Cracking the Code on Women's Longevity: Expert Insights for Your Best Years Ahead with Kristin Mallon

My conversation today with Kristin Mallon (board-certified nurse midwife, menopause expert, and breast health expert) emphasizes the need for more personalized, women-specific healthcare approaches and the importance of understanding individual risk factors for optimal health outcomes.

WE DISCUSS: 

• Feminine Longevity & Modern Medicine
• Women's Health Research Gap
• Longevity Approach
• Bone Health Tips
• Cold Plunging & Impact on Male and Females
• Sexual Health in Menopause 

LINKS DISCUSSED

https://meetrosy.com/

Poor Bishop Hooper

CONNECT WITH KRISTIN

https://www.femgevityhealth.com/

Instagram: @femgevity

Facebook: FemGevity

YouTube: FemGevity

Transcript

Amy Connell: 

 Kristin, welcome to Graced Health.

Kristin Mallon: Thank you so much for having me. It's so awesome to be here.

Amy Connell: Yes. Well, I'm really thrilled that you're here. As I have mentioned to you previously, we do like talking about menopause related stuff, but the words that really stuck out to me that you used was feminine longevity. So I was wondering if you could explain what you mean by that. so much.

Kristin Mallon: Yeah. So by longevity, longevity medicine is kind of this new term that's emerging. And I think what some people are calling medicine 3. 0, or they're calling it the new era of medicine, which is when medicine is fully embracing and marrying wellness. So wellness, a lot of in medicine 2. 0 or in medicine, the previous era. It was, well, this is really handled and mastered by nutritionists and osteopaths and naturopaths, chiropractors, physical therapists that kind of allied health profession or the complimentary allied health professionals. And in medicine 3. 0, we're moving away from sick care and we're moving away from crisis care only to embracing. wellness and medicine. So wellness and medicine coming together. So someone from a medical background, someone that went to medical school, telling us about how to have optimal health, optimal wellness, what's best for us. And it also kind of merges in precision diagnostic, precision medicine, where we can get really specific data on something that's customized, tailored for one person to help them have a longer life. Healthier life. So since the 1960s, we've done a pretty good job of extending life, but we haven't really done a good job of extending the quality of life. And so we're living longer, but we're not living better. So I think a lot of times when women think about longevity, they're like, okay, well, you know, my mother lived till she was 95 or my grandmother lived till she was 95.

But what we don't really think about was, well, how long did that person live with a chronic illness? Or what was the last decade or the marginal decade of their life like? And for longevity medicine and what longevity really aims to do is make that last decade or the last 15 years or 20 years of someone's life be full of health and abundance. And you know, the ability to take your bag on a plane and put it in an overhead compartment. and live well. So that was a long answer to your question, but it's really about the marrying of wellness and medicine.

Amy Connell: Okay. And the other thing that comes to mind when you talk about that as being more proactive rather than reactive of something's not working. So I'm going to the doctor for that and instead thinking about what do I want the last 10 years to look like the last five years and working toward that.

Kristin Mallon: Yeah, it's more of like kind of the retire, the planning for retirement kind of option. So like where we go now, and I think a lot of people are familiar with this, is like you go to the doctor and you basically, you go every year. Maybe a lot of people don't go every year because they're like, what's the point?

But if you go, it's like, Are you sick? Are you sick yet? You're not sick yet. We'll come back next year. We'll do your blood again. We'll test again, see if you're sick. And if you're not sick, then you'll come back the next year. But when you come to a practice like ours, or when you come to a longevity medicine practicing doctor or a longevity medicine practicing practitioner, it's not saying, are you sick?

It's saying, are you optimal?

Amy Connell: That makes sense. when you talk about longevity, there's a lot of conversations. Out there, and there are a lot of experts who I've been learning from in various ways. You have a focus more on the on the female end of this. I mean, there's a lot of, there, again, there's experts, there's male and female experts out there for sure.

But, I'm wondering in terms of women's health care, what kind of deficits are you seeing in women's health care that are prohibiting us from the retirement planning of our health? Like, I love that analogy that you gave us. Because. I mean, we all have our own experiences, but I, I mean, you have a wide, wide breadth of knowledge of experience of of education.

And so I'm wondering in all of these areas, what you're seeing as the deficits and where are the gaps that we're missing?

Kristin Mallon: Yeah. So I think when, when, when we talk about longevity medicine, it's really helpful when we look at experts. So this is kind of general and then I'll kind of get into the women's health side of it. There's longevity science. And so there's a lot of scientists. There's a lot of PhD research researchers out there.

There's a lot of people working in labs, working with mice, working with yeast, working with dogs, and that's science. And when we're talking about. We're talking about people that are actually at the bedside, people that are doing clinical studies on human beings with medications, testing, hormones, neuropeptides, etc. So I think that you're right about there being TMI and there's too much information and with social media and the internet. That's one kind of, I think, helpful tidbit when trying to sift through your own information about longevity medicine is, Is this a scientist telling me something? That these are probably theoretical gains. Supplements, side effects. outcomes versus someone who's working in the medical field, like what we're doing. When it comes to women's health, women in general weren't included in clinical trials. A lot of times when you look at labs, you weren't, we weren't seeing a range that was for a woman. It was really for an adult male. And they really, really weren't included in clinical trials until about 30 years ago. And so that really leaves a significant dearth in the understanding of the clinical information. And then also, I think because I'm in the OBGYN field, I'm a certified nurse midwife and I see my OBGYN colleagues, I think that we've just really placed too much as a society on OBGYNs.

We expect them to be experts in childbirth, pregnancy, every single gynecological issue, which probably could be broken down into subspecialties, endometriosis, fibroids, PCOS. Menopause. And so it's no wonder that when women are going to their OB GYN, who's kind of like the renaissance person of medicine and, you know, they're dabbling in Sculptor and they're dabbling in oils and they're dabbling in acrylics and watercolors, that they're not a true expert in one thing. And so I really see. The significant opportunity for us to specialize now in medicine, for us to kind of really get into grooves and to niches and to really hone down something very specific. So for women, menopause is the kryptonite of longevity. And so the way a woman handles and manages menopause is going to affect her longevity long term.

There's so much that happens with the loss of estrogen when it comes to bone health, cardiovascular health, mental health, and cognitive health that is paramount and very different from males. And so, Just that alone, just the education of that alone, just seeing menopause for the opportunity of what it is, that women can really use menopause as a catapult versus. a clutch into longevity. So that's kind of the, the difference. And I think why menopause or why longevity is so different for women specifically.

Amy Connell: It's interesting when you were talking about a lot of the research and how women really were not included until 30 years ago or so. The same is true with fitness studies and, you know, getting things in it. All of the fitness studies have been done on like males in their mid twenties.

I'm 15 years old, almost like this is not applicable to me. And

so, yeah.

Kristin Mallon: the studies now too, like about cold plunging and about fat, brown fat metabolism, all were done on men. So it's the same, it's the same idea.

Amy Connell: Okay. Okay. So how do we, and this is going to be a super high question. But I love how you said, I mean, I don't love, but I, I think it's an interesting way of saying that menopause is the kryptonite of longevity for women. And I think a lot of us feel that very acutely because it's like what the, what has happened to me at the same time, there is so much information out there.

And one of the things I have been saying Recently is like, I feel like the wellness industry has just lost its mind. Like there is so much out there. And how do we go through and disseminate what is appropriate for our age, for our stage? I know that there's not going to be it like a a handbook, right?

Like if ABC and D, but how do we know if, if the science is even applicable to us? How do we know if it was done on women, our age? How do we know if this is something that actually could hurt? Or could horror or hurt or help. And I'm, as a side note, I'm real curious about what you're talking about with the cold plunging.

Cause I too have seen a lot of stuff and I'm like, Ooh, I want to know more about that. So big question, but I'll just kind of let you take it 

Kristin Mallon: Yeah, no, I'm really, it's such a really thoughtful question and I'm really glad that you asked that question. So The best that's why I kind of also put that little caveat in in the beginning about like, where are you getting your information from? And is it a scientist? Or is it a medical person? I think in general, like when it comes to social media, and it comes to micro learning, because that's really what these platforms are now, is that You want to make sure that whoever you're consuming information from is one or the other of those two.

They're either a scientist, they have a PhD, so I would even go so far as to say there's so many of them now. You don't need to look at someone who's just having a master's degree who hasn't really, like, Fully understood and enveloped the complication that comes from writing a thesis, writing a dissertation, really understanding how to read and analyze studies that comes with being a scientist, being a doctor of some science background.

It's important to know what their PhD was in, and a lot of people will include all this information in their bios, and then What academic institution they're affiliated with. And it's good to make sure it's one that's recognized in the community. You know, it's one of the top 25 schools in the United States.

It's one of the top 25 schools in Europe, Australia South Africa. So like there's a lot of ways to make sure that you're following the right people. And then when it comes to medicine, it's a similar vein. You want to make sure that it's someone who's an MD or an NP, nurse practitioner, or someone who's in the medical field, seeing patients on a day to day basis, and, and someone who's that is actively practicing.

So someone who's actively saying, okay, yesterday, when this patient came into my office, I saw X, Y, and Z, because there's a lot of doctors that don't actually touch patients and don't actually have a clinical practice. So I think that right there is a way to just kind of like distill down the information.

And that's the number one, one of the number one reasons, I always say there's three main reasons why we started Femmengevity, but one of the number one reasons is that women can no longer be expected to get their own degrees. in health. It's just too confusing, there's too much information, and they need a navigator, they need a co pilot, which is exactly what we aim to do at Femgevity, which is you can bounce off ideas.

Okay, I saw this on TikTok, I saw this on Instagram, I read this article, my friends sent me this from CNN or Fox News or anywhere, from the New York Times, Wall Street Journal. that we can then help you digest that information and break it down and say, okay, this is what this is really saying. We can help you to understand like what the N is, what a P value is, like how to read these studies to whatever level that you want to consume that information on to, to break it down for you to understand so that you're not just kind of following you know,

Amy Connell: Yeah. Whatever the latest reel said.

Kristin Mallon: Exactly.

And then the other thing is I really warn women in general about getting on with an influencer, getting on with an actor. These are all wonderful people, but when it comes to health, that's not what they're doing day in and day out. They're, an influencer is having more of a socialite life, an actor, an actress is having more of a life in the theater and a life in Hollywood. And so, You want to get behind people who are doing this on a day to day basis. I always say you wouldn't, like, have the flight attendants fly your plane. You would have the pilot fly your plane, or you wouldn't go to someone to fix your car that's like, well, I'm a really good plumber. You know, like, I understand plumbing, so, like, I would, I would be able to, like, handle fixing your car. There's so many of us out there doing this that that can help. When it comes to the studies, which is what you asked me about the cold plunge specifically, there was a lot of, there was a pretty large study. That, and I'd have to go look up the information. I remember reading it at the time. But, the, the study was done on men and women, so they actually did the study about cold plunging and burning brown fat and the dopamine release and all of these great benefits that come from cold plunging.

But when you talk to men, they're like, yeah, I feel amazing. I, cold plunge, it feels great. I love it. It took me a while to get into it. But when you talk to a lot of women, because that's what we do, that's what I do on a daily basis, you know, talk to patients all day long, they're like, yeah, I couldn't really get into it.

It didn't really feel good. So when I was like, okay, something that's going to have such a great effect usually will have some. some semblance of a following behind it from the feminine side. And then when I read the study, it was like, well, these were the effects that were happened on the men, but the females in this study group didn't have the effects of the brown fat metabolism, which could then probably be could probably be then inferred to further down the line into the dopamine release.

I'm sure there are some women who do have these wonderful effects from cold plunging, but the majority of them don't, that, that I'm experiencing. And so that kind of just leads me to kind of like an example of the differences between what we're seeing in the longevity medicine field between women and men.

And which is why, when we started femgevity, we were like, we are going to focus on women. There's so much here. There's such a need to exemplify the differences that that's, One of the things that we're going to do.

Amy Connell: Oh, for sure. And just anecdotally, I have a college age son who's been really into it. So he's, you know, a 20 year old male and the fitness, all of that kind of stuff. He brings it home from college over the Christmas break. And so he convinces all of us, apparently we're all stupid that, okay, this is what we need to do.

And so I did it a handful of times and he gets out and he's all like broed up with it. Right. And, and yeah, and. And it was like, I didn't get that. And then I also found that I was really tired several hours later. And so I just thought, I don't, I'm not really seeing it. I think it did help with inflammation some, which the science, I mean, to me, I can get behind that, but anyway, that's a kind of a different side story, but it's very interesting to hear you say that because I feel like I have kind of walked through that as well.

Like his, the experience of my 20 year old and my 18 year old male son is. Vastly different than what I am noticing just from how I feel. I talk a lot about how I feel and function. I didn't really feel and function great after doing that. 

Kristin Mallon: Yeah, or better or enhanced. And then, you know, when you read the study and you don't kind of read the fine lines that the group of women in the study didn't really have the effects, then, you know, it's kind of like a side note. Also because the majority of the subjects were men.

Amy Connell: right, right. Okay. So I'm real curious. You said that this was one to help women disseminate with all of the facts of the reasons that you started Fem Jeopardy. What are the other two? I

Kristin Mallon: was to be the co pilot. The second one was to marry this, what we kind of talked about a little bit in the beginning, was marry the concept of wellness and medicine. That is, that is something that. You know, at the time that we started, I think it's starting to happen a little bit more now, but at the time we started was like kind of a foreign idea.

And people were like, you're crazy. I mean, even a friend of mine went to her orthopedist. Her daughter broke her, broke her wrist snowboarding. She went to the orthopedist, got the cast off and was the orthopedist was like, good, you're good to go. Like no, no issues here. And she was like, well, what about diet?

Like, how could, what could I do to strengthen her bones? Like, should I be giving her magnesium or vitamin D or vitamin or any of the other bone calcium? And the orthopedist was like, I don't know. Look it up online. So that to me is like an example of the old ways where doctors are very siloed. They're like, I'm an orthopedist.

I do bones. I'm an endocrinologist. I do thyroid. I do diabetes. And so the bridging of wellness and medicine is, is another thing. And the last thing, which is exactly what you said about not having a roadmap. So for, for menopause and longevity, it's very, very, very confusing for women. You're going to have one doctor telling you to get a Dutch test or to get a urine metabolites test.

Another doctor telling you that saliva is fine. Another doctor telling you, you need blood draws. Another doctor telling you that You need hormones done at certain times in your cycle. Another doctor telling you, you don't need hormones done at certain times in your cycle. Someone telling you, you don't need hormones done at all.

You can just start taking bioidenticals, you can start taking hormones without blood work. So we started Femgevity because we were like, okay, we need to set guidelines. So not that we're going to like be dictators and be like, this is how it works, but we need to set guidelines, like how we have them in cardiovascular health.

If your blood pressure is over 140 over 90, well, now it's 120 over 80. But back in the day, it was like, if your blood pressure is over 140 over 90, then that's considered stage one hypertension. And we need to start taking these steps to intervene. If your cholesterol level is at a certain level, we need to consider a statin.

So not like set in stone, like you have to do this, but guidelines. So we can be like, okay, what is, we don't even know the answer of. What is the right testing to do to tell a woman is she in menopause? Is she in perimenopause? Is she post menopause? What are the right hormone levels that we should be looking for if we're treating with hormones if we're treating with bioidenticals? So that's another one of the large reasons these are like big audacious goals that we're trying to solve But that was why we wanted to start femgevity because we wanted to be like, okay Everybody's baking the chicken pie differently So let's just at least get a basic recipe that we can then kind of work off from and tweak and adjust and make changes in, okay, this is version one, this is version two, this is version three where most other areas of medicine have.

Amy Connell: really resonate with the pain point that you just mentioned of you. We have so many different people saying we need to do something and it's gets very confusing. It's highly confusing. And one of the things that we try and do here is just make things simple. But. So one thing I'm trying to understand, all of these different tests, all of these different things, is that where you're coming in and determining what a patient's what the roadmap is for them of like, okay, yes, you need to get the Dutch testing, but we're not automatically going to put you on bioidentical because.

We're looking at these A, B, and C metrics, and so, therefore, we feel like this is the first course of action to assess. Am I hearing you right with that?

Kristin Mallon: Yeah, I mean, I think it's, it's also that There's, there's just no there's no kind of like agreed upon consensus. So there's not even really menopause specialist doctors. I think that that's something in the future that we will start to see. I believe that menopause is going to become a subspecialty the same way that breast health became a subspecialty.

And I hope, I hope that that's the, the, the path that medicine is taking. 

Amy Connell: Well,

I'm sorry to interrupt. I'm just curious though, so I know that you can go to menopause. org and find some specialist. Is that not what you're talking about?

Kristin Mallon: So menopause. org which is, it used to be NAMS, the North American Menopause Society, now it is called the Menopause Society really just has a test that any doctor can take. And it's really just, the test is really just focused on understanding the pharmacologics that are available, like the FDA approved medications that are available for menopause.

And if you pass that test, then you get to say you're a NAM certified provider. To me, that's just like, you know, the, the most basic, basic understanding. Pharmacologics are one tool of many you know, 10, 15 different things that we can do to treat menopause. And I, and I think that it's, it's great that we have that.

And it's great that We're moving in the direction to kind of understand that menopause needs a subspecialty, but I think it's very far away from where we need to go. A lot of times women that come to us have already gone to a NAMS. Certified professional and they're still feeling like they want a little bit more information or a little bit more guidance I think it just kind of comes to getting everybody on the same page, like even physicians, not just naturopaths and nutritionists and chiropractors were all over the place on. On what, what type of testing should be done, how should it be done, what does it say, what does it mean, and how do you use the information to then treat someone. And at Femgevity, we're looking to kind of streamline that a little bit and kind of make it more clear and say, okay, this is the gold standard of laboratory information that we need to treat you effectively. 

Amy Connell: Got it. Okay. That makes, that makes more sense. Thank you. Sorry to interrupt. I 

Kristin Mallon: No, no, no, that's, yeah. 

Amy Connell: okay. So one of the things that you're clearly very focused on is longevity in women and having the quality of life stronger than maybe the, even the quantity. I mean, and I'm with you, I'd rather live vibrantly until 90 and then drop dead then

Kristin Mallon: Yeah. That's the goal. The goal is to die quickly. Live long and die quickly. Yes.

Amy Connell: Yeah. I mean, I don't know that that anyway, I think that that would is ideal for everyone, but you know, rather than string it out for an additional 10 years and constantly having things. So if you're focused on longevity and improving the quality of life, cause I have women I mean, I have plenty of women in my community here in their sixties, seventies.

What are the kinds of things that we can do. to improve that quality of life and, and the longevity part of it.

Kristin Mallon: So there's there is a pretty famous doctor that I think is highly revered and very well respected and I am a hundred percent on board with, I'm a super fan girl of his, which is Dr. Peter Atiyah. And he's kind of like the longevity guru of, I think, you know, of our, of

our era. Yeah, he identifies, he identifies risk factors in the four horsemen, and I think that's a really great way to break it down, and so he says that most people will have one to two of the four horsemen of disease, so those four horsemen are cardiovascular disease, which is the number one killer of women cancer Metabolic disease, which includes liver disease, kidney disease, diabetes, and then cognitive and Alzheimer's cognitive decline. And so what he does is he recommends, and this is what we've done and we've adopted at Femgevity, is taking a really comprehensive health history and then getting laboratory data and laboratory information. And a lot of times, if someone's over 60. That would include things like a colonoscopy and a Z score and maybe even genetic cancer screening.

You know, everybody kind of feels differently about the types of tests that they want to do, but getting the best assessment of those four horsemen of disease and then planning for mitigation risks based on the one or two that women screen positive for, you know, some women actually only have one.

They'll have like pretty significant, you'll go back into their health history and they have pretty significant cardiovascular history on both sides. And they have no Alzheimer's or dementia other than vascular dementia, and they have no cancer and they have no metabolic disease. Okay, then you're like, okay, great.

We're just going to focus on this one horseman. We're just going to focus on cardiovascular disease. How can we manage your lipids? How can we get your APOB levels down, your LP little A? How can we make sure that we're targeting exercise and diet, lifestyle and pharmacologics best for this person? And then sometimes. women will have three, you know, they might have diabetes, they might have cardiovascular disease and cancer. And then now you're managing three horsemen to help them mitigate their risk. So that's a lot of what we do. Is that in a nutshell?

Amy Connell: what I'm hearing you say is you're really looking at these four different areas and determining where you need to focus because we can't just get, I mean, I guess you can, but really zoning in on the areas that your body potentially may need the most assistance and most attention in terms of lifestyle.

movement, food, all of that kind of stuff rather than just doing a blanket approach.

Kristin Mallon: Exactly, yeah, and I think, I love it when people are like, the longevity diet, and I'm like, oh, like, it's so much more personalized and tailored than that, and I think it's, a perfect example would be like, I'm sure you know people like this, who are like, super healthy, and they run marathons, and they have this amazing diet and lifestyle, but they're a cardiovascular risk is still high.

Their lipids are high. Their LDL is still high. And you know, they're, you, it, they're kind of struggling as to why. And then similarly, you can have someone who can eat anything they want. They have a horrible diet. They eat sugar constantly all the time, and they have no risk of diabetes because that's just not what genetically and from their family history has made any sense.

Made them to be a horseman or a risk factor for them. And so that's why we really get down to this very tailored, customized approach and look at everybody on a very individualistic basis and then help them treat for them. The other thing is, is sometimes something like with metabolic disease, metabolic disease can be reversed.

It can be completely reversed. So sometimes we'll work with someone, we'll completely reverse metabolic disease. And now we're like, OK, I want to focus on bone health or I want to focus on my cognitive health or my mental health. So. It's this constantly shifting and evolving kind of organism that longevity medicine is.

It's, it's very highly customized. 

Amy Connell: You talk about bone health. I'm wondering if you might be able to offer, I don't know, one to three, just like overall guidances on optimizing and to really strengthen, strengthening your bones after menopause is really hard, but to prevent the decline of it 

Kristin Mallon: Yeah. So I think like three things that people probably don't know. One is that magnesium is absolutely essential for bone health. So 60 percent of the magnesium in our body is stored in our bones. And when we don't have adequate magnesium, it's going to strip that magnesium from our bones, making our bones more brittle. So it's not just calcium. I think a lot of women do a great job of taking calcium. And there was a pretty good campaign in the nineties that I think stuck with us, like from a cultural perspective that we all know that calcium is really important. But I would argue that magnesium is even more important and should be taken on a two to a one to one ratio with calcium.

That's how important it is. So if you're taking 500 milligrams of calcium, you should take 500 milligrams of magnesium a day. If you're taking for most people now, that's not true for everybody because some people are sensitive to magnesium. You know, you're taking too much magnesium if you have loose stools or bloating or gas Also, there's a million different types of magnesium. 

Amy Connell: that was going to be my 

Kristin Mallon: oxide, malate, the best type of magnesium to take for bone health usually tends to be a malate, magnesium malate, or a magnesium glyconate. This is absorbed very well. Magnesium, that's very helpful for cognitive decline, and there's been actually a few studies done on this, is something called magnesium threonate. And that is, I think, one of the most important magnesiums to take in general, but we're talking about bone health. So taking magnesium, which is going to help to increase vitamin D. So this is a lot of things that happens with women who are like, I'm taking a supplement, I'm taking 10, 000 units a week, and my vitamin D level barely budgets. If you add magnesium in, you can sometimes go down. in supplemental vitamin D and the vitamin D level will actually go up. So that's the first thing. The second thing is, is that as every decade, the weights need to go up. And so I think the weights that we do starting in our forties, you can kind of get away as a woman being in your twenties or thirties and not really having weights or doing weightlifting because your testosterone levels high enough and your hormone levels are going to make it really easy that if you just do a regular workout, you're going to build muscle. You're going to start to lose muscle around your 40s and that's when the weights need to come on. And usually every decade you need to go up in weights by like five to eight pounds. So that can be like overwhelming for a lot of women who maybe don't lift weights at all. And so then if they're in their 60s, I would say just start with like two to three pound weights. And try to work up to 5 to 8, 8, to 12. And it's possible, it's totally possible, because this is one of the things that the microlearning and Instagram and TikTok are great for, is that you see all the time. There's so many transformations where women are in their 60s, they start lifting weights, and they have a full body transformation.

Like, it's amazing. And especially if you start to like a few of those, you'll get a whole bunch of them to kind of give motivation. And the third thing I would say, and this is going to seem also kind of strange, is sleep. So tracking sleep I

Amy Connell: Oh, sister, that is not strange. I'm so glad you said that. 

Kristin Mallon: Yeah. Yeah, so tracking sleep is super helpful because Sleep. If sleep isn't going adequately well, then that's going to affect hormones and that's going to affect neurotransmitters, which is then ultimately going to affect bone health longterm. You know, including gut absorption and everything, sleep is one of the most important things. So I would say magnesium, lifting weights and sleep. 

Amy Connell: Okay. Yes, I agree with all of that. And as a personal trainer, one of the things that makes me cringe just a little bit is when you hear, Oh, you know, as you're getting older, you should just do lighter weight. And I'm like, no, do you get lift heavy things, 

Kristin Mallon: Yeah. Yeah, 

Amy Connell: don't hurt yourself and get someone in your corner if you need some help with that.

But it's, It's so important and yeah, it is wonderful for bone health. And I agree. I think sleep is just the foundation to everything that we do it. And I'm so glad that we now get to focus on that because that means I can be in my pajamas at nine o'clock, go to bed.

Kristin Mallon: Yeah, and a lot of women will say, too, that are in their 60s, this, this happens to us, you know, they'll say, well, my joints hurt, or, you know, I don't, my wrists, I don't have strength, so I can't lift or I can't. And it's especially if they work with someone like yourself, or this is what I think people like you excel in is like the modifications and the ability to still work with your joints.

muscle strength, muscle groups, even when the joints are sore. Or when there's pain in the joints. The other thing that I would like to say is just a little plug for what we do is that there are a lot of things to do naturally and from a bioidentical and hormone supplement, area, arena, that can actually help to increase the body's natural testosterone.

Women have three times more testosterone than estrogen, and testosterone can be wonderful to increase testosterone either naturally or supplementally to help bone health, especially in the for women in their 60s and especially for women who are concerned about taking estrogen. There's a huge, you know, I, I would love to talk about why we are, we're afraid of estrogen, but there's a huge stigma behind estrogen and testosterone can be a way that women can get a lot of things. their bone strength and their muscle strength back and also mitigate joint pain.

Amy Connell: Thank you for that. I want to pivot just a little bit because I feel like with your education and experience, you are a good person to walk us through this next question. So this is. A little different than the longevity, except that it does play a part in the quality of our life.

And that is menopause, kryptonite of everything. Like you said causes a lot of changes in sexual function. And I know that that can change intimacy. It can change sexual health. And so I'm wondering if you, Can number one, just offer us some high level of like, what, what is normal and what is, what should we be concerned about?

And then secondly, like what can we do? What can be done about that?

Kristin Mallon: Yeah. So there's so many things. So as many tools as there are for menopause, there's just as many tools for sexual health. And I'm so glad that you brought that up and you gave me the opportunity to speak on it because I think women kind of just. suck it up and they just kind of accept the changes and they just kind of chalk it up to aging.

And it absolutely doesn't have to be that way, especially because, and you know, not everybody has kids, but a lot of times women that have kids, their kids are leaving the house right at the time that these changes are starting to take place. Their libido is going down, they're having vaginal dryness, they're having decreased motivation, and And that could be a time where there's a sexual rebirth.

There's a sexual rejuvenation. There's more connection with their partner and they have a little bit more of a resurgence in that area of their life. And the, as far as what's normal, really. anything's normal. So sometimes women will lose libido, they'll lose sexual function, they'll have pain, which is called dyspareunia, they'll have decreased orgasms, they'll have the inability to orgasm, they'll have less sensation in the vaginal or clitoral area.

These can all happen at any age, but they do tend to start happening in the perimenopausal period, which is the forties and fifties. Most often, some women don't experience any change and that's also normal and some women experience changes in their thirties and that's normal too. And there's just so many resources and I'd love to give a little plug to one of the doctors that I know really well, her name is Dr. Lindsay Harper, and she started a company called Rosie, and I think the website is meetrosie. com, and it is just a fantastic resource for this exact issue. There are chat forms. There are about different types of sexual exploration.

There are areas in the site that are also culturally appropriate. Like I work with a very large Orthodox Jewish population. There was a whole section of the website made for Orthodox Jewish women. For Christian women, for Muslim women to kind of give them a safe place to go and talk and explore with members of their own community. There's so much that can be done. So there's a lot that can be done from a psychological perspective. There's a lot that can be done from a medical perspective. There's a lot that can be done with moisturizers, creams, bioidenticals conversations. And I just want to like really encourage anyone who's experiencing changes in that department. Everything that I said in the beginning to, to seek out a medical professional or someone like myself who will be able to help and guide you through that. And I even get questions like sometimes women are like, you know, I haven't enjoyed sex for 10 years, 5 years. Yes, it is possible to enjoy it again.

Yes, it is possible to regain a lot of the, uh, enhancement and joy from a healthy sex life, really at any age. So

Amy Connell: Okay. That's really good to know. Thank you for that. I so wish I could. Keep pulling that thread because I think it is under discussed particularly in the Christian community So I love that you're that the meet Rosie that you talked about Has these little spaces for people who are you know, like minded and whatever that is.

So that's that's awesome okay. I feel like I need to wrap it up with you because Not that anyone listening knows but you and I got started late and I need to honor my cutoff time with you So I'm gonna I'm gonna keep going into the questions that I ask all my guests The first one is I love learning about tattoos I have found that when people decide to put something on their body for the rest of their life They often have a meaning behind it So I was wondering if you have one if you would mind sharing What it is in the meaning behind it and if you don't but you had to get one What would it be and where would it go? 

Kristin Mallon: I don't have a tattoo mainly because I probably have commitment issues and I wouldn't be able to commit to, something on my body permanently. And I, I kind of am like in awe of people that do that and can do that. And I think tattoos are very beautiful. I've thought about like two tattoos that I have thought about.

One is a star. I saw someone that had a star, like right on their forearm and it just looked really cool. Like I, I thought it was cool, but I don't, I wouldn't have a meaning behind it. I wouldn't know anything about what to say. The other thing is, is I have like. Have any sisters and so I have a best friend who is like a sister to me and like really, really just like maybe even more than a sister, like just such a deep soul friend. And we've talked about getting an infinity tattoos, like on our inner wrists together, but I still can't pull the trigger because I'm I'm probably a commitment phobe.

Amy Connell: But not commit, not, you're not, not committed to her. You're just, it's just to the tattoo.

Kristin Mallon: Yeah, exactly. Like, I just I, I like, I'm like, well, what if I change my mind or what if I don't like it?

Amy Connell: Sure. Okay. 

Kristin Mallon: And I've been

happily married for, you know, 20 years, but I and I'm very happy to be in that committed relationship, but I think the permanence on the, on the body, I don't know what it is about that.

Amy Connell: Oh, that's fair. I don't have one either. So I just like to learn about them. And probably for the same reason. I'm like, I don't know that I want to put that on my body for the rest of my life. Okay. Do you have a meaningful Bible verse that you would like to share?

Kristin Mallon: I love John 10, 10, which is, I came that you would have life more abundantly. That's probably one of my favorite verses. I know it's like a super popular verse, but I do really love the Psalms. And I just think they're so beautiful, and I've memorized many psalms, and the way that I did it is, I don't know if you've heard about this group called Poor Bishop Hooper,

Amy Connell: No.

Kristin Mallon: about them?

Yeah, so Poor Bishop Hooper turned every single psalm into a song, like an actual song, and it's called the Psalm Project, and it makes it really easy to learn. Psalms. And so some of the psalms that I really like is Psalm 16, Psalm 119, Psalm 118, and Psalm 66. And so they're songs that they've turned into, like are really cool, beautiful songs that make it really easy to learn.

So 

Amy Connell: to check that out. 

Kristin Mallon: Yes, I would really encourage anyone to check it out. And know, some of the, some of the Psalms that they've made into songs, like Psalm two or Psalm nine are kind of you know, more about, I think not as like catchy and some of those other Psalms, like they just really, really are beautiful. And so sometimes when I'm like, in life, like the lyrics will just pop into my mind.

And I think that's how the Psalms were kind of meant to be experienced. And so it's cool to, you know, hear what they've done.

Amy Connell: Totally. Oh, that's super cool. Yeah. And of course I would expect that not all of them are going to be catchy. I mean, some of them are, you know, you have your songs of lament, right? Like that's, that can be hard. That can be hard for that. Ooh, I'll have to check that out. Thank you for. Thank you for sharing that.

Okay. Femgevity sounds awesome. And it sounds like it is a wonderful resource for people to go to if they're confused and they're overwhelmed and they need some personalized. Attention. So tell people where they can connect with you and with femgevity.

Kristin Mallon: Yeah. So we have our website, which is femgevityhealth. com. And we have all of our handles on social media at femgevity, which include TikTok, Instagram Twitter, Facebook. We also have an Instagram live that we do most Monday nights at 9 p. m. Eastern, and we answer questions. And we're really here because even though menopause is technically the kryptonite or can be the kryptonite of menopause, we really believe that menopause can actually be the opportunity or the catapult into longevity can be an upgrade. And so we're here to kind of help guide you through with medical professionals to like understand and go through all of the TMI that I think is going on that we're exposed to on a, on a daily basis.

Amy Connell: What a positive and encouraging way to think about this time. I love that.

Kristin Mallon: Thanks.

Amy Connell: Okay. I'm going to let you have the final word. What is the one simple thing that you would like us to remember big or small?

Kristin Mallon: So I always say that we should follow our highest excitement to the best of our ability and it usually doesn't end up letting us down.

Amy Connell: That's great. Okay. That is all for today. Go out there and have a graced day.