Are Your Hormones Out of Balance? Simple Steps for Moms with The Women’s Health RN | Ep. 126

0:00But truthfully, hormones are not the root cause. It is not really like, I want to know if your hormones are off because that will explain a lot of symptoms. And we can talk about that in a second. But it's not actually the root cause and what you actually need to address. You don't need to address your hormones. Your hormones are chemical messengers in your body responding to its environment. So you need to change the signal that your body is receiving, not necessarily the hormone. Does that make sense? Hello, mom friend. And welcome back to another episode of the Learning to Mom podcast. I'm so thankful and so very grateful to have you here.

0:38In case this is your first time tuning in, my name is Layla and this is the motherhood podcast where you get legit, tangible information without feeling judged, belittled, or overwhelmed. Here we do things a little bit more holistic, question the status quo, and talk about motherhood in a way that actually encourages mom to see the fun and the joy of it all. So if that sounds good to you, let's get right into it. Each expert guest comes with their own perspective and background, so please note that the content presented in this podcast is designed for general educational purposes only and is not a substitute for personalized professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

1:19Hi, Denny. Welcome to the Learning to Mom podcast. I am so excited to be here. I know we're going to talk a lot about a lot of juicy stuff today. Yes. And that is exactly why I don't want to waste any time. So let's just dive right into it. Tell us a little bit about yourself and what the Women's Health RN is all about. So as my name suggests, I am a women's health nurse, but I also have a master's degree in functional nutrition. And I am obviously the founders of the Women's Health RN. And so my passion is really just about helping women, especially those with, I would say like we're the full like woman of childbearing years, like your PCOS, endometriosis, painful periods, acne, gut issues, fertility struggles, we're really covering like the whole nine yards.

2:01And our big focus is getting to the root cause of symptoms using both in-depth cycle charting, personalized nutrition and a functional medicine approach. So that's, you know, I'd say that's a snippet of what we do. This is so great because I know my listeners know that this is like what I talk all about all the time about, like I'm always talking about NFP and everything and just like balancing your hormones. And it's just gonna be so good. So talking about the basics, though, so we just have a basic understanding here. What does hormone balance even mean? I love that question. Because yeah, I think a lot of women are like looking for that.

2:38They're like, I think my hormones are off, like it's almost like a buzzword now. And how I really see hormones. So well, first, I'll say Hormone balance means your body is producing the right amount of hormones at the right time. And your cells are also responding appropriately to those hormone signals. A analogy that a lot of women in health people will use in my space will be like, think about as like an orchestra. It's a symphony, your hormones. And everything needs to be playing in the right note at the right time for things to sound good. Right? If even one's a little off, then it's the whole thing is going to be off.

3:13Right? And so with hormones, you know, we really want, I like also like not too much and not too little. Either one, if you sway in either direction, there's likely going to be problems. But really what I talk about, I talk a lot about on hormones, like on my Instagram page, in our newsletter. But truthfully, hormones are not the root cause. It is not really like, I want to know if your hormones are off because that will explain a lot of symptoms. And we can talk about that in a second. But it's not actually the root cause and what you actually need to address. You don't need to address your hormones.

3:43Your hormones are chemical messengers in your body responding to its environment. So you need to change the signal that your body is receiving, not necessarily the hormone. Does that make sense? No, it makes so much sense. And I just want to know absolutely everything. So let's talk about what the root causes are then. Yeah. So how I see it, I have like, I will show to my clients a nice pyramid that I've determined based on my education, my background, all that stuff. The base of your pyramid is blood sugar, nutrient status. I'd say those are big ones. And then like the next step would be like your gut health.

4:21The next be like your stress, like adrenal health. If you've ever heard of adrenals and we can talk more about that function. And at the very tippity top is hormones. And I would also add sleep in like the bottom hydration. So you really want to be addressing the base of the pyramid. Okay. So when we talk about the base of the pyramid, do you have any recommendations that every woman should be getting or is that very personal? So I would say there are basics everyone can start with. And then if you're doing that and you're still experiencing symptoms, that's when you need to get more personalized.

4:57So eating enough, like I would say what I'm really seeing is I'm either seeing people overeating, as you know, we do have a chronic obesity, overweight epidemic in America. So, you know, that's not really surprising. But I either see people are like eating too much or then they're eating too little. I'm like, OK, guys, we need to again meet in the middle. It's like same with hormones. Like you don't want to overeat, but we don't want to undereat. Both are going to be issues. So I would say eating enough of the right stuff. So especially protein, healthy fats, fiber, and then like mineral, vitamin-rich foods.

5:31So I think a lot of like your fruits, your veggies, those kinds of things. So a lot of, I mean, that's like a whole foods diet, right? A lot of people can start there, like 80 to 90 % of your diet being whole foods and go from there. Some people will feel great doing that and they don't need more personalized help beyond that. But then some people, unfortunately, in my practice, they're eating well and they're still experiencing symptoms. And that's when we do some underlying testing to kind of dig deeper to see like, are you still struggling with blood sugar issues? Are you dealing with some inflammation or gut infections?

6:05Are you still nutrient deficient despite eating a healthy diet? an iron deficiency especially in moms is huge especially postpartum and it's just like I truthfully sometimes feel like it is malpractice like the way OBGYN care is postpartum like truthfully like these basic things and even during pregnancy like I had I just requested like one of my pregnancy clients I'm just like hey can we grab like a lipid panel and she like asked her doctor and he's like why do we need that and like that's like a basic this is like a basic panel it's a dollar marker. It's like, why are you even refusing to running that?

6:39Like, anyway, so it's just very silly what's going on. You know that feeling when an episode leaves you thinking, I need more. That's exactly what the mom club gives you. Full episodes, bonus exclusive content, early episodes in a monthly book club discussion where we can talk about parenting approaches, celebrate wins and commiserate over the hard parts. It's where we slow down and talk about the things that don't fit into a short episode. We ask deeper questions, we talk about the messy middle, and we hear stories behind the stories. One member shared with me, I just joined and I'm so happy I did now, especially seeing all of the extra bonus content.

7:22And that's what keeps it special, the content and the connection. So if you're craving that kind of support and depth, come join us at learningtomompodcast.com slash join. The links in the show notes and I cannot wait to welcome you in. Okay. So when you talk about like those categories at the bottom, right? How many hours of sleep do you think we all, what's our minimum and what's like, I always see the protein minimum. Like, do you have those? What's your take? Yeah. I would say about 0.8 grams per pound of body weight is like a good place to start for protein. Sometimes you can go upwards of one gram of protein per pound of body weight, right?

7:59If you weigh like 110 pounds, you should be eating like 110 grams of protein. That makes sense. That's a little bit aggressive. Sometimes people don't need exactly that. That's why you could do like the 0.8 gram per pound of body weight. So it'll be a little less than that. Now, another way that I will do it for my clients, which I feel is more accurate, is that with all of our clients, we are calculating their total daily energy expenditure. So we are saying based on your height, weight, activity level, how much should you be eating, right? That's a more accurate way. And then we do about 25 % of your calories coming from protein, if that makes sense.

8:36That's so good to know. So it is definitely higher. And I was actually just reading some research by Lily Nichols, who is a registered dietitian, very specialized in prenatal and like fertility nutrition. A lot of research does show that the higher meat intake of women actually decreases anovulation, which is not ovulating. So we actually see an increase in ovulation, fertility in those who are eating actually more meat, which you won't see that a lot in the papers, I would say. When they find these outcomes in the papers, they like seriously gloss over in the results section of a research paper.

9:11It's like, yeah, there is actually like a little bit of a benefit of meat. But anyways, so like the plant protein, so good, so good for you. There's a weird bias going on in research towards plant-based and really glossing over meat consumption. So very, very weird stuff. So we're not on a little subpar there, but there's a lot of nuance to things. Now, this is a really dumb question, but I believe it's a safe space. OK, yeah, so I'm breastfeeding and I know that then a lot of my protein should be iron. So I would say not quite like what you could have like iron rich sources, like your red meat's going to be higher in iron.

9:46I would not say that all of your protein sources need to be higher in iron per se. I would say more so meat in general. So, well, if we talk about protein, animal-based protein is more bioavailable protein sources. So I believe, if I'm remembering this correctly, you absorb about like 80 % of the protein coming from animal protein. Versus if you have a plant-based protein, you're actually only going to get like 50 % of that because it's just not as bioavailable. Now, this does not mean plants do not have their place. I'm a very big fan of plants. They are wonderful, wonderful for your gut. But just, you know, when we're talking about, again, like protein specifically, like you're going to want to get a lot of your protein from animal based foods.

10:31And then iron, there are also other iron rich foods like your dark leafy greens. And then you can also increase the bioavailability of iron and increase the absorption if you pair iron rich foods with vitamin C rich foods. And then it really depends on the person. And that's why I do think like testing iron postpartum is huge. For some women, they absorb iron really well. Others have a harder time absorbing iron. So, you know, the needs of that's going to be different based on the person, if that makes sense. And iron, too much of it can actually be a bad thing. You don't want to just tell everyone like, oh, you should supplement with iron, have a ton of iron.

11:08For some people, that might actually be a great idea. Okay. This is, seriously, this is so helpful. for those who obviously can't see. So my mouth is just like open half the time when she's talking and I'm like, oh, I was thinking about your pyramid. And you said on the next tier, it was gut. And was it adrenals on the next one? Yeah. Okay, I want to talk about those. Yeah, so with gut health, someone's having obviously like outright bloating, constipation or loose stools, or like you feel like you're just like sensitive to like a bunch of different foods. These are huge red flags. Like you shouldn't just be bloated all the time.

11:41it's okay to have a little bit of like a bigger stomach at night after a full day of eating. I think that's like something I want to tell people because they see these influencers on social media who have like a flat stomach all the time of the day. And it's like, it's okay if your stomach is not flat all day long and you ate food throughout the day. It's not going to be as flat as it was in the morning. And that's okay. That doesn't mean chronic blow. Chronic blow is like, it's very extended, you know, after meals, you're very uncomfortable. Like, yeah, if you're having irregular bowel habits and also, you know, to kind of also a breakdown constipation, you should be having one to two bowel movements a day.

12:15You should feel like they're complete and that they should look like a dog's tail or a snake. Okay, that's kind of how our bowel movements should look. They should not be overly runny. They should not be like pebbles. So if you're not having a bowel movement, this is an issue. So gut health is so foundational because about 80 % of our immune system is in our gut. And then our gut's also responsible for breaking down and absorbing our nutrients. So I always say to my clients, I'm like, if we're going to spend all this time like getting you to eat good food, you need to be absorbing it. Because what's the point if you're not actually breaking down and absorbing that, right?

12:49And then if there's any imbalances in the gut microbiome, so you have all this bacteria in your gut, you almost have as much bacteria in your gut as you do cells in your body. They're potentially thinking about like calling the gut microbiome its own organ. so we'll see if that if they end up classifying it that because it has so many different effects like again it can modulate inflammation it can modulate hormone balance even create hormones in neurotransmitters like serotonin which is our calm happy hormone so if you are having an imbalance in your gut bacteria you can't produce as much serotonin this could also be a huge reason for mood issues so we do see mood issues very much associated with poor gut health as well again because it can also modulate the information the nutrient status all that good stuff.

13:33So we in our practice are running a GI map stool test with our clients so yes you collect a poop sample and we can see what's going on in the gut from the microbial balance standpoint there are markers to see how well you're digesting your food and then is there any outright infections going on I mean that's something that has been very surprising in my practice people actually have like chronic gut infections like those like actually pretty common and chronic gut infections I've seen my practice be associated with, and in the research, be associated with infertility, painful periods, PCOS, endometriosis.

14:05So that has been really huge in our practice to address those, all those imbalances in the gut. Because ultimately that then, again, changes like the whole landscape, I would say, of your body. So it is so foundational. Interrupting this episode for your favorite segment, this week's MomMail. If you're new here, this is the part of the show where I answer a listener-submitted situation or scenario. Basically, you write in your tricky situation, and I give you advice only a real mom friend would give. Here's what we are answering this week. Starts off with, Hi, mom friend. I keep hearing people say, You're going to miss this someday.

14:40And honestly, it makes me feel worse, because some moments I just don't enjoy. Some days are loud and messy and overwhelming, and I find myself counting down to bedtime instead of soaking it all in. I love my kids more than life, but I don't love every single minute. And then I feel guilty for even admitting that. Is it normal to adore your children, but also really struggle with the day to day sometimes? Yes, it is so normal. It is so challenging. I mean, that's one of the challenges of motherhood is we live in this really interesting, complex space, if you will, where we're trying to soak it all in and survive.

15:20I think motherhood is really, really beautiful because of how sacrificial it is and how sanctifying it is for us because we truly are dying to ourselves every single day from the moment that we become pregnant, like forever until our children are far into adulthood. Like from the moment that we're pregnant until forever, like we are constantly sacrificing and putting ourselves last, whether that be intentionally or whether that be just your body. Now I'm making breast milk and I'm putting your hormones around. And like, this is just a sacrifice for me. Like whether it be really your choice or not, your body, like your motherhood puts yourself last.

16:02And that is incredibly sanctifying. But that does make it really hard. So I think it's okay to feel guilty and like, thank you for admitting that you don't love every single moment. But I really don't think that that's uncommon. Like, I think that's how a lot of us feel, but we don't want to admit that. But if you really are struggling, like I will say that I don't know, you know, kind of the ins and outs of this scenario, because this is all that I have. but if you're really struggling and depending on where you are if you're postpartum if you're really struggling you might have postpartum depression and it's something to look into or you need to talk to a therapist so you know if it's if it's really a struggle if you're really miserable and you're like i hate this i hate this i hate this i hate this i hate this i do think that there's something more serious going on that needs to be addressed but if it's just kind of like oh my gosh this is so hard and you know you just kind of like shake yourself off and you're on to the next thing, that's not really something to be concerned about.

17:03So I do want to just flag that for you. It is normal to an extent. That was pretty short, but I hope that was helpful to you, friend. Thank you so much for writing in, for admitting that. And if you need that kind of support, I hope you get it because you deserve support. Now, if you're looking for advice, email me at learningtomompodcast.mommail at gmail.com with the subject line, Mommail. And then keep your ears open because we might just answer it in an upcoming episode. Okay, so talking about the symptoms though, we talked about like PCOS, we talked about acne and no metriosis and all that stuff.

17:39What about things like rage and exhaustion or anxiety, especially when it comes, like that's something that I think a lot of moms we struggle with. Yeah, so I have a lot of opinions about this. Please share, we love opinionated women. So I think there are several factors going on. There was actually just a research paper that came out that showed how moms right now are experiencing like higher amounts of anxiety and just dissatisfaction of life compared to dads. They're not having the same amount of like dissatisfaction, anxiety, depression as moms are having. So what's going on? I think that it's a combination of, yes, potentially hormones being off.

18:20But again, that's not a root cause to me. I think women are not, I think they have blood sugar dysregulation. That is a huge cause of mood swings. huge. I've had a woman who has struggled with anxiety for 13 years. And all I did was teach her how to balance her blood sugar. And she stopped having panic attacks. Like it is that profound blood sugar is huge on mood. Inflammation, we do know that increased inflammation is associated with mood disorders. And I think you're having blood sugar dysregulation, nutrient deficiencies. And on top of that, you're just eating then not great food. The bottom of the period is not in place and that's going to lead to, yeah, it can lead to hormone issues.

18:59And then that can also, I would say independently in of itself, like the blood sugar, the nutrient deficiencies can independently increase mood disorders, but then, you know, those can also increase hormone imbalances, which then those can also contribute to the mood issues. My other, you know, opinion is that I think we are also extremely under supported. Moms are going back to work like six weeks postpartum more women are having the pressure to work and they are having then the guilt of like daycare or then this in this economy i feel like everyone's saying that these days or they choose to stay home but then there's still a little stress of like not having that second income so i think that there's a myriad of problems going on contributing to all of these you know anxiety depression so when you're talking about balancing blood sugars to someone who's like I don't even know what that means.

19:50Yeah. Teach us your ways. So, okay. So a very, this is a very basic explanation, but essentially when you think about like your carbohydrates, your bread, your rice, your cakes, your cookies, when you eat those, you are going to absorb those carbohydrates and your body is going to break it down into sugar. And then your sugar is in your bloodstream called blood sugar. So it's going to rise after you eat. and then your body is then going to produce a hormone called insulin. And I say think of insulin as the key that unlocks your cell to let glucose in the sugar into your cells to be utilized as energy.

20:29That is natural. We should be able to use our glucose as energy. Okay, that is a good thing. That's how we make energy, the energy molecule ATP. If anybody like remembers that from biochemistry or like biology, we all did learn it at one point, but anyways. So essentially with blood sugar dysregulation, what happens is that you say you overeat too many carbohydrates or you're not balancing it with enough protein or fiber. Protein and fiber help to slow the digestion of carbohydrates into our bloodstream. So we're not having as much as a spike, like as a rise. So say you just eat like a cookie alone, okay?

21:04You didn't have any extra fiber or protein, your blood sugar is going to shoot up. And then that whole process, then there's a ton of insulin flooding your cells and that can cause a ton of inflammation. And then the insulin floods into your bloodstream. All the glucose now goes into your cells and then your blood sugar drops. And so now you have a blood sugar drop. And a lot of times it's that spike and then drop that's then causing a lot of the mood-based issues. And then over time that can cause chronic inflammation. And then that in and of itself is having issues. But that just like that drop, like some people will notice, okay, like after they have a high pasta meal or something, like they almost get like more cravings.

21:40They get almost like shaky feeling. They get like just more irritable. Like those are kind of signs that you're on a blood sugar roller coaster. Chronic fatigue is a huge one, especially if you're having like blood sugar crashes around like 2 to 3 p.m. If you're waking up in the middle of the night, these are some really big signs that your blood sugar is dysregulated. So when I talk about balancing your blood sugar, I think about you don't want your blood sugar to look like mountain spikes. Like, right, you don't want like this spike and then like a deep valley crash. you want it to look like nice rolling hills right like very stable they're not spiking too much they're not crashing instead of being like up and down you're just like kind of nice and even like again it's normal for your blood sugar to go up but it's not normal for it to like go like a crazy spike so how do we balance our blood sugars through our diets and i guess the only way that i'm thinking of is pairing foods so yes and no so there yes food is a basic way so not to like overeat carbohydrates, you know, and pairing it, yes, with protein, and then choosing.

22:43So in like the nutritional world, we say low glycemic index foods. So basically, this glycemic index came out and it was this research on like, basically what type of carb and like how much it's going to spike your blood sugar. And that's very much dependent on how much fiber it has because the fiber can slow digestion. So another way to think about is you want to eat like slow burning carbohydrates instead of like your quick digesting carbohydrates. So for example, the difference between legumes, so like beans, they're gonna have some actually protein in it. It's actually gonna come with a lot of fiber.

23:17So even though they have carbs in it, it's going to cause much less of a blood sugar rise. I would just say the cakes, cookies, right? So like that difference. So you can, yeah, pair them. So like I always, I'm teaching my clients how to choose, like what are the fiber-rich carbohydrates? Choosing those fruit is a really great one. and then pairing that with also protein and fat. So, you know, if you have eggs, that's great. That's a source of protein and fat. That helps to further like slow the absorption. And then other really, really big contributes to blood sugar is stress, sleep, movement slash lean muscle mass.

23:53So lack of sleep in and of itself is going to make it harder for you to control your blood sugar. So especially I think of my mom's in early motherhood, we're not sleeping a lot. it's getting broken sleep you do need to be more diligent about managing your blood sugar you having that just that bowl of oatmeal is likely going to affect you more negatively than someone who got eight hours of sleep okay so that's really important because if you think about it that can make even more sense why women are even more ragey in those postpartum phases because they're lacking sleep and then add blood sugar dysregulation on top of that, well, they're a mess.

24:32So sleep is huge. And I mean, it's so hard talking to my mom's very non-getting sleep. I'm like, I'm sorry. But we just, that's where you just have to control what you can. Like, okay, you can control like your food, ideally in that, you know, that circumstance, but you can't control sleep. So let that go. But when it is available to you, baby sleeping better later in life, and you are able to sleep more, we want to absolutely take full advantage of that. So seven to nine hours is my basic recommendation for a woman for healthy blood sugar hormones all that good stuff and then I said stress is also huge like for example people were where I don't know have you heard of like glucose monitors before yeah yeah where right so people can like sit in traffic and they're like pissed off and their blood sugar will spike if you have like a stressful meeting you know whatever you had a really hard day and then again people add insult to injury they like their stress their blood sugar is already spiking and they go home and then they have like a plate full of pasta that's not balanced enough with like protein and fiber.

25:30Yeah. Okay. No, that's such a good point. Because like after a stressful day, you want an easy dinner to make. So it's pasta and meatball. You get in a conundrum. I totally get it. Yeah. So with a lot of our clients, we're really like, hey, how can we prep things? Or, you know, you have things on the schedule so you don't run into making, I don't want to say poor decisions, but rush decisions, not putting yourself in that place. Because we're all busy. I totally get it. But also eating healthy can be super basic. Like all of our meals that we make at home are probably 30 minutes or less. It's just like you have a protein source, you get a whole food carbohydrate, you roast some veggies.