I'll get a team. Welcome to another and so know the Bloody show. Doctor Denise Faness joins us. She's becoming a regular this year. Not she's becoming irregular. She's becoming a regular here at Tea. Well she's quite irregular, isn't she? But we love her for that.
Hi, Hi, you know what, I'm actually still regular even though I'm I'm going to be forty seven this year. So that's just where my head went with menstrual cycles. I'm not sure about anyone else, but you know, even though I'm in that stage of perimenopause, I'm still regular. Just in case the listeners were interested in that.
Well, you told me before, although like literally sixty seconds ago, you said, we're not going to talk about my stuff, my bodily whatever. We're just going to talk science and then straight away. But look while we're there, because it is science, right, and our audience is predominantly female, and also, give or take, you're almost our typical mographic, right, you know,
mid something forty lady. I'm being very generalizing here because we do have a broad cross section of men and women of all ages and all kind of you know, kind of backgrounds and year Hello, shout out to yeah, group of fucking weirdos, We love you. I was I going to say, yeah, So is that do you think that how like when perimenopause happens, when menopause happens, Is that completely I don't know the answer to this, is
that completely genetic? Is that ninety percent genetic? Is that influenced by lifestyle and behavior?
And so influenced by lifestyle and behavior. Yes, there's a genetic component. For example, girls will often get their menstrual cycle at a similar time than their parents, you know, earlier or later, and same with perimenopause. Menopause can happen at similar ages. We don't know the exact genes, but we do think they're Like with everything, there's there's a genetic component. However, we also know that diet and lifestyle play a big role in in not just the timing,
but also the the exacerbated symptoms that some women experience. So, for example, hot flashes are more common in women that smoke. You know, there are links with cortisol and palpitations, which is something that I often have when I'm when I'm highly stressed. I thought my thyroid issues might have been coming back but my thyroid is is absolutely fine. No nowhere near you know, hyper thyroid. So when I am traveling now, so I'm fine, I'm at home, I'm relaxed.
I'm not having any perimenopause symptoms at the moment. I if anyone can see this, I might look hot and red. That's because it is humid as up here right now. I'm hot. But when I'm traveling and I'm on the other side the world and I'm missing out on sleep and I'm up on stage and the stress is kicking in, perimenopause kicks me in the butt. I'm obviously not sleeping well, but I start getting the hot flashes sometimes when I'm speaking on stage. Just calm and you're like, and I
thought it was just a hot flash. And one of the last events I did in Dubai, after doing five talks in two days, mind you, and then coming back from everything, I had a moment I just thought it was one of the hot flashes, and I was like, oh goodness, like this is really taking over. So I kind of stepped back and leant on the lectern and it was sort of like almost I couldn't get my breath. I mean, I'm someone who's pretty animated anyway and whatever. But I was like, wow, like I almost feel like
I'm going to faint. I can't get my breath palpitations. And it was a good group, was like thirty doctors, and I kind of just threw it back to them. Of course, they could probably just think, what's going on with her? Know something's happening. But we were talking about health. Actually I think I was talking about hormone genetics and perimenopause. But I just asked a question to everyone to generate some conversation, and thank god, it worked, like amongst them,
they just started having a conversation. But it gave me a minute or so just to breathe, get my head together, because I was like, god, am I going to fall over? I can't even get the words out, you know.
I was all right.
But I came back and she saw a perimenopause doctor and I spoke to her and I said, when I'm away, these hot flashes are getting worse. She said, that's not a hot flash, that's a panic attack. I was like, wow, I don't have panic attacks. I don't have you know, anxiety. That's not me. And she said it's really common in perimenopause, and when she explained it, I was like, well, yeah, I guess it wasn't a typical hot flash. I was out of breath. I did feel like I couldn't cope
for a second, so I didn't realize. For those of you out there, some of you might know that panic attacks are one of the symptoms that occur in perimen pause. But from my own personal experience, it is when I'm under high stress. And then if we want to get to the science, the science actually shows, like forget my personal experience, we actually have evidence to show that cortisole
does increase risk of some of these symptoms. So if you're dealing with chronic stress having some quarterzole issues, the other big one that you want to get in check is blood glucose because that affects things as well. So for those of you listening out there who might just think, oh God, I've got perimenopause, all this stuff is happening.
If you can get in your weight in check, get your stress in check, you know, maybe get a continuous blood glucose monitor, put in some good sleep hygiene, you know, work on your diet. Actually, in all honesty, this is not fluffy stuff like we have evidence to show and I actually have a three look at me, go here, we weren't even going to talk about this topic. I have a three step process with my women. So first step is the diet and lifestyle. So let's talk about exercise.
Let's talk about diet, and in all honesty, some cases, that is enough. Just these tweaks can be game changing. Then we have level two. When we've implemented these things and you know, things aren't working, we go to supplements. So there are particular supplements, herbals, vitamins, things you can give that might add a little bit of extra edge.
And then when that doesn't work and they might actually be suffering because for some women that actually genuinely is affecting their mood, their ability to work, you know, it can be quite serious. Then we think about hormone replacement therapy.
So that is my Yeah, wow, so one is sorry, I'm taking notes like I'm a fucking student at UNI because I'm learning. So okay, so a couple of things you gave us a lot then, right, so can hit the brakes for one second? Yeah all right? And also I'm a dude, so this is not definitely not my area of expertise. It's good that I had to point out to you that I was a dude.
I'm not sure why I wasn't sure, so I'm glad you No, we'll just look just clearing up for everyone.
Okay, firstly, I know what it is, but tell everyone what a blood glucose monitor is, why why it might be for some people A good idea to what is it and why might it be a good thing for some people to use? So your blood glucose is an indication of how well you're managing your carbohydrates.
So some people will consume carbs. And this does actually have a significant genetic component. By the way, some of us tolerate carbohydrates really well. We've got certain genes. We just we do things a bit differently. So genetically some
of us are a bit more sensitive. But then when we enter perimenopause, and it's not just perimenopause too, I believe even with andropause, I think men and women as we start to have these hormonal changes, all of us, regardless of genetics, we become we just don't tolerate the carbohydrates so well. We're not as effective as managing those blood sugars, so we want to look at these blood sugar levels. It's very much dependent on a hormone called insulin.
You want to have good insulin response. It takes the blood, you know, the glucose out of the blood and puts it in the muscles if you're exercising, or it might store it as fat, but we really want to have that good blood glucose control. It affects mood and energy and all sorts of things. So we know that that is more likely to become a bit imbalanced and that
the body's not working so well, so we can measure it. Typically, someone might go to the doctor and get their blood glucose or even glucose and insulin, or we even have a marker called HbA one C and that particular marker is probably a little bit better than glucose. Doesn't mean you shouldn't get your glucose, but your glucose obviously you
know you're doing a randomlood glucose or fasted. It's something that can change very quickly, whereas a HbA one sees a bit more of an indication of what your blood glucose is likely to have been over sort of a three month period. So typically that's what a lot of
people listening would have had done. But we also have what's called a continuous blood glucose monitor, where you literally stick a little device on the back of the arm and it will be measuring your blood glucose all the time, and it's connected to an app that you can have on your phone, and then when you eat a certain food, you can be like, oh my god, I ate a potato chip and my glucose has just skyrocketed, or I've just yelled at my kids, and oh my god, that
has spiked my cortisole, and that cortisole is now causing my liver to pump glucose out because it thinks I'm stressed, I've got a fight or flight. So the continuous glucose monitor is actually allowing you in real time to look at how your spot, your body, not your spody, everyone, just your body, how your body is reacting to environmental stresses and also to the foods you eat. So you then can be like, wow, I thought this was a
healthy food for me, and it's not. All these foods that I kind of knew weren't healthier actually really not good for me, or it's more my lifestyle or the nights that I only get that I stay up and watch Netflix and I get an hour or two less sleep. The whole next day, my blood glucose is high. So it's really powerful stuff if you want to take the lifestyle action, because it can guide you on what could be working and what's not. So I don't know for
allowed to mention companies. If we're not, then then we won't sure. Yeah, so if you want to look into this, we have Vivally here in Australia. We're predominantly Australian audience. Yeah, predominantly yeah, yeah, So Vibally is the play to go in my opinion. By the way, there might be others, and if there are, feel free to flood the U Project and Craig with that information.
But to my knowledge, yeah, exactly, and then you can do we could do a review on.
The companies I know. But Vivally is really good. I will disclose that I know Michelle Woolhouse really well, but I have no connections to the company, but I trust her. She's an amazing GP. She's founded this with someone else that does all the tech. I mean, they're obviously using devices that are produced you know, around the world, but
they've put the company together. You can do testing through a practitioner, like for example, someone can do this through me and then I can look in the back end and get even more data. But you don't even need a practitioner. You could just go into vibally. It's really not that expensive. I shouldn't say that. You don't know everyone's at To me, it's not too expensive when you consider your health. You know, for a couple of hundred dollars and they're always having great specials. Get on the
email list. You can then get the device, so you can get the app. You know, you probably only need to do it for a few weeks. I don't think people need to do this long term. Most of us have pretty set patterns unless you have some you know, really a change in your life, or you want to do it longer. But a few weeks of tracking can give you so much information, and then if you want to do it again, once you get the device, you can buy more of the little things that you stick
on your arm. But Vivally are really good. As I said, they've actually got a lot of support. So even if you don't go through a practitioner. They've got a Facebook group, they've got dietitians and I'm told from people that have used it. I've not looked in the Facebook group. I'm not part of it, but apparently there's lots of support in there as well and actually have yeah, other support services with it.
Amazing And by the way, you can always promote whatever you want as long as you think it's a good thing and you're not getting a financial kickback, and which you're not. And it's like, but I promise, Yeah.
I had a meeting with them in December, an organized mine where now what the twenty fourth of January, I still have not stuck this thing on my arm. I have two things here. I've got a mirror device check my hormones every day because I'm in perimenopause, and I have mine which I haven't done yet. But you know, they're the company that I'm going to use because I am in perimenopause of course, so I want to explore
this as well. But yeah, they're definitely who I don't even really think we I don't know what other companies we even have here, to be completely honest. In Australia, there's a lot in America.
But here's one of the things about like, I think people, well, I've known you for a long time, and you're not a self promoter on any level. You're not a snake oil salesperson, you know, and so when you recommend something, people listen and people respect it. It's like I don't sell stuff. Even when I sell my own workshops or programs, I'm very uncomfortable, you know. It's like I don't like doing it. I even say, look, this is not for everyone.
You might not be for you, you might hate it might work for you, but this is what I'm doing. This is when it is have a read see if it resonates, you know. But I think that, you know, being able to point people in the direction of a resource that might be of value to them is actually really important when we get the opportunity. All right, I want to ask you a couple of things. So are you saying that these blood glucose monitor monitors also will
give you an update on your quarters old level? Like does it?
Well, it will help you understand. Sorry I mentioned quarters on they're probably jumping in. So let's just say I think I said that after the sleep. What I meant to say was your blood glucose would be higher the next day after not getting as much sleep. But the reason I probably miss said that is because the likely mechanism why why would your blood glucose be high if your diet's not changing and you've eaten those foods before. It's because when you have higher cortisole, cortizole being that
stress hormone that triggers the liver to do something called gluconeogenesis. Basically, it's going to push out, you know, the glucose because cortisoles like, we're in trouble, so are we going to run? Are we going to fight? So we want glucose in the blood because that is fast energy, so when we're
a bit stressed. So this is the other really good thing about a blood glucose monitor, even if you're not thinking about just understanding you know, perimenopause and if these things are increasing, you know, if your blood sugars are linked directly with say your hot flashes or some other symptoms. This is also really interesting to understanding weight management and stuff too, because some people might have some issues around glucose and insulin and potentially there's a stress response and
that's what's holding them back. It's not just about the foods they're eating.
You know, back in the old days, back in the old age, when you were just a back and teenager. But back in the old days when Harper's which was Australia's first pet studios, when they kind of had life
breathed into them by yours truly. So the first center was nine ninety, so that's thirty five years ago, pre all the apps and pre all the tech and you know, so we used to have basically diaries which are really comprehensive, and we would get our clients to record what time they woke up, what time they went to bed, you know, supplements, water, booze, medication, strength training, cardio training, energy levels, mood like, as much stuff as and this is you know, preceding everything we
have now, which is fucking amazing, but even that old fashion kind of way of diorizing all of these physiological variables and all these lifestyle and exercise and nutritional variables. And I did it for two main reasons, three main reasons.
So one was, you know, if I trained Denise and Denise doesn't know what the fuck is up, and I trained Denise on Monday night, at seven and Wednesday night at seven, so Denise turns up with her diary and now I've got forty eight hours of information from Monday night.
And if you're being honest and accurate, it's really great for me because I can see everything from sleep to water intake, to energy levels, to mood to breakfast, lunched dinner, micro's macros, and it gives me an insight into So I've got the body and the human and now I've got the data from what the person is doing to their body and now in real time where and then we're doing body composition test and fitness and strength test. And it wasn't perfect science, but it was pretty good science.
It was at the very least indicative, right, And I love that idea. And we've now evolved to the point where we stick things in your arm that tell us you know your blood sugar in real time or your
blood glucose levels in real time following a meal. I spoke I spoke recently with a guest about this idea that I think is crucially important but really not done very much, and that is learning to understand how your body responds to all of these different variables, whether that is you know four hours sleep versus your normal eight, whether not that is you know two letters of water versus one or obviously there's a lot of variability around
temperature and sweating and all of that, but micros and macros and energy in and out, and the way that your body responds to training big muscle groups versus little muscle groups, or three days a week of strength training versus four, or running versus walking, or like, I think it's in our interest to try to understand how the fuck not not how does blood sugar work or how do carbs work, but how does my body work with carbs? How does my body work with strength training? How does
like what's perimenopause for me? Because it won't be the same experience for Denise or Sally or Diane or whoever. Right, is this individual kind of awareness and understanding of how our body works as separate to how bodies work in general.
And I think, as you mentioned, well, there's a few things there, but just getting onto the differences. Not only do women experience perimenopause symptoms differently, what I'm finding is
the symptoms are not consistent. Like it's started. I wasn't sure if it started there's a few hot flashes and things like I'd even be on a cons doing a zoom and I'm not even stressed out, Like I could just feel the sort of heat wave and then everything went away for a while, and I realized this is how I started, I guess, understanding firsthand and then doing the research into things that influence the symptoms. Because when I did the bioage study, that reversing biological age study,
I was very focused on my health. And by the way, what you talk about with the diary in the tracking, there's also the benefit of when you're writing things down, you're actually not so mindless. You're actually thinking, I am eating this and I'm going to write it down. I'm exercise. So sometimes we do things on autopilot. We're just not even thinking, and.
I just say, you're exactly right. There was two other bits, and one of them was that awareness, understanding and accountability, you know, and just like learning that kind of education piece around Oh when I this, this is how I feel or this is managing. Sorry to interrupt, but yeah, you're right. I didn't finish my list of benefits.
Yeah, and it's so true because I have the knowledge, it's not like, I don't have the knowledge what to do. But I'll be completely honest. It doesn't mean I do the right thing all the time, but there are moments where I'm very focused. And when I was running the bioage study about reversing biological age, there was a few things. One I obviously one of the benefits, but my biological age was so much older the first time I did the test, so it scared the shit out of me.
But I was you know, it was a fit. There was the diet component. I probably wasn't as good with the exercise. It hurt my shoulder. I was sort of out for about six weeks. Mind you. What was good is that when I had my shoulder, I was told I needed a like a quartizone injection stuff, and I didn't do any of the stuff they said it just got better. So I guess, you know, taking care of my health. Because I was even having trouble sleeping on
that side. It was quite painful. I'd stopped playing netball for a little while, but anyway, getting back to it, while I was doing the study, all of my symptoms stopped. And the interesting thing is at the start, I didn't
even notice, like I just didn't notice. And then it was quite a while before they came back after the study finished, and I guess, you know, i'd kind of just dropped off with the supplements a bit and just old habits and I guess starting to travel again, and then I was like, oh, wow, all my very menopause symptoms went away. And then I'm like, well, is that normal? Did they start? And then they stopped for six months and they come back. No one really knows what's normal.
And then because things started really noticing it towards the end of last year, and mind you had a lot of travel as well, my intention was to get back on that protocol to see if it would stop all the symptoms, because I was like, oh, you know, maybe I'm onto something here, and the research i'd done in between did show that. As I said, not that I smoke, but smoking is associated with exacerbated symptoms, being overweight, people
that don't exercise. You know, there's a lot of things that are actually clearly shown to be linked with a lot of these menopausal symptoms. But everything's kind of gone away again. So I actually haven't got back on the protocol yet, so deep down, I'm actually a bit disappointed because I was like, well, if I start the protocol, everything's kind of stopped. But I've also been on Christmas holidays and I've been at the beach, I've been swimming
in the pool, haven't been working as much. But they're definitely you know your original question, Yes, there is an environmental influence. We have research for that, and if you believe the research we have. I've really only seen one study that was a very good study. It is suggesting that perimenopausal symptoms are getting worse from decades before. And it's a good paper. If anyone's interested, I don't know I anyoneants to read science, I can send it to you.
It's a really interesting paper. But what I liked about that paper because it's a bit more conservative conventional science
and research. It did bring in a comment at the end, which is something I haven't mentioned yet, is that they wonder if this increase in chemicals and toxins, which so many of them are ender crime disruptors they influence cell hormones, are what is exacerbating these symptoms because some women I see some of these women, they are struggling their mental health, their mood, their ability to think, they're really thrown by this. Some women leave their jobs. They just aren't ope anymore.
Do you know. There's another really interesting thing around this. So, like I'm strict, like I'm pretty disciplined, I don't have great genetics, and in order for me to optimize my genetics, I've always had to be quite disciplined and you know, have a good accountability process and just make good decisions and consistently do good things right, which wasn't always easy, but you eventually get to the point where you've created
a new normal. So but some people would look at how I live and go, oh fucking hell, you're you're a maniac, like you're Then I look at other people that I know, and I'm basically a fat slob compared to some people that I know, you know, people who are full on right. So I don't know that this is probably a name for this, but I've got a few people I don't want to mention, male or female. But there's one person that springs to mind that I
know where they are. They are obsessed about I mean everything, the water, the food, the wheather, food came from the soil that was grown in the you know, And I'm not saying that none of that matters, but they have so much anxiety around all of Like, I think their anxiety and their stress and their fear is creating I think that the negatives from that are overwriting the benefits from eating fucking free range eggs or whatever it is.
Like this person, their default setting is Like I met them and had a well, they don't drink coffee, and I poured them a glass of water, sparkling water. They wouldn't drink it. I mean, which is okay, that's fine, but I could see I'm like they were thirsty too. They're like, oh, I don't drink bubbly water, and I'm like, well, I go. And you know, I could see the anxiety on the water.
That's the Melbourn tap water been probably worse than the bubbly water because that's got all the chlorine and the chemicals and the stuff. Do you drink Melbourn tap water? By the way, Yeah, I don't know about that. We actually spoke about anyway. But I had the filter when I was in Melbourne. I'm their reverse osposis filter with the mineral re minerals actually, And then I'm going to tell you what I think. Yes, well, I mean.
Look, and of course they can do whatever they want, but of course, and I recommend, like, let's drink lots of water, good water, Let's eat healthy food, Let's move our body, Let's not smoke, Let's definitely not do fucking recreational drug. Well, do whatever you want, but let's not drink too much booze. And let's sleep pretty well, Let's laugh a bit, let's hug someone, Let's have the odd route, you know, a couple of years if you need to whatever,
you know, But so much anxiety around their health. I'm like, your anxiety is actually hurting your health. That's the irony.
Yeah, so I one hundred so I care about lots of these things, you know, the chemicals and toxins, as we said. But I one hundred percent agree with you. And I think we may have mentioned this before on podcasts because I was that person for a little while years ago, late twenties, you know, sort of coming off the back of doing my PhD at CSR Human Nutrition. I mean to be completely honest, though even though I thought I was being really healthy, the truth is the
driving factor was completely superficial. Even though I said it was about health, I was so concerned about putting on but I so there is such a thing as health anxiety, food anxiety, and although I thought I was so healthy, the truth is it was stressful because you go out to dinner or someone puts food in front of you and it's actually stressful. And I one hundred percent don't think this is the way to go. Life is about
enjoying yourself. That stress response, like you said, is worse than probably just going and having that sparkling water or having whatever that food is. You know. One of the first big arguments I had with my now husband, We're on a road trip. We'd only you know, we hadn't been together that long, maybe six months. I was living
in Adelaide at the time. He was in Queensland. We know, this big road trip that started in Adelaide, met my family in Melbourne, going back to Queensland and we're in the middle of you know, nowhere, and he pulled into Hungry Jacks, you know, we needed to eat. And I mean I didn't think I was too crazy. Maybe ask him, but yeah, he definitely wasn't impressed, I think with my response. But I was like, there is no way I'm eating here. And by the way hungry Jack's is obviously extreme. We
don't want to be doing that. But it was my response, like it stressed me out so much that he was even driving in there. He was like, there's nowhere else. He's like, there's actually nowhere else. We're in the middle of nowhere. It's probably hundreds of kilometers. If he's like, well, I can't take you to a bloody restaurant out here. We're live in the middle of nowhere. But it just, yeah, the anxiety of him even driving in and thinking that, I was like, I can't even be here like this,
just so. But you know, after all of that, I went on and developed an autoimmune disease. So for someone that was so healthy, that did not eat takeaway food for nine years, and one of the first things and it just shows you how caught up in it I was, because when I got the diagnosis, I think one of the first thoughts I had I had not eaten fucking junk food in nine years? How can I be sick? But I wasn't well. My body was under high stress
all the time. I overtrained, I didn't eat well. I was running away from you know, my mum having dementia. I just never wanted a second to think about it. I worked myself to the bone, I exercised the bone, I partied to the bone. To the bone. That didn't make sense, but everyone knows that I'm talking about. I just didn't want a second to deal with when this
is my interpretation. Maybe there's so many other factors. And yeah, I got really, really sick, even though I thought I was the healthiest person on the planet.
Yeah, well, I mean that just speaks to the very real fact that you know, emotion has a physiological consequence, you know, fear, anxiety, stress, all of those men. Of course, there's physical stress as well, but all those psychological and you know, mental health issues have a con sequence. And one of the consequences, as we spoke about before, is cortisole. And cortisole has a you know, a deleterious effect and cellular health and all that shit. That and disease and
you know that better than me. And that's that. I think that's the thing is like, and we're not recommending anything particularly other than perhaps, like I used to really worry a lot about stuff, like I would, I'm not so well. I'm definitely not bad now, I mean, I'm not going to go to seven eleven and get four dinuts and sit in the car. But you know, like my birthday, like I used to eat cheesecake like a motherfucker. My mom still doesn't really understand how I live or
eat or whatever. And on my birthday she bought cheesecake. And what am I going to say to the eighty five year old, fuck your cheesecake, you know, And so I ate a bit of cheesecake. But I couldn't have done that. There was a stage where I couldn't have done that because because the pendulum swung so far the other way that I had. You know, I bought a line eat dis ord Well probably I did have an eating disorder for a while, but then it swung back
slightly to disordered eating. But that you know, when you've had like and we're digressing a little bit, but you'll get this, Like when you were a morbidly obese kid and you were all the shit that comes with that, and you were the fattest kid in not only a year but probably the school, and then all of a sudden, you not all of a sudden, but over time you turn that round and you get fitter and healthier, and now you're being kind of included, and you're being picked
for teams, and you're more popular and you're more visible, and it seems to have changed your whole life. Well that becomes so the lesson you learn as the fourteen or fifteen year old is well, whatever you do, don't be fucking fat, because that's going to kill you, right,
And then so you become paranoid. I became paranoid about no, I can't eat that, and I can't do this, and I can't I'd get on the scales and I'd put on fucking with four grams and I'd want to jump off the top step, and like all of this dental and emotional dysfunction because I was so identified with my body, and I got my entire sense of value and self worth from people liking me because I looked better or different.
You know, and I'm not fucking alone in that, and people always comment. So I wasn't overweight as a child when I kind of a round sixteen, I think. And that's also because I started eating differently, you know, at sixteen, I started actually this is before I was so worried about food, you know, I was going out with my friends the movies, and I was eating McDonald's. By the way, I didn't really have a lot of really any takeaway food growing up in my household. My mum definitely wasn't
obsessed by food. There was probably a very healthy upbringing with food. However, we just didn't get it junk. She just cooked all the time. I mean, I felt like we were missing out, you know. I wanted to have the crab food, but Mum cooked. You know, we didn't not have sugar. She still made cakes and things, but we never had soft drink. We didn't have takeaway. But when I was sixteen and started, you know, going out into the world, I of course then just wanted to
eat all the crap that I hadn't had. So there was a little while or upon on a bit of weight. I do put on my way easily, but when I'm just leaving my day to day, you know, I'm not overeating. I'm not sort of big big. But I noticed when I really got into the training, obviously, and your body shape changes. Everyone wants to comment on your body, and of course I love to too. Like what you said, People go, oh my god, I wish I had your body I wish I had, Like, I just hear it
all the time. Women would say it all the time. Men would be like, Oh, you've got the perfect body. Oh you just look like such a runner. Like it's all the time, and you do become I think, you know, I was so scared that I would lose this perfect
body that everyone kept telling me I had. And then because I worked in the health industry and was into nutrient genomics and personalized diet, I felt like, well, I have to have the perfect body because this is what I do, and it just kind of it went from there. But then it became an obsession. I didn't know the word at the time. I now know it's like orthorexic, and it wasn't It wasn't about health in the air. Definitely started probably with health, but then it became obsessive
to the point that it did stress me out. And you know, sometimes I wonder how Right and I got together because we are so different now. If anything, he eats much better and I'm a bit more relaxed. But he definitely pulled me out of a lot of I mean, mind you, I had an autoimmune disease. I had to rethink my whole life and what's important. I mean, I got well, but part of that was actually eat well, but just relax with everything. I was so highly strung
and I would say that to all the listeners. Everything we talk about, Yes, take care of your health, but eat the birthday cake, have a laugh. If you're someone that wants the odd beer or champagne, just don't do it all the time, like you said, Like I think one of the most important things is that you enjoy life and you you like who you are. You know, not yeah, not know, not eating for comfort, not starving
yourself because of that. You know, it's the mental health stuff that's really I guess what comes through with all of this.
I've been thinking as you're talking about whether or not I'm going to say this, and I'm not throwing this lady under the bus, right, but this just happened. I've had a version of this happen more than a hundred times in my adult life. So last weekend, so we're recording this Friday night, the twenty fourth, had a friend of mine from Queensland shout out to Toby. Toby stayed
with me. Toby used to work for me. Anyway, we went out for dinner, and about once or twice a year, I'll eat a bowl of tordellini, which is not a cardinal sin, but it's brought me and pastor probably don't go that great together, but I fucking love it. Right, So I had a bowl of tortellini, and this lady came in and she's like, oh, Craig Harper. And then she walked up and she goes, oh my god, he's
eating pasta. And then she goes and gets her girlfriend and then comes over and goes, look at what he's eating. We should take a photo.
I'm sorry I'm interrupting you, and now I'm geral this, but actually I'm surprised to hear that you never eat pasta, because I feel like with the level of training you do, you would be a little bit more inclined to indulge because of your high energy needs to maintain I mean, I know it's carves, it's not protein, but still you can probably afford to as someone you want to keep that muscle mass and not be Yeah, I would have thought that that wouldn't be such an issue. Anyway, I'll let you finish.
No, it is for me, it is I don't feel great, Like when I eat it, I'm like a fucking four year old in a lolly shop. I love it, but then it doesn't love me. Then I feel like, well, I don't feel great after it, but I do it maybe twice a year. But I will eat like after we finish here, I've got dinner ready, which is basically meat and broccoli and rice. So I eat basmati rice.
That's my carbs mostly, I mean. But but I think that, you know, like being for me anyways, sometimes like people are, and people don't mean to be, you know, nasty, but people are curious about what I eat, like people are. People are curious about how often do you lift weights? How often do you You know, if I do a corporate gig and there's men in the audience, invariably at least one or two men will come up and say to me, you know, what do you eat? How often do you train?
What do you essentially, what's your protocol? You know? They want to know because they're about my age or maybe a bit younger or maybe a year or three older, and you know, and then invariably when I tell them what I do, like, oh fuck that I don't want to do that you know, I don't want to eat two meals a day.
I don't want to train seven days a week too hard. Yeah, I put in the effort. Isn't there just a quick thing you can tell me? Can't I just take a supplement or something?
Yeah?
Isn't there a reward without work? Kind of ill?
All right?
I want to circle back because we've got five or ten minutes. I just want to go back because I maybe we did. But the perimenopause and menopause thing just again, because we've got so many ladies who are and I think I feel that this is really probably relevant for a lot of people. So if people are heading towards perimenopause, are in that, or they're moving into menopause, or they're fully in menopause? What? And I know there's no three steps solution to anything.
No, that's just my little way of working things out. That's my step wise approach. Yes, it doesn't.
Have you got any have you got any basic advice for people? And I know, apart from seeing a doctor all that, but it's like if somebody said to me, perhaps I know there's a million things I can do. In fact, I have this conversation with a lady who dragged her husband reluctantly up to me at the cafe and his big boy and he's got you know, I said, look, there are literally fifty factors and variables that we could talk about. I said, but can you give me your phone?
And he gave me his phone and you know how it counts your steps. And I looked at his average steps and I go, we'll see this number here. I won't say the number, but I'd say, I said to him, I would just start by tripling this, Like this number this is counting your steps. Keep your phone on you as much as you can and just try and triple that, and then you know, talk about food, and then talk about sleep, and then talk about working out per se, and you know, I think sometimes it doesn't have to
be complicated or convoluted. Like for a lot of people, if they just doubled their steps, that's going to really create some you know, movement of the needle. You know, that's good. That's not the solution, but that's not a bad starting point. Is there something similar for people who might be in that space that you're talking to.
Give you a few tips and then people can doesn't mean you have to go and do all of them, because, like you said, when there's too many things, often people or you might start and do it for a few days and drop off. But people can decide what they think is the best for them. This is not my priority, and this is not what I would suggest to do first. But I'm going to say this based on you eating
your rice and stuff. And we've talked a lot about carbohydrates for women who are worried about weight, Yes, consider your carbohydrates, even if you don't want to get into the blood glucose monitor. Not everyone's got a few hundred dollars like you could just be riding down your carbs. But with the rice, do you know about the little trick of the twice cooking the rice? Oh?
Yeah, that lowers the gi right. Yeah.
So if you have rice and you cook it and then you put it in the fridge, let it cool down over the next day you have it, what happens is that rice during that cooking process, it just sort of changes the chemical composition and the starch sort of limitless starch content and you get more what's called resist didn't starch. So you cook it, you cool it down, and then the next day you have it cold or heat it up again. But that resistance starch, our body
cannot absorb that, so we don't get the carbohydrate. It's like fiber, right, Yes, it feeds our gut bug So you still feel full, you still feel like you've had a really decent, comforting meal. You've got rice, but it's actually feeding your gut bacteria, which helps your microbiome, helps your bows, and you're not getting as much of the carbohydrate. So there's one little tip. So when you have your rice, harps cook it, cook enough for a couple of days.
Can I give you one which is simple, is with your bread. So when you get your bread, if you're going to eat bread, freeze it and then unfreeze it and that does a similar thing.
There you go, everyone, little carbohydrate hacks for those of you and for those of you this could just be a simple thing. If you eat bread, just eat less, you know, and put it in the freezer. I try not to have bread. Yeah, we get this amazing sour dough from Fruits of Noosa. My husband now eats his fancy bread and I have this mental thing or I think I can have it because it's really healthy I'm like, oh, it's made with love from you know, it's this sour dough.
But it's not definitely affects me, you know. Wait wise, but again, if you're freezing your bread, it's a bit more of an effort to get it out, Like if you really want it, it's there. Like we said before, don't have the obsessive it's just have less. Try to have your eggs on, some spinach and some veggies. But if you wake up and go, I really want bread, have it, but get it out of the freezer, you're
having a lot less. But I would say if there was a priority a lot of women, most women where they really come unstuck is we struggle to sleep, and then that has so many flow on effects to the mood, to the eating, et cetera. So I would say focus on your sleep. Now, the first one would be really obvious. Don't scroll your phone, like actually, just keep your phone in a different room, and then straight away you'll probably
find your sleep better if you've already done that. Just trying to keep the room at a certain temperature, keep it really dark, and also just like light sheets a few different layers so that if you do get a bit hot, you can just kick something off and you're not being affected. So just changing a few things in the bedroom and a bit of that sleep routine, you
can jump online stuff's everywhere. Sleep hygiene. I think if you can, if you can maximize your sleep and get more of that quality sleep, that's actually just going to make you feel better the next day, less issues of the mood, less likely to be craving the carbs, all that kind of stuff. So I would be I would be starting on focusing the sleep. And if that's not you right now, think about starting those habits now so that you don't get to that, because that would be.
One of the biggest issues I think with women is the lack of sleep.
I one hundred percent agree the amount of ladies that I talk to that just have shit quality sleep somewhere between. I reckon fifty percent of the women that I talk to would be somewhere between terrible sleep and kind of disrupted. In fact, more I don't know that fifty percent of the women that I talked to would have good sleep. I would think maybe twenty to thirty percent could say they sleep great, And I don't know if it's immense
clearly anecdotal because it's just conversation. I don't know what the research tells us, but it seems to me anecdotally that dudes happen to sleep better.
Yeah, they Yeah, my husband just go straight to sleep. It's quite annoying, actually, but good on him. If I've got two minutes and you're comfortable with me building on that. And I do want to emphasize though, don't jump to these things if you haven't done the basics. Remember it's like it's a three step process the diet lifestyle. There's no point jumping into supplements and medication if you haven't
done the groundwork, you won't get the benefit. But if you do want to think about supplements, magnesium magnesium, magnesium magnesium, like one thing I've noticed probably lots of other women, which was really weird because I've never had issues with like heavy or painful periods. All that came about. I was like, what should maybe going away? And now I've got bloody pain getting close to fifty. This is weird.
But magnesium those few days before you think you're getting your cycle, or if it's all over the shop, just every day, but a magnique straight magnesium supplement from the chemist. One hundred and fifty milligrams is a standard dose. Have that daily. You could bump it up if you're in a bit of pain or you're not sleeping well to three hundred milligrams at night. That's really not going to
do any issues. If you've got constipation, you can have a bit more, but don't have too much because you will get loose spous It draws water in the bowels. But magnesium would be the supplement I would say number one. And then if that doesn't work and you really are struggling with sleep and you have done everything I've said, don't do this first. Go to the pharmacist. Speak to them. You no longer need a prescription. You can get it over the counter. They tend to want you to be
over fifty. But even if you're a little bit younger and you're really struggling with sleep, you tell them you want melatonin. You can try it. It's a very low dose, it's slow release, it's just a natural sleep hormone. Try it, and but that would kind of be your last thing. It's not going to help you if you're scrolling on your phone for hours and you're hot at night or there's something else, but that's something you can just get
from the pharmacist and try it. And if you feel really groggy the next day, like you've got a bit of a hangover or something, do not have it anymore. It's too much for you. That's not what you need.
So a couple of things off the back of that. There's a few different types of magnesium.
Right, there is good question.
So that and then I've got something that is really relevant to this that we spoke about. You know what, I'm going to reverse engineer it. So we are David Gillespion, who also lives in Queensland. Here's a researcher. He's a lawyer, but he's one of Australia's most prolific authors. He writes about everything from like him wrote. He wrote one of the first books on the scourge of sugar, right and it was called Sweet Poison to be famous for it, yes, yeah,
and lots of other books on psychopaths, psychopathy. And he's just I mean, I hate saying this because we have a love hate relationship, but he's very fucking intelligent.
Right.
But him and I were talking the other night. In fact, we did a whole episode called vitamin B six toxicity. So the average or the RDI for as I remember, the RDI for B six is one point three to one point seven milligrams give or take one and a half milligrams per person per day. So it seems like
fuck all right. But what he was saying is that a lot of these magnesium supplements have up to fifty sixty milligrams in a serve in a magnesium tab, so like thirty times the daily recommendation in these magnesium supplements. I don't know what you think of that, but I went and looked at mine and it was and I threw it out.
Wonderful old one. We actually do ores now like they're not allowed to. The regulations have changed around B six. I think maybe I'm wrong. You can look it up and all the listeners weize she doesn't know what she's talking about, but I'm pretty sure it's now thirty milligrams is the absolute highest. We can't do the fifty milligrams in I mean, I say we. I'm not the supplement company. I say we because I'm in this space and prescribe things. Mind you, I've never been one to do high dose.
The concern is too, aside from the magnesium. So when I did say the magnesium sometimes there is B six means actually sometimes zinc and B six there's two things.
In actual fact, some patients will come to me and they're on so many different supplements, and whether they've played around themselves, or the practitioner before me wasn't thinking, or they've seen multiple practitioners, but there was a while there where I'd be calculating and no one had done this before, and they come to me and go, I didn't realize I was on this much zinc, called this much B six because it's a bit of a it's in all
these different supplements they're having, even though they think it's a magnesium where they think it's this. So it's definitely a concern and you can get and I'm sure you talked about the prefermerropathy. All of these are toxicities with B six generally. I think now last year our regulations changed. I was almost going to tell you it's like fifteen or twenty, but I think it's thirty milligrams. It definitely
is now lower. But I think to start with, you want to know the way that I work with my patients in most instances, unless I've got a lot of information, I'm confident you want to do one thing at a time and see if that works. So you're looking for just a straight magnesium if we're doing it for relaxation and sleep, Magnesium glycinate half an hour before bed. If you're doing it for constipation or also to muscle soreness, stiffness or whatever, it's quite well well absorbed. Magnesium sitrate.
If you're doing it for your brain. We have magnesium three in eight. Actually I probably shouldn't mention that because I think it is not TJA approved. It's really people get tend to get that online. But if you did want that, speak to your doctor. You can get it compounded because you want to make sure you know where it's coming from and not just buy something online. But that one crosses the blood brain barrier. And then we have magnesium oratate, which is really good for cardiovascular health.
So is it for heart? Is it for you know? To be honest, all of them are going to give you magnesium. Don't get lost in that. Have it. If you don't have a doctor, chat to your pharmacist. Don't go and just buy something without speaking to someone but as a general rule, they're the things that guide me to the specific forms of magnesium.
Wow, you're really smart. You should work in this space. You should maybe think about doing some research or something. Thank you as always, you're brilliant and a bit funny. How do people connect with you and find you?
And yeah, coming to my very menopause protocol. That's not even, by the way, a written out protocol, just how I do things. Yeah, if you I'm not in the Facebook group as much anymore, maybe only once a month, but I do have that your Genes and Nutrition community where you can ask questions and connect. And yeah, I've got a website. There's some information on there. And yeah, if
you want to reach out, do so. And I'll be back next month to talk about Maybe we can talk next month about the topic we're going to talk about today.
Hey, I want to know are you in the Facebook? Are you in our Facebook group? Are you? Are you a member of the U project Facebook group? You probably don't know about it.
No, I don't think I am.
So we have like three and a half thousand people in that group. It's a little group, well you know, compared to what's little. Well, what I mean is good.
It's better than mine. I've got two thousand, I think, so you will know.
What I mean is it's just people who But so every time we do a podcast like this, it goes up in the group and then people talk about the podcast. So I'm going to what I'm going to say to you is if you've got any questions for the good Doc that you'd like us to explore next time. There's no guarantee, but we'll do our best, right, So if it's in what area like you most will tell them what do you want our listeners to ask you about?
So my area of expertise is you know, I did my post doc at omisthetrics gynecology, so you know, women's health, fertility, hormones, healthy aging for men and women, genetics, epigenetics, thyroid, auto immune supplements, diet, exercise. I mean, in all honesty, I'm happy to have anything because I'll just explore it with you. But they're the things that I tend to focus on.
But yeah, I mean in my group sometimes I get some weird and wacky questions that I might not actually know the direct answer, but because I guess I look at health at a very broad level, A genetic and a cellular level. There's always something you can often bring it back to. But I love that idea, so feel free.
I love questions. You know, me and Harps are always up for answering things, So yes, send us some questions, and even if we don't answer on the next one, I'm going to be popping in every month.
Wo yeah, giddy up. I'm very excited. Thank you for doing that. And so you need to make sure Doc that you join the new Project Facebook group so when these you can at least see how much they love you. We'll say goodbye on air, but I'll say goodbye to you off air in a moment. Thanks Doc.
Bye everyone,