Sober Vibes Podcast
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Sober Vibes Podcast
How Alcohol Impacts Hormones in Perimenopause & Menopause w/ Bria Gadd
Episode 201: How Alcohol Impacts Hormones in Perimenopause & Menopause w/ Bria Gadd
In episode 201 of the Sober Vibes podcast, Courtney Andersen welcomes Bria Gadd to the show to discuss all things Perimenopause and Menopause.
What you will Learn in this episode:
- Truth about Perimenopause that no one tells you about
- 4 Tips to Get Out of Health Debt
- How Alcohol Impacts Hormones
- Bria Gadd's story
Books mentioned in this episode:
In The Flo
Perimenopause Power
Bria Gadd is a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition® Practitioner, holistic health coach, and certified personal trainer who specializes in female hormones, helping women with weight release and energy gain in pre and post menopause, and finding clarity in hormonal chaos.
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Hey, welcome to the Sober Vibes podcast. I am your host and sober coach, Courtney Anderson. You are listening to episode 201. That is right. Did you guys think I was just going to stop at 200? We got to keep this shit moving.
Speaker 1:Today I have such an awesome guest and I'm so excited and I'll probably dig more into this topic, because this is a topic that all of us women face and that is what is called perimenopause and menopause, and a lot of women that I actually end up coaching are of the age of perimenopause and menopause, and a lot of women that I actually end up coaching are of the age of perimenopause into the menopause years and I'm actually going to do a solo episode on it on two very vulnerable stages of a woman's life and that is when after she has had a child, and also to end the perimenopause because your brain starts changing. So there's a lot to talk about on that. I will save that for another solo episode, but today we have Bria Gad, and she is a functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner, holistic health coach and certified personal trainer who specializes in female hormones, helping women with weight release and energy gain in pre and post menopause and finding clarity in hormonal chaos. That might seem like a lot, but man does she drop so much knowledge on us today to help us further along in our perimenopause menopause journey? Because, as we know for so many, that menopause only lasts for like a minute, but it's the perimenopause phase and leaning up to that, that can last for years and, as we talked about in this podcast, there hasn't been really any type of conversation around this topic up until, maybe, I would say, the last five years of how I have noticed just a shift on people talking about this and more hormone specialists coming out. Oh my God, do you guys remember when Suzanne Somers used to talk about hormone replacement therapy and all the things that she was on and people thought she was nuts? But Suzanne looked great and she felt great. So it's just.
Speaker 1:This is an interesting topic and I'm so excited to be sharing this episode with you. I could have talked to her for a long time and even, too, when we started. She's like how long does your podcast go for? I was like I usually only talk to guests for about 30 minutes and we went over that time, so enjoy. And also, too, she drops us with nuggets on how alcohol impacts our hormones in perimenopause and menopause. Okay. So alcohol for women as we get older? It is not our friend and it's such a system that's designed to fail us. All right, Enjoy the show. Make sure you check out Bria's information. The links will be in the show notes below. Make sure to check out all of my free resources the sponsor of the show If you're looking for one-on-one coaching, and or in my sobriety circle. The links are in the show notes below. And make sure you rate, review and subscribe. All right, enjoy, hey, Bria. Welcome to the Sober Vibes podcast. I'm very excited to have you on today to talk about hormones.
Speaker 2:Thanks, courtney. I'm so excited to be here. I love what you do. I love your show, yeah, I love how you show up for women and people, so I'm very excited to be a part of it.
Speaker 1:Thank you. Hormones, especially in the perimenopause, menopause phase of our lives. Now, how did you get into specifically dealing with this topic?
Speaker 2:Yeah, such a great question. So I built my career like while having babies, all those things really more in the fitness and nutrition space. I'd always worked with women and it was partly it became a big passion for me and it was like how I found time for myself, how I felt good and I kind of thought, well, I don't have everything figured out, but at least I have this kind of piece figured out. But then around the age of 35, so I'm about to turn 43 now, around the age of 35, I noticed a shift in my clients. Like we often draw in the people who are around our age box. They just weren't getting the same results, they weren't feeling the same.
Speaker 2:And then, around 37, I started noticing some shifts in my body. It was like my period started getting kind of heavy and wonky. I started dealing with anxiety for the first time in my life. I was like really tired and fatigued and and my sleep stopped being really great and that had always been a real superpower for me and I gained what I call undeserved weight gain about 15 pounds. Okay, and it's all it undeserved, because it's like I have changed nothing and all of a sudden I've gained this weight, primarily in the midsection.
Speaker 2:If you go back because I've been online in the online business for you, if you go back to those years, like you can see it in my photos like it's just kind of crazy and I was just like I was not feeling fine. And it's like when you, when this is your career, like not only did I not feel well, but I was like I don't even know how I can keep working, like I just don't feel great, right, and so I went to my health care practitioner, as we all really should if we see changes in our cycle. I think that's a really smart thing to do first anyway, like let's just make sure there's nothing else going on. She did all the tests and asked all the questions and was like you're the picture of health and I always say, cordy, like I was really grateful that I didn't have any of the things that come up when I was Googling, like night sweats, like you're at a rate of 30, because don't do that, there's a lot of mess out there.
Speaker 2:But it was a real turning point and dark moment for me because I was like I am 37. Right no-transcript the certifications I got, that I was able to kind of heal myself, really better understand our body and kind of shipped into this real purpose of teaching women how to know themselves, how to listen to the whispers of their own body, so they don't have to suffer. Because I really don't think. I think we're suffering unnecessarily.
Speaker 1:So how were you able, then, to help yourself lose the 15 pounds? How were you able to help yourself?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I think first, really understanding, like one, women are just massively miseducated and undereducated right On our health. Like this is why I hear from women all the time that are like well, my doctor says I'm fine, I'm not fine or I'm just getting older, and I think that's total baloney, the fact that women were not a part of medical research studies until the mid nineties. So if you're in my age box, I mean we've been given medical advice and health advice for men and cause we just weren't considered in that, in that type Cause we were too unpredictable, quote unquote. And so for me, one I needed to understand, okay, what's happening in this transition and why are more and more women suffering. So like learning about it specifically and and I can go into what that is. But once I understood what was happening in my body, then I was able to make different decisions.
Speaker 2:Because in perimenopause I always say like it's not a diagnosable condition, it's a reverse puberty transition. So all transitions like if you think about moving or having a baby, or changing careers, they all add more work and demand to your life. So perimenopause adds more demand to our bodies, but we're in a time in our life where we're busier than ever. So we don't have enough supply to meet the demand and although, yes, the amount of our hormones are changing, we really shouldn't experience that piece until like much later in our forties and it shouldn't be so painful or unfixable. Maybe we need some hormones to fix that. But all the other things that I was going through had a lot more to do with what I call health debt, because this transition's happening, it's an added workload and suddenly we have like a misalignment of energy supply and demand in the body.
Speaker 2:And when we don't have enough energy supply to meet the demand of this body that has now been highlighted by perimenopause things start to break down.
Speaker 2:And when you understand that, when you understand the fact that, like, the body's always going to prioritize survival over optimal function, then we see kind of where, like, if we don't have enough energy supply to meet the demand, then first things first is non-essential personnel get shut down. So there goes your libido, which a lot of women complain about for sure there, and that there goes really our energy. So that's where a lot of mood and brain fog even come in, and there's where a lot of weight gain starts, because it starts to shift into storage mode. And this is why, like calories in, calories out, no longer works for us, because now we're in this low battery storage survival mode and, of course, if we stay there long enough, it starts to pull from other functions of our body, because our whole system is connected our hormones to our thyroid, to our stress management, to our gut, and then everything starts to slowly break down and it becomes like death by a thousand cuts.
Speaker 1:Is that the first to go with the libido?
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm, yeah, is that the first to go, with the libido? I mean, I think that there's always going to be like a genetic component to people and also like an individual aspect. But what's first to go is reproduction, for basically, because the body is in sort of a stressed state and it's going to shut down things that aren't necessary, and reproduction, which is our lib keto for sure for women, is often the first to go. Muscle breakdown and fat storage I find those are the most common things we start to see and, of course, period irregularities, because the hormones are being shut down or conserved.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I had my little dictator at 38. And I was like a month at 38. And I was like a month like five weeks away from turning 39, right. And after that I was like what in the flying fuck is happening to me, right.
Speaker 1:And then in that period, I think it was that maybe that first year I read a book called In the Flow. I'm sure you've heard of that. Totally love that book, love it. And that was the first time at 39, 40 years old that I'm hearing a woman say that about that study, that like all of these studies that have been done, the majority of them are studied towards males, like working out, like fitness stuff, nutrition it's all done on males and that dude, clearly they don't deal with the second cycle and like what a world of difference and even how like periods are talked about and all of that. I mean I'm 42. So we're in the same same class here and I remember doing sex ed and just being like like we came from a generation where periods were shunned and to be embarrassed about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely Hide it. Yeah, Leave home if you need to. Don't talk about it Like no, it was a very embarrassing thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and to just like, keep pushing through, even, keep pushing through, no matter what, and like, oh, you're OK, you're just on your period, right, like, it's just one of those things and now I heard recently too maybe it was in that book as well, but that period cramps are very similar to what a male would experience with a heart attack. I think I'm saying this right, correct some way and that. What Intensity of them? Yes, like, something like, something like that where it's very and that, like, men would never be able to deal with this. And I've said this to my sister. I'm like, I think, when men go down for the count when they're sick because when a man gets sick, you're like you are not dying, okay, like sir, yeah, you have a sneeze, right, like. But men are not used to feeling like garbage every month, right, that's where that's crazy. And that's where that's crazy to discover that all of these studies have been for men, that we have been put up against a system that failed us.
Speaker 2:What it's, the patriarchy, right, right, small men.
Speaker 1:Right. So to go at it that way and when you look at that. So anybody listening, even if you have daughters, please read the book In the Flow, just so. It's great education for how you can do cycle syncing and for your daughter to understand how to take care of herself and work with her cycle. When I started working with my cycle what a relief like. What a relief even just workloads or like doing podcast interviews. I only do podcast interviews around a certain time in my cycle.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a very fascinating thing and it's also, I think, allows us some self-compassion, right, so that we know that half the month, our metabolism is up, our cortisol is up. So what does that mean? That means that our we're burning an extra like 250 to 350 calories per day, and if you are under eating, there's this energy supply and demand. What do you think is going to happen? We're going to get cranky, we're going to have cravings because the body needs more and I mean, isn't that what a lot? We're going to get tired. Isn't that all a lot of PMS right there? So like if someone just told us to eat a little bit more in the mornings on those days and maybe do a little bit less. I mean, the fact that we didn't learn this until 40 is insane.
Speaker 1:Well, and the same thing of like. Within the last couple of years, you hear more about perimenopause and this was something that was now. It was always just like, oh yeah, you hit menopause right, like nobody was talking about perimenopause. So what is a truth about? What's the truth about perimenopause that nobody is telling you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think the truth about perimenopause is that it is really our opportunity to kind of shift out of this kind of shadow of what we have been not taught or told is true, which is not true, like renovate and come out 2.0. Because for a few reasons I think, because this is highlighting again, I really feel like this added workload is sort of putting a big spotlight, a big highlighter, on the things that aren't working for us and likely never did. But we had kind of this youthful energy to supply it. Because this is happening now, we have like really clear focus on like now is the time, because if we don't take care of it now, when that loss of function in that body, when that energy supply and demand gets so low for so long, that's when we start to head into like chronic illness, chronic disease, things that we necessarily can't come back from. So I think one it's like it's actually the gift we didn't ask for, but that we, that we're getting to really pay attention and decide and to and I find I mean this is more philosophical than anything but science shows us that our hormones, specifically like as estrogen kind of comes in in the beginning of the month, everyone kind of knows.
Speaker 2:Usually they feel a bit better, a bit more lively in the first half of our cycle, right Follicular ovulatory phase. That's our estrogen, and really estrogen comes around peaks at ovulation. Right For us to be amenable to procreate and then to keep like, put everyone else ahead of us to keep our children alive, so like in the name of life. This is here Now in perimenopause, as these hormones start to decline, we are no longer hormonally hijacked every single month to prioritize everyone else above us. So it feels frustrating because it's a change, but it's actually a really liberating thing because once we reach this point of menopause, we get to know who we are, how we feel, and we're not being hormonally hijacked every single month. So how much faster can we make progress on our goals, in our confidence, just on our energy, because it's not up and down, up and down, up and down. So I think it's like an amazing opportunity for us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, doesn't your libido too? Does your libido increase after menopause, or is that, if you do the hormone replacement therapy, then it is increasing?
Speaker 2:Great, but there's, I mean, I think libido, especially for women, has a lot to do with energy. Yeah, I'll better understand that right. Like when we have time to be ourselves and feel calm, like our libido is really quite there often for us. But it's like when you're exhausted and you're doing all the things and like your partner looks at you, you're like, can you help me?
Speaker 1:out here.
Speaker 2:Like I don't know, like good luck, like just do the dishes or something right. So I think it depends a lot on really what's going on in our bodies and our health, more so even than the hormones available to us. But I think again, if we seize this opportunity of perimenopause, like get out of this idea of health debt or this idea of energy supply and demand being off, then yeah, I think we suddenly have more energy because we're not being hormonally hijacked every single month. So now that opens us up to being more confident, which really has a lot to do with our desire for pleasure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's true. Yeah, I mean that first year I was like do not touch me to my husband after I have you. The touched out thing is so real as a mom it's just like dude, stop. Even my son today was touching my hair. I was like it is 7 am, can you not start?
Speaker 2:the day like that. I've had this conversation all the time with women. It's like ah, I miss me, you miss me.
Speaker 1:You need me, I miss me, I need me. I know and I have to say that's not one that I hear a lot Like. I hear people be like, oh, I'm touched out, but like I never understood it until becoming a mom, and then I was like, oh my God, it's too much. It's too much some days, so. So what are then three tips to cause? I like that how you talk about health debt. What are three tips to get out of that, especially to entering in the perimenopause or being in the menopause, Because I'm sure that this is somewhat all fixable.
Speaker 2:It is. That's the thing is, and we know what's going on in our body, then it is a lot more manageable and fixable than we think, especially now in this like 35 to 50, like let's take care of it now, because I mean you've got 40 years left to live, right, yeah? Yeah, no-transcript aligns with what you do on your podcast, like with debt. What's the first thing we should really do when we're trying to get out of debt? We should really take a look at our credit card statement and look at all those memberships that we are. You know, the things that are costing us more, more than they are providing in our life and eliminate those things.
Speaker 2:And number one is going to be alcohol. For sure it's costing the body more than it's providing things like refined sugars, like gluten, sometimes dairy for people, and not eating consistently, not eating enough screens in our face before bed, like over-exercising, or not just even getting functional movement, and these are all really quick things that we have control over that are leeching energy from our body and making the problem worse. So that's kind of. Step one is eliminate the known stressors that we have in our life. Step number two, I really think, is to look at hidden internal stressors. So if you get through step number one and you're not feeling great, then we know likely that loss of function has happened so much in your body that now there's like kinks in the armor right. And that's where I think doing some functional lab work with a practitioner like myself or someone that you really connect with, where we're not just looking at the levels of hormones, for example, but we're looking at the function of them, the metabolization of them A lot of women we go, and I think doctors have a really important role.
Speaker 2:They're really there to look at the body specifically for something specific. But when nothing specific is wrong with you, then you're fine. But this is where I ran into and I hear women all the time. They're like you, just don't feel well, but they go to the doctor and they're told that they're fine. So our hormone levels might be fine, especially in these years of like 35 to even 50. But the metabolization, like how your body is using that hormone and how your gut is able to get that hormone out, is really matters in terms of how our body experiences things, and not just our sex hormones, our adrenal hormones, our thyroid hormones. These all are connected and they're all going to bother each other if they're off. So what? We want to eliminate hidden internal stressors by like figuring out where these kind of kinks in the hose are and and change some of our lifestyle habits and maybe need some supplements or some bioidenticals to get us back on track that way. That's number two and then number three. There's sort of four'm gonna add in. That's why, at place, bring it number three.
Speaker 2:We really want to like, I think, when we're trying to get out of debt, we want to increase that salary right, like what is the best thing, and we really want to nail our nutrition, like really understanding what our fuel mixture is for us and I'm a big believer in metabolic typing, which helps us understand the rate that our body and our cells individually turn food into energy in the body and it's different and it explains why some people can thrive off of, like, a keto diet, which is going to be higher protein, higher fat, why some people can look all glowy and wonderful off of plant-based diet, and opposites can be true, right when some are sick and looking kind of gray and ill.
Speaker 2:So understanding your fuel mixture how much protein, how much carbohydrates, how much fats and what kind really makes a difference in our health and that salary, that energy reserve that we kind of want coming in. So that's step number three and then step number four I really think we need to take a look at our soul. Food like our joy in life. I think you're estimate how important that is. You can have a perfect food plate, but if you are like, if you do not have a purpose in life, if you are not connected to something bigger than you, if you are missing something in your social connections or your relationship, like it won't matter how perfectly you eat and how perfect your workout schedule is, you're going to feel like junk and it's going to keep happening.
Speaker 1:And I have to say that, and that's where sometimes, when you see like or hear about like perfectly healthy people who just dropped out or have a heart attack on their run or something like that, I mean I've always wondered it's like how much trauma have they not worked through? Right, you know what I mean. Like that's where my head always goes to. It's like how much trauma did this person have in their life? But going back to like the soul thing, it's like also to working on stuff and working through stuff that you haven't processed yet or coped with. If you had some type of trauma in your childhood or you hate your parents and you're 45 and you're like I hate these people because they did X, y and Z, like to work through that and get that out of your body, because that is energy stored in your body and needs to come out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think how we navigate perimenopause as well as how we age, 100% to do with stress Stress in our life, outside of us. Stress in our body, like if we have gut dysbiosis, if our hormones are off, if things are off. Stressful inside our body, if we're being exposed to chemicals outside of our body. If our stress in our life hasn't been handled or managed properly, I mean you kind of don't have a shot in heck, because stress is an energy sucker and we only have so much energy in life. So you really want to look to how do I decrease the demand and increase the supply? And that's like the secret for longevity in youth.
Speaker 1:Oh for sure, and you see it on, people are like people who live till, like they're a hundred and something years old, and you're just like man, and it's just the attitude that some people have kept of well again, with their lifestyle and what they're eating and all of that. I like, though, that you pointed out that, with diets because that one is huge that not every diet works with everybody's body.
Speaker 2:Massively different. It's really important because I think we get a lot of shame, or we create a lot of shame on ourselves, when we try things that worked for our neighbor, our friend, even our sister, and doesn't work for us, and we start to think it's us, no, like we are all bio-individual and the thing we can no longer avoid in perimenopause is paying attention to our body, listen to what she says, because she will tell you if something is good enough or not.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so do you do with your practice? Do you do virtually? Yeah, okay. So what if they wanted to get blood work done? Are you able to provide that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I can order lab work and then they'd go to a lot of function. I mean, it depends on the lab, of course. A lot of the times for my typical woman in perimenopause client we're going to run a GI map, which is a stool test that they will take from their home. So the lab comes to their house, you do it in your house and it comes with a prepackaged label and it sends back and that really gives us a good look at like dysbiosis, pathogens or parasites, some immune markers in the gut, like. So we know, are we breaking down and absorbing our food? Because if we're not, we don't have the tools we need for hormones or energy or all the other things and we're absolutely going to struggle with weight. And if we are, yeah, if we have mucosal barrier damage, we're not absorbing things. Again, if there's a parasite in there, I mean you're kind of just stuck right. These are these hidden stressors.
Speaker 2:So I really love to run something called a Dutch test, which is dried urine, so that one's easy enough. That gives us a really good look at adrenal hormones and sex hormones and the metabolization of those hormones. And then often I like to do a thyroid. So the thyroid is the one that would need to. They get a little box and then they go out in a requisition and then they find a local lobotomist or lab phlebotomist not lobotomist phlebotomist and then, yeah, they do the blood draw there. So, yeah, they can have that done.
Speaker 1:Is this something that does insurance cover these types of testing? No, this is all out of pocket. This is.
Speaker 2:I mean some people, I think, that might have like a good health account with their company. It really depends for some of it. But no, this is not again. I always think I am. I am who you come to when you've been to your doctor and told them and you're not fine because there's nothing specific for them to point to. And the thing is, if you aren't fine and there's nothing specific and you stay, not fine, eventually there will be something specific. So eventually you'll get there.
Speaker 1:Yes, I actually had a specialist to come on. We just talked about gut health, so I'm going to link that podcast episode too, because we talked about this and what she was saying in the Dutch test. How much, though, does that Dutch test run?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the Dutch, I mean it's not, I'd say it's not cheap, but it is very worthwhile. Yes, the Dutch is usually around like $350 to $450.
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Speaker 1:I have been using Exact Nature for, I think at this point, a year and a half, maybe almost two years, for a long time. I use it every day and it has by far helped me with my mood. Again, exactnaturecom, enjoy, yeah, but this is the price now when you start going to functional doctors, you're spending more time with them, why they're asking you more thorough questions compared to doctors nowadays, where then you feel like you have like 10 minutes to spit out everything and then they want you to the fuck out of their office. It's like I gotta go Like. So that is like with functional. I'm a big believer in that route because you're getting more of an accurate reading and the work that's being done is deeper than the basic panel that is done. I mean because now, even too, you talk about leptin resistance and that one doesn't show up. You can't test for that one correct, or you can.
Speaker 2:No, but I think there's other markers that tell us if it's likely right Like fasting, insulin and glucose. Things like that are going to give us point fingers at things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, but and then that too, in the day and age that we are at, like a lot of screen time and reaching for your phone right when you wake up and not getting that morning sunlight, I swear, in the past year I stopped wearing sunglasses on my morning walks and I am telling you, even to this day, to put them on. I don't really even put them on until like later and I don't even wear them that much anymore. And I used to have sunglasses on, like I would sit inside with sunglasses on. I was that douche Like I loved them. I wear my sunglasses Right, exactly. But like now I'm like no, I want that. Like I love the sunlight in my eyes. Like give me, give me, give me. And it is something. I barely wear them anymore, yeah.
Speaker 2:It's funny, I think you know a lot of the times like the work that we need to do is really basic, non-sexy, foundational work. It's not actually that hard, it's just not marketably sexy. So we think that it has to be. All these other things. Like the first thing every woman should be prioritizing is like regular sleep and wake times. Like we can't always control the sleep, but like winding down, no screens before bed, waking up seven to nine hours later. So creating that space, functionally moving that body. Like are you getting those seven to 10,000 steps in each day, eating three meals with enough in it to satiate you to the next meal? And managing stress? And most people aren't even doing those four things. And that's like kindergarten basics. Like that's like we got to learn our letters and the sounds of the letters before we can learn to read. But how do you say that in a marketing campaign and make it sexy, right? I think that's where we get a little lost.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you so much for saying 7,000 steps, because I have had it with this 10,000 step per day. Do you know what I mean? Because I have had it with this 10,000 step per day. Do you know what I mean? Like, because I have heard that that 10,000 again, and now it's hard to be in this world because it's like what do you believe? But I heard that that 10,000 marker was actually a marketing thing for like a little, I think it was a contraption that they were making and I listened to these two like doctors who specific, and they're a husband and wife team that they were making, and I listened to these two doctors who specifically, and they're a husband and wife team, that they specifically just talk about walking and moving your body and they said that 7,000 to 8,000 was perfectly fine to get in each day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm always a bit like 7,000. And look, here's the thing we all have different length of legs, right? So 7,000 is, depending on the size of your body, might be around the same distance for most people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my husband is 6'3", I am 5'5". When we go on a walk, I'm like too tall, like it's slow down, I can't keep up with my short little legs. Like it's true, it is true, so like. And then plus two, I think, now like the 10,000 like step, like people have become so obsessive where it's just like just go out and walk. I actually sat, like I don't even with my iWatch anymore. I'm like I don't wear it all the time, like it's just because. Now I'm like this is just something else to tell me what I accomplished that day, instead of just intuitively listening to my body and I already know what routes to take to hit that 8,000 mark right. Like I don't need this to tell me what I'm doing.
Speaker 2:And the thing is I always say like it's probably 40 to 60 minutes total. Right, yeah, you broke the day. It's really great to walk first thing in the morning, get that sunlight in. It's also really great to walk after meals. It helps with blood sugar regulation. But a nurse or a doctor who's like walking, walking, walking all day, might already get that Maybe what they more need of is like stretch and expansion in their body. But we can't avoid kind of the function like no matter what the body needs to move, and in this sedentary land we're just not moving the same way. So we have to like get it out. But I think what is so important with it as well is like how it impacts stress levels and everybody gives us like time to settle down and breathe, maybe catch up with a friend, get out in nature, and all of these things add up to good things that matter.
Speaker 1:Yes, absolutely so. How does alcohol impact hormones, specifically in perimenopause and menopause?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean in a few ways, right, I think when I was in my younger years, especially in, like, the health and fitness industry, like, we always thought of it as like a calorie situation. Yes, right, but the drama that it causes is really like that's the least of our concerns. So alcohol, of course, is a toxin in the body. So automatically, the liver is going to start to have to deal with that and the liver will always prioritize the detoxification of, like killing toxic substances over what else it really has to do, which is our hormones. So automatically, we're loading up the liver to deal with something that is going to bump ahead of the hormone detoxification, and most women I see on labs don't have trouble with the amount of hormones. They have trouble with the detoxification of their hormones. That's gonna cause a problem, of course, and if that's happening, we're going to struggle with again brain fog, sleep issues, weight gain, like all of the things that we hear all of the time. Likewise, it plays a massive impact on our gut, right, really damaging the gut, and that is where a lot of our hormones are also needing to get methylated out of our body. So then that process kind of breaks down as well.
Speaker 2:Also, most alcohol has a lot of sugar in it, right? Or gluten. Pick your poison there. Very few don't have at least one of those components which are inflammatory to the body. So now not only are we dealing with the chemical and the toxic workload, the damage to the gut, the backing up of the hormones, but we're also so it's just like a greater workload but then we're also, just in general, dealing with more challenge that the body has to process through, and the sugar and the inflammation.
Speaker 2:So, and they're all connected, right, our entire body's connected. So then we're running into trouble and that's why often a lot of women struggle with sleep, I think, when they drink I think I hear this a lot for any kind of break, and then comes back and sleep becomes a challenge, certainly in perimenopause, often due to blood sugar regulation and cortisol dysregulation. So alcohol is a depressant. So when we drink, the body becomes depressed and the brain, being the brilliant thing it is, it's like well, we got to bring the body up into balance. So it releases adrenaline and cortisol to bring us back up into balance, but that alcohol burns off before the adrenaline and cortisol do, and all of a sudden we're awake, hot, mind racing, and we can't get back to sleep. So it really disrupts that piece and since sleep is such a foundational part of our health, like that alone wreaks havoc on our body during this transition.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. And I mean it's when you hear it like that and like even to this day, of how alcohol is just something that is so glamorized and something that is so socially acceptable and it becomes a rite of passage when you turn 21, right, and how it's marketed towards women compared to how it's marketed towards men, and you hear of all the damage that it does on your body, it just never, it never surprises me, but then also makes me sad that the substance is out there that just is eventually slowly killing people and in the sense of just them not living their best self in the human body, not being able to function how it's supposed to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. And I think the other side of that too, courtney, is like it really numbs the edges of our life, which is why a lot of people do it. Yeah, yeah. But if you numb the edges, then you're never uncomfortable enough to change. So you get stuck in this pocket and perimenopause demands that you are changing now, fix the shit that you have left unfixed and that you let go of the habits that, like clearly are not working for you. And that becomes very hard if every day, or even every week, you forget what those are because you've numbed them out. Like we need to be irritated enough to change, right?
Speaker 1:Right, besides the physical, the physical stuff that you shared with us today. I'm wondering because I have thought about this, because there's a process in when you quit drinking. I believe that there's a process of grieving your old drinking self, and I have to think that many women have to go through this process of grieving that reproductiveness or what made them a woman. Right, like, do you, do any people talk about that?
Speaker 2:It's funny that you say that. I think more often than not I hear women that are like, oh my gosh, would it just go already?
Speaker 1:But like, but I'm, I'm, I'm on that side of like.
Speaker 1:I mean, I I'll get, I'll get migraines around my period, right, Like once in a while I'll experience that, but like, so I don't like that and I don't like my cramps, right, but I know that that's something of not completely taking care of myself, right, I know.
Speaker 1:It's just not that, because I've heard before, like that westernized, right, yeah, we're the West, yes, that women experience more PMS symptoms than what it needs to be. But I am through that where I'm like, oh, I'm going to be kind of sad that this is gone, but now, like being able to. And I had this moment too, when I had my kid, where I was like, because that was, there's been two times where I've been that close to God and had that God experience and birthing that child was it, do you know? And so then it makes you see, like, what women are supposed to do with their bodies. Like that's I just we're put on this place, the humans are supposed to reproduce and like that a woman gets to be able to do that, and then like a birth of human is the most powerful thing on planet earth.
Speaker 2:It's pretty freaking amazing.
Speaker 1:Do you know what I mean? Like, if you look at it like that, you're just like, like, when people are like this is going to be hard of quitting drinking, I'm like have you birthed a child before? Like that, yeah.
Speaker 2:I say that all the time to people. When we're like in that elimination phase, I'm like, come on, have you had?
Speaker 1:children, yes, right, and like and not and not. And there's women who don't want to have kids and that's fine and not taking anything out of them. But even women who don't want kids still understand the women's reproductive and just even to when women's intuition and the women's body is a beautiful thing, like we are fucking badass creatures but we're put on this planet to reproduce, like that's what humans are supposed to do.
Speaker 2:Ironically, though, there's a lot of research that shows postmenopausal women actually have even better intuition, like deeper yeah.
Speaker 2:And likely, because it's not kind of the up and down in the cycling of those hormones. But I think you're right, it's going to be a very individual thing whether we mourn it or whether we celebrate the end of it. But I think it probably has a lot to do with how it's been for us in our lives. And either way, we do know like cycling is very important, like our levels of hormones are really important to our brain health, to our bone health, to our cardiovascular health. So figuring out how to like move out of what is common but not normal in your period symptoms, so that you can appreciate it at the very least, I think is really important because we want to keep it as long as we can.
Speaker 1:Right, all right, like paying tribute, like thank you you, bitch, thank you for getting me through these years. And that's the thing about the cycling Like right before my menses. I'm sure if there's any man listening to this episode they've already turned it off, but if you're still with us here, this is good actually for men to listen to, because if you have a wife or a partner who's going through this process, understanding what they're going through is great. But so, like, right before my period's about to come, I'm like I'll drop already. Like you can feel the level of just like of the release, right, it builds up and then it's like, just please come, let me get through these next two days and I'll be good to go again.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's a good release.
Speaker 1:It is a good release.
Speaker 2:When it really does. They talk about this I think she talks about it in in the flow, but like it's a very when you think about the four seasons, if you live in a four season place, like it's a really powerful aligning metaphor when you think of our cycle. Like without spring, there can't be summer, without summer, there can't be fall. Without fall, there can't be winter. And here we go around again, right, like it's just we have to have these times in our life and the more we honor them and recognize them in our body, the better this journey can actually be. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:So how can people work with you or find you work with you? What do you offer besides what we talked about?
Speaker 2:I offer one-on-one coaching because a lot of the work I do again, we are working as a functional practitioner. I'm working with lab work, getting in so we can apply for a free consultation so we can better understand, like, what's going on. If I can help what that looks like, I do offer a group coaching program that only opens twice a year where we do get into just one of those labs and really kind of the curriculum around, like how to get out of health debt and start being able to invest this energy into the right fitness for you, for your body, body so that you can feel your best. And mostly you can come find me on the Period Whisperer podcast. So anywhere you listen to your pods, I'm hoping Courtney will come and bless us with some great nuggets on here and Instagram at Bria. Underscore period underscore whisperer.
Speaker 1:I love it, I do love, I do love your. The Period Whisperer I love that name. It's good, it's really good and it stands out where you're like okay, because it's like I know who she's talking to. Do you recommend any? Besides working with you? Is there a book that you've read on the perimenopause menopause that you're like holy shit, this one's it Like. This is good.
Speaker 2:I mean I've read a few there. Good, I mean I've read a few. There's a lot of really good things out there. I mean I think every woman should just read in the flow, because I think she does. Elissa Vitti does such a great job of helping us appreciate our cycle and understand what it's connected to in our body. For sure, macy Hill has one called Perimenopause Power that I really liked as well, and I think for every woman listening especially if you're struggling with soul food, you should check out Regina Thomas Hauer. She's also called Mama Gina. Her book called Pussy. It's all about reigniting and taking control of the female, of pleasure for a female, not just sexual pleasure, like just pleasure, how to find it, how to get it, how to reignite it in yourself, and I think we are starved for this as women.
Speaker 1:Oh, absolutely, I have to say. Going back to In the Flow 2, that's where, even with the types of workouts you do through your phases, like then, if you're ever in this as soon as I figured this concept out with her, I was like, okay, I'm going to stop beating myself up if I don't get my workout in on my period days, cause that's where I feel garbage and that's where the lowest amount of energy, even to how she talked about her postpartum experience. When I see women on the internet now like like I'm getting my body back four weeks after popping out a kid, you are doing yourself a disservice.
Speaker 2:Oh, 100%. I remember being like four to six weeks postpartum with my second and getting on the treadmill and peeing myself and calling my mom in tears. She's like what are you doing? Like at least give your. And like that. Everyone says like literally, it's like leaking out of my body because my pelvic floor and I've had issues ever since because I pushed it so yeah, there's a hundred reasons why it's not a good idea.
Speaker 1:I'm actually having a pelvic floor specialist. She's pelvic floor doctor coming and I can. I'm so excited to talk about that because I had that issue too, and a lot of women now it's like one in three, like it's such a small thing like have pelvic floor issues because they were not properly taken care of after giving birth. I went to physical therapy for it because I ripped, I was a four, I was a fucking four in that delivery and even, too, I had doctors come in. Like one man looked like this doctor was hot too. I was so pissed and he came in. He was like, yeah, you're a four, that's a big one. Like this man looked shocked and I was like, oh my God, I want to die right now. But so I had to go like with the pelvic floor and all of that and plus, too, when I was put on bedrest, like that did a lot of damage to my body. So the pelvic floor is interesting. So that's maybe you might need some pelvic floor therapy if you haven't done it yet.
Speaker 2:I know, you know what I probably I've gotten a lot better at it because one of my best friends is a pelvic floor therapist. Oh, perfect, actually had some support. But she was the one that was like you can't, you can't post that it's normal that you're peeing your pants on your workouts. She's like that's not normal. And I was like oh, and that really opened my eyes to thinking like oh, I thought this was a normal thing. I thought everybody peed themselves when they jumped on a trampoline. Nope, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So if you're listening and you were in that postpartum phase, it was seriously easy does it at like, and she even talked about it, where she was like I lost this weight because she ate according to her cycle, and she was like for six months I was doing light walks, walking my kid to the park and back, like that's what she did, and so there's a lot to say for really nurturing yourself during these, these times, right Like in the going back to the seasons of life that you're in, you need to nurture your body and listen to what it needs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love that, courtney, and I'll finish on this as a tip, because I know we're wrapping up here but you asked me at the very beginning like what helped me lose the weight and all I did. So I was working out six days a week, gaining this weight, and one of the biggest things I did or all I did for movement for four to six months after was walk and yoga, walk and yoga, and obviously I sorted out my nutrition and some stress management, but that's what allowed my body to release the weight, because you have to heal when you're in debt.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, All right. Well, thank you so much for sharing with us today. Like I said, I will tag all of your stuff in the links in the show notes, or just find the Peer and Whisper on the gram. The good people of the world, they all hang out on the gram. We love the gram. Out of all the social medias, it's like I just think the gram's the easiest.
Speaker 2:The easiest for our generation? I think yes, exactly.
Speaker 1:All right, well, thank you so much, thank you.
