Episode 145: How (and Why) to Love Your Liver in Perimenopause and Beyond

In this episode, Dr. Lisa and Dr. Toni review why it’s so important to pay attention to liver health for hormone balance in perimenopause. The liver has a lot of work to do as the largest organ in your body, especially as you get older, and can benefit from some extra TLC when addressing symptoms like hot flashes and heavy periods. 

In today’s episode, we cover :

  • Why it’s important to reduce the amount of chemicals and toxicity coming from your environment, food and personal care products
  • How your liver function impacts your hormone balance or imbalance, especially relating to estrogen dominance
  • The connection between your intake of sugar and highly processed convenient food, insulin resistance and fatty liver
  • Some of the functions your liver has, including:
    • Filtering your blood and converting your hormones and other compounds in your body to a less toxic and less harmful form – detoxification!
    • Converting fat soluble vitamins to a more active form
    • Producing bile to support blood clotting and absorption of fat and fat soluble vitamins
    • Regulating fat and carbohydrate metabolism
    • Supporting immune cell function
  • Signs your liver is not functioning optimally physically and energetically
    • Skin itching, headaches, hot flashes, fibroids, breast and ovarian cysts, heavy periods, anger, irritability, frustration
  • Lab tests to consider to assess the health of your liver
    • Blood tests like AST, ALT, GGT, bilirubin, hemoglobin A1c, glucose tolerance test, cholesterol panel, iron and ferritin, CRP inflammatory marker
    • Ultrasound, CT scan, MRI if needed
    • DUTCH – dried urine hormone testing
    • Genetic analysis of genes coding for liver detoxification enzymes
  • Ways to support your liver function
    • Avoiding excess exposure to chemicals and toxic compounds like pesticides, bisphenols, phthalates
    • Support air quality in your home
    • Avoiding unnecessary medications
    • Limiting your alcohol and added sugar intake
    • Physical activity and movement to support your circulation
    • Drinking water and staying hydrated, also with green and rooibos tea
    • Increasing your intake of antioxidants 
      • Colourful veggies and fruits, especially garlic, onions, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts, artichoke, beets, dandelion greens, arugula 
      • Herbs and spices like rosemary, turmeric
    • Eating an adequate amount of protein to support your detoxification enzyme pathways
      • Eggs are also a good source of choline
    • Using a castor oil pack or getting bodywork like acupuncture, osteopathy
    • Express all your emotions in a healthy manner like punching a pillow, instead of suppressing or stuffing your anger and frustration

Today’s Mama Must-Have:

Dr. Lisa is a big fan of using crystals to help set intentions, invite in energies and dispel the negative, including selenite to dispel negativity and connect to higher self, rose quartz to promote self-love and love for others, and amethyst to absorb negativity and develop focus.

Dr. Toni recommends taking the time with friends or even by yourself – get your spouse or family on board for child care or get a babysitter! 

What’s Else is Happening?

Dr. Toni’s next HypnoBirthing session for expecting parents looking to decrease fear and anxiety to support their natural instincts around labour and birth is happening this fall. Join her at https://www.hypnobirthingcalgary.com/register

Dr. Lisa’s Wild Collective Masterclasses are happening next week: Oct 3rd and 6th – find out more about this revolutionary and international program. Sign up HERE and follow Lisa on instagram @drlisaweeksND.

Email us or connect with us on  Facebook  and  Instagram

We’d love you to subscribe, leave us a review and a 5-star rating if you enjoyed this episode.

You can also support us by visiting our Patreon page.

Please tell your perimenopausal mama friends about us, too!

Stay safe and healthy everyone!

Disclaimer: The information provided is not meant to replace treatment with a licensed health care practitioner. It is for informational purposes only. Consult with a Naturopathic Doctor or other licensed health care professional to determine which treatments are safe for you.

Episode 122: What is Perimenopause?

In this replay from December 2021, Dr. Lisa and Dr. Toni discuss all things perimenopause…what it is, what’s happening and how to test for it. Not sure if you’re in perimenopause or what is happening with your hormones? Experiencing hot flashes, irregular periods, mood swings and insomnia? Listen in!

What is the difference between menopause and perimenopause?

Menopause is when you have not had a menstrual period for 12 months.

Perimenopause is the transition period before you reach menopause and can last for 4 years, 8 years or longer. 

What is happening with your hormones in perimenopause?

Perimenopausal symptoms, as well as your hormones, can be unpredictable and might fluctuate throughout perimenopause:

  • You may get PMS symptoms some months, not others
  • You may get other menopausal symptoms some months and not others
  • Changes that can happen around perimenopause and menopause includes bone loss and osteoporosis, shifts in weight and metabolism, brain and mood changes
  • The most common symptoms you may experience include:
    • Insomnia
      • 30-60% of women experience in perimenopause
      • Research show correlations between plastic exposure and body care products and self-report insomnia (testing urinary phthalate levels – Hatcher 2020)
    • Fatigue
      • See more info about fatigue:
    • Depression and Anxiety
      • Up to 40% of women face depression or mood changes in perimenopause
    • Hot flashes
      • You can experience one of four patterns of hot flashes
        • Early onset, late onset, high frequency, low frequency
      • See more info about hot flashes: Episode 32
    • Irregular menstrual cycles and heavy bleeding

Your body’s normally predictable hormone cycle that happens over the month changes during perimenopause:

  • You might not ovulate every month or you might ovulate early
  • You have changes in your menstrual cycle length of 7 days or more (shorter or longer cycles) then have longer cycles and more skipped periods until you reach menopause 
  • Your estrogen levels can go up and down more than usual
  • Your progesterone levels tend to decrease overall
  • Your FSH level may elevate or fluctuate
  • Your stress hormone cortisol and thyroid hormones can be impacted 

Does every woman experience the transition from perimenopause to menopause the same way?

No!

You can have one of 4 different patterns of estrogen and 3 different patterns FSH levels, as well as different combinations of other symptoms at different stages of perimenopause. 

How can you tell if you are ovulating?

  • Monitor your basal body temperature (BBT)
  • Check your cervical fluid and cervical position

Perimenopausal Journal to track your symptoms and your menstrual cycle: https://www.cemcor.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/Daily_Perimenopause_Diary_with_treatments.pdf

Today’s Mama Must Have:

Dr. Lisa is a big fan of this paleo crepe recipe that Stuart also loves:

Dr. Toni loves seeing Frankie play with simple wooden blocks and hand-me-down Lego blocks

Thank you for joining us today!

Email us or connect with us on Facebook and Instagram. We’d love you to subscribe, leave us a review and a 5-star rating if you enjoyed this episode.

Please tell your perimenopausal mama friends about us, too!

You can also support us by visiting our Patreon page.

Stay safe and healthy everyone!

Disclaimer: The information provided in this presentation is not meant to replace treatment with a licensed health care practitioner. It is for informational purposes only. Consult with a Naturopathic Doctor or other licensed health care professional to determine which treatments are safe for you.

Episode 105: What is Perimenopause? Is it Me or My Hormones?

In today’s episode, Dr. Lisa and Dr. Toni discuss all things perimenopause…what it is, what’s happening and how to test for it. Not sure if you’re in perimenopause or what is happening with your hormones? Experiencing hot flashes, irregular periods, mood swings and insomnia? Listen in!

What is the difference between menopause and perimenopause?

Menopause is when you have not had a menstrual period for 12 months.

Perimenopause is the transition period before you reach menopause and can last for 4 years, 8 years or longer. 

What is happening with your hormones in perimenopause?

Perimenopausal symptoms, as well as your hormones, can be unpredictable and might fluctuate throughout perimenopause:

  • You may get PMS symptoms some months, not others
  • You may get other menopausal symptoms some months and not others
  • Changes that can happen around perimenopause and menopause includes bone loss and osteoporosis, shifts in weight and metabolism, brain and mood changes
  • The most common symptoms you may experience include:
    • Insomnia
      • 30-60% of women experience in perimenopause
      • Research show correlations between plastic exposure and body care products and self-report insomnia (testing urinary phthalate levels – Hatcher 2020)
    • Fatigue
      • See more info about fatigue:
    • Depression and Anxiety
      • Up to 40% of women face depression or mood changes in perimenopause
    • Hot flashes
      • You can experience one of four patterns of hot flashes
        • Early onset, late onset, high frequency, low frequency
      • See more info about hot flashes: Episode 32
    • Irregular menstrual cycles and heavy bleeding

Your body’s normally predictable hormone cycle that happens over the month changes during perimenopause:

  • You might not ovulate every month or you might ovulate early
  • You have changes in your menstrual cycle length of 7 days or more (shorter or longer cycles) then have longer cycles and more skipped periods until you reach menopause 
  • Your estrogen levels can go up and down more than usual
  • Your progesterone levels tend to decrease overall
  • Your FSH level may elevate or fluctuate
  • Your stress hormone cortisol and thyroid hormones can be impacted 

Does every woman experience the transition from perimenopause to menopause the same way?

No!

You can have one of 4 different patterns of estrogen and 3 different patterns FSH levels, as well as different combinations of other symptoms at different stages of perimenopause. 

How can you tell if you are ovulating?

  • Monitor your basal body temperature (BBT)
  • Check your cervical fluid and cervical position

Perimenopausal Journal to track your symptoms and your menstrual cycle.

Today’s Mama Must Have:

Dr. Lisa is a big fan of this paleo crepe recipe that Stuart also loves:

Dr. Toni loves seeing Frankie play with simple wooden blocks and hand-me-down Lego blocks

Thank you for joining us today!

Email us or connect with us on Facebook and Instagram. We’d love you to subscribe, leave us a review and a 5-star rating if you enjoyed this episode.

Please tell your perimenopausal mama friends about us, too!

You can also support us by visiting our Patreon page where you can find out how you can join us for our monthly patron webinar where we do a deeper dive discussion about all things perimenopause,

Stay safe and healthy everyone!

Disclaimer: The information provided in this presentation is not meant to replace treatment with a licensed health care practitioner. It is for informational purposes only. Consult with a Naturopathic Doctor or other licensed health care professional to determine which treatments are safe for you.

Episode 59: Menstrual Cycle Awareness and Cyclical Living: Tap Into Your Hormonal and Moon Rhythms

In today’s episode, Dr. Lisa and Dr. Toni talk about menstrual cycle awareness. Did you know that there are different times of the month that are more suited for you to be productive, be social, do analytical work, do a presentation or to rest? Your energy can fluctuate in relation to the moon cycle and your menstrual cycle. Cyclical living can be used to maximize your productivity, efficiency and success at work and at home throughout the month.

If you don’t have a regular menstrual cycle right now, you can follow the moon’s cycles.

In today’s episode, we cover:

  • Recent research looking at how the full moon can impact your sleep and menstrual cycle
  • How the US Women’s soccer team were using menstrual cycle awareness to maximize nutrition, training, rest and recovery, resulting in their second World Cup win
  • The similarities between moon phases and menstrual cycle phases
  • How changes in your hormones and moon phases can impact your mood and energy

Don’t know what’s happening with your menstrual cycle and hormones?

Hormone Testing Options

Blood

  • May not accurately measure tissue levels
  • Best for thyroid hormones – see Episode 42

Saliva:

  • Measures free/active hormone levels

Urine:

  • Measures free/active hormone levels
  • Shows how hormones are processed

Naturopathic Treatment Options for Hormone Imbalances 

Optimize:

  • Liver Function
  • Digestive
  • Sleep
  • Stress Reduction
  • Adrenals
  • Thyroid

How:

  • Herbs
  • Nutrition
  • Acupuncture
  • Bio-Identical Hormones
  • Dessicated Thyroid
  • Exercise

Today’s Tip:

Start your menstrual cycle awareness by tracking your period, mood and energy on an app like Period Tracker or MyFlo, or go old school with a paper calendar.

Today’s Mama Must Have: 

Dr. Lisa enjoys having someone else make food and getting it delivered with Uber Eats, Door Dash and Skip the Dishes.

Dr. Toni enjoys the peek into psychedelic psychotherapy, the Wim Hof Method of breathing and cold plunges and orgasm workshop on Netflix’s the goop lab with Gwyneth Paltrow 

Craft for Valentines Day: Hearts on door for kids and partner with something you love or appreciate about them – one a day in February 

Dr. Toni’s next HypnoBirthing prenatal online classes for expecting parents start on Feb 28, 2021. For more info, go to https://www.hypnobirthingcalgary.com/

Join Dr. Lisa’s Wild Collective free Info Session tonight (Feb 4, 2021 at 7:00pm). Sign up HERE!

If you don’t get a chance to join the live session, get on my waitlist HERE to be informed of my next Wild Collective enrollment.

Thank you for joining us today! 

Email us or connect with us on Facebook and Instagram. We’d love you to subscribe, leave us a review and a 5-star rating if you enjoyed this episode.

Please tell your perimenopausal mama friends about us, too!

Stay safe and healthy everyone!

Episode 22: What’s a Normal Period, Anyway? Part 2

In today’s episode, Dr. Lisa and Dr. Toni continue discussing menstrual cycles and periods.

In this episode, we cover:

  • Tracking your menstrual cycle
  • How to figure out when and if you are ovulating
  • Different methods of testing hormonal imbalances causing period problems
  • Traditional Chinese Medicine patterns linked with period issues
  • Some benefits of using menstrual cups over tampons and pads
  • How you can use the four phases of creation to maximize your high productivity times over the month 

How do you figure out if you’re having a normal period and menstrual cycle?

You can track your menstrual cycle using:

  • Basal Body Temperature (BBT) – your temperature generally increases sharply after ovulation by about 0.5oC or 1oF
  • Ovulation signs – your cervical fluid becomes wetter and tends to have consistency of raw egg white, position of your cervix rises up in vaginal tract and becomes softer with feeling like the tip of your nose
  • Ovulation Predictor Kits – measure luteinizing hormone (LH) in your urine – generally rises 12 to 36 hours before you ovulate, but not 100% accurate, as you can have LH surge without ovulation
  • Progesterone Ovulation Kits – measure progesterone – generally rise 24-36 hours after ovulation
  • Less used are different fertility monitors like Clearblue (that uses detecting estrogen and LH levels) and Daysy (that uses your basal body temperature and period tracking)
  • Salivary ferning tests looking at increased levels of salt in your saliva before ovulation due to estrogen, monitors to measure electrolytes in your saliva and vaginal sensors to detect ovulation  – will these become more common in the future?
  • Period tracker apps like Period Tracker or MyFlo, or just mark your Google calendar when you start your period 

How do you figure out what is causing your period problems?

Further testing for hormonal imbalances and nutrient deficiencies:

  • Blood vs. saliva vs. urine (such as DUTCH or CHI)
    • Test on 7 days before your next period (around day 21 depending on the length of your menstrual cycle) or throughout the month if you have irregular menstrual cycles
  • Blood Sex Hormone Binding Globulin (SHBG) and thyroid panel (TSH, free T4 and T3)
  • Blood sugar balance and insulin resistance: fasting glucose, fasting insulin, hemoglobin A1c
  • Blood vitamin D
  • Blood iron status: hemoglobin, iron/transferrin saturation, ferritin (iron stores)
  • Consider getting abdominal and transvaginal ultrasound imaging requisitioned by your family doctor or gynecologist to rule out issues with your uterus or ovaries if you have abnormal bleeding or abnormal menstrual cycles

Traditional Chinese Medicine patterns impacting your menstrual cycle: 

Liver Qi Stagnation – associated with PMS, menstrual cramps and clots, type A personality, overwork, stress, anger, excessive cold exposure

Spleen Qi Deficiency – associated with changes in digestion and bowel movements like loose stools around period, excessive alcohol intake, too much raw/cold food, anxiety, worry

How can you improve your flow of Qi and blood (plus save money over time)?

You can try the Diva cup or other menstrual cups!

It is normal for you to have different metabolic needs, creative juices and levels of energy and productivity over your menstrual cycle!

Dr. Christiane Northrup first talked about this concept in her groundbreaking book Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom https://www.drnorthrup.com/

Her daughter Kate Northrup discusses more about the four phases of creation and how to tap into the different phases of your cycle to maximize productivity and efficiency at https://katenorthrup.com/phases-creation-part-one-visibility/

The phases of your monthly cycle plus the energy of each phase are as follows:

Menstrual (Dark of the Moon): Looking within, reflecting on what’s working and what’s not working in your life, letting go, course-correcting, deeper connection to intuition

Follicular: Creativity and new beginnings, high physical energy, desire to be out and active

Ovulation (Full Moon): Open to maximum cross-fertilization, connecting with community, heightened communication skills, magnetism

Luteal: Decline in physical energy, energy turns inward, nesting, administrative, detail-oriented tasks feel like priorities, slowing down

If the year were the macrocosm of the month, the phases line up like this:

Winter = Menstrual

Spring = Follicular

Summer = Ovulatory

Fall = Luteal

Adjusting to the different phases of the menstrual cycle is being used by the U.S. Women’s soccer team and is covered in the MyFlo app created by Alisa Vitti https://www.floliving.com/ 

Today’s Mama Must Have:

Dr. Toni loves her Diva Cup as an easy and economic alternative to pads and tampons.

Dr. Lisa is enjoying some cheesy reality TV shows, including Four Weddings and Seeking Sister Wife as a little break from real reality. Dr. Toni fully supports this, as she is a longtime Survivor fan (yes, it is still on TV) and got sucked into Love is Blind on Netflix recently.

Thank you for joining us today! 

Email us or connect with us on Facebook and Instagram. We’d love you to subscribe, leave us a review and a 5-star rating if you enjoyed this episode.

Please tell your perimenopausal mama friends about us, too!

Stay safe everyone!