875. What You Aren’t Being Told About Hormones, Heavy Periods + Fatigue

24:07Lindsey Simcik:yeah I feel like we've had that journey with almost 30 where we're exposed to so many whether it's in the health and wellness space or spiritual space like the practices and the products and the routines and the biohacking and it could be so shiny because you're like oh if I do that this is the result and it could be just another form of control that produces more stress that like, if you don't do it perfectly, like, what does that mean? There's just this really interesting effect that I think, you know, not a lot of women are realizing is having an effect on their health. So if they can integrate more simple, like foundational pieces that like more peacefully integrate into their life rather than become their life, I think it'll benefit their whole body health too.

24:59Lindsey Simcik:And I think this is, this is one of those things. So I just want to say one thing too it was interesting to see when you were like you mentioned something about the iron man and you were like now I can't even you know you kind of had like a I can't run a mile now and it's so funny how that part of us still is like oh I can't run a mile now I'm like you've built amazing and a company that's helping women be healthy and well and the part of us that can sometimes be present that's like you know still that priority it's like still there still there yeah it's like yeah you're right can't run a mile and it's like you are we women it's like you can build a company, help women be more connected to their bodies, help them be well.

25:34And we are still like, Oh my God, you know, like it was like, and I'm just, I'm just calling that out because it's like, that's what a lot of women do to themselves. Like, you know, they're like, Oh, I'm not doing this. And it's like, you are helping the world, helping your family, helping your community. And it's just, it's amazing. We know what you've been able to do. So what would be one thing you would tell your younger self right now? If she, like, you could just talk to her today, the one that was really struggling at the time? I, this is my mantra that I use every day. It's that you are enough that, yeah, we could talk about nutrition and we can talk about fueling your body.

26:06But I think that I still struggle with that. I mean, I have imposter syndrome every day. I'm a founder of a company. I don't know if that goes away. It never, no, it never does. Totally. I think that it's, it's really hard. And I think that if I, I saw this picture of myself the other day I was showing Sophie. It was, I was 13. I was so chubby. I had this, this lipstick on and I was like striking this insane pose. I was like, oh, I wish I could harness that energy. I just had this feisty spark. And I think that went away as soon as I got into my preteen teenage years. And I think that if I could, if I could just know that I was enough so I could be the most authentic version of myself all the time that I would, who knows what I could have done.

26:52done so much.

26:54Lindsey Simcik:So, so much. Sophie, for you, would love to talk about your story. Yeah. Yeah. So I have a really different story and I started out actually as a college athlete. So I was a competitive swimmer my whole life. And I had a huge amount of confidence in my physical body through that. I knew how to perform in that way. And what I realized later in the subsequent years is that I had that, that physical confidence, but what I didn't realize I was learning. And I think a lot of athletes and, um, and just women, whether you're an athlete or not, you learn, like Izzy was saying to override. And so I thought I knew my body, it was really tuned, But what I'd actually learned to do was to override everything that my body was telling me.

27:49So pain and training and emotional stress, managing school and swimming. And it really wasn't until I got out of swimming after college and I started running a lot and also under eating to try to maintain where I was for the first time in my life. I felt like I was really trying to control that. and my work from like, sorry, like a weight perspective. Yeah. From like a physical perspective, I realized I'd been training 20 plus 30 hours a week for like a decade. Um, and specifically in college, it's really intense. And so I all of a sudden realized I'm not in this regimented situation. I actually, I'm going to have to control this myself.

28:35And so I started running a lot and not eating enough. And that threw my body into this total chaos, like really quickly. And I started to get all of these symptoms. Some of them I think are really common. We hear a lot of women talk about them, like a lot of fatigue that they can't seem to get out of, a huge amount of gut issues, so like really bad GI stress. And then I also started to get acne all over my face for the first time in my life. And I'm in my 20s and I'm trying to date and I'm trying to have my first jobs. And I think in my head, I was like, this is stress. This is for sure stress related.

29:16And I was even going to doctors and like the GI specialist and they were like, I think this is stress, but we're just going to put you on this medication. Undiagnosable IBS and you're going to be on this medication for your life. And then the dermatologist was like, we're going to put you on these creams to fix your acne. And I knew I didn't want to do that. And then I started to get these other symptoms. It was like my body was just spiraling and these were a little bit more obscure. I started, my fingernails started to like kind of deteriorate, get like a little concave and I was getting these like heart palpitations.

29:54And then I started to just crave all of these unedible objects in my life that were like mineral rich like wet concrete literally you're not on that seashell yes so like wet concrete especially in LA because I lived here at the time yeah this is yes strange addiction and I would like you craved it you were like like if you guys weren't going to be looking yes like if there was wet dirt like if I was hiking and there was wet dirt I'd be like I'm just gonna you like I just wanted to eat it so bad. So you're craving the minerals because you're deficient. So deficient. Yes. And what's amazing about it's called pika.

30:35It's a condition where, yeah. So, but I didn't know about that at the time. And, um, it's such a bizarre feeling to like crave, like feel like you want to eat unedible objects, but, um, but the smell is like, unlike anything you've ever smelled before. And it's like, so it makes me, I mean, it's amazing.

30:59Yeah. I mean, when I know I'm good on iron is when I know I can go outside in a rainstorm and I'm like, don't need to, don't need to get my face.

31:10So it is your, so it is a mineral deficient when you have a mineral deficiency and then you're craving like you're, well, what's crazy is your body is amazing. Like Like your body, you get a heightened sense of this like smell for the things that your body needs. And for me, that was iron at the time. And I didn't know. But wild, yeah, wild experience. And so I started to look this up. I'm like, okay, women have GI issues. You know, every woman has a that's normal. Every woman's tired. We just fight through it kind of thing. And I was like, I shouldn't be wanting to eat the concrete. And so I started to like do some research and I went into the doctor and, um, and they were like, no, your nails are probably just nervous.

31:59Like, do you have a lot of stress? But I did this research and I went in and I was like, I need a blood test. And they were like, okay. And I even had to demand a full iron panel because I wasn't going to be standard. I think it's more common now and more understood now, but those results came back. I had my ferritin was a two, which is part of your iron panel. But that is like it was affecting my heart. Like it was really severe. That should be into the hundreds. And I had a vitamin D deficiency and a zinc deficiency, which are some of the most common nutrient deficiencies for menstruating people.

32:38So this is not surprising, especially given that I wasn't nourishing my body. and it was just yeah it was that time that I started to dig into what was going on because I at that point had started to loosen up a little bit on my eating and I thought I was eating healthy things but especially digging into the severe iron deficiency I learned that that was very likely coming from really heavy menstrual bleeding and that was when I started to look at okay how does my you know how does my menstrual cycle tie into these nutrient deficiencies and I started to talk to a lot of women in my life that I hadn't been like sharing about GI, like severe constipation, not cute.

33:19Right. But I was like, we need to talk about this. Am I alone here? And just started to hear a lot of stories back that were similar. But really the through line was that a lot of the women in my life were having some type of discomfort or known disease in their body and they weren't able to get the help that they needed. And so I was like, I, this isn't right. You know, we shouldn't need to continue to override in this way. And, uh, so that's why I was really passionate about helping women find that. And also a huge part of why we built Daily Basis the way that we did was to get that foundation since so many women have one or multiple of those really common nutrient deficiencies is just to get that foundation of support and really bridge that gap.

34:19Why do you think the disconnect with women is so great right now with their bodies? I yeah I think it's I think it's twofold I think that there are there is the research that is completely ignoring women for a really long time there were it was optional for women to be in NIH funded clinical studies until 1993 if you think about the impacts of that it's pretty astounding. And so the playbook wasn't designed for us. The research was missing so much of the female biology that actually is playing into what our doctors are telling us, what books and research are coming out. And the reality is so much of this has been built for all people, but it's really built for men.

35:13If you think about where the research is coming from, Our bodies were seen as a confounding variable because of the menstrual cycle. It's hard to study because it's not the same every day, which is problematic when you think about especially nutrition research, thinking about how we're getting advice about when we're eating and why we're eating it. And so I think to answer your question, not having the research in the playbook that's specifically designed for us, you get into this world where you think you're doing all these things right, but your body is not responding the same way or your body is not responding the way that you think.

35:49Like I'm sure you've all, we've all experienced eating healthy and working out in the way that we think we should, but feeling off. And if the research and the education isn't there, then how are we going to be doing the right things to actually support our bodies and feel our best selves? It's just not really possible.

36:10Lindsey Simcik:What were your experiences and relationships with your period? So you said you had very heavy periods? It's changed a lot, though. over my lifetime. And I think that that's a really great indication. Something that we talk a lot about is when you get to know your body and get to know your menstrual cycle, things like your period and even if you can sense ovulation, those changes are a really good way to understand what's going on in your body. So as an athlete, it was generally quite light, which is really common. And then it got really heavy afterwards. And I think what I just shared a little bit was that can be cyclical.

36:55So nutrient deficiencies can exacerbate a lot of those symptoms. Iron in particular can cause really heavy menstrual bleeding and then heavy menstrual bleeding can then exacerbate iron deficiency. And so as I then worked on improving that iron deficiency, I saw another shift in my menstrual cycle and it slowed down. So it's really been an evolution and it's kind of marked these periods of time where I had a change in my health or a change in my environment or my lifestyle. And it's very much a cool way to kind of understand and be able to really see and know your body in that way. Yeah.

37:37Lindsey Simcik:I think I hope with like kind of these generations coming up who kind of enter puberty and like are learning about their periods I hope that that is like a conversation and because I just remember being told so generally you're gonna bleed once a month you get that book it kind of sucks yeah like American Girl Book my body or something yeah yeah it was an American Girl Book yes we like click to the vagina page you're like, Oh my God. I never got the book. My mom like did a whole demonstration using a brush. It was like weird, but like the brush was the vagina. And then this, I don't know. It was weird.

38:18Lindsey Simcik:She tried her best. Yeah. But I think the conversation around like, you know, the cyclical nature every single month, why that's important, why that's empowering, how we could follow it, how we can tune into it and actually use it as almost like a diagnostic tool. Yes. Huh. Did I not rest enough during this period or like I'm not getting enough of this nutrient, et cetera. Obviously, like we start, you know, simple, but learning more over time can be so empowering because I feel like the world is not set up to support us in our 28 day cycle necessarily. And I don't think that's going to change anytime soon.

38:57And so how can we be so in tune and make these like tweaks within our own lives and have it be like natural and normal and not this thing we have to like, oh God, I have to have like this whole calendar on my thing.

39:10Lindsey Simcik:And it becomes intuitive. I think a lot about, I think most of us probably have this experience with other women in our life where you joke about something like catastrophic that you're about to do every month, like breakup with a partner. And then you get your period and you're like, oh, no, no, no, I'm not crazy. Right. And we all have that each month and we laugh about it. And I don't want to take the humor out of it. I get the joke, but the reality is that we are living in somewhat of this unknown chaos when you don't know what's happening in your body. And it just doesn't have to be that way at all.

39:50And I think that kind of what you were just talking about, some of the benefits of understanding your cycle are so great. And I think there's a lot more narrative right now and just conversation about the menstrual cycle, which is awesome. And I think we're getting the understanding that you might feel much better in the first couple of weeks of your cycle with the estrogen rise and more energy. And then you might feel a little bit down in the second or more introverted. And that's all really great messaging. I just think once you start to apply it to your life and maybe not a really regimented way, I mean, I resonate too with needing to still live and not live by that playbook.

40:33but some of the amazing benefits are like we talked about knowing your baseline and so if you don't feel awesome in the first two weeks of your cycle and you usually do maybe that's a key you're like okay am I getting sick or do I need to rest a little bit more and so getting that baseline is awesome but one of the things that I think is really cool and Izzy and I have seen is not only knowing that in your own body, but also being able to share what's going on with your body with the close people around you so that they're not expecting, like if they see a change, they're not expecting you to be the same.

41:13So, you know, if one of us is really feeling kind of introverted, not feeling good on our period or before the other can tackle something that's a little bit bigger in the business, for example, or just with your partner too. Like, you know, your partner can give you a little bit more support. And I think it's just, it's caused so much more peace in my relationships, not just with myself, but with the people around me too. Yeah. And I think that there's this rhetoric around cycle syncing. That's a little bit intense. It's kind of like, okay, do we really need to be syncing our life with the cycle?

41:45And I think the, actually the answer is no. And we are, people are always surprised when we say that since our product is a cycle syncing product. It's so unrealistic to sync your life with your cycle. We don't live in a world, like you said, that's based on a 28 day female menstrual cycle. But knowing what's happening in your body is literally the most game changing thing for so many women because I'm on my period right now. I'm filming this podcast interview. It was a huge bummer. I looked on my calendar. I was like, well, that sucks. I'm going to be on the first day on my period and wearing white pants, not the best decision.

42:23Lindsey Simcik:She's a risk taker. Yeah, risk taker over here. But I think for me, I knew I had this trip coming up. It was going to be a lot. So that data is really helpful for me because I actually just didn't do so many hard workouts leading up to it and made sure I was feeling my body in a better way. And you can make these micro decisions when you know what's happening that can totally change how you're experiencing the symptoms. and nutrients are definitely one of them, but just knowing that information in the background. And I say the same thing. Imagine if we all learned this at 12 and 13, this information would be so game changing for all of our lives.

43:03And I think that there's rhetoric that says, oh, we shouldn't work out on our periods or only do Pilates during your luteal phase. But that's contributing to this narrative that women should be doing a certain thing. I think that it's really about slowing down and listening to your body's cues and being okay with it. As somebody who leans towards control and doing a lot and being shaming, shaming myself around food. I think that learning about the menstrual cycle and the way in which my energy needs shift in the way in which my perspective changes about my body. I know that my body dysmorphia is worse when I go when I'm coming up on my period.

43:46My husband knows that, too. Oh, I feel like I've gained 10 pounds. He's like, maybe you're on your period and you need to wait a week. And it's just so nice knowing that there's a literal chemical reason for some of these things. And it allows, it has allowed me to give myself a lot more grace. Yeah, grace and compassion. Because I'm not someone that has cycle synced in my life. I think I have, I feel like in this space, there's a lot of different, there's astrology, psychology cycle, you know, there's a lot of cycles and I've always been like, okay. And I'm always very, I have a rebel. Like my inner rebel is always like, doesn't want to like have anyone tell me what to do.

44:35So if everyone's like luteal, like whatever, I'm like, you're not telling me what luteal is. You know, like luteal might be different for me. Like I'm just kind of like, it's very like a, it's a really beautiful part. So you guys would say that the benefit of me paying a little bit more attention would be better relationships where you can have people that have more compassion and grace for you and understanding and more attunement to your body and what's going on so that you can support your body in doing what it needs to do in a better way. Yeah. I think that when you understand how estrogen impacts your body, how does it?

45:11So the estrogen rise at the beginning of your cycle, it's a slow rise throughout when you start menstruating, your estrogen starts to rise and just slow rise all the way up to ovulation, which is your peak hormone. You have your ovulation hormone, you have FSH, LH, estrogen set its peak. And all of these hormones, estrogen is this magic hormone. It makes you feel incredible. You feel energetic. You feel probably like you want to have more sex. You probably feel more social. You probably feel really pretty and cute, your best self. There's a lot of people that It might feel a little bit more creative in terms of work.

45:48You might have less appetite. It's really common. And then when you go into your luteal phase, your estrogen dips pretty drastically and then the progesterone starts to rise. And progesterone is the opposite. So it makes you tired, makes you less social a lot of times. a lot of people feel like they can do more focused tasks like cleaning, doing, cleaning out your closet, Excel spreadsheet, minute kind of menial tasks, menial tasks. That's what I'm trying to say. And you might, you might think that you look worse. I definitely feel that way. You might look in the mirror and be like, Oh, I'm definitely going to get my period saved.

46:33Like I have that ogre vibe going on. But I think that once you understand the shifts, it's more so about the benefits really come from the data is really powerful. And that's why I always recommend women just start to pay more attention to it because you have your period and that's just a part of it. And that's their symptoms associated with your period. But the hormonal fluctuations are really powerful. A man cycle is daily. It's a testosterone rise in the morning and a testosterone dip at night. And that's it every single day. So when you really understand how your body is moving through the month, you're able to make different decisions based on your hormones.

47:18You might have a social event that you're not sure if you want to plan or not. And maybe that cues you to look at your cycle dates and know that actually I'm going to, I'm going to not, because I'm probably not going to want to do that then. Or you have a big event coming up and you know your cycle really well, just being able to know, I think will, it just helps so much with your rhetoric and your self-talk. That's what's the most helpful for me. Yeah. I think one of the things too, when you understand what's happening that I come across a lot in the second half of my cycle is when you feel a lot more hungry.

47:58I can sometimes get into this like shame spiral of why don't I have any control? Why is this different? Why do I want to eat everything in sight? And your body's actually burning like up to 300 extra calories per day during the second part of your cycle and your metabolism is running faster. And so knowing, being able to talk to yourself in such a more compassionate way and say, yes, I feel hunger. And also by eating, I'm actually supporting my body. Because if I deny that, then I'm really actually working against my body. So I think so much of it really is about compassion. And if that inner rebel comes out in the second half of your cycle, you can be like, I see you.

48:40This is great. I understand why this is happening. And it doesn't have to look like everyone else. I think that's the piece too, is we understand what's happening throughout the month on a hormonal level, but that doesn't, that doesn't mean that, you know, everybody feels worse in the second half. Um, maybe you do feel more comfortable being more introverted and that is a time where you really get the things that you love done. And so I think it's, it's really great kind of like click baity messaging to talk about. You feel awesome and then you feel terrible and you should be living that way. And that doesn't, that's not the case for everyone.

49:15It's understanding how your own body is and being able to tap into that compassion.

49:25Lindsey Simcik:We're in a space where I think we're exposed to so many different supplements on a regular basis. And yeah, well, we try a lot of over the whole cabinet, but I, there's a lot of supplements. There's a lot of, do we need one for our cycle. What about a woman's cycle needs its own? Like the, I'm not doing my cycle yet. And we're going to, I'm going to pay attention now, but it's like, what about these supplements is going to be really essential for supporting a woman in their cycle when there's a lot of different supplements that people are taking? Yeah, totally. And I want, I definitely want Sophie to talk about the why, why this supplement when there's so many supplements, I'm going to focus on the second part of your question of the supplement for the cycle.

50:11the hormones that we just explained that actually impacts the way in which your body is absorbing and using nutrients so i always use b6 as a great example here because it's a it's an ingredient that we have in the product at different levels b6 is an ingredient that estrogen supports the production and the usage of b6 as it's rising b6 is also an ingredient that can help a ton with energy levels. But because during your follicular phase, your body's using B6 from your food more, it's absorbing it more, and it helps lift it, you don't need to take as much B6. It can also be an ingredient that can cause negative symptoms if you have too much of it.

50:51People will say there's tingling in their fingers or their toes.

50:58So in replenish, we have less B6. And then in balance, the second half of the cycle during your luteal phase, we have a lot more B6 because progesterone is inhibiting some of that absorption of that vitamin from your food and you have lower energy levels. And it's great to have that extra boost and support from that ingredient. So that's just one example of many of the ingredients that are in the product. And so having these different levels of nutrients can just provide that extra support in a little bit more of a targeted and optimized way. So you're not getting too much of one thing, but also so you're getting the right things at the right time of the month.

51:39So your body has an easier time with those natural hormone production and supporting the way in which your body was designed to work. It's interesting. It's almost like taking supplements on a normal schedule almost goes to the same strategy of doing research only on men. Because if you were taking supplements on the same schedule, you're going off of like a man's schedule of how he's run rather than adjusting the different supplements to the hormonal cycle that women have. Yeah, exactly. And another example is iron. Yeah. There's some, you know, supplements and green powders on the market that have are targeted towards everyone, but they don't have iron in them.

52:17And iron is a specific one where men actually should probably not be taking iron because if you have too much iron, it can be dangerous. so we can't be taking the same thing as men when our biologies are so different especially because it actually has risks associated with it for the different two biologies tell us about your aversion to supplements like how you're like i'm not into this yeah right so the second part of that really is do we need do we need them at all and i think it's also i think the skepticism is so fair. And the longer that I'm in this business, the more I understand the general skepticism.

53:03There are a lot of products on the market that I think are very fairly criticized in that they may not be tested. The scrutiny around nutraceuticals, so supplements in general, is not high. And so that means that a lot of them are not getting properly tested. And then also what we see too is that many of the supplements on the market don't have the quantities in them in order for your body to actually absorb them at the level that's going to be beneficial. And then the other component there too is it's very important to have specific forms of nutrients that are going to be most bioavailable for your body.

53:45So there is, I think that it's totally fair to be skeptical. I was skeptical for kind of a different reason before I actually understood the market. And that was just growing up very fortunately in a household that was extremely food first. So we had a lot of really healthy, diverse, fresh meals. And I think the conversation there was if you're not getting it through your food, you're not trying hard enough or you're not doing something right. and then it was really in my 20s when I had all of those nutrient deficiencies that I started to learn about why food may not be cutting it and I think we'll be the first to say too that we are still food first but it was in my 20s when I realized there was going to be no amount of diet changes that was that were going to get me to the levels that I needed to be and a lot of that had to do with absorption so I was learning about all the factors in our environment that keep us from absorbing a lot of the nutrients in our food.

54:53So things like birth control and other pharmaceutical drugs are going to make it really challenging for our bodies to extract those nutrients. And then the other piece is the way that we're farming nowadays and the way that our food system is set up means that the food that we are actually ingesting doesn't have the same nutrient density that we might expect it to. I think there's this crazy stat that says, I think a regular navel orange that you get in the store nowadays, you'd have to eat eight of them to get the same amount of vitamin A that our grandparents would have. And that's just about farming and the level of like basically the level of quality of the soil and just that we're shipping food across the world.

55:40So, you know, something's picked and then you're not eating it for weeks. So it becomes really, really challenging to get what we need. And that was when I learned that, I really was like, okay, this is a great tool and supplementation can be a tool. And once you understand what's going on in your own body, then that's a great thing to leverage. But it's, yeah.

56:01Lindsey Simcik:Would you say that if someone is taking this throughout the month, then they wouldn't need to supplement really with much else? Or should someone get their like blood panels done and like definitely know that for sure for their bioindividuality? Because I get confused sometimes where I'm like, okay, I'm currently pregnant. I'm on prenatals. I'm taking my omega, Like all the things, but then sometimes I'll have, like if I have a lot of salmon in a week, like, is that too many omegas? I don't know if that's possible, right? Like too much of a supplement because we're not like tracking like every little, you know, milligram or whatever.

56:44Lindsey Simcik:What would you say to someone who's like, okay, should I be stripping down and this is the only thing I take? Yeah. So if you have access to getting your blood work done and understanding what's going on in your body, absolutely do that. And we did formulate the product so that it would be really comprehensive and it has more quantity of nutrients than you're going to see in some other supplements. But what we really wanted to do was to say, let's ditch the supplement stack. We don't want to be thinking about every single one of these pieces. So it is a really, really core multivitamin. And for the most part, depending upon what you're taking, what else you're taking, you likely can just take this product.

57:33That's why we designed it the way we did. We formulated it to be really safe for menstruating women. So I think a lot of times we get the question of, I'm in perimenopause, can I take this? Or I'm pregnant, can I take this? And the answer is, yeah, it potentially can be really supportive for someone who's safe for pregnancy. is totally safe for someone in perimenopause to take it. However, it's designed for people who are bleeding on a regular basis. These are the things that are scientifically researched that we are deficient in. And these are the things that can really support the estrogen rise and the progesterone rise.

58:07And that's why we made it. And so I think there's actually not enough companies doing something that's really targeted. There's a lot of companies trying to make something for everyone when we're, we all have different biologies. We're all going to have different nutrient deficiencies. So that's why we made them. I smelled two other product lines for you guys. Um, yeah, very much pregnancy.

58:31Lindsey Simcik:Um, I would love menopause come from. What did you say? I just started hearing about that. I never heard about it in my entire life. Right. Yeah, same, right? I talked to someone the other day. I rebuke it. Dr. Ann Shippey, and she was saying, just like your period, you should not be experiencing symptoms of perimenopause if your internal environment is supportive, like we're talking about here. And I think that is one of the other drivers and why we are so passionate about this brand and this product. we are talking all we're talking about fertility and pregnancy and postpartum and perimenopause and menopause a lot more now which is awesome and we're missing the whole lead up to these key life moments where foundational comprehensive nutrition is going to set you up so well for an easier time to conceive an easier pregnancy an easier shift into perimenopause Because menopause, everything should get easier if you're supporting your body for a longer period of time.

59:36I think so many of us don't learn about how to do that until we're trying to get pregnant.

59:41Lindsey Simcik:Right. And that sucks because there's so much anxiety and stress around that. And if we were only just told a little bit more information, we could totally all be in a different situation. I would love to hear some stories just about people using this product, the symptoms they've been experiencing and the benefits and results. Yeah, I can start with one. So one of one of our customers, she is a mom. She has a five year old and a two year old. I think she might be our top customer. She's obsessed with it. It's great. she has become a totally obsessed with the product she started taking it when she was breastfeeding her second child and she started to take the product we recommend if you're breastfeeding you don't have a cycle yet you can just start taking it and switch between the two boxes with the 14 and 14 and it helps regulate your cycle and her cycle came back eight months earlier than her first child after taking the product.

1:00:50And also your follicular and luteal phase, you shouldn't have a super short luteal phase. That can be a sign of some sort of dysregulation in your body. Your hormones should, you should have a little bit longer of a luteal phase. So if she was taking it over time and she had a really short luteal phase when her cycle first came back and around month three, four of taking it, she actually saw her cycle every month getting longer to be a more normal cycle. So that was one of the most powerful stories we've seen is that it actually did regulate her hormones and balance that cycle out. It's more of a longer play.

1:01:26But we've had so many other women talk about their energy and their fatigue, their nails, hair. I think one of the other things that we hear that's so awesome, because it's one of the reasons why we designed the product is we've heard from a few women after they've been taking it for a few months is just that the sheer fact that they are getting physically moved through these two phases by nature of taking the first product for the first half of your cycle and then the second one for the second half is they've talked a lot about just understanding, okay, I now understand more what's going on in my body and they feel more connected to it.

1:02:07And as Izzy said, I think they're also reporting things like more energy and feeling better in their body. But I personally love to hear when people say, I put it on my counter and I now see when I'm going to be making this shift. And so I'm recognizing those feelings in my body more. And that was a goal of ours from the beginning. So it's really cool to see the product doing that.

1:02:33Lindsey Simcik:Do you have customers who experience more severe or have conditions like a PCOS or endometriosis or anything like that, where they're taking it and seeing benefits? We did that. We actually, this past spring, we did a big focus group where we had women, 50 women take the product for a period of time. And 12 % of the users were either someone who was PMDD, PCOS, endometriosis, release of your symptoms. uh pmdd is one that we see a lot this product benefiting drastically and what is pmdd for people that don't know yeah pmdd is it has to it is basically you get extremely depressed right premenstrual depressive disorder yes yes like suicide like it's very dark very dark yeah it's not just anxiety it is serious severe depression and can also be really severe anxiety life altering.

1:03:29You can't leave the house. It is not normal. It is not something that is just associated with our periods. We've had a lot of women tell us that they just have PMDD and they thought it was part of their menstrual cycle. It is most the time, not all the time, but most the time it is a chronic nutrient deficiency. B vitamins, folate, and amino acids are extremely helpful and supportive for helping with energy and mood of any sort of severity. And we have a really awesome amino acid blend in the product that most supplements do not have, especially dailies. And those things directly impact serotonin production.

1:04:08So if you're someone who has any sort of anxiety or mood changes that happen during that cycle, and if you're someone who has PMDD especially, we recommend taking 5-MTHF folate, a really strong B-complex, which we have in the product, both of those things and amino acids, your branch chain amino acids, GABA, at least those amino acids to help boost that mood and help with the serotonin production. So you're not experiencing those super depressive periods of time. So it's like providing the building blocks for the body to make serotonin.

1:04:39Lindsey Simcik:Yeah. I have a client that has really bad PMD. I can't wait to give this to her. Yeah. Yeah. So in that focus group, did you see with the PMDD and the other ones that they saw. Yeah. And less pain overall for people who have really, I'm someone who's had really severe menstrual cramps and this product has helped a ton with that. I still have cramps. They're milder now, but it has helped so much with that. And actually just the inflammation associated with the luteal phase, I'll feel really puffy and kind of sweaty and grows leading up into my period. And that's totally changed after taking taking this.

1:05:19I mean, I've been taking this for years now, but I think that we when we ran that focus group, when you're building it, when you're building something, sometimes you get in this negative feedback loop with yourself where you're like, what if it doesn't work? What if people don't like it? And when we did this focus group, we were astounded. We were like, oh, my God, it's so effective. And that was so awesome to see. Yeah. And I think it can take a little bit of time. So it was great to see those results happening quickly. We do say, though, that it can take upwards of three months to really see a change in your body.

1:05:57Taking nutrients like this really does take some time for your body to adjust because like you were just saying, the goal is to get your body to be doing what it should be doing naturally. And that's where you want to get to. Unlike a lot of other products that you see out there, it's not a quick fix for symptoms. If you're having really severe symptoms in your body, that's typically something underlying. So building back where your body should be can get you back to that normal fluctuation. I love too that it's stick packs.

1:06:28Lindsey Simcik:Chris so loves the stick packs. I drank normal water in four years. I actually had a sip of it the other day and I was like, because I'm trying to reacclimate my palate to water. And I was like, you're like, my son's already on my train. He's like, is there salt in here? Oh my God. We're like, we all need to have sparkles. I know. I'm the same. I'm like, all my little powders in my bag. My husband's like, wow, you are a supplement girl. We're powder queens. So tell us about, tell us about the two products, the difference, what people can expect. And then for people, does it come in a subscription where they can get both at the same time?

1:07:09Like, because you would suggest only buying, would you only suggest buying both? So that's how it comes. It comes right now as a subscription. So when you order it, you're going to get both. And that's why we say it's specifically designed for people who are menstruating and you're going through this cycle. Um, we talked at one point about splitting them up because there are, there are cases in which the specific nutrients and the specific levels of one or the other are going to benefit if you're outside of those menstruating years. But as Izzy was saying, we really wanted to narrow in on that group that we really felt had been dismissed in a lot of ways, um, or just kind of shut down by, um, birth control, potentially, like there's a lot of time we're quieting that period of time where you're really just learning about like your body is really learning to be in this equilibrium.

1:08:03So that's why we focused the product the way we did. That was really intentional. And that's actually a beautiful thing to recommend for girls get out birth control. Yeah. That's all the time. Yeah. And I make stuff up. Yeah. No, I don't know what I say, but people ask all the time about how to get out birth control. And this would be so helpful for 100%. Yeah. Do people want to do that? That was one of my tangential stories of starting the product. I was getting off my IUD. I had been on birth control. Popper? Hormonal? I was on the pill from age 16 to 21, and then I was on the IUD until 27, the Mirena.

1:08:44And I have a lot of health anxiety. So when I was getting off hormonal birth control, I was like, what's going to happen to my body? I've been on hormones my whole life. Am I going to be depressed? am I going to get acne am I going to gain a bunch of weight of course my bias is so I asked my doctor at the time what I could do to help and she was like you'll be fine I was like this is a friend this is a thing that I've noticed with every single person I've met every woman all my clients all the doctors are just like you're fine yeah you're good like and they're like I am not fine and they're having to advocate and do the research and like the amount of fortitude and you got to be a self-advocate yeah they do yeah over and over again ready for battle yeah so i think that yeah it's um it's it's hard and then you have all these symptoms crop up after you get off birth control you're like what's happening but birth control can mask all these symptoms yeah my life got so much better after birth control it's crazy i thought i was like a crazy person yeah I was but like I was like a little like pig pet like I just had like chaos in my field like I was just like so emotional and like and then when I got I was like wow the veil and then I was like wow this is who I actually am and I didn't love myself yet but I was like I like

1:10:02Lindsey Simcik:this one better yeah yeah it's crazy that we put girls on birth control so soon after they start their periods. I started my period at about 14, was on birth control at 18. It like doesn't, yeah, it's just crazy. I just, yeah. And you never understand your baseline. Yeah. That's the thing is like, we're not anti birth control necessarily. If you want to be on birth, I'm on birth control right now. I'm on a copper IUD. People are always so surprised to hear that. It's not hormonal because I didn't want to be on hormones, but I hurt it. The copper IUD is rough man that was the biggest pain in my whole life but but i will say that was a body i can't i will say fulleronic operating you should 100 take daily basis because it will help your symptoms so much side note um but i think that the birth control conversation is really interesting because you get out birth control and then for the first time in your late 20s usually you're understanding your body for the first time and you're experiencing all these things and it's like you're a child again it's like what are we doing putting and you go into the doctor and you have symptoms and they're like here's birth control pills and when I had all my symptoms crop up after I got off birth control I went into the doctor and they said get back on birth control no I need to fix my body here so I think that that is the problem is it's not that it's not that birth control is inherently bad.

1:11:33I think that it can make sense for a lot of people. For me, I'm back on birth control because I was overthinking my cycle so much that I wasn't having sex with my husband. So I needed to get on birth control so I could like, let's go. I'm okay. Am I ovulating? Like, am I going to be so cool?

1:11:50Lindsey Simcik:I love that. It's just so beautiful. You could be like laughing about it. You could now track that so carefully. And I was, but I was but still i have calculus i've been doing my whole life and then my husband was like okay

1:12:10my ex had to ask me he's like do you cycle track he's like we have it and i'm like no i'm good i'm like no he's like we're cycling i'm like make me get the you're like let's share like okay so he did it for us i was like that's great yeah that's great girls who have gotten their period go like be honest that's great if they're bleeding every month yeah we always say for the younger people check with the doctor okay yeah okay cool you know before we go i'd still love just like you to break down how it works just for the girls that when they get it so they know Yeah, for sure. So when you get it, it should come like this or like this.

1:12:53YouTube has really great visuals. Yeah. We've got the colors. For our listeners, we're holding two really beautiful boxes. One says replenish, one says balance. Right. So the thing that we say is that it doesn't matter where you are in your cycle, you can jump in. So I think we talk a lot about the start of the cycle being at the beginning of your period. That's not the case. So this is designed to be taken one stick pack based on where you are in your cycle. So I am going to start with the first one, which is the red one. And you take this one for once a day. It's a little powder. You just pop it into your water and you take it once a day for the first half of your cycle.

1:13:30So that's going to be roughly 14 days. And that's going to be really, really supportive for nourishing and replenishing from menstruation. So it's going to have extra iron. It's going to have extra zinc, all of those things that you're losing through blood and tissue during your period. Also really great for circulation and healthy ovulation, which is going to come about mid-cycle, depending upon what your cycle looks like. Do you start this when you're done? On the day one. No, no, no. This one's going to be on day one of your period. Okay. Yep. So day one of your period, which is...

1:14:17day one of your period okay so the first two weeks of your period or the first two weeks of your cycle okay yeah and then you switch over and you're going to take the yellow one for the second two weeks of your cycle so that's going to be ovulation until you start your period again And this is going to be really, really supportive for kind of that for what's happening during the second half. So that major progesterone rise. And then if you have any symptoms related like PMS symptoms related to the end of your cycle, this will be really supportive for that with a lot of extra herbs and botanicals.

1:14:50And then you just switch back to the red one on the first day of your period. So it's pretty intuitive, just back and forth one a day. And if you don't track, we do have an app that comes in your box on the QR code. You can just put the last date of your period and it'll tell you exactly which one to start with. So you don't have to think about it too hard. I think if I'm, you know, if I'm just counting those, I think that's fine. And then I'll, but I'll use the app. Yeah. There's also 14. But this will help me track my cycles. Yeah.

1:15:17Lindsey Simcik:And I feel like you won't, you know, I guess what you would want to know in the case that you were saying earlier is like when you ovulate, which is such a short window. People don't realize. Yeah. I think I didn't realize. We go throughout our teens and twenties. We're like. Yeah. Any time of the month. Yeah. Taking plan B on my period. But it's really like when I'm trying to get pregnant, I'm tracking literally by the hour of like the LH rise. And I'm like, oh, there it is. Got to have sex. Where are you? So it's like it is such a short window. Yeah. Comparatively. But yeah. And that's why we designed it this way, because it's there's 14 in the first and 14 in the second.

1:15:56So you take the first box. Finish it. And then as soon as you're bleeding again, you switch back to replenish. It's just put it on your counter. Reddish the box. Bleed. Exactly. Red bleed. Yeah. I did notice that too. Red bleed for 14. We're losing it. So we better. Your problem is just always done. Wheels are falling off. For us right now, we're getting the giggles. And suddenly. Okay. Where can people find the product? Where can people connect with you? Tell us everything. Because I think all of our girls are cycling except for me and a few others. But we now have something that's going to support us.

1:16:28And I'm actually really happy to, I'm mold detoxing. So there's stuff I'm taking for that, but otherwise just focus on this as my supplementation. Cause that's making a lot of sense to me that I would need different through the month. What we've been doing has been basically based on men's cycles. And now I have something that's for a woman. I really, really love that. So where do we connect with Daily Basis? And I know we have a code. Everything is on dailybasislife.com. Daily Basis Life is our Instagram handle. and you can also go to dailybasislife.com and use code almost 30 at checkout.

1:17:01Lindsey Simcik:Okay, great. Okay, that's easy. Yeah, dailybasislife.com. That's great. We got that. Okay, guys, we love you.

1:17:11Lindsey Simcik:And you're a functional OBGYN, so what does that mean? I take a root cause approach to the way that I care for my patients. So all that means is that, I mean, I try to build in more time. We do a lot of evaluation. So that might mean some lab work, some other kind of diagnostics, and then infusing that with, I call it the pillars of health. So infusing everything, every treatment plan with not just medication or surgery, I can do those things, but also lifestyle. So we really hone in what's going on with your sleep, what's going on with your nutrition, exercise, stressors, environmental toxins, all of those things have to be a part of the conversation.

1:17:53So caring for the whole person. What would you say is like a common theme you've been noticing about the women that you treat? I feel like the conversation around fertility and hormones and cycle syncing and all this stuff is so relevant and prevalent. And I feel like we're still sort of understanding the lay of the land, but I'm sure that you must notice some themes of conversations. What do you feel like most of your women are coming into you, talking to you about? So many women, really, really intelligent women, um, that are bosses and every single sense of all aspects of their life come in and truly have, um, so little knowledge about what happens with our bodies and it's not their fault.

1:18:37I think it is our, um, our society, um, our medical system. We don't talk about it and we don't honor it. And So, um, we know when we talk about cycle thinking, um, you know, I think that's really a reaction to the fact that health and wellness experts, um, even with the best intentions will say something, you know, why don't you, um, um, integrate this into your routine or this daily habit. And that doesn't, that doesn't work. If you're a menstruating woman and we can get into the physiology, your hormones fluctuate depending on where you are in your cycle. And that has implications across the spectrum of metabolic health, your cognitive function, your immune system, your mood, your energy.

1:19:25And so understanding that and then honoring that, I think is really, really important to then be able to say, okay, this is where I am in my cycle. I need this today, or I'm going to maybe in the luteal phase, I'm going to have a little bit more recovery days. I'm going to eat this particular kind of these nutrients, making sure I'm supplementing in the right way to help support my body and what it fundamentally needs, depending on where I am in my cycle. And so I think our society doesn't talk about that. And so, or it's like an embarrassing thing to talk about your hormones, your period or whatever.

1:19:58And so that, that leads to a lot of patients not understanding, Like, is this normal? Is this pathological? Is there a problem here? Or is this kind of, I just take it for granted. Okay. I, you know, I feel really bloated right before my cycle, or I have really painful cramps. Like what's normal. What's not normal.

1:20:16Lindsey Simcik:Yeah. If we're thinking about the profile woman, you just described where she is like high achieving or she's super busy, like doing the most, like having so much on her plate. What women aren't. Yeah, I know, truly. And it could be professional, it could be a full time mom, you know, like there's different, it can look very different, not just like the boss babe that we think about. But so she's under a lot of stress. She might not be getting enough sleep. She might be consuming too much coffee, or caffeine in general. Maybe she's over exercising to kind of compensate or maybe not enough. Can you kind of describe like the cascade from those types of habits that could be happening to your hormones and then affecting how you're feeling?

1:21:05Absolutely. I mean, if you think about so for menstruating women, we have three to seven days every single month that we're bleeding. And when you're bleeding, you're losing blood, you're losing nutrients, you're losing that tissue. that is a huge hormonal shift that has implications for what your nutrients needs are, both in terms of replenishing what you lost in that menstruation, but also as you go through the rest of the menstrual cycle. So we talk about kind of the different phases of the menstrual cycle. So menstruation after that is the follicular phase kind of leading into ovulation. Ovulation is when our eggs are one egg is released from our ovaries and anticipation of fertilization.

1:21:53And so after you ovulate, progesterone starts to rise and progesterone helps build up the lining of your uterus to either accept a fertilized egg for pregnancy or at the end of that, as you know, if you don't get pregnant, then you menstruate. So we can talk about how different hormones impact our energy needs, our metabolic needs, and how that impacts what we need during those periods of time. So I'll give an example. Progesterone. Progesterone is a hormone. It rises after ovulation, and it stays elevated for about two weeks. And we call that the luteal phase. And the luteal phase can be a beautiful time, but it can also be like that's when PMS symptoms can arise.

1:22:43And I think that that can be a result of nutrient depletion. So progesterone really requires quite a bit of us in order to be produced and to be used. And so magnesium, vitamin B6, calcium, iron, these are all really, really important during your luteal phase. They're important throughout the menstrual cycle, but particularly in this phase, they tend to be depleted because of the requirements of what's going on with our luteal phase. We're building up the lining of your uterus. That takes a lot of work for our bodies. Our cortisol levels are a little bit higher. Our energy needs are more. So actually we, we tend to need more calories during your luteal phase.

1:23:33So women who are like, I'm always so hungry leading up to my period, like, and they're trying to suppress that, maybe trying to like cut back on nutrition. Why am I so hungry? That that's our body telling us we, we need those nutrients. So I have to come out of the closet that I don't cycle sync at all. I have no connection or correlation to my cycle. I just know when I'm on my period and I know when I'm off. and I think one of the things that's kept me from it and sort of made me turned off by it was like, I feel like there's a common narrative in the zeitgeist of how the luteal phase is so like, I'm in luteal and I'm like, that's like half the month.

1:24:16So why would someone wanna subscribe to a narrative where half of the month they're not well or they don't feel their best? So I guess, can you help educate me on what I'm missing by not listening to my cycle? Well, let me backtrack a little bit. It's not that we should feel awful in our libido phase. That's actually, that is not how we should be feeling. We should be feeling great no matter what. I mean, that's the goal of this conversation is knowing where we are and knowing what our body needs during that time. We can honor that and then we can feel great no matter where we are. And that doesn't mean that your energy levels aren't going to fluctuate.

1:24:58You might feel, you know, significantly more energy in your follicular phase leading up to your ovulation. That might be when you feel like most wanting to like socialize, get sexy. Like that's our biology tells us that that's when we're going to have more energy, maybe more cognitive function. Then leading into luteal phase, you know, our bodies tend to need a little bit more rest. We tend to be a little bit more introspective, but that's good too. I mean, that's where the balance comes in. So it's not that, I mean, it's great if you're feeling well during your luteal phase, that is the goal.

1:25:37So the luteal phase goal is to feel well, but most people don't. And most people struggle or like most of the common narrative. You see that as well, right?

1:25:44Lindsey Simcik:Yeah. I mean, I think I have a lot of friends who get to a certain point in the month. I'm guessing it's their luteal phase where for, you know, four to six days, at least they are either severely incapacitated, throwing up, cramps, all the things. And then to the kind of a lighter end of the spectrum. But yeah, I think a lot of people experience painful periods and then in there go on birth control or come and take. So understanding that basically the goal is to feel well during the whole cycle. and the goal is to supplement and support ourselves so that we can feel like ourselves the entire time, but like be attuned to the natural fluctuations of something like follicular, where we are more sexy or like vibrant.

1:26:30I guess what would I get from cycle syncing? Like what benefit would I have of understanding and knowing my cycle in a deeper way in my life? Like what have you seen the benefit of women knowing their bodies in that way more deeply? I mean, I think understanding what our bodies are going through, depending on where you are in your cycle, can give us an understanding of the why. The why, why do I feel less energy today? Like you can, you can like look at your app and be like, oh, okay, like this is where I am. That makes sense. And that's one level of data, like one level of input. And it could be like, oh, you're getting sick or like, oh, you didn't sleep well that night before.

1:27:08I mean, there's so many different reasons. And cycles, like understanding your cycle is only one aspect of that. So I think that's, I think that's important. Like understanding to have, I'm just realizing this. I'm like a lot of the goal of data is to understand, to have more compassion. It's like now that I understand, cause what's the goal? Okay. So I'm seeing this, I'm tired. I'm understanding that it's because I'm in this phase of my cycle. Now that I understand that I have more compassion and grace for myself.

1:27:36Lindsey Simcik:And you'll actually allow yourself to like rest and be in that phase. Whereas like, I think a lot of us women are like in these structures of our lives or our work, where it actually doesn't support that. So if we go to a typical workplace environment, nobody gives a about your period, like nobody cares that you're incapacitated in the bathroom. You know, Tori Dunlap of her first 100K, I think she has days off for their women that are like on their cycles. I love that. I love that. It's amazing. Like she's like, that's part of, Shani Nicholas has that as well. She has like specific days off for women that are on their cycles.

1:28:13I've heard that some women will say like on LinkedIn, like this is, this is where I am. This is where I am in my, this is like leading up to ovulation, my follicular phase. So if you want to book an appointment with me, this is the best time to do that.

1:28:24Lindsey Simcik:Oh my God. If you want to flirt with me, I'm ovulating. Yeah, I mean, that's not necessarily practical in every single sign. And like, you know, this is we still have to get up every morning, maybe at the same time or whatever. But I think I think just having that knowledge, I think I mean, I think you nailed it on the head. Just having more self-compassion. Yeah. Giving your your body or giving yourself permission to trust your body because your body. I mean, we talk about, so symptoms, the symptoms give us clues as to what our body needs. So we just, just taking a pause to listen to our body, I think can be really, really powerful.

1:29:03And, and that might be kind of thinking again about the pillars of health. It might be, you need a little bit more sleep during your luteal phase. So giving your body permission to do that. Maybe, so your workout routine might be a little bit different. Maybe you need an extra recovery day during your luteal phase. Maybe you want to like push it really hard during your follicular phase. Um, and then talking about nutrients. So we talked about maybe a little bit more like on a macro nutrient level, like we need more calories, maybe, uh, so, um, in the luteal phase, maybe we need a little bit more protein.

1:29:37Um, our, our metabolism changes in our luteal phase too. So our ability to kind of process our energy tends to be a little less resilient. So you can have a little bit more blood sugar irregularities in your luteal phase. So making sure you're getting enough fiber and protein to balance out complex carbohydrates and fats are so, all of those support your bodies on the cellular level. So we're not just talking about, you know, um, and it doesn't have to be prescription, I guess it doesn't have to be rigid. I think that's where I think, um, I think any, I don't think of cycle syncing as a trend.

1:30:19I think it really is, you know, what we were talking about, understanding your bodies, feeling empowered to then make tweaks or just at least appreciate where you are. Um, but any wellness kind of idea can be taken to the extreme and have this, so I'm, I will never say, okay, during your luteal fleas, you have to eat this type of diet or workout in this particular way. It should never get to that level. It is really just having an appreciation and really honoring your body.

1:30:49Lindsey Simcik:What's happening? I feel like I've had a lot of friends in the past not get a period. Yeah. Do you think that's normal? Does that mean they're not ovulating? Usually. So one thing I want to just like preface all of this with is there's a difference between us talking about the physiology and like what normally happens with the fluctuation of hormones over the course of a cycle and pathology. So if, and, um, you know, we've talked about a bunch of different symptoms. So either skipping your cycles or having really irregular cycles, really heavy bleeding, painful periods, um, having bleeding in between your periods, really having really severe mood changes leading up to your period.

1:31:35And none of those are normal. None of that is part of the normal cycle that we're talking about. Those are all pathological and those all require attention. You really should go and see a physician. What's the definition of the word pathological? Like pattern? Something that's not normal. Oh, interesting. Got it. Okay, cool. So that is not what I would expect during a normal cycle. And so what's causing that? Is that stress? Or what is that? Skipping a period? Yeah. So when you're so, so many, I mean, we talk about estrogen and progesterone, and those are really the dominant hormones, but there are so many hormones and intricate kind of pathways that need to happen in synchronicity with each other in order for you to ovulate.

1:32:21You know, I think of our, our bodies are so intelligent. You ovulate because your body wants to get pregnant and you're setting yourself up for pregnancy. But if you are particularly stressed right around the time of ovulation, if you got really sick, even vaccinations can kind of throw things off a little bit. Traveling, there are so many different reasons why for that particular cycle, you might not ovulate. If that's a one-time thing, no big deal. You might want to investigate why you were particularly stressed and manage that, you know, all of those things. But a one-time thing, no big deal.

1:32:58But when it becomes more consistent, then I become a little bit more worried about, is there something going on hormonally? Is there something going on with your thyroid? Is there something going on with your metabolism? Is it PCOS? There are different reasons why you might not be ovulating regularly that we absolutely would want to investigate.

1:33:20That's helpful for me because I sometimes perceive that it's when there's not enough nutrients or food being eaten. And I've seen that as a trend in the world that many women that aren't consuming enough calories don't have a cycle. Absolutely. Yeah. So that, that energy balance is so important. So whether it is, um, under nourishing your body or expending more energy that then you're kind of digging in with nutrients. So, um, this happens, this can happen in, um, like elite athletes, um, if you're not nourishing your body in the right way, gymnast and stuff too. Yeah. What would happen as I guess a long-term, like if you are consistently undernourishing yourself and you're not getting a cycle, what would be the long-term effects on your fertility, on your health?

1:34:06Yeah. Yeah. So, um, the, that, that hormone, that kind of hormone fluctuation that we talk about, it won't be happening. So, um, that communication between the brain and the ovaries, um, is kind of truncated. Um, if you start supporting your body with nutrients and are able to kind of restore that. Oftentimes your cycle will come back. But if it's chronic, it can lead to all kinds of issues with your metabolism, with your hormones. Pregnancy for sure might be more difficult. You have to ovulate in order to get pregnant naturally. And then bone health. So it can really deplete your bones. It can lead to osteoporosis, osteopenia.

1:34:47So it is really important. If you are not getting a period, and you're not on hormonal birth control or another reason why you might not get a prep period, it's really important to address.

1:34:57Lindsey Simcik:I feel like PCOS has, I don't know if it's become more prevalent over the years or it's always been, and we just haven't talked about it. I'm curious your take on that, but what is, what do you think is happening? Because I feel like now it's just commonplace. Like I'm surprised if I don't meet a lot of people, like so many women, I was talking to a flight attendant yesterday. She's like, oh, I have PCOS. I was like, oh, this is just so, is that high testosterone? Yeah. So, so PCOS is a, so it's a syndrome, polycystic ovarian syndrome, which means that it can manifest in many different ways. And there are different reasons why you might ultimately have PCOS.

1:35:37One of the main kind of symptoms of the condition is that you don't regularly ovulate. So you're either skipping ovulation altogether, or it's inconsistent. and there are different reasons for that. I think to answer your question about, I mean, number one, I'm grateful that people are talking about it more. It's becoming more common to just to discuss it in public forums. But I think number one, that's probably why we're hearing about it more. Also, it really falls under the bucket of metabolic disorders. So as rates of diabetes, heart disease, as all of that goes up, we are seeing more of other conditions like PCOS manifest as well.

1:36:24Lindsey Simcik:So is it connected to like insulin resistance and all of that? Yeah, so insulin resistance is one of the main things that we see with PCOS. And so focusing on what your body needs in terms of nutrients and supporting your body in terms of managing stress and all of that is really, really key for PCOS as well. Is it curable? It's an interesting question. I mean, I think if you ask me, so I think, you know, PCOS is a spectrum. Okay. Just like most conditions are. You either have it or you don't. It's not necessarily, I mean, there's for sure a diagnosis. And that diagnosis entails having irregular cycles, having signs or actual lab work that shows elevated testosterone or other androgens.

1:37:17And then finally, an ultrasound or some other imaging showing polycystic ovaries. So many, many, many follicles on the ovaries. And so there is a way to actually make the diagnosis, but there is a way to also reverse that. Um, and oftentimes that is, I mean, we, we for sure have medications that can be helpful, um, focusing on your insulin sensitivity. Um, for sure, if you're pre-diabetic, there are, you know, things that we can do to help manage that. Um, but then lifestyle. So, um, you know, eating, um, uh, a diet that's going to help regulate your blood sugar, um, exercising, um, you know, all of those things can, can quote unquote reverse it.

1:37:56But what I will say is if you've been diagnosed with PCOS, you probably do have some genetic component that might make you more susceptible to it. So it's probably that much more important that you're focusing on all of those things long term. What are you seeing as far as trends in birth control? Like women's birth control and relationship to birth control? because I feel like we started talking about birth control in 2017 and how just opening up a conversation about it now, you know, we've talked about it quite a bit. I got off it when I was like 26 and I just felt like my, I felt like a veil had lifted and I felt like I finally was able to access who I actually was.

1:38:40And it was just so transformative for me, but I feel like there's a different conversation happening around birth control now than when we were younger. When we you were younger, it was cool. It was like kind of the hip thing. What are you noticing now as far as the conversation around birth control? So I think for a lot of women and particularly in their relationships with their OBGYN or their physician, um, so birth control is amazing. I mean, it prevents women from getting pregnant when they don't want to get pregnant. It also helps. I mean, we talk about the fluctuations in hormones over the course of the menstrual cycle.

1:39:11and if you are having really bad symptoms because of any particular rise or fall of any hormone, the way that a birth control pill works is that it suppresses ovulation. It kind of keeps you having a regular amount of, or like a steady amount of hormone over the course of the month. So it's basically tamping down on everything that we're talking about. The beauty of the cycle and what we're kind of trying to honor and all that. It's kind of the antidote to that or kind of like that. So, um, that can be truly for some women that can be life-changing. If you have endometriosis, for example, if you're put on a birth control, like that for some women that is life-changing.

1:39:51So they're not having that debilitating, um, uh, pelvic pain. Um, that being said, we really don't, when we're being put on birth control, um, whether it's for a particular, it's oftentimes because of a symptom as opposed to kind of thinking about what does your body need? This is why talking about what we like the nutrients that we need, um, honoring our bodies and where they are in their cycle. If we can, if we can live from that place, there will likely be far less need to go on a birth control for that particular reason. Um, so I don't, I don't, um, I think there's a lot of demonizing it. I think it's again, going back to the idea of like educating ourselves so that we feel empowered to then know, okay, you know, I'm having this symptom, for example, these are the things I'm going to work on, I'm going to maybe take a supplement, or I'm going to work out in this particular way, or I'm going to try all of these things and, and really be your own kind of N of one, the concept of like trying things and seeing what works for your own body.

1:40:55And ultimately, it might be that a birth control pill is, is, is the thing that you need, but not going in blindly understanding why it is that you're doing it and being intentional about that. You work to subscribe birth control to someone. Are you very particular about what type based on what they're coming with? Like, is that different for each person? Yeah. And I mean, you know, birth control pills are only one category of all the different kinds of, so when we're talking about contraception, so that like preventing pregnancy, there are so many different ways. There are non-hormonal, There are, for example, like the hormonal IUD just really acts locally in the uterus.

1:41:31You're not having systemic effects. It really depends on what is the main concern that we're addressing. Is it simply contraception or is it other symptoms that we're trying to mitigate as well? And that's an individualized conversation. So your approach is like understanding birth control has a place, understanding that the women that are in need of it, there's a root cause issue that you also want to look at in tandem with getting the support that they need. And you understand that it's been demonized, but you also understand that there's like a place and a space for it to help people. Absolutely.

1:42:06Well, you know, one thing I wanted to say about like the PCOS conversation, oftentimes women in like their like teens or like early twenties are put on birth control because they have PCOS and PCOS can be really disruptive when you're like having irregular cycles. You don't know when your period is going to come and that can just be kind of frustrating. Might be on spring break. Yeah. You know, college. All of that. So they're put on a birth control pill. And then they come to see me in their 30s and they're ready to get pregnant and they get off the birth control. And they're like, oh, yeah, I wasn't getting regular cycles.

1:42:37Well, so that whole time that we could have been investigating what's going on, why are you not getting your cycles? What can we do to help blood sugar regulation or what, you know, stress management or these things to kind of address why you're not having regular cycles? Now we're trying to do this when you're urgently wanting to get pregnant and you're not ovulating. Yeah. So we kind of have to do like the, you know, a lot of the hard work then. Yeah. There's this like Instagram post I saw that was like, it's like, don't get pregnant. Don't get pregnant. Don't get pregnant. Don't get pregnant.

1:43:06It was like, get freaking pregnant right now.

1:43:10Lindsey Simcik:It's true. Like there's just this, we expect our bodies to kind of bounce at various stages of our life. And like birth control is one of them. Like just kind of like, okay, people are getting off birth control a month before they want to get pregnant when they might need a little bit more time to kind of tend to what was being maybe masked. When did you get off? I got off at 27, 28. I think it was 2000. What were you on? 18. Great question. Name some of them. I don't remember. Lowestrin. Lowestrin 24. I don't remember. But I just, I mean, I was just so willy nilly sometimes, like I'd forget to take it for two days and pop like three, like it was bad.

1:43:53I remember I had an alarm on my phone in college. I was like, got to take paper. I clearly did not. And I would like, you guys know what this means about me. You know, a lot of when we talk about supplements, you know, I always have a food first approach. But the reality is, is even eating the same foods, you're not getting enough of the nutrients that our bodies need. So that's why that supplementation can be so powerful. It has to be in concert with also still eating the nutrients and eating a healthy diet, supporting your body. But that's why supplementation can be, I mean, truly life-changing when we're talking about these symptoms.

1:44:34Lindsey Simcik:And how long would you give people to integrate daily basis, like into their routine to see the benefits or experience the benefits. Yeah. Whether it's supplementation or actually any other intervention. So if we're talking about, you know, maybe getting enough, like an extra hour of sleep during your luteal phase, try that for a couple months is generally what I say, two to three months. You might notice it. Some women might notice it right away, but some, some women, you know, our cycles are dynamic. And so give it a couple months. Okay. Yeah. I love that these are in the packets. I know it makes it so easy.

1:45:10Lindsey Simcik:And I think, you know, a lot of women get overwhelmed by the, the concept of cycle syncing. Like what do I have to remember? I wish that has made it helpful for me where I'm like, I really just like these packets. I like that they support me and I know when to use them very easily. So like, I don't have to understand that, but I can really understand something that's simple, something that's supporting me. It's actually with the supplementation last thing, it's so interesting because I get my blood tested regularly and I supplement so much and I'm so grateful that most of everything is well but I'm like I don't know what would I do if I wasn't like if I wasn't a person that had access to so much supplementation my results would be I'm also not eating as many whole foods as you in my truth she's like so i i eat my supplements i can consume powders for most of my food powders and protein bars so that's also the truth okay let me just put a case for uh fiber fiber is really oh i love that you know what i love that pendulum's fiber powder oh my god it's a really good fiber powder that i put in my um protein shake but you can also have like bean fiber that's amazing what is your case for fiber Fiber is, I think we're all under.

1:46:26Unless it's protein, we don't want to hear about it. Well, that's actually, I think that's the thing is like, we're talking about protein so much that I think at the expense of fiber. Yes. Fiber is so important and fiber comes in vegetables and fruit and the things that also have all these other nutrients, but really women should be getting at least 25 grams of fiber every single day. And I think a lot of people will realize that they're really deficient in that. But fiber is really important for our hormone regulation, for our microbiomes, for our gut health. And so when we're even talking about supplementation, if our gut health is not intact, then we're not even going to be absorbing the nutrients that we're eating and that we're consuming.

1:47:04Oh, interesting. Does fiber feed our little gut bugs? Yeah. Yeah. We call that a prebiotic. Yeah.

1:47:11Lindsey Simcik:Oh, so fiber is a prebiotic. Yeah. Yeah. You didn't know that? No. What? I didn't. I was like, is she faking this question? No, no, no. I literally didn't. But like, I was like, wait, why? I thought you were doing like an Oprah. where she's like, you're telling me fiber feeds our gut. But okay, this, this makes sense. I like to think of it as like cleaning out. And also your cardiovascular system too. It's, it's, it's really important. I got blood work a while ago that was, and whatever it said was like, good, good. And then you need more fiber. Like there was something that indicated I needed more fiber.

1:47:45Lindsey Simcik:I was getting enough protein. I was like, whatever. But the fiber piece, I was like, you're right. because I felt like I just wasn't getting, I wasn't like craving like that roughage. You know what I mean? Like, so yeah, I've definitely integrated a ton more fiber. It's definitely, I feel great. I feel great. I didn't, I've never had a regularity problem. I don't actually know how it was showing up for me symptom wise, but like the blood works out otherwise. So maybe higher cholesterol, my LDL maybe. That's the first thing that I'll recommend is if you're you're starting to rise and he walked in it she's been living it in and out

1:48:35yeah but it's helpful you're saying okay what is um what is one thing you want to leave with some of the women listening we have women that are you know between the ages of like 25 and 40 that that are wellness curious, that want to care for themselves? Like what is one thing you want to leave or one thing you suggest that they do? Yeah, I think understanding the biology, understanding what's going on with your hormones during your menstrual cycle is key because that allows you to feel empowered. Whether you decide to act on it or not, I think it's helpful. This is my action. Yeah, I mean, I think something as simple as taking a supplement like Daily Basis, where it's just kind of built in, it's intentional.

1:49:18It's built for women who are menstruating. And I think that's really beautiful. And so having that as just like a default, again, it's supplementation. You still want you to do the work in terms of sleep and exercise and diet, but it's a really, really good place to start from. Yeah. And then it's a good place, yeah, to then build on top of that. Beautiful. So understanding our bodies and ourselves can really help us to then tune into like, what is uniquely happening to us, which can then lead us to like figuring out the next best step based on like who we uniquely are. Then we can kind of compare the data.

1:49:51And this is important no matter what life stage you're in. Yeah. If you're in your twenties, if you're actively trying to not get pregnant, if you're actually trying to get pregnant and then going into your forties then is like perimenopause, which is an, a whole beast in and of itself, which is also a reflection and a change in what's going on with your menstrual cycle. So it's all connected. Um, and, and truly even just for each individual person, what your periods are like in your twenties or your hormones change. So it might be different in your thirties and in your forties. And then obviously when at menopause, when they cease all together.

1:50:24So this is relevant, no matter what life stage you are in.

1:50:29Lindsey Simcik:Oh, good. Great. Dr. Christy. Yeah. So you can find me at ChristyEvansMD.com. I'm also on Instagram, Christy Evans MD. And you're here based in LA opening up a - I am in Los Angeles and I'm opening a boutique women's health practice here. Amazing. Good for you. So awesome. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you. We'll see you later. Bye guys. Bye. Bye.

1:50:58Thank you so much to Izzy Fisher and Sophie Allen of Daily Basis. This really amazing product. We can't wait for you guys to try. And also thank you to Dr.

1:51:07Lindsey Simcik:Christy Evans. Thank you so much for joining us, giving us the science behind all of this cycle syncing, why we need these nutrients. It was very informative. We love you guys. We love you guys. We'll see you on the next one. Bye.