Welcome back to the Well and Worthy Life podcast. I’m so excited to have Dr. Anna back with us. If you don’t remember, Dr. Anna was with us last April when your latest book came out. Menu Pause, I love this book so much, but you’ve written so many books. The Hormone Fix, keto Green, 16. I have ’em all right.
Like, that’s awesome. I love your books. So but I wanted to have you back because I really wanted us to talk more. We, in the, in the first episode we talked about your new book menu, pause and how Food is Medicine and Food. Some of the food that we eat can really help our hormones, really can kind of balance our hormones out.
We talked about sexual health, low libido. , those kind of things. We’ve talked about bioidentical hormones a little bit, but I feel like I want to discuss more about hormone therapy. I have so many clients that are still so afraid of hormone therapy. Well, I think it’s, number one is get educated. You know, I mean, it’s right.
Just get educated about it. Look at the research, look at the, you know, the people that are doing it. Talk with your compounding pharmacist and you know, see how, what has he seen over the years, right? They’ve been compounding. Hormones for, you know, decades. So understanding, you know, like what, what are we seeing?
And I would just say, you know, there’s been so much media fear about hormones and, and so much misinformation out there. It, first of all, if you are afraid of something, that is not something for you to jump into, right? You have to get comfortable with it. Cuz fear in and of itself is detrimental to your health.
So if you’re worried that you’re taking something, it’s gonna cause cancer, then that’s not something you should be taking right. But that’s number one. Number two, the safety of bio identical hormones. And, and that is key. And I talk about hormone replenishment, not hormone replacement. Love that we wanna support our body’s natural hormone production as much as possible.
So we use adaptogens, we detox, we eliminate our to. An exposure. We work to get a good night’s sleep and get outside in the sunshine and, and focus on the positive, right? So those are things that empower our body’s natural hormone production, and we wanna do that as much as possible. and then use biodentical hormones to replenish what we’ve lost now, you know, I would say if we were living in the Amazon and we picked our food and hunted and got everything fresh and amazing, I think then, you know, we’re, we’re getting our, our natural hormones that way and we’re staying in balance.
But when we’re living in an artificial society, and it depends on how you’re living, you’re living, I’m under a tremendous amount of blue lights right now, right. I’ve been inside doing recordings all day. And so those are, those are hormone disruptors. And a high level of stress, of course, is a hormone disruptor.
But, so if we’re gonna choose to use hormones, and I do believe in it naturally, and that’s I’ve, I’ve created my own hormonal. Creams and products because I strongly believe in the safety and efficacy of it, right? Like with anything, for the right person, for the right time, for the right duration of time.
and I’ve the research on biodentical, progesterone, not progestins. Progestins are toxic. Progesterone is not Biogen, progesterone is not. So progestins are. However, and the research has shown that that increases synthetic progestins, like in the study, which by the Women’s Health Initiative that looked at you know, Prempro Proa, which is a, a has negative side effects for.
Cardiovascular system in increased your risk of breast cancer. So we know that’s not a good one, but there are better options. Don’t throw ’em all out just because of some bad synthetic forms. women, we’re smart, right? We’re intuitive and we get to that space where we are really in tune with what our body needs.
That’s, that’s powerful. So getting rid of the brain fog using biodentical hormones. Progesterone, estrogen, even testosterone and D H E A, they’re some of my favorites, but it, as you know from my first book, the Hormone Fix, it takes more than hormones to fix your hormones. You know, and that’s the biggest thing that I, I think that’s so important that we need to get across to people.
I have people ask me every day, well, is it this supplement you’re taking or is it your bioidentical hormones? It’s, it’s not just one thing, it’s a lifestyle. Like you talk about, it’s, it is getting in, out and moving my body. It is, you know, creating a positive mindset, filling my mind with positive things, not all the bad things, surrounding myself with people that encourage me and support me.
All of those things. It just, we can’t just think one thing is gonna. everything. And that’s, I love this because you’ve been there, you’ve done it. So let’s talk, let’s go back a little bit about your story. That’s what makes it so real too, is that you have been there. You’re not just talking about this, just cuz I’m a doctor and I know everything you have been there and you’ve gone through menopause. Not once, but. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I’m, I think I’m finally through it at 56. So . Yeah. Yeah. So, but I was diagnosed with early menopause at 39, so what I’ve done is unheard of. Right. What I’ve done is unheard of when we get a diagnosis of early menopause, especially in the, you know, in, in the thirties.
We’re like, okay, that’s it. Like, , here’s your hormone replacement and your antidepressant and your psychiatrist, and all that good stuff, right? But but that wasn’t true. It was, it was a physiologic imbalance due to external circumstances and tremendous amount of P T S D that shut down my ovaries. And, you know, the lab said I was early menopause.
The reproductive endocrinologist says, you’re infertile. There’s no chance. Your only chance to have another baby is egg donation. Right. So I heard all of these things and There were part of me that was just, I just couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe that was my life right now. And that I took a sabbatical from my practice and took a journey around the world and I learned about healing super foods and started drinking maka and, and some other super foods, and that’s how I created my supplement Mighty Maka Plus, but,
When I came back from that journey, I was pregnant. You know, I had reversed menopause and I had naturally conceived the child I was told I would never be able to have. So that made me just passionate on fire, bringing this information to my patients. What did I do differently? How did I empower my own natural hormones and fertility?
I mean, the longer we keep our ovarian function. Working the better, healthier longevity we have. That is key. So this suppressing and ovarian removal and all of that stuff, if we can avoid it, we need to mm-hmm. . So so part that was part of my story and then I just became really passionate about the diet and lifestyle changes and, you know, when you have to change things, when your hormones are.
changing and you’re in a transition time. You have to change things. So that’s been, that’s been part of my journey. And you know, I want every woman to feel empowered. , and I love that about you because I definitely think that’s what you’re doing. You’re empowering women to ask the questions and to take back some of this control.
We’ve been dismissed so much in our life and we continue to get dismissed by some, some of these doctors when we go to ’em and we’re like, oh, something’s not right, and you’re like, oh, you just have to suffer through it, or that’s just the way things are. . Yeah. Yeah. No, that’s so true. And I was talking with another OB, G Y N this morning, and she said if it wasn’t for her own personal journey, she wouldn’t be doing functional medicine on biodentical hormones and learning these things as more women.
Now, when I went to medical school, there were, we were 17 women out of a class of 115, so we were like, you know, the minority, right? . And so that’s over 30 years ago, but now it’s 50 50. Right. And it started 50 50 about 20 years ago, 25 years ago. So a lot more women over the past 30 years, you know, are, have gone through medical school and that means they’re all hitting menopause.
Mm-hmm. , right? That those rounds are hitting menopause. And, and Dr. Christian, Northrop really paved the way for so many women with her novel book, women’s Bodies, women’s Wisdom, and she was persecuted. By the medical board and you know, her fellow colleagues for her take on, on women’s health and menopause.
So many women were, I’m not gonna risk my, you know, risk myself, risk my reputation, you know, by saying something different. So you stop listening to your intuition. Mm-hmm. your intuition tells you, okay, it’s not just a prescription pad, a drug, an antidepressant. That’s not what women need.
And your intuition is telling you that over and over again, and you’re not seeing them get better, but you’re, you know, giving them medication that’ll keep them, you know, keep, keep a patient. Symptom subdued for a while to not come in to their next annual appointment or they need a refill. Right, right.
And, but now as female physicians go through it, and, you know, and, and passionate, compassionate male physicians, you’re seeing them say, Hey, what I was taught, what I was doing didn’t work for me. Mm. This is where we need to change our medical system. We need to change and it change it, you know, all good, you know, grassroot movements, , when we’re together and we’re right, right, we’ll create change.
So biodentical hormones are really good, but again, they can’t be patterned. There’s, they can’t have those big profit margins that the synthetic chemicals get all around. And so, You know, we know the, the corruption and the power of big pharma. So in our own bodies, with our own legacy, with our own next right steps that we’re gonna take and make, we have to feel in alignment with our nature, with our design, and feel empowered and healthy.
And I will say, you know, I spent my twenties and hundreds of thousands of dollars in you know, learning, but it’s, that’s the 5%. The 5% or the 10%, the 95% is in each of our own power. . Right? It’s in each of our own power. That’s the lifestyle changes. For me. It’s the Keto Green way, or the keto green lifestyle, and it’s, you know, it, it’s that combination of what we eat, how we think, how we sleep, how we move.
Mm-hmm. , how we feel, you know, all of those, how we love all of those things, create wellness. . Yeah. Or disease. And, and it’s not just this one big thing you do, you know, and I think that’s where people get so wrong too. They, they think, you know, here we are New Year, right? , everybody’s like, oh, oh, gotta lose that weight.
You know, they jump into different programs or different new diet baths or, or something that and we know it’s those small little tweaks that we can make. I love what you just said, the intuition, like we really have that intuition, but for some reason we ignore our own intuition. You know, I always tell my clients, you know that one thing, if you started doing that one thing today, you would feel so much.
but you know, you don’t do it because of why? Why you? Because I don’t know. You just don’t. Right. ? Yeah. But yes. So change your morning. Change your life to change your habits, right? Yeah. So it’s, it can’t start The day I was like, can’t, I can’t start the day, you know, and expect to end the day differently.
Start, start the day the same. You’re gonna end the day the same. So I think it’s just the little changes that trigger you and motivate you. The hardest thing to do is to change, but we have to rewire because the past is comfortable. Those habits are comfortable and we have to change them. Now, bioidentical hormones can be incredibly beneficial, especially from mid forties through the, I’m planning on the rest of my life and in natural ways, that’s why I created my balance cream, which is progesterone and pregnenolone and tri peptides and some essential oils.
They work together. To help replenish your body’s progesterone, stores that are depleted with stress and, and menopause. Mm-hmm. and that ovarian decline. The symptoms of progesterone deficiency are p m s, mood swings, difficulty sleeping. Brain fog. Memory loss. All of those things are, are key symptoms of progesterone insufficiency.
It’s a neuroprotective hormone. When we are pushing out cortisol, we further deplete our progesterone. So, so that can you just adding, and I don’t know, midlife women with kids at home or job stress. I mean we, you know, we pile on those, those lifestyle stresses and then we’re, you know, wearing many hats and pedal to the metal.
So, So there’s, there’s that where we can help replenish. I never wanna re suppress anyone’s natural production. I wanna empower you. And so we do that with adaptogens and my mighty mala. So we bring in these adaptogens and we see an improvement in D H E A and progesterone. And if we need to, we add more progesterone that second half of the cycle or.
Ly every day except for one or two days off per week, or three to five days off per month. Cuz you don’t wanna take it continuously cuz then you’re suppressing your body, potentially suppressing your body’s natural production. We just wanna replenish, not replace or suppress so, and then adding in D H E A, adding an additional D H E A, you can do oral D h e A or topical D H E A.
It’s one of the reasons I put it in JVA because it does turn back the hands of time. So there I get my D H E A and then, you know, from there we could add estrogen and testosterone and and, you know, optimize that. when somebody comes. Are you even seeing patients? I don’t even even see. I do.
I do trainings, I do physician to physician. Okay. I didn’t think you saw patients anymore. Yeah. So when somebody goes to their physician to ask them for bioidentical hormones But they can still use your, your jva. I know I’ve used your jva. I always use your I always talk about your maka in my smoothies, and I always have people ask me, you know, how does it taste good?
And I’m like, yes, you can. You can use your maka without anything. And that helps with libido. And we talked about that last time. Yeah, absolutely. We got it in capsules For people that are versed, mighty maka tastes good. I have, yeah. Ki you know, I. You know, basketball teams on, on Mighty Maka, so just mix it in your water bottle.
But now we came out with the capsules, the Menopause support capsules. Oh, mighty Maka Menopause Support capsules. So that’s for those who are adverse to to powders, but it’s also Stevia free. So, . Oh, that’s, you know, the hot flashes, the energy, it’s all hopes with those, right. So you can combine all your products with what your doctor is giving you.
Absolutely. Absolutely. If you’re already getting progesterone, you may not want additional progesterone. Mm-hmm. , sometimes you’re, you know, you’re not getting enough progesterone and so, and taking it orally is great to help you sleep, but you know, you just have to look cuz the delivery system, topical versus oral, oral of 90% gets metabolized.
and that’s great if you, the metabolites help produce allopregnanolone, which help you help with GABA receptors. That helps you get a good night’s sleep. Mm-hmm. the so that’s great, but then sometimes it pushes too much cortisol. So switching to topical progesterone is another option to bypass all those oral metabolites.
So that can be, definitely, ulva can be used with any hormone replacement and. , that’s for the most important real estate of our body. So, exactly. . Definitely. Yeah. Yes. I love that. I think that’s the thing that there’s so many different types. I mean, I hear people.
on pellets, on testosterone shots. What are your thoughts on some of those things? So, I definitely think there’s a time and a place for pellets, certainly, like when life’s going crazy and you’re like, I can’t, you know, I just need, and I can’t remember to take a pill each day or a cream put on a cream each day, but.
it is, you know, you’re gonna get really high levels. And so I think there’s many positive, I mean, I know there are many positives to testosterone replacement in women and men. First, you have to address why is your testosterone low? Mm-hmm. . And you have to, you know, you have to address that problem. And because right now when you’re taking those high levels, you’re really knocking out your body’s own production of anything.
Intended to do, and you’ll go through withdrawal state. People who stop testosterone abruptly can have severe depression and suicidal ideations. That’s the dark side of testosterone. Another dark side. And again, there are many benefits to testosterone, but I wanna bring up these dark sides because so many people are like, oh, I didn’t realize it.
I was talking to a woman 67 years old recently, and she said, you know, I’ve just been, you’ve had a revolving door of relationships. And I’m like, well, when did that start? and like we went back, talked about a few things and you know, like it was four, four years ago. I’m like, well, what happened four years ago?
And like, we talked about other things. And what about your hormones? Well, yeah, I started testosterone pellets during that time. I’m like, huh? Very interesting, right? It can create novelty seeking behavior and it can also create an obsessive attachment. So you have to watch like a hormones affect our physiology.
So if you know someone who’s getting really angry or they’re not acting like they’re old self in, in the best way, you know? Mm-hmm. that going, A little midlife crisis going on or something. You know, is it the hormone or is it, you know, what else is going on? If we’re, as physicians and I, and I teach physicians and train physicians on this, that as we are prescribing hormones, we have to be very conscious of what that, that that effect is having on their physiology, cuz their physiology affects their behavior.
that makes sense. But yet the good side is it can help you sleep better. And I like to use a, a tro because a troche has a good, you know, 18 to 22 hour half-life, and you divided doses morning and evening. Mm-hmm. , and it goes into your bloodstream. Like a lozenge is absorbed between the cheek and gum.
And if you’re like your fee, you can cut the doses like in the summertime. We typically need less in the wintertime. , we may need a little more, you know? Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. And be able to take a day, a day off periodically. Mm-hmm. or a hormone holiday periodically so your body can keep being refreshed, just like we do fasting.
Mm-hmm. . Right? We want to empower our body to take care of itself, and so there’s a fine art to it. . But in general, yes. I, I’ve prescribed pellets. I’ve, I’ve, I’ve trained docs in doing pellets. I’ve done injections and I, I, I think that’s nice too, especially if you have small kids at home. You don’t wanna do a cream injections.
Mm-hmm. , you do on a weekly as a, the best way to do injections is a small dose, weekly, but also monitor again, too high is not good, too low is not good, but always address why are these levels low to begin? . Mm-hmm. . And one of the things you talked about from the very beginning is stress. And that stress, your post-traumatic stress, you had a trauma that sent you into early menopause.
And I think that and I, I feel like this, I feel like we, as we get older, it’s not that we have more. I feel, I, I don’t really understand it, but we, I feel like we just can’t handle it as much and it does affect our hormones, right. Yeah. So progesterone is like, like you think our life’s a pressure cooker, right?
It’s not that we’re doing, you know, more whatever. I mean, we live in our pressure cooker of life, and this is why meditation and positive, you know, thinking and psycho neuro immunobiology, I mean it’s all comes into play, right? But so we’re living in this pressure cooker. Progesterone is the lid to the pressure cooker.
Mm-hmm. and as progesterone as cortisol. Progesterone cause we will sacrifice cholesterol and pagone to make cortisol. So we are going to sacrifice the rest of our hormones to make cortisol. So you’re pushing out cortisol, you’ve like lifted the lid on the pressure cooker and your ovaries decline making.
Progesterone and adrenals making progesterone, then you’ve, you know, you’ve lost that lid to the pressure cooker . So, so you don’t have like, I mean, that’s it, so you can’t tolerate it more. But, so there’s another physiology here, and that’s why it’s again, not just about the hormones. That’s why, you know, as, as we age, our brain is less efficient as us as using glucose perfu because gluconeogenesis in the brain is hormone dependent.
So benefits certainly to supply, but we switch from using glucose for fuel for the most part, to using ketones for fuel. Then you’re, you know, you’re more alert, you’re more energetic if you’re doing it the right way. For me, that’s combining alkalinizing diet and lifestyle with a ketogenic diet and lifestyle.
And do you do that every single day? Do you practice keto 16 every single day? No. Okay. No, I definitely cycle. I’m definitely, I’m a, my mom was a baker. I have a sweet tooth. But, you know, I was gonna say, I don’t think I could do that all the time. I mean, like, and you need to carb, you need to cycle, because otherwise you’re, you know, again, That’s why I wrote my book menu Pause.
Mm-hmm. , because it’s five different menu plans and one of them is a carb up plan. Mm-hmm. . And we need to keep that metabolic flexibility, so mm-hmm. , so we, you know, enjoy it. Like, I, I, you know, I, I’ll wait to see research otherwise, but there are seasons for a reason, so I feel like that’s, also true in our diet, as long as we can tolerate it and we’re still getting results and we’re getting improvement, I think I forget, I think it was People magazine or something.
One of the magazines reached out to me early on when Courtney Kardashian was doing keto, and they were saying, she says Keto six days a week and Sunday she eats pancakes. What do you think about her cheat day? And I’m like, I like to call it a treat day. You know? Mm-hmm. not. Yeah, I don’t like that term, Kate.
Yeah. And she’s getting results. She’s doing well. She feels great, you know, so as long as she continues to get results, I think that’s, that’s great. So I usually say 80% Keto green, you know, try to get her there. 70 to 80. Mm-hmm. over the holidays, it was more like, 20, but you know, and then 10% feasting and 10% fasting.
And so working, incorporating that type of diet and lifestyle. So there’s a number of things that come into play, but physiologically what happens when we get an alkaline, you know, get an alkaline urine pH, add in those Alka colonizers. and you get into ketosis. I have a group going through my Keto Green 16 book, right?
Mm-hmm. now in our challenge program, and so like they really struggle to get there, especially starting out, but when they get there mm-hmm. , it’s like, you know, you’ll see all these pictures of their urine test strips and of how they. Feel, I mean, they are lit up. I call it a sense of energized enlightenment.
I think it’s really how the spiritual greats have a closer connection. Like we fast for spiritual connection. Mm-hmm. that ketosis is a higher energy model. Combine it with alkalinity and you’ve got a good, you’ve got a good thing going. I love that. Okay, so what is the best way to measure your hormones if you’re go going to your doctor?
Is it blood through blood, saliva, urine? What is the best way? Or is there a best way? , that’s a great question and I always told my clients, I will measure, you know, I’ll be evaluating every body fluid you have at one time or another. . So you can measure salivary urine and blood hormone levels. Mm-hmm. . And so I think it’s important to look at all of that.
Right. And then of course, make sure the gut’s healthy by doing a stool analysis. Mm-hmm. a functional stool analysis, they tell you different things. Right. So for , and I think that’s important for salivary testing. If you’re not on any hormones, you can do a full salivary hormone panel, and it really is a very good way to look at cortisol throughout the day.
So looking at your, you know, pattern of cortisol a few times throughout the day, that’s a really good way to do it. Urinary hormones, tell us, well, these are your metabolites, right? Your hormone metabolites, like, look, urine is not. , you know, ammonia, right? , there’s all kinds of toxins and. elements and, you know, metabolites in your urine.
There’s a lot in urine. And so we can look at hormones through the urine. I mean, how did we get Premarin pregnant mares urine, right? So, so we, you know, so we, our urine does tell us something and our blood too. So did the different ways tell us something? Many people are doing urinary hormone testing now because number one, it’s easy.
we can get a a, a look at what’s going on with your hormones throughout the day. Mm-hmm. , and it, it gives us a, a comprehensive picture. So it’s a nice thing to do. Now when you’re on hormones or you know, like for example, if you’re on a testosterone cream, and I always get this with guys who are on testosterone gel.
They’re like, oh, I’d have to, my. Blood levels aren’t good, you know, I mean, if you’re on a transdermal, I mean, it’s, the blood results aren’t as reliable. I would look at urinary metabolites at that point. Mm-hmm. , and so, and then again, treat the patient, not the labs. . That’s what one of the things I’ve noticed with my blood work.
My hormone levels don’t look very good. In fact, look, sometimes they look like I’ve not owned any hormones. And then I did the saliva test and my cortisol came back flat. I had had a very stressful situation and I’m convinced that stress just, you know, tank my adrenals. . Mm-hmm. . Yeah. So I’ve been working on that, trying to get that back.
And I’m about ready to test my saliva again and see, I’ll tell you a very quick way to help with that. Oh yes, I’d love that. But you know, you may not like it so seriously. The best way is to reset your circadian cycle. So if you can go out camping, you know, tent camping, hammock camping for three to seven days, that’s really a quick way cuz you’re in nature.
You’re going, you’re waking up with the sunrise, going to bed with the sunset. You’re getting all that good grounding. It’s so healing. It’s better than anything I can write on a prescription path. Oh yeah. I’m not going camping, but . But I do try to get out in nature a lot and I, I do, I can see where that would.
Be very healing. But I was, I was shocked and when I did this saliva test, I was like, because I didn’t feel it, but it made sense to me. I was tireder in the mornings where I normally would bound out of bed. So but it’s been a process and and I have done the dried urine test too. . So, but I’m always interested in looking at my blood work, but actually it’s, it’s improving.
So and I think that’s what we have to do. We have to take control of our own health and you know, try to eliminate as many stressors as we can. We’re not going to be able to eliminate stress. There’s no way. It’s not going away. Especially if you’re a mom, right? I mean a mom or a grandmother. I know you’re a grandmother and I’m a grandmother and I’m like, we’re just going to have stressors at this stage no matter what.
It’s funny, cuz I thought I was gonna get to this age, Anna, Dr. Anna, and I thought 57, oh, what do I have to be stressed about? Right. There’s always something, right? Right. , there’s always something, and I do feel like sometimes, but we can handle it better. I mean, I think like as you get into the, the practices that you know, that I, I think menopause gives you the ability to.
Have perspective, right? Have perspective that the present moment is the most important moment that you’re in to break the old habits that no longer serve you. We’re out of that reproductive hormone fog, right? We’re out of that fog. So you know, we don’t wanna bring that back on us. We wanna stay really present, clear, focused on the good that’s in our life, and be able to, to feed into others around us.
I think for the most part, so many women I meet are just like, yeah, you know, I at this stage and I want to enjoy what I’ve created and also be able to bless others. Mm-hmm. and, and I think that’s really important. And when we’re not feeling. . You know, and again, I’ve seen so many women struggle when we’re not feeling that we’ve gotta get to the root cause.
Number one, we have to have hope. We have to know that we have many purposes and we can improve our physiology. When we are not feeling good, that’s when cortisol is winning. That is when stress hormones is winning. Mm-hmm. , you know, that’s, You know, that’s not the good in our life, but when we focus on all that, you know, we optimize oxytocin.
I say it’s time for oxy that to play every day. Love . Love it. You have to optimize. I would not be here without the practices that I have incorporated into my life that increase oxytocin. I would not be here. Favorite, what’s your favorite thing to do? What’s your favorite thing to do? Oh my gosh. Number one is, is picking up that grandbaby of mine, playing with her and looking at her smile and singing a goofy song and oh my gosh, so fun.
How fun. How old is she? She’s 11, almost 11 months. Oh gosh. Sing mine is. Three and a half. I tell her every day. I’m like, you’re my very best friend all. And we dance and we sing together. Aw. And it’s the best time of my life. You know, I’ve had three boys. So to have this little girl, it’s been like, and that, that is, I mean, everybody knows me that when I’m with her.
I don’t care what else is going on. That’s the, that is the best medicine. Right. We can’t write anything on a prescription that’s gonna work better than that. Exactly, exactly. So, and to encapsulate those moments and those feelings when we’re not together, right? Mm-hmm. to create that practice that, you know, that really healing practice.
And again, I said I spent my twenties, the best years of my life, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to, to learn this stuff because my doctor’s bag was empty. . So there’s a combination, right? EastWest traditional, I’ve traveled around the world and incorporated so many of these healing foods and, and modalities into my life.
But when it comes to biodentical hormone re replacement, I think it, it can be for the rest of our life in, you know, the appropriate amounts with the appropriate, you know breaks too. And that’s not something we talk about very much cause we haven’t really studied that. But in working now in 30 years with, with hormone replace.
I know that we hit these plateaus, and we don’t wanna negatively impact our body’s own ability to make hormones. We wanna support replenish and, and detox appropriately. Does that make sense? So, so we should be taking breaks, should our doctors be getting us to take break. I know the small breaks definitely with progesterone.
Progesterone is the big one because it’s the mother hormone, not necessarily with estrogen and testosterone or even D H E A, but with progesterone, that’s the big one that Dr. Pam Smith has done a lot of work in hormone replacement. She’s one of the lead instructors at the anti-aging or regenerative medicine.
And the hormone certification modules. So one of the things that research, she, she made me aware of this fact, and I looked into it, the research on continuous progesterone that could negatively impact your body’s natural production. And in that case, , that’s, you know, that’s not what we wanna do. Mm-hmm.
But yet, like we, you know, like what do we know that empowers us on in general, we know fasting, you know, detoxing, there are seasons for a reason. So I typically say with progesterone, postmenopausally, you take one to two days off per week, or three to five days off per month. Okay. Okay. And that’s it.
That’s all you need. Just that little wash up. . Another question I get from clients is, is it too late to start? You know, a lot of people think that it’s too late to start hormone. No, and, and I would only start transdermally, especially postmenopausal. I wouldn’t do oral. Oral estrogens can increase blood clotting factors and inflammation.
So we would start with a transdermal low dose, and c I typically would start with. You know, progesterone. Progesterone and pregnant alone. And I would start with that. Topically. I usually balance cream on, and you put topical progesterone on thin skin, so the decl, the neck. Mm-hmm. , inner arms, inner thighs, lower abdomen, where you see veins.
Mm-hmm. . So that seems to have the best absor. So somebody could get your balanced cream just every, just order it through you and they can start it that way. Mm-hmm. . Yeah. That’s awesome. That’s great. And okay, so I know you’ve got so many other products too. You’ve got a haircare too. Oh, I got my new Beauty Locks formula.
Yeah. Tell me about that. So my Beauty Locks formula, it’s great. I have to tell you the story of why I created it. So, you know, with my JVA cream, it’s so funny, oh my gosh. I dunno if I should share this, but this is like the creative minds, right? So, you know, my JVA cream has D H E A in it and, and stem plant stem cells and some good ingredients, but it couldn’t sell it to Canada.
you know, we can’t cross the border with it cuz D H E A in Canada is prescription only. So I was like, okay, let me come up with a non D H e A formula that’s, you know, at least as good. Let’s see what I can come up with. So it combined a bunch of ingredients and one of them being sea buck throw oil and and I was getting ready to formulate this and I was out one day at my, like my, I was in my condo and it was that icy winter.
We had the freeze and I didn’t have any, I wasn’t going out to go and I’m like, I’ll just put the, you know, sea oil was so good for the hair. It really helps with hair growth and everything. And I wasn’t, I’m like, oh me, just use this. My, I had my sample. I’d been formulating. So I had some sample sizes and I put it in my hair and my scalp and I was like, oh my God, my hair feels amazing and it smelled, you know?
And then I kept, , you know, I kept using it. I’m like, huh, the research on cach the is really, really good. What if we added amino acids to it? And you know, and I made it a hair mask cuz I’ve had terrible trouble with hair loss. And you can see I’ve got all this great new hair growth, you know. Wow. But I, I have shared pictures of me with hair loss to here I on my Facebook page and, You know, and I don’t, those are pictures you don’t wanna share, right?
Yeah. . Exactly. So, but that is a big problem with menopause too, right? Loss. It’s fear loss. And, you know, and for a while I thought I was gonna have to cut my hair shorter and shorter and shorter, and I didn’t want to. And so it just had, I was using that and I was like, gosh, I should, I should make that the next.
Formula and the women in Canada are still probably angry at me that I haven’t made their dova for them yet, but I’ve got the, I’ve got the beauty lock. I’m telling you it works. It’s by far it is. It gets great. It gets great free back and it’s a hair mask and it’s designed to rub into your scalp.
Leave it on you know, even 5, 10, 20 minutes ideally. Mm-hmm. , and then rinse it out. Or you can put it on, you know, 20 minutes before you take a shower or I, I used it in my ends. And my hairdresser told me, he said, use that in your ends before you blow dry or style your hair. And I’ve been doing that and my hair’s stronger than.
That is amazing. Mm-hmm. , that is amazing. I love that you continue to you know, figure out new products and create new products for, for all of us. I know you, you, you probably do it almost selfishly for yourself first. That’s true. Like, like that’s true. And then you get to share it with us. So, so you’ve got so many things.
So I could keep you here forever and talk to you forever, but you do have. These three wonderful books. The Hormone Fix keto, let’s Say Keto Green, and Menu Pause. So, so much information there and they can find you also On the internet tell ’em exactly where all they can find you. Yeah. Thank you, Deanna.
I’m at dr anna.com, so d r ana.com and we have our new menopause kit. So check that out at dr anna.com/the kit. And and, and I’m on Instagram at the girlfriend, doctor, and on Facebook at the Girlfriend, doctor on. Too, but I don’t tell anyone. . No, I’m on TikTok too. I don’t like it as much. But , I do like Instagram.
Yeah, I love Instagram. I love Instagram too. And you have a podcast. And I, and I have a podcast, the Girlfriend, Dr. Show podcast on Apple, iTunes, Spotify. Yes. Well, Dr. Anna, thank you so much for taking the time and educating us more, and thank you so much for creating all the products for us and writing the books and everything you’re doing and training our doctors.
Thank you for that. Thank you. Thank you. We need. Here in Alabama we need a lot more doctors trained. So if you’re training any doctors in Alabama, please let me know which one so I can make sure I go to them. I will, you’ll have to, yeah. Make a trip up to Dallas. But yeah, definitely. Thank you so much for having me, and thanks for all you do.
You always bring such positive energy. Thank you. Thank you.
