← Biohack-it
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- [00:00]
A
You know, when you meet those people and you have this instant connection and you have this itch to be like, I need to sit down and talk to you more, because you're such a wealth of knowledge, you're so deep. Suzanne is a clinical nutritionist and a holistic coach.
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B
When we think of hormones, we only think of the reproductive ones. But we have to look at cortisol. We have cortisol receptors in every cell in our body, and it's taking away from the production of reproductive hormones. That's why sometimes women cannot get pregnant. Beautifully fit ladies, they're dropping off their kids to school, jumping into an exercise class, doing all of that while having a chia pudding, you know, doing all these kind of things. And by 3 o', clock, they're crashing. They're crashing. Biohacks are amazing. But first, the foundation protein is a foundational act for midlife women and for every woman, actually. And man.
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A
Zen, my dear friend, welcome to the show.
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B
Thank you. I'm so happy to be here.
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A
You know what? I met you, I think it was back in October when I was here, and we just connected over lunch. And you are such a wealth of knowledge. You're so warm. You just ooze this, like, all this incredible research and knowledge and are so grounded. And I was like, I have to bring you into the show. I have to get my community to meet you.
- [01:30]
B
Thank you. I mean, you're super inspirational. Thank you. And it's true. We connected immediately. We did one of those heart connections, you know, an immediate know her. It's a knowing, you know, and it felt so good.
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A
You know, what I love also is, like, we brought on cause, you know, my show is primarily based in North America, and I'm so proud of the part of the world that I'm from. I'm so proud of our women, our cultures, what makes us us. And it's taking more voices like yours, nutritionists who are practicing here, seeing trends, helping, have been trained differently and taking our voices to the North American community.
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B
It's actually incredible. The advancement that's taken place in this part of the world and the United Arab Emirates in specific. They are just trailblazing and they're leading the way. I was just talking to Professor Youssef at nyu, and he's doing incredible work with genomics and the research that they're coming up with is. Is just cutting edge. So, yes, we're really blessed.
- [02:32]
A
You talk a lot about. So our community knows about this goldfish analogy. And you say how, you know, the water tends to get so murky before we put up our hand and say, there's a problem over here. And you talk about how we can be the architects and decide how we navigate those waters so they never get to that point.
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B
Yeah, exactly. Because the. I love giving that analogy because it's. It's incredible. If we think of ourselves as this beautiful goldfish swimming in this lovely goldfish bowl and having the time of our lives. And then, as with time, this water begins to get murky and dirty, and we have two ways of tackling it. Conventional medicine would have us maybe drop in some medication so this goldfish can. Can start living well again. And then we have the other option, change the water. And of course, every time I say that in any of my talks, everyone's like, we'll change the water. And then I go, now you are the goldfish. So if you are the goldfish, the water that you are swimming in, what is that like? Because that's what's dictating how you're feeling today. And a lot of the times we're only judging ourselves by illnesses. So once we're sick, then we're like, oh, my God. And I'm running to the doctor and getting the medication, generally speaking. And again, this is not to diss doctors. We love doctors. They're incredible human beings. They've done this amazing work. They've gone to school, and they have the intention to help people, but it's the system itself that's rigged almost against them because they're not really teaching prevention. And that's what I teach and people like me, it's. Prevention is how can we not get to that murky waters? And then we look at the water and what is making your water murky? What is it? Are they the toxins that are in your. Maybe personal care products? Maybe it's your gut health. Maybe it's the fast food or highly processed foods that you're eating. Maybe it's the movement that you're not doing or the excessive movement. Maybe it's undereating, maybe it's overeating. It's a plethora of things that can be creating this water, and you can change it. That's the beauty of it. The message is always one of empowerment, that you get to affect that. You get to alter the state of your health. You're not a prisoner to that. More often than not.
- [04:51]
A
You know, something you just said right now is how people are turning to professionals like you to be preventative to health diseases. But that's because especially in The US It's a sick care system, it's not a health care system. And I think we need to stop looking at functional medicine and alternative medicine, holistic medicine, as alternatives. This is modern medicine. If you want to age well, if you want to prevent, this is the way to go. Because traditional medicine hasn't been working. And, you know, back in 2008, there was this study that was done that the third leading cause of death amongst people, like, think about it, higher than a car crash, is medical malpractice. That was done in 2008, we're now in 2026. So if that was flagged back then, and that has only continued to rise and rise and rise and rise, where are we today? Y And that's where the healthcare system really needs to look at providers like yourself, practitioners, and being like, actually, I think this is the right way to do things, because clearly we haven't succeeded in all of these other people who have died and lost their lives to being misdiagnosed practitioners, not spending enough time with them. You go to a traditional doctor's office, a GPZ, a general practitioner, they have 10 minutes talk to you. These are your signs and symptoms. Take this medication. Bye. See you. On to the next. How can you, in 10 minutes of meeting an individual, diagnose what is really wrong with them without any intake?
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B
Yeah, they cannot. They can. Absolutely not. And. And the system was designed to treat symptoms, and symptoms are actually beautiful messages from our bodies to us in order for us to pay attention to what is happening inside. And yet what are we doing? We're quieting, turning off those symptoms, those messages. So now we don't know what's going on. And the person just lives their life taking, popping pills, you know, every decade. And then, you know, you hit your 40s, things come crashing down and we're diagnosed with something and we think, oh, my God, it's overnight. It is not overnight. It's never overnight. It's happening quietly, behind the scenes, just little whispers. And you know, something that you said about practitioners that are looking at prevention when we're generally scrutinized because there's not enough scientific data sometimes, and the reality is, between the research and for it to arrive at a practitioner's office, for it to be labeled as ready to use, 17 to 25 years, that's a lot of lost time from research until it arrives at a medical practitioner's office. So it's just too late, it's delayed. And we know, we know that there is, even if there isn't. Enough research to back a certain practice. We know that people feel better. That's enough for me.
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A
That's enough to go forward. An exact example of that would be the study that came out on HRT for women and how it was correlating to breast cancer. Then they put up their hands last year and said, actually, oops, we gave you the wrong information. That was done on synthetic hormones. Bioidentical hormones don't do that for you. That is an example of the amount of women who lost quality of their lives because of a study that was done in a specific way with information that wasn't fully divulged till later. And all of these women around the world are terrified of hormone replacement therapy, not knowing that bioidentical is fine and you should be taking it and you should be put on it. And it's just absurd what we did to women.
- [08:24]
B
Yeah, it is terrible what women have had to endure. And the reality is we are half the population and we haven't been studied enough. And things are changing now. And that's great. But also equally as bad as that study was, it is now a multimillion dollar industry. And we know by 2030 we'll have 1.2 billion women entering the perimenopausal and menopausal stage of life. And that's dollar signs. So now we've got everybody coming up with different remedies, products and whatnot to market to. In terms of hormone replacement, that is, the conversation is completely different. There is. You have to be tested, be tested in the right way, work with a practitioner that is well informed with what needs to be tested and your risk factors. And then if hormone replacement fits for you, then absolutely it works. And then if it doesn't work for you, there's also other ways. It's never a one size fits all, but we do know without a shadow of a doubt that our hormones are protective. It's not just reproductive. Absolutely. You know, people think of them as just like, well, you're done making babies. It's all good. It's not. It's not about that. We know it's cardio protective. We know that we see women in midlife. What happens? The first complaint is belly fat.
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A
Brain fog.
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Brain fog. Because it's actually a neurological transition as well. So we know from the work of Dr. Lisa Moscone, incredible what she's discovered. And yes, it is a reproductive transition, just like puberty is, but also a neurological transition. So we have all this brain fog. And thankfully, it actually regulates eventually, but There's a lot that's going on. And it's protective to our bones, it's protective to our heart.
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It's how we also adapt to stress.
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B
Yes, absolutely.
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A
And how we react to our environment. Because if you look at women in their 20s, why we're so resilient is because our hormones are, you know, we're producing hormones, they're functioning, they're normal. And then all of a sudden, we see this decline in our mid-30s and when we get into our 40s. But life is only getting busier because most women in their 40s either have young kids or teenage kids or what, maybe, but they're not being able to respond to the same stressors in their environment. Actually more stress than they're having because their hormones don't support that. So they have adrenal fatigue, they have brain fog, they're exhausted, their sleep is affected, their skin is affected. They don't feel good. So when you don't feel good in your body, how are you meant to show up? And that is why I think the conversation around hormones is so much more important than, oh, it's just about keeping your libido in play. It's so much bigger than that.
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B
It is so much bigger than that. And also what's really interesting is that if you look at the hormone hierarchy, the base that really moves the needle is insulin and cortisol.
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A
Right. And those get highly effective when your hormone profile dips. So when estrogen and progesterone go down.
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B
Yeah, these are affected. And when these are fluctuating, then our reproductive hormones are also fluctuating. So we have to pay attention because when we think of hormones, we only think of the reproductive ones. But we have to look at cortisol, we have to look at insulin. We have cortisol receptors in every cell in our body. That tells you something that that is because our bodies, that's how we've survived as a species. We have these ancient genetics that are. This is how the human race has survived. So our ancient genetics prioritize our survival, not reproduction. So when we're under any amount of stress, then cortisol is fluctuating and going high. And it's taking away from the production of reproductive hormones because we want to get out of there alive. So digestion stops, reproductive hormones stop. That's why sometimes women cannot get pregnant is because their nervous system is feeling unsafe. And it's all about sending the message of safety to our bodies.
- [12:38]
A
When you're talking about safety and security, if we can go back to we're very intuitive. We have this thing called sixth sense. Women's bodies are always trying to guide them towards. You need a little bit more of this, you need less of this. But us women, constantly in this generation are now constantly in fight or flight. So we're always in sympathetic versus being in parasympathetic. So from what I understand about the sympathetic parasympathetic systems back in the day, talking about ancient, you know, your genetics and how we were built, the cortisol is what's kept us alive. But the cortisol, we would look at the bear, we'd see the bear, we'd run, and then we'd calm down. So we'd go from sympathetic for like an hour, 45 minutes, two hours, to being like parasympathetic the rest of the time. Now the role has flipped that we are in sympathetic, which is in the fight or flight for eight to ten hours a day. And the only time we're falling into parasympathetic is when we go to sleep. So our bodies are so unregulated. And the toxic pool, environmental toxins, you talked about personal care products. All, all of that is adding to that stress. So women cannot actually tap into their innate intuition and regulate their bodies, which is why we need so much additional help.
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B
Yeah. And we are the more sensitive being.
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A
Absolutely.
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B
And so our. Because of the reproductive capability that we have, because it's like we create life. Right. You know, with our partners. But it's. That itself is what creates that sensitivity that we. We're always sensing the environment around us. So the water that we're swimming in, and if it feels unsafe, then that all that part of us is shut down. I lost my train of thought.
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Doesn't matter.
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B
Okay, sorry, carry on.
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A
But we are talking about with the arson. We are meant to be more sensitive because also in a family structure. So I find this fascinating. When you look at Eastern cultures and you look at our part of the world, the Middle east, in Asia, South Asia and beyond, we as women are the guiding forces in the home. That's how we're trained. Right. The man goes out, he works out. But you also have a role and responsibility. You raise the kids, you're his place of comfort. When he comes home, you're there to guide him. You're there to counsel your husband, you're there to nurture them. We're told from a really young age that this is our role and responsibility. But when we're living so far out of design, when we are constantly in fight or Flight when we're exhausted, when we're depleted, we can't fulfill that ecosystem, Create that ecosystem within our homes.
- [14:59]
B
Yeah. It's just that women are just incredible beings. Really, Truly. I mean, I love men, I have a husband, I have sons, but women are incredible and we can do it all. And every woman that, you know, when she puts her mind to something, she gets it done.
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A
Yeah.
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B
No excuses, no excuses. We'll just, we'll do it. We'll figure it out.
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Yeah.
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B
The thing is, and it's okay to not be able to do it all at the same time. It's okay to do it in, in different phases. So you might have a phase where your career is taking off. You might have a phase where you're making babies. You know, you might have a phase where you're just, you actually need to retreat inwards and just take care of yourself. Yourself. Yeah. And your own soil and just kind of nurturing yourself. So I think that's the incredible power of women. But yes, culturally, we, and this is my definition of feminism.
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Right.
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Where we honor the masculine. Absolutely. That is with us and we are able to be in our feminine power. That is feminism.
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I don't want to be a man.
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Be a man. Absolutely not. What are we doing? This is, the whole idea is that I'm a woman and I enjoy my femininity and I enjoy the masculine. That's.
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And what they offer and the protection and the care.
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B
Yes. And when you are the, with the right partner, then you're able to fulfill that role for each other.
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Yeah.
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And, and that's, that's the yin and the yang. You know, it's not one is good and one is bad at all. It is, it is actually truly just a beautiful dance, a beautiful synergy.
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A
And society needs both. And this is where I think sometimes when I look at North America and kind of living there, I was like, I don't know what happened to the women over there, but they, and I use this term that's called like, they've become such ball busting bitches. I'm like, what is wrong with you guys? Like, why are you hating on the male species so much? And then you complain that you're not being taken care of or provided for, appreciated. Well, you've just emasculated all of these men and then you're sitting there going, oh, they're not fulfilling their role. How are they going to fulfill their role? If you're like, I don't need you, you're shit. There's no point of you they're like, what do we do? You know, men nowadays already have low testosterone. We're just adding to that problem. Okay. So I'm like, why are we doing this? I think society functions best even. And I said this yesterday on a podcast. Even when you look at same sex couples, right. In the west, there's a masculine and there's a feminine. In every gay marriage, there's a masculine and there's a feminine. Why is that? Because it is polarity. We need polarity to exist and our hormones are a gift to us and their hormones are a gift to them. And that dance is very much required in to be order to be a full functioning society.
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B
Absolutely. It's the beauty of that, the polarity that it's exactly what you said. Even in same sex marriages.
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It's required.
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It's required.
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A
Yeah. I was also going to ask you, Suzanne, I'm so fascinated because obviously I live in North America and, and what are some of the leading causes of health issues you see here? What is a root cause? That comes up a lot when you're treating patients and clients.
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B
Yeah. The. Funny enough, it's really similar around the world and around the developed modern world. So in the UAE specifically, we have one in four people with high blood pressure. Really? Yeah. One in four adults have high blood pressure.
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And why is that?
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B
That's high.
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Yeah.
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B
One in five. Pre diabetic or diabetic.
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A
Diabetic. I can understand because the diet itself has a lot of sugar.
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B
Yeah. But it's. So these are all the, the underlying thread to all of these is metabolic disorder, blood sugar dysregulation.
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A
Right.
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B
And that affects your blood gluc, your blood pressure as well. And high cholesterol is a problem as well. So this is what we see in the modern developed world. We're again living in, not in congruence with our, our genetic makeup. So we're sitting too much. We're sitting way too much. We're eating way too much throughout the day. We are living in dysregulation with our circadian rhythm. And that's so important. We, we tend to, in this part of the world also eat really late.
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Yeah.
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You know, and that sets, that's one of the main levers of the circadian clock. So it's light, it's viewing light in the morning. And also food timing, meal timing sets our circadian clock for the rest of our body. So we're just, we're doing all these things in sort of opposite of what nature has intended. We're 7% indoors, we spend. No, sorry. We spend 7% of our time outdoors, most of our time indoors. And that's crazy. So under LED lights, it's indoor.
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A
Which are, by the way, terrible for you. No version of LED is good for you.
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B
No version.
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A
And we're sitting here recording this podcast and I'm like, damn it, I'm like sweating with.
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B
But it's, it's true. This is, this is just, it's sending our. We're constantly receiving these inputs. Yes. So it's these inputs that are coming in and then we're wondering, oh, why? What is going on?
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A
Why are we not feeling well?
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B
What happened? You know, and it's just that I feel like one of the most important things that I do is bring the unconscious to the surface. I help people take inventory of their health. So when it comes to all the pillars of health, whether it's nutrition, sleep, movement, stress management, connection with others, and connection with nature, and when people realize where they're going wrong, then you can alter it. So one of my favorite quotes is by Carl Jung. Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate. And it is so powerful. And you can relate that to your well being, your health, your nutrition, the way that you live your life. Because your health is dictated by your daily decisions and actions. Right. That's your health care. It's not. Sure, these programs that you can go on are great. Sure.
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A
Day to day that way.
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B
But it's your day to day. It's not what we do sometimes that affects and alters our home all the time. Yeah. It's what you do day in and day out. And these are usually done in a very unconscious way, very subconscious. Right. It's our habits. It's like you don't think about it. You don't think about how you got to work, you got there. You're like, I don't know how I got here. Right here, driving. And then you didn't even think about it. And that's the same thing. You brush your teeth, you don't think about that. And what we want to do is build health habits, small health habits that you can work on. And then eventually they become your habit. You don't have to think about it. And then we build yet another habit and another habit. And what usually goes wrong is that people decide that they want to be perfect. Right. They want to do it.
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Perfection itself is a very flawed concept.
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It's a flawed concept and it's actually setting you up for failure. And then there's a lot of people that are speaking in this space, and maybe they're selling a product, maybe they're selling a program, maybe they. They mean it well. But it's. It's moving the post further and further away for people, and I hate seeing that. That's my personal mission, is how can I bring that post closer to you,
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closer to you, and make it more
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approachable, make it more achievable. Just do the little stuff. It's okay. Yeah, it's going to take longer. It doesn't matter. But you're going to get there. So it's what you do consistently, repeatedly, that's what's going to move the needle. And I think of it in. I know this is so long, but it's 365 days a year. So if you do well, 300 days of the year, who cares about, you're good and you're still moving forward. And that's what I want. I just want you to put one foot in front of the other every day and just do one thing. Deposit into your health bucket.
- [23:14]
A
You also talked about, just when we're going through all of this, the importance of light. And you talked about the importance of getting in your morning light. So a lot of people that have high cortisol, including yours truly, it's at night that my cortisol starts to spike, which is where that shouldn't be happening. Right. Your cortisol should be highest in the morning and then kind of go down. So what do you recommend for anybody listening, like myself, who's having, like, high cortisol midday, kind of onwards, and how to bring that cortisol down?
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B
Yeah, amazing question. And that is, I want to say, the situation with most people and especially females.
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A
Thank you for making me feel like I'm part of a bigger problem.
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B
You're good. We're all in this together. One of the first things that I'd say is make sure you view sunlight first thing in the morning. Get that hypothalamus to connect with light through your eyes. Don't wear sunglasses. Get that light in. And that sends the signal to your body that, all right, this is the time. This is when setting the circadian clock and then go on sunset walks. I know, it sounds so romantic. It sounds so romantic and very, you know, but it's. There's a science behind it. So viewing that red light at sunset actually signals to your body that, okay, time to calm down. We're approaching darkness. We're going to bring down our cortisol because it's opposing. Cortisol opposes melatonin. Melatonin opposes cortisol. They can't exist at the same time. So then the cortisol begins to drop, melatonin begins to rise. But also, let's not forget women beyond the age of 35, we want to think about anchoring our day with protein. So this is where the protein debate comes in.
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A
Amen.
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B
You know something? It bothers me that it sounds like
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A
a fad, but it's not.
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B
It's not. It's not a fad, but it bothers me because I'm like, protein. Yikes. Atkins. No, no, it's not like that, but it's. It is about. So we have the cortisol awakening response in the morning. Cortisol is at its peak first thing in the morning, and it's supposed to dwindle throughout the day, nice and calmly. Of course, that's the, that's the hope. And. And then melatonin rises with darkness. But of course, what do we do? We flick on lights all day long.
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A
Yeah. And then your body's like, I don't know what time of day it is.
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B
I don't know what time of day it is. Exactly. And so, of course, you can wear your red light blocking, blue light blocking glasses. You can do all these things. They're amazing. Biohacks are amazing. But first, the foundations. The foundations are really, really important before we layer on the. The biohacks. So protein is a foundational act for midlife women and for every woman, actually. And man. But starting your day with protein. Starting the day, anchoring it with protein. Why? Because now we have the elevated cortisol. And I get this a lot. So a lot of my beautifully fit ladies, they're dropping off their kids to school, they're taking care of the family. First thing, they're going to work, jumping into an exercise class, doing all of that while having a chia pudding and then maybe a coffee here and there, and then maybe another little flax cracker with avocado. Doing all these kind of things. And by 3 o', clock, they're crashing. They're crashing. And. And I'm like, did you. You need to eat. But I'm not hungry. I get it. I understand you're not hungry, but you need to eat. It's also training your body. And at this stage of life. You said this earlier, at this stage of life, cortisol is elevated and our body's prioritizing cortisol because it's, it's like, what's going on? Yeah. It's survival. So what we need to do to balance that, we need that protein to anchor our meal with protein and fiber. Don't forget the fiber. Fiber is, it's feeding us the micronutrients and feeding the gut bacteria. That is the food for our gut bacteria.
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A
Absolutely.
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B
So it can help us and our
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gut bacteria fight for us.
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B
Talking to our immune system, it's in constant communication with our immune system. So anchoring our day with protein and just, and light. That's. These are strong levers for a female, healthy female body, healthy female in terms of lowering cortisol.
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A
So do you know, I'm glad that you said that. And so previously, prior to this, like prior to 2025, 2024, I used to just start the day, wake up, have a black coffee, go to workout. And then I was having like my smoothie, I actually reversed it. So as soon as I get up, I wait 30 minutes. I don't have coffee before those 30 minutes. I take some hydrogen water tablets, I take my electrolytes, I take my minerals. Then I have a smoothie before I have my coffee which is, you know, 35 grams of. I like plant based protein because I'm, I'm more kind of like inclined towards that. Yeah. I crack, I put chia seeds and flax seeds in it, organic ground for the, for the fiber. And then I, for additional protein, I put two raw eggs.
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B
And then do that. Yeah.
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A
And then I put in, you know, like depending on what it is, blueberries or whatever it may be, I put some body biop PC and balance oil in there. I just have it and there alone is like close to 40, 45 grams of protein. So then I'm starting my day like that. Now I can tell you for a fact I'm not having these weird midday crashes because my body's right at the top of the day getting properly nourished.
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B
Yes.
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A
It gets all the, at least one baseline component and could pull raw materials from. Cuz your body needs a place to pull the raw materials in order to energize you and fuel you. And then by the time dinner comes, I'm a little less hungry. Otherwise I'd eat my biggest meal at night. I'm like, oh, I shouldn't be doing that, you know. Yeah, so you should.
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B
All you're having that your body begins to ask for because cortisol is so elevated by that time it's asking for an immediate source of energy. And it's a carbohydrate.
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A
Yeah, Sugar.
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B
So anchoring ourselves with protein with fiber like you did it also it feeds your muscles and we know that that's a non negotiable. It's no longer a nice to have. No, no, it's, you know, it's a must. It's a must. We need to protect our muscles. So when you have the, the right amount of protein, 30 to 40 to 50 grams depending on you and your physiology and what your day is demanding of you, then you're setting your day up, right. You're getting that, those amino acids into your muscles, you're protecting your muscles. Because we know muscle degradation happens from 35 and beyond. It's not our metabolism that's dropping, it's our lean mass that's being pared down. Why? Because it's such an expensive organ to keep around. So our body's like so incredibly smart and resilient. It's like, right, let's move to the big. She's not using it.
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A
Yeah, exactly.
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B
So let's go pare it down. So we know that happens 3 to 8% per year.
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A
Yes.
- [30:11]
B
Per decade of life. It's crazy. That's a lot. We need to protect that. And that's our metabolic sink. Right. That's where we deposit when we eat. Everything turns into glucose and then that's where we deposit it. Our body can just suck it up, our muscles soak all of that energy up. And our muscles are endocrine organs. We know that by contracting them, they release these beautiful compounds. They were called hope molecules and they're myokines that actually send messages to our brain, neuroprotective messages to our brain and fight depression. It's the, it's incredible. So it's an incredible piece of machinery. Our body is. And when we look at it that way, I love speaking this way with clients because I just want to give more reasons for you to do the things that I ask you to do. Because we know the information is out there. People know. People know, generally speaking, how they should eat and how they should live. But giving you proper, powerful reasons, then you're more inclined, you connect the dots.
- [31:16]
A
Yeah. I was also going to talk about, we're talking about all of this. How much of good habits, protocols, practices come into play versus something like epigenetics. Because I know you talk a lot about double clicking and how our genetics are like apps on a phone.
- [31:34]
B
Yeah.
- [31:35]
A
So I want to know like putting all these incredible best practices to play, how much of the epigenetics piece is manageable.
- [31:42]
B
Yeah. So genes, our genes are powerful. They are there it's not, we're not here to say that they don't exist and that they don't dictate certain things, but they are like an app on your phone. If you haven't double clicked on it, it won't open. Chances are it won't open. So it's the same with your gene. So you might have a gene to predispose you to elevated cholesterol, but if your lifestyle doesn't double click, if you're eating right, if you're having enough cruciferous vegetables, if you're prioritizing movement, you're prioritizing lean cuts of protein and having the, the right amounts, it's very important to also highlight it's the, the kind of protein that you're eating. If we're talking animal protein. So it's, it's your lifestyle that then double clicks. So with Professor Youssef, we were having this conversation. The. He's in charge of the genome project at the NYU and Abu Dhabi. And he was telling me in, in his mind, our genes are how close we are to the edge. And then what does that mean? Yeah, so, so there's an edge. There's always an edge. How close we are to the edge and our epigenetics, our lifestyle and nutrition is what dictates how close you get to that edge.
- [33:05]
A
And is the edge like the end of life when you decline, when you die?
- [33:08]
B
Well, it's the, the, the tipping point into that diagnosis, let's say, okay, so
- [33:14]
A
into that disease that you might, into
- [33:16]
B
the diseases, whatever your predisposition, whatever you're predisposed to, right? And, and then you see a lot of people, a lot of people live with the, the thought of, well, you know, my grandparents had diabetes or does not mean that. And that's again, the empowering message where you get to alter and affect your health with your diet and lifestyle. It sounds so benign. And environment, and environment, everything that you do affects and alters the way that you live, the way that you feel. You know, it's like eating highly processed foods, eating, you know, whatever bags of chips and all the crazy ingredients that are in them, the food colorings. That stuff affects your mood, right? Like simply, even if it doesn't, forget about your cholesterol, forget about triglycerides, just
- [34:04]
A
your mental health alone.
- [34:05]
B
Your mental health alone. And then we sit there and go, I don't know. I'm feeling down. I don't know what it is.
- [34:11]
A
We do know what it is.
- [34:12]
B
We do know what it is, but we don't link it. We haven't been taught. That's why I think it's also really important. We owe it to the young generation to teach that your body is. Is functioning according to the inputs that you're putting in. So how you feel is dictated by the inputs that you are putting in and whatever scrolling the doom scrolling that. I mean, we're all guilty of this is. This device that we have is incredible in many ways and in many ways
- [34:38]
A
causing a lot of health issues along the way.
- [34:41]
B
Yeah. So it's just again, bringing our ancient genetics closer to. To nature, to way that nature has intended for us to live.
- [34:52]
A
I also think about, and I'm just fascinated by genetics and things like trauma and how trauma stays in your body and shows up at disease. And by the time it's actually shown up as disease, it's your body has been screaming for so long. And knowing that when we go through something really traumatic and you see our parts of the world have had severe wars and famines and things like that, that. That gets imprinted into our genes. How can we do more work to un program some of that stuff that happens that you carry from your great grandmother to your grandmother to your mom and down and down and pass it down and it shows up in your body as autoimmunity or some other thing, some condition or the other. And we're not taught enough to address that. We're not taught when you go to a practitioner's office to be like, let me take your family history and let's say you're suffering from something like anxiety. Right. Is it yours or is it something
- [35:48]
B
that you inherited or is it generational? Absolutely. And in our part of the world, I have to say that we're, we're taught to get on with it. Oh yeah, there's no time for that. Get on with that. What are you even talking about?
- [35:59]
A
You know, if I went to my mom and said, oh, I have anxiety. She's like, you see this shoe?
- [36:02]
B
Yes.
- [36:02]
A
I'm gonna take off this shoe and give it to you on your face.
- [36:05]
B
Okay. That's anxiety.
- [36:06]
A
Yeah. She's like, you want to be.
- [36:08]
B
You want anxiety? I'm gonna give it.
- [36:09]
A
Yeah, yeah. She's like, like, I'll show you what anxiety looks like.
- [36:13]
B
That's the reality. But it is so true. We are carrying generational. We know that we are born with what our grandmother was carrying. Yes. You know, and it's incredible. It's incredible. And all of these are very subconscious.
- [36:29]
A
Yeah.
- [36:29]
B
So we also need to tackle them in a Very subconscious way. So you can't go, all right, deal with your trauma and go. You can't. So you have to.
- [36:39]
A
What's the word again?
- [36:39]
B
Compartmentalize.
- [36:40]
A
Compartmentalized. There we go.
- [36:41]
B
And also think of it in the nervous system state. So we have the sympathetic, we have the parasympathetic, and we need to do this fine dance between the two. And we have to activate things like the vagus nerve. Yes. That is that highway from the gut to the brain. And we used to think it's always a top down messaging, you know, down, up. And we know that there's so much of the messaging going from our organs up to our brain, telling us, giving the signals of, all right, this is what's going on here. So in order to activate that, we need to, to get into the subconscious. So that's where all the gratitude practices. That's where the deep breathing and the different modalities and somatic activities, that's where we need to tap into that. And that is growing now. That is. We're seeing awareness coming. Yes, we're seeing that. This, this is being talked about more. The. It's no longer taboo to talk about your feelings, to talk about your traumas, Whether they're small traumas, big traumas. It's. It's all accepted and it's welcomed. It's welcomed and there are ways to tackle it. Yeah.
- [37:51]
A
I also think there's a time and a place for everything.
- [37:53]
B
That's true.
- [37:53]
A
You know, and what we see in North America is everybody just wants to bring all their feelings to everything. I'm like, guys, there's a time and place for everything. There's time and place. And what we were just talking before we started filming is that everyone's like, oh, but I'm stressed, I'm stressed, I'm stressed. But like we just said, stress, you can see it. It's like pressure. And pressure is a privilege because what does pressure do? It allows us to grow and expand and respond to things in a way that we can also improve, get better at things, get stronger at things, have achievements, have accomplishments. If we don't have any stress or pressure, then how the hell are we even growing?
- [38:32]
B
What a boring life. That's. That's exactly it. When we're talking about NER nervous system so sympathetic and parasympathetic. If you're constantly in a rest and digest state, you will get nothing done.
- [38:43]
A
Right.
- [38:44]
B
So we need that elevation of cortisol. We need that, you know, like, let's go. Pupils dilated.
- [38:49]
A
Yeah, let's get done rushing.
- [38:51]
B
Let's get done. And. And also, what a privilege. And that's the same way I feel about aging. You know, it's all the anti aging. We don't want to anti age.
- [39:01]
A
We want to age gracefully.
- [39:02]
B
We want to age gracefully. We want to age success and painless. Yeah, we disease. Yes. We want to live well. We want to extend healthspan. I love the people that are, like, trying to live to 150 and beyond.
- [39:14]
A
Great.
- [39:15]
B
You guys, go for it. We need these guys. They're pushing the envelope. They're showing us all these different ways and pushing science along. But what we want and the realistic want is just to live healthy while we're alive. I don't want to. I don't want to be a burden on my family. I want to be able to walk. And I love the feeling when I'm training, when I'm working out and weightlifting and resistance training, when I go on a plane and I pick up my carry on and put it overhead, and these guys are like, can I help you? And I'm like, I got this. It's such a nice feeling. It's a great feeling. That's what we're training for. That's what we're trying to be strong for. So I think it's a privilege, and it's a reframe, like you said, stress and. And having that, you know, I gotta get things done. It's such a privilege.
- [40:08]
A
Right. I was also thinking, when we think about me, I lost my train of thought now. Damn it. Thinking. When you think about. Wait, you were saying something, and I was like, I have to ask Suzanne this. I hope we're gonna edit this out. Why?
- [40:23]
B
Yeah, but we'll keep them for ourselves.
- [40:26]
A
Yeah, exactly. Wait, you said something, and I was
- [40:28]
B
going to pick up on what you were saying The.
- [40:31]
A
It was about picking up.
- [40:32]
B
Okay.
- [40:33]
A
I want to ask you. So we just talked about. You were just saying how these, like, men who are trying to live till 100, 150, 200 years, you know, we need those kind of people around us to push the science, push the envelope. How long do you want to live?
- [40:50]
B
I don't have a number associated with that, but I'm not one of those people that's like, yeah, you know, get me out of here. Right. I like my life and I like living. And I. I want to see, I think, the anchor, you know, we do. We do incredible things for other people. So my anchor, my biggest anchor is my kids and. And my husband. And I want to see Their kids. Yeah. So I think that's. That's like a beautiful vision in my horizon, but I feel like I have work to do here still. You know, I want to show people. I want to bring health closer to people. I want to be the architect of, of bringing that know how of health to your community. To my community. And, and I have work to do, you know, so I. I feel the sense of purpose is beautiful. Yeah. But I don't have a number.
- [41:48]
A
Yeah. You know, I feel. Suzanne, I kind of feel the same way. I'm not anchored to any number. I want a life that's obviously disease free, like you said earlier. I don't want to be a burden to anybody, but I want to live in community, and I want to love and be loved in return. And I. It's funny enough, you know, I'm a woman who's in my 40s now, and I think the best chapters of my life have not even been written yet.
- [42:10]
B
I feel like this is yet to come.
- [42:12]
A
I really feel this. And I don't think this is like, I think your 20s, you're trying to figure yourself out. Your 30s, you start getting some really hard life lessons. Like now, let's put, you know, put like, you know, the tire meets the road sort of a thing. And you have to figure out what are your value systems? What do you really stand for? What am I really gonna get behind? What am I gonna say no to?
- [42:30]
B
Yeah.
- [42:30]
A
And then your 40s are this beautiful chapter. If, if you take care of yourself and you look after your health and all that stuff, it's just the beginning of a brand new book or the continuation. And because you're so grounded in yourself, you know, yourself practices, you've gotten to know your body a little bit more. And that's what I'm saying. With the property support, with practitioners like yourself, the proper guidance to be like, get in the natural light. The founding, your health is. You know, you have stool, the foundations of a stool, right. So you have nutrition, you have proper hydration, you have diet and exercise. And when you fix those pillars and sleep, and when you fix those core pillars, you know, all the legs of the stool start working and you're grounded within yourself. And you are on a mission and you have a really clear purpose. I think that's when the best chapters get written.
- [43:18]
B
It does. Truly, truly does. And I know in a woman's life, we do get on that roller coaster.
- [43:25]
A
Yes, we do.
- [43:26]
B
And that roller coaster is not a gradual decline in our hormones. It's like a crazy Ride. But with that, we have this unveiling almost of you come into your power. You come into knowing who you are and what is important for you, and then you come out on the other side just kind of more anchored, stronger, and ready to go. All right, let's go. Ready for the next chapter.
- [43:54]
A
And our hormones are such a gift and such a sign of protection to us if we slow down and pay attention. So I'm going to share a little bit of a personal story. So for the past couple of years, you know, I would sit down to meditate in the morning, and my body, literally, Suzanne was sending me alarm bells to be like, the relationship that I was in was not right for me. And I would be sitting down in the 5, 10 minutes that slowed down a day. I would literally get the surge through my body. It's like, you need to get out.
- [44:22]
B
You need to get out.
- [44:22]
A
You need to get out. Like, this sound was getting louder and louder and louder. And then my health started getting affected. I started becoming really chronically inflamed. One of the doctors was like, you're going into perimenopause is like, how can I be going to perimenopause? I take such good care of myself. They're like, you're in chronic stress. You're inflamed on a cellular level because you are in fight or flight. And it was because I was in a dynamic that wasn't serving me, and my body was like, you're not listening. You're not listening. So we're gonna make sure you listen to us this time. And I remember, you know, stepping out of that situation, stepping out of that marriage and coming up for air and feeling like such a relief in such a way, because I'm like, wow. Like, the noise slowed down this unconscious, like, bell alarm that was going on. And you know what happened on. My inflammation levels have started coming down. My sleep quality has improved. I can actually sleep through the night. So I'm starting to regulate, because I said, okay, okay, I can hear you. I can hear you. I'm taking myself out of the situation, and I'm gonna create a better ecosystem for this body to survive in.
- [45:28]
B
Yeah, energetically, we know this. You knew this. Your body knew this. Subconsciously, you knew this, but it's facing it. So again, it's bringing the unconscious conscious
- [45:42]
A
and giving yourself that freedom. Yeah.
- [45:45]
B
So that it's not dictating your life. You are dictating your life, but it's just that recognition and seeing it. That's beautiful.
- [45:53]
A
And that's what gave me the freedom. And I feel like that intuition is so important for anybody listening to this show. Do not discount or discredit the female intuition.
- [46:03]
B
Oh, my gosh. The female intuition. No way.
- [46:06]
A
I think it's gift.
- [46:08]
B
Absolutely.
- [46:09]
A
You also, Suzanne, talk a lot about. And I think it's so important for us to pick into this the should versus must.
- [46:14]
B
Yes.
- [46:14]
A
We're always like, we must do this, we must say this. We must go do this thing. But you're like, no, let me reframe that for you.
- [46:21]
B
Yeah, look, I actually, I like the must, but let me explain. It's. It's again. And I, and I'm not. I do have clients and I work with men as well as working with women, but I do love working with women. And there's a lot of, you know, I know, I know what you're telling me. And they get there and they feel like, okay, okay, I like it. Thanks, Suze. I know what you're saying. I should. Yeah, I really should. And that's where I go, all right, let's turn the should to a must. Okay. We have to ground ourselves in non negotiables. And again, they don't have to be everything. And that's where we end up failing. Right? We. We say we. I'm going to do them. I'm just going to cut out all carbs. Of course, we don't need to cut out all carbs. I'm going to work out every single day. You don't need to work out every single day. You know, you have to make time for recovery and especially in the 35 and beyond where our resilience to stress lowers. So we have to give our time for a restoration. It's, it's all of those things that we have to keep in mind. And that's where I say you do have to have some musts. Decide what is. What is it that you're going to do and do it and be realistic with yourself. Don't ask yourself to do all 10 things going from 0 to 100, you know, and, and so that's where I'd be like. It's, it's gentle nutrition. My way is gentle, but it is firm. I'm not going to lie to you. I'm not going to tell you. I don't like people to feel threatened, you know, and, and, and that they're failing at something.
- [48:04]
A
But unaccountability.
- [48:05]
B
But yes, you have to give accountability and you have to do the thing. The reality is, if we are going to exist in comfort all the time. And comfort is when we don't do anything different. Right. We all love that. We are trained for it, and our genes love that because that's how we've been safe. But if we don't step out of our comfort, if we don't change, if we don't do a small change, even then nothing will change. It's like, you know, so you can't keep doing the same thing over and over and expect things to change. We can't start a protocol or start a program and do it for two weeks and go. And if it's what you tell yourself, this is where I like to work the mindset piece. People come to me and I have a client in mind, and she was like, you know, I start the program. She had every intention, you know, she really wanted to do good things for herself and for her health. And she said, you know, I start programs, I do them for two weeks, and then I don't know what happens. And then I stopped. Right? Yeah. And I'm like, stop right now. You need to. You need to stop saying that right now because just. You're going to fulfill that.
- [49:13]
A
Yeah.
- [49:13]
B
You're going to.
- [49:14]
A
That's a prophecy. That's.
- [49:15]
B
That's a prophecy. You are speaking into this universe and you will fulfill that. So right there, we have to change our identity. Who are we? You know, stop seeing health as something that is exciting to you. Yeah. And it's this thing that you do that's super inconvenient.
- [49:34]
A
Right.
- [49:34]
B
You know, and super boring. And it means I'm eating, you know, food that's kind of gross and boring and all of that, you know, all the things that we associate with.
- [49:43]
A
Right.
- [49:44]
B
But it's. No, I am a healthy person. Absolutely. And when I believe that I am a health seeker and I am healthy, then I will likely do all the things that will bring me closer to that. So then you'll stop saying that's a thing that I do temporarily, and then that I'll stop, you know, when it's done. After my 21 day cleanse. You know, it's a.
- [50:07]
A
It's a continuation of your day. Small little habits that you implement every single day.
- [50:12]
B
Yeah. And it's okay to go on those things. Cleanses and. And those protocols, it's okay to do those, too. But it's. These do have a start and end time. But health, wherever you are, there isn't a starting point.
- [50:24]
A
Right.
- [50:25]
B
You're somewhere on that health journey, and there is no end on that health journey. And as you've been improving your health and where you are and your health journey, you're advancing every year. Right. So if you think back 10 years ago, where you were on your health journey and where you are today.
- [50:42]
A
Oh, I'm a totally different person.
- [50:43]
B
Light years away.
- [50:44]
A
Light years, yeah.
- [50:45]
B
And your plan is to keep going and you're gonna keep adding to that health journey. But it's. The key is one step at a time.
- [50:52]
A
I also want to oppose that. And though. And say, don't you think some women are just doing too many muss. They're forcing, you know, like. Because we see all these hacks online where like, somebody's doing the peptides and then doing the hormones and then they're doing the inferesis and then they're doing the ozone.
- [51:07]
B
Yeah.
- [51:07]
A
So because men can do all the must.
- [51:10]
B
Yeah.
- [51:11]
A
And their bodies react differently. Right. But sometimes women are making these massive to do lists of things to do, and they're taking the 50 supplements and the this and this that. And then your body's also just fatigued, and then you're overwhelmed and fatigued.
- [51:24]
B
Totally. And that's. That's our design. So we were designed again to sense the environment around us. And we're so hypersensitive to that environment. And it's not to say because I know people will come at us and they'll be like, oh, we're not that, you know, fragile. We're not fragile. We are not fragile, but we are sensing our environment. And if our environment is overwhelming. So again, check your water. What's your water doing? Are you fasting until 1pm every day and exercising first thing in the morning and having coffee and dealing with a stressful situation at work. Your water is getting murky. Right. Let's support that. So, yeah, that's where intuitively you. You want to listen to the whispers. You know, when your body was whispering to you.
- [52:14]
A
Yeah.
- [52:14]
B
And telling you that things weren't well. But then we are not trained to listen, so we need to listen to that. And if you're unable to, if it's confusing, if you're not, you're like, I don't know. Too many whispers. I don't know what to listen to. There are practitioners that can help you, and it's okay, you know, but it's the expectation of doing it all, all at once. All at once at the same time and doing it perfectly.
- [52:40]
A
Right.
- [52:40]
B
Do it imperfectly, and you're still going to be steps ahead of the person that wasn't doing it, doing anything at all.
- [52:48]
A
Because they have analysis paralysis.
- [52:50]
B
Exactly.
- [52:51]
A
You also talk a lot about this theory of the security guard and how you describe the immune system of someone who has something like Ms. Or autoimmunity. And the security guard is walking around with like a, I got a button here and I'm just about to press it. So how do you calm down and get, move the security guard out of the way. How do you calm that signal down and say, you know what, I got it, it's okay.
- [53:12]
B
Yeah. So again it's like a thousand piece puzzle and there's so many pieces to our health. The nervous system piece, the anchoring our food with protein and fiber piece. It's all the underlying thread is hormone regulation.
- [53:33]
A
Okay.
- [53:34]
B
Hormonal balance, cortisol balance as the base of that pyramid. I was doing a program with the Ms. Society and we know multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune condition and autoimmune conditions have also an underlying thread of dysregulation and hyper vigilance of our immune system. So we want our immune system to be active. This is, this is good. Our immune system is always sensing and it's a, it's in connection with our gut health, it's always sensing the environment around it. So let's imagine that you're maybe a person that's eating a bit too much gluten, a bit too many processed foods. So you have, your, your gut lining is dysbiotic, so it's opened up a little bit. You've got particles of gluten floating around, arriving to your brain because it's crossing the blood brain barrier. Maybe you've got these lipopolysaccharides that are, they're byproducts of these bad microorganisms in our gut. So they're sending inflammatory signals to the body. So now your immune system is on hyper alert. So rather than it be just on regular, you know, the security guard is just normally, you know, walking around and, and kind of keeping your body in check. Now it's, it's their, their finger is on the button, on the button ready to press. So and, and then you can react to something that is not a threat. So what we want again is to, to calm the inflammatory fire. That's what it is. So living an anti inflammatory lifestyle is what we want. So living again in, in in accordance to light and dark circadian rhythm. Eating so eating with light, fasting at night rather than the other way around. Sleeping and getting restorative, restoring our energy, our digestion, stopping digestion, recovering at night, moving Our body moving enough, not too much because. And not too little because we know a sedentary lifestyle is as bad as smoking, if not worse. So it's all about bringing those little pieces to that thousand piece puzzle and it's working with everything. So a little bit of everything will support that, that system.
- [56:01]
A
When you talk about circadian cycling, what do you think is the cutoff time for dinner? I think in an ideal world, in an ideal world.
- [56:11]
B
So it's, as the sun goes down, I would reduce the amount of food being taken. And of course now you're gonna be going out for dinners and yeah, no, we live in a today life. So if most of the time again, what we do sometimes doesn't move the needle, it's all good. If we have an entire pizza one day, you're not an unhealthy person. And if you go to the gym for four hours one day, you're not a healthy person. So it's what we do repeatedly over time. So I would say cut off time, just, you know, as the sun goes down, just eat less and less, but have more of your meals with daylight. Breakfast is such an important meal or the first meal of the day. I don't want to call it breakfast. You know, first meal of the day, anchor it with protein and fiber. Have we have our digestifier. We know with ayurvedic medicine, we know they've been talking for thousands of years about the digestifier being strongest at, in the a.m, morning, in the morning and at noon. So you want to have your majority of your meals earlier in the day and then as the day goes on, just to have less and less. And that's the best fasting that we can do. When people think about fasting, and especially women, but also men, fasting can be very restorative to our health. Absolutely. It because digestion takes so much energy from our body. And so to give digestion a break so that our body can heal and, and look at all the other organs that needs to happen when digestion ends. So that's why it's a really good idea to stop eating two to three hours before bed, before you go to bed.
- [57:49]
A
I was some women, I was asked the other day on a podcast what I thought about fasting. And I said, listen, depending on your insulin sensitivity, depending on, you know, your blood glucose levels, and depending on what you're going through, if you're in perimenopause, maybe don't push it right away because it'll further cause stress in your body. Your body's already responding negatively to stress. So I would like get on the hrt. I would stabilize all my foundations before I even consider adding fasting to one of my core pillars. And in addition to that, maybe fasting doesn't have to be so dogmatic that you're fasting for 16, 24, 48 hours. All you're doing is eating your meals a little bit earlier, two, three hours before you go to bed, letting it digest in the morning. That alone will give you 12 hours.
- [58:31]
B
That's it.
- [58:32]
A
And then getting up.
- [58:33]
B
That's it. 12 hours. I like 12 hours. I think that's for women.
- [58:36]
A
Right?
- [58:37]
B
For women and for everyone. To be honest. I think everybody should have the 12 hours. Just a break from food.
- [58:45]
A
Yeah.
- [58:45]
B
You know, and then of course, some people can go up to 14, some people, some men can go up to 16. But 12 hours is good for everybody.
- [58:54]
A
It's plenty.
- [58:54]
B
Yeah.
- [58:54]
A
And I also think your gut health plays a major role in it because some people are like, oh, I'm, I'm fasting, I'm getting a lot of extra, you know, I'm getting energy. But then some people are like, I don't feel good and I'm crashing and I'm feeling depressed. I think it's, we're an ecosystem. Right. So I think all of those different things have to come into play together before we're like, oh, we're just going to now, you know, just do this really long fast that puts so much stress in our body, especially for women.
- [59:17]
B
Absolutely. And you know, it's funny enough when you are fasting, so it's cortisol that's going up. Right. And that's what's giving you that extra surge of energy. So it's really important that it's not in excess because then you're just HPA access, going crazy all the time. Yeah.
- [59:34]
A
And that's why if you're already chronically stressed. Yes. You have a lot of stressors in your life and you know, you're already having these weird cortisol spikes, you're not getting enough sleep, and you're perimenopausal without the proper assistance of a practitioner and hormones to support you. Please do not go and start fasting. That's my public service message.
- [59:54]
B
That is true. That is true. Honestly, we could just say everybody should just take it easy with the fasting women. You don't need to fast.
- [60:02]
A
No.
- [60:03]
B
Let's just do the 12 hour digestive break.
- [60:06]
A
Thank you.
- [60:07]
B
That's great. But anchor your morning with protein and fiber. Feel the Energy. It will really give you a lot of energy, and it'll power your workouts
- [60:17]
A
even, and just get you through your entire day.
- [60:19]
B
Yeah, absolutely.
- [60:20]
A
You have been such a pleasure. You're an incredible guest, by the way. You are such a wealth of knowledge. Like I said when we sat down, you're so inspirational. You're so. So relatable. You're warm, like, you're just so easy.
- [60:32]
B
Suzanne, I love you.
- [60:33]
A
You're amazing. I just want to be closer to you.
- [60:38]
B
Thank you.
- [60:38]
A
Thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing all of you with my community.
- [60:42]
B
Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. You're an incredible host and friend, and the work that you're doing for the world out here and just sharing the information, sharing practitioners, bringing this information closer to people in a very relatable manner is beautiful work.
- [61:01]
A
I appreciate it. You know, I'm so proud of. And I'm openly so proud of being Muslim. I'm so proud of belonging to this part of the world that my passion now really is taking Middle Eastern, Asian voices, South Asian voices to the rest of the world and saying, look at how incredible our people are. Look at how beautiful and knowledgeful they are. Look at how they want to give back and share and really educating people on how we address society, relationships, health, each other, how we look at the world and how we interact with it.
- [61:32]
B
Yes, we have a powerful, powerful way, and it has been ignored for a long time.
- [61:40]
A
Media has not done us any favors.
- [61:42]
B
No. And media has shown the light, the dark side.
- [61:47]
A
That's all.
- [61:48]
B
Every society has a dark side. And. And it's incredible. The brains that are available, the culture, the values, the way we do things. Our value systems are beautiful.
- [62:01]
A
And we're very embedded in family. Yes, we're very embedded in taking care of each other. We are. If you look at the number one marker for everything in regards to the blue zones, it was community. And if you look at Eastern cultures, community, Family is number one for us. We don't see ourselves in these individualistic little bubbles. And it's you against me. It's just me, me, me, me, me.
- [62:24]
B
We don't know how we exist.
- [62:25]
A
No.
- [62:26]
B
We have no idea. I need to know what everybody's doing in the family.
- [62:29]
A
Are they all okay? Is everybody okay?
- [62:31]
B
That's right.
- [62:31]
A
You know, that's how we function. And so I think that even how we approach our health from that perspective, when we're having meals as a family, together, communal meals, everything is communal. And I think that is just a beautiful way to live.
- [62:46]
B
Live it is. And you know that study that Dr. Mark Hyman, he quotes a lot where it's like they were studying the blue zones and these people were drinking.
- [62:56]
A
Yeah.
- [62:57]
B
They were eating meat. Smoking. Smoking. They're doing all the things that. How come they were living that long? And it's because community, purpose and community. They belonged to a community that valued them.
- [63:09]
A
Absolutely.
- [63:10]
B
And that's powerful. That's healthy.
- [63:12]
A
And I think for here, for the women of this region, because a lot of them have. Are mothers. You know, they raise their kids. They look forward to grandkids. I think that gives women also a lot of purpose. And they still have careers like yourself, and there's somebody out there in the world. But they also understand the role that they have to play in a family dynamic, which I personally think is extremely important.
- [63:31]
B
Absolutely. And there is, to be realistic, there is the other side of that, where also the woman sees herself as a sexual sacrificial lamb, and she's like, whatever, it's fine, but it's not. I will die for my family. You know, I'll do all the things and I will. I don't have to take care of myself. So we also want to educate that
- [63:53]
A
women not being that mindset.
- [63:56]
B
Exactly. And I think it's. It's on us to educate the next generation. Absolutely. You know that you. Yes. You can have it all.
- [64:04]
A
Maybe not times of your life.
- [64:06]
B
And you need to know when to push and when to pull back. Yeah.
- [64:09]
A
Thank you, Suzanne. I love you.
- [64:11]
B
Love you.