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Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan
#480: Revitalize Your LIFE with Hormone Therapy with Dr. Erika Schwartz, Founder, Disease Prevention & Anti-Aging Pioneer, & 8x Best Selling Author
00:44:27
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- [00:00]
Heather Monahan
When I started podcasting, an online store was the furthest thing from my mind. Now I'm selling my group coaching on the regular. And it is just so easy. All because I use Shopify.
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Dr. Erica Schwartz
How crazy. When you have this huge tool at your fingertips that you're not using it and then you say, oh, let me give you a pill. What are we thinking? Your mind and your body are one. How could we think that they are separate?
- [00:33]
Guest Host
Come on this journey with me each.
- [00:35]
Heather Monahan
Week when you join me, we are going to chase down our goals, overcome adversity, and set you up for a better tomorrow.
- [00:42]
Dr. Erica Schwartz
Fasten your seatbelt. I'm ready for my closeup.
- [00:45]
Guest Host
Hi and welcome back. I'm so glad you're back here with us this week. Let me introduce you to one of our exciting guests.
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Heather Monahan
Okay.
- [00:52]
Guest Host
Dr. Erica Schwartz. She's the founder of Evolve Science, a world renowned medical practice based in nyc. Built on the recognition that bioidentical hormones are the foundation for better health. Once hormones are balanced, the practice focuses on optimization and longevity through disease prevention, patient advocacy and coordination of care. Dr. Erica is a pioneer in the use of bioidentical hormones for preventing illness and recognizing their direct link to overall wellness and their interconnection with diet, sleep and stress management. I need all those. Her focus on treating patients as a whole person began more than 30 years ago with her understanding that bioidentical hormone replacement is the safest, most effective path to increase healthspan and to achieve the highest quality of life. Dr. Erica, thank you so much for being here today.
- [01:38]
Dr. Erica Schwartz
Heather, it's my pleasure. Thank you.
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Guest Host
I will tell you, I'm so hyped selfishly, right? Like all I'm 50 years old and all of my.
- [01:46]
Dr. Erica Schwartz
You look 35, so don't even tell me.
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Guest Host
Oh, you're so sweet.
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Dr. Erica Schwartz
And by the way, I think the chronologic age just sucks as an idea. So out the door, however, it is helpful.
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Guest Host
One thing that I'm learning and I didn't know this five years ago and that's why I think it's important we're doing this episode and I truly am doing this episode for any woman in their 30s and 40s. Because I didn't know any of this stuff. I found out, I don't know how, I just didn't know about it. I found out when I was 49 when I started hearing all of my friends complaining about the same things. Hair loss, weight gain, low energy, bad mood. And then one of my friends started saying hormone replacement, hormone therapy. And I'm like what? I don't even know.
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Heather Monahan
What does that even mean?
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Guest Host
And so it was just interesting that a group of people, people my age, a lot of us, didn't even know about what you literally spent so much of your life studying. And can you talk to us a little bit about how did that all come about? How did you learn about this early on?
- [02:41]
Dr. Erica Schwartz
Well, clearly not from medical school and clearly not from medical education. I learned it because like everybody else, it had to happen to me. So while I was trained and I knew what I was doing, and I ran a major trauma center as my first at 28, which was unusual for women. Think about it, this was in the late 70s, early 80s. Women did not do jobs like this. Anyways, I ran a big trauma center and then I went into private practice and I did internal medicine. And I was just kind of ping ponging patients. And when I wasn't referring them to specialists, they would say to me, why aren't you referring this patient to specialists? And I'd be like, because I know how to take care of them. And why do I need a specialist that the patient's healthy? So anyway, what happened when I turned 46 and I'm 74 now? That's why I said to you, age doesn't matter, really. I mean, chronologic age. So I was 46 and I went into menopause and I was treating women in menopause already with all kinds of garbage that we were trained to treat with that were kind of working, kind of not working anyway, so I started feeling not so good. I started taking care of myself according to what I was trained and it wasn't working. And then one of my patients came in and showed me this prescription and said, why don't you order this at the compounding pharmacy? Which I didn't even know what it was. So she said, just write it for me in California. So I wrote it. I didn't, you know, it was just basically estradiol, progesterone, testosterone hormones that our body make. So I was like, oh, okay. The woman came back and she was very happy. And I said, what's going on? And she's like, oh, this is what I need. It's wonderful. So when I went into menopause and I was taking the conventional stuff and it wasn't working, I thought, let me go back to this pharmacy. So I wrote to the guy at the pharmacy and I ordered the stuff and I said, can you send me some literature? Remember this is the 1990s, so there's no Internet, there's no Google, there's nothing. So except for the libraries. And the libraries that I was going to were the medical school libraries. So obviously they had this much information about anything to do with women's health. So I.
- [05:09]
Guest Host
And for anyone that's not seeing the video Right now, Dr. Erica just put a big egg up. Zero. She's saying there is no information on hormones or hormone therapy, right?
- [05:18]
Dr. Erica Schwartz
So I said to the guy, send me some stuff. So he sends me some literature and it's pretty good. And it's in the real journals. And it was before we knew that it was all fake. The stuff that they published in the medical journals that were paid for by pharma. But we didn't think that anyway, so it made sense. And I said, well, why don't you send me whatever you had sent to this woman that I ordered for. And I spent like $450, which was a lot of money in 1996. 97. And I get this box with a zillion things. It has syringes with creams, it has powders, it has pills, it has all kinds of things. And I was like, oh, you know, you kind of need a degree in biochemistry to figure out what to do. So I'm like so desperate to feel good because it was like a alien have come into my head, you know, I mean, I'm not moody. I'm usually pretty even tempered. All of a sudden I'm like a nightmare. I can't live inside my own body, right? I get a notebook out and I start doing it and I start following the directions. Within a week, shock of all shockers, I feel like myself. So I'm like, wow. So I call this guy and I say, listen, I have a lot of patients who I have on the conventional wisdom stuff. I would love to send them to you, but you know, $490 a month is a lot of money. He's like, I don't need you or your patients. And he did me the biggest favor because what he did by saying to me get lost is he opened the door for me to learn about it. So what I did is I found a compounding pharmacy in north of New York City where I was living. And I spent the following three years while seeing patients going home at night, studying and working with this guy in a compounding pharmacy and develop formulations and compounds that turned out to really work. So then I wrote a book about it. And then it coincided with that study that destroyed the life of 7 million women by saying that hormones Cause cancer. So yet again, like, the universe steps in to take care of things, right? I get a call from a patient's husband who was running a medical marketing company who had just sold it for some astronomic number. And he says, how is this going to affect your business? So I'm like, it's going to be great because people need it. Women need this. And I know from I read it, I did all the research, this is exactly what we need, is that not only is it going to not cause cancer, it's going to prevent heart disease, it's going to prevent Alzheimer's, it's going to keep your bones strong, it's going to keep, you know, everything in place, you know, totally what you want. And he said, okay, can I come in as a partner? So I'm like, sure. Like, do I know what he's talking about? So we opened the first compounding pharmacy that did the formulations that I did. And then I was teaching doctors all over New York and, you know, the university hospitals, and that's how it started. And then I moved on. You know, I wasn't about making money. I was about helping women. Really. The practice was practically all women at the time. Now, ironically, it's 50, 50 men woke up to it. And it was also perimenopausal women. So, you know, nobody talked about it. Now I have 16 year olds in the practice because everybody gets it, brings their kids in, brings their whole, you know, family. And like you said, the women in their 30s and 40s and they know what's out there and what can happen. So why don't we prevent it? Because it's all about preventing. We can stay healthy, we can stay looking good, we can stay feeling good. There's no reason not to. So this is the evolution of it. This is where we are. So then I realized it wasn't just about hormones. So it was about diet, exercise, lifestyle, everything, you know. Now I also decided at the time, you know, it came to me as this evolution occurred, that it was about putting the pieces together and that it was within our power, right, to make it happen. And that at the end of the day, it was you or me, whoever is the person involved, that would make the decision to conduct their life in such a way that would make it work. And it's like what you were saying on your TED Talk that I told you I was watching before, that you can't allow the outside world to take away your light. You have to hold on to it. And if it's taking it away, from you. You better walk away from that. So that's what I'm doing in health care.
- [10:22]
Heather Monahan
Meet a different guest each week. What does the future hold for business? Ask nine experts and you'll get 10 different answers. A bull market. A bear market. Rates will rise. Rates will fall. Could someone just give me a crystal ball, please? Until then, over 40,000 businesses have future proof their business with NetSuite by Oracle. The number one cloud ERP bringing accounting, financial management, inventory, HR into one fluid platform with one unified business management suite. There's one source of truth giving you the visibility and control you need to make quick decisions. With real time insights and forecasting, you're peering into the future with actual data. When you're closing the books in days, not weeks, you're spending less time looking backwards and more time on what's next. If I had needed this product, it's exactly, exactly what I would use. Whether your company is earning millions or even Hundreds of millions, NetSuite can help you respond to immediate challenges and seize your biggest opportunities. Speaking of opportunity, download the CFO's Guide to AI and Machine Learning at netsuite.com monahan the guide is free to you at netsuite.com monaho netsuite.com monahan let's talk about goals for a minute. How are you tracking with the ones you set for your business earlier this year? Are you close? If not, do you know why you haven't hit them yet? I mean, let's be honest. It's so important to track our goals, to set goals. Goal setting is where it all happens, taking us from where we currently are to where we know we can be. This podcast included. We got major goals and every day we are getting closer. You've got year end goals. Constant Contact has what it takes to help you meet them faster. No matter how experienced you are with digital marketing, Constant Contact has the tools to make your marketing run smoother. Tap email marketing that helps you create and send the perfect email to every customer. Get on your goals and realize them with Constant Contact. It's time to put the go in your 2024 business goals with email, social, SMS and customized marketing campaigns built for you in just a few clicks. Ready? Set. Go to constantcontact.com and start your free trial now. Go to constantcontact.com for your free trial.
- [12:47]
Dr. Erica Schwartz
Today.
- [12:50]
Heather Monahan
I ask you to try to find your passion.
- [12:54]
Guest Host
So one of the things that you brought up that I am curious to hear about because the only friends that I have that aren't doing some type of hormone. Something at this point, at our age, are ones that are very. So scared of cancer. You brought up that study. So can you tell us and educate us for myself or all the listeners, what validity is there? What studies were done, like, what does it all mean? Why are people afraid of that?
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Dr. Erica Schwartz
Well, they're afraid of it because that study was a complete fraud. It was a study sponsored by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, and Upjohn. And it was supposedly, and again, for those who don't see it, quotation marks, right? It was supposedly going to show that Premarin, which was the hormone replacement therapy they were using in those days, was the fountain of youth, which is not a bad idea. Right. The only problem is that they used women who were at least 10 years after menopause who had preexisting conditions like they were smokers, they had cancers, they had all kinds of issues. And so they were too old to look at, and they use the wrong kind of hormone replacement therapy because. And this is a hard concept, and I teach it to doctors, so I don't want to sound like an idiot by, you know, saying something. They believed, and they still believe in the conventional medical world that all estrogens behave the same, all progesterone behave the same. The truth is that no such thing happens. And it's common sense that if the formula of a substance isn't the same as the formula of the next substance, they're not going to behave the same. It's just common sense. You don't really need to be a biochemist. You don't need to know anything except common sense to say, what are you talking about? It took 20 years for that piece of information to get across the Atlantic Ocean. Because in Europe, they got it and say, wait a minute, the study was bad. What they gave them didn't work. Women need hormones. So I had written this book, and this is, again, the universe. I had written this book called the Hormone Solution, and it came out in April of 2002. And like, you were talking about writing a book. I really didn't write a book because I thought I wanted to be famous or I wanted people to think that I know what I'm talking about. It was kind of. It came out and it came out of me, and it was about helping and saying. The core of that book is really, you know, if you have a baby. I just wrote a chapter for a medical book about postpartum care and how what's going on there, which is another disaster anyway. And every age we're affected by our hormone balance. So that's what that book was about. And it was also that putting the right hormones into the mix will help you stay healthy, will open the door for you to stop drinking when you're older, to be able to maintain your weight, to be able to sleep, to protect eventually from heart disease, brain bones, et cetera. And the book came out in April of 2002, and the study came out in July of 2002. So all of a sudden it was number two on Amazon. Just go figure. And this is how I got to where I got. But I did a lot of work in the meantime because I'm taking care of patients. And I went from taking care of menopausal women to taking care of, like, transgenerationally and bringing the guys in, too, and saying, listen, we all need to make sure our hormones are in balance. We all have it in our hands to improve our lives. We don't need to look for the magic pill, which we're all sadly looking for. We don't need to try to outsmart the next person. We can just stay there and do what's best for ourselves and we'll be okay.
- [17:09]
Guest Host
So where does someone start? Because, Dr. Erica, one of the things that I find confusing personally, right? Because I don't know a thimble of what you know in regards to hormones, you live there.
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Dr. Erica Schwartz
You know more.
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Guest Host
Well, I do know how important it is and it can change how you feel. But I still know for myself, I'm on hormones right now, and I know I'm still not on the right concoction of it yet because I see some of my friends are thriving and I feel better, but I know I'm not there yet, right? So you can see that it's something that. My point is this. There are online solutions, and I'm not going to say the brand names, but, like, there's solutions that you can go to online and they have a system set up and you're immediately on hormone patches and hormone pills, whatever. Then there's these very expensive, because some of my friends go to these people. I don't, but there are these very, very expensive. Some of my friends are spending $10,000 a month doing testing, hormones, injections, whatever. They feel amazing. Then I see in between there's labs and there's doctors. So what's the right thing for a regular person to do when they know, wow, I'm aware I need to figure out what's going on with my hormones, where do they start and where should they go? Like, what does that look like?
- [18:14]
Dr. Erica Schwartz
Good question. That's a great question. Unfortunately, there is no clear, you know, like, epidemiologic answer that says, okay, everybody should do this because everybody's different. Everybody, like you said, they can go up there or you can go down here, wherever. This is the only thing I would say. Go to anywhere you find your friends recommend. I mean, you get on Instagram all day long, they get fed the stuff. Don't go for the supplements, because the supplements, most of them, unless they're tied into the hormonal supplementation, they're just a marketing scam. So don't bother with the supplements. I would say. Then I would say try. And if you feel better, stay there. Like you said, you're not quite there and you know it because you live in there. Listen to yourself. You know it. Don't let anybody else tell you what's going on. And then keep trying until you find the right person. Now, you know, this has become a huge market, so there's a lot of money that people are spending in it and there are a lot of quacks in it, the same way there are a lot of quacks in the conventional world, you know. So it's up to you, like you said in your TED Talk and in your life, it's up to you to say this far, no further, this. So I would say give it three months. In three months, you'll know if it's the right person or not. And if the person listens to you, if the person gets to know you, if they want to know you, if they're not just prescribing because they have nothing else to do but prescribe to collect their money, then go the other way. You know that. You know what you want. If they're there to sell you, you're not interested because it's your life. So you want somebody who's going to protect you and who's going to tell you whatever they know. Now, yesterday I had a patient in the practice who came in and was telling me that one of the doctors that I'm in, faculty at the American Academy of Anti Aging Medicine and another faculty member who's a quite well renowned doctor was saying something that was a little different, quite different, as a matter of fact, than what I say. And she said, you know, obviously she came to me and she was like, what's the story? And I said, listen, the beauty of it is that you get different opinions. And that's beautiful. And we don't understand that in our culture, we're a little off on that one, that you want different opinions because they will help you try to figure out what's best for you. And you'll know that not everything works for everybody. So it's okay. I don't have a problem with that. But you can decide if it's right or wrong. You can decide. Well, I feel better. I have patients who come and say I've been doing the same thing for five years and I'm not quite there and I'm not losing weight and my skin is horrible and my hair's falling out. And I'm like, why have you been doing it for five years? She's like, well, I don't know. The one thing I can tell you is don't go to anybody who mixes it all together. There are a lot of them that get like, compounds that are estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, dhea, pregnant. It's all mumbo jumbo, basically all put together. And then you take the cream and you just mush it on. The problem is that it makes no sense because you'll never know who did what to whom. So I will never put them all together. And my experience been pretty significant for 30 years. And I still see patients three days a week and I see like 20 patients kind of thing, so I see a lot. Anyway, what I've learned is that you keep them separate. Because if you keep them separate, it might be more of a nuisance that you have to do it like twice a day or divide it up. But we, you and I, will figure out what's best for you much easier than if you put it all in one.
- [22:15]
Guest Host
What does it look like when it's done the right way? Meaning is it a patch, is it a cream like you're talking about? Like you said not to take the supplement.
- [22:22]
Dr. Erica Schwartz
What makes the right formula is, first of all, not putting them all together, doing them separately. There are different times in life where different things work better than other things. Like a patch will work better when you're younger than when you're older. A cream of progesterone will work better when you're younger rather than older. So oral estrogen should never be given because it's processed through the liver and we have enough crap going through our liver we don't want to add to that. Testosterone should never be given in pellets, you know, because they put them under the skin and leave it there for three months. Your body in its natural state before you stop making it, releases hormone impulses, so you don't want to have hormones there all the time. You want hormones to come and go, come and go, and this is how you want to do it. So those are just, like, basic things that should tell you if you're getting the right thing or not. Having said that, I have seen people who have been, like I said, doing it for five years the wrong way, and it's working. The other thing is that at some point, it's not just about estrogen, progesterone, testosterone. It becomes about thyroid and adrenal. And that's really crucial because it took me about five years of doing it. And remember since I'm old, that it started a long time ago, that nobody even thought about it at the time. I was like, I'm doing it right, but the people are not quite. Like you said, Not 100%. I feel great. You look great, you feel great, but, you know, you're not 100%. So that's when I realized that the blood tests that we do because we're conventional doctors, and I insisted on the fact that this is where conventional medicine has to go or it's going to die, as simple as that. And I'm a conventional doctor, so I don't want to be considered alternative. I don't want to think of myself as an alternative doctor. So it's conventional medicine. Who needs to go there. So when you do bloods, you know what conventional drug bloods look like, right? But they don't really tell you anything before you're sick. They tell you when you're sick. So I had to kind of learn on my own how to figure out ahead of time how to get to prevention. Like you said, all these people who pay $10,000 a month to have a thousand tests that they don't need, it's like, if you think of the genetic testing, which is like a big thing, we spend $2 billion to get the genetic code for humans, like 20 years ago. And it's completely useless because we know that genetics mean absolutely nothing, that there may be two or three genetic diseases actually, which sadly exist, and that's it, and you can't do much about it. And that genetics are useless as far as knowing them, except for creating high anxiety, because you're going to worry about it. And it's epigenetics is what our environment is doing to our genes that is making them to either express themselves as negative things or express themselves as positive things. So doing that test sometimes, like, I'm not very big on testing, which makes a lot of people who make money off of the testing, not very happy. So to me, what matters the most is you. How you feel, how you're feeling now, how you felt six months ago. And then what I do, which is because I'm the conventional doctor, is that when you feel perfectly and you come and you say, I got it, this is perfect, I feel the way I want to feel. That's when we do the bloods, because everybody's different. And that's when I will know that your bloods are the right bloods for you to keep you where we want to be. You know, like the people who say, like the woman I was talking about, who's faculty with me, who's saying that you should have the same estrogen levels that you had when you were in your 30s or 20s. I'm sure you've heard that one, right? In order to feel great. Well, and some people, yes. And some people know. And to have a period, that's another conversation, right? You should have a period forever. Well, I have patients. And when I first started, you know, women would not even admit that they didn't have periods anymore. They would be like, oh, I'm 59 and I've had a period my whole life. And I'd be like, oh my God, I must. There's something wrong with me because I can't believe that. But I believe anything my patients say. So what's the truth? Well, the truth is they were lying because they were embarrassed because the embarrassment factor was so high. And women's like you say, lack of self esteem and self confidence trumps everything totally. So now, like, I would have my first editor of the hormone solution. The original hormone Solution was a 20 something year old lady who told me I couldn't write. And I guess she was wrong. But anyway, she sent me her mother, who was a lovely woman, took care of her. And it was early, so I don't blame them for not being sure of what I was talking about. And the woman wouldn't tell her gynecologist she was feeling great and she'd go for her annual checkups and he'd be like, oh my God, you're like 59 and your vagina is like a 35 year old and you feel good. And I don't understand. It's wonderful. You're doing great. And she's not on hormones because it's post. Hormones are bad for you, right? And she never told the truth. She never told them that she was on hormones with me. So people were very scared. And even to this day, there are some who will quit the gynecologist and go to the people like me who take care of them and then never say what changed and what happened, which I think is not doing any service to the younger ones. Like you said, other people meet a.
- [28:43]
Heather Monahan
Different guest each week, even if you think it's a bit overhyped. AI is suddenly everywhere from self driving cars to molecular medicine to business efficiencies. If it's not in your industry yet, it's coming fast. But AI needs a lot of speed and computing power, so how do you compete without costs spiraling out of control? Time to upgrade to the next generation of the cloud Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, or oci. OCI is a blazing, fast and secure platform for your infrastructure, database, application development, plus all your AI and machine learning workloads. OCI costs 50% less for compute and 80% less for networking, so you're saving a pile of money. Thousands of businesses have already upgraded to oci, including MGM Resorts, Specialized Bikes and Fireworks AI. Right now, Oracle is offering to cut your current cloud bill in half if you move to oci for new US customers with minimum financial commitment. Offer ends December 31, 2024. See if your company qualifies for the special offer@oracle.commonahan that's Oracle. If that sound isn't creating confidence for you and your business, I know what you're missing. You're missing Shopify and I set up my own Shopify page. It is so simple that I could do it myself. You can absolutely do it and start converting potential customers into paying customers, creating confidence for all of us. Upgrade your business and get the same checkout we use with Shopify. Sign up for your $1 per month trial period at shopify.com monahan all lowercase go to shopify.com/monahan to upgrade your selling today. Shopify.com/monahan the holiday season is here, which means we're focused on all things holiday festive gifting. Jenny Kane is our go to destination for the very best of the season. With their iconic gift guide leading the way, Jenny Kane makes it so easy and effortless to check everyone off your list, mostly including yourself. Don't forget you, Everything Jenny Kane makes is pure luxury. The cashmere is unbelievable, the knits essential outerwear to their homeware pieces like they're obsession worthy candles. There's no better place to get into this seasoned spirit than at Jenny Kane. For a limited time, our listeners get 15% off their first order. Go to jennycaine.com and use the code confidence15. To get 15% off your order. The Cashmere Fisherman and Cashmere Cocoon are two of my favorites. They are iconic knits. They feel incredible. There is a good reason they are the top of the top. Both deserve a starting spot and your winter wardrobe rotation due to their versatility, ease and absolute comfort. Nobody does the holidays quite like Jenny Kane. They're known for their luxe sweaters, essential candles and cozy throws, all of which make perfect gifts for you too. The Cashmere Jackie sweater just landed and it's nothing short of incredible. You can button it up to wear it as a turtleneck or unbuttoned. A fresh take on a classic crewneck. It is a must have. If you're eyeing coats, look no further than the Theodore coat and Apres coat. Both are a must for the season ahead, bringing added drama and ultimate coziness to your looks. Who doesn't need some added drama? We can't forget about the home essentials like giftable candles and splurge worthy decor. Get some now so you have them ready to give at parties that you go to. Their holiday gift guide just dropped makes gifting a total breeze. Shop Jenny's edit favorites under $250 and plenty of other gift giving categories. Plus they have an incredible rewards program where you can earn up to 10% back with every purchase and joining is free. Gift yourself and your loved ones the best gift of all. Jenny Kane our listeners get 15% off your first order when you use code CONFIDENCE15 at checkout. That's 15% percent off your first order at J E N N I K a y n e.com promo code confidence 15. Let getting dressed be one less thing to worry about. Confidence Cleaver I ask you to try to find your passion.
- [33:15]
Guest Host
Tell us a little bit, Dr. Erica, about what does estrogen fix? What does testosterone fix? What does progesterone fix? I still don't even really know what each one of these different things is doing.
- [33:25]
Dr. Erica Schwartz
First of all, I want you to go forward thinking they all work together, that one without the other means nothing. And that unfortunately in the conventional medical thinking everybody stays in their lane and they don't come out of their lane. And the moment they start coming out of their lane, they become better, they can serve you better and healthcare should be about service to you. It should not be about anything else. It's the worst industry and you have experience in sales so you know that it's horrible that the most important sales industry, the most important service industry has the worst service record of anybody. So starting with that, I Just had to say that anyway. But the thing is that they all work together. Now. You want your orthopedic surgeon to stay in his lane or her lane, by all means. You want them to operate on your knee, you want them to fix it. You're not really interested in them doing anything else. But what you don't want them to do is to tell you to stop your hormones, to stop your supplements, because they don't know what they're talking about. So you have to learn that part of it. So that's where we talk about lanes. On the other hand, you can talk about the primary care or the people who do what I do, which is they do everything, they know everything as far as you give them the information, because you can't know everything about anything, because none of us will. But it's about getting the information about who you are and what your needs are. And unless you have that, you're not going to be able to help anybody because you're going to have parts of it and parts of it is not enough. So to answer your question, because there is an answer to your question, estrogen is the hormone of growth. So when you're pregnant and makes the fetus grow, when you know the first half of the cycle, it makes your uterus, the lining of the uterus grow. It's a very positive. It's increases serotonin levels. It makes you feel good. It's a making you feel good hormone. It also makes you who we are. Like, as far as being, I guess, some of us being more edgy than others being, you know, it's the hormone of being a woman. Estradiol, the hormone of youth, the estrogen of youth. Progesterone, is its balancer. It balances the effects of estrogen. According to the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the only use for progestin is to make sure that it doesn't make the lining of the uterus get too thick and increase the risk of endometrial cancer. I don't think that's right. I think it's totally wrong. I mean, it helps with keeping the lining of the uterus thin, which is important, but it also works on your brain and makes you calm and makes you balance, makes you also even more woman. Testosterone is the hormone that we identify as a male hormone, but it's not. Women make more testosterone than men per not quantity, but like ratio kind of. The amount of testosterone we make is more than men make, to tell you the truth. Not the amount, but like in the Ratio of hormones. And testosterone is a great hormone. When you talk about aggressiveness, which is what testosterone is associated with, this very, very famous scientist by the name of Robert Sapolsky, who did all the research on testosterone, says how unless you have a genetic predisposition for testosterone to make you irritable and angry and, I guess, aggressive, you're not going to get aggressive. The same thing goes for women. If you take testosterone, you get aggressive, you took too much or you just can't take it. And there are ways to give it to you. You can give it to you in shots, you can give it to you in creams. Again, you can give it to you orally, because it's not going to work, right? And again, it's going to be through your liver, and you don't want that. So testosterone helps with muscle mass, right? Which helps with bones, because none of the osteoporosis medications actually helps with your bones. The only thing that helps with your bones is building your muscle and maintaining your muscles as you get older. That's it. There's no other. Nothing. Calcium won't do it. Nothing else will do it. But you working out and building your muscle will do it. So testosterone will do that. It will also give you the libido, which we all want. Now, after 30 years of a relationship that's gone stale and you're done with it, it's going to be a little difficult, even giving you testosterone to turn you on. But you could still get turned on. I mean, we talk to women, you know, if you don't have a partner, you can masturbate. There are a lot of great ways in which you can maintain your sexuality. It's okay. There's nothing wrong with it. It's always been okay for men. It's okay for women, by the way. There's no question about it. And by the way, it wasn't just a male thing, sexuality. It's a male and female, because the most of them kind of have sex with women. So don't get that.
- [38:51]
Guest Host
Okay, so I have a question for you. This one is personal in nature. So I'm taking the hormones, I'm doing the hormones. I'm still not sleeping as good as I used to. I work out every day. Like, I'm doing the things, you know, like I'm going to bed at pretty much the same time, you know, like, I do the things that most people would do to try to ensure that you're sleeping right. But it's odd that I know something's off, right?
- [39:14]
Dr. Erica Schwartz
So your Hormones are not well balanced. Check your thyroid, your adrenals, make sure your diet and your stress management. How do you go to sleep? Do you meditate? Do you breathe? What are the steps that you take every night, the routine that you have every night that brings you down to where you need to sleep?
- [39:36]
Guest Host
Are you seeing stress as one of the main problems for people asleep?
- [39:40]
Dr. Erica Schwartz
Of course it is the main problem for everything. Stress is it. Stress is what's killing everybody. Yes. So. And it's so. It's not easy. It's so fixable. And because it's so fixable, we should focus on fixing it instead of focusing on trying to figure out solutions around it.
- [40:01]
Guest Host
What are the best ways that you see to manage stress for your patients?
- [40:05]
Dr. Erica Schwartz
Well, I've been working very hard with my patients, teaching them to meditate. And when I say meditate, half of them go like, oh, no, I can't meditate. I won't meditate. It's not okay. So then I stop saying the word meditation. What better way to do it, right? Change the word. And so I say, sit. Just sit alone without a screen, without music, without any noise, without anything to give you stimulation from the outside. Just sit there, close your eyes, and just sit and pay attention to your breathing. So you make sure you breathe. Because humans don't breathe. Nobody teaches us to breathe. So breathe. Just sit there, Sit for a few minutes. Sit for one minute. Then during the day, take a break and sit. In the evening for sure, start. Sit there. And it's so interesting that I was just talking to one of my patients who's going through IVF because she needs to go through ivf and she's so scared, and she's so negative because she's gone through so many negative things. She's in her 30s, and I mean, she has plenty of time. And I was sitting with her the other day, and I said to her, I said, you need to start meditating because it's going to fall apart. It's not going to work. Sure enough, they get five eggs. The five eggs die. It's a nightmare, right? And I'm like, you know, you're doing it to yourself. And she's like, what do you mean you're doing? I'm like, you are so scared that you're envisioning. You're putting out all this negative energy towards it. So we have to switch it to negative to positive. So I'm like, you have to start meditating. Shouldn't have said it, right? So she says to me, oh, my God, my Mother meditates. I hate it. She has a whole issue there. So I said, okay, we're going to have to start sitting. So she sent me a text this morning, and she wrote me the most positive, wonderful. I've been sending her, you know, daily little positive things about how to start her day, the things to do. And she sounds like a completely different person. And I would love to see what happens next because, you know, she's going to get pregnant. You know, it'll work.
- [42:16]
Guest Host
Wow, it's so interesting. I mean, that's definitely what I see with people that I work with. Obviously not to the level of, like, pregnancies, but I'm working with them on whether they're trying to get the next job or get, you know, start their own business or whatever. But how much of it is mental, what you're envisioning, what you're saying to yourself, the people you're surrounding, the things that you're listening to and watching and recognizing how it makes you feel. And it's interesting to see and to hear you say, with your medical practice, you're seeing the exact same thing with the results in regards to even having kids. It further validates that what you say, what you speak into existence, you're speaking into your life and your body. And that is so incredibly powerful.
- [42:55]
Dr. Erica Schwartz
It is so powerful. And you know what I was saying to you before? How come I'm saying it and I have an MD after my name, and I am like one of very few who are saying it? How crazy is that? How crazy when you have this huge tool at your fingertips that you're not using it, and then you say, oh, let me give you a pill. What are we thinking? Your mind and your body are one. How could we think that they are separate? When I was saying about in the staying in the lane, how could you have a lane for psychiatry and the lane for internal medicine? How could you? How could you do such a disservice to us?
- [43:44]
Guest Host
So true. And I'm so grateful that the way that you think, and I know everyone listening is going to want to get a hold of you. Dr. Erica. How can people find out more about you, more about the way they can work with you, get your books, get a hold of you. Where does everybody go?
- [43:57]
Dr. Erica Schwartz
Dr. Erica Schwartz, everywhere on Instagram. And the practice is called Evolve Science. It's health. You can find me. I'm pretty much all over and the books are all on Amazon.
- [44:11]
Guest Host
Well, I will link everybody if you want to get a hold of. Dr. Erica. Evolve science. You want to see her books. They will be in the show notes below. Dr. Erica, thank you so much for being such a bright light. We appreciate the work that you're doing.
- [44:22]
Dr. Erica Schwartz
Thank you, Heather. It was an honor to be with you.
- [44:25]
Guest Host
All right, guys, check out Dr. Erica until next week. Keep creating your confidence. You know I will be.
- [44:32]
Heather Monahan
I decided to change that dynamic. I couldn't be more excited for what you're gonna hear.
- [44:39]
Guest Host
Start learning and growing.
- [44:41]
Heather Monahan
Inevitably, something will happen. No one succeeds alone.
- [44:46]
Dr. Erica Schwartz
You don't stop and look around once in a while. You could miss it.
- [44:49]
Guest Host
I'm on this journey with me.