that it can impact your appetite and your goals and your sleep and everything else that goes along with it. Yeah.
00:08:32
Speaker
it's one as As a female who, for a lot of my life of of having a period, let's say, I've been quite steady. I've been quite stable. i've I've been lucky enough that I haven't suffered too badly with ups and downs when it comes to hormones. The two times in my life where I've really felt it is when I was pregnant with my third child. like I remember like just i didn't that wait whatever was going on with my hormones, like I was so cranky. like i just could like For like a good solid...
00:09:00
Speaker
the whole nine months basically. And I was just, you know, and I'd just be so cranky and I'd just be so irrational and I could hear myself and I'm like, just Kate, stop, like stop. But I couldn't.
Kate's Personal Hormonal Experiences: Pregnancy and Perimenopause
00:09:10
Speaker
And um I was like, I knew it was hormones. to And like my mom was very kind of not understanding of hormones growing up. Like it was really like, you know, stop using it as an excuse.
00:09:18
Speaker
You know what mean? that was That was her mindset, which I know is really old school. Like that was one time where I really like, it made me understand that complete lack of control when hormones really can take over. And then the second time is kind of now, like it's as in I'm 39, so I'll be 40 next year. I have had my three kids. I'm not on a pill. I don't have a coil in place.
00:09:37
Speaker
So like my my cycle is natural and it's very, very regular. And I know exactly where I'm at at each stage of my cycle. But what I've noticed is that week now, that week running up to my period or kind of the week or the two weeks running up to my period is actually usually not the week right running up to It's kind of the one before that where I like that it can get really low, like just kind of low, but also a little bit just irrational.
00:10:01
Speaker
just can't, can't deal with like the, the bullshit, like, you know, and like particularly, you know, like with my husband or with the kids or whatever. And that, that's only starting to change now. so it's obviously as I'm getting a bit older, my hormones are shifting.
00:10:13
Speaker
And I like that the fact that I know that because I've kind of been tracking it and I can see it, if that makes sense. Yeah, definitely. It baffles me and this why I'm so passionate about like education. Like imagine we understood our mental cycle from such a young age. Like hormonal issues are the same whether you are 11 and you just got your first period or whether you're 49 or sorry, 39 and you're about to go into perimenopause and you know go into menopause like that hormone that we love so much that hormone progesterone is key for everything so when you ovulate what's happening there is probably now coming into perimenopause first of all your eastern elbows can fluctuate so it's a drop of eastern it kind of makes feel like oh god bit flat and then progesterone's not picking up the slack progesterone's not kicking in so if we have enough progesterone for those second two weeks of our cycle
00:10:59
Speaker
you feel okay, like I said, progesterone helps make our happy hormones. It's a natural painkiller. So if you're getting sore boobs for two weeks beforehand, that's lack of progesterone. So we would get breakouts before their period for literally the two weeks before, that's lack of progesterone.
00:11:11
Speaker
And earlier on, you were talking about the whole argument of hormonal imbalance. And honestly, I just feel it's just clickbait. It's honestly just, I think, trying to just poke the bear for people who are talking about it. Of course hormones can be balanced. We see it all the time in blood tests.
00:11:23
Speaker
Like testosterone levels, low testosterone, less than 1.8, high testosterone, above that. I'm like, what do you mean when they're talking about hormones can't be in balance? like, of course they can. I can understand sometimes people talking about, so estrogen gets a lot of publicity and like estrogen dominance and estrogen being too high and things like this. And estrogen can be a problem, but sometimes what can happen is estrogen is just too high because progesterone is too low, right?
00:11:47
Speaker
So sometimes it's not always about trying to bring down estrogen levels and Eastgen is the culprit. Progesterone has to be able to kind of pick up the slack and balance it out. So not everyone I see, we don't focus on reducing Eastgen in every single person. A lot of people I see, we actually have to manage stress and support progesterone because the end of the day, stress is one of the biggest things that's gonna reduce progesterone.
00:12:07
Speaker
So for you now, like a lot of women, that I would see kind of in your position, like they've been grand for a lot of their life. I'm like, how come this is happening now? But you're probably busier potentially, like if three kids, you're running a business than you have been. Like you know sometimes it's actually lifestyle factors that you need to take into consideration as well. So people think like, God, all of a sudden, no you know, my hormones completely changed after I had kids. And I'm like, your life before you had kids versus when you have kids is so different.
00:12:29
Speaker
And sometimes it's just the stress levels or even good stress.
Managing Stress and Lifestyle for Hormonal Health
00:12:32
Speaker
See, I say to clients, do you stress? And they say no. And I go, are you busy? They're like, oh, geez, I'm up the walls. And I'm like, it's the same hormone. cortisol is the same whether you're literally happy but busy or being chased by a tiger. It's the same hormone, you know? Yeah. I'm kind of laughing as you say that because it's interesting. Like when I work, a lot of clients that I work with are going through perimenopause or even kind of coming out the other side of menopause.
00:12:51
Speaker
And I'll always be like, you can lose body fat, you can get fit, you can get strong. We're not using menopause as an excuse. Obviously we have to. And then here's me like I'm 39 and I've noticed my hormones are changing.
00:13:02
Speaker
It's like, yes, maybe it is actually my stress levels. So that will lead me to my next question. So when it comes to balancing our hormones, obviously, you know, I presume we we will, you know, if we're feeling really off balance and think something's not right, we're going to go to our doctor.
00:13:16
Speaker
But if we just want to look at what to do lifestyle wise, dealing with our stress would be number one. 100% stress is i cannot stress enough how much that's going to impact you. Like you could be on, I see clients, for example, people on radio quality magnesium. Magnesium is quite well known now for stress and sleep and things like that.
00:13:35
Speaker
People are on magnesium and they're having three coffees a day. And I'm like, do you understand they're the opposite to each other? Like caffeine increases, cortisol, magnesium brings it down. So I think the first step is actually realizing that i would say to clients, control what you can control. So like you might be like, no, I'm not stressed at work. But you get up in the morning after sleeping for six hours and you do a spin class before work and then you come in and you're not hungry. So you just have a coffee for breakfast.
00:13:56
Speaker
And then the first meal a day you have is 12 o'clock after having a second coffee. And it's just, I don't know, something a bowl of vegetable soup let's say or like something very low protein which makes your blood sugars go up and down you have another cup of tea or another coffee in the afternoon like you're not eating during the day like those are very just i'm sure you see it all the time with clients typical things people do and they don't realize how much stress that's put on their body or so you know you're in a meeting and you skip your lunch you're just for coffee instead like i'm using caffeine lot as example because i feel like a lot of women who are busy and working we rely on caffeine a lot for energy and for
00:14:30
Speaker
kind of keeping us going and kind of that mindset of like, oh, go for a coffee and a walk. And it's very, it's a real cultural thing at the minute when we don't realize how much is actually impacting us. Men are completely different. This is the thing, men don't have progesterone the same way we do. So they're not depleting progesterone the same way.
00:14:43
Speaker
So step one is definitely looking at lifestyle factors, the basics 101. sleep are you sleeping properly are you waking up during the night how much are you eating during the day if you're getting hangry at every single meal if you feel like your blood sugars are dropping three or four times a day aka if you're starving the time you're going to eat your lunch or if you're coming in from work and eating a biscuit making your dinner i would say like you're going too far there like your blood sugars have crashed cortisol has been triggered so it's trying to eat before that happens and as i'm sure you're always drilling into your clients like protein is just the most important nutrient here for blood sugar balancing, because it's going to keep you full. It's going to keep you going a lot longer.
00:15:17
Speaker
And like a typical diet, I would see sometimes people having like porridge and berries for breakfast. And I mentioned they're like vegetable soup. Vegetable soup is a bowl of vegetables and a glass of water, right? That's not a meal, right? you Yeah. Same porridge and berries. People think they're doing great. And I would say, think of porridge and berries like eating carrots and potatoes for dinner.
00:15:33
Speaker
So my analogy for my own clients is think of Irish mammy dinners. And Irish mammy dinners is all about the protein. If you rang your other half being like, can you bring home something home for dinner? And he rocks up with a bag of potatoes. You're going to be like, didn't you get anything for dinner? Where is the dinner? you bring potatoes home?
00:15:47
Speaker
Right. And yet you might've had toast for breakfast, not thinking that that's a problem. And toast for breakfast is the same as eating potatoes for dinner with nothing else. Yeah. you know mean? So a lot of people don't realize that. And our generation, if we're, know, anyone kind of like are the nineties babies, right? We were brought up watching TV ads for cereals for breakfast and things like that. you Remember like the Frosty's eggs, the Corn Flakes ads. So we think that eating cereal breakfast is a normal breakfast.
00:16:13
Speaker
You would never have corn in the cob for dinner and nothing else. And a bone of Corn Flakes is the same thing. Corn in cob and a glass milk, that's not a dinner, right? It's not even a lunch. And yet people have that for breakfast. So I think it's retraining people's brain, but like, oh yeah, that makes sense. of when I'm with my clients, I'm like, plan your meals by Irish Mammies plan dinner. So it's your protein source is the main part of your meal. So if you're having porridge and berries for breakfast, your protein source is, we're gonna add Greek yogurt. Have we got a protein powder or collagen powder? Are we gonna add nuts and seeds? Have we got a whisk in an egg?
00:16:42
Speaker
Where's the protein coming from? And if you have none of those things in the house, you need to come up with a different breakfast because no protein there. And yeah by doing that first, as again, you know, I think that is one of the most important things everyone can do. Start off with balancing your blood sugars and then see what your energy levels like, then see what your sugar cravings are like.
00:16:58
Speaker
And that can bring you up. Like this excuse of like, I don't have time for breakfast or I can't eat breakfast. I'm like, there's so many amazing recipes out there now of doing like overnight oats, overnight Weedabix recipes, like loads of different things, you know, even preparing an omelet or whatever it is that you want to have for breakfast.
00:17:15
Speaker
You can do it the night before if you don't have time in the morning and bring it with you. It's so easy to
The Role of Self-Care in Maintaining Health
00:17:20
Speaker
do. yeah What I tend to say to people who who can't eat breakfast, was like, you don't need to eat it immediately after you get up if you really can't. Give yourself a minute. like first hundred percent That's why i say to clients, bring it with you. Like, let's talk about self-care for a moment. If you can't manage 10 minutes of a day to eat breakfast, there's something seriously wrong in your life.
00:17:40
Speaker
Yeah. Then you need to be focusing on your stress levels. You need, because that's good. That's going to be the main focus of everything. Isn't it? Definitely. Like bring that, like say throw like lychee oats and yogurt, a few berries, whatever with you. Bring it, eat two berries, sit in there and work. Like if you can't manage that, like even 30 seconds, a minute and a half routine in the morning, like you're really,
00:17:58
Speaker
Like it's such, it's not even me saying to me, you have to get up in the morning and dry brush and do your sauna and do your meditation. Like that is like a luxury, right? In the mornings. Eating breakfast is not luxury. That's necessity.
00:18:09
Speaker
And if people can't even do that for themselves, that's that's what I mean. We have a problem here. Like people need to actually take step back and be like, what's my goal here? Like what, you know what i mean? and And these people are often people that often hit a wall then because you can't run like that forever.
00:18:22
Speaker
And these tend to be people as well who want to look after everyone else. It's like they're running around after their kids. And like, and I know there's there's two sides to that. Like there's two kind of stages to that that that I see a lot. Like, you know, probably the stage that you're at, you know, the baby stage where it's really full on and you have to watch them every second and You know, it that it can be hard. It's like, oh my God, i haven't eaten. Like, whatever your you know, that and if you're balancing full-time job with that, that's really hard.
00:18:46
Speaker
And then like the stage where I'm at, where it's like teenagers, older kids, and you're constantly taxi, you're going to this football training. For me, breakfast doesn't tend to be a problem anymore. It's trying to find time to cook dinner and actually...
00:18:57
Speaker
Eat it can sometimes be hard midweek in the evenings. And I know a lot of my clients can struggle with that. that Like this is where we focus on with my coaching as well. It's like this space has to be created. You can't look after your kids.
00:19:08
Speaker
You can't look after your parents or whoever it else you are, that you have going on in your life. if you're so depleted that you're running yourself into the ground, because then what happens if you if you stop like, you know, if you end up in hospital or you end up really sick or whatever, everything's going to fall apart. You need to be able to look after you to be able to look after others. And I think by you setting the example that of taking the time to prepare a proper breakfast and to have those set mealtimes is showing your kids This is how how we do it. Like if we look back, like you're saying, back to the Irish mammy, the meat and spuds and veg kind of dinners or whatever, like your children are going to become what they see.
00:19:45
Speaker
And it's not it's not what you tell them, it's what you do. And I think it's so, so important what you're saying here. Yeah. And the whole, like, I love the analogy you can't pour from an empty cup. And like as mums, like the amount of even clients I have who get in the call and we're talking about their kids for the first 15 minutes. And then we're like, here, we need talk about you. Like we're programmed to look after and to nourish and for our children first and probably people around us first. So we think it's like that we were talking about even for me, like my, when I was first postpartum, if I didn't have breakfast, I'd be then on a walk and I'd be oh my God, I'm starving and having a coffee and a chocolate
00:20:16
Speaker
cake like which is fine but not 11 o'clock in the morning and like because I was like about to pass out with the buggy do you know mean so I think I learned quickly that now I have to eat breakfast so I can be the best mom that day like and i think that's a people have to understand that it's actually one of the most selfless things that you can do like it's and it shouldn't be this huge thing like eating food is the basics of what our body needs do you know And like we're talking about there at the analogy, it can't work for an anti-cup. So nourish yourself for, it doesn't have to anything fancy, like whack it in a tub of wear. Like we're not talking about meal prep and some fancy meals, just bring something with you a bit bit of protein that you can eat at your desk if that's the that's what you have to do, you know?
00:20:53
Speaker
Yeah. ah Just a little bit off topic, just because like I 100% agree with you with this, you you know, eating regularly, keeping keeping protein high, keeping your blood sugar levels stable.
Intermittent Fasting: Pros, Cons, and Women's Health
00:21:03
Speaker
And I've interviewed a few people recently around the topic of,
00:21:08
Speaker
intermittent fasting and I'd love to know your take on it because you know the people that are into intermittent fasting can quite often have you know really really strong advice on how this really benefits your health and are promoting a healthy balanced lifestyle as well alongside this and you know there's I've been talking to people who do kind of you know 24 48 hour fasts or people who are who are intermittent fasting for a certain part of the day. Like people ask ask me my opinions on intermittent fasting. And my advice is always like, if you want to stop eating after dinner and you don't want to eat again until your breakfast and have your breakfast at, you know, 10, 11 a.m., m that's fine.
00:21:45
Speaker
That's intermittent fasting. But don't be using it as an excuse to skip breakfast. Yeah. So it's interesting like that. I think there's such a gray area with intermittent fasting because there is a lot of research showing like fasting can help promote immune function and like fasting is used a lot with kind of like illnesses. Now I would never do that. Like I think some therapists would go into fasting with things like that and we can see that it can destroy like cells and that kind of thing. Now I think that's the other end of the scale.
00:22:11
Speaker
The other gray area is a lot of research and fasting is done on men and not on women. So when I have women who have lost their cycle or mainly issues with ovulation, we absolutely cannot fast.
00:22:23
Speaker
There's no room for fasting whatsoever. You have to think like it takes around 90,000 calories to to make it for a pregnancy, for make to make a baby. And for women who not aren't ovulating, the reason you ovulate is because your body wants you to get pregnant. So if your body's like, hold a minute, we barely have enough calories to get through the day ourself. It's not to let you ovulate. So that's a huge one, fasting and loss of cycle absolutely not go together the other problem is that you know some people go too extreme and sometimes people even have now it's kind of again it's gray area but like using caffeine people might have like a coffee or something like that during their fast and like you know what coffee can do is going to suppress their appetite so for women hardcore fasting is going to be progesterone can impact ovulation again you might be doing it with your husband and he's grand and you're like you know you're you're not seeing results from it or you're feeling quite tired from it
00:23:07
Speaker
In Chinese medicine, fasting is also promoted for a liver support and kind letting the body kind of, I hate using the word detox, but essentially kind of just letting the body detox and kind of, you know, calm down.
00:23:18
Speaker
But like you said, stop eating at seven o'clock after dinner and have breakfast next day at 9am and honor your hunger cues. If you're sitting at your desk and you haven't had a coffee, so your actual hunger cues are kicking in and you're hungry at nine, 10 o'clock, eat your breakfast. Like you pushing out a fast just because you read online, you have to do 16, 17 hours. It's not good for your body either.
00:23:35
Speaker
So think there's a few things where one, if you're a woman versus a man, it can really and make a difference. Number two, if you struggle already with like loss of cycle and you know, hormonal issues, you're going to put your progesterone further and potentially ovulation might not be the right thing. And number three, actually honor your hunger cues. Like you can't be pushing too long just because you've read about it. So yeah, I don't know. I rarely give people fasting personally. I know some practitioners do and they find good, but I think it's anything that's really intense,
00:24:02
Speaker
I don't think is is ideal for the body. It's not necessary as is is what I think. And like, you know, I think the first but when we're talking quite generally, obviously on a podcast like this, you know, we're trying to keep things as general as possible.
00:24:14
Speaker
Like fasting can be used for very specific purposes. Like you said, you know, in relation to illnesses and, you know, like there there are certain circumstances that I think that maybe it is appropriate. But it's certainly not something that I'm going to be advising anyone to to be doing.
00:24:28
Speaker
And when we think about a lot what a lot of our problems are as women, it is it it can be fertility, you know not being able to get pregnant, or it is stress. And I would imagine fasting is going to add to the stress in your body and your cortisol levels.
00:24:41
Speaker
It's the other end of the scale, then perimenopause. Again, hormones all over the shop. By fasting, that's not going to help with the stress that your body's already under, I would imagine.
00:24:51
Speaker
Yeah, 100%, definitely. And then the other problem as well is that you actually, i feel like a lot of clients I see are also kind of like under eating a little bit and you're kind of missing an opportunity. Like, you know, if you're fasting and you're breaking the fast at 12 o'clock and they might just have like a big lunch and a dinner, like sometimes people are missing the opportunity to get a whole nutrient dense meal and especially kind of like breakfasty foods like people might break the fast at 12 and have like eggs and toast or that kind of thing and I think like things like your oats and your seeds and like those kind of foods are so important I think for health and people aren't really getting them in other places that they're kind of missing the opportunity to have something like that kind of breakfasty kind of meal as well
00:25:27
Speaker
Yeah. And also for getting enough protein in, like, you know, if we've got a shorter window to eat, it's harder to, you know, a lot of people struggle to eat adequate protein as it is spread throughout the day. i just think that in general, you're making it harder for yourself. And I think people are afraid to add into their diet. Like they're like.
00:25:45
Speaker
yeah They think that if they want to lose body fat, that they have to eat less. So it's dieting, it's taking away. And it's like, oh, it's easier if I just eat in this smaller window. And it's like, no, like add nuts and seeds to your diet. i make Add in oats, add in lots of vegetables, add in some olive oil, add in.
00:26:01
Speaker
And then what happens when you add in is that the the other stuff falls away a little bit and that you can still have your chocolate or whatever, or or your coffee. at And maybe you're like, stay away from the coffee. You still have those things, but you don't need them.
00:26:16
Speaker
I just wanted to interrupt the podcast for a moment to talk to you a little bit about Kate Hamilton Health online coaching.
Introduction to Kate Hamilton Health's Coaching Services
00:26:24
Speaker
So we have two coaching options available.
00:26:27
Speaker
We have our elite coaching and we have our group coaching service. Our elite coaching service is bespoke individualized coaching, which will help you to finally break free from diet culture with one-to-one anytime support from your coach and with access to a safe, supportive community.
00:26:46
Speaker
This is a higher ticket coaching option and the coaching is by application only. If you go to my website, KateHamiltonHealth.com, you will be able to apply for elite coaching through there and we will be in touch to organize a call and to get you up and running.
00:27:02
Speaker
In relation to our group coaching, our group coaching starts on the first Monday of every month. When it's full each month, we do close the doors. With the group coaching is about building the habits, body and energy of the healthiest version of yourself and finally make it stick.
00:27:20
Speaker
We include personalized calories and portions, food lists, recipes, meal plan ideas, step goals, home or gym based workouts, depending on what you want, changed every eight weeks.
00:27:33
Speaker
Mindset work, app access. So that's the Kate Hamilton Health app, which will be your hub for everything. Weekly yoga classes, WhatsApp group community, weekly group Q&A with myself, fun challenges, daily habits form, weekly self check in.
00:27:49
Speaker
fortnightly check-ins with your coach, a library full of lifestyle guides, a library full of lessons, seminars, and all of this is updated regularly. We have weekly group Zoom calls with myself and the team, regular guest seminars where we get experts on to talk more to you about different topics that we need experts on for.
00:28:10
Speaker
And then we have in-person events twice a year that you will get at a major discount as being a member of the Kate Hamilton Health community. So as I said, this starts the first Monday of every month. If you go to my website, KateHamiltonHealth.com, you will see when the next group coaching intake is starting for you.
00:28:30
Speaker
So we close the doors as soon as that intake is full or the Monday before the group coaching starts. So usually that last Monday of the previous month. So if you head over to Kate Hamilton Health dot com, all of that information that I've talked through is on the website.
00:28:47
Speaker
You'll be able to book your spot for the next intake there. And I will chat to you all then. You're having them because you want them and that's the difference, isn't it? 100%. think people don't realize that whole thing about being hangry.
00:29:02
Speaker
When you are hangry, your blood sugars crash and you're like, you have the salad with, you have kind of whatever, the meal prep and you're like, fuck it, I don't care, I'm getting the chips or like, let's just go to McDonald's for lunch or like, I need to chicken fill it well. your body's going to crave carbs or you're going to sit there and eat a cup of tea and five biscuits or sugar.
00:29:15
Speaker
And then you eat and you're like, fuck's sake, why do you eat that? There is nothing that brings you me more joy than a cup of tea and a bit chocolate in my life, right? He was in bed, you sit there and the TV on. That is good for the soul, right? So I'm not saying don't have that, but there's a big difference in me enjoying that at seven o'clock in the evening, you know, after a day and I'm loving enjoying it and me eating chocolate at 11 o'clock in the morning because my hands are shaking and I'm have a headache and I need to get something into me. They're two very, very different things. And this is what we mean here. If you eat proper meals, so let's say, for example, if you get up and you had just a coffee for breakfast because you're not hungry in the morning and then it's 12 o'clock, you're like, oh, I need something and you're eating croissant for breakfast because you just need to get some sugar into it.
00:29:51
Speaker
by you having the better breakfast at 10 o'clock in the morning, you don't have that croissant then. And then you have your lunch comes around because your blood sugar is having crashed. You have the food that have you have with you, whether it's a salad or the sandwich or whatever it is, you know, your leftover dinners and that you've meal prepped and, you know, it's something that's a bit maybe more nutrient dense. your cravings really, really reduce. And then it's a matter of, do I actually want this or and my blood sugars crash? And a lot of the time when you're satisfied, you actually don't want to have the chocolate every day or you don't crave those foods as much. It's very much like mindful eating and being like, I'm going to enjoy this and actually eat it. Or sometimes you can actually say no and be like, I actually don't want that. I'm actually satisfied. So that's the whole thing when you hear it the kind of thing about people aren't eating enough to lose weight. It's not that you're not eating enough. It's that your blood sugars are crashing.
00:30:33
Speaker
And eventually then as well, If you are in a deficit for tumulates, you're going binge. The last thing your body wants to do is lose weight. So, you know, a lot of people are great, I call them weekday dieters, like you're great Monday to Friday and then the weekends come around and people kind of binge a little bit more because your body wants to get those calories back in. And it's normally the not so nutrient dense food that people are going go for then. And that's just human nature.
00:30:52
Speaker
Nothing that, is not lack of willpower, it's literally human nature. Yeah, and I think that if we don't say to ourselves, I can't have the chocolate at 11am, it's when you're hungry at 11am, I'm going to have these oats and seeds or going to have these scrambled eggs or whatever it is you're having.
00:31:06
Speaker
And if I still really want it afterwards, I can. But that approach worked really well for me. And then it was like, after I'd have it, I'm like, no, I'm full now. I don't need it. Yeah. I think, again, i like I probably work a lot with like, you know, actually probably all generations, but I think I was like 90s babies. were so We're almost like, I think we'd be studying now in a few years between how much birth control we're all put on. And then collect the Weight Watchers generation and Slimming World. And we were brought up with America's Next Up model and like the hills and everyone was super skinny and like skinny was just so trendy and like, I'm sure all of our moms were in Weight Watchers and Simo World and all those kind of things and fats were so demonized.
00:31:39
Speaker
So I think our generation are really scared of eating these foods as well. And like definitely like our moms are probably like, Low fat, low fat, low fat was just so trendy. Cholesterol was a huge thing back in the eighties and everyone was terrified of fats. And I think that's a big part as well, that it's not just about eating for weight loss. It's eating for health and wellness. Like healthy fats are just so important for hormone support. And it's one of the main things that I would see, especially fertility issues.
00:32:04
Speaker
I'm always trying to get more fats into people's diets. Syrup, fenugreek yogurt. Like, you know, it's rare to see someone come to me in the first cons conversation and they're actually full fat yogurt, for example, because it's like, oh, the fats are so bad. And every cell in your body is made of fat. Every hormone in your body is made of fat. I think people trying to understand, like even eating that breakfast, it's for nutrition, it's for your health, not just for weight loss or weight gain or whatever your your kind of goals are. It's trying to keep yourself well. It's the only body you're ever going to have, do you know?
00:32:30
Speaker
and I'm so glad you said that about healthy fats. for hormone health, because this is something that I'm always saying to my clients. Could you go into a little bit more depth as to why healthy fats are so important for hormone hormone health?
00:32:43
Speaker
Yeah, i think the first thing, I don't if you remember this from June or sort of biology, it's literally like dr drilled into my head. And maybe when I say people remember, so your phospholipid bilayer. So like every single cell in our body literally has a membrane around it made of fats.
00:32:56
Speaker
So if you're low in fats, your cells don't work properly. The second thing is our hormones are made partly from cholesterol. So cholesterol is fat and cholesterol, the poor thing gets such bad reps sometimes. Like it's always cholesterol is bad and this kind of thing. But you have to look at your you're healthy cholesterol as well. Like you want that to be optimal so your body can make your hormones.
00:33:13
Speaker
So it's almost like literally the building blocks. If you're trying to build a house you've no bricks, like you're not going to get very far. So think about your healthy fats like those building blocks. And it's things like our nuts and our seeds, avocados, olive oil, oily fish, whole eggs,
00:33:27
Speaker
full fat dairy like they're the ones that people should be eating and I think that's something that people seriously lack when I see clients anyway like you know a lot of women are avoiding fats because they don't want to put on weight but then your body's undernourished and you're going to crave fats from other sources then you're going to be looking for the chocolate and the pastries and things like that your body's going to want it from somewhere else It's amazing what our body, yeah, like when we actually learn to trust our bodies and our bodies will tell us, like if you're craving something, something's off, like it's, you know, you're yeah you're depriving it youre your body of something that it needs and it's masked then as as a craving for something quick and easy, isn't it?
00:34:07
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Our body's very smart. Yeah. Yeah.
Critiquing Extreme Dieting and Its Risks to Health
00:34:10
Speaker
So another thing that worries me a little bit, which kind of brings it more, probably more towards the younger generation in general, I suppose, is, you know, this kind of glamorization of like bodybuilding lifestyle, photoshoot prep.
00:34:23
Speaker
people going on quite restrictive calories for the likes of, like not even a bodybuilding show as much. It's more, it's photo shoot culture that every second young person is doing these days. I have done a photo shoot recently. Now I did it my own way because I was like, there's no way. i'm I'm not risking my health for this.
00:34:38
Speaker
But I think a lot of people aren't aware of how much people are pushing themselves for these shredded photo shoots. And what frightens me the most is how it's being normalized, that how losing your cycle is being normalized.
00:34:51
Speaker
This is hugely worrying for me. I'm like, this is, this is not okay. that You know, there are people getting extremely unwell because of us, not only then physically taking a long time to recover, but psychologically and, you know, potentially triggering eating disorders.
00:35:05
Speaker
all for a look, all for a culture that in the gym is is being seen as normal now. And I just think it's absolutely crazy. And I don't think young women realize how much they're jeopardizing their chances of conceiving.
00:35:18
Speaker
And I think as a woman who has three kids and, you know, i know you're a mother as well. And the worry of being able to conceive. And then, you know, for a lot of people, that that fertility journey can be very, very difficult, regardless of whether you've hit like dieted hard in your past. you could You know, and I just I just don't understand why why anyone would would do that to themselves, I suppose.
00:35:42
Speaker
But I think it's it's not their fault. It's because it's becoming it's becoming normal in the culture, if that makes sense. I don't even know what question is here. Yeah, no, I completely agree. And I think there's a certain, I'm sure yeah we can talk about it off air, but like there is certain personal trainers and women come to me and i'm like, I know straight away, i know with their diet, who they're their personal trainer is. And it's women coming to me after photo shoot who have hypothalamic menorrhea and hypothalamic menorrhea is your brain is switched off ovulation because it's like, we're going to die. We cannot, the last thing on earth we can do is get pregnant. It's literally reserving all its energy to protect you.
00:36:14
Speaker
The other thing to really make clear as well, like you're talking about having a baby, ovulation has 300 other functions besides making a baby. And this narrative of, well, it doesn't matter if you don't have your period, you don't want to get pregnant, what's the big deal? And even GPs will say it, well, you don't want to get pregnant, why does it matter?
00:36:29
Speaker
This is why it matters because ovulation is so much more than making a baby. It's how our body makes our estrogen and our progesterone. And estrogen is everything from supporting bone health to heart health to muscle building to energy, to libido, to mood, to vaginal dryness. Like people who are on birth control, this is a complete off topic, but feel like it's important and to say, if you're on birth control and you are really bad vaginal dryness, which is a huge thing I would see clients and people think there's something wrong with them it's from the pill, right? If you've no period and you're struggling with things like that, it's from not having enough estrogen levels.
00:36:57
Speaker
So it's way more than just making a baby. And I think losing your cycle, your cycle is your body's way of checking in and be like, yeah, it's cool. I'm happy what you're doing this month. It's a sign of health. And the minute you lose your cycle, your body is screaming at you to do something different.
00:37:11
Speaker
I think it's, you know, us in our 30s looking at girls in our 20s and being like, oh, Jesus, what are they doing? Like, we probably did stupid things in our about not realizing it. Like, I know, again, diet culture was so popular when I was in my 20s and we were eating like...
00:37:24
Speaker
like, you know, low calorie soups and stuff before I did nutrition, were just mad about calories. Like, and I think being skinny- The special K diet, did you ever do that one? That was great. I remember Beyonce had like the, what was her like cayenne pepper and her maple syrup shots. And like, we were obsessed with being skinny. So we did stupid things as well. Like your, your literal frontal lo lobe isn't developed. You don't really think about the future. Kind of feel like you're invincible when you're in your twenties.
00:37:45
Speaker
But what you've even mentioned, like the mental repercussions, like the amount of women I see who've come to me and they just, it's so difficult to to get over that and regain their cycle. And it's like, they feel like they're doing everything right, but it's just gone too extreme.
00:38:00
Speaker
And is it worth it for photos? Like, I don't know. Like it's it's something to definitely think about if you're going to go into, if you think about doing, I think it's, I think chat to somebody done it ahead of you and see how they feel now about it, you know?
00:38:14
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. And I just think if something needs to be regulated within the fitness industry. Yeah, I do think the personal trainers need to take responsibility. I think it's literally complete negligence. I think they like they're putting people, they're risking people's health doing it. I think they should be reported. Like if that was any other industry and you're getting to people that such low body weight that they're losing their cycle, potentially impacting bone health and you're impacting people's health. Like I think it's it's very, very dangerous to be doing that where like for me,
00:38:44
Speaker
as a naturopath, as a herbalist, as nutritional therapist, the main thing we were always drilled into is first do no harm. That's the first like rule of say naturopathy, first do no harm. So if I ever saw someone I felt like something I was going to give to them would potentially damage them or I would never give anyone something like that. But imagine being personal trainer and knowing, okay, you're going thousand and calories a day and it's do 10,000 steps and you go on the cross training now for three hours a day and it's do two weight sessions as well. Like,
00:39:07
Speaker
Wow, like, you know I mean? You're actively knowing you're putting people into a severe calorie deficit and women probably like, i I've lost my cycle. And to some people they're like, oh, brilliant, that's a good thing now because your body fat's so low. And like, it's just complete negligence from my perspective.
00:39:22
Speaker
Yeah. And I think any women listening that, you know, even if you are in your 30s or 40s or 50s, you've had your kids or whatever, just to keep this in mind, this is the last thing you want to be doing fucking with your hormones or your health in this way at any stage of life for for the reasons that you have mentioned there.
00:39:37
Speaker
And I think, you know, most people listen to this podcast are probably 30 plus. I'm generalizing, obviously, but in general. So a lot of people, you know, I'm like. Just take responsibility when you're taking in information, when you're taking advice off whatever coach you're working with or whatever professional you're working with, no matter what their qualifications are.
00:39:56
Speaker
if it goes against your health values, don't do it like and Yeah, things like losing your cycle is you know is a serious red flag if you're losing your cycle. like you know Your body technically, your brain is, like like you said, heading towards death. It's like it's protecting you from death so you don't die and it's taking away your chance of of having children because it's afraid you're going to die. That's too far. Bring it back.
00:40:18
Speaker
like I know health looks different for everyone and you know a healthy lifestyle is different for everyone, but it's just, yeah, like something's got to change there. Definitely, yeah.
Fertility Health Strategies: Lifestyle and Hormonal Balance
00:40:28
Speaker
So will we talk a little bit around fertility then? Because there'll be people listening as well who, you know, and i I think it's wonderful in recent years to hear people be much more open about their fertility journeys.
00:40:39
Speaker
It's something that a lot of people do have to go through and it can be a really, really difficult time in their lives. And especially if friends are having babies and you know people and then or if someone gets married and people are like, oh, when are you going to start a family? And they don't like, you know, i hate when people say these things to people because like you don't know what's going on behind the scenes for people.
00:40:58
Speaker
And it can be a re a real struggle. So in relation to obviously, you know, you seek medical support, I suppose, or, you know, the correct support to help you on your fertility journey. But what can you be doing yourself?
00:41:11
Speaker
Like it's such an area, like I work so close now with fertility. Most of my clients, most days are with fertility and it's just an area that I just, it breaks my heart. And I went through it myself. So like had a miscarriage before I had Tego. So for me working with women for the last, that was about two years ago, so nine years, helped them to get pregnant. And for me to experience that was just so,
00:41:30
Speaker
Like at the time I really struggled to kind of come back from it and come back and be a-okay and give me advice. I just felt like everything I knew was wrong. Like, and I was like, well, obviously my advice doesn't work and things that now I've come out there to decide now and realize, well, actually it's the opposite that you could be doing absolutely everything perfectly. And when I say I did everything perfectly,
00:41:46
Speaker
like to a T I couldn't have done anything differently if I had to know what was gonna happen. And sometimes things are just out of your control as well. I feel like you have to have that acceptance being like, I can be doing everything right. And I'm sure there's people very like risking being like, I'm doing everything it's not happening.
00:41:58
Speaker
Sometimes we just don't know why things happen and you just, We just don't know. So I think give yourself that grace and be like, okay, can do everything I can. And I think once you can take that box, make it I'm doing everything right. And hopefully then things will fall into place.
00:42:10
Speaker
The first thing I would say is like the problem with, say for example, fertility treatment in this country is they never really investigate why, right? you go in, we can't get pregnant. Okay, let's start infertility treatment. The end goal is not always just getting someone pregnant. It's having a healthy pregnancy, right?
00:42:25
Speaker
So if your body's not letting you get pregnant to a certain extent, let's say, for example, you're not ovulating like regularly, that there's always a reason why. And I always talk a lot about blood testing, right? Bloods will tell you why you're not having a regular cycle. And it could be ending from low iron, low B12, high testosterone, thyroid issues, but stress, something like hypothalamic menorrhea.
00:42:44
Speaker
maybe high prolactin there's always a reason why so i think the first thing you can do is support your hormones let's support ovulation that means your body if your body least is ovulating and then maybe go for things like ivf or fertility treatment you're you're already a step up because your body is in a healthier position than it was does that make sense then things like making sure in general even let's say you are ovulating and you know people like okay we're gonna start trying the next couple of months again i think bloods are really important to make sure everything is optimal the word I always use like there's within range and then it's optimal ranges on a blood test make sure everything's optimal for fertility look at your lifestyle look at your diet look at your hormones if you're someone who has horrific PMS has really heavy periods or even on the other side really light periods like
00:43:23
Speaker
Your period is what that embryo is going to implant into. So I have clients who actually, their period is too light and they can't get pregnant or the other side, their period is too heavy. So our period is our body's way of saying like, think of it like your month's report card.
00:43:35
Speaker
So if you're having horrific PMS and really heavy periods, that's a sign of something not right there either. Like you should get your period and be like, oh geez, I forgot was getting period today. And people look at me with henheads and be like, don't know. And I'm like, honestly, you should get your period and be like, oh, there's my period. Oh yeah, that's great. And you should not be in bits for two weeks and be in bed with a hot water bottle the day you get it and be,
00:43:53
Speaker
eating the ibuprofen every two or three hours. The other really interesting about fertility is, so I've mentioned the hormone progesterone how many times, right? And I said to you, progesterone is the same whether we're 11, we just got our first period, or whether we're 40 in perimenopause, it's the same hormone that impacts our cycle.
00:44:09
Speaker
Progesterone maintains pregnancy for us as well. So if you were someone who has had chronic PMS your whole life, right, and now you're trying to get pregnant, it's not happening, look at progesterone levels. You're someone who's always potentially been low on progesterone.
00:44:23
Speaker
Why would that be any different now when you're trying to get pregnant? So it's the same root cause like, you know, managing stress, looking at your caffeine intake, looking at your exercise, looking at blood sugar balancing, looking at nutritional deficiencies, looking at your sleep, like lifestyle is so important.
00:44:37
Speaker
As a rule of thumb, I kind of say to my clients, when you're trying to get pregnant, act pregnant. So people ask me about long distance running is a huge one. Like I have clients who are doing, I'm sure you see work by women with that as well. They're doing, maybe 40k a week. I'm like, is that still okay? And I'm like, would you do that if you found out you're pregnant tomorrow?
00:44:52
Speaker
And it's ah it's a gray area. Some women can really do high in in high intensity workouts since they get pregnant, but some women can't. So I think it's all a very individual base. I never like giving kind of like a blanket turn, but it's just, being really realistic with yourself and be like, hey, am i doing everything I can to support my body during this time?
00:45:09
Speaker
But it's it's tricky. It is hard. And I think we can also be overwhelmed. think there's a lot of information online that can kind of stress people out. Like for most people, you know, go with the flow and enjoy it and see what happens. And then you can do further investigations if you need to.
00:45:22
Speaker
But I do always recommend, I think bloods are always a great step on just to make sure that you're not low on anything. Going into pregnancy, know I mean? If you're going in your arm is already a little bit low, you're definitely going to anemic during pregnancy, for example. Where do you go to start? test So if if you're someone that's like, look, I feel like I'm doing everything right.
00:45:38
Speaker
and And I totally agree with you. Like, you know, I've seen it time and time again where people have serious difficulties getting pregnant or serious difficulties keeping pregnancies and they're doing everything right there, you know, like every.
00:45:51
Speaker
box that's supposed to be ticked is being ticked and you know they're not doing the things they're not supposed to do and then you see people that really neglect their bodies and to do whatever they want and have perfectly healthy pregnancies and births and it does like and for someone struggling that can seem really really unfair so if someone who's listening is like look I'm taking all these boxes you know I i might have a little bit of tidy up to do here and there but like nothing's happening and my doctor wants me to go or to go down the route of IVF seems to be our only option. It's really expensive. We need to save for it whatever you know whatever it is
00:46:25
Speaker
But well the point you made there about, okay, it is the issue that you're not ovulating. Like, how do you how do you find out what the issue is? Like, where do you go to find that out, if you know what I mean? oh So, I mean, that's what we do in our clinic. So I think going to someone like nutritional therapist who specializes in fertility is always we step one. That's how we're trained. And it's like, there has to be a communication between us and the medical professionals. Like, you go into your doctor, your GP, who saw like a child had a cough before you, and you're sitting down and be like, we're trying to get pregnant the last 12 months, not happening.
00:46:52
Speaker
they have no idea what to say to you. Like they're gonna refer you on to someone you could be waiting eight months after that. So the GP is not qualified number one to give nutritional advice or lifestyle advice realistically. Like they don't do that as part of their training and that's okay. We shouldn't expect to be getting lifestyle advice or nutritional advice or some advice from our doctor.
00:47:08
Speaker
But they should be in the position to say, let's refer you on somewhere else. And that's what's really missing in our country, that that kind of referral. Again, I'm always buying on about bloods, but bloods are always step one. They're literally like your individual jigsaw puzzle, right?
00:47:21
Speaker
So that tells us so much about what's going on in your body. And I always recommend getting it done between, say, do two and five, your mental cycle. So day one being your first day of your proper bleed, not the day that you're spotting. is day one and get all of your hormones checked, your RNA, vitamin D, your thyroid. For a lot of people who have unexplained infertility, it can be an autoimmune, right?
00:47:40
Speaker
So if you have someone who has autoimmune thyroid in the background or could be arthritis, could be celiac disease, like if you family history of any kind of autoimmune conditions and maybe you don't have one diagnosed yet or could be potentially in the background.
00:47:52
Speaker
So we'd always investigate that. That can be done via blood testing as well. But I think working with someone who has experience in like fertility and lifestyle medicine, like we would do in the clinic and looking at your lifestyle, your diet, gut health is huge as well.
00:48:04
Speaker
And like when I say gut health, people think, no, I poo every day, I'm grand. Your gut health is basically most of your immune system. And part of getting pregnant is that implantation has to take place. So the egg and the sperm meet and they fertilize and that embryo has to implant. And Sometimes if your immune system is a high alert, it's kind of the autoimmune aspect that won't happen. And again, that's going back to gut health.
00:48:23
Speaker
So someone is struggling with a lot of gut issues and inflammation or they're cold, they're sick all the time, or they're you up getting cuts that never heal or their hair is falling out, like that's a sign that your body is not working optimally.
00:48:35
Speaker
So we need to address those things first. So That's why ah I think the bloods are brilliant because it's kind of step one. And then step two, I think go to someone who can specialize in fertility to support you on kind of your individual journey and make sure you're doing everything right from the nutritional perspective.
00:48:50
Speaker
Like you said, like makes no sense. Sometimes some people literally didn't even try and they get pregnant straight away. you know what I mean? They can... we just don't understand sometimes why that happens. Is it genetics? Is it maybe just have better genes than us? Like a lot of times it's the people who are just so overly relaxed and like, a sure, we'll see what happens. Like they get pregnant straight away. do you know what do I mean? So I wish I'd answer is for those people. Cause I know it's really hard to look at friends who weren't even trying and say, oh, happened the first time. and I know and it's annoying. Isn't it annoying when as people are like, it's, you know, this is stress now. If you just learn to relax, like, you you know, and you're like, I can't fucking relax when I'm just trying to get pregnant. I've been trying for the past two years. You know i mean?
00:49:26
Speaker
Like, that's just unhelpful advice ah at all. Isn't it? To be like, if you're more relaxed, it will happen. be like, all right, thanks. That's great. We went, we went, we go away for the weekend and have, get drunk and have sex. It will happen then. Like, it's just, and people are like, yeah, we tried that. Like, it's like, so condescending. Like, someone trying to get pregnant for two years. Like,
00:49:42
Speaker
um So there's there' definitely, there's always a reason. Sometimes it can be really complex. Like even there can be structural things. So lot time women might actually have like a block fallopian tube and you can have anything called a high cozy dome where they literally like will flush the fallopian tube.
00:49:55
Speaker
Endometriosis is huge in Ireland as well. Like I feel like we could do a whole podcast on that and It takes nine years for women to be diagnosed with endometriosis. And like you were saying earlier about your mom being like, oh, you're grand. It's such an Irish mammy. It's just their generation.
00:50:07
Speaker
So how many women are a generation who probably have endo, have just had horrific periods their whole life and been told, oh, your grand, take some Ponston, take some ibuprofen, get the hot water bottle out. And they actually might have issues getting pregnant because it's damage or tissue growing in the wrong place or inflammation in the uterus. And that might have to be addressed as well.
00:50:26
Speaker
And so is this is all something that you do within your clinics, as in, you know, that you you can very much be step one for for women to start looking at getting that blood work, do of get putting the the practices in place that need to get in place yeah to start moving forward in their journey.
00:50:41
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And we do blood tests now in my clinic for this reason, because i feel like sometimes you to the doctors and the mentality of like, ah, sure, you don't need hormones checked. It's it's a little bit gaslighty as well. Like, you know, this so i've I've been in clinic nearly, what, 11 years and it's only the last couple of months I've got blood testing done now in our clinic twice a month because I just get so frustrated with women going to doctor and booking in and going day two to five and they come out and half things aren't checked the doctor was like oh you don't need them and I'm like yes you do need them and again it's just lack of education that like they don't understand you need that full picture if someone doesn't have a period and I go oh you don't have PCOS well I'm like you don't have PCOS what do you have it's like okay it's not that but what is it and there's always something so I think that's we could do everything like that in the clinic that people can come book in once and we can definitely
00:51:22
Speaker
help you anyway. That's amazing. yeah It's amazing resource like to have and the fact that you are in Ireland as well because I talk to different people all over the world with different amazing services and I'm like, why are you not in Ireland?
00:51:34
Speaker
So this is amazing that you're in Dublin. And mine as well. Yes. You're online as well. So that there's load loads of options. You don't have to be in Ireland to work with you as well. And I think it's funny because we do come from that generation or like, you know, our parents' generation where it's like, like the GP knows everything. Like the GP is God.
00:51:50
Speaker
Yeah. My dad is on meditation and he genuinely doesn't know why he's on it. He's it because doctor told him to. And I'm like, dad, like honestly. And he's like, oh, the doctor said. And that's okay. It's just generally. Our generation asks more questions now. We want to get, I think, so make the root of the problem and what's going on. It's just. Yeah.
00:52:04
Speaker
Hopefully it will change by the time, you know, even our kids now are, you know. And that's it. And like, I'm not anti-GP at all. Like I think GP, like the doctors are amazing and like they obviously are quite important, you know, extremely important. But I think when it comes to GPs, you'll get really thorough ones and then you'll get other ones that are just, yeah will stick to their old ways. And it it very much depends on the doctor, as it does with any profession, I suppose, you know, that, um,
00:52:27
Speaker
I always say like, i um I always want to make it so clear. I'm so like, they are so well trained. They're that job because they want to help people. But just sometimes it's out of their scope. And it's a good GP will know when it's out of scope and to refer on.
00:52:39
Speaker
you know what mean? Or and lot of the younger GPs now, like with all due respect, sometimes old generation, they just aren't, they just don't know about hormones and things like that. So it's a little bit like, I know you'd be fine. Or like, like like I've had women come to me and the doctor said, like you don't look like you're in perimenopause. We don't need check bloods.
00:52:54
Speaker
You don't look like you're in perimenopause. Like, what does that look like? You know, it's very just like, it's just about them knowing when it's out of their, like that out of their scope and when to refer on basically.
00:53:05
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. No, no, i couldn't agree more. Before we finish up, I would just love to ask you a little bit about your traditional practices and your, her i I was going to say your herbalism.
Herbal Medicine: Personalized and Scientific Approaches
00:53:16
Speaker
know if herbalism, your herbalist practices.
00:53:20
Speaker
Herbalism, is that a word? Herbalism, yeah, yeah. Yes, yes, yes. yeah Okay, so what place does this... play in people's lives and you know what tell me more I don't I don't even know what to ask here I just I'm interested interested in it so first of all like I I think in herbal medicine nature is giving us everything that we need and we've just lost that art of using herbs as medicine they're in a lot of drugs like for example aspirin is a herb called salix alba which is like a natural pain reliever so a lot of drugs we have are actually extracts of herbs to begin with right so I've kind had two mindsets on how herbs work
00:53:54
Speaker
because I was brought up her medicine is very much like the real traditional Chinese medicine. So mom would be like, let me see your tongue. I know sounds mental and my clients think I'm half mad before they meet me. I'll get them send me a picture of their tongue and your tongue tells me so much about what's going on inside your body from a Chinese medicine perspective.
00:54:09
Speaker
Some people have really swollen tongues. with like little indents, which is like your teeth are resting on your tongue and your tongue swollen, and your mouth, that'll be like bloating and constipation and digestive issues. Some people's tongue is really, really dry. Some people have a purple tongue, which is like, usually you see like heavy periods and high blood pressure and things like that.
00:54:24
Speaker
Some people have white, it's literally like really, really um cold. We like things like underactive thyroid. So it's quite interesting. Now we take a lot a pinch of salt. I'm not looking at your tongue and be have an underactive thyroid, right? But the way our clinic then works, I'll show you on the call.
00:54:39
Speaker
We do tinctures that look like that, okay? So in our clinic, we stock 300 different types of herbs and they're all for different things. And when we see clients, we make up a personalized herbal tonic. So like in one tonic, let's say my tonic, for example, I have something for like energy, for low iron, for stress,
00:54:55
Speaker
for dry skin, for progesterone production, for bloating, all on my tonic. So I can literally put you in a tonic, you in a bottle. So they're brilliant for hormones. Imagine if you have some sore boobs and heavy periods and energy and constipation and migraines all in one tonic.
00:55:10
Speaker
So the beauty of it is they're literally, like I'll probably nate never make that tonic up twice. And we look at the tongue as well. So it's very, very personalized. So that's kind of real Chinese medicine. And then when I went back and studied herbalism,
00:55:22
Speaker
to become a herbalist, I knew all the kind of like, you know, echinacea for feeling sick, time for feeling sick, the kind of like the the basics that I was brought up with herbal medicine. But what I never learned was the science behind it.
00:55:33
Speaker
So we had to do chemistry models models or modules during my training. And it's fascinating actually understanding how it actually works in the body. So we have a really good herb called chaseberry. Have ever heard chaseberry before or agnus castus?
00:55:45
Speaker
No, no. It's a herb that we use for progesterone, right? So brilliant for supporting ovulation. I often give a client a hypothalamic menorrhea. It basically helps support the brain, the pituitary gland to kind of help the ovaries ah ovulate.
00:55:56
Speaker
And I always knew that was great for hormones, but understanding how it works from a science perspective is we have neurotransmitter in the brain called dopamine. Dopamine is like your happy hormone, right? and What happens is chaseberry comes into the brain and it binds to all these little dopamine receptors. So our body thinks we have more of this kind of happy hormone and then that will support progesterone and ovulation.
00:56:17
Speaker
So even if you're up the walls and your dopamine levels are going to be lower, if you're stressed, you can take a herb like chaseberry and it kind of like almost like tricks your body into thinking and that you have more happy hormones so it's fascinating then when I went back and study being like oh my god there's so much science in herbal medicine but again it's just a lost art like honestly there's herbs for absolutely every possible thing you could do ah imagine there's a herb for they're unbelievable I feel like we're you know it's such a it's a it's a lovely extra thing that I can give to my clients for especially with chronic illnesses like endometriosis herbal medicine can be brilliant because so many people have different symptoms that we can literally specify for them exactly basically so
00:56:52
Speaker
Yeah, that's it and kind of and that's So interesting and so refreshing compared to like the general like supplementation, like the amount of questions I get about supplements and I'm like, oh my God, it so depends. It depends on the person. It depends what's going on with you that you can actually like, yeah, but I can just imagine you there with your cauldron.
00:57:09
Speaker
Putting together a little potion for everyone. This is me like, know, back in the day, I would be witch. I'd be burned at the stake. But it's, and my the thing with it is I'm so so, like I love the science side of things. So it kind of doesn't make sense, but also it makes so much sense to me when we're looking herbal medicine and you're talking a lot about like your chi. So your chi is like your vital force, your get up and go, your energy, your motivation. And like my questions and my consultation, of the questions is you feel better after exercise?
00:57:34
Speaker
So, you know, you think about this now with your own clients. Some people say no, not everyone says yes. And some people, we call it things like chi deficiency. Your chi deficiency is your energy, your get up and go, your vital force. It helps you repair when you're sick. Like, you know, you're if're cold, the last thing you should be doing is going out for a walk or going to the gym if you're lying couch dying.
00:57:51
Speaker
you have to let your tea nourish you. So it's really, really interesting. Some people come to me with complete burnout. They're trying to get up and go to the gym. They're trying to meal prep. they're trying to do all these things and they're completely burnt out. And I'm like, you're actually tea deficient. And we lovely herbs called tea tonics, which are just unbelievable. Like they're amazing for people with kind of like that real burnout from chronic stress. And it just helps them understand from a Chinese medicine perspective, you're not crazy.
00:58:12
Speaker
You're tea deficient. You're burnt out. And it just gives people like, okay, it's just looking things from a completely different perspective, basically. That's amazing. So you work with people on fertility, on PCOS, endometriosis, burnout.
Family-Run Clinic: Specializing in Women's Health and Experience
00:58:24
Speaker
Do you work with, on the ah either end of the spectrum as well, do you work with teenagers? Do you work with women who are suffering with perimenopause symptoms as well? Yeah, definitely. So my mum, we actually own our clinic now together and my mom is in clinic 30 years, 30 years. She's a herbalist, which is absolutely insane. Like I was four when she left her job as a nurse and became, opened her clinic. Like imagine that back, that was 1994. People were probably like, Roushine has gone mental. Like, you know what I mean Leaving a full time, four kids at home.
00:58:49
Speaker
But my mom is, because she was a children's nurse, so she sees kids, which is amazing. And she is absolutely unbelievable. Like menopause, I like it as well. But I feel like sometimes, like my mom is 65. So I feel like women relate more to people who have gone through and they're like, oh my God, kids, the teenagers. and So I think like a lot time I will refer people onto my mom's clinic.
00:59:10
Speaker
She's amazing for real like chronic conditions as well. Like, you know, people with... fibromyalgia and like chronic autoimmune conditions. And I would see that as well, but just cause she, she's in clinic for so long. Like she's, you know, and I love the fertility side of things. And she's great with kind of like she's fertility and everything else, but she's absolutely brilliant with especially kids and menopause.
00:59:27
Speaker
Wow. That's amazing. I could literally, I think I could keep talking. I know. could travel day. could. I have so many more things I could ask you, but I'm going to stop you there because I can't take over your whole day. But thank you so much for coming on.
00:59:38
Speaker
And like, this has just been so, so valuable, like ah everything you've shared today. And I know that there's been so many people listening now that will want to reach out to you, whether it be for themselves, whether it's for their mothers, for their daughters, for their friends.
00:59:51
Speaker
Where is the best place for them to find you? Yeah. So my website, AOK Nutrition, on my Instagram's AOK Nutrition, probably... Email booking is probably better. Sometimes DMs I just can't keep on top of. So maybe email me is probably best or contact the clinic basically.
01:00:06
Speaker
Yeah. Perfect. So if yeah if they look, if they sure they Google AOK Nutrition, your your website will come up and they'll be able to kind of make contact through email their m to yeah contact the clinic that way. Yeah. thank you so much we can do a part two another time definitely because i feel like definitely the part two because we are yeah yeah yeah like i think we need to talk about pcos we need to talk about endometriosis we need to talk more about your cauldron of potions yeah that you should talk more about the herbs so definitely part two coming somewhere down the line but thank you so much ashley thank you for having me great job
01:00:45
Speaker
I just want to say thank you so much for listening to the podcast. And I would just ask for one thing from you, if at all possible, could you make sure that you subscribe to the podcast? It really does make such a difference.
01:00:58
Speaker
If there's a particular episode that you've enjoyed, please do share it in your WhatsApp groups, share it on your stories, tag myself and the guest. in your stories. All of these things really do help to grow the podcast. And obviously, if there's anything you'd like to reflect on, please do leave a comment.
01:01:15
Speaker
It would mean the world to me and I will see you on the next one.