Welcome to Living on Doctor, sponsored by Pure Essentials. I am Rachel ashe your hosts. We are here on w R seven ten am every Sunday from five to five thirty pm. For more information, I'm Pure Essentials. You can go on their website www dot pure hyphen Essentials dot com. That's p U r E hyphen E s s E n tis dot com, or on Facebook or Instagram at shop pure Essentials. I'm your host, Rachel Lash, wellness consultant and healthy living expert. I'm joined by my co host, Melissa
chris Bell, who was trained as a natural path and nutrition specialist. She has a whole host of other wellness certifications to include uricular acupuncture for detoxification and relaxation, yoga and natural healing. A self proclaimed wellness warrior advocate, Melissa is on a mission to teach you how to reclaim your health and live your best life undoctored. Today, we're gonna be talking about menopause, misinformation, fear, modesty, the tons of reasons people don't talk about it, what
nutrients are needed and why. And I'd say one of the things that we found a study show that many menopausal women aren't getting any treatment, and they often don't even talk about it with their doctors. We wanted to share more about why this stage of life is frequently ignored and what we can do about it. So Melissa, let's talk about it. Why don't more people talk about menopause? You know, I really believe that it's just a topic that
people don't feel comfortable talking about openly. I mean, we're talking about bodily functions, we're talking about stages of life. Some people might feel embarrassed, some people might feel ashamed, you know, to talk about their experience. It's a transitional phase of life that most people will spend most women will spend a third of their life in This is important stuff to talk about. Some
women experience early menopause and maybe they're confused by what's happening. You know, they might have a grasp of oh, this is the beginning of menopause. And I read and a study that the number of post menopausal women is expected to rise to one point one billion that's billion with a B by twenty twenty five. That's just in two short or a year and a half, eighteen months, one point one billion people are going to be in this stage of life. So I think our topic is timely here. Yeah. Yeah,
And some women just don't feel themselves and they don't know why. So I think the information to nameless is just really important. Yeah. You know, there are a bunch of studies that reveal how women that live in environments that negatively perceive menopause can experience stronger physical and mental symptoms. There are non Western countries that believe menopause is just beautiful, it's just a transition, it's just
your next phase. But Western countries generally associate menopause with negativity and its anti aging and its loss of sexual vitality, and it's just this host of symptoms that have such a negative connotation surrounding them. So I think that plays a part in why people don't want to talk about it. So there's a negative connotation. A lot of this can be debunked, and obviously it is focused on our Western culture of having those perceptions. But who experiences menopause? What
are the average ages? Menopause transition most often begins between the ages of forty five and fifty five. It lasts It can last seven to ten years, upwards of fourteen years for some people. The length of the symptoms or the duration can really depend on lifestyle. We have to look at you and I were just having a conversation about this. We have to look at the lifestyle factors. Let's look at the food, Let's look at where people live.
Let's look at other factors. Is someone smoking how long? When did it start for them? That can determine how long. There are many factors that play into this race, ethnicity, there are certain groups that experience different symptoms than other people. So you know, like we say all the time,
every body is different. I know we were talking about it before off a show, and you know we were talking about symptoms including anxiety, changes in moods such as low mood or irritability, changes in skin conditions, you know, dryness or increase in oiliness, adult onset acne difficulties, sleeping, discomfort during sex, feelings of loss of self. There's a whole host of components
that are symptoms of menopause. I think to Melsta, it's important for our listeners to know what exactly is menopause, What are the phases of menopause? Is their progression? Well overall, menopause is a stage of life that women go through and it's divided into three stages, so perimenopause, menopause, and post menopause. During this time, the ovaries begin to atrophy. They start to kind of shrivel, think of raisins. This causes the decline in the
production of hormones. So it's the ovaries that we're stimulating and making that hormone. They're not doing it as much as they used to. So the menstrual cycle changes, estrogen changes, progesterone changes. Perimenopause is the period before the menopause. That's the premenopause. You know, they're talking about people that are pre diabetic. Now you're premenopausal. Now during perimenopause, your estrogen levels, which is the key hormone to make women, that key hormone is starting to
decrease. There are signs and symptoms that happen as a result of that decreased estrogen. We'll talk about that in a minute. Menopause is the time that marks the end of menstrual cycles. So that diagnosed or labeled after you've gone twelve solid months without a menstrual period. So twelve months, ladies, start the clock. And I can remember exactly when I started the clock it's the craziest thing when those things hit your brain. Post Menopause is the time after
menopause. So, ladies, you're not alone. I am in that stage with you. I'm done. It's over. It's post menopause. This is when you haven't experienced a period for over a year. Post menopause, you will not get another one. It's over. So what are some signs and symptoms to be on the lookout for? Signs and symptoms of menopause. Things that you can be on the lookout for are irregular periodsinital dryness, hot flashes, chills, night sweats, sleep problems, mood changes, weight gain,
slow metabolism. I'm starting to sound like a pharmaceutical commercial. There are lots of signs and symptoms to be on the lookout for it. And let me just go ahead and tell you everybody. Hot flashes are no joke, and not everybody gets them. You know, it's not mandatory, it's not a checklist that you are absolutely going to get them. But if you do, you know them. Your body just gets so hot you want to peel your skin off and let some cold air in there. That's what a hot flash
is. So are there symptoms of post menopause too, or it's it just all over once it's over. We don't get that lucky. I'm laughing, but I'm in it too, you know, we just don't get that lucky. I'm laughing because I'm able to embrace this. It's just a phase. You know. It's no different then when you're on the opposite side of it and you're a preteen, you know, and you're looking forward to shaving your legs and wearing makeup and waxing your eyebrows. You know, it's just another
phase of life to look forward to and to learn how to navigate. But symptoms of being postmenopausal, yes, ladies. We still get those hot flashes, We get irritability, we get mood swings, we get insomnia, the vagina gets dry, that's just what happens. You get difficulty in concentration, you know, you get a brain fog that you didn't have before. There's some incontinence could be part of it with some people. Osteoporotic symptoms. Some
people experience depression, some people experience headaches, some people experience insomnia. Some people experience blood pressure type issues, bazo dilation kind of issues. It's different. For everybody. And just because we list all of those symptoms, I want to say two things, Rachel. I want to be very clear for everybody. The things that we talk about are not meant to be healthcare for you. We are not here to do that for you. We are here
to help you learn. We are here to educate you and to help you live a better life. Here to help give you some home remedies and to help you live your life undoctored. But that doesn't mean that you don't ever go to a healthcare provider. That's not what we're saying here. And I can't wait to get to the Home Remedies Park because there's a lot of relief and there's a lot of things that you can do, and I know working with Pure Essentials, there's a lot of things that you recommend to your clients.
But before we get to the remedies, can you just let us know how long do these symptoms last? Well, considering that once your postmenopausal, you're in this stage for the rest of your life. It does not mean that you're going to have the hot flashes, night sweats, insomnia, depression, all of those things for the rest of your life. It means you can, and you may want to pay attention to the remedies section while we
get there. Okay, so let's go to the remedies. Okay. Thankfully, the days of skin tight gens of my late teens early twenties are gone, So it's okay to wear loose clothing these days, because that's one of the remedies is don't constrict your body. Don't wear the supertight clothing that just keeps everything bound up. Wear some light clothing. Keep your bedroom cool at night. It's okay for your bedroom to feel like a mausoleum and to reduce
that temperature. Warn your partner that's what's going on, and they can put an extra set of socks or sweatpants or something on. But keep your bedroom cool at night. You can take a cool shower, you can use a fan, drink some cold water. I'm sure that my husband probably thought I was a little bit nuts, but when it first started for me, I went skinny dipping in the pool every single solitary night at ninety five ten o'clock, once it was dark outside, I was out there skinny dipping, and
that helped me sleep through the night because it cooled my body. Down. I take you don't have neighbors. I didn't care, and I hope that they didn't either, say I'm sure they enjoyed it. Getting back to the nutrition part, Melissa, especially in integrative health, we talk about gut house, brain health and all the interrelatedness of it. But does dut health play a part in menopause? Absolutely? Absolutely so. We have microorganisms, as
the technical term, we have good bugs and we have bad bugs. The good bugs helped to metabolize the estrogen, so it helps break it down, the estrogen and the progesterone. But as those two start to decline when you get to this stage, the bacteria and the other microorganisms that we're working together to create this whole environment for you, those start to decline as well.
When that happens, you have less diversity in your system, which then can translate to digestive disruptions like maybe you could eat this one thing once upon a time, no problem, all of a sudden, it doesn't work well for you. Why is that? You know? Like I was saying, your gut helps you to regulate your hormone levels, helps you to regulate your mood, your weight. You can improve your gut health during menopause without menopause.
You know this is for everybody by taking probiotics. Probiotics are the good bugs. Prebiotics, probiotic fibers, if you've heard that term, are the food for the bugs. So those do go hand in hand. Eating more fermented foods. Saurkroud, sauerkraud, kimchi. Yeah, those are fermented. You can ferment those at home now. So fermented foods help that reducing your intake of sugary foods. That's going to be key. It's not popular opinion.
People are not gonna like hearing that. But the sugar doesn't give their right foods, so we need to reduce the sugar and reduce the processed foods. And I know Melissa too. With your clients, you recommend the lactodophlis by Pure Essentials or talking about probiotic, you want to talk a little bit about that product. Lactodophilus is Pure Essentials probiotic. It is formulated with ten strains
of probiotic. Those strains are non dairy cool fact, they are also freeze dried, so they are in suspended animation, which sounds very star treky. It's a way to make sure that you are getting the most potent form of probiotic possible probiotics. They're resilient little buggers, but there are some forms of them that don't survive for very long. They also don't survive in a moisture
situation. So when you're able to extract them in a freeze dried, suspended animation type formula, they'll survive the first pass of digestion, which is once they hit your stomach and they'll land in the intestine where they need to go to work. We also have GI support, which is the prebiotic fiber, So that's a prebiotic fiber from Glucamannon that is going to feed those bugs once everything gets down into the intestine, so they have the tools they need to
get to work for you too. So the Pure Essentials GI support and the lactodophilis would be the two supplemental remedies that you use most of your clients. Two of the list. I'm your host Rachel Lash living on Doctor sponsored by Pure Essentials, joined by my co host Melissa Chris Bell was trained as a natural path a nutrition specialist. We were talking about research it's found that gut microbiome, digestive health can play a role in a wide range of conditions,
including arthritis, obesity, depression, and cardiovascuer disease. Yeah, we know that host menopausal women are at an increased risk of what's known as cardio metabolic syndrome. So if we break that down, cardio is your heart metabolic, how you metaboli. So together we're looking at heart disease and we're looking at type two diabetes risks. Type two diabetes is preventable. It is a result
of someone's lack of exercise, food choices. Stress is a culmination. You know, we talked about IBS and doctor Ash's work with IBS and how IBS itself isn't a thing. It's a culmination of a bunch of symptoms. And that's I feel the same way about the type two diabetes. So, you know, because of the changes in someone's body that accompany the decrease sex hormone production, someone is at a higher risk for you know, the cardiometabolic syndrome.
And we were talking to you the people with this cardiometabolic syndrome, they risk factors including slip disruptions, elevated cholesterol, weight gain, increased blood sugar, high blood pressure, Yeah, because of the decrease in the estrogen and the progesterone during menopause, that bacteria and those microorganisms that we were talking about that normally metabolize those hormones, they become depleted and that results in the decrease
diversity of the gut microbiome. So, you know, looking at lacto, looking at the Lactodophilus bipure essentials and the GI support the pre biotic fiber, you know, you can help support your gut through menopause and through other situations as well. And for our listeners, for the lactodophilis which is the probiotic and the GI support which is the prebiotic fiber. This can both be found on the Pure Essentials website which is www dot prep u R E hyphen Essentials
E S S E N T I a ls dot com. And I know there's a whole host of information about both those products on the website. You can also call our office Monday through Friday from nine two five pm at two one two seven five eight thirty two hundred that's two one two seven five eight three two zero zero and people would be happy to answer questions for you or take an order. So the lactodolph list which is the probiotic, and the GI support which is the pre biotic fiber. And those are just two supplements
on the list. There or more. There's a whole host of supplements as our bodies changed that are great for women in menopause. What would you suggest if we're looking at other supplements, combination of supplements and food if you can get enough of the supplement from food. Magnesium is a big one, and I'm hearing about magnesium all over the place as far as athletes go and sleep and such, Magnesium is huge. It is essential. Your body has to
have it. Vitamin A, vitamins B six and B twelve for energy for methylation, those are both great. Vitamin K, vitamin C, calcium, vitamin D, and eu omegas. That would be my list. That would be, you know, if I put together a menopausal pack, this would be your checklist of what you need. What your bodies needs are number one and what can be beneficial for the symptoms that you're experiencing. So it's magnesium, A, vitamin B six, B twelve, vitamin K, see calcium,
vitamin D, and omegas. Good to know, good to know and I know calcium is a huge topic for women, and I also know that as our bodies works sdemically, sometimes if we're not properly absorbing magnesium, no matter how much calcium we take, we're not going to get it in our system. So can you talk a little bit about how much calcium we need and how that works with our body. Yeah, the RDA is a great starting point. It's a guideline. Our D is recommended daily allowance. Correct.
The RDA is the base that you need to avoid death. But each human life form needs more or needs less based on what they're going through. So if we just use the base guideline, the recommended daily allowance, you're looking at about a thousand milligrams of calcium daily and that's before menopause. After menopause, you probably want to bump that up to about twelve hundred milligrams.
But keep in mind Vitamin D is very important. Vitamin D and magnesium are very important for the absorption of that calcium and your vitamin D. Traditional labs are saying thirty to fifty is what your score would be on your vitamin D test. Functional labs, functional medicine doctors are saying fifty to eighty. I've even seen up to hundred. Recently. I was taught fifty to eighty, you get up to one hundred. I think the best way to go is
to test. Don't guess, don't mess around with your health, just test. Balance that against how your body feels. Are you feeling exhausted? What are the symptoms of vitamin D deficiency? You know, you can look at that and then decide how much vitamin D you need from that point. But looking at magnesium and vitamin D to help the calcium be absorbed is very important.
And speaking of vitamin D, vitamin D testing is coming to Pure Essential and we have two vitamin D products, and would you like to talk about the specifics of those vitamin D products as it is important for our listeners to know the distinction. Yeah, I'm very excited about the two products coming out. So the first one is the vitamin D tincture. It is vitamin D three as colacalcupperall, which is the recommended form of vitamin D and MCT oil.
There are no flavorings, no other additives. This is a vitamin D liquid tincture. So it'll be in a dropper and you can just drop that onto your tongue, drop it onto a spoon. You don't have to shake it through any kind of nozzle, so it's really convenient to use. We also have a more I guess comprehensive is the better way to put it, a more comprehensive Vitamin D soft gael coming out. It has vitamin D three,
vitamin K two, and vitamin A altogether in it. So if you note the list that we just mentioned earlier, that knocks out three of those items on that list of recommended supplements for this particular situation. So it'll be a one cap knocks out three. So with the vitamin D in the MCT oil and then the D three K two in a yeah, So two separate D products, two different options for you and where you are in whatever stage of life. And let's talk about the other supplements. Also, the B
twelve. Yeah, in the later stages of menopause, B twelve is super beneficial. A deficiency could cause anemia. This is part of what we were talking about earlier. The recommended daily allowance or dietary allowance of B twelve is two point four micrograms daily, and that's for women fourteen and older. You can meet this requirement during an after menopause by taking a B twelve supplement and
B twelve foods. This is going to be important for vegans. They're going to take exception, and we can talk about that offline, or we can do another show about that. But it is very, very difficult to get the amount of B twelve that you need from a plant based diet without supplementation. You can get it from meat, fish, and dairy. And you
want to pay attention to the medications that can deplete your B twelve. So someone taking over the counter medications like prilosec or zantec that can deplete your B twelve level. So if you are a menopausal you run the risk of being deficient in B twelve to begin with. But say you're getting some acid reflux and such and you're taking an overcounter medication, you may also be experiencing depletion
of your B twelve because of that. Metformin and tetricycling. They also decrease, yes, yes, so there are pharmaceuticals that will decrease the amount of your B twelve as well. So it's almost like this which came first,
the chicken or the egg adult acne is a perimenopausal symptom. So if you go into an office and you've got adult acne and they prescribe tetracycline for that acne, which came first the chicken or the egg, are you having perimenopausal symptoms and that's the source of the adult acne and then you're going to take a prescription on top of it, and then you're going to decrease your B twelve And you're already in a situation where your B twelve is decreasing, and
it can become such a conundrum that you really have to sort through. And speaking of the B twelve testing, Pure Essentials does have a methyl melonic acid which is a urine test coming out soon. Wellist when is that going to be out? And can you talk about that a little bit. We should have that in stock by July, and certainly you can email client services at Pure Essentials pure dash essentials dot com and get on the waitlist for that so that we can make sure we can ship that one out to you. But
it's going to be very simple. It's just a small, I don't know, six inch clams that's going to come with a urine test kit. All of the instructions are in there. You'll drop the urine onto this little measuring stick and then it's going to get sent off to the lab. The lab will send you your results and your instructions on which B twelve product in Pure Essential's line to take. We have a B twelve product and we have a
B six B twelve full late combination product. So you'll get the results, you'll know which product and how much to take, and that all comes directly from the lab. And let's talk about magnesium because I know, even outside of metopause, magnesium just seems to be having a moment right now. But how does it help getting back to our topic of metopause, how does it help during menopause? Magnesium helps outside of menopause. It helps every human life
form. It is important for improving heart health, reducing blood pressure, decreasing the risk of diabetes, combating osteoporosis, and in particular, if you're taking magnesium citrate, it can help ease some of the bowel issues that you may be having during menopause because it's not uncommon to face some const a patient from time to time. So the magnesium citrate that form specifically can help with that. It helps all issues that happen to increase during menopause. Magnesium glycinate that
can help with calming anxiety, easing joint pain. Ladies, if you're in this stage, you know that joint pain, the hip pain, the lower back pain that you didn't have before can be helped with magnesium glycinate. Magnesium glycinate can help improve sleep. It can help hot flashes as well as cold flashes. Believe it or not, in this stage of life, you do get a cold flash and it's seventy five degrees outside and you see someone put a sweatshirt on. It happens. You're not alone. Pure Essentials win a
step further. Pure Essentials new magnesium coming out has been formulated to also include magnesium malate. Benefits include being an anti inflammatory. Inflammation is a big deal. It helps to alleviate depression. It can it helps with the decrease ability to tolerate exercise. Some ladies during this phase of life can't tolerate exercise. You know, maybe they were runners before or zoombo or you know who knows something that was higher impact and their body just doesn't seem to be able to
do it. Like it once did. It hurts and it's sore, and it sticks around a little bit longer. This form of magnesium can help with that. And we also have magnesium a score bait in our magnesium formulation, which is a buffered form of vitamin C and that helps with the immune system support. So a four form magnesium so that you're getting any form that you might need. And I know too that Pure Essentials also has a new omega
coming out. Yes, I love our new omega. It might seem counterintuitive to have a vegan shell for an omega, because omega is fish, it's not vegan, but we do that to avoid having bovine as the gelatin, and we do that with all of the Pure Essentials products. We have a vegan shell, whether it's a capsule or a soft jail. The Pure Essentials omega is an omega three. It's deep fresh water cold water fish that has
cold pressed lemon essential oil with it as well. So as far as our fish oil goes, everything is extracted under a nitrogen blanket to reduce the possibility of rancidity, because we don't want people to get that nasty, fishy burt back kind of experience. So that's the way the pure essentials OMEGA is formulated. So well's getting back to menopause. Why do you think a lot of women aren't seeking treatment? I know we were talking about having that stigma in
the Western world, or it's just part of life. Why do you think that women aren't talking about it, they're not seeking treatment. The first thing I want to say is not everyone needs treatment. Not everyone needs treatment for their menopausal symptoms. Some women end up chasing the solutions for their symptoms, and they end up in a bunch of different doctor's offices, and they aren't necessarily they and the doc aren't necessarily putting two and two together that these are
menopause related symptoms. Unfortunately, sometimes ladies are being dismissed. They're being told that their symptoms aren't important. They might be told that symptoms aren't bothersome enough to be managed. And that's very sad and I'm sorry if that's happened to you. Unfortunately, there is something called medical gaslighting. There are ladies that have heard you know, your pain is manageable. Now, your symptoms aren't that bad. You've got to expect this at your age. You're too young
to be feeling you know X y Z fill in the blank. I've seen quote. This is a quote. I've seen patients in much worse situations than yours, and I'm sorry if that's happened to you. But that's exactly why we're here. We're here to help you, and lest have thank you for that. I always think it's best to find an integrative doctor that you're comfortable with, that listens to you, helping you make a decision for yourself out of an empowered state of fear, a full state. Always think that's fear.
Ever, not comfortable, seek a second opinion, ask around until you find somebody or comfortable with. Super super important to not give your power away like that. And again, thank you for choosing this topic for the show. It's something that needs to be a little more normalized in regular conversation and just a lot of helpful information for women. We're here every Sunday on WR
seven ten am from five to five thirty pm. If you'd like more information on your essential as you can go on the website www dot Pure hyphen Essentials dot com. That's p U R E hyphen e S S E n t i a LS dot com, or you can call our office. We're open every Monday through Friday from nine am to five pm at two on two seven five eight thirty two hundred. That's two on two seven five eight three two zero zero, or check us out on Facebook, Instagram at shop Pure Essentials.
I hope you all have a wonderful, wonderful weekend. Check out the products. There's tons of information and looking forward also to the gen X tests and test that we have coming up. Melissa, thank you again. I'm your host, Rachel Lash joined by my co host Melissa Chris Bell, Living on Doctor, and we will see you next Sunday at five pm here on wr