The percentage of women, young women, heading into one day perimetopause, iron deficiency is a massive problem.
So 55% of adult women have some degree of iron deficiency. We need iron to produce all of our neurotransmitters. Dopamine for motivation, GABA for calming, serotonin, contentment, melatonin for sleep. All of it is reliant on iron. When we're iron deficient, our mood is very flat, we're very depressed, we can feel incredibly anxious. Our heart races, we get heart palpitations, and iron deficiency is being missed in that. Everyone knows about how important magnesium is.
Vitamin D. Vitamin D, you got it, creatine, protein. Uh-huh. And all of it's important, but we're missing iron.
This is very controversial right now. Everyone's forcing iron down. Hemochromatosis is a condition where iron can go super high and be superoxidative, very dangerous.
Yeah, I get direct messages every day from people bringing this part of the story to life and asking where's the truth in this? Or they'll have watched a video on social media that says never ever take iron because it's essentially a poison and their iron has tanked and they feel horrendous.
I know. I come from a major premise that God doesn't make mistakes. He's designed our body perfectly and beautifully. Did God make a mistake that we're eating this perfect diet and ferritin levels are going up?
The answer is no, it's not as simple as we think. Sometimes what looks like iron accumulation is copper deficiency or vitamin A deficiency or at least insufficiency.
People say, well, it makes people constipate. Now you're taking the wrong iron because it's feeding the bacteria, and the bacteria actually create the constipation. So in other words, if ferritin levels look like they're rising up, it could be another issue.
It could be another new issue.
You worried about your hormones? Oh, stay tuned for this show. Females, ladies, oh, I've got the ladies here. We're gonna talk about perimenopause, menopause, all the fun stuff. What's good, what's bad, dangerous. Uh men, we're not leaving you behind because what about your testosterone? You thinking about that, worried about that? Okay, I'm here with Dr. Libby, and you were one of you're the one of the top experts in this, a biochemist. Have your own incredible product line.
We're gonna talk about your incredible iron that my wife is on. And of course, I am here with my wife because she loves these topics and she loves your products. So anyway, we are going to have a great conversation. I'm looking forward to it.
It's a joy to be here.
Welcome. And we can tell by your accent where are you from originally?
I grew up in Australia. I've spent a lot of time in New Zealand as well. So just kind of say I live down under.
Yeah, she lives down under. That's it. Oh gosh. Okay. Well, how long here in the U.S.?
Uh I've been here a week this time, so heading home this evening. All right. But have loved my week here.
So I thought you were I thought you'd spent some time in California, though.
Um, yes, uh three days prior to here.
Uh I meant like long time, but no. Okay. No. All right, so still down under then. But looking forward to spending more time here. I just sent them up to beautiful Park City, so you're having lunch there where I recommended. All right. You know, I always like to start here. You know, how did you get pulled into this? I mean, I guess even biochemistry for that matter, you know, and then to be pulled into more of the alternative route.
And you've authored so many incredible books, and you're an incredible speaker. You are out there, and you know, I hope my audience that you're new to them maybe, but maybe not. But how did it all start?
You're so kind, thank you. So um I grew up incredibly simply with really caring parents, and we grew a little bit of food in our backyard, and I think that's probably where the seeds were planted about the importance of nutrition. So I went to university for 14 years, which I know makes me sound really thick and like I failed everything, but I very much love learning, and I still do.
So I originally studied nutrition and dietetics, then did honours, then did a PhD in biochemistry, and I was the last person on the planet you would think would do biochemistry because I was much more of a people person, but I had a really curious mind, and there were all sorts of things I was seeing in clinical practice.
You're a curious person, that's why you went biochemistry. Yeah. Because I thought maybe I was going to end up biochemistry.
Interesting.
And because I'm a really curious person, and it's like that's why I like kept wanting to study the cells of all things, right? That's it.
That's it. Uh-huh. And you can see obviously the power of nutrition in all of the biochemical reactions that run every moment of our life. They drive how we feel and function, and I don't think enough people are aware of that and the magnificence of that.
So, but then after uni, uh, I've worked with people one-on-one for 25 years, and so I combine my education with my clinical experience, and I've created my three-pillar approach, which is biochemistry, nutrition, and emotions, or you could say beliefs or mindsets.
So I look at all the So we're going to get into emotions too. Let's talk about that first.
I I think everybody else has so many of those other topics. At least they're on their path and they've figured some things out. But I think emotions are the one that is most overlooked and undervalued for the role they play in disrupting the hormones. Just let's start there. Yeah. Marilee, I agree.
Okay, let's start there. How'd you land there? I mean, by what the reason I say that is biochemists usually don't understand the power of emotion. I mean, Bruce Lipton uh is a cellular biologist who wrote a book, Biology of Belief, meaning your thoughts, your emotions affect your cells. And you know, so some do make that connection. But what how did you make that connection?
Aaron Ross Powell So sitting one-on-one with people and hearing how much they wanted to change their behaviors and their lifestyle choices, and yet they could only sort of enact what they knew was a way to nourish themselves for maybe three days, three weeks, or three months. And so I I started to ponder why do people do what they do even though they know what they know?
And it made me realize that there are there are beliefs we hold about ourselves that almost get in the way of us taking care of ourselves. I think a lot of people, too many people believe they're not worth taking care of. And but the our beliefs obviously are very slippery. They come out in our language patterns, but we actually don't realize they are beliefs, and yet our beliefs and our values drive all of our.
I call those identity issues, right? Many people have false put it this way, everybody has an identity given to them by God, but unfortunately we we are given false identities, and it's you know, you can hear people talk about those false identities, yeah, but then it affects their whole life. Yeah, and it affects who they they actually are, you know, becoming that.
You know, when I I trained doctors for so many years and I would watch their videos and I could tell like gosh, they just struggle being themselves, the person that I know. And it was also it was always typically they were trying to be something else, and it was again they were living out of false identity, typically given to them by someone they love, their parents, their brothers, their sisters, teachers, whatever, right? Sad. But there's other emotions, right?
I mean, there's trapped emotions, there's traumas.
Yeah.
You know, how do they differ? And and again, I I think coming from a biochemist having this conversation, you know, is like I think hearing a little bit about why these emotions affect our health from a biochemist's standpoint is kind of a cool thing. Isn't it? We don't often get this opportunity.
So obviously, any uh we're not able to the the nervous system can't, and I know I'm I know you guys know this, but for the audience, we the nervous system can't distinguish between real and perceived threat. And so if we are creating a story that something is let's a really common scenario over the last few years as people worked more from home, an example a lot of people have given me is I received a call from a colleague and they said, Where's that work I needed it yesterday?
Now, not everyone will say that that's stressful, but some people find that stressful. And I try to help people see the stress they create for for themselves because of how they think. Because we don't actually hear what someone says, we hear what we think they meant. And so when someone rings and says, Where's that work I needed it yesterday? What makes that stressful for some people is they create a story about how their colleague perceives them.
I'm hopeless, I'm not a team player, I'm inefficient, I'm not a hard worker. Whereas for someone who doesn't find that phone call stressful, they just hear the request for the work. So I'm very so but for people who find it stressful, they make adrenaline. So the the stress is sent, messages sent to the adrenals to make adrenaline.
And adrenaline then communicates to every cell in our body, of course, that our life's in danger because historically we only made it when our life was physically threatened. Whereas now, because of psychological stress, because of the irregular overconsumption of caffeine, people's perceptions of pressure and urgency, creating stories that others are disapproving of us, all can lead us to make adrenaline when none of that is you know, that that's not necessarily the truth. And that adrenaline.
Yeah, it's funny because if you keep making adrenaline, eventually your adrenals give out. And then you don't adapt to the stress with cortisol as well.
That's right.
And then now you're not adapting, now it becomes disease state. Potentially.
Potentially. And the requirements for new for nutrients are greater when we're in that heightened state. And it didn't matter if we went into a heightened state, you know, momentarily, that let's say a tiger jumped out of the jungle at us and we would spike adrenaline, that threat is over very quickly.
Normal.
Whereas now the way we produce adrenaline is we wake up in the morning, we think of all the things, hopefully, we think of things we're grateful for and feel so fortunate to be on the planet for another day and get this extraordinary experience of life. But then usually we think about what we've got to get done that day. We might open our laptop and see 600 unopened emails, we might have three coffees, and it that's just spiking adrenaline, and that's every day for a lot of people.
So the persistent production of stress hormones is a big disruptor to nutrient status, to hormone equilibrium, to the things that even to sleep. So many things that are just basic foundations for health.
You have a lot of questions here, don't you?
No, I might actually, I mean, this is a common thing when we get along very well, but he often will hear me say something in a way that I think is rooted in something that is a false belief, perhaps, that he's had about himself or his experience, right? And then it's but then I'm like, I didn't say it that way. Or it and if I did say it in it to any degree of that way, I definitely don't ever mean it to be offensive because I have such respect for him. We he's my best friend.
But so these, but so I was thinking in marriage, how common that probably is, even for spouses that have great relationships. And if they want if you want them to cut this out, I'm okay with that. I don't I'm waiting for a response. I don't think this is of high value, even for our even for our benefit, right? Our leveling up. I mean, because I don't know, is that embarrassing for you? I mean, this is I'm kind of new to this world. I'm embarrassed about sitting in this chair.
I should not hear anything's open. I'm not cutting anything out, but I want to hear anything.
I'm not sure what I'm allowed to say. We didn't really talk about that.
You're both you're both so generous to open that to the audience because I'm sure everyone resonates with that, whether it's our intimate whether it's our intimate partner, children, colleagues, it can be anyone, obviously, where someone expresses something and our response is heard obviously through lenses, through the way all the beliefs we have about ourselves. It's like we filter everything through those lenses.
So we don't necessarily hear what someone says, we hear what we think they meant. Yeah, that's what I heard you say, and I that's when the bell went off. And I think part of and and it and we're human, we're all going to do that. And I think uh the way I take responsibility for myself in that situation when I have that experience is to notice that I've had a heightened experience and not to judge myself. I think the minute we judge ourselves we go blind to any kind of insight arising.
So I personally bring curiosity to oh, I can feel I'm I've had a response here, and rather than I might speak it and then apologize later. But if I try to catch myself these days before I speak it and catch what really just went on in that split second, yeah, and acknowledge, oh, I I understand where that's where this heightened response is coming from.
Isn't I mean doesn't the the the delivery matter, the tone, because that's what uh the person perceives. It's more not the words as much as is the tonality. Meaning, let's go back to your example of the the job thing.
Yeah.
The tone of if the person came out, the person said, Um, hey, uh, do you have that work? Uh because I I really need to get that done, I needed it done yesterday. Or, hey, do you have that work? I needed to get that. It's the tone that makes like the uh uh right, same words, but tone is how the brain can change how you perceive it.
I absolutely I agree with that. But I do think the the different lenses that we each wear is exacerbating even a tone. Yes. And and at the end of the day, we're only responsible for the lover or the hear. And we're only responsible for how we react to someone. So uh I mean it while a tone or it is can be sometimes it's just it's a quick if it's a judgment against you, you're going to defend yourself perhaps not with your words, but with your tone.
Yes.
Right?
And and so or it's a perceived judgment against you. So because that's what I always say she does. She has a perceived thing of I'm attacking her when I'm just like saying, Hey, uh, you know, next time could you make sure that defense. So anyway, okay.
But if there's a directness to see if we could go back and forth, right? Because this is reality. That's right. So if there's a direct where were you, or oh, I didn't see you there, or whatever. It's it's so it just is interesting how each of us is going to have our perception of that reality. Trevor Burrus, Jr.
And when I as a biochemist, because I'm I'm not trained thoroughly in psychology, I've read a lot about it and done some lots of external study, but it's not, I don't have formal training in it. The simplest way I sort of describe it as a biochemist is I feel that for and I own this very much myself as a woman, the tendency is to create a story of rejection, and for men the story gets created very quickly of failure that they've let us down. So that's what I pay attention to.
I mean, as a general thing.
As a general thing, so that can help people.
Because I'm looking to fix things, men probably in general, right? Women are looking to be approved of in general, right? So yeah.
And then when you complicate it with the reality and traumas of life and your life experiences, there's then there's those nuances of weaknesses within that structure. And that is it is I mean, it's a journey to really I mean, good for you that you're acknowledging your split second moment of I could have done that better. Yeah, yeah. I mean, but how look, you're a professional.
So give us the clothes notes. But I think too, it's um all of it is this glorious journey of expansion of ourselves back to the truth of who we are. And if we see it as on the way, not in the way, uh so I I feel that that helps our judgment of ourselves to fall away. And obviously the love between you two is palpable.
And so as we when we have those moments where it does feel tense, where it does feel like there's judgment passing, you know that you adore each other, you can feel that sitting and you can feel it the minute you two walk into a room. So you know that that's at the heart of it. So you have this glorious space, I think, to explore what that was really about because it's not about each other, it's about yourselves when that when that happens. Yes.
And you know, I I will say I I know this just for myself, pride gets in the way.
It does.
You know, childhood experiences of self-preservation or having to protect yourself because no one else would. And and that for me, my voice didn't matter as a kid. And that and I don't I've I've seen many therapists along the way, and I've spent a lot of time with God through this and good stuff. So I'm like I'm okay with it, but I understand why I get triggered.
And and that's what is now I think the only thing that's in the way between even just from my perspective, I can only speak for myself and control how I think of things, but it's just being willing to say, I'm so sorry, like that, because I I'm I have a hard time with that. I have a hard time admitting my I have a whole hard time being vulnerable and and releasing my trust again in a situation that hurt my heart. So I tend to build that, like I tend to go here and protect myself.
And I so know that he's the only person I probably don't have to do that with. You know, but not see, I even said probably, and that's not and that's not true. The probably is not should not be part of that. But it's my own experience and how I've uh kind of salvaged that part of myself.
So how uh those childhood wounds, how does that translate into health? You know what I'm saying? Meaning so we we talked about you know, in the moment, adrenaline, how pr our perception matters and we have a choice to perceive things better to help our health or re you know, cortisol reactions, adrenaline reactions first. But what about these traumas, these types of traumas?
So I think the the way I exp as I said, I'm not a psychologist, but the way I look at it is how it translates into life now because we can't undo that, but we can change how we see and experience that. And I think when there is and I'm going to speak very generally because I don't obviously people have lots of different traumas of varying degrees of um difficulty.
Sure. So I think it's if we can s when we experience things like that, we tend to be very focused on the drawbacks that those experiences have brought to our life, and we're missing the benefits that those very, very, very difficult experiences have brought to our life. And I think our mind has an opportunity to find more equilibrium from the challenges, from the wounds, if we go searching for the benefits that that has brought us.
So it doesn't make it okay, and it doesn't take away that that's occurred, but it helps us in the here and the now to go. I wouldn't have all these traits, I wouldn't be as resilient, as loving, as forgiving.
So you're saying find the things to be grateful for. And gratitude is one of the fastest ways. I mean, science proves this. I mean, just gratitude is the fastest way to help your cortisol, right? You know, help your stress responses, immediately change your hormones in the moment. Right. I mean, there's all these things that de-inflame your cells. I mean, gratitude is I mean, studied to change that.
So what you're saying is you look at these childhood traumas and you literally start have to to make the list, if you will, of the benefits. You wouldn't be who you are if this wouldn't have been and then you know, maybe every day, you know, review that's right.
Yeah, and you know what happened for me through adversity in my life is I was able to look at the the I was able to ask myself why I was responding to certain things or w or what was happening or why I was the way I was. I mean we've we've had a lot of things to go through that I could easily ask that question.
And I kept coming up with, wow, I could have I could have become reclusive, I could have become an introvert, I could have become so self-preserving out of those childhood experiences or out of those adult experiences. And instead I went the other way. And I am so grateful for that because as a result of that, I have the opportunity to sit here and not be intimidated by asking you difficult questions and just trusting in your experience and learning something from that.
And so I am I just I'm I'm enormously grateful, not to mention where I came from and where I am today in life. There's just some obvious things of you know, familial um, you can't choose your family, right?
Yeah, yeah.
And so I can see it wasn't, it was just a about a month ago. Um my dad probably gave me one of the best gifts he could have ever given me, and I told him three or four different times since um he found cassettes of when I was little, about five years old. And my pap used who basically raised me because my mom was divorced until I was twelve. Um my papep would sing to me every night before I'd go to bed.
When I was five years old, her pap raised her because she didn't have a dad.
And he was retired and he reupholstered furniture, he had an egg route. My mom had me in a private school for kindergarten in a nursery school, and my papa would be the one to pick me up, and my mom was very pretty and young and divorced and had dates and things like that. So my papa played cards with me and all of the fun stuff that little kids love, rowing on on their pond, on their boat, but I was very alone. It was only him.
And my grandma, who was a little bit, you know, she earned, she was the breadwinner actually. So when my my dad gave me these cassettes, and uh i interesting, it kept falling. Every time we get to the end, or just about listen to it, it would come apart. And Danny being who he is, picture. Yeah, so he right, so he literally took these cassettes apart five or six times and super glued them and then put them all back together so we could listen to them anyway.
He everything I've ever told him about my childhood, he's so connected to all Yeah, it was right there in live.
Like when I first heard it, I'm like, I I heard it before her, and I'm like, oh my God, this is gonna put her on the floor, right? It was like because there was his voice, everything he said. Cause I she always know knows all these nursery rhymes and stories. I'm like, how do you know this? Like what like like who knows all these words to these things? Like, where'd you learn that? Well, here it was. I mean, you know. He's like singing it to her every night, every word.
Everyone I'm like, well, this explains a lot.
And I talked a lot. I would talk a lot. And I would sometimes interrupt him and I'm like, okay, some of that stuff is, you know, the theory.
But it was healing for her.
It was so. Yeah. And so anyway, what when I was five, my papa said, Marilyn needs raised with values, we're going to church. And went to this little Butler Buffalo Township Presbyterian church. My papa got radically saved, became an elder in the church, and that was my first experience with Jesus. And there's a whole story there that involves him later in life, right? And um but the the greatest gift that God gave me was my pap app.
And I and he died when I was 17, which was another really difficult season for me. But I it it just made me so grateful that even when I was lacking, God gave me a pap app that loved me and showered me with his attention, his affection. And and then when God showed up and taught him truth and he became aware of truth, that is why I am who I am today. Even even the boldness, even the you know, the parts that talk about things that I shouldn't talk about because I could offend someone quickly.
But you know, I mean I'm I'm not as embarrassed as easily. I'd rather get myself out there and let people know who I am and they can accept me or reject me, but I'm good with whatever whatever, right? I'm not a pleaser.
Well, she looked at me because in the old days, I'd be like, Hun, you can't say that. Like, what you meant to say, well, now I'm like, yeah.
And I'm like, I what I actually what I meant to say was what I said. I could have probably said it.
I mean, she also has a little filter now, right? It's like back then there was kind of like no filter, it was like brain mouth, and it'd be like, oh, you know, and and I'm the exact opposite. I'm I'm always thinking about how to process uh how to say something, and it's like she just boom, I'm like, oh my god, like yeah, it's like you know, didn't you notice that they those people were just like this? You know, no.
Yeah, my emotional intelligence isn't quite as high as his. It's got it has gotten better. That's called scientification.
But I want to point out her hormones just got better because she just went through the grant, she just did what you said to do. She took the, you know, and put gratitude around it. So to put a whole nutshell on this, I mean, this is one of your pillars, emotions, right?
We we just like jumped into this because you know one.
And now I feel like for our viewers, we had to put a bow on this thing. I mean, meaning like, okay, what's the big takeaway from the biochemical side? There's a few, but bring it together.
Well, firstly, thank you for what you've just shared, Marile. And to sit here with you and your glorious open heart when when you go through so many challenges, it is it's so easy to close and to hide, and you've done the opposite. And to think that when there's there's sort of no point to the suffering if we don't transform it in ourselves and pass it on, and you're doing that on steroids.
And God has a purpose always in it, and oftentimes I mean he allows it to make us better. So, how did he make it? Instead of better. That's a choice. In you know, our life. I mean now, of course, my sickness, right? And I always say, God allowed that because I put too much stake in my physical, you know, abilities, and you know, okay, you know, learn to trust them there. And then it was, you know, headlines. We went through a whole court battle where the we adopted two kids.
Her cousin Lisa, her husband tragically killed her, killed himself, and we end up with two seven-year-olds. Grandmother has us in court for three years. Uh, headlines said chiropractor steals from orphans, right? That was me. Yeah, so imagine that, right? I mean, so shame, guilt, blah-blah-b-I mean, hard things.
And by the way, everything that was completely the opposite of who he is, exactly. Yeah, and but this is the way Satan works.
You know, it's like, but I I say all that just to say that I would not be we, our family, our five kids. Those two kids are now 29. Okay, we were seven at the time. We would not be who we were at we are as a family if we didn't go through that.
I read something this morning in my like little devotional book, and I always say I feel sorry for myself because it was 2009, and I'm like, you know, crying out to God, Lord, you know, I'm just I'm see your purpose, and you know, this is the year, you know, I know we're gonna see your promise come through, and you're gonna rescue us if we only knew. That was the beginning. It got really bad at you know, it was like, yeah, 2000, the end of 10 and 11 were even worse, right? It's like so.
Anyway, I'm always like, poor guy, you know, didn't see, but God wants to be like stop reading that.
But here you are with sunshine beaming out of your face. Yeah, right.
I mean, I just I read it this morning, and here I am going. I mean, everything that I was expecting, hoping, praying for, God did. I just thought it was gonna be in 2010. It just wasn't. It was later. 2012. Yeah. But you know, I mean, yeah, it's the the point is, is as horrible as things can get, God has purpose in it. It does make us better. But what she always says is we have to choose that, right? We have to choose to be better, not bitter.
We have to look back on gratitude, and it does change our biochemistry to pull this full circle. Because the people that choose to stay in the anger, the guilt, all the emotions, literally, good luck because you are going to form disease. Okay, you're driving adrenaline. This is your I'm pulling it all first. So you said constant adrenaline, adrenaline, adrenaline.
Now you're surviving on coffee, driving it more, your adrenals are depleted, stimulants, stimulus, you're driving cortisol up constantly and probably you know crashed and you don't even adapt to stress. All we know drives cancer and other problems.
And then when you think about when your body perceives that it's being threatened, that your life is in danger, it disrupts the horm the production of sex hormones, of steroid hormones. So ovulation obviously occurs when the body perceives it's safe to bring a baby into a world because if you ovulate, there's a chance conception might take place.
So it's another part of the story of that persistent production of adrenaline, is the way our reproductive hormones for both men and women can be disrupted because the body will prioritize the production of the stress.
A lot of people's hormones are disrupted because they're in this state, mostly unknowing to them because they're doing things to compensate for the symptoms, right? That's right. But they're in this state of survival. And I can tell you from my work with people, they a lot of men up when it is called a cellular danger response, where their body literally is saying every day, I'm gonna save your life, and driving chronic inflammation is part of it. And it goes rogue. It does, and it's ugly.
Yeah, and people will now become sensitive to everything they eat, they become sensitive to the world, they end up autoimmune, da da da, not understanding what you you know you're talking about here.
Because the biochemical pathway for the production of estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone all begins with cholesterol. And so to to s shortcut the biochemical pathways that creates them, it goes cholesterol and that gets converted into pregnanolone. People don't need to remember the big silly words, and then pregnanolone becomes progesterone. And progesterone has a lot more to do inside of us than just be involved in reproduction.
It's a beautiful anti-it's a diuretic, sorry, it's an anti-anxiety agent, so it's very, very good for mood. It's very calming because progesterone can end up binding to it gets changed a bit and then binds to the GABA receptors, which is obviously very calming. So, but at that point in the pathway, so cholesterol pregnant alone progesterone, there's a fork in the path biochemical pathway where progesterone will be converted into either estrogen or testosterone or cortisol.
And so let's do the man's scenario first. So when a man is perceiving that there's a lot of stress, which he may or may not recognize in some I think men are getting better at identifying when they are a bit stressed, but still I think a lot of it is just how they, you know, we just think it's how life is. I've got to get on with it. But if his hypothalamus is registering that there's a lot of stress, a lot to be concerned about, the hypothalamus says to the pituitary gland, also in the room.
And just to bring people close, the hypothalamus is the antenna that takes in information about your body, all your hormones, threats, and then it tells the pituitary to tell everything else. So it's kind of that antenna receiving information.
Beautifully said. So that yeah, it's for the hypothalamus is forever saying, Am I safe? Looking out into the world and looking into your blood, looking inside. And so when there's lots of adrenaline, the art and it look the hypothalamus looks inside and it says, Am I safe? Of course, the answer is no. So the hypothalamus with that beautiful antenna ability that it has then says to the pituitary, we're not safe.
And the pituitary is the one who then speaks to the thyroid, the adrenals, the ovaries, the testes, and says, We're not safe, respond accordingly. So that's when ovulation can be disrupted because we don't want to risk bringing a baby into a world where your body is saying there's it's not safe here. And so we'll we will prioritize the conversion of progesterone into cortisol with and sex hormones then are disrupted.
And so for but for man for a man, when he doesn't feel like it's when his body's getting the message that it's not safe, it'll prioritize cortisol production at the expense of testosterone. And so if we look at what how that shows up for a man in his life, cortisol, when we produce too much of it long term, obviously is a big disruptor of met m uh a healthy metabolism, of metabolic flexibility.
It says let's store fat, let's break down muscle, so body composition can change, it can also disrupt a healthy blood glucose response, it can be res it can contribute to insulin resistance, uh it it changes our immune response, so it's a big disruptor. So men get really thick around the around the middle, around their torso when there's that excessive production of cortisol.
There you go.
Well, it could be insulin, actually. Hyperinsulin. Yeah, right. It could be insulin.
Yeah, visceral fat. And then they've got so that's going on in their physical appearance, and then they've also got all the effects of inadequate testosterone, which men, of course, they need it for libido, but they need it for strength and motivation and happiness. So their quality of life is hugely affected.
And let's say they were to go for help with they don't feel like themselves, they feel a bit sad or depressed or grumpy, or perhaps the family dynamic is not working so well because they're not they're being told they're not helping enough, whatever it. So they go for some help. Usually the solution in conventional medicine is they'll be put on an antidepressant, which is the wrong medicine because they then they don't have a lack of that.
They have not they have too much cortisol and not enough testosterone.
Yeah, so they never got to the cause of the problem. That's right. You know, my question is is though, right now it's so in vogue, men and women on testosterone and stacking hormones, bioidentical hormones, more. I I recognize there's a time and a place. I'm I'm not saying there isn't, okay, but but you know, the body doesn't know the difference of physical, chemical, or emotional stress. Yep. Okay, so we have a toxic world more than ever.
In the last 50 years, we are introduced to massive amounts of toxins. That is stress. And the about emotional stress and that what this brings, okay, even to our young kids who they're saying these testosterone levels are too low and all this stuff. So is the answer just giving testosterone or estrogen and progesterone?
So I'm not going to put down anything that someone feels is helping them. I think we need I need there needs to be space for all experiences, but it is a band-aid. I am very much about let's the body has the most magnificent ability to repair, to heal, to regulate. We just have to get out of the way of that almost and let it do its magnificent work. So if we can understand why someone is not producing enough testosterone and they're producing too much cortisol, there is so much gold in that.
There is so much personal growth, there is so much inner peace. So I'm way more about let's nutritionally, of course, you need zinc, you need iron. We've got to address the nutrients that the body needs to make the testosterone.
We wouldn't talk about that because a lot of people aren't supporting that. It's going to help, right? I mean, we'll talk about that.
So the nutrition has to be there, of course, but it's about getting to the bottom of why the body is getting the message that that's the right thing for it to do is to not make enough testosterone and getting that out of the way.
I want to point something out, and this is something I always teach. Innate intelligence, that intelligence that God put in our bodies that runs and heals your body every day, you know, it has the number one priority is survival. Yeah. Number one. Okay. And therefore, it's stress adaptation. So that's why it takes that progesterone and brings it over to cortisol. Well, why wouldn't it bring it over here because it's so important? No, number one is survival.
And cort adrenaline cortisol is survival. So they're trapped in this pathway of pushing it. So taking more of these hormones isn't really going to be the answer. That's why when people take the hormones, they go, Well, some things might be better, but it never lasts, or it doesn't even get better at all. Because they're really not getting to the problem. That's right. Yeah.
Yeah.
And I very much I love to look at I think so right now with perimenopause and menopause being a really big topic. I think not very long ago, perimenopause was a word only health professionals use. Now the whole world knows about it.
It's true, yeah.
And it's um it it ha again, it has drawbacks and benefits. The benefits are that there are some women who suffer terribly and they need the support and the help and the understanding that they so deserve. There are what's not being talked about is that there are many women who go through their perimenopause transition with mild or no suffering.
And we're not are we not curious about what's what's going on for them so that we can She did it through perimenopause, she's been a menopause for years now.
She did it without hormones, right? So it is possible.
It is possible.
Right. I mean, um and right, or aren't people asking, well, what did you do? Because our lifestyle is why that happened. Otherwise she would be just like us. She wasn't lucky, right? That's right. It's like what we did allowed her to do it. So the question is, is in you as well. What do we do, right? So yeah.
So I love to look at I love to look at, I guess, metabolic health to put a broad statement on it. So I'm very curious as to what uh if we pick on some key milestones across women's lives because perimenopause doesn't just come out of nowhere. So it's really common for iron deficiency to kick in in young girls, particularly when they first start to menstruate. Iron requirements are higher.
It's often a time when we're teenagers that we restrict our diet in some way because we're trying to control our body shape and size. That's sadly still a big problem. So we become iron deficient, which may or may not be addressed.
In women, uh the the percentage of women, younger young women, heading into you know, one day perimetopause, iron deficiency is a massive problem.
Thank you. I wrote a book about it called Fix Iron First for that reason. I spot read the book, actually.
Thank you.
Yeah, it's very very kind. So that often begins. Then if we layer on top of that, we might go through a period in our life where we've just moved out of home, we might not eat as nourishingly as we want to, people might overconsume alcohol, but the liver starts to accumulate fat. Then it might be periods for girls get heavier. There's more blood loss, estrogen's higher, there's not enough progesterone matching that, but with the heavier periods, we become even more iron deficient.
The thyroid literally requires iron to make hormones and to convert inactive thyroid hormone into the active one. So now our thyroid's underperforming. There's no thyroid disease yet, but it's just not working as well as it once did. If we've continued on with lousy lifestyle choices and not enough activity, not enough muscle building, we might end up insulin resistant.
And then by now we're sort of in our mid-40s of kind of and I want people to see that this is not just one thing happened and then we fixed it. This is like a compounding effect across our life between, say, the age of 14 and 45. And then hormones start to change. Of course they do. But right now there's this tendency to just go, well, any suffering between the ages of about 38 and 55, anything we experience, oh, it must be perimenopause.
No. What if it's iron deficiency or bile insufficiency or liver fat accumulation or insulin resistance? It could be any of those things. And it's not being addressed.
Yeah, and all of which today's lifestyle, the way people are living it, is so common, right? All of those things from the insulin, right? PCOS and all these things, elevated insulin because the standard American diet toxicity drives this. Obviously, I teach that. Okay, but the I don't want to leave the iron thing because um that was a big thing for my wife, right?
And so, you know, recognizing that probably, you know, changed her outcomes in menopause, a big thing because she always struggled with iron and even um uh not just even iron being deficient, but her conversions of iron, you know, her um methylation was always really depleted. But anyway, so most women are iron deficient. What is the the percentage? Because I want to bring a solution here because not all iron's created equal.
That's right.
You and I know this. Yeah. We I created a mineral product that has the same iron technology that your iron is, and my wife needs higher doses, so she takes your product. Um but so let's have this iron conversation, starting from what percentage of women especially are deficient?
So it's around so 55% of adult women have some degree of iron deficiency. There are different degrees. There's depletion deficiency or iron deficiency anemia, where we don't have enough red blood cells, or the red blood cells are too small. Obviously, we need red cells. That's what I heard.
She had a lot of methylation issues. Yeah, MCHD.
Is that the one that was consistently we we did attribute it to lead because I had very high lead.
And no matter what we would do, we would support her methylation, we'd support this or revital, I mean all of it, nothing really would help. Once we got her lead down, it really changed her well. Then her methylation came up. So it wasn't like trying to get help methylator didn't work. It was getting rid of the city.
When R2 came out, right? And I've consistently taken that product, his his um product. Yep. And now um the last it was. That's R3. The la Yeah. So the last test I took, blood test, was the very first time in years that that was in range. And and I do think it was that product.
But but finish the point though, because there's multiple places here where iron plays in. You already made the point that you're not going to be uh make normal hormones without iron. You're not gonna make normal energy without iron. Your brain doesn't work. You're left you could be left with brain fog anxiety because of iron. You know, I mean so all these gut iron. I I could go on and on, but you know, so let talk more.
So where I'll give you an example. So iron, there's virtually nothing that iron deficiency doesn't touch, partly because it has to deliver oxygen to every tissue in the body. So if you I get people to imagine that their physical structure is made up of 50 trillion tiny little cells, and they in themselves are like a little city. They're building, constructing things. If something's not being used, the body's so efficient it will deconstruct it.
And but but every city has to have oxygen supplied to it, and the red blood cells do that. So and iron is the only way that actually happens. Then you need the next thing to think about is we need iron to produce all of our neurotransmitters dopamine for motivation, GABA for calming, serotonin, contentment, melatonin for sleep. All of it is reliant on iron.
So when we right now there's a real tendency when someone starts to feel more anxious, there's a tendency in our culture to go down a purely psychological road and people can end up on some really full-throttle anti like psychiatric medications. And iron deficiency is missed so often. This is all in the literature and it's not talked about enough. There was a study published in 2023 called The Psychiatric Manifestations of Iron Deficiency Anemia. So its effect on mood is dramatic.
When we're iron deficient, we are our mood is very flat, we're very depressed, we can feel incredibly anxious, our heart races, we get heart palpitations, and iron deficiency is being missed in that. That's a of deep concern to me for people of all ages, including teenage girls. So uh then, of course, we need it for thyroid hormone production, as I touched on.
So thyroid peroxidase is an enzyme that's reliant on iron to make our thyroid hormones in the first place, and then the conversion of the T4, the inactive one, into the active thyroid hormone T3. And you think about what we need. Thyroid, every cell in the body has a receptor for vitamin D and thyroid hormones. So every cell is relying on this.
It's all vitamin D is a pro-hormone. Yeah. Iron is kind of a pro-hormone, too. It is. You know, I I just you glossed over so many things that I would tend to hear. Because a lot of people are getting, you know, the thyroid, they get just thrown on thyroid medication when so much of it is not the thyroid, okay? It's the conversion oftentimes. So you have to take inactive T4 and convert it to an active form called T3. And that conversion is iron dependent.
And selenium.
In selenium, of course, yeah. And yet, you know, so many people for different reasons have selenium issues, but and iron plays that role.
It does. Yeah.
And it's like and then the conversion of the hormones themselves. That's right. You need iron.
That's right.
So it's like, gosh. And then yet everyone's downstream just trying to fit like take thyroid hormone, wondering like why it's really not working. Oh, but my blood level looked better, because you could take T4 and make your blood level look better and even your TSH, but you go, I don't feel better. Oh, and by the way, what I teach is toxins inflame cells and cause hormone resistance.
Ah. So it's a it's a mess. Hey. So there's just even for phase one detoxification, we need iron. So and it is the most common nutritional deficiency in the world, I think, because of social media.
Why did you just say that? It is.
It's the number one. And I think we're missing it because right now with social media there are other nutrients that appear more popular. Everyone knows about how important magnesium is. Vitamin D. Vitamin D, you got it. Creatine, protein. And all of it's important, but we're missing we're missing iron.
But you're we're missing iron, but right now in our space, especially, iron is not in vogue, meaning iron is becoming negative. Because there's some research, and I and we have to have this conversation because it's really important because there's research showing that high ferritin levels, and we'll we'll talk about what's high or what's not, is driving more oxidation, heart attack, strokes.
When I've read the studies on this, okay, I I'm not as convinced that being, especially for a male, you know, driving your iron, ferritin levels, which is stored iron, under 100 is actually a good thing. It's not as simple as they're making it. So ta tell me what you know about this topic because this is very controversial right now. Everyone's forcing iron down, right? And I I agree, hemochromatosis is a condition where iron can go super high and be super oxidative, very dangerous.
Yeah. But what is your whole feeling on this whole topic right now?
So I get direct messages every day from people bringing this store this part of the story to life and asking where's the truth in this, or they'll have watched a video on social media that says never ever take iron because it's essentially a poison, and their iron has tanked and they feel horrendous.
I know.
So there's more to iron, obviously, to its metabolism than just iron. So iron needs copper, it needs vitamin A to go into storage and come out of storage. So sometimes what looks like iron accumulation is copper deficiency or vitamin A deficiency or at least insufficiency.
So in other words, if ferritin levels look like they're rising up, it could be another issue.
It could be another nutritional issue. And of course, inflammation falsely elevates ferritin.
That's right. Absolutely.
So when if you have a blo if you have any kind of inflammation from lousy lifestyle choices or an injury and you have a blood test for ferritin, it'll be higher than it actually is.
By the way, people with parasites, candida, and other pathogens, their ferritin goes up.
Yep. And it does that because the bodies doesn't want the parasites to have too much iron available to them, and so it pops it into storage to get it out of the way.
Yep. Yeah. So it's not. Yeah, and then they're they're lacking iron. And by the way, we're going to talk about an iron because when people say, well, it makes people constipate. No, you're taking the wrong iron.
That's right.
Because it's it's feeding the bacteria, and the bacteria actually create the constipation.
That's right.
Yeah.
So and I think there can be cellular infl inflammation in the cells that line the small intestine. Let's unpack that, can we? Yeah, okay. Okay. So with what I call old school iron supplements, they are typically iron bound to a salt or acelate. And you swallow them and they rely on stomach acid to split that apart. So then the iron is free. And the f this is old school supplements, not the good ones we're going to talk about in a minute. So then that free iron.
And by the way, though, this is what's on the market, though. That's right. That's right.
So the free iron then arrives at the surface of the cells that line the small intestine. And if people can imagine on the surface of the cell of the small intestine is a truck, a transporter, a lorry called DMT1. Don't worry about the supername. Is that that was a new one? Is that a truck? A truck.
But that's an Australian thing. A lorry, yeah. I was trying to maybe it's pretty much.
I had a flashback.
We have we have these uh people. A truck.
The Thomas the Train term.
Okay, great. Everyone knows what a truck is when we go with truck, a transporter. On the surface of the gut cell is a little truck called DMT1, and this free iron has to get on the back of the truck and be driven inside the gut cell. This truck also transports calcium, zinc, other minerals. So it's a busy truck. So firstly, iron has to get the space on the back of the truck, and then it goes inside the gut cell, but it floods the inside of the cells that line the small intestine.
It floods them with free iron, and free iron is very inflammatory and drives oxidative stress. I think that is also what contributes to the constipation people experience with old school common type iron supplements. But right now, the I with these old school supplements in what I'm describing, the iron is still inside the cell, it's not in the blood, so it can go and do its work. It's got to get out of the cell.
And to get out of the cell, there's an enzyme that's needed that is completely reliant on copper. So when people take high-dose, cheap old school iron supplements, flood the gut cells with all this iron, there's no copper to do the work and get it out of the gut cells, and I think it can be very damaging to the gut.
Yeah. Oh wow, yeah.
And it doesn't do it doesn't then go on and do the work it needs to do in your body. It's stuck in the gut cells. Whereas with the the iron that we're talking about, so ferritin iron, the there's I've used ferritin iron in my product, iconic iron, it's extracted from peas, good old organic peas. And the ferritin iron remains, we we pop it in a supplement and we when we swallow it, it mostly escapes digestion degradation by stomach acid.
And if I describe what it looks like, ferritin is like a little protein cage that the peas naturally make and house iron inside it. So there's there can be four and a half thousand atoms of iron inside the ferritin cage. And when that little ferritin cage containing all of that iron arrives at the small intestine, the cells that line the small intestine just reach out and grab that thing whole and take it inside the cell.
The cell, the gut cell, is not exposed to free iron because it's beautifully housed inside the cage, and it also isn't reliant on copper to get out the back door and into the blood. It can just do that, be delivered to what's called the total iron pool, and then the magnificence of the body decides where that iron is going to be best used. So the absorption is extraordinary. There's the the bioavail bioavailability is amazing, and there's no side effects.
Yeah. And I tell you, I I've told you this. People that tend to, I'm one of them, tend to rise ferritin. That's why I know a lot about this. But as I found out, it really wasn't as high, right, as I thought. Yeah. But um I would take this iron and it wouldn't budge at all. If if anything, I I did a before and after blood after like six months, and my ferritin was lower. I mean, that might have been coincidence, but it didn't raise it. That's the point.
Well, and it wouldn't it doesn't add to the it doesn't add to any inflammation. Yeah, zero. Right.
Yeah, I mean, so it it's the this topic is really it's just not that simple. Here's where I uh go off the freeway on this topic.
Okay. Love this.
No one can give me an explanation for this because I say I come from a major premise that God doesn't make mistakes. He's designed our body perfectly and beautifully, right? And intelligence knows exactly what to do. So did God make a mistake that, you know, we're eating up this perfect diet and ferritin levels are going up? Because here's the thing ferritin levels are highest in young athletes, and ferritin levels are highest in, you know, people, some groups that you wouldn't expect.
And you know, so I'm looking at this going, huh. So wait a minute. It's like is there a mistake here? And you know, the answer is no, it's not as simple as we think, and that's what you're explaining. This uh this high ferritin thing is not what you think. It could be parasitic, it could be just inflammation, and it could be athletes who actually what's turned out I find a study on who are training a lot in inflammatory, they run higher ferritin levels, but it's not a negative to them.
There's no association with other uh strokes and other conditions.
That's right. So when if you're going to do a blood test for iron to test ferritin, you are told to not exercise for 48 hours. And so to to get an accurate reflection of ferritin. So if you have a blood test three or four hours after you've exercised, ferritin will be significantly higher than it actually is.
So that's when they see this high ferritin in young athletes, that's what they're seeing.
So to get an accurate picture, they need to have a break from exercise, which none of them want to do, which I understand. Uh and so it's potentially falsely elev false elevation that we're seeing. That's not to take away. I think if we speak more broadly about blood tests, there's another blood test that we do for iron called transferrin. And transferrin is a taxi that drives iron around. So transferrin is elevated in iron deficiency and iron deficiency anemia. It's a sign of iron hunger.
So I look at sure I look at ferritin, but I also look at transferrin, and down under our normal range for transferrin is two to three point six grams per liter. But there's as you will we will fully vibe with this, there's ideal ranges. There's normal ranges and then there's ideal ranges. So what I've just said is the normal range that pathology will say.
For me, once transferrin gets above 2.5 or 2.6, it's showing the body is seeking more iron, it's making more taxis to try and pick up more passengers, the passengers being the iron. So if you couple that with a ferritin score, we get a much better idea about what the body, the glorious intelligence of the body, is actually seeking.
So what you're saying is you can't just look at a ferritin, you have to look at transferritin. And I think I read even there's another one in there. It's not total iron that you have to look at it.
Total iron binding capacity. That's what it is. T I basically just another way to look at transferrin, they're looking at the same thing. Okay. All right.
Okay, that's for that. So I didn't think that's a good thing. It's the same thing. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So again, bringing insanity to this, people are just, you know, worrying about they're not taking iron, they're avoiding iron, they're even choosing low iron foods, etc., because they're worried about their ferritin levels, because they're saying, hey, we're I'm gonna have a heart attack.
If they have hemochromatosis, which is a genetic condition of iron accumulation, that's entirely.
If a normal range is uh, you know, 50 to 300, I I don't even know down under his numbers, but um they're we're talking about over a thousand um which is uh hemochromatosis.
Then that and of course that's a big concern. So for I'll give you an example. So the normal range for ferritin in the States for an adult female is 12 to 150, you have a nanograms per liter. Yeah. Down under the normal range for ferritin for adult women is 20 to 220 micrograms uh per liter. So but they actually it actually basically works out the same. I I checked before I came in. Um so the optimum range it for ferritin in my clinical experience is 50 to 150 for ferritin, that's for women.
Okay, males.
For males, you can allow for it to go a bit higher. It's kind of 50 to maybe 250. Once though anyone's ferritin gets below 50, you have symptoms. There's very good really good research looking at it.
And there's people telling people to get below 50, right? I'm like, why that makes no sense?
It's a backup battery.
And then they're saying you have to give blood. And their their thought is, well, men don't bleed like they used to. I'm not buying that. We're not, you know, come on. We're lopping arms off all the time. You know, I mean, we're not in war. I mean, honestly, that's what they say. Yeah. It's like, so it's like that that makes no sense.
But I I think broadening so obviously iron is incredibly important, and if someone is told that they're, you know, they might be inside the normal range, their ferritin might be 22 and they're told it's fine.
No one's going to feel great when their ferritin's 22, particularly anyone who does any kind of exercise, anyone who for a woman whose iron requirements, let's say she's going through perimenopause and she's menstruating more frequently, her iron requirements are greater, so there's no backup battery there. So minimum 50. But yes, of course, we don't want it to go too high either. But the with with old school iron supplements, usually I would see ferritin when we want it to improve.
It might be a woman whose ferritin was, say, 14, which is way too low, and it might get to 16 in two months with old school supplements with ferritin iron from the organic piece. So I with iconic iron. The iconic iron is moving it from 14 to 43 in two months.
I'm telling you, it transforms women's energy, their brain. I mean, it's okay. First of all, before tell them where to get your book because all of this, because they're going, I can't keep all this is in her book, and in how to get the iron, so just tell them, share that.
That's so lovely. Thank you. So my latest book is called Fixiron First, and it's available at drink drlibby.com, so D-R-L-I-B-B-Y.com. And iconic iron bioblends is my supplement company, and it's all made from food, and it's at bioblends.com.
Yeah. I mean, great product. She's a biochemist, of course, there's great products, right? It's like so. But the the iron thing is, I I just, you know, I you know I geek out on this iron topic and all of it.
So I just Well, I told him I was my energy has just been done. I I will say I think I've had some sleep disruption. Could be the mattress. We've uh got a new home and a new mattress. We didn't figure that out.
We didn't choose this mattress. It took me eight months to research the best mattress in the world. I found one. You're gonna I'm I'm gonna bring the guy on. I'm so excited about this.
Yeah, so anyway, that's ordered. But um energy, I just feel a little more sluggish. And I think that uh it maybe that is my symptom, right? And I also during perimetopause, I developed ligament laxity. That was my issue. I didn't have hot flashes, I didn't have mood swings, I didn't have that stuff, but I did have the ligament laxity and I she had a spondylow, almost a grade three.
That that means your spine, I I know you know what I'm gonna explain to them. Shifts like forward happened when she was they put her in the walker too early.
That's why you don't ever put a baby until they can wait bear in a jumper. Yeah. Don't ever do it.
Jumpers, walkers, because the spine's not meant for that. And 80% of them get spondylolithesis with a bone slide. She had that. And but most people don't know it until adulthood. Women don't know it until guess what? They're going through perimenopause. Estrogen keeps ligaments intact, right? And it's normal to estrogen to change, estrogen lower, but it created just enough laxity where that shifted, right? And now she had symptoms with it.
So a lot of stem cells and um more research, and and I'm in very good shape. But it's been a full-time job keeping getting all that put back together. And um, so the mattress now, but nonetheless, I do think that and I get out of bed stiff, you know, not I'm always looking for that comfortable position. So other than being disturbed in my sleep and now a little more sluggish, I would say that's it. But like, so for me, what is it?
You know, what would you recommend in terms of obviously iron consists? I don't know, what do I take? I take two of those a day. Yeah. Um is that enough? It's great, it's perfect.
And what's the name of the product?
Iconic iron.
There you go. That's what my wife takes. Yeah. And but and by the way, it's more recently taking that. You were taking my mineral, which has the same iron, but you needed higher levels. And that's why I'm like, you need this iron.
So you told me to take less of that and more of what you have just to get more of that iron.
And then I also put her on copper peptide uh GHK, knowing that the copper. Yeah, so just to make sure that she had a copper. And by the way, I one of the the zinc, we we have the most absorbable zinc in the world. Um, and it's because that's part of that as well.
And so what about like your greens and you have something that's red?
So are those also of assuming that because they're her, talk about what you would say.
Here's what you need of of uh and I'll do the rest of it because I'm all about it, you know, obviously.
This is your time to promote your product right here. She opened the door.
And you've got your first customer on from the Dr. Papa podcast.
You're so sweet. So yeah, uh Bioblends, the big difference is it is all made from food. So the organic daily grains and reds is very it's only six ingredients. I see a lot of products out there that might have 60 ingredients and it's tiny little doses of, you know, see that's my criticism of these products, I'll be honest with you.
Okay.
That's right. So there's only six ingredients. They're very concentrated to a therapeutic dose. So you've got your wheatgrass, your barley grass, but there's also this really magnificent extract of broccoli in there that contains high levels of glucoraffinin that the body converts to sulforophane.
Uh, sulfur is a big problem too with people.
And so for phase two liver detoxification, so if we think about so the the organic daily greens and radiant reds would be really beautiful. I have another product called liver love that's specifically designed for phase one and phase two detox to support that. So that's all very helpful.
And I want to say this that applies to hormones. It does. Because how you get rid of toxic hormones, toxic uh estrogen metabolites, which can drive cancer and other problems, is phase one and phase two detox.
It is. So then there is um a meno ease product that uh contains just beautiful they're very gentle herbs, but saffron is in there.
What is it?
Meno Ease. What is it? So that's for women if they are postmenopausal, so they're not bleeding anymore, but they have still some sort of neurological symptoms, or there might be a tension in their body. So saffron is one of the key ingredients in that that is incredibly calming and soothing.
We got a lot of tension building up in that body.
So we are we are I think I've never been better.
See, she gave it me, so I'm coming back. Uh no, but that that product she needs.
And then there's calm restore. So calm restore is you can use it during the day if you feel that heightened sense with that sort of adrenaline experience, or you can use it at night for sleep. Um, do you have anything with you?
Exactly.
You need that product, you know. I will have it delivered to you whenever you want. First of all, I I love because you're a biochemist, right? It's like, you know, so you know how to make products, you know the balance, you know the synergies, right? And um, but you really have focused on women her age, you know, perimenopause, menopause, that is your area of expertise. And that's why I was like, you know, you gotta be on this show, Hunt, because you're her girl.
Yeah, I I think I'm one of the only people that, at least in conversation, and I might maybe I'm older than most of my friends that would talk about this, right, and really care. But I feel like so many women are doing hormones. Trevor Burrus, Jr. Well, because they're they're taking the cheap way out.
I mean, it's easy that is easier Trevor Burrus, it's the easier way out. Yeah, it's the easier way out. And it's not let me defend you. Seriously, because it's all you're told, so it's not your fault. Right. And that is the truth. So I I I made that sound worse than it was because it's not their fault, that's all they know. Right. You've had the advantage of me in many ways, hopefully. No, but women don't know that what we're saying.
Like we talked, we started this conversation with the stress response. Yeah. Your calm product obviously helps them there. Very much. Right, yeah. So you're dealing with that pillar of the emotional component. Yes, and and that's we talked about how iron plays into that. We're talking about how a lot of the sulfur can play into this, right? Getting rid of toxic hormones. That's right. You know, so you've thought this through.
Very much. You and thank you, Dr. Pompa, for even seeing that. Thank you. Because I have I've thought through every product. Every product is made meticulously with ridiculous I'm a pain, I'm a pest to work with because I have to. You've got to be a pain and a pest to work with, absolutely.
Okay, good. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. My kids would say that too, because uh you know, I'm always trying to drive the next thing, but I want to make products that I'm happy taking and that Me too.
And yeah, and so when you care And solve a problem. That's right, that that and that make actually make a difference. So um for energy for energy, let's think about life when energy is low, everything's more difficult. We are less likely to do a home cooked meal because we'll get takeout when we're tired. People will do that. They won't exercise, they'll just sit on the couch and not exercise.
If you think about your confidence in yourself when you lack energy day after day, it'll impact a promotion you might want to apply for or a job you might want to apply for. It low energy affects your self-talk and the way you speak to everyone you love in the world. So when I couple the organic daily greens with iron, people write to us every day going, My energy has literally transformed. I can literally feel the difference. I believe it's a lot of different things.
And clearly the next product I'm going to be. And you think about the ripple effect of that, not only on the individual, but on everyone they come into contact with.
Yeah, but you need the calm for sleep. You do. I mean I need it all. I mean, just and then uh what was that? Mini, what was it called then? Meno ease. Meno ease. You need the meno, meno, menopause. I I was mishearing that. Meno ease. I got it. It's the accent.
And for women still menstruating, there is a product called Cycle Essentials. So for PCOS or really heavy, painful periods, that can also be lovely. So but yeah, everything has been thought through. It's been considered from a I look at the biochemical pathways and what I want to address, and then the nutrients that are also needed.
And that's the I I think there's two huge advantages. Here. Number one, you're a woman because you like the things that are important to me, I dig in. Yes. Right? You dug into this topic, right? Because you are who you are. And then the other thing is you're a biochemist. What about our men out there? Because they're they're you we already said, you know, that they're suffering with uh just being thrown on testosterone or antidepressants. Neither are really getting to the problem.
So I think for men I meet a lot of men who will self-medicate with an excessive amount of alcohol. I'm not talking about a drink here and there, but I mean an e you know, they're relying on it to change their mood or they think they need alcohol to sleep. And they m they might be in a position where they can have less or they'll say, I'm not ready to do that yet, but I want to protect my liver. So that's where obviously I'm not saying keep drinking and don't address that and just take a pill.
But there are there are some beautiful herbs in liver love that can be very helpful to the liver, very protective. So a lot of men will use that to support their liver. Then of course, zinc, you mentioned zinc. I there's also a zinc, but we need zinc for the body to be able to make testosterone. And interestingly, when I wrote fix iron first, I really dug into boys at puberty. Puberty is delayed in boys when they're iron deficient.
So to and research was done showing some were given testosterone therapy or growth hormone therapy, and some were given iron, and the iron ones hit their puberty that they were supposed to be in, they hit it sooner and better. So iron boys who are iron deficient have delayed puberty. So that speaks to me that we also need to be mindful of that for men. Obviously, men's requirements for iron aren't as great as women across the menstruation years because men aren't menstruating.
But we might even on argument about that today. But even on this tri even on this visit to the states, you know, I'm I I I'm really I'm so respectful of uh you know people's life of people's life experience and I don't always inquire because things are private to people. I have had four men on this experience, it's just come out that they're iron they've told me that they're iron deficient. I just say speak about what I do without mentioning iron.
Oh yeah, I'm iron deficient, they've said four men. So it's becoming a bigger problem for men, which is a surprise for me, really.
Well, you look at the fact that people are being told meat causes heart disease and all these problems, right? And we're talking about you know, conventional meat, I agree is not great, but grass-fed meat couldn't be better for your hormones, your iron, all the minerals that we're talking about. And if they if you remember what Dr. Libby said, what was it, the top of the hormone chain? Cholesterol.
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly. So I mean, you know, eating grass-fed, 100% grass-fed meat can make up a lot of these deficiencies too, right? And people aren't doing that though.
And there's a lot of, I think, confusing information for people out there around meat. So it is a great privilege that we can now access organic grass-fed mate. Yeah. And yeah, it's yeah.
Can you how is it in Australia? I think you have I mean you have probably better better things as far as that goes, but worse. It's in the supermarket.
It's very it's not just in specialty stores, organic grass-fed mates in the supermarket.
I'll tell you what, I felt bad for Australia and New Zealand. You know, such nanny states and the vaccine thing with COVID and COVID period. I mean, y'all really, I mean, did you stay put or did you stay in the middle of the street?
I was in Queensland and there were no restrictions. Oh, that's great. So it was uh a lot of people from the southern states where there were a lot of restrictions, a lot of people from down south moved north. So the roads are having to be white, the population in the northern state where it's really so. They were like, we're out of here. Yeah.
Is there a different like political structure in one versus the other?
Uh, that's a good question. I don't pay much attention to that. Uh but they've moved and they've stayed.
They don't, actually. Yeah, it's like, you know, not like here.
No, yeah, it's a it's a different stuff.
Because a different knew someone that was obviously in the difficult part. Number. He came here. Oh, interesting. Yeah, yeah.
So yeah. But obviously even looking at that and the you know, the importance of something like vitamin D, just one of the gifts of that is I think people became, oh, our immunity is not just something we should think about in winter. I want to be strong and resilient all year round. I think that's a great, you know, we want to look after the the terrain. We want to make sure the terrain is robust. And how do we do that?
We do that with all the basic principles nutrition, sleep, sunshine, movement. You know, all these I I I kind of make a we we've wanted all of these hacks to and I understand why people do that, especially people who are already exceptionally well, they want to extend on that.
Exactly.
But because that the hacks end up all over social media, I think a lot of people miss the basics. Just the food, the movement, the sleep, the sunshine, the water. And if, for example, you c one of my little catch-cries right now is you can't cold plunge your way out of iron deficiency. Like you have to address or anything else, by the way.
I'll make the argument you can cold plunge your way into hormone problems. You can because cold is a stress, and if you don't adapt to the stress, it all becomes inflammatory and a negative, and people are doing too much. So, to the point, I you know, it's like I love biohacks, right? But I'm doing all the things that you said, right? Yeah. But you have to understand biohacks work on the premise of hormesis. Yes. And that means they work by stressing the body.
People are doing too much red light. Another study just came out, remember? Because you were asking me, oh my gosh, does that apply? They were talking about how you can, you know, you're adding this charge into the mitochondria and why that can go bad, you know, with too much red light because it bypasses normal things. Blah, blah, blah. But anyways, because see, light is meant to be full spectrum, right? So you can overdo biohacks, you can overdo cold, you can overdo hot.
Did you see the new study out? People sitting uh in saunas, men, uh, they're they're crushing their sperm. I'm not surprised. Yeah, exactly. Affected testosterone level, fertility.
I mean, all these things are actually women with implants.
So Paul Saladino. Oh, yeah, that's the other thing. Paul Saladino literally to sit in the sauna longer, and I'm saying this is a positive Paul figured it out. Uh, he ices his nuts. Uh so he doesn't get affected. I mean, it's like but my point is you have to be careful with biohacks. That's the only point I'm making. I'm not negative on it. I'm just saying be careful. You have to understand how they work. So very much.
Note taken.
Yeah, you know what? I so my son, my clever son, doing the video, and because I read a piece of the study when I did a the Instagram video, and he says, Well, that also includes people using hot seats all the time. Like people turn their seat all the way up and drive for an hour. It's he's right.
I never let my boys turn on their heated seat because I would tell them you're killing your sperm. Yeah, it's right. Want to have children someday.
I mean, you know, and then ultimately you're affecting, you know, I mean the testicles have the ability to move up and down, but to what point when you have heat right on them? Not a good thing.
Good point. When you think about traditional Chinese medicine, cold is not your friend. They will encourage warmth, warm food, keep your lower back warm, the top of your neck warm. And so I too worry particularly about women overextending on cold and the the the stress of that, because I think warmth is more a lot of women. I wrote a book in 2011. How many books have you read? 14.
Oh, excuse.
2011 feels like yesterday to me, but anyway, it's not. It's a while ago. But I wrote a book called Rushing Woman Syndrome as in hurry. And the a the women I describe in that book are living on red alert with that high adrenaline that we talked about with hormone disruption because of persistent stress, often not looking after themselves.
People need to re Where do they buy the books again? Dr.
Libby.com.
Okay.
And uh so with that sort of rushing scenario, there's so much, so much tension, there's so much depletion that I think cold depletes them further. I agree.
By the way, I agree. I have rejected cryotherapy, cold plunges. I mean, literally, I've done one cold plunge in my life that I was like, I could do this, and it was the one in Puerto Rico, and it was just in the ground of water.
I made sure it was 55 degrees.
Right, because it was just the earth. I mean, it was there was no nothing special. It wasn't too cold, and but otherwise, I have I have literally it's it it's nearly traumatizing.
Yeah.
Well, but but not just you, most women are.
Yeah, but I so I'm so happy to be validated like with science. This is good.
And I think too, we um I we have a the there's a voice inside of us that has our back.
There's we know we actually inherently know women are so much more in tune with their body.
But they still ignore it too often. And perceptive of of situations, too, right? I think women like he learned to trust me before his own gut, but it bothered him for the longest time of why he would ever consider doing that. And and we read something, it was written by a Christian author explaining that God trust is God put that thing in women, that barometer. And follow your gut, ladies, follow your gut. And it is a it is a trust.
Your wife's always right.
Happy wife, happy life. But it is a it is a trust that to know you know, there's a voice that's saying it's time to go to bed. Hello. It's time to go to bed. You know, you know what to eat for lunch. You don't need to look for another expert to tell you what to eat for lunch. But we we stop listening, we tune out, we think we don't know, and then yeah, we we can feel so lost. So I would also encourage people to tune in.
I I think that you know, too, I don't want to call fasting a biohack. I love fasting, right? But I always tell, you know, there's this group of women shouldn't fast. Well, that's not true, but women definitely shouldn't fast like a man. One of my students, Mindy Pelts, you know, she wrote a book, Fast Like a Woman, right? It's like Yeah, she was actually she never fasted a day in her life. She sat there and was the only one eating at one of my seminars and we were doing a fast. It was hilarious.
I love her. But anyway, um, but the point is that you know you women shouldn't fast like a man because they d absolutely need to respect the stress of fasting. And it can be a very much too much stress. So I find women are fasting too much today. And I think a lot of people are fasting too much, at least in our space, because it's a stress. Even though I love fasting, I now walk around to these seminars saying the feast is as important as the fast.
I find women benefit more from feasting, feast days, healthy food, um, than even fasting because they're lacking.
Trevor Burrus, Jr.: And and even in a like in a regimen people get into, right? We're we'll do we'll eat a day, we'll fast a day and eat one meal lately that we've been doing that. But like today, I'm hungry. I'm going to eat. And it's my fast day. Yeah. And I don't care. You know, it's I just you just can't get in bondage to the process. And so many women, I think, and and the other thing I had to learn to stop doing is comparing what he does to what's best for me. Beautiful.
And and that that took some time. I'd be like, well, if you can do this. You want to hit me with it? I'll take care of you later.
This is why we I have these. I'm the only one that has these, but no. I'll do that.
And it's coming at one.
It's gonna be like and you're gonna be like coming at, and I'm gonna be coming at you. Coming in with the wrong thing.
That may be a different kind of therapist.
People just listening, there's these little pillows that are on the side that are strategically here. Yeah, they're and we can we whack each other with them.
So, needless to say.
Needless to say.
I'm eating today. You're not I'm sorry.
I don't know. Maybe I will then but anyway, yeah, because I said I started this conversation by hard work on the money.
It's a travel day, and we really do best on travel days. We do. I mean, it's just something we do, and it makes sense, and it's healthy, and all of that keeps protects you from the radiation and all that stuff. So one less stressor.
How many products do you have?
Uh there are nine.
Yeah.
Nine.
Or any for any for this strong and just medicate me. You can't just medicate me to submission, huh? It's like that's where prayer comes in. Yeah, exactly. She's right, she's doing great. I've I've worked really hard. Yeah. And I've I've done a lot of things, but now I'm ready to try some more of your products. I'm excited. Because the only one I do have is the iron one. And I've only been on it.
No, her products are great. I mean, uh her knowledge around these topics are really good. That's why you're here.
Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it. And it's gorgeous to have a conversation with such like-minded people. It's really special. Really fun.
There's something pressing that you feel they have to know. What is it?
Well, other than find out if you're iron deficient and address it if you are, I guess my closing my closing thoughts I guess are more around I guess the magnificence of life because we can be so we can get so caught up in the doing, the achieving, the productivity, and that's all magnificent, particularly if it you know is contributing to the life, your own life and the lives of others.
But when um I read a book many years ago now by Bronny Ware called The Top Five Regrets of the Dying, and she was a palliative care nurse. That's interesting. She was a palliative care. Do you remember them? Maybe not all. Well, one of the the top one was that people lived a life that was not their own. It was living a life that others expected of them, and so they kind of feel like they missed their life. But the other big takeaway, I get goosebumps when I talk about it.
The other big thing takeaway I got from that book is that so much joy that we experience in life comes from letting ourselves have what we already have. So when you talk to people who are dying and you ask them what they're gonna miss the most in the world, they tell you the most ordinary things. They'll say they're gonna miss the night sky or the feeling of their dog's fur under their fingertips, or their partner's face, or the smell of freshly cut lemon. And we have all of that right now.
And so I think we need to let ourselves have what we already have, because I think that's what joy is all about, and joy gives us an irreplaceable depth of energy, and your heart is so open, you've got tears in your eyes. I resonate with that. Yeah, me too. It's why I w when someone when when you so graciously ask for, you know, is there something I mean another message you want to bring to life?
It's other than addressing nutritional deficiencies and and being curious about your own stress responses, it's very much to let yourself have what you already have because it's even when there's pain, even when there's genuinely hard times or awful things happening in your own life or in the world, there's still beauty. And our minds, I think, tend to focus on one or the other, but they coexist. It's like the moon is always there, the clouds can move over her face, but she never disappears.
And it's like the pain sometimes we start we focus a lot on that and we miss the beauty that's still there. And it's always available. The pain and the beauty coexist, and it's one of the the gifts of of of life.
Wow. That was a beautiful um synopsis of so much right there. That was that was amazing. Well, you can see that uh why you need or you know this, who to share this show with. You know right now, so you're gonna want to share the show. Uh, but Dr. Libby Weaver, you're amazing. Go to her stuff, the books, 14 of them. I I I know two of them. So I think I have to get there. Yeah, you need to read.
I guess I need to start reading. I'm I want to start writing.
Yeah.
I gave up on reading. You have so much to share.
It would be great for you to write.
Wow. Yeah, great show. You know who to share it with. Visit her stuff. So thank you for being here. It's been a joy. Thank you so much for this conversation.
Thank you for all the ways you care for people in the world. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, too.