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Sisters-in-Service
Are you a women veteran who feels unseen and unheard? Do you struggle with finding your purpose after service? Sisters-in-Service is a podcast that gives women veterans the platform to talk about those exact issues and more. Hear from other veterans, military spouses and Veteran Service Organizations (VSO) just like you that have overcome their transition from the military. Every Tuesday this podcast encourages women veterans to stand up and be counted because as a group we have a voice. From your host - Cat Corchado - The Voice Connecting Women Veterans
Sisters-in-Service
Empowering Your Midlife: Navigating Hormone Health with Dr. LaKeischa Webb McMillan
What if navigating midlife could be your most empowering journey yet? Join me as I explore how women can embrace midlife with confidence and transformation. I am thrilled to welcome Dr. Lakeisha Webb McMillan, a renowned integrative ob-gyn hormone specialist and Amazon best-selling author, who sheds light on balancing hormones and regaining energy during perimenopause and menopause. Dr. Lakeisha shares her inspiring journey and the core memories that drive her passion for women's health, offering profound insights into how these experiences shape our life's work and purpose.
Midlife doesn't have to be about simply "holding on" until symptoms subside. Together with Dr. Lakeisha, we challenge the stereotypes surrounding perimenopause and menopause, advocating for self-advocacy in healthcare. Learn about the often misunderstood phases that can begin in the late 30s and the importance of personalized care in managing the diverse symptoms brought by fluctuating hormones. We'll discuss practical advice, including DIY solutions and lifestyle changes, to help women navigate these stages with grace.
Nutrition plays a pivotal role in managing menopause symptoms, as highlighted by the Women's Health Initiative study. Dr. Lakeisha provides valuable insights on how certain foods can trigger inflammation and exacerbate symptoms. We also explore alternative therapies such as acupuncture, massage therapy, and the benefits of bioidentical hormone replacement therapy. Join us for an enlightening conversation filled with practical tips and strategies to enhance your health, fitness, and overall well-being during this exciting chapter of midlife.
Welcome to Sisters in Service podcast. Most of you know me as a strong advocate for women veterans in being recognized not only as veterans but also as women who are changing the world through our passion of serving even after service. This podcast is my passion by telling all the stories of military brats, military spouses, active duty and veterans, not to forget the veteran service organizations that help us along our transition journey. I want to thank you in advance for listening. I hope that you will join me. Every week, a new podcast and episode comes out every Tuesday, so I hope that you will join and I hope that you enjoy. This podcast is brought to you by Small Space Pilates. Are you ready to get fit and fabulous from the comfort of your own home? Look no further than Small Space Pilates. With live online Pilates and strength training classes, a video library and a no perfection allowed policy, you can achieve your fitness goals without ever leaving your house. Click on the link for your complimentary week and start your journey to feeling fabulous today. Bye, hi, everybody.
Speaker 1:Welcome back to I can't believe it day five of the Revitalize your Midlife Symposium, where we are taking this journey through the wonders of midlife together. It is June. We're not just celebrating this symposium, it's also my birthday month. So if you're a June baby whoop whoop and do you celebrate all month, another whoop whoop because I do so. This is a reflection of my personal why is that? Everyone has the right to feel good in their body and it's also part of my quest to be a lifelong learner. I love getting new information. Even as I age and I get older, I still want to know things. So midlife is a time of reflection, growth and, most importantly, opportunity. It's a stage where we can harness our experiences, embrace change and step into the best versions of ourselves with confidence and grace. My mission in creating this symposium is to provide you with the tools, insights and inspiration needed to navigate this exciting chapter yes, I said exciting of your life. So if you walk away with one golden nugget of info from this week, then I feel like this symposium was a success.
Speaker 1:I want to tell you that this event is being sponsored by Small Space Pilates, where you can benefit from fitness in your own home, and to ensure that everyone can find the space to improve flexibility, strength and mental well-being, and let's not forget those people. If you can't join us live, there's no need to worry. Every moment of this Revitalize your Midlife Symposium will be available for replay. Whether you're seeking strategies to enhance your health, fitness or overall well-being, this symposium is your gateway to a midlife filled with vitality and joy.
Speaker 1:So, without further ado, I am thrilled to introduce Dr Lakeisha Webb McMillan. Her passion for helping women in perimenopause and menopause includes contributions that span from being a featured expert on Oprah yes, the Oprah-owned TV network to being on the founding advisory board of the only FDA-approved, physician-designed vaginal lube line, momentum Intimacy. She's a gifted speaker, speaker, and you'll see why. She's an integrative ob-gyn hormone specialist and amazon best-selling author. Dr lakisha helps women in perimenopause and menopause who are struggling with depleting hormones to get their hormones balanced, regain mental sharpness and have energy to last the entire day.
Speaker 2:Dr lakishaisha, welcome, thank you so much, kat, I am so excited to be here. And happy birthday month.
Speaker 1:I love it.
Speaker 2:I love it. I'm one of those that does the same thing during my month, so I love that.
Speaker 1:Well, dr Lakeisha, my first question, and before I go there, if anyone who's watching, put your questions in the chat, because Dr Lakeisha will have a chance to answer those if you put a question in. So we'll take some time to answer those questions. Could you please tell our audience why this is such a big thing for you? You're a doctor, a doctor, doctor, and you could have gone in any direction you wanted, but you chose this. Can you tell us your why for that?
Speaker 2:Oh, my goodness, I love sharing this story, so thank you for giving me the opportunity to do that. I say that it always sounds like exciting and wonderful to say. You know, one Saturday night I was laying there watching TV, was our regular family Saturday night activities and my phone starts going ding, ding, ding, ding. It's the messages that are going off and I'm like what's going on? And one of my girlfriends in our girlfriends chat is like excuse me, ma'am, do you need to tell us something? And I'm like what is going on? And there's a screenshot that her mother had taken of me on the Oprah own network and I was like oh, that's right.
Speaker 1:I did do that.
Speaker 2:Oh, my gosh oh that, and it was because there had been a while, a time span, a time lapse from the time I recorded that to the time it aired. And so you know, people will look at that and say, oh, you are now an Oprah-owned, featured expert, right? But it wasn't always that way, kat. So you know, can I be real with this symposium? Oh, please please do.
Speaker 2:Please do Awesome. I say that when you look back over your life anybody when they look back don't you recognize that? There are dates, there are times, there are events that are just stamped right here, like you cannot. They are what we would call a core memory, right? Yes, One of those dates is April 2nd 2009. And that's the day my husband had to come to the hospital and tell me my father had passed away from complications of a stroke, and then, just 10 short months later, my grandmother passes away from complications from CHF, which is congestive heart failure.
Speaker 2:I come from I am blessed to come from a two-parent household. I come from a very tight-knit family, so this really just ripped the rug from underneath us and put us in free fall, and I was just like, oh, my goodness gracious, what has just happened to my life? Right? And so, as I'm trying to pick up these pieces, as I'm trying to actually stop the free fall which we all know, that, that you know, when you're dealing with grief, that that's a whole nother topic and subject I remember sitting on labor and delivery one night and my blood pressure was 160 over 110. And the nurses looked at me and said do you need to go to the ER and I was like, well, no, I mean I'm OK. But I sat there in that moment and I said, Lord, I need an exit strategy, because my pager would go off and I wouldn't want to talk to my patients, I would get irritated with the staff, and that was not me. And so, as I began to peel back the layers of grief and go through therapy I need that t-shirt that says I believe in Jesus, but I also have a therapist Right I say, you know, I love that.
Speaker 2:I found therapy at that point and I started realizing that I could show up for women in a new and different way, because my own body was changing and I was trying to figure out what was going on. And I was trying to figure out what was going on. And so, as I began to take a step back, I took a sabbatical and I remember calling my office manager two months into my sabbatical and she finished the sentence for me. I said hey, so she said you're not coming back and she was like and that's okay.
Speaker 2:And as I began that journey and started understanding how hormones change as we get older and this new, new term in the lexicon is even in medical lexicon of perimenopause I remember in residency was premenopause and now it's evolved to perimenopause and menopause. How this shows up and I was like, oh my goodness, I started realizing and actually owning that I'm a great teacher and I can take complex concepts and make them very understandable. And I started taking that and unraveling it and packaging it up. And that's how now I have become your international menopause whisperer. I actually help women and I take and validate their symptoms in perimenopause and menopause. I help them crack their hormone code and then I build a specialized, a personalized symptom solution blueprint for them.
Speaker 1:Where were you like 15 years ago, dr Lakeisha? I needed someone like you to be in my corner. I think that one of the things that I found is that, even though every woman will go through perimenopause and or menopause, or probably, and that it feels like you're so by yourself, like you're alone yes, can you speak to that a?
Speaker 2:little bit. I'm so glad you said that, and that is one of the stigmas I fight to unearth and to shine a light on, because we know that when you shine a light on myths or misunderstandings, it takes the scariness out of it, right, it takes the boogeyman out of it. Is what I say. And so I say you know a lot of women.
Speaker 2:What I believe has happened over the years is that women were cultured and expected to be quiet when it came to our bodies and we were told no, that's not what you're feeling, that's really not what's going on. And we were not allowed to have a lot of agency to come forth and say no, something is different and I'm doing what you have recommended so far. It's not working for me. Date their symptoms, because women come to me and they'll say it's so funny when they come to me and they give me their laundry list of what's going on, I stop after they finish. I stop and say and I'm going to date myself here I wish I had a tape recorder so I could just push rewind and play because you're not alone. And the minute I say that I see their shoulders relax.
Speaker 2:Drop, oh man I see the expression in their face relaxes and they go thank you. Yes, been given this concept or this belief that perimenopause and menopause is simply a numbers diagnosis and it's not. And then they're told oh, you know, it's not that bad, you just have to hold on for a little while longer and it'll all be over. Well, what's going to be over? Because we are finding that it's a hundred plus symptoms that vary in intensity and when they show up.
Speaker 1:Yes, well, I think the other thing too is that even when you try to advocate for yourself, you sometimes you're told well, you know, you are getting older, you just have to learn to expect it. And I just no, I'm not going to say what I was going to do, but don't accept that.
Speaker 2:I totally am with you and I agree with what you're saying, because you have to be an advocate for yourself.
Speaker 2:You have to say you know what no well, thank you for your insight, because your insight is only taking me so far. Now I need to go further, because what you have given me is not going to work for me, because I don't want to white knuckle it through. I'm not just going to hold on for dear life and just hope and wait until these symptoms get better, and that is one of the things that I feel has been passed down. Just going to hold on for dear life and just hope and wait until these symptoms get better, and that is one of the things that I feel has been passed down as well. I've heard it when I'm on other panels, when I do small groups or even large groups, and I've had other panelists that have said oh honey, it's not good, just hold on, it'll be over. It'll be over soon and you'll be OK. And I'm saying you don't have to be miserable and suffer, you do not.
Speaker 1:You don't. You do not. Yeah, dr Lakeisha, what other common misconceptions are there that you've heard in this field about perimenopause and menopause?
Speaker 2:First off, if I could, can I take a little side street first? Absolutely, because I love to be able to talk about definitions first. So let's give a definition of menopause first. Menopause is technically 12 consecutive months without a cycle. That's the textbook definition.
Speaker 2:So if you go 12 months in one day or 12 months in a week, there are people that will give you the label or the diagnosis of postmenopausal. And this is important because if you go 12 consecutive months, don't have a period and you are not on hormone therapy, you're not on anything, and you have a period which we call postmenopausal bleeding. We have to make sure and rule out that there's any uterine cancer. Now I'm not saying that postmenopausal bleeding automatically means uterine cancer. I'm I'm not saying that postmenopausal bleeding automatically means uterine cancer. I'm saying it's one of the differential diagnosis we need to rule out.
Speaker 2:Now I stopped using the term postmenopausal because I started seeing that women felt as if they were going back to something once they got through this menopause. They were like, if I can just get through this menopause thing, I'm good, I'm golden, and my body's going to snap back and my snatch is going to be back and my bingo's coming back. Everything's coming back. I just need to get through this other side. I was like no, you need new tools to handle this new body.
Speaker 1:That's what it is.
Speaker 2:Now perimenopause. Unfortunately I'm going to probably shock some of your community I call it purgatory.
Speaker 1:unfortunately, that's how it felt.
Speaker 2:Yes, because it can last five, seven, 10, 15 years, Kat, before menopause comes into the picture.
Speaker 1:That's crazy.
Speaker 2:And this is where the misconception comes in. This is where we're getting back. We're coming back on the main road. Now. This happens because your hormones that your body was used to when you went into puberty that started going up to certain levels and dropping at a consistent interval. Your cycle stopped doing that. They stopped going as high as they used to, they stopped dropping as low as they used to. They stopped doing the exact interval. It started either stretching out or coming closer together, and so this is why you can have these symptoms that can show up, and they can be varying symptoms for different people. So one of the misconceptions that women have that I hear a lot of is that it's age related. Lot of is that it's age related. Women are told constantly you're too young, you're too young, but we can find evidence that shows that your hormones can start fluctuating as early as your late 30s and early 40s, and this is the time where women start saying wait, what's going on?
Speaker 2:I don't feel like myself. Something's wrong. Either my sleep is off or I'm starting to have foggy brain. I can't remember things like I used to, I can't do certain things or I can't lose weight as quickly as I used to. I'm starting to get this spare tire around my waist. So these are this is what I say is one of the biggest misconceptions is that, oh, it's simply age related one of the biggest misconceptions is that, oh, it's simply age related.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that doesn't. I don't like that either.
Speaker 2:I think I can't say that I went a whole 11 months and then, on the 12th month, had a cycle.
Speaker 1:I was like I'm so sorry. I think, dr Lakeisha, that we as women, we're so we're busy. We've got kids we've got a life, we've got things, and it's only until the symptoms are like knocking us here that we go. Wait, what's going on. Exactly and by that time we're rushing to find a way to alleviate some of the symptoms. Yes, yes. Yes, are there some common symptoms that women experience during perimenopause and menopause, or is it different for each person?
Speaker 2:Great question. It is different for each person and that is why, in my opinion, it is one of those things you feel like you're hitting a moving target and that's why, when you go to your doctor, some will say you're fine, you're normal, your labs are normal, that's not a symptom of perimenopause, that's not a symptom of menopause. And so you feel as if you're kind of getting jerked around, you know, and you're just like, but something's wrong, and so then you can start, you try and go down certain pathways different, different diagnosis. You're going to this, you're going to this specialist and that specialist, and and, and you're trying to figure things out. Actually, one of one of the things that I do find is that women can have cardiac symptoms that really don't have a cardiac origin. What do I mean by that? Palpitations.
Speaker 2:I have a lot of women that come to me and say, oh my gosh, my heart is racing, I feel my heart. I'm not sure I got the million dollar workup from the cardiologist that came back and said to me there's nothing on your test, Everything is normal. You wore the halter monitor for 14 or 21 days, you got the stress test done, you did all of the non-invasive type of testing and they're like. What I've come to find is that we know that progesterone in particular can affect the electricity of the heart, and your electricity circuits are what you've, what can actually impact your rhythms and what you feel. And so I've had patients where they've done the million dollar workup. They come to me, I do my workup, my, my, my kit workup that I do, and then I see that their progesterone is super low, which I probably figured already just from them telling their story.
Speaker 2:And when they get on progesterone and it's usually about maybe two, three months later they're doing their, their follow up, and I go hey, how are those palpitations? And they're like I haven't had one in a while.
Speaker 1:It's scary, though. It's scary when you lay down and your heart's doing this and you sit up and you're like what's going on.
Speaker 2:Exactly. Or you get a diagnosis of anxiety and you're put on anti-anxiety meds and I'm not saying do not go, they can show up. You can show up with another diagnosis that really does need to be, you know, addressed by other means.
Speaker 2:So I want everybody to make sure that you are safe. Make sure that you're safe, absolutely, you do the workup and do not get a name for a diagnosis in that particular area. What I mean is like cardiology or GI or something like that. Make sure that you're following up with your hormone specialist, like myself, so that we can step in and say, hey, let's look at your hormones, let's see what's going on and let's help out this cardiology symptom, cardiac symptom. Let's help out some GI symptoms, let's help out some neurologic symptoms like the brain fog and things like that.
Speaker 1:I had a scenario where I was talking with a woman who you know we were talking about perimenopause and hot flashes and I was like, oh, these hot flashes are just crazy. And she goes oh yeah, I had one. And I was like don't tell me that, don't tell me, you just have one hot flash. That's so not fair.
Speaker 2:Exactly, exactly, oh my gosh, and that's what I tell patients all the time Everybody is different Everybody. And so, oh my gosh, one of my yoga instructors a while ago had a saying my gosh, one of my yoga instructors a while ago had a saying comparison is the thief of all joy. And so if you start comparing your journey to someone else's, it can really steal your joy. And this is where I would say make sure you understand everybody's symptom is different and the intensity of those symptoms are different. And if you have an intensity that's different from someone else's, it is not a moral failure on your part, it is different physiology, that's it.
Speaker 1:Wow, dr Lakeisha. Let's say you have a woman who has been having perimenopausal symptoms for a while. She finally thinks, okay, I must be going through perimenopause. What does she do to manage those symptoms? Where does she start? Because I think it's really hard for us to kind of go. Where do I go? Number one which direction do I go? Number two and how do I know what's right for me?
Speaker 2:Number three Ooh, kat, you were asking some great questions tonight, Great questions. So if you find yourself having symptoms and you are saying, hey, I've gone to all the other avenues and I really believe that this is perimenopausal, what is happening now is the voice of perimenopausal women and menopausal women is starting to swell, and so we are creating this ground swell. We are starting to create a grassroots type of movement that is allowing experts to start coming up in the space. This is allowing other I call them my hormone hotties to come up and give their stories, and so you're able to.
Speaker 2:This is the double-edged sword of social media, right? Because now we do have access and you can start following, you start getting some information. You can start saying, oh, that sounds like me. Oh, wait, hold on, maybe I should listen. They may have some resources that I can go to make sure your sources are credible and make sure that you're not just saying plug in and let me try and do the same thing they did, but get that information and say, okay, what could I try? Because some people are saying, hey, insurance doesn't cover some. You know a lot of this. That's another big issue, and so their cost is something that they really have to consider.
Speaker 2:And so doing some of their own DIYing can be, you know, can help mitigate some of the symptoms. It can be a supplement that maybe that will probably work for them, or it can be some type of lifestyle change that can help. Some women have figured out that certain foods can trigger intensity of hot flashes or certain activities. I have another super friend of mine I call y'all all my super friends and I have another super friend of mine that is a menopause nutritionist and she was talking about her own journey and how she noticed washing her dishes in warm water triggered hot flashes when she started having them, so she had to wash her dishes in cold water.
Speaker 2:Now so, these are different things, like I'm saying, lifestyle changes. Sometimes we may even have to do some real. I call them CTJs, like Brene Brown calls them. Come to Jesus conversation and say are there certain stressors in my life that are triggering a stress response which is now hijacking my system and making my symptoms more intense? So then it may be that hard conversation of a job change, of letting some relationships go, of really doing some real excavating in our lives and figuring out what is our next.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Before we go to break, can you expound just a little bit on and this is probably a whole nother show, but could you kind of talk about why it's not covered by insurance? Is there any reason, or is it just one of those things where they go yeah, no, we're not going to do that over here, we're just going to put it over here. Is there a reason why they don't?
Speaker 2:In my opinion, the reason it's not covered by insurance is because the women have not been studied as an as, not intensely, as extensively as men have, and it's because of our cycles A lot of times. If you look back historically and I was having a conversation with Dr was having a conversation with Dr Carrie Jones and we were talking about this and she said, if you look historically at the studies and who was included, who was in the sample, they actually excluded women because of our cycles, because they could not control that variable. Because when you do studies, you want to be able to control your variables and be able to say, okay, this is pure data that I'm getting. We need to be studied because of our cycle, because we're different, and so a lot of it was extrapolating from men oh, this is how we're going to treat adults. So what has happened is that we don't have a lot of data that we can point to and say this is what's happening, and so here's how we're going to address it.
Speaker 2:The other big thing is the WHI study really hurt, instead of helped, women's health, and it was one of those things that kind of happened on the back end because they really, with good intentions tried to set up the study. The initiative is called the Women's Health Initiative because they were trying to study women. They were saying, hey, how can we help decrease morbidity and mortality of the three big things that kill or harm women? And that was cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, number two, and breast cancer, number three. And so the hormone arm of the study was halted early because there were some end. There were some end products or end, I'm sorry, end outcomes is what I should say that popped up that they were like whoa, this is not safe. We need to stop.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:Doing that medicine really didn't take the time and I say it all the time. We didn't have a great PR department. We really don't really excavate that and say how does this actually impact us in the wild and how does that look going forward?
Speaker 1:Is that changing now? Are they starting to do more? I don't want to say tests, I guess that's not the right word but are they realizing that all women are going to go through this at some point?
Speaker 2:That is starting to be the overarching theme and acknowledgement Because, like I said, we have started saying something. Women are not silent anymore and we are really saying, hey, I don't feel good, this is not how I'm going to live the last third of my life. I'm going to be in this for a third of my life and I'm not going to be this miserable.
Speaker 2:This is just unacceptable, and so now they are trying to. I think we're trying to figure out how do we even look at it, how do we even structure it, how does it look? You know those type of things.
Speaker 1:All right, we're going to take a short break and then we'll come back and Dr Lakeisha is going to talk about nutrition and diet. And welcome back. For those of you that just joined us. I am Kat Cortada, the host, and this is the Revitalize your Midlife Symposium, and we are talking to Dr Lakeisha, who's giving us dropping nuggets of information about perimenopause and menopause. So, dr Lakeisha, how does nutrition play a role in managing either perimenopause, menopause or both?
Speaker 2:Oh, wow. That is a huge topic, and what I do when I approach nutrition is I'm looking at helping women to identify foods that can be inflammatory triggers, because when you're in perimenopause and menopause, you're losing your innate ability of anti-inflammatory your anti-inflammatory ability, let's say it that way. When testosterone starts dropping, you are losing that. Progesterone also has an anti-inflammatory property. So choosing foods that do not trigger inflammation is huge. So one of them, ladies, is our nightly glass of wine or our cocktails that we love.
Speaker 2:Alcohol can really trigger an inflammatory response. So I have patients that will come and say wait a minute, you're telling me I can't do this anymore. I'm not telling you you can't. I am explaining that what happens? As we get older, we lose the activity of alcohol dehydrogenase, which is an enzyme in the liver that breaks down alcohol, and as that starts slowing down, you actually hold on to that chemical makeup longer, which causes an immune response that is an inflammatory response. When you have inflammatory responses, you can trigger night sweats, you can trigger hot flashes. When you have alcohol in your system, you're dehydrated. So you're not hydrating all the areas of our body, if you know what I mean all the areas of our body, if you know what I mean Areas that are getting dry, that we don't want to get dry and it and so that can be one of those things.
Speaker 2:Processed sugar has been known to trigger hot flashes more intensely and it causes an immune response, and what happens is when we have these foods that are triggering inflammation, it can actually disrupt the microbiome of our gut health. So we love big words in medicine, you know. It makes us feel smart. It makes me feel like all my loans were worth it right. We're worth it, right. So microbiome is simply a way to say.
Speaker 2:There's bacteria that belongs in the small intestines, that should be there, that should stay there. There's bacteria that belongs in the large intestines and these bacteria literally will feed on substances in our gut that help you process your hormones, that will help you to have this balance, this nice microbiome that will help keep your stomach flat, that will help you with metabolizing your sugar, that will help keep you insulin sensitive and not insulin resistant and increase your risk for diabetes and obesity. You know so this is where I come from, from a realm of nutrition and, as far as specifics and really diving deep into what should or should not eat, there are tests that I can run that will show you that and then I hand you over to the nutritionist that can really help you put together. Yeah, I w.
Speaker 1:I went down the rabbit hole of the microbiome. I get on these tangents of things and I saw a documentary about the microbiome and I was just fascinated in how they're looking at it. Could be the lack of bacteria in your microbiome can lead to other diseases, and so we're actually having a microbiome expert on tomorrow, which I'm super excited about. But I think that you know you have to start looking, you have to start changing things. You can keep it the same way, but you're going to be miserable. You have to start to say what can I pull away? And my husband and I started decreasing or we just eliminated ultra high processed foods out of our diet.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And so, you know, are we better for it? I don't know, but I'm going to say yes, I'm going to say yes for you.
Speaker 2:You hear my Southern accent came out because I really agree with you. So I'm going to say that's a yes, because when you take out processed foods, your body does not have to work super hard to break things down. Our body looks at food as fuel and when we put it in, it says, okay, what can I do with this that you just gave me? Oh, this, I can break this all the way down and it becomes a carbohydrate. That's a sugar. Oh, I can take this and break this all the way down into an amino acid, which is the building blood for a protein. Oh, this is fat. I can take this and break this down here. Oh, these are minerals and phytonutrients. I can break all this down and I can use them in various different reactions in the body that can be helpful for you to just function every day. So that is why I say yes, take out.
Speaker 2:I had a. I can't remember who said this, but I heard this one time. They said if you take a package and you turn it over and you cannot read the ingredients and there are more than three or four ingredients it probably shouldn't be inside your body. Now, do I always make the right choices, even myself. No, what we're saying is be more aware and so that you can see oh wait, I ate this today. That didn't work so well with me, because when we were younger we could go. I mean, when you're in college and you're doing finals and whatever you're doing.
Speaker 1:We ate all the things, didn't we? We ate all the things.
Speaker 2:You really have to be selective, you really have to do. I say think of your plate as a clock and so from 12 to. So if you have a round plate and you're thinking of it as the clock and you have your 12 o'clock, your three o'clock, your six o'clock, your nine o'clock, from 12 to six o'clock should be the colors of the rainbow, green leafies, your lagoons, your deep purples and red and beautiful colors. From the six to the nine o'clock can be your protein and so that can be leaner proteins because as we get older, like you said, some of us, even genetically, can not even break down some of the protein. So that can be more of.
Speaker 2:If you're doing plant-based From nine to 12 o'clock, that can be your carbohydrates and they can be complex carbohydrates. So these are your root vegetables. So I have Caribbean background, so I think of what we call yam. So there is a yam that grows in the ground and it's white in Jamaica and that has deep roots. So when I say complex carbohydrates, it takes your body a while to break it down, which helps with your blood sugar regulation.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, it does.
Speaker 2:So these are the things you're looking for Sweet potatoes, cassava, even you know things that grow in the ground that you have to go and kind of pull out.
Speaker 1:Right, I have a question for you. It's a fact check I'm doing for myself. So you were talking about the liver. Is it true that what your body doesn't recognize, it just goes? Yeah, that's fat, go to the fat. Is that true it?
Speaker 2:just goes yeah, that's fat. Go to the fat. Is that true? I have not come across that concept. What I will say is that if your body doesn't recognize it, what I've found is that it actually stimulates an immune response. It actually thinks of it as it's something it needs to get rid of and kill. And so that's why, when you're taking in all these chemicals and your body breaks down and it sees this, it goes oh wait, is that like that bacteria we saw a few months ago? Is it like that virus that we saw that we have? Maybe? Okay, well, why don't we just stimulate the immune response to come out and try and kill it and get rid of it? And that's the way I have been taught to think of. If the body doesn't recognize something, it attacks it and it stimulates the immune response. What liver does when you have excess sugar is where the sugar can get repackaged and sent to the liver as fat.
Speaker 1:Yeah, maybe that's what I was thinking about. I do know that when I eat, I try to eat. I have my protein, I have my vegetables and I have my carb and I try to go protein vegetable and by the time I get to my carb it's kind of like I kind of want it and kind of not want it.
Speaker 2:You know, I have a little bit of it, that's a great concept.
Speaker 2:That's a great concept. I like that, I like that. And and thinking of always keeping a carb though in your, in your rotation is really important, because our brains really need fat and carbs. It needs fat and sugar. That's what it runs on those fuels, and so you do need that to make sure that you can, you can think you can, you know you can process and that you can actually function. Can I? Can I say something? One thing here I want to go back to something.
Speaker 2:In the first segment I saw somebody say that their OBGYN told them that doctors aren't trained in medical school to deal with with menopause. Absolutely correct. I'm not sure what the curriculum is now, but when done in your first two years, In years three and four, you do your clinical rotations where you rotate through the different areas of medicine, and so when you're rotating through OBGYN yeah, it's not a lot of training. Even when I went into residency for OBGYN, we weren't really taught a lot about at that time. We were calling it premenopause and menopause. We were saying, okay, well, when a woman goes into premenopause, her periods get a little wacky. You can put them on birth control to help stop that, because that was the biggest thing. It was like you just don't want that to be an irritant.
Speaker 2:But there's so much more to this, and so, yes, you kind of have to give your docs grace, because if you're thinking about this, we are the docs 20 years ago that had the the WHI study run into our morning reports. I remember it clearly and they said hormones are bad. Hormones are bad, take everybody off. That was the end, and we weren't given another tool to use in our medical handbag.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's sad. Let's switch gears a little bit. Can you talk about alternative therapies that can help alleviate menopause symptoms that you've seen in your practice?
Speaker 2:Oh, I love using things like acupuncture is very, very good because acupuncture helps to take away inflammation. It really does help to take down inflammation. Massage therapy because, again, you're getting rid of toxins and inflammation and it's not just a oh, this is my self care type of thing. I actually had a massage therapist helped me to understand. They're really moving that excess fluid out of the tissues back into the vessels so that you can excrete it through your kidneys and your poop basically. So massage therapy, acupuncture, can be very helpful. I love floating magnesium floats using the infrared sauna.
Speaker 2:So these are ways to be able to get toxins out of your body, to be able to help your body deal with the load that it has now and be able to process everything. Another thing I love grounding. I am a huge, huge fan of grounding, simply going back to our roots as children and walking barefoot outside. It's so interesting.
Speaker 2:Another side street that I can take with this particular concept my son was he does remote learning and his teacher that was on the day for his science class. He took a screenshot and sent it to me and he was talking about grounding and how grounding is the exchange of electrons and ions into the earth that you discharge from your body. And he was like Ma, I got it and I was like, yes, he was like now I understand it, cause I would have them grounding when they were low. And they were like why are we walking barefoot outside? I don't like feeling the grass. I was like you need to ground because you all are a little right now and I need y'all to calm down and you can tell it on their face like they would literally just go.
Speaker 1:Okay, we can go back inside now you know, yeah, I remember summers of never. We either wore flip-flops or we were barefoot. Yes, yeah, we didn't wear, I mean, shoes. Who does that during the summer? That's's crazy, exactly yeah, dr Lakeisha. How important is is exercise in managing some of the all of this stuff that's going on it is so important because exercise helps us with a lot of different areas in our wonderful maturing body.
Speaker 2:Exercise helps us with strength. Exercise helps us with balance. Exercise helps to. It's almost like it helps keeps a lubricant in your body so that your joints can stay nice and lubricated. It helps with mentation. It helps our minds to stay nice and sharp.
Speaker 2:It helps our body to be able to keep its metabolism going so that we can help our weight management and be able to help with sugar regulation, because studies have even shown that if you go out and walk just 10 minutes after you eat, your insulin sensitivity is tremendous. What it does is it calls the sugar out of the bloodstream and says, hey, come here, go into that big muscle that's walking and we need some, we need some fuel. So why don't you go to the quads? Why don't you go to the hamstrings? Because she's actually walking and I'm not saying you have to go and do a whole 45 minutes or an hour and come pouring. So no, 10 minutes. It's called exercise snacking and if you do that snacking, yes, throughout the day, it is just as effective as taking a block of time and doing a block of exercise.
Speaker 1:I talk a lot about the 11 minute workout and, um, I got it from. There was a study and they were talking about high intensity interval training, about what it does, and I thought, wow, what if people just did 11 minutes to start their workout?
Speaker 2:I love it, everyone has 11 minutes right 11 minutes and I've been. I follow. I saw Yvonne doing her 11 minutes and I love it. I absolutely love it. I think that is awesome.
Speaker 1:Yes, I love that. Let's talk about hormone replacement therapy. I am a huge fan of bioidentical hormone replacement therapy only because it and I'll put it to you this way it made me feel normal.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:My brain was working, my body was obeying me most of the time, you know. You know I felt normal. Can you talk about hormone replacement therapy? Because I still think that there are women out there that feel as though, Ooh, no, I can't do that, but I think things have changed a lot.
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely. So. This goes back to that WHI, the um, the women's health initiative, and what was born out of that is that there were some people that were like, look, we really need to figure this piece out, like what is going on? And so bioidentical hormone replacement therapy is where you use bioidentical hormones, which means that this is a hormone that is made to look just like what your body used to make. It is chemically, it is structurally identical of, say, progesterone, of a bioidentical progesterone, and a chemical structure and the biological structure of progesterone. And put them side by side they are the same and it's usually made from some type of organic source is usually the foundation. So, for instance, that yam I'm going back to it usually will use yam as the basis and they'll build that structure. They'll build progesterone, which is bioidentical.
Speaker 2:What that means is that when you take that in however, you're going to take that in through a cream, through transdermal, through a pellet, through oral your body sees it and goes. I recognize that. I know what that is and I know what to do with it. I know how to break that down and I know what to do with the. I know how to break that down and I know what to do with the metabolites that come from breaking that down.
Speaker 2:What metabolites are is when you take a substance and you break it down, you get something new, you get a new structure, and then you break that down.
Speaker 2:And then you break it, and so the body goes OK, I don't need this end product anymore, I'm going to shunt that over to the liver. It's going to change its structure again, and then the liver is going to shut that over to the gut, to your intestines, going to change that structure again, and then you're going to poop it out or you're going to pee it out, okay. And when your body knows, okay, I don't need all this, these metabolites running around on chaperone, unsupervised, then you're using what you need and your body is able to feel a sense of relief because it has the fuel source it needed. And, like you said I love how you said that. I'm going to steal this from you, kat your body started obeying you, and so it was a new tool that you used to get your body to obey what you wanted it to do, which meant it's time to go to sleep, I'm tired, it's the end of the day, I'm. I'm ready to go to sleep. Okay, I can shut you off.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:I can help you land the plane and get some restorative sleep. What's happening for a lot of women? Their body's not obeying them anymore. I want to go exercise and build muscle. I want to do this and make sure that I can lose weight. Or I have this event coming up I want to get into that dress. Or I just want to feel my best. I want to make sure my blood pressure is good and the body is now obeying you. I love that concept.
Speaker 1:Can you talk a little bit about the bioidentical and what doctors used to prescribe, also known as horse urine?
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, yes, yes. Thank you for completing that thought. So what we studied in the WHI initiative, the hormone arm of the study it took conjugated equine estrogen, which came from horse urine, and they packaged it up. And they took progestins, which is a synthetic form of progesterone, packaged them up and they said and they named them either PremPro or Premarin, and gave that to women. And what they do, what synthetic hormones do, is it mimics the biological, it comes in and it can press on the receptor and the receptor goes oh okay, yeah, there's something happening here, I'll do with this, I'll obey this command. But then the body breaks that down and it's these metabolites it doesn't know what to do with.
Speaker 2:And so what they found was that when you were looking at the equine estrogen arm of the study, it did increase your risk of having a blood clot, even either in your legs or your lungs. There appeared to be an increased risk in breast cancer initially and it looked as if it was with the combination of estrogen and the progestin. But when they looked at the data again here recently, in 22, there was no statistical significance in that data, which means your risk of having breast cancer, of just being a woman, there was no increase in taking the progestin and the estrogen the progestin and the estrogen. So we have to go back and we need again a better.
Speaker 1:PR department, so that we can get that word out.
Speaker 2:Seriously, we can take away the stigma that hormones are bad. Hormones cause bad ugly things and hormones should never be put in our body. It's the type of hormones, it's the delivery system, it is how much you're doing, and you need to make sure that you have someone that is aware of how to make adjustments and how to follow you and know how to make sure that you do stay safe.
Speaker 1:I can say you know, if someone's listening, that the bioidentical hormone replacement therapy, they actually did blood work on me and you know I came back and she goes. Oh honey, you don't feel good yeah that's basically what she said and I go. You're right, yes, yes.
Speaker 2:You're right, I don't feel good, thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you for validating me and I think that I think that's huge, you know, because then you start thinking is this in my head, is this what's wrong with me? You know, you try to do your own thing and fixing it and it doesn't work at all. So I have one last question for you, dr Lakeisha. Is that how should women decide if HRT is the right option for them?
Speaker 2:I say and that's such a great question. I know I keep saying that, but you're asking these wonderful questions that are pulling out this wonderful conversation. I always say informed refusal is just as important as informed consent, and the way you come to those conclusions is by information and by asking the questions and understanding what is in this or what is it? How does it look like you? How do you follow me? Like you said, they did blood work.
Speaker 2:There are different types of testing that you can have done and there are different ways that physicians that can look at you and say, okay, this is what I'm going to do and this is how I'm going to follow you and making sure that you understand, okay, what happens if there's a little too much in this formulation, if there's not enough in the formulation, how do we make adjustments? Because your body is doing that naturally. You know it is actually going oh, she needs a little bit more. Let me dump a little bit more from her ovaries or her adrenals. Let's make adjustments. So your body is amazing and it's wonderful and does its?
Speaker 2:own, and so being able to try and mimic that is what we're trying to do for you, right and so learning if BHRT is right for you means having a conversation, asking the question, and it may not be just one conversation either. It may be multiple conversations that then give you enough information for you to process, because everybody processes their information differently.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And say, okay, I'm at a point where I can do the next step, where I can say, nope, this isn't for me, or you know what, this is something I want to put in my hormone hottie handbag and I want to try it out.
Speaker 1:I can tell you that I went back three times to the same place and it was only that third time. I was like, because they kept telling me the same, you know, and I had to feel comfortable with it and finally I said, okay, let's do this. Dr Lakeisha, I feel like you know you're one of my favorite people. I'm just going to say you're like my best friend in my head.
Speaker 2:That's what I love, thank you. Oh, I have, I've accomplished. I accomplished my goal, absolutely. That's what I love and that's why I even wrote my book. And the way I wrote the book is as as if you're talking to a girlfriend. You're sitting on the couch and she just happens to be a doctor and she's like hey, you want to know some secrets? Let me tell you a couple of things, and that's that's the way that I love being able to talk to people.
Speaker 1:How can people find you, dr Lakeisha? I think what you bring to the table is so important and your delivery is just. You know people want to lean into you.
Speaker 2:You want to lean in and listen and and I love that about you.
Speaker 1:So where can people find you or follow you or whatever?
Speaker 2:I am on all social media platforms, at Dr Lakeisha MD. That's D R L A K E I S C H A M D, that's D-R-L-A-K-E-I-S-C-H-A-M-D, and if you want to make a consultation visit with me, because you're just like hey, all this stuff that you're talking about, it resonated with me. I was like, wow, I need to know more. Go to talkhormonescom and schedule your consult visit with me today.
Speaker 1:I love it. I'm an honorary hormone hottie, by the way just with me today. I love it.
Speaker 1:I'm an honorary hormone hottie, by the way just in case you're listening Absolutely yes, you are. Yes, you are, Dr LaKeisha. This is just fascinating. I love talking to you. Again. If you didn't get a chance to join us, this will be on replay. My guest tomorrow day six, you guys is Mandy Patterson. She's going to be talking about the microbiome that we had just kind of briefly touched on. But you know, bring your questions if you want to listen in. I'm super excited, Dr Lakeisha, you're amazing. You know, you're so amazing, and so until next time. I think we're getting ready to go. So bye, Thank you, Bye, Thank you.