What's going on? Ladies and gents Roberts like skeet of Savage.com., And today, I've got special guest. Dr. Annika Becca. Back on the line. She dove into all of her books. So I've had on the past about a year ago, I think. And we talked about, at the time. She had two books, the hormone fix and keto green 16. So we dove into those kind of a recap on those two with this podcast. He's got a new book coming out menu, pause kind of a play on words for menopause and with those topics.
We just dive really deep into hormonal health. For both male and females. What are some changes happening throughout Changing Times with regard to hormones? What are some things you could do in your environment and your lifestyle, with your nutrition, with your sleep, with your
recovery? And then what are some things you could do eggs on Janice Lee from like a bioidentical hormone standpoint to improve these Health markers, what blood test to get, just, really how to improve your overall and underlying health. So thoroughly enjoyed the conversation. Dr. Anika. Becca is a wealth of knowledge. I've got no doubt. You would take something from this so that for their do it Back, relax. Enjoy the podcast with dr. Anika Becca. We are live.
Doctor Anika. Becca back in the building. How are you? Hi, I am great. It's great to be here with you. Yeah. Yeah. When was the last time you were on the show? It's been over a year. I think I didn't exactly probably around a year ago and a lots happened since then you just come out with another book, which I don't know how you write these books on your turn amount. Yeah, yeah, so this book out. Well, thank you know, it wasn't
the book. I will, I had originally thought out to write an originally wanted to do a documentary about menopause around the world. But hey, and we got grounded. Yeah. Yeah, it was so. So from a chronological standpoint. The first one was the hormone fix, right? Yes. That is by Magnus Opus. Oh, that came out in February twenty nineteen and it's you know, it's called the hormone fix and then I would say takes more than Moans to fix your hormones.
Some information that I want every woman to know, you know, you know, have armed with especially before their doctor's appointments, Etc. Just to be empowered. That's yeah. Pretty proud of that one, honestly. And then from that keto green, 16 was released, right? But when was that one polished that was published in May Cinco de Mayo May 5th, 2020.
So right when the World closed down And keto green 16, really focusing on healthy, ketogenic lifestyle with for women, incorporating Alcoa, misers, greens and lifestyle. In a short, 16-day plan with 16 hours of intermittent fasting, and, and really key foods to help with hormone balance. So, so that's when that one came out, and that's been doing really well. It was really designed to do in groups and corporate wellness, and we have Physicians offices.
But do it as group, 4 group, medical visits to, and just for everyone to be able to do it simply cutting down the number of ingredients etcetera. So I love it. I love it. And then all of that led to the creation of the latest book menopause. And that was published what they? Well, it's published April 12, so menu. Pause. So kind of twist and fun to
bring a smile to to our faces. So maybe pause and that came Robert. From working with, you know, thousands and thousands of women online and evaluating what they're doing. Especially in our keto green lifestyle and say, okay. Well, maybe we need to pause this. So there's five different Six-Day plans that each pause something, that could be getting a stock. So, kind of like a blueprint for an Elimination Diet so to speak. Yeah. Yeah. Different ones, right?
And what like, if somebody is like, who is your ideal? I guess, like, if there was a avatar that you would paint the picture of the perfect reader for your books, who would that be? Yeah, so it definitely women who are struggling with perimenopause age, 35 to 55. This is ideal. Nip it in the butt now so that you are sailing through your menopause transition. It mean menopause should not be looked at any differently than the it being the other stage of puberty.
So the opposite side of the coin. So So to speak, but equally interesting. And it should be seamless getting our hormones and balanced balanced. Very quickly is is key. And then well, post-menopause. I mean, there's no age limit on this plan and I will say, if it works for the menopausal and perimenopausal women. It really does. Does, you know, work for everyone?
And the goal with many pause was to create just simple short Six-Day plans to say, okay, if we pause this, you know, this may be the key to To overcoming that Plateau or those symptoms and you know supporting our metabolism and giving us that extra Edge and left and energy and all of those good things. Would you recommend people read these books in order from you know the hormone fix to menu pause or is there like a is it best to just kind of read as needed?
Or is there a ideal way to go about going through this information? Yeah. Any anyway, each book is Standalone. However, I do. So I think all of them have additional information insights and of course or loaded with amazing recipes, so, but any Direction with menu, pause, it's really. That quick glimpse of number one menopause around the world and number two, you know, food as medicine. And that's something that as a physician. I didn't learn in medical school
or residency. I've had to learn it through my own early menopause, journey and traumatic. Menopause journey and using food and lifestyle to pull me out of that to be, you know, honestly living my best life. And I love saying that because now I'm a have a new grandbaby. So you're getting your first baby.
And I just have my first grandbaby and I got to deliver her and I'm just as high as a kite about it because it's just amazing and I want to live the best life I can and because all I never knew my grandparents, they died of diabetes and heart disease before I was born. Born and my mom also died when my first one was only a year old. So it food is medicine. I really want to empower people with this information and sometimes some of the food that
we're using is actually working. Certainly we know this can work against us. So but it goes beyond stopping gluten and stop and sugar, right?
Sometimes there's healthy foods that we do that can cause havoc in our symptom or systems to And you mentioned at the beginning that you were originally wanting to structure this information and like a documentary style approach and travel the world, you know, filming this like how I was thinking covid, pandemic and everything probably shut that down to the extent that you wanted it to be and you became a book instead, but you were still
doing quite a bit of traveling to get in assimilate this information, right? Oh, I have traveled around the world. I have loved to travel. My mom told me at a young age that she goes, Anna. Your best education is three travel. Learn about other people. Learn their languages learn the culture. It will open your eyes and that is so true. That's been a love of me. I love of my life is travel and it's been a meditation for me. Honestly. It's fascinates me.
I've learned so much from other cultures, especially when it comes to Medicine around the world. Traditional foods things. I didn't learn in medical school and residency to add to my doctor's bag such as Maka, the, you know, indigenous herb from a root vegetable from Peru, that is such a beautiful adaptogen. I really consider it. One of the most amazing amazing, you know, medicinal foods that I can recommend for people and, and just how different spices
and herbs have come to fruition. And to be used in cooking and how they were initially used to help as a medicine. Listen, and now we've Incorporated them into great meals and it makes a huge difference in our diet and lifestyle. Even if we're a terrible cooks and we can't put, you know, I really want to create simple easy recipes that anyone can do and incorporating herbs and
spices. Because those can stay on the shelf quite a bit and make can make a can make a meal, just amazing delicious, but also medicinal and several podcast guests in the past month. Have come from traditionally like a western medicine upbringing, but then have ventured into a lot of Eastern medicine, and then they've kind of been enlightened, so, to speak as to what all that can bring to the table. So, if you were to describe Western medicine as most, people assume this podcast.
Probably understand it to what you've learned in all of your travels, how would you kind of group those in a different bucket so to speak? So, well, one is that using traditional herbs and spices and medicines. That's one. And the second is lifestyle, lifestyle hacks. Like, not, I learned in Australia and Can-Can Australia at a retreat. They're getting not to drink so such a common sense thing, Robert and it wasn't until this Retreat.
And here, I was already board certified physician and I was struggling in my own health Journey. And in the retreat, we had our first lunch together, but they don't have any glasses of water or anything on the table. And I was like, what's going on here? Need to get some water and the head, the lead nutritionist said, well, that will delete your digestive enzymes. We try not to drink with our meals and I was like, that was a huge. Aha moment for me something as
basic as that, right? Because you take your food, you pour acid in it. That's what our stomachs designed to do. And from the moment food comes in our mouth, the saliva excetera to start, Breaking that down and you pour water on it. You dilute those enzymes. So like little lifestyle hacks that I learned from around the world and then in Indonesia, for instance, I learned from an Indonesian healer. Like I had been this was at a
time. I was 39. I was diagnosed with early menopause and I failed the highest doses of injectable fertility meds, and I was told the only option for me to have another child. Through egg donation. And I was in the dispatch choice for us and this Indonesian healer, in this little village were sitting outside in Bali in Ubud Indonesia. We sitting in this little outside space and and I was talking with him and he goes your ovaries are fine. I'm like, how can you tell my ovaries are fine.
And he just put his hand on my head and there were these think it was just so tender, like, if you're listening to this, you can put your hand on your head and And just feel as or any tender points there, and it was so tender. And I was like, oh my gosh, what does that mean? He says, you worry too much. There's your ovaries are fine. But you worry too much. So that was the first real
inclination, like this again. Another light bulb that went off at stress and Trauma, and worry and grief, and was affecting my ovarian function, but blew my mind. I feel have too much. Later, I was pregnant. I feel like there's that was never going to have.
Yeah. Yeah, that's like, there's so much there's so much that, that stress, and our current day-to-day lifestyle, especially in the, you know, the chaotic world that we find ourselves in here, in the states, especially, but it's like, there's, there's this tension.
I guess that exists between a lot of Western medicine, doctors practitioners, and those from an Eastern medicine background, and I feel like there's a lot of people In the states that just kind of discredit a lot of this traditional methodologies in this tastes assume. It's just all frou-frou itself, you know, smoke and mirrors and there's nothing like to it. But I mean, people have been finding success with these methodologies long before America was ever even
discovered. So, I feel like you got to give credit where credit's, due. Mmm. Absolutely true. When it comes to menopause. I think we talked about this quite a bit in the last podcast. We did about a year ago. But can you for people that are you know, listen to this and maybe they're going through menopause right now. Maybe they have not yet. Got to that point, but you can you just really high-level break that down and give us a crash course in menopause.
What it is, how to hedge against the adverse effects of it and just set yourself up for Success going forward. Yeah, you know, menopause has natural and every woman will go through it. However, suffering is optional, suffering is optional and when are Hormones are changing with the decline, in both men and women, DHEA Peaks, and, and our starts to decline in our 20s. We start to see a declining DHEA or an adrenal hormone also produced by the ovaries and
women and testes, and men. And then progesterone in our mid 30s, the precursor essentially hormone to are estrogen and testosterone and DHEA. And so with this, this change, we can see what I call neuroendocrine symptoms or symptoms of nervous. Period of neuroendocrine vulnerability so hot flat. I mean symptoms that are neurologic like anxiety, depression, mood swings, difficulty, sleeping memory loss, brain fog.
All of those are neurologic symptoms and they're tied into a woman's gynecologic response, the endocrine hormones on the ovaries and the uterus so irregular bleeding break through Cycles PMS. Worst heavier, more painful periods and a lock-up lack of Desire, or sex drive and vaginal dryness that can occur as we age. And so those are the combination of endocrine symptoms and neurologic symptoms. However, however, while I would say, it takes more than hormones to fix our hormones.
And with this change, with this shift, our bodies becoming, we're losing the reproductive hormones. And where are Bodies naturally producing more insulin and cortisol. So more of the insulin, a hormone to store store glucose store glycogen for fuel when we need it. When the famine comes, right?
And we become very sensitive to this, with our with the change, in our anabolic hormones, and decrease in those natural and anabolic hormones that we produce for, you know, a big part of our reproductive lives, all of our Reaper, all of our lives. And so, so, With that, we have to shift from using glucose for fuel to using ketones for fuel as an optimal fuel source, at least a regular, you know, the
majority of time. So anybody I'm obviously who jacket for following a ketogenic diet and leveraging, that is the primary fuel source, but there's a lot that can improve from a hormonal standpoint in menopausal women from adopting a ketogenic diet and lifestyle as opposed to just relying heavily on carbohydrates. And glucose. Why are we? And we have to do it in a healthy way. So, hence the green or alkalinizing. Wait, adding fiber, in the form of dark green. Leafy Sprouts, cruciferous
vegetables, herbs and spices. And alkalinizing lifestyle fact, anything we can do to reduce cortisol because again, it's naturally increasing and we get older and we're kind of in this. It's a catabolic hormone. It breaks this down. So we have to support healthy elimination of cortisol with oxytocin. Ian. So oxytocin the hormone of Love bonding and connection.
The hormone that is in abundance right now and your sweet family and will be to assist with childbirth are right, we increase oxytocin in order to go into natural labor and that causes contractions, and for some women, that's their first experience with exogenous oxytocin as in the form of pitocin given to help further along. Labor protected labor. So, so that is an alkalizing hormone where cortisol is an acidifying hormone men have 10
times as much testosterone. And that's why I, you know, I'm so big on on the lifestyle and nutrition component of the keto green plan to help with mineral balance and help with woman's physiology, because we do have to do it. Different like, you know, like you say glucose this to gasoline as ketones are to jet. Fuel. I like to say that because with our brain, as a woman, ages and
progesterone declines. In estrogen declines, our brains less efficient as at using glucose as a primary fuel. So, all those neurologic symptoms, that I mentioned are partly a result of our brain. Starving for fuel when we shift to ketones as a primary fuel source, that lifts completely. And we feel better. We feel clearer. We have better memory. Have higher energy and honest to God. I couldn't I wouldn't be doing
my third book. I wouldn't have written the first book if I hadn't stumbled into this lifestyle. What are some? Some red flags when it comes to nutrition in most people's diets. The standard American diet with regard to incredibly acidic foods and and ones that you would want to hedge against with him or alkaline diet. Well, definitely, one of the side effects of an unhealthy diet is constipation and that increases acidity for sure and increases toxin toxin
reabsorption. And and so the hats, one of the things that if you're asymptomatic with constipation or even IBS, we've got to heal the God as a as a hormone specialist. We have to heal the gut first, we really do and have regular bowel movements. Have you can help? No diarrhea, and and to make sure that we're well hydrated, all of those important things. The second thing is intermittent fasting.
We are designed to intermittently fast on a regular basis and especially, as we get older research has shown that if a woman has between a woman who has a history of research, looked in 2016 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, it was published that women who had over 12 and a half hours between dinner the night before. Or and breakfast the following morning. They had a significantly reduced risk of recurrent breast cancer. And so, for me, that was that's the threshold.
So minimum of 13 hours in a minute fasting on a regular basis and on average 13 to 16 to 18 and change it up, right? Change it up for women. It's really, really important to intermittently fast. And the other thing that we do wrong in this country is snacking children, don't need to snack we I need to snack. It's just enough already that's destructive to our metabolism and creates. The reason we need to snack is because we had too much sugar in the mail. So that's the next thing breakup
with that. I always call it the toxic ex-boyfriend sugar, Robert then I don't know if there's toxic ex-girlfriend, but you know, toxic ex-boyfriend sugar. That's like, oh, just one more day time, just one more time for dinner. Just whatever, right? Kind of sneaks back into your life. And before, you know, it they're back in your life.
You got to break up all over. Again, so you got to break up a sugar once and for all is the what is the primary driver that that's causing issues from sugar specifically is it is just a the ease of overconsumption General from a caloric standpoint, or is it the glycation as a result of the higher insulin levels are or what's the primary mechanism there? Definitely both definitely both so certainly and we become less efficient at using glucose as As fuel, we're going into storage
mode. We have a decline in our anabolic hormones, in general. So we're not producing as much muscle and utilizing the glucose in muscle as well. It's so so that's one reason. The other thing is that insulin resistant, the more sugar, we have on a regular basis, the more insulin resistant, we become which creates more inflammation and we know that the more insulin resistant, more likely for diabetes and dementia. Alzheimer's heart disease and that's that's the really big
issue. So it's the diet plus the life style combined. That is really makes the biggest difference. Yeah, Kind of Perfect Storm there. When it comes to vegetation take there's kind of been multiple trains of thought. That the carnivore diet for instance, is certainly growing in a minute momentum. And there seems to be a very big demographic. Graphic there that seeing continuous success with that, both male and female.
Do you have any inkling as to some adverse effects that come from a hormonal standpoint in menopausal women that are following a carnivore diets and not incorporating, more greens. Well, I think definitely the risk of acidity and getting into catabolism is a lot greater. I followed many women who have been carnivore for a while and then shift. I mean, you have to pause that lifestyle. You support got microbiome, and I really feel very strongly about this. I mean, there's certain time.
We have to heal from digestive issues. We have to heal our GI tract or our skin, our cell membranes. And so, one of the diets in my book, my new book coming out called menu, pause is a carnivore, ish plan, because we just can't digest the food. The vegetables, the greens. It's an attack on our immune system. Whereas we need to create a more resilient immune system, so We can tolerate anything. Should there be a scarcity in the animal kingdom, for a short time?
We never experienced that here. But what if there was well throughout history and evolution. There's been seasons for a reason, right? And our body has evolved to adjust and adapt and become, you know, create resilient. So I want to see that. We're able to eat and tolerate our food because we have good digestive tract. We have good intestinal mucosa. We have good. And we have good liver and kidney support for detoxification and filtering.
All of those important things. We want every piece to work. Well, and this is where I found having pauses in certain things, like, for example, pausing, all the plant-based food. So we have a carnivore is plan or pausing all the meat. So we have a plant-based fan plan to support gut. Microbial, diversity. I think the biggest thing for me is that in long term. We would see a decline in a carnivore plan. Again, men and women are
different. Men have 10 times as much testosterone and anabolic steroid than women. And so women are going to be more sensitive to mineral deficiencies and need to address that. So certainly supplementing with minerals is is helpful, but plant, diversity increases gut. Microbial diversity, which is associated with longevity and a stronger immune system. You have to balance that we need to heal from what's A problem for us, we need to heal. In general head to toe right?
We need to heal the and pause from things that are destructive and we need to. Then change things up incorporate staying away from certainly foods that are food sensitivities and aggravate, you but we need to be able to digest and Assimilate a variety of foods for overall health are there like any immune immunological biomarkers that people that are following a carnivore Dad could test for to see if there is any waning diversity in their gut
microbiome or any adverse effects that are coming from being carnivore. Long-term? Yeah, you definitely want to look at a stool still function
test. So I like GIF X and I like, so that's one of the doctors data has another stool analysis, but Adjusted stole analyses are very, very beneficial to look at the bacteria in your stool as one piece, but also enzymes and metabolites to. So we can see what else is going on there and what other bacteria, viruses, parasites, excetera, that might be part of that. But mostly for the normal flora, how does that look how diverse is? That? The greater diversity? The greater the immune system,
the greater the longevity. So we want to look at that. And the second piece is looking at inflammatory markers like an HS CRP highly sensitive C-reactive protein. That is the crucial. That's a crucial piece to. And the biomarker that I always recommend clients check on a regular basis as urine pH. I have my urine, keto pH test strips and checking for ketosis checking for pH. And if you're in ketosis for a long time, you won't see the ketones in your urine, but you'll see.
Are you doing is an alkaline urine pH is associated with decreased, comorbidities, decreased risk of all the inflammatory diseases, including diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. So we want to see that healthy urine pH when it comes to like, mac, emoticon Switching, gears. A little bit here. When it comes to like, macronutrient distribution. Obviously, you can, you can do a lot of different things with your diets. Where your Source in those Foods.
But it seems as though just in what I've experienced with my female clientele, there seems to be a much more stable, healthy hormone levels and those that consume adequate dietary fats. I feel like women are a little more susceptible to experiencing adverse effects when they drop, their dietary fat, low men are too. But I feel like it's more pronounced and females especially if there are kind of
in a minute, puzzle range there. So have you been able to Not see any pattern recognition in working with women over the years as to what a general guideline would be with around to how much dietary fat that you consume. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think for those women in my age, group 155, Robert with a 14, or my youngest child is 14 now, but so in the 80s, we were brainwashed into thinking low fat diets, right? And for decades, we were brainwashed into thinking low
fat diet. So it's one of the hardest changes I I have women make is incorporating enough healthy fats back in to not be afraid of the olive oil to not be afraid of the grass-fed butter, right? And to not be afraid of healthy fats. And I think that it is our hormones are derived from fats. We need healthy fats class. It's satiating fills us up. And then we have willpower's
physiology physiologic. So if we have if we're eating healthy, Kita, green lifestyle, We're not going to have cravings and because of that healthy fat, but it depends on the individual how much fat, you know, again, we want to work at to adequate amount of healthy fat and protein especially if they're not used to it, maybe support with digestive enzymes or I love apple cider vinegar is a very cheap way to do.
I like Bragg's Apple Cider Vinegar cheap way to do digestive enzymes and to support their enzymatic, breakdown of their food, especially extra protein and fat. But to work, Up to have, you know how fat with every meal. Like it has to be every part that with every meal, high quality protein and I get amount of herbs spices and our greens. So that makes a big difference. Then you're not going to have the blood sugar swings and the cravings and between the meals.
That they're so used to from low-fat, high-carbohydrate living. And I feel like this holds true regardless of how much adipose tissue I I was carrying like if they have a lot of fat to lose. It doesn't necessarily mean that they should just you know, drop down all dietary fat to bare minimum. I feel like that's a very over simplified recommendation that we're hearing.
A lot of right now is hey, look if you got a lot of fat to lose, don't consume dietary fat, your body is able to tap into it if you're fat adapted and there's no need to consume it on your plate and you definitely do want to take a count of how many calories you are consuming. Overall. You want to be an over, you know, incredible Surplus. The goal was to lose Bonnie fan obviously, but But not, I don't think it's really wise advice to ever encourage.
People to minimize dietary fat, even if they do have quite a bit of body fat to lose, if that makes sense. Absolutely. You need fat to lose that you really do. It's that kind of that double sided coin again type of phenomenon, but you'd need fat to lose fat. And that's one thing. And then especially when we have extra body fat to lose and by Design, we need to fast. We need intermittent fasting.
Staying on a regular basis. I think women should do 13 to 16 to 18 hours on a regular basis and extended fast. Periodically, like one meal a day or 72 hour fast work into it. With a bone broth bass or cuter green smoothie fast, something like that. But that is That's essential and plus as you lose fat, especially clients. I've had that have lost over 100 pounds. You want to tighten up the skin and the collagen and support support.
That elasticity, after such a Xtreme fat loss weight loss, and so fast and can really help with that too. Yeah. I'm a big fan of intermittent fasting. I think there's there's there's like a Tipping Point for everything. I mean a little too much of a good thing, becomes a bad thing. And I feel like a lot of people are taking all the benefits of fasting and try and push it to the extreme to the point where they're doing extended fasting, much more.
Then would be optimal and that if taken out of context, can have a negative impact on their metabolic function and also their hormonal function. Absolutely. Are you seeing a lot of events just in as as fasting as a protocol has become more popular. You sing. Many people abuse that and take it to an unhealthy extreme. Not too much. Not too much. I really haven't seen that.
I think our body physiologically designed for survival and and living life, just that kind of has its own stopping point. Ain't yet the you know, too much too long. Can definitely decrease basal metabolic rate and also, you know contribute to acidity and it kept catabolism. Like I've seen in people that have been just focused on an unhealthy type of ketogenic diet with osteopenia and osteoporosis bone loss. And again, we need the minerals
in our body for physiologic. And so we're robbing Peter to pay Paul essentially to keep a healthy optimal physiology. So that I see more often. I'm extended from extended fasting, or an unhealthy, ketogenic type of diet. Totally agree. I think, you know, to really maximize muscle preservation, hormonal health. I mean you need to be consuming adequate calories at it. Adequate nutrients enough dietary fat, for energy to fuel the day-to-day activities and enough dietary protein to ensure
that you're able to recover. And you know, preserve your lean mass. Do you have like a general recommendation? As far as how much protein to consume on a day-to-day basis review? Again? It really depends. I created this keto calculator. It's a doctor and a.com /ki do calc and it is specifically designed for women based on how active you are. How you know, what your BMI is and what your goals are. And so in general women don't consume enough protein and we really want to get You know,
ballpark of 75 grams per day. Really will depend though. I say that with caution because I'm five foot eight and, you know, large-boned over 155 pounds. And I am different than one of my other colleagues. For example, Cynthia Thurlow who's, you know, maybe I think she's 54 56, and 100 pounds and so totally different physiologies. We have different consumptions for sure. And so looking at What maintains our bone, mass? What's our activity level? What do we? You know, how hard are we
working at? What are our goals? What's our happy? Wait, what do we feel good about? I mean all those things have to be in consideration. But looking at a percentage wise, if we look at our plate, I always say if we look at our plate we want a court, you know, a quarter of it to be healthy healthy like a, you know, an eight to about an eighth to a quarter healthy fats. That might be your avocado. That might be combined in your salmon or your steak and the Same with the protein palm-sized.
If, you know, sighs a healthy size of protein and another half of your plate, being with the fiber rich foods, the greens, the vegetables, the alkalinize dancers to help, you know, fermented foods to support the gut to support the gut bacteria. The trillions of bacteria that live within us to. So that's kind of how I look at it that way more so than a caloric percentage. Us, give us a ballpark and we
look at that. Typically, you know, if you think of some of the healthy fat options like olive oil nuts, and Seed oils, which I get a little bit is great. We can overdo the healthy things too. And I've seen that as well, and that can cause Pro inflammatory foods like can happen on a rampage about chicken lately, because review healthy diet. There's always chicken.
Howard in there and I'm like, okay no more chicken saw and I have included recipes with chicken to, but chicken is also really high and linoleic acid, which can convert to a mega sixes arachidonic acid and be pro-inflammatory.
So, we have to watch that too. And looking and you talked about blood markers, what blood marker would be looking at omega-6 to Omega-3 ratio, for instance, arachidonic acid, to DHA ratio, and those are things we can measure In the blood to a top-heavy ratio high arachidonic acid. Well is is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, inflammation and plaque formation. So that's another, another extra lab tests to specifically. Look at that too. Yeah.
I think it's like a recommendation that you have for lab testing. Like there's been a lot of independent lab test companies that have popped up recently. Like let's get checked. We can I do it at home. Tennis, I've used direct labs.com afford to just buy a test going to like a Quest. Diagnostics Center is like a software or a company provided that you recommend and use personally for getting routine lab work done.
I typically use Auto lab test because clients can order their own lab tests and go to any Quest. Bob, drop the Scylla T. So that's one. There's also knowing Labs which sends you a blood spot home test. That you can do to look at inflammatory markers and some key lab test hormonal tests as well. It's knowing knowing knowing labs.com and also lab test.com and so I think that ability to order and test and monitor your own Vibes is critically important. It's empowering.
I equate that to the Middle Ages when the common people weren't able to The Bible wasn't translated from Latin into English. And when it finally was that there was prosecution. So it is important to understand our physiology. And if part of that is is lab testing, then as a consumer, we need to be able to test voluntarily and I think there are four key lab test that every person should know and monitor to the point of optimization and
and that can be done. Done at any, you know, you can get the results in 24, 48 hours, from from, I need blood draw, you know, any lab but be able to order those tests yourself to get it done because it's not part of standard practice and those four tests being what? I'm sure CRP is one of them. Yep. HS CRP, highly sensitive CRP, not straight CRP C-reactive protein. So sometimes it's called a chess or highly sensitive or it can be called cardio, CR P. So that is We want that number
at one or less. And so, I one time, examined. The patient. You come to me, after seeing all her doctors and just had seen me as her GYN and I looked. And I said, you looked at that and said you look terrible. I said, what's going on because I just don't feel good. I've been to the internist and I'm a family physician and I said, well, you know, and I ran a series of hormones, of course, thyroid and Iran. That HS CRP her Eh, her inflammatory marker was over 100, I Center.
And I thought point, I centered in hematology. She had metastatic cancer and she'd been struggling for years. If that was a test that every woman and man, monitored, periodically, you would see when inflammation is happening in your body and we can work against that diet and lifestyle supplementation. There are some key supplements to help with that too. But HS CRP so know that number and the second is your vitamin D. 25 hydroxy. Without vitamin D, healthy amounts of vitamin D on board.
Our hormones aren't as responsive. They don't work as well. And that includes oxytocin, progesterone vitamin D. Deficiency is a huge problem. We have to support, you know, we can supplement with vitamin D. But we have to get outside. We have to get sun on our skin without any sun, blocks, or creams, or lotions. And we need to get sun in our eyes and sunrise and sunset. We need to get in. Sure. So vitamin D 25 hydroxy, and then the third test is your
hemoglobin A1c. The marker of glycated hemoglobin. Essentially, how much, how well is, our blood sugar controlled over time. And that your doctor won't flag that tool that's above 6, but it's going up to get 26, right? So, it starts somewhere, most of us start with healthy. Hemoglobin A1c levels, unless your childhood to diabesity or something. So, I mean, Deities, diabesity to but diabetes and so a hemoglobin, A1c needs to be below 5.3.
Anything above 5.3 needs to be actively worked on and we want to see it down below five. Ideally. So let's that's one. And then the fourth one that I love is the DHEA is a marker of the adrenal glands. And when we're looking in the blood, we need the DHEA sulfate. So faded DHEA, and that's a better marker and that tells us how well our adrenals are. Are are supporting our our
hormone production. How well we're responding to stress how you know, gives you a glimpse of what's happening with the HPA axis. And we want to optimize that number, and women up to 200 around, 200 men around 300 and, and see those healthy levels. And I would add a fifth one because of the work that dr. Perlmutter brought to life. And to my Awareness on uric acid. I would check a York acid level and get that below 4.4.
So, so those are like, those are actually the five markers that are really valuable and it gives you an idea. I would say, takes more than hormones to fix our hormones. Were so focused on what's going on with estrogen and testosterone and we're missing, we're missing the, the key longevity hormones drivers. I believe me. I'm a big, I created bioidentical hormone replacement and compounds and things. Then I'm a big believer in bioidentical hormone. But it takes more than hormones
to fix her hormones. So sure. No, I'm surprised that testing for hormones wasn't on that list of five there. But but that makes sense that if people with regard to testing for hormones, I think we talked about this a little bit on the last podcast, but are there certain markers that people are seeing? That makes them a viable candidate for bioidentical hormones, or should people always just kind of like before they even go that round to look towards?
Using their lifestyle factors. Obviously, like, for guys, for instance, if they're super stressed and not sleep, in their testosterone, is going to take a very acute drop. So getting that dialed in is going to be key. At what point do people become good, candidates for bioidentical hormones. I'm definitely sometimes. We need to use them as a crutch while we're working on the lifestyle factors, but I'm my medical practice.
I have retired by medical clinic, but in my medical practice my clients that I was prescribing. Months before it was always a deal that you have to do this detox. You have to work on this lifestyle factors, you have to and I want to see these Improvement in these other biomarkers. Otherwise, I'm not doing you any good but simply prescribing
hormones. It has to be combined and that was that's part of that was part of my that's why my patients did so well Robert. I mean that really is because it's not just about what I'm writing a Prescription Pad. It's about the lifestyle that we're I'm supporting my patients, encouraging my patients to have and so I typically would start with adrenal support and adaptogenic
support. So my My Team Aqua plus combination and save me. And I use that to help clients naturally improve their progesterone and DHEA, which are is precursor to estrogen and testosterone and then I would supplement with progesterone, bioidentical progesterone and women. I look at a cycle day 21, bioidentical progesterone, progesterone, level and post. Possibly, I simply supplement with bioidentical progesterone and Pregnant alone, and I've combined that in my balance
cream. And so there's a combination of progesterone and pregnenolone. These precursor mother hormones. And and then from there looking at, you know, DHEA again further optimizing our natural glandular production and supporting estrogen and testosterone. I don't like to supplement too young and certainly not for or long term because there's something going on. I want to revive a varying function and then I want to revive testicular function. I don't want to suppress their normal function.
I want to, I want to, you know, improve a kitchen, the underlying reason like you said, sleep stress, keep things that are affecting our natural hormone production. Because when we do supplement, we can negatively feedback to our organs telling them, you know, I don't need you anymore. And that's going to have consequences and we will see that play out over time and with with a significant amount of hormone replacement that's going on.
I always look at it as supportive hormone replacement versus suppressive hormone replacement. Again, there's time time and place for for that but yet that's notthat's. Not addressing the underlying, we have to always address the underlying issues. Is it heavy metal toxicity? Is it mold? Is it stress? Is it? You know, what else is going on? That's causing this problem. Are you working predominantly with females? Are you working with with guys, as well?
I work with both men and women and men and at now, I do position to position consults. So I consult with certain clinics, longevity clinics, and you know, individuals providers, especially cancer, you know, complicated cases like cancer patients and Optimizing them to. I've worked with both men and women over the years and the last podcast that we did. We Dove deep into the hormonal cycles and fluctuations as women are going through menopause. What's happened to estrogen
progesterone? What's happening on the, on the guys side of the spectrum? Like when as they age are, there are they experiencing fluctuations? Or what's a typical trajectory from a hormonal standpoint. For guys, definitely drives. The hormones are going to start to decline. DHEA from Men's starts decline in their mid to late 20s as well. And we'll see a decline in and all of the reproductive hormones progesterone testosterone as a man ages.
However, very much more gradually than for a woman for women, the transition 35 to 55 is pretty significant and for men. It's really a gradual change, but yet still around age 50, right? We're seeing this, we're seeing Shift. And, and sometimes it's not so much even about the production of hormones. It's about the conversion like four men converting from testosterone to dihydrotestosterone, further depleting their testosterone levels and because cortisol will increase the enzymatic.
Conversion 5 Alpha, hide five, Alpha hydroxylase, that converts testosterone to dihydrotestosterone and so So sometimes it's that causing a depletion of the testosterone and we need to block that enzyme when we can do that with supplements. For example, zinc to block that conversion, but we'll see that we'll see that transition just not much more gradually and that taking them into we call it the andropause right? And Andrew puzzle time frame.
And we see that around age 50 sometimes earlier and certainly into their 60s and 70s. What kind of blood work panel? Should a guy get as far as hormones coming, a lot of them? They're going, they'll get like a just a very simple. Generic total testosterone test, but that doesn't really show free testosterone sex, hormone-binding globulin. There's a lot of variables that are not shown in just that total
test, you know, lab draw. What, what would you recommend for guys that are one demise those? What number should look nice. We have a whole list. Yeah, and, you know, I look at a full panel for guys, as well as for women. It's my VIP Elite panel, and I have that I can give you the link for that, but to look at it. Basically, it's like, I'm going to look at four and I'm looking at someone's health and I'm looking at there, for example, sexual health, and sexual
function. I'm looking at the entire picture. So, I'm looking at a cardio lipoprotein panel or Berkeley. Heart Labs cholesterol breakdown. I want to look at what pattern is a pattern, a pattern B. All I'm keep your numbers ideal. I want to know the breakdown and so I look at a Berkeley heart lab. Hmm. Sorry about that. I'm Berkeley heart, lab panel and cart. So looking at the cholesterol and looking at the hormones, looking at pregnenolone
progesterone. DHEA is testosterone, free testosterone, dihydrotestosterone. Those are all part of the, an estrogen, a total estrogens, as well as estradiol in a man to because I want to see what they're converting from testosterone to estrogen to and especially if I am going to supplement. I don't want to cry. You know, I've seen so many patients that have been supplement.
So many men who have been supplemented with testosterone or even DHEA, but they were never looking at the conversion. So they get, you know, they start to get belly fat and man boobs with all those moves. So we start to see that happen and that should never have happened to begin with. You have to look at s, you have to look at the entire hormonal picture in men. Just like you do in women to see. Where is it going? How's it converting, what? You know what?
Testosterone converting to. It also tells me about the genetics and the environment and the lifestyle, and those are things we can, you know, we can invite, we can modify environment. Diet and lifestyle. Is there, like any red flag, like someone go. If some guy goes and gets a, you know, hormone panel. Is there any marker like this, say, they feel great. There's not many issues and how they feel, they seem to be recovering fine, not having any issues with strength or any
events. Is there like a Add a number at which anything beneath that becomes a red flag to you? Or is it totally just case-by-case dependent? And there's if they feel great, it's less indicative to what the numbers are showing, you know, I bet I love this expression, treat the patient, not the labs, right? Treat the patient, not the lab. So there's, you know, that with good, Clint the art of medicine. So like for men, like I've seen clients with way too high testosterone.
I wasn't course they feel amazing, but that's not going to last for the long. Grunts. Oh, so we have to look at that. So I look at week. I'm looking at a total testosterone 600 to 1000 in men and it breaks my heart when guys are lingering around 400 feeling terrible and they're not being replaced or supplemented or detox or, you know, you know, given instruction on how to improve it. The hit exercise is straight As training. Everything that you teach,
right? You want to optimize their testosterone level and and support them. You can support it. I would support. With again trying to get the body to make its own testosterone. So supporting with glandulars like adrenal adaptogen. Sorry adrenal, adaptogen psych Maka my mighty Lanka plas and support with DHEA if needed and then also top-down would pregnenolone. I use that a lot in guys to as well as progesterone to help did like good night's sleep to help them naturally produce more
testosterone as well. So I would look at it. I would come at it that way and then free testosterone levels above. You know, for guys, it me really getting healthy free testosterone levels and depends on your lab. But, you know, it towards the higher end, getting those levels. And then again looking and DHEA sulfate, we want those numbers to be higher closer to 300 in guys and making sure that we're getting getting them in the upper, the upper, the upper
limit for their age, right? We don't want to be normal. We want to be Optimal. So those are some some pieces that I like to look at for sure. And DHEA is not something that people just need to go out by off the counter and then just randomly start supplementing at nauseam. Right? Right. You have to watch that. You definitely do. Because again, if you're supplementing with a lot of DHA, you're telling your adrenals, they don't have to work right.
Then I have to show up but we may need that for the short term. It can certainly instantly as we get older. It is one of the more regular supplements that I do but I do it in a transdermal. Cuz I'm using that in my for my females in my Java cream. So topically for female health and I find that is an incredible, incredibly beneficial supplement and there's different ways. You can take DHEA.
But you really again you want to watch an incorrect and this is where adaptogen scum into more play mean. Turmeric Resveratrol Maka care, certain cats, caught herb extracts like grape seed extract. Green tea extract. These are things that help support your body's natural. Production of your hormones. So I definitely go to the plant space for that, too. What about dim? I see a lot of people supplementing, with dim. And I forget the acronym there. It's like dimethyl. I'll butcher.
If I try, I had died and gone missing. Yes, really? It's it's really concentrated in like cruciferous vegetables, broccoli, things of that nature. Is that something that I think correct me if I'm wrong. But males and females that consume that They're basically getting the opposite effect, but it's beneficial to both, right? It's definitely beneficial to both. It's really there to support with estrogen detoxification. And it's been really well studied.
I initially found research on it over 15 years ago. Out of Johns Hopkins, looking at dim on hormone on hormonal. Cancers, for instance, and found that it was very beneficial to
supplement. So, yeah, from broccoli seed extract from RNR cruciferous vegetables, one of the reasons I love using broccoli sprout in my menus and in my cooking recipes because of that, that superpower So that's something that's like someone's just eaten a bunch of Brock this not listen, they're going to have to worry about overconsumption of you're not going to get overconsumption and sometime definitely if there's looking at estrogen detoxification markers.
So there's urine and blood metabolites of estrogen, 24, and 16 hydroxy, estrogen metabolites, and methoxy estrogen metabolites. And looking at those numbers. You can really say, okay. I need more dim. I need more support around this or Doing great with my dietary pattern right now and that's definitely worth looking at.
I think anyone who is supplementing with hormones, particularly, estrogen and testosterone should make sure that we're looking at estrogen detoxification markers and that that's true for both men and women. I think that's very helpful to see. Okay, you know, what, what's our body producing and or receiving and how is your body getting rid of these things too, so Even more important than how much is being produced. It's how are we metabolizing it? And then supplement accordingly.
Okay, we maybe need more supplementation perimenopause menopause and patients with breast cancer, history of cancer, abnormal mammograms. I supplement heavily would dim and typically 100 to 200 milligrams or more per day is your particular brand that you recommend. I use signage in, for my dim sum.
Annotation. And I like some of the combinations on my website, my products and full, which is a hormone balancing combination for PMS and menopausal symptoms that has dim in it also and and otherwise I use zymogens and you know, there are few different. So zymogens whole script. You can get that from Whole scripts right now. Yeah, and their standard process is a good brand designs for health, or nor all good brands that I've used.
And you mentioned, you have a, like, a recommended blood panel test on your site. That people can do, it's not on my site, because I usually just give it in my private groups, like my magic menopause groups, but it's at, I'll put the link here. Out. The lab tests plural.com. /dr.
So for dr. Anika bekasi, abec a two ends and Anna. So Ulta lab test.com Port slash doctoring and akka Becca. And Take you to my recommended test where I would take the send my clients and the elite panel is the one that I wish everyone could get, you know, male and female for comprehensive analysis, includes a red blood cell magnesium, which is, which is critical.
So it's different than a serum magnesium or looking at red blood cell magnesium and other inflammatory markers that are very and Powerful like a homocysteine level in it. Your HSC RP things that aren't part of routine. Lab draws. So, but our key biomarkers to tell you what we need to address in our nutrition plan and our environment. And how often would you recommend getting these? Like once, like annually depends on your results. If you're doing great, then do it. Annually.
If you're not, then I would follow up on those key markers that are abnormal, or repeated again, in six months to see a different, nice, nice. Yeah, I'm gonna I'm a junkie for Dennis. So like I'm gonna get this blood drawn because I'm going to start a competition prep here soon, and a prep always has a profound impact on all my blood markers. So it's always interesting for me to kind of do a test pre and
post competition prep. So I'll be I'll be checking in and getting one of these tests your soon. I'll let me know. I want to see your results and I'm definitely doing that too. Because as we launch menu pies, we are going to, I'm going through with all my clients to and coming out of A stressful, book launch. I dread to look at my labs. Yeah, I mean it's crazy how big of an impact stress levels have on blood work.
Like I it's hard to I don't get test drawing has frequent that probably should because not know just I'm just busy, but I'd be curious to for me to test like right after a product launch or like a business deal versus after a month or so of you know, pretty Carefree living. I feel like that that alone would have a black-and-white difference. It's interesting for sure. Well, where can people go to learn more about your book menopause? You say that's publishing April 12.
It is publishing April 12th. Yep, so that will be announced by the time this podcast is out. So where do people go to jump on that? So any where books are sold for sure, Amazon, it's already number one on Amazon. I'm so getting to the top of new releases and Barnes and Nobles.
Local bookstore. I highly encourage that, and come back to my book page at dr. Anna.com, and put in, we've got a bunch of bonuses, extra bonuses to support you going through menopause, your menu, pause journey, and it's super fun. And it's definitely a great book to gift to someone that you want to make smile because great recipes, beautiful color photography, and simple plans plus of really funding. So yeah. Yeah. I love it.
We have left. Well, I've gotten nothing but Feedback from the last podcast we did together. So I've got no doubt. This one will be a huge value. Add for people listening. Just keep doing what you're doing. I mean, you you're making waves and impact the people in ways. You don't even realize. Thank you. Thank you for having me back. You bet anytime. You are. Welcome anytime. Have a good one and talk soon. Thank you. You too.