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Women's Health with Dr. Jenna Blasi
159 Plays9 months ago
Today the sister's have on Dr. Jenna Blasi! Modern Menopause Summit happening next week - Sign up for free HERE!
Dr. Blasi has studied nutrition and wellness for over 30 years. Her passion and studies in the field led to naturopathic medical school, where she graduated with highest honors from Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine in Tempe, Arizona. After receiving her doctorate degree in naturopathic medicine, Dr. Blasi was selected from a nationwide pool of physicians to become the sole resident in Integrative Medicine at Yale University’s Prevention Research Center and Integrative Medicine Center, Griffin Hospital, and the University of Bridgeport College of Naturopathic Medicine. After the successful completion of her first year as an integrative and family medicine resident, she was the first to be accepted as a senior resident in the Integrative Medicine program. She has since completed a menopause fellowship and loves assisting patients in the menopause transition find ease, grace, and optimal health in this next phase of life.
She currently resides in Sedona, Arizona and has a virtual practice working with people throughout Arizona, providing comprehensive wellness programs. She also offers programs and courses virtually throughout North America.
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Transcript
Podcast Introduction & Guest Introduction
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the girl I slept in my makeup podcast by three sisters who live in three different cities are at three different life stages and have three different perspectives. They are excited to learn and grow alongside of you. This is a space full of love and acceptance. No judgment because let's face it. We all sleep in our makeup. Please welcome Lauren, Megan and Kristen.
00:00:25
Speaker
Hey listeners, we are so excited to be back with you another week. We have an amazing guest with us today, Dr. Jenna Blasey. Dr. Jenna guides high performing entrepreneurs to achieve optimal energy and live their best lives. She believes we have incredible things to contribute to this world and we can only truly fulfill this mission when we have optimal health and commitment to ourselves. She helps patients discover
00:00:50
Speaker
that even through times of hormonal changes, it's possible to be energized, have stable moods, great sleep, and feel amazing, all while having a successful career and home life. Dr.
Dr. Jenna's Journey & Holistic Health Philosophy
00:01:02
Speaker
Jenna is a doctor, entrepreneur, fitness enthusiast, mother of two, and lover of nature. As a busy working mom, she's continually crafted the most successful ways to hit her thrive and she helps others do the same.
00:01:15
Speaker
In addition to her two-year residency in integrative medicine after 14 years in private practice, she also completed a menopause fellowship. She loves assisting patients in the menopause transition find ease, grace, and optimal health in the next phase of life. She knows that when we find our optimal health, we change the world. This conversation was not only so much fun,
00:01:40
Speaker
It was so informational. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. And make sure to check out the show notes to see the link to the summit that she is a part of next week, all about women's health and specifically menopause.
00:01:53
Speaker
Hey sisters. Hey. Hi. Welcome to another week. Listeners, we're so excited that you're here and we're so grateful to have a wonderful guest. Please welcome Dr. Jenna Blasey. Hey, Jenna. Hello. Thank you all so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.
00:02:11
Speaker
Oh my gosh, we're so honored that you're here and so grateful that I got to meet you through Mikey and Voss Coaching Co. And I just am so excited to learn more about what you do. So yeah, we'll just jump right in and tell everybody kind of a little bit about yourself, how you got started as a doctor. You know, I know it's hard to summarize, but where you started and kind of where you are today and what your overall goals are.
00:02:37
Speaker
All right. Well, I'm Dr. Jenna Blasey, and I'm a naturopathic doctor. What that means is some people, we can look at the treatment, right? It means that our goals are to treat as naturally as possible, but it's also the perspective. I'm looking at people through a lens of health. How can we get you to feel optimal versus looking at you just through the lens of disease? What disease do you have? And then that
00:03:01
Speaker
line of thought leads to what pills and procedures can we give you. And so I'm interested in root cause of disease and really looking at all aspects of well-being. I interestingly got into this in theater school. So when I was in college
00:03:17
Speaker
I was studying theater and French and biology because I couldn't decide if I was going to go into
Understanding Menopause & Community Support
00:03:22
Speaker
acting and playwriting and or be a doctor, which are completely seemingly separate sides of the spectrum. And I thought, I've got to do both of these things or I'll get laughed out of either profession if I haven't at least dabbled. And I was in theater school and we didn't have under I mean, I was in a play and we didn't have understudies. And so the director said, you can't get sick.
00:03:42
Speaker
And he gave us a sheet of paper and he said, here's what you need to do if you get sick because the show must go on. And there were all these suggestions, diet and sleep and some supplements. And I thought, if these things will help me when I'm sick, what effect could they potentially have if I implement them when I'm healthy? And so I started changing my diet. I started changing all of these things and I realized
00:04:03
Speaker
what i thought was health was not and that we can always keep up leveling and feeling better and better and that's actually what inspired me so i guess at that point i was just doing theater and then that's what inspired me to go into natural medicine and i i saw a functional medicine naturopathic doctor changed
00:04:19
Speaker
my periods like it changed my health and I thought this is this is what I want to do and so it was a long journey to actually when I got to doing it I ended up doing a residency in integrative medicine because I like to bridge the worlds a lot of us are purely in the natural world and we don't have someone we trust to help us when our medication is appropriate when are certain procedures appropriate and then there's people that are completely in the conventional world
00:04:44
Speaker
against everything natural, which is interesting because most pharmaceuticals actually come from plants originally. So my interest in integrative medicine was bridging those worlds, both for patients, having communication between physicians, as well as for the best outcome for people.
00:05:01
Speaker
And then I guess I should speak to how I got into menopause. I ended up in Sedona where the average age I believe is about 62. So even though I was when we moved back here, I was in my late 30s, I was seeing mostly perimenopausal and particularly actually postmenopausal women. And so
00:05:22
Speaker
It became an interest to me because these women are not being served. And as you talked about in your last menopause podcast, one of the statistics is by 2025, there's going to be 1.1 billion women in perimenopause or menopause, which is huge. And the fact that we don't know how to treat these women. And so I did a menopause fellowship when the opportunity came up and I just keep diving deeper into it because we are a grossly underserved misunderstood
00:05:49
Speaker
population as well as, you know, you mentioned last time, oh, let's not talk about this. Yeah. That's not helpful. Exactly. Oh my gosh. So much to cover. That's amazing. And I know you have two children too, right?
00:06:05
Speaker
I do. Yes, I had them later in life. And so so many like that, biologically, right, the idea is when we're going through this transition, the kids are out of the house already. And you know, I have a seven year old and I have a 14 year old. And although I had my kids later in life, many women have maybe not as late as I did, but many women in their 40s are finding themselves in perimenopause
00:06:27
Speaker
with mood changes, with weight changes, with cognitive function changes. And they're tending to children still and or they're in a sandwich generation. Their parents are ailing and they're tending to their kids and they're not functioning optimally. They're not feeling well. And one of the saddest parts for me is I'm quite passionate about
00:06:46
Speaker
community and support. And I love that aspect with your with your guest Anju of she's got all these friends in a similar. So I always tell women grab your sisters, but figuratively or literally grab, you know, get your collective together to support because women will feel like they're going crazy. They don't understand the changes. They may not even attribute them to perimenopause and the hormones. There's
Hormone Testing & Treatment Approaches
00:07:12
Speaker
a slide that I show when I do presentations.
00:07:14
Speaker
In perimenopause, our hormones literally look like a roller coaster. Up, down, up, down, up, down, which we can talk later about testing, but this is one of the limitations. Everyone comes in, I want to get my hormones tested. Well, one day it's super low, one day it's super high. It's actually, if you're in perimenopause, it is not very helpful, but it is helpful to know what you're going through is not uncommon and can be supported.
00:07:39
Speaker
Can I ask you, cause it's so funny talking about menopause, all the symptoms and stuff. I'm like, gosh, I'm, I'm newly postpartum. And I'm like, I feel like I have a lot of these. And I'm newly postpartum. So I feel like, is it all, is it similar to like just having a baby too? Cause I feel like it is.
00:07:57
Speaker
I think it can be because when you're postpartum, there's such major hormonal changes going on in your body and the body has been in one phase and suddenly it's your hormones, you know, some drops, some go up. And so that and our brain size literally shrinks during pregnancy. Now the good news is that comes back, but the brain fog, the trouble sleeping, both physiologically and because of a little one, there are definitely some correlations.
00:08:25
Speaker
Yeah, hormonal changes and the effects on us. Yeah, because my brain fog, I literally have problems coming up with words. And I'm like, what is wrong with me? Like, this has never happened to me in my life. So yeah, that part gets better. Unless you were someone that had a baby later and you know, went right into a pyramid of us.
00:08:46
Speaker
That part, you know, you're young enough that that part will get better and then may come back later in life. Oh, gosh. Okay. Also, you know, the sleep deprivation, which haven't met a new mom, a new mom, meaning another baby, not necessarily your first, I haven't met a mom who just had a baby who's not also sleep deprived. Yes. So that affects our cognitive function, which is there's a crossover in perimenopause as well, because our lowered hormones is affecting our ability to sleep.
00:09:14
Speaker
which is affecting our ability to think clearly as is the loss, the actual loss of the hormones. So there's multiple pieces going on. So as I'm about to be 43, so a little different life stage than Kristin. So if I came to you as a patient with some symptoms of possibly perimenopause, what would be kind of the first step that you would suggest as a client of yours?
00:09:41
Speaker
Yeah. So this is a great question. And my answer will be a little bit different based on what I do in my practice versus if you just went to a hormone specialist. So I do comprehensive wellness programs in my practice. So I transitioned from just fee for service visits.
00:09:57
Speaker
Because I found that we all have a lot going on in our lives, right? There's different levels of stress. There's different levels of support at home. A lot of the women that come to me have struggled with their weight for years. And so I switched over to comprehensive wellness programs where I could really take everybody through a process. But to your point, many of the women in our programs
00:10:18
Speaker
are starting to have symptoms. So the average age of menopause is actually 45 to 55. 5% of women will start to experience symptoms between 40 and 45. And I think it's about 1% of women start to experience symptoms before 40. Now, technically by definition, that is premature menopause.
00:10:38
Speaker
So between 35 and 40, a lot of doctors will just write it off, say, no, this can't be menopause. That's not necessarily true. They could be having premature ovarian failure and they need a full workup, but there's also a lot other causes that are likely. So in the bracket that you're in, 5% of women will have early menopause and certainly our hormones are changing regardless. And depending on our sensitivity,
00:11:02
Speaker
We pick up those changes. That's what PMS is similar. It's not so much the hormones themselves. It's the fluctuations in the hormones that were sensitive to and some women are more sensitive than others. So what I would look at, if you came to see me, what are you experiencing?
00:11:19
Speaker
What do all the other aspects of your health look like? How is your sleep not just based on what might be going on physiologically in your body, but your sleep hygiene? Are you on screens right before bed? Do you have a cat that wakes you up in the middle of that? Like what are the various things? Look at the diet because very few of us have really dialed in our diet. Although I see a decent number of women who are good with their, I don't like to put judgment on it,
00:11:45
Speaker
eating healthy, like maybe not right for them, or it's being countered by all of the stress or eating on the run, etc. I want to look at your movement routine. And then that stress management. One of the things I talk about a lot with patients are the four pillars of health.
00:12:01
Speaker
And I'm actually giving a talk in the menopause summit that's coming up next week on finding your joy. And when you asked me, Megan, what would be your suggestions, like in general versus perimenopause, there is an absolute crossover. Because in my finding your joy talk, I say at the beginning, this actually applies to any point in life. But what happens in our forties and when we approach menopause, I believe that all of the things that haven't fully been dealt with, they come to a head.
00:12:28
Speaker
that we it's sort of like you can stay up all night in your 20s but all of a sudden you can't do that in your 40s it's similar like the stress that's accumulated the relationships that maybe aren't the healthiest
00:12:39
Speaker
it's much harder to tolerate. So the things that have been building come to a head in that time of life. And so some women I see, they want to address them naturally first, or there are clear pillars that would help them feeling better, but we don't have to be scared of hormone therapy either. So I would educate and talk about when adding in hormone replacement therapy might be appropriate.
00:13:04
Speaker
look at your lifestyle. Like, Lauren, I don't know much about you. But if you're like, Hey, I'm moving my body. My stress is good. I'm in a great relationship. I eat really well. And my mood has changed drastically. Or I'm having hot flashes that are absolutely preventing my sleep. Hormone therapy might be a wonderful option to help you with those symptoms versus someone that's maybe
00:13:28
Speaker
overweight or obese and let's really address bringing those down because those are risk factors in and of themselves of some of the risks that come with menopause. Let's address that while we support your hormones as well. Did that answer your question? I feel like that was a little roundabout. No, no, I do. I think, I mean, what I took from that is that it really depends. It's unique for each one of your clients. So there's not a one size fits all, but you would give it more of like a comprehensive
00:13:56
Speaker
Look, so I appreciate that. If somebody did go down the road of hormone therapy, this is probably a really stupid question, but does that have to last forever? Or is there, how do you know when you can stop or how does that work? It's a great question. And it's a question that a lot of women have. You don't have to stay on it forever.
00:14:17
Speaker
The studies have shown that the earlier that we initiate hormone therapy, when it's appropriate, when it's not contraindicated, and when there's reasons to initiate it, the better. So there is, I think, a myth out there, A, I shouldn't even look at hormones until I'm postmenopausal, which is not good information because the benefits of hormone therapy, when it's appropriate, are greater the earlier we start, meaning,
00:14:45
Speaker
before 60 for sure, but also the closer to menopause. As far as how long to stay on it, every time I have the conversation with a woman about hormone therapy, if that's the route that we're either discussing or choosing to take, it's a risk benefit ratio. Because there are risks with hormones for blood clots. This is true of birth control pills. We know this. The research hints that there are fewer risks with creams, which is what we often use for perimenopause.
00:15:14
Speaker
that seems to mitigate the risk of clots. We don't have as much research on it, but the research we do have shows that it's less likely with transdermal, which is a patch or cream. So there's cardiovascular risks of our decreasing estrogen, which is one of the main things that, so estrogen and progesterone are going down.
00:15:34
Speaker
And definitely post menopause in perimenopause the estrogen is doing a slow decline while I'm sorry the pedestrian is doing a slow decline while the estrogen is all over the place, which is why our moods are you know very affected because it's like one day we're here, up here and then lower.
00:15:52
Speaker
If I am working with a woman who either, she might come, I have women come to me in their seventies who've been on hormone therapy for years. It's okay. It's always reevaluating that risk benefit and the quality of life. And so as we get older, our breast cancer risk increases period just from getting older. Our cardiovascular risk increases our osteoporosis if we're not on estrogen. And so does a woman have osteoporosis in the family?
00:16:19
Speaker
is she feeling good on hormones and her risk for these other things is low enough that for her, the benefits seem to outweigh the risk. So with my patients, I just continually reevaluate and I have seen some women, let's say in their sixties or fifties,
00:16:35
Speaker
try to come off and they do not feel well. Their hot flashes come back. And so then we have that conversation, we assess the risks, we assess the benefits. And I'm pretty big on informed consent, which a lot of doctors are not doing. There are doctors out there that think every woman should be on hormones and they're not informing her of any of the risks. And then the other extreme, right? So anybody that I'm working with is a part of the conversation. They're a part of the team. It's not me dictating what you should or shouldn't do.
00:17:03
Speaker
and I want to provide as much valuable information as possible. Some women, if they initiate it early enough, they might be on it for the rest of their life because what about your skin? What about the benefits, the bones, the skin, the things that the women really appreciate the changes of, those could go away. But I've seen other women, they come off it, they feel just as good, and they would rather stay off it. It's 100% not a half two.
00:17:30
Speaker
it's a continued discussion on, do I want to? And if ideally in perimenopause, if you get that support, like if you started at 43, let's say you were really suffering with some symptoms and you started it, then in your fifties, you've gotten a lot of the benefits from it. And you could say, you know what, I bet my moods all right now, or I bet the hopper, you know, and we could try weaning you up and see how you feel. Right.
00:17:56
Speaker
But you would only do that if my levels showed they were off. Is that right? I love this question. No. And this is a big myth. And this is where the testing piece, there's so much confusion. We don't have a standard range of where anyone should be. It's the same with a cycling female. PMS, if I lined up 20 women with PMS, there's not a level of estrogen. And we go, oh, she's got PMS. Oh, this one doesn't.
00:18:26
Speaker
we're all different, and it's the same with menopause, and it's the same with breast cancer risk. For example, our breast cancer risk goes up, as we get older, our breast cancer risk goes up from the studies with certain types of estrogen, but we can't look at a level of estrogen and say, oh, you've gotta, if your estrogen gets to this point, you're gonna have an increased risk, or if your estrogen gets to this point, you're gonna feel better, or you're gonna feel terrible.
00:18:53
Speaker
there are no established ranges for that because we are so individual. And the research has not, there's no, so I'm just going to, I'm going to address an elephant that's in a lot of rooms that not make some people happy. The Dutch test, have you all heard of this? Oh, I want to do the Dutch test and check my metabolites in urine. And it's, you know, it's a several hundred dollar test. The issue with it is there's one, there's not a lot of research
00:19:20
Speaker
there's not research supporting that the metabolites in your urine are going to tell you how you're feeling or really mean anything. And so as far as even the North American menopause society doesn't even, we don't even need to really ever test your estrogen or your progesterone. I do, but we don't need to for your hormone therapy. So for example,
00:19:42
Speaker
your levels and we're going to base it on your symptoms. We're going to base it on you clinically. If you're post-menopause, we know that they're low, period. Low of post-menopause, which post-menopause is officially, like menopause is one day. Menopause is when you've gone a full year without your period. It's a one day event. And after that, it's menopausal. And so we know your hormones are low if you're not on therapy. And
00:20:06
Speaker
there's no guidelines for where we need to keep you or where you should be. So it really is based on how you feel and your personal history, your personal health history, your family history, that risk-benefit ratio. Okay, this is so helpful. So another thing is, and I'm just using myself as a case study since I'm kind of here, but so I went to just a general practitioner and got my blood panels done. And luckily everything was
00:20:35
Speaker
whatever normal is, but in the range, however, testosterone, and I bring this up because I feel like a lot of men and women my age right now, it's like
00:20:45
Speaker
the testosterone pellet is just being thrown out there to everybody. Um, I think everybody in our circle, it's like, Oh yeah, my doctor suggested that too. So on my results, everything was normal except testosterone was, uh, last year it was, I think 13. And then this year it went below 12, which they stopped keeping score is what I was told, or they stopped tracking at that. So my testosterone is very low.
00:21:11
Speaker
And they said, it's really up to you, but they did recommend the testosterone pellet. I declined it just for personal reasons, but a lot of that decision also came from, I'm not dealing with any of the symptoms that they list from low testosterone, like
00:21:28
Speaker
a low sex drive or problem sleeping or energy level or I don't know, you could name some more, but I didn't relate to any of those other symptoms. So I was like, well, as long as I'm not having symptoms, why am I going to put this foreign thing in my body? That was kind of my personal take on it.
00:21:45
Speaker
What is your opinion about the pellet? Well, I love that you trusted your intuition and your guidance on that. And this is where I feel like we fail women and people in general when we are just looking at labs. So what does that mean to have low testosterone? So testosterone declines with age.
00:22:07
Speaker
for everybody. And testosterone, obviously, we produce it and men produce it. We produce it in our ovaries. And so if a woman doesn't have her ovaries, her testosterone is going to drop more quickly, but it actually doesn't decline in menopause. It declines with age. But there's a lot out there. Yeah, there's so many women saying, I should be on testosterone. I should be on testosterone.
00:22:31
Speaker
Interestingly, estrogen is our testosterone when we have it. It's our anabolic hormone. So like muscles for us is more from estrogen than from testosterone. The research on testosterone therapy for women and my issue with pellets, let me do a side lane here. And I have many beloved colleagues who were all about the pellets as well.
00:22:56
Speaker
Once they're in, I have worked with so many women that the dosages weren't great, and then they're just struggling after having done this. But the research on testosterone, it's the same. We don't have a level that you're supposed to be at. We don't have a level that says, oh, but if you were, Lauren, if you were at 25, you would feel fantastic of your level. We don't have that information. Again, every woman is individual.
00:23:26
Speaker
And what you said is so important because the main indication for putting a woman on testosterone at any phase of life is often, but in this phase of life, particularly the libido, which is also a complex issue. There's lots of things that go into libido, but it's also ability to reach orgasm, arousal, et cetera, like sexual function.
00:23:48
Speaker
There's some good research on women benefiting and you didn't have that symptom. Now, can it potentially benefit our bones and our muscles? Sure. There's some other indications. I based, because I'm fairly research-based, like if I'm going to give a woman hormones, I want to know the research. I want to know what the data shows. And so I always start with estrogen and progesterone first, because estrogen can help your libido, sleeping better if it were asleep. All of the things that they're saying you need testosterone for,
00:24:17
Speaker
could potentially be handled by the amount of testosterone we still have in our bodies and these other hormones. If we're not getting there in terms of libido, if there's bone and joint issues, there are reasons to initiate it.
00:24:31
Speaker
I, when I do that, typically do creams so that we can control the dose because the adverse effects on women of too much testosterone are not ones that we usually like, like acne and facial hair and like those, they're not pretty, but pun intended and unintended. So yeah, that's not where I would start. And I think, and I wouldn't base it on just a lab value. Yeah. Yeah.
00:24:59
Speaker
Well, that's really helpful. Thank you. So do you recommend somebody? I mean, what I'm hearing from this is as we're, as I'm entering into this phase of life, by the way, as you were talking, I was like, no wonder they, there's such thing as called a midlife crisis. Like all these, all these changes. I'm like, I wonder if that's where it kind of came from. But so do you recommend finding or what I'm taking away so far is to find
00:25:26
Speaker
a doctor like you that you feel really comfortable with that, that you go how often like annually to check in with your symptoms and really listening to your body and just making choices based on your symptoms, not on blood panels or doctor's opinions or am I in the right direction?
The Four Pillars of Health
00:25:46
Speaker
Yes, yes and no. So yes, I think an expert in perimenopause, women's health, and someone that there's a lot of different types of research out there, and I'm doing air quotes, but but we're on a podcast, but there's a lot of research out there. And so that can get tricky, because there's people shouting on Instagram about research supporting certain things. And it's like, I pull up those studies. And that's not what they say. So finding someone you really trust,
00:26:15
Speaker
who understands this phase of life, absolutely. And there are lab values that do matter, like thyroid, like insulin and blood sugar. And I don't mean to imply that the other ones don't, like I said, I do test the hormones. And when we do test the hormones, if we test them in a way that's strategic, and looking at a woman's symptoms, and then looking at
00:26:40
Speaker
the various hormones, we can see where things might be off. Like a big term that gets thrown around is estrogen dominance. And it's interesting because more problems come from too little estrogen than too much estrogen. There are a lot of issues from too little estrogen. That doesn't mean there isn't an issue with estrogen excess. I call it estrogen excess because dominance is a little bit of a misnomer
00:27:05
Speaker
But there's excess estrogen from the toxins and the plastics that create xenoestrogens, which are like estrogens on steroids that we need to look at. So I do test them.
00:27:17
Speaker
But when we're going to run a test, there's always two questions we want to ask. Will this tell me something I don't know? Like a post-menopausal woman, I will test her hormones, but I know they're low. And so I just contradicted myself a little bit. I don't have to. Let me add that like, it's just, I do a comprehensive panel and women seem to feel better to see it, but I like to explain to them, this is like your hormones are low. We expect them to be low if you're post-menopausal. And the second question is, will this change the course of treatment?
00:27:46
Speaker
So to your question about, am I looking for like being in a certain range? Is there a certain range when we take me off it? And so if it's not going to change those things,
00:27:56
Speaker
It's not really necessary. Thyroid, the blood sugar picture, the cardiovascular risk, I always check those things. And if I'm suspect that something else is going on, then we want to look at the hormones and try to figure out for your phase in your cycle, if you're still cycling, that's when it's even more useful. Are you way off where you should be? Versus like FSH is one of the hormones that we use, follicle stimulating hormone to quote unquote determine if a woman's in menopause. But in perimenopause,
00:28:26
Speaker
It could be high one day and then it's up and down. So it's not as useful. So yeah, so I would suggest you find a practitioner that's knowledgeable, that is going to treat you like a person and a part of the team that cares about what you're like. If I said, oh my gosh, you would feel so much better with hormones. This is going to help this and this and you really don't want to take them. That's not helpful. I can get you as to why you might benefit. But if you have your own reasons,
00:28:56
Speaker
That's okay. And so, and then someone ideally who's going to look at all aspects of your life because everything plays in. And that's why, you know, in our programs, I always say, no boxes left unchecked. We're doing labs. We're doing. And so when I talk about those four pillars, it's, it's nourishment, how we nourish ourselves, both our being, our soul, find joy, how we nourish with food movement. Are we moving our bodies? How are we sleeping? And then that fourth pillar,
00:29:22
Speaker
So I started to bring these up earlier and I don't think I ended up saying them. Yeah, sacred space. So that fourth pillar, these are like legs of a stool, right? And if you've got one leg missing, that's, if you've got two legs missing. So sacred space is meditation, prayer.
00:29:38
Speaker
time, you know, aligning and quieting the mind. And so stress management, depending on someone's background, that sacred space piece can vary, but it's, and there's an overlap with these pillars, but without all these pillars in place, we have a wobbly stool that we're sitting on. And so I would go to a doctor that if you have any of these areas that are weak, ideally that can help you with these areas, because I believe we need a coach and a mentor in any area we want to up level.
00:30:06
Speaker
If you want to run a marathon, work with someone who's done it before, right? Who can take you through that process. We talk about a lot of these topics in the summit next week. Tell us about this summit. I'm so interested to know, to clarify the three top recommendations for women's overall health.
00:30:23
Speaker
you were saying would be kind of the same as what you would talk to any woman if they were in menopause. If not, it's those four pillars. Did I understand that, right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, can we, can you restate the four? I know the fourth is sacred space, but what goes. Yeah. So if we need three top, you know, we can, we can find a way to blend these. Four is good. Yeah. So number one is nourishment. Now these pillars of health, some people might refer to the first pillar as nutrition, but to me, nutrition is more than that. It's nourishment. So
00:30:52
Speaker
there are two aspects of this first pillar of nourishment. What are you eating? Are you nourishing your body properly with food? Are you nourishing your body properly with with the right drinks, etc. And then are you nourishing your being? Because if we're constantly in fight or flight, if we're constantly in stress mode, if we're in a toxic relationship, it doesn't matter what your diet looks like, you will not be helping. So that's the first pillar of nourishment. The second one is movement. And so the needs of movement
00:31:20
Speaker
in some ways change as we go through menopause, but...
00:31:24
Speaker
strength, hit, like a lot of these apply to really all times of life. We can dial in a little bit at different phases of life, but we need to move our body and all of us, and especially menopause because our ability to absorb protein and to use it for muscle decreases drastically in menopause. So movement becomes even that much more important, although I think it's important always. Strength training becomes that much more important. The third pillar is sleep. Excuse me.
00:31:52
Speaker
And the fourth pillar is the sacred space. And so like sleep, just to speak to that briefly, that can be, there are physiological changes. There are hormonal changes that are affecting our sleep in perimenopause and menopause, but there's also stress. There's also working too hard. There's also being on screens. So that's why we want to address it from all those angles. And I always tell people with these pillars, look at which one is the weakest and start with one, because what usually paralyzes us is getting overwhelmed. Oh, I've got to do all these things.
00:32:22
Speaker
pick one thing and then find the right team. If you need help with diet, find those coaches that know nutrition well. If you need help with movement, find the right team. And that's why in our programs, we've put together a whole team of, we've got personal trainers and health coaches and we know nutrition. I think it just leads to the best success.
00:32:45
Speaker
So the summit next week is my team of menopause experts that many of
Menopause Summit Details & Healthcare Advice
00:32:52
Speaker
whom I've been in the menopause fellowship with over the last year, we're still working together, developing research, developing these types of things to give to the public. And then we've got other menopause focused clinicians and experts joining. And there's going to be, I think something like over 40 talks
00:33:12
Speaker
I should know this. It's either 20 or 40, but I'm pretty sure it's 40 because there's 30 of us. Yeah. So there's over 40 talks from women who have and people who've devoted their passion is helping women. My passion is helping women thrive in this phase of life and finding your joy and knowing what you need to do to stay healthy. And there are going to be so many great talks with so many of the questions we brought up today and talks on breast density and hormone replacement and testosterone therapy.
00:33:42
Speaker
all of these pieces and it's free. It's a virtual summit. It is completely free. And if someone does a VIP upgrade, which I recommend,
00:33:53
Speaker
The price goes up the closer to the event. But if someone wants to do a VIP upgrade, you get all the recordings. And then you always have access. And then there's other bonuses and downloads and things that someone that does the VIP upgrade will be sent. But regardless, there's gonna be so much good information from women passionate about this that's meant to help what will be billions of women suffering.
00:34:16
Speaker
from this. Wow. Can I just read you this stat? So medical school graduates, as well as residents in internal medicine and obstetrics and gynecology now receive little or no training in the man in the management of menopausal women, a gynecologist and an obstacle like that's just 30 to 50% of residents in both specialties during their final year responded in a survey that they were, quote, not at all prepared to manage menopausal women.
00:34:42
Speaker
Wow. I had read something similar to that. In all of their training, it was less than five hours or something. So nutrition, I mean, they're lucky if they get an hour of training in diet and lifestyle, and 50 to 60% were unable to identify the optimal therapy for a 52 year old menopausal woman with severe symptoms, nor could they recommend appropriate therapy for an otherwise healthy 39 year old woman with signs of early menopause.
00:35:10
Speaker
So find the right people, get stressed enough, and then look at yourself as a whole person. And that's, I guess, that would be a checkpoint. Like if you're interviewing a doctor or a practitioner, are they going to look at you as a whole person and as a part of the conversation? How do people find the summit? If you follow me on Instagram at Dr. Jenna Blasi, I've got posts, there's a link in my bio for it.
00:35:35
Speaker
I don't know if you all can link it at the end of the show. If anyone follows me, they'll find the link. And listeners will add it to the show notes to this episode. So as you're listening, you can scroll down and click on it and find the information. Well, I feel so grateful to people like you who are putting their passion and just getting the word out. And I feel grateful to live in a time where there's people like you doing this because it gives me hope for entering this phase of life.
00:36:05
Speaker
It also kind of makes me feel bad for the older generations just to kind of feel alone and just that the knowledge wasn't there or spoken about as openly as now. So yeah, just thank you for all the work that you're doing.
00:36:22
Speaker
Thank you all as well for having a platform to get the word out for people and for caring about all the women that you serve.
Nutrition, Mindset, and Sustainable Eating
00:36:30
Speaker
Yes. I love it. Kristen, do you have any other questions? I think for me, I would say I do have one question because for me, diet is a big thing that I struggle with the most, I would say. And I know how much diet affects because I did this intense four months cleanse.
00:36:50
Speaker
and every it like it's like my diet fixed every other pillar like as you were talking about but the problem was as soon as I did the four months cleanse is like I wanted everything I couldn't have for four months like my favorite Chinese food my you know and it's like I feel like I went back to ground zero there's just so much crap in our world you know when it comes to diet you know it's like I love eating out with my husband I love you have no control
00:37:18
Speaker
over what you're eating, what do you do? You know, I'm just like, because I know it affects us so much. And probably more than most people realize, you know, and I saw that firsthand when I did this, when I'm talking about this cleanse, like I cut out all oils, like it was intense, but I felt better than I've ever felt. My hair was beautiful. My skin was beautiful. I slept so good. So yeah.
00:37:40
Speaker
I don't know if that makes sense. I feel you. My guess is it was too long and it was too much, right? So you felt great, but at what expense, right? When we pull the pendulum to one side so strongly or fiercely, like good for you, like you can do hard things, like that's not easy to do, but it's totally natural.
00:38:01
Speaker
go the other way. I have broken cleanses with Chinese food. I broke the first cleanse I ever did at a freaking buffet with like seven cookie. It was called healthy habits. I was like, Oh, it's healthy habits. I'll, I'll break my cleanse here. Like not a good idea. And so if they're too strict, when we, cause we take people in our programs through detoxification and gut repair, we spend a month on repairing the gut because that's another mood piece. 85 to 90% of our serotonin comes from our gut.
00:38:27
Speaker
But most of us, our guts are disrupted from hormones, from sleep issues, from antibiotics, etc. A four month super strict thing. The thing is, is it's not sustainable. So when we look at nutrition, to me, my biggest thing is it has to be sustainable. So even in our programs, it is strict at first. It is we do eliminate, we lower things down, we take people through a detox,
00:38:50
Speaker
It is not that long. And it is not about starving ourselves or sitting on the toilet all day. We just, we need the right nutrients when we're detoxifying, but the way that we do it, we have shakes that have those nutrients and then people are still eating food, but we're then building them back up.
00:39:08
Speaker
like six weeks in. I mean, so we're building back up. So what's the long-term plan? So when you start feeling better, cause you probably start feeling better pretty soon into that process. Like when we, when we start cleansing and clearing out the always like spring cleaning, your house starts looking good. You get the cobwebs out. You're feeling better. Energy comes up. Weight starts being released. Skin starts glowing.
00:39:29
Speaker
but we can't live like that, right? It's sort of like meditation. Oh, I need to live in a cave and be a way that doesn't, we need to be able to do it in our day-to-day. So I think if you get support, Kristin, and someone that can maybe help you, well, if you're nursing, you can't do any kind of detox right now, but if you're, help you jumpstart and then build a long-term plan that helps you eat. And I want to remind, like we always have,
00:39:55
Speaker
a choice. It's just harder at restaurants. It's harder at family events, but you know, I've eaten healthy for years and I go to Disney with my kids and you know, I have some ice cream. I have the things, but it's, it's, it's moments. It's not like a downward spiral where it's all or nothing.
00:40:14
Speaker
because 80%, it's my identity that 80% of what I do is good for my health and 20%, there's room to be human, right? So I would say you need to be, and I see this a lot, I see people that have done these strict things and then I'm glad you felt well because what I've seen a lot of women is actually depletes them. It messes with their adrenals, it's too strict, it messes with their thyroid and then we're trying to like build them up.
00:40:40
Speaker
So be leery of anything that's super strict, but eliminating so we can see what foods do in our body, and then building back up and really having a long term plan that's sustainable for you. And that's a little bit different for everybody if someone loves carbohydrates, that we want to make sure there's plenty of like whole grains and healthy complex carbs.
00:40:59
Speaker
If somebody loves fat, they feel more satiated from fat, then we need enough fat in their diet that it's going to be sustainable. We're just going to rely on those healthy fats like olive oil and nuts and avocado. Does that make sense? Is that helpful? Yeah, it makes sense. I think I tend to be like an all in or nothing type
00:41:18
Speaker
person. Although I know that's a story I say. Yeah, I was about to say so funny Jenna, I just launched a group coaching and my sister joined it. And I'm so excited. We just had like our first lesson. So we haven't dove into it. But I'm like, we can work on some of these because it is old stories that you believe by yourself too, like mixed in there. But I think doing something with Jenna would be really cool. Ease yourself into it instead of it being all or nothing.
00:41:44
Speaker
I find it difficult to have a balance, especially when it comes to diet. It's like, I'm all in or I'm all out, you know? So it's like, yeah. It's very common. I think our culture promotes all or nothing. Yeah. I'm exercising or I'm not. I'm eating really healthy or I'm not. Oh, I'll start on Monday. Oh, after this vacation. It's all or nothing. And, you know,
00:42:09
Speaker
looking at all or something is a much healthier way. Like for example, let's say you woke up and you said nutrition is big, like is the harder part for you, but let's say you didn't want to exercise. I don't always want to exercise. Like people are looking for this magic wand of motivation. I just gave a talk to my members on this, this magic wand of motivation. Motivation comes from a decision that we want to feel a certain way. It comes from a commitment. There's no, I don't, I'm not always motivated to exercise. And then if it's cold in my house, I'm like, oh, no,
00:42:38
Speaker
know, I don't want to I just get on my rebounder or I start doing like I don't even change out of my pajamas yet I just start moving and then I started to put music on and get a little more into it, but my point is that even if it's just 10 minutes and then you're like I'm done. You feel better your day is better so same with diet, it's
00:42:58
Speaker
looking at that instant gratification versus how you want to feel longer term and finding that in between. It took me years to be able to eat one cookie and not half the bag. Like if I was going to have a cookie, it took me years to get there, but it's part of changing your story, changing your identity.
00:43:15
Speaker
starting to affirm that you have a healthy relationship with food, that you make healthy choices most of the time, but looking at what's underneath it, because this is really common, Kristin, and it's hard because, I don't even know how to say it's hard, but it's the self-image has started to identify with someone who's all or nothing, right? Your self-image, and I tell some of my patients, for example, a lot of them have self-worth issues, and so
00:43:40
Speaker
that that eating piece, it's like if we're not feeling good about ourselves, we're more likely to make those less healthy choices. So if we deal with that underlying piece at the same time, as working to clean up the diet, and not beat ourselves up, this is really because I think you're really hard on yourself. So I just want to remind you like shame and blame is not going to help you feel better. All right. So you haven't failed any things that you've tried in the past, they failed you.
00:44:05
Speaker
They haven't been comprehensive. We have to rewire our brains as well as change what's on our plate. And they go together. We're never going to permanently change what's on our plate if we don't change the way that we view ourselves and food and all of that. So give yourself some grace, which is part of what happens with all or nothing. It's almost like a perfectionism. Well, I didn't do this, so screw it. I'm going to just do all the other things. But then you're beating yourself up for doing it.
00:44:35
Speaker
And so we wanna look at how do I wanna feel? And every time I'm in that place of making a choice, okay, should I skip my workout? Should I eat this cake? All right, well, how will I feel after? What's more important to me? Am I not wanting to move my body right now or how good I'm gonna feel when I'm done? Start to, there's lots of little, this is why having the right team and coaches, there's lots of tricks you can start to implement to move the needle and to change this
00:45:03
Speaker
pattern. And I will just end with that is like, this is just your past. Mary Morrissey used to say, our past does not determine our future unless we let it.
Closing Thoughts & Call to Engage
00:45:13
Speaker
So the perfect time for you to create a new pattern with this. Yes. I'm just now starting to finish up my breastfeeding journey. So I'm like, okay, perfect time to awesome. Yes, you can do it, KK. And I love what you were saying, Dr. Dina, because
00:45:32
Speaker
before you even said that when Kristin asked the question, I know for me personally, my motivation comes from my brain and I wasn't always like this, but getting to the place of asking myself, how do I wanna feel later? And so that helps me make the decisions in the now. That's kind of the question I ask myself when, if we're specifically talking about food and exercise and really anything. So I love that that's where you ended with, so.
00:46:01
Speaker
With the exercise piece, it's always like they would just like just get started, right? Just get to it. With the food, if we're like reaching for something unhealthy, I always say just delay. Tell yourself, okay, I'm gonna let myself have it, but in five minutes. And then you start to like break through that psychological barrier or like, is this coming from stress? Is this coming from boredom? Is this coming from something else?
00:46:21
Speaker
Yeah, it's all about just like awareness, the root reason that you're going for something because a lot of times with anything, there's something like an inner belief about yourself that's causing it, which is, it's so interesting to me to narrow down what those are, whether it's with eating, exercise, you know, shopping, spending, like there's so many things that our inner beliefs about ourselves affect.
00:46:45
Speaker
Yeah, so this is just totally random and then we can wrap up. But I wanted your opinion because you mentioned gut health and all of that. And since I got this from an online influencer, I'm curious if it's actually if it's something I should continue or not. But a few times a week, I've been
00:47:02
Speaker
squeezing and I love it. That's why I do it. But I'm like, does it actually clean your gut? But so I just squeeze half of a lemon juice and then like a tablespoon of olive oil. And I'm super bougie and order my olive oil from the farm in Italy that we've been to. Because I think all food is better in Italy. But anyways,
00:47:20
Speaker
Um, and I do that a few times a week. Does that actually clean your gut? I love lemon juice in the morning. I, on an empty stomach, by the way, I think a bit more in terms of the liver and its benefit on the liver. So honestly, I'm not sure that that improves the gut, but it is one of the things we do during our gut repair with patients is sort of like prepping an olive oil.
00:47:45
Speaker
is such a healthy fat and all of the studies on the Mediterranean diet show the benefits of olive oil. So while I haven't specifically had anyone do that and I don't really
00:47:56
Speaker
know, from a research standpoint, like what that would show. But I think that the benefits of lemon on the digestive system. So in that regard, you know, not necessarily the colon, per se, but the digestive system, stimulating digestion and being healthy. Yeah. Okay. So if it's something I enjoy then. Yeah. Okay. If it were miserable, then I'd say there's probably other ways we can get you there. No, I feel like it's like randomly a treat in the morning. So
00:48:26
Speaker
So funny. I need to try that. It's so good. Okay. So everybody you can find Dr. Jenna on Instagram at Dr. Jenna Blasey and that's B-L-A-S-I. And then what is your website? drjennablasey.com. Okay. That's what I thought.
00:48:47
Speaker
JennaBlasi.com. And then I think Facebook is the same. It's Dr. Jenna Blasi. Perfect. Definitely go follow her. What were you going to say? Oh, I was going to say in the link is also on Facebook for the menopause summit. But I was thinking, I don't know if it's on my website, actually. There is on my website a link to my webinars, if you want to hear our approach of how we incorporate when I talk about the pillars in our programs.
00:49:13
Speaker
It's a little bit different from the four pillars I talked about today because gut health and detox are a pillar. And mentoring is a pillar in the way that we do it in my practice. And there's videos both on the website and links to live webinars on my website that people can find if they're interested in understanding that process more. Okay, one last question. Can you, can people, do you serve clients just in your area or do you do virtual
00:49:40
Speaker
as well. We are we are primarily virtual. However, it's primarily Arizona, because I'm not licensed in the other states. And so it's a little tricky. I'm working on that with my malpractice. Because if in the capacity of health coach and diet, sure, we can help people in other states, we can't help with prescriptions and diagnosis, for example, in other states.
00:50:05
Speaker
but that gets a little bit tricky as to how people prefer what we're doing with them. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, cool. My coaching programs like Megan's are all of North America. I have virtual mindset, which interestingly in menopause, one of the things I'm going to talk about in my talk next week, it affects our symptoms. Our relationships with our kids affect our menopausal symptoms or how we view our relationship with our spouse affects our menopausal symptoms. The mindset and stress management is such a big piece.
00:50:34
Speaker
that I serve all over the world for. Amazing. Well, we usually end our episodes with a prayer. If you're okay with that, then Megan, do you want to pray us out? Yeah, I just want to thank you guys. It's been lovely meeting you and thank you for what you do and for having me on your show.
00:50:53
Speaker
Thank you. Right back at you. Yes. Thank you so much. I've been looking forward to this. So I'm excited to share you with more people. And I just love what you're doing. I think, you know, it's so important. I love to talk mindset, but I think it's also really important to cover those pillars that you're talking about. I guess the mindset piece fits into the sacred place, but all those other three pieces are so important as well. So thank you. Okay. I'll say a quick prayer. Thank you God so much for introducing
00:51:22
Speaker
and bringing dr jenna into our lives i just pray for anybody listening that you meet them right where they're at and give them just one step that they can take help it feel just easy and not overwhelming and i pray for all of us to have a wonderful week as we continue to seek you in our lives and i pray for dr jenna specifically in her practice
00:51:47
Speaker
and everything that she is doing to help women. I'm just, we're so grateful and we're so grateful for you, God, in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Jena. Hopefully we can do it again one day and I hope this summit goes amazing. I know it will. Thank you so much. Yeah, sounds good. Have a great day, everybody. Great to meet you. You too. Bye. Good luck with your coaching, Megan. Oh, thank you. Yes.
00:52:13
Speaker
Thank you for listening to another week of Girl I Slept in My Makeup. If you like us, rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you want to learn more about us or get in touch with us, go to our website, girlisleftinmymakeup.com, where you'll also find links to our Instagram and Facebook. Thank you so much for listening. We really appreciate it. And make it a great week. God bless.