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The Dr. Josh Axe Show
What Men & Women NEED to Know About Menopause | Dr. Mindy Pelz
01:10:03
What if menopause is actually your brain’s reset button, not the beginning of decline?
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- [00:01]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
Close your eyes. Exhale.
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State Farm Announcer
Feel your body relax and let go.
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Dr. Mindy Pelz
Of whatever you're carrying today. Well, I'm letting go of the worry that I wouldn't get my new contacts in time for this class. I got them delivered free from 1-800-contacts. Oh, my gosh, they're so fast.
- [00:16]
Dr. Josh Axe
And breathe.
- [00:17]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
Oh, sorry. I almost couldn't breathe when I saw the discount they gave me on my first order. Oh, sorry. Namaste. Visit 1-800-contacts.com today to save on your first order. 1-800-contacts.
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Dr. Josh Axe
What's something most doctors are getting wrong about menopause today?
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Dr. Mindy Pelz
Menopause symptoms are exaggerated when the metabolic system is off. Most doctors are ignoring the metabolic system. I had seen three statistics that really caused me to question what was happening in the menopausal experience. If a woman is lucky, she will spend 42.5% of her life post reproductively. Why was the body designed to live without a major organ system? A major organ system completely shuts down and you live 40% of your life. You keep going. So when I was looking at all these pieces coming together, I literally started with, well, then what is the purpose of menopause? There is a purpose. And maybe these women that are killing themselves are these women that are leaving marriages. They didn't get the memo what the purpose was. So here's what the neuroscience is saying.
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Dr. Josh Axe
What are your thoughts on hormone replacement therapy for women as they go through menopause?
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Dr. Mindy Pelz
It has to be an individual decision and the cultural messaging right now is it is your way of surviving menopause. And if you don't do it, you may end up with Alzheimer's. And that part of the hormone replacement therapy discussion I am a completely opposed to. It's so somehow it's become the menopausal hero. It's like what? It's like ozempic. Psycho zempic isn't the weight loss hero.
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Dr. Josh Axe
That's right.
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Dr. Mindy Pelz
The person who loses the weight is the hero.
- [02:05]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah.
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Dr. Mindy Pelz
HRT isn't the hero. It's the woman who was brave enough to change her diet and start fasting and working. That's right, like stop outsourcing your power to these pharmaceuticals.
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Dr. Josh Axe
Now, as women go through menopause, how should women be eating?
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Dr. Mindy Pelz
I came up with something called the primal menopausal diet. It was based off of what I can tell our hunter gatherer post menopausal women ate, which is. Every holiday shopper's got a list. But Ross shoppers, you've got a mission like a gift run that turns into a disco, snow globe, throw pillows, and PJs for the whole family. Dog included at Ross Holiday magic isn't about spending more. It's about giving more for less. Ross, work your magic.
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State Farm Announcer
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- [03:35]
Dr. Josh Axe
Menopause is one of the most misunderstood seasons of a woman's life. But new science reveals it's not a decline. In fact, it can come with some great benefits. Today I'm joined by a friend of mine, Dr. Mindy Peltz. She's a New York Times bestselling author and a globally respected voice on women's health and hormones. I'm so excited to have her on today. Dr. Mindy, welcome to the show.
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Dr. Mindy Pelz
Oh, thank you, Josh. I'm so excited to be here. I love your passion for the topic, so thank you.
- [04:06]
Dr. Josh Axe
Well, you know, you are actually backed by popular demand. This is the second time you've been on my show, and the first time was one, I think, of our, like, top three podcasts ever episodes. And I think a big reason is that women's hormones are so misunderstood. I think there's a lot of people talking about it. But one of the things I love about you is I really think we share a very similar view of health, philosophical view. And I think you do. And also you've had great results. I mean, I've ran into women at conferences and things saying, oh, I follow Dr. Mindy's I read her books Fast Like a Girl and Eat Like a Girl. And you have a new book called Age Like a Girl, which I'm excited to dive into. But one of the things I wanted to start off with here is on the COVID of your book. And this really intrigued me. And I typically don't like, kind of dive right into book covers early on because I typically we'll talk about the book, but this just really intrigued me because it's so opposite of what the entire world is saying. Here's what it says. How menopause rewires your brain for mental clarity, increased confidence, and renewed energy. Now, here's the thing. I just want to say, you know how many women I have as they're going through menopause, when they come in as patients, they will say, I have brain fog. My confidence is lower than ever, and my energy is totally tanked. So talk to me about how, you know, sort of your. You know, how you're going about helping so many women with menopause.
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Dr. Mindy Pelz
Yeah. So I'm just smiling because we spent a lot of time on the subtitle. And so, you know, as a. As an author, like, you really. And you only allowed so many words.
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Dr. Josh Axe
Right.
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Dr. Mindy Pelz
So we really wanted to think this through, so. And once it clicked, we all stood back and we went, yep, that's what the book's about. So here's the place to start. And I know that you and I align so deeply on this place. I had seen three statistics that really caused me to question what was happening in the menopausal experience. So the first statistic was that between 45 and 55 is the most common time for a woman to commit suicide. I was like, what? Wow. Like, at 45, you've got kids, you've got a career. Like, you're not a teenager. Why would you want to kill yourself? That, like that for about a year or two just totally baffled me. Second statistic I saw was that 70% of divorces are initiated by women after the age of 50. And I was like, what. What's happening to women that they're killing themselves and they're, like, blowing up their life and leaving families and marriages? And then the third statistic I saw was, was that if a woman is lucky, she will spend 42.5% of her life post reproductively. So I had to square. Why would the body. Why was the body designed to live without a major, major organ system? A major organ system completely shuts down, and you live 40% of your life. You keep going. So when I was looking at all these pieces coming together, I literally started with, well, then what is the purpose of menopause? There is a purpose. Why are we left? And maybe these women that are killing themselves or these women that are leaving marriages, they didn't get the memo what the purpose was. So I dove into what the purpose was, and I looked at it through an anthropology, anthropological lens. I looked at it through neuroscience. I looked at. At it through a societal lens. And then I looked. Of course, for me, I had to throw in a mystic. I'm like, let's see what the mystics say about this. And I put four teachings together to come up with a very clear picture that our brains and our bodies are rewiring themselves for a new purpose in life. And that wasn't to be invisible, that wasn't to fade away. That was actually the purpose to stand up in greater leadership in the world. We were not meant to be tossed aside. We are actually, if you go back to the evolutionary design of menopause, it was. We were moved to a place of leadership. And that's not happening right now in our culture.
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Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah, yeah. You know, one other thing that makes me think, and I'm curious your thoughts on this, is that, you know, pre menopause women are having their cycle and that obviously changes greatly. Where there's less of this sort of ups and downs and fluctuations, there's more of a sort of steady state of what's going on hormonally. What do you think the reason for that is? And your answer? Feel free. It could be, you know, it could be physical, it could be spiritual. But why do you believe that is in your research?
- [09:25]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
You know, it's estrogen. She's a big problem. And I only mean that with. I mean that with so much love. I always feel like I'm estrogen's PR team, so. But here's what you need to know about estrogen is she didn't work alone. She actually stimulated over 12 different chemicals. Ten of those are neurochemicals that we rely on. So every time estrogen comes in and she peaks, let's say it's around your ovulation, she's going to peak somewhere between day 10 and day 15, she stimulated dopamine, serotonin, acetylcholine, glutamate or balanced glutamate, GABA, oxytocin, BDNF. She brought a whole neurochemical experience to your brain, which basically made you happy, focused, compassionate, hopefully and patient, maybe able to hold on to new information. So when a woman was cycling, she got this neurochemical bath wherever estrogen went, which is why when estrogen was there, we were happy and we were fun and you wanted to hang out with us. But then at the back half of the cycle, when estrogen went away and progesterone came in, we didn't get all those neurochemicals. Progesterone just wants you to chill out and, like, just get a little rest before estrogen takes over again. So for a cycling woman, that was what we were experiencing and that is what's missing. Those neurochemicals are what's missing for the menopausal woman.
- [11:05]
Dr. Josh Axe
Wow. And so. And so in. Yeah. And so I guess the state somebody is in It's a little bit. Again, there's obviously less ups and downs there. You know, it's interesting. So when you have. I want to lead into diet here because one of the things you wrote about in your book Eat Like a Girl is you sort of talked about eating differently based on phases of your cycle, Right?
- [11:26]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
Yep.
- [11:27]
Dr. Josh Axe
So. And one of the things I really, again, I think it was so well done. And I had studied some of this in ayurvedic medicine. They talk about this. Some like some of the seed cycling and eating based on the food. But you did such a great job, by the way. If anyone who's listening to this, who's premenopausal, I would encourage you to get Mindy's book, Eat Like a Girl, because it's so good. And as you're. If you're perimenopausal, if you are going through menopause or post age like a girl, Mindy's new book is so good, getting into kind of this longevity. And how do you fly through menopause without a lot of the symptoms? But the idea is around eating certain foods to support the liver, eating foods to support the blood, eating foods at your time of month to support progesterone or estrogen. You wrote about that in that book. Now, as women go through menopause, how should women be eating?
- [12:18]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
Yeah, it's such a good question. So the first thing that I think we have to honor is that at 40, as estrogen goes on a wild ride, which she does, she'll be up one day and then she'll be down. Which is why women who are in their perimenopausal years feel normal one day and horrible the next. We also need to realize that that is the moment your metabolic system shifts and your ability for your body and your brain to use glucose dramatically changes. So when we look at the metabolic system and the way specifically the brain is fueled is it's br. It's fueled by glucose and it's fueled by ketones, and it needs both of these. But as a woman goes through the menopausal experience, it can't use glucose as efficiently. So it definitely needs ketones more, which we can talk about. Now on the food topic, that I think is really important is that when you go back and you look at what our hunter and gatherer friends did, well, for starters, they didn't have any ultra processed foods. So, like, literally, if you want to sign yourself up for a turbulent menopausal experience, go ahead and drive through the fast food Line every single day or, you know, lean into your 12 Cokes or your 10 Diet Cokes or your, you know, your refined sugars and flours and bad oils. Those are like putting an extra fire on the menopausal flames that are already existing in you because you do not use glucose the same. And when your body doesn't know how to use glucose, it stores glucose and it will store it around the belly. You and I have both been intimately involved in YouTube world. The absolute most common video that gets the most views for us is anything on menopausal belly weight. And it's there because your glucose system was out of balance. You were eating things that were too high in glucose. We know things like Alzheimer's has been called diabetes type 3 because the brain doesn't know how to use glucose. So with that in mind, I came up with something called the primal menopausal diet. And it was based off of what I can tell our hunter and gatherer postmenopausal women ate very much like what we just talked about on my podcast, which is a lot of animal meat, a lot of wild game, a lot of wild animal grass fed. Obviously they didn't have commercialized meat back then. Fish, a really high diet in fish, nuts and seeds. Legumes, even a little bit of legumes were helpful. But then, you know what was fascinating and I was thinking about this, Josh, when you and I were talking on my podcast, that one of the things I found over and over again in studying these hunter and gatherer post menopausal women is that they eat. They were hunting for tubers. That was the main thing they went to go hunt for, which I found so interesting. When you were saying that a sweet potato had a yin effect, effect was more of a yin producing food. I was like, yeah, that makes sense, because that's what they did in the hunter gatherer days. So we need to double down on tubers. And then of course, going into the low glycemic fruits and lots of vegetables.
- [15:53]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah. We were talking about how, you know, in Japan, these women are aging as well or better than anywhere else in the world. And one of the primary foods that women eat as they go through menopause in Japan are purple sweet potatoes. Yeah, I mean, I mean, right there to your point. So I mean, I think that's, you.
- [16:11]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
Know, that the purple sweet potato actually feeds a specific set of bacteria in the large intestine. And I think hopefully people know, but maybe, maybe they didn't get the message that there is bathed within both the small and the large intestine are bacteria that break estrogen down. So we, when we look at the sweet potato, it can reach a part of the intestine that a lot of foods to don't get in there and support those healthy bacteria. So it's like. Yeah. And then it has, it's high in magnesium, it's low, and it's low on the glycemic index. Like the purple sweet potato or yam or whatever we call it might be the miracle food for the menopausal woman.
- [16:53]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah. You know, and one other thing, and this is, you know, predates, you know, hormone replacement therapy quite a bit. You know, women would do this cream with, you know, yam, wild yam cream, you know, for as a progesterone supporter. That's a, you know, I want to come back to some of this, but now that we brought this up, I am curious your thoughts on what are your thoughts on hormone replacement therapy for women as they go through menopause?
- [17:18]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
Yeah. Well, okay, so here's an interesting behind the scenes. I went into contract on this book three years ago and it was just as fast like a girl had come out. And I wanted to bring forward a new message around menopause. And three years ago, three years ago, we weren't talking about menopause. In the last three years, there have been more books, more experts, more people coming to the surface talking about menopause. And in that conversation there has centered one topic and that's hrt.
- [17:56]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yep.
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Dr. Mindy Pelz
And so we have gone from a place of we don't talk about menopause to okay, we can talk about it now. But you need to know if you want to stop suffering, then you just need to find the right doctor and the right prescription of hrt. And what I'm seeing in my community is it's not that simple. And you can put somebody who has a high inflammation, in a high inflammatory state, packed with a lot of heavy metals that block those cells from even being able to receive the exogenous hormone replacement therapy. So it. We're back at. It has to be an individual decision. And the cultural messaging right now is it is the, it is your, your way of surviving menopause. And if you don't do it, you may end up with Alzheimer's. And that part of the hormone replacement therapy discussion I am a completely opposed to.
- [18:55]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah.
- [18:55]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
And one of the problems with this is that women when a medication. I hope you have doctors listening to this because if you have doctors following you, what I really Want to get out is that when you put a woman on a medication and you say, here you go, this is going to solve all your problems, and that woman takes that medication and it doesn't solve her problems, she doesn't blame you, she blames herself and she turns on herself. So there is so much damage being done in this conversation. And to answer the medical part of it, yeah, it works for some people, it does. And you need a doctor that can test your blood work and watch and see how it's working for you. It is not a quick. I've heard so many women say it took them two years to get the right HRT combination for them. And this is the biggest one. It does not give you a free pass from lifestyle changes. And so HRT can no longer be the hero because it's not the hero for everybody. And we still don't have enough research knowing about cancer. I think we still need to be cautious about this. So that's the complexity of the conversation.
- [20:22]
Dr. Josh Axe
I'm going to talk here for a couple minutes and then I really. And then I want you to down. I want to get all your thoughts on these things. But I have quite a few things roll around in my head with this because this is a really big topic that I think is so important. So here's one. I've had three women, all of them were in their early 40s, got on HRT, were diagnosed with breast cancer about a year later. So, so, so, so even though. And then I had, you know, Marty Makery, head of the fda, he was on my podcast and. And he said, oh, we have the biggest study ever on HRT showing it doesn't really cause cancer, maybe just a little bit of this one, but the benefits outweigh the risks. But, you know, when he was on my show, I pushed back a little bit because part of my background is this Chinese medicine. And in Chinese medicine, they believe if you take an exogenous hormone in that way, you're turning off your body's own internal tap. So, and we know this, of course, like, you know, for women it's progesterone, estrogen. For men it's testosterone. But when you turn that off, they would say that causes Qi stagnation. And that is the chief thing that causes cancer. Here's kind of where I'm at with it. One, I think if a woman is having hormone issues, like major menopausal symptoms, she should go in to someone like you or to someone like me or some other. There's a lot of great Practitioners, but go see a practitioner and have them lay out the perfect diet for you, the perfect supplement plan, and help you do the right lifestyle things. Do that first. I just want to encourage everybody, do that first. And then after one year or however long of doing that right, then go and get on the lowest dose of HRT if you need to, if you still feel like your body is really out of whack. But the reality is that's not happening. Now, I do have a theory on this as well. I want to give male testosterone example of this. But the exact same could be said about women and hormone replacement therapy. I think, even though I know there's some side effects there of hormone replacement therapy, I think for speaking as a man, I think if a man, if they go and take testosterone and they then are like, you know what? I've got more confidence because I'm taking this. I'm gonna get in the gym because I'm taking testosterone. I think sometimes the negative side effects of hrt, because, listen, you cannot take a synthetic hormone or drug and not think there is not at least some side effect. But I think the side effects might be outweighed if all of a sudden the man now is going to the gym, is more confident, is doing more like, is more active for their health. I do think that's why in some of these studies we're not seeing as great of side effects, is because I think that people are, again, for men, I know this for men because I understand this because I am a man. But they're having less side effects sometimes because they're going out there inactive and doing certain things. But it's still not the best approach. I mean, I have a lot of men, they're in their 30s taking testosterone, and they don't realize they're infertile for a period of time. And they're like, well, I'm gonna have kids. So I see all kinds of problems with hrt. I do think there's a time and place for it, but it's not the first thing you should do.
- [23:35]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
Right? It's really well said. And I think we're gonna see the pendulum swing the other way now. We went from not talking about HRT or scaring women with HRT to every woman needs HRT to. I think we're gonna. And I already see the conversation coming back to lifestyle. And I personally think the best approach is exactly what you said. And at 40, every woman should be sat down and said, you need to change your lifestyle now. And the first thing you need to Change is your food, what you eat and when you eat. And I believe that every woman, if she wants to know what her menopausal experience is going to be like, needs to look at the one marker on her blood, and that's hemoglobin A1C. If your hemoglobin A1Cs at 5. 9, 6. 6.0. Woo, girl, get ready. It's going to be turbulent. We need to get you metabolically healthy before you go into this experience. And those are the kind of conversations that are missing now. I do also want to say, as a post menopausal woman, I've watched HRT work wonders for women too. So I don't want women to feel who are taking it to start to shame themselves that they were taking it. We just need like a lifestyle that clicks with it and then you like, like a supplement. Every medication, every supplement needs to be, you're on it, temporarily get on it and then get off of it. You, your lifestyle should be the mainstay.
- [25:12]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, we're in 100% agreement, you know, as somebody who's doing it right. You know Mark Sisson? Yeah. So, yeah, Mark moved here to Nashville, so I ran into him. And we work out at the same gym here. This is just a few weeks ago. And so we were talking about this and he told me, he said recently, I got on just a low level of HRT and he's a person with testosterone. And he's a person. And I'm only sharing that because he shared it on my podcast. So I wouldn't have said it if he didn't already say it out in public. But for him, he is incredibly fit, incredibly healthy, waited a long time, is doing all the right things. So again, I think it just comes down to, you know, and the other thing is, to your point, if you're healthy metabolically and at the cellular level, you're going to be absorbing these hormones better into the cells and they're going to probably get your dosage and all that stuff right earlier as well. You're just going to have better outcomes.
- [26:08]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
Yeah, yeah. And then you can use it. Like there is a transition. If we think about what. Let's just take it from the brain perspective. The brain is going through a massive rewiring for about 10 years. That's a really long time. As estrogen starts to go down, progesterone goes down, testosterone doesn't have to go down, but it is going down. And we can talk about why. And that is rewiring the brain. During that 10 years, you have to rethink your lifestyle and back to this toolbox idea. You have to think about what's in your toolbox. And for some women, they may put HRT in their toolbox, but it needs to. Then when you get to the other side, you need to have conversations with your doctor of do you need it anymore? It's, it's somehow, it's become the menopausal hero. And this is, it's like what? It's like Ozempic. Like, Ozempic isn't the weight loss hero.
- [27:08]
Dr. Josh Axe
That's right.
- [27:09]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
The person who loses the weight is the hero.
- [27:11]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah.
- [27:11]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
HRT isn't the hero. It's the woman who was brave enough to change her diet and start fasting and working out.
- [27:17]
Dr. Josh Axe
That's right.
- [27:18]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
Stop outsourcing your power to these pharmaceuticals.
- [27:22]
Dr. Josh Axe
It's a great, it's a great point. It's a great point. You know, and there's a lot of natural things that can help. We talked about, you know, there's black cohocks, there's wild yam, there's Shatavari, there's a lot of herbs. And to your point, diet. Well, so let me talk about diet a little bit. I'd love to hear, like maybe your top 10 foods or some of your favorite foods categorically for menopause. And you mentioned A1C being incredibly important there in insulin. So walk us through. What are your favorite foods for menopause?
- [27:51]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
Well, okay. They may not be glamorous, but I'm going to tell you what I ate last night as a post menopausal woman. Dinner was, it was dinner time and we were looking at what we had. And I'm like, you know what? All I want is a beef patty, A grass fed beef patty. So my husband literally made us each a grass fed beef patty. I put some salt on it, some really good, healthy salt. And that was my dinner. And I did it because I was like, I don't. I had had a salad at lunch, I had fasted in the morning, and I was like, I need more protein. So it became very functional. But grass fed beef has the right omega balance. It has a ton of amino acids. You need amino acids to make hormones. It's a protein that is supporting muscle, your muscle strength. And we can debate the 30 grams of protein, you know, is what the research is showing. But I think we're all a little exhausted counting our protein, so. But I knew I needed a big dose of protein and, and a lot of that was built around what I had eaten earlier in the day. And then I was going surfing this morning, which is my new favorite sport. And I'm like, I'm gonna need that extra protein to be able to. I, I literally, this is literally what I did. I, I looked at the waves. I'm like, the waves are gonna be a little bigger tomorrow. I'm gonna need a little more paddle strength, so I better power up on protein the night before. So that's the food system that I think of postmenopausally.
- [29:28]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah, yeah. What's funny is like in your head you're like, okay, I got a big race tomorrow or a bit, you know, surfing or big. And typically people are like, I'm gonna go carb and eat a bunch of pasta. Right. You know, I don't know if you've seen, I mean, this is a little bit of a side note. I don't know how many people watch the show, the office, you know, Michael Scott, they do this race for rabies and he eats so much pasta. So anyways, but that's, but I remember being in high school and in college and doing sports and carving up. I remember going to the Olive Garden or this place called Fazoli's, but eating, you know, like so many carbs. And of course then you get later on to when you and I are in school and we're learning about, you know, nutrition and we're like, oh, why? You know, that was. And not to say there aren't some karma principles if you're doing a lot of long distance cardio, which ages you well.
- [30:16]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
But yeah, yeah, on the carb thing, this is why so in fast like a girl and eat like a girl. I came up with two diet types. One was what I call ketobiotic, which is basically low carb, but you're still eating some fruits and vegetables that are very low on the glycemic index. The other one was what I called hormone feasting foods where you're really bringing your glucose levels up like the day, the week before your period. When I looked at what menopausal women need, well, the first thing they need is to stop counting macros. The modern menopausal woman is exhausted counting.
- [30:53]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah.
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Dr. Mindy Pelz
So I didn't want to put any of the, of the grams in there, but I did look at like, what are we, what are we meant to, or what is, what do our bodies need? And at the top of the list has to be protein. And it has to be this grass fed protein that has a, has a higher nutrient amount that has more omega 3s. Salmon, wild salmon is one that I have started having a couple of times a week. I can feel a difference in my skin when I eat it. So I think protein of all kinds, clean proteins, needs to be at the top of the list.
- [31:29]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah. Yeah. It's so good. Yeah, it's so good. So, I mean, yeah, it's a lot of wild organic meat. It sounds like a salad. It sounds like a lot of vegetables. Low glycemic food, fruits. You talked about tubers. Right. So getting things like sweet potatoes and yams and it's that type of diet. Let me ask you. And I want to shift gears a little bit and then jump back. And I want to talk about supplements in a minute. But what is something today that most doctors, maybe even in the functional medicine space, could be conventional, but what's something most doctors are getting wrong about menopause today?
- [32:04]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
Oh, God. There's so many things I can say.
- [32:06]
Dr. Josh Axe
It could be your top three in ranking order, if you'd like. That's good.
- [32:09]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
Yeah. I mean, it's. It. Okay. Let's just say it this way, that menopause symptoms are exaggerated when the metabolic system is off. Most doctors are ignoring the metabolic system. I recently spoke at a metabolic conference this past weekend, and I put out a list of all the. The beginning signs of insulin resistance. They are exactly the beginning signs of menopause.
- [32:40]
Dr. Josh Axe
Wow.
- [32:41]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
They are exactly. The weight gain for no particular reason, the brain fog, the energy crash, the inflammatory joint pain, the trouble focusing. If you look at the beginning signs before you're diagnosed with official diabetes or insulin resistance, and perimenopausal signs of. Of low estrogen, they are exactly the same. Menopause is a metabolic challenge. And you know what? What I've come to really boldly believe is when we looked at Covid, we didn't. And again, you know, conspiracy theories aside, we didn't have a viral problem. We had a metabolic problem.
- [33:26]
Dr. Josh Axe
Oh, yeah, it's the same thing.
- [33:28]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
Thing here. We don't have a lack of HRT problem. We have a metabolic problem. Menopause is. The symptoms of menopause are inflamed by a poor, poorly regulated metabolic system.
- [33:41]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah, well, and by the way, this is to your point, this isn't just about menopause. This show is about menopause. A big part of it. But my point is that it's the same with pcos, right? I mean, this is another really common problem with infertility that's pre menopausal. And to your point, A lot of these co infections that people were dealing with with COVID and why they were getting so sick, it's a very, very similar thing. So fixing that A1C, that glucose levels, your blood sugar, insulin sensitivity is just so critical for menopause. I'm so glad you're saying that. It's so good. Have you ever felt like you're doing everything right? Eating clean, working out, taking all the right supplements, but your body just won't cooperate? Maybe you're tired, you're foggy, you're gaining weight, you can't sleep, and your doctor says your labs are normal. Here's the truth. Normal blood work does not mean your body is operating normally. It just means the levels in your blood work look okay. Not that your cells are actually using them the way they should. It's like using the wrong map and wondering why you're lost or putting gas in the tank, but the engine still won't turn over. Because if your cells are inflamed, stressed, or in survival mode, nothing you do will work the way it should. Your body's been whispering for years now. Maybe it's screaming. And you deserve someone who's actually listening. Go to mybloodwork.com and see what your blood work missed, what's really going on beneath the surface. Because you're not crazy, you're not lazy. You're just stuck in a system that was never built to find the problem. It was built to diagnose disease, not restore your health. @mybloodwork.com, we'll show you how to finally get your body and your life back. Talk to me about how a woman, once they go through menopause, how they can have more mental clarity, greater confidence, renewed energy. Is there something that happens hormonally where maybe when you're not having those same levels of estrogen fluctuation, where maybe a woman could. Is it possible they could be even more sound in their mind? Like, because again, we talked about wisdom. And what is wisdom? Sometimes it's having a sound mind, making good decisions. Is there something that actually, menopause is actually good for women to actually have even a heightened level of wisdom?
- [36:03]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
Oh, yes. Thank you. Thank you for asking me this. This was the whole, like, you know, like, purpose of this book was we got to change the way women are approaching this. And one of the greatest compliments I can get when I go out and speak about this is when 38 year olds come up to me and they go, I can't wait to go through menopause. I'M like, fabulous, great.
- [36:25]
Dr. Josh Axe
You, you.
- [36:26]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
You got the message. So here's what the neuroscience is saying, and it backs up what evolution, the evolutionary world is saying as well. When estrogen goes down, specifically one type of estrogen, it's called estradiol, it actually changes the brain structure of a woman. And there are neurons in the brain that get pruned away in order to make room for new neurons. Now, this work was done by one of the most respected female brain researchers, Dr. Lisa Moscone, who has written two books, one called the XX Brain and one called the Menopause Brain. And she states, in the menopause brain, there are three times in a woman's life that her brain will rewire itself. We all know the teenage one, when you go three, eight, you have a daughter.
- [37:19]
Dr. Josh Axe
Oh, yeah. Two.
- [37:20]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, we should have a chat in about 10 years. So when. When you're. When your daughter goes through puberty, the brain actually rewires itself. And what it does in that moment is it says, I need to get rid of the neurons that kept you dependent upon another human to be able to survive. And I need to grow new neurons that will make you independent. Because with a menstrual cycle comes the possibility of pregnancy. With pregnancy comes responsibility. So the brain rewires itself to prepare for the job it may have to do. Second time that a woman's brain rewires itself is postpartum. Because when the hormones go up and then they crash down, all of a sudden, that signals to the brain that, hey, you don't need those neurons in the brain that told you how to hold on to your to do list for the day. You don't need the neurons that told you where your keys are. You actually need new neurons. You need neurons that help you be more intuitive and more in touch with your baby that can't talk.
- [38:34]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah.
- [38:35]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
So the post menopausal brain rewires itself for this incredible intuition so that you can be a phenomenal mother during menopause. The parts of the brain, specifically neurons in the amygdala and a few neurons in the prefrontal cortex, the neurons that were people pleasing neurons. The neurons that told you you should do everything for everybody else. You should fix everybody's problem. You should make sure that everybody likes you, which is a cultural conditioning of a lot of women, too. Those neurons go away. This is why this is great news for women, because those neurons go away and they make room for neurons that allow you to finally tell your truth, allow you to stand up in A, in a position of leadership that allow you to live in a world that is designed by you, you are being rewired for leadership. But we don't. You don't see that here. We see it in Japan. We don't see it here.
- [39:40]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah.
- [39:40]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
So the rewiring itself is moving you towards a brain that can finally stop caring what everybody else thinks.
- [39:51]
Dr. Josh Axe
Can I tell you over the years something and you might find this interesting, is I have had. So when I teach lectures, and it might be sometimes it's health lectures, but also I've taught some on helping people find their passion and mission in life and grow. And it could be spiritual growth or business growth, a number of things, but fulfilling their calling in life. And one of the things I often will talk about is finding a mentor or somebody that can help you grow. And you know, how many women. And this happens more with women even than men in terms of them saying, I really want a mentor. I really want an older woman who would disciple me and mentor me, but I can't find one. And I don't feel like there's any out there.
- [40:33]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
Right, exactly. Because, well, a, they're too scared to say they're old. This is why we're botoxing ourselves, is like, I don't want to show you that I'm old because you might find that I'm not used to anymore. That has been the cultural meth message. You are not useful if you are an old woman now. An old man. Okay. Yeah. You're wise. We see that you have. You know, my husband has a lot of gray growing in his beard and gray along his hair. I think it looks amazing. And the culture would probably look at him and be like, there's a wise man. He might have something that he. That I can learn from. But if I. I don't. I don't dye my hair, but if I had a ton of gray in my hair, culturally, we've been like, old woman, not helpful.
- [41:19]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah. Yeah. And I'll say this one. It definitely is worse with women than men. I mean, again, women, as they age, again, it's culturally the worst. I mean, I even think about, like, you look at, like, I mean, acting in Hollywood, maybe one of the most prominent examples of this.
- [41:37]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
Oh, yeah.
- [41:38]
Dr. Josh Axe
But I also say for men, it's not at the level it should be, but it's definitely better. It's definitely better, but it's still not the level it should be. But it's definitely better. Yeah, Yeah. I, you know, I think part of it is. Yeah, culture has kind of, kind of glorified this being a young woman. And so that's to your point. I just think it's so important. And so if you're a woman out there, just as a just want to throw this out there, I listen. There is a rabbi that I followed. His name is Rabbi Maimonides. He's really the most, maybe one of the most famous rabbis ever in the past 2,000 years. And he has something called the charity ladder. And it says, and basically it goes up saying, what is the greatest gift you can give somebody? And like at the bottom of the rung, it's like giving them money and telling them you're giving it to them, which is a really great thing to do versus giving it in secret is even a greater type of charity. But then at the very top of the ladder, and by the way, Maimonides, if people want to know who he is, he's the person who said, give a man to fish and you'll feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you'll feed him for a lifetime. So that's who Maimonides is. And he said the greatest level of charity you could ever give to anybody is mentoring them, discipling them, teaching them. And so if you're a person out there and you have some sort of gift or skill, it could be spiritual, could be in business, it could be in health. Take time. Women right now, you know, 40 plus, and find some young women to go and mentor and add value to and it will bring so much value to your life as well.
- [43:12]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
Yeah, yeah. Thank you for saying that. And I, you know, one of the big theories I bring forward in age, like a girl, is a hypothesis called the grandmother hypothesis. And if you look back at the hunter gatherer days, the primal years, what they did once a woman's menstrual cycle ended is she actually was moved to a different position in the, within the tribe. And every morning the grandmothers would gather at the crack of dawn. They would do a seven hour trek to go hunt for food. They would go and get these tubers was the main thing, tubers and berries that they got. And then they would bring the food back and then they would start to cook the food. But if you, if you look at everything within that, so they had to go hunt for food because the men were off making a big animal kill. They only came back with an animal kill 3% of the time, which is one day out of 30. So who was keeping the woman who was pregnant, who was nursing the babies the toddlers, the little who was keeping them alive while the men were off hunting for food. It was the grandmother. It was the tubers that she brought back. And I even dove in and found some really cool research showing that as she was cleaning the tubers, that she was telling stories to the young children about what it was like to be a wise woman of the culture. And do you know, there is a neurochemical reason for this. So as she was telling a story, she was getting acetylcholine in her brain. She was actually causing her brain to stimulate the production of acetylcholine. Acetylcholine. If the story was really exciting, she was making dopamine and serotonin. So she was having this neurochemical experience, sharing her wisdom with this young member of the clan. They also believe that the young member of the clan, the reason our brains grew so big as humans and are as big as they are now is because of the grandmother who was actually imparting her wisdom. Wisdom onto this younger generation at a time when, if you think about it, their language skills were not as vast as ours are. So she found food, she shared knowledge, she created support, she grew the brain of the younger child. Like, by all means, we're evolutionary heroines in my book.
- [45:47]
Dr. Josh Axe
That's powerful. Yeah, that is so powerful. You know, there is a benefit we get. You know, we're kind of taught in our culture today to kind of hoard and accumulate for ourselves, right? And there's that old saying, right? Giving is better than receiving. And it's true neurochemically, I think, in a lot of cases. To where? To your point, with the acetylcholine, you are getting a benefit when you're adding value, when you're mentoring, when you're discipling others. I can tell you this myself, and I know you're going to agree with this, and of course, the statistics are very, very proven here. But when you're teaching somebody something that really teaches you to be a master, you really will understand it. I mean, I've learned more in my life when I'm preparing a presentation and I teach it. I learned from that way more than if I'm just watching a podcast or reading something. Not to say that I don't, because I do that, too. But you will learn. There's a different thing that's happening to your brain and your hormonal system when you are loving others, blessing others, teaching and mentoring others with these things and just a few resources. 1. Again, I want to encourage people to get Dr. Mindy's book here, Age like a Girl. You know, I have somebody is a close friend of Chelsea and I. Her name's Lisa Bevere. She's got some great books on leading and mentoring others. But that's a great thing. I want to encourage everybody just to adopt is thinking about who is somebody that you can mentor and lead and step into that position of wisdom here as well.
- [47:13]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
The other interesting, I just want to point out one other interesting thing on this is that even though you and I have made our livelihood out of the online world and not necessarily like seen people face to face, there is really interesting research that when you are in that leadership mentorship role that the dopamine you get when you are in person with somebody compared to the dopamine release than if you're on the phone or you're on is is like 10 times the natural amount of dopamine. So I also am calling for us all coming back to being in person with each other more because the neurochemical upside of that is much greater.
- [47:55]
Dr. Josh Axe
Oh, I'm so glad you said that. There's nothing like it. I mean again, we know that there are so many studies showing that your community, your support group, you know, I mean I had my brick and mortar clinic from end of 07 through 2013 in Nashville here where I saw patients in person and it was so gratifying. You know what's crazy, I still have patients from that long ago who I'll run into here at Urban Market or Whole Foods or somewhere. They're like doctor, it's so good to see you. And so I still get a flood of excitement with that. I'm actually opening a clinic with my brother in laws in January here in Nashville. It's going to be called the Longevity Club and Clinic. So I'll get to do a little bit of that. It'll be I really have practitioners I've trained and doctors and things that work with people directly now. But. But it is great. But I do all. But my point with that is I do like I have a men's group here and I meet with them regularly in person. And honestly if I'm not doing that like we meet together, we meet together in person once a month, we go through a book and we all share our thoughts and we kind of recycle between leadership books, marriage books, spiritual books and then we get together, we play pickleball, you know, a couple times a month. So we try to get together like once a week. And I have such a sense of satisfaction when I do that of like, it's so good for my mind and soul. And if I don't do that, I do feel a sense of kind of like longing and emptiness even. And you know, the same would go for, you know, connecting with my family. There's such a special thing of connecting with my wife and daughters. But I do think that women, we should hang out with our families as much as possible. But I do think in particular as well, there's such a benefit of women hanging out with other women and men hang out with other men and something that's happening hormonally, you know, and health wise there as well.
- [49:50]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
So one of the things that I discovered in looking at the neurochemicals that were affected by estrogen was this relationship of our oxytocin system. So something interesting about a woman's oxytocin system. A woman's amygdala has more oxytocin receptor sites than a man's. And because of that, there was a new stress response that was discovered way back in the 80s by a woman named Shelly Taylor. And the stress response is called tend and be friend. And women typically don't go to fight or flight. Stress response, we will often go towards. I need to lean in and connect with people. You may notice this in your marriage where your wife is like, hey, I want to talk about something that's really bothering me. And the reason is because when women go into connection, what ends up happening is it calms a woman's brain. So when a woman goes through menopause, that whole oxytocin system changes. So check this out, because this is really important for both men and women. She needs deeper connection. She can't sit and chat with you about sports. I'm sorry, unless you're going to tell her about the behind the scenes. Like my 86 year old mom, she loves Stephen Curry, she loves the warriors, and she will tell me all about his relationships and how they're doing and that keeps her engaged in the sport. Whereas my dad can tell you which games they've won and, and which games they've lost. So we, as we move into those postmenopausal years, we need deeper connection, which I think this is really important for marriages because when we've gone into a marriage where maybe it became all about the kids or all of a sudden we are like roommates and we don't talk to each other in the same conscientious way. When the kids go and you're left with a post menopausal woman, Sitting there, who is dying to calm her stress brain down by connecting to you. The best thing you can do is go into her feeling state. Not where you want to go. I get it. But ask her how she's feeling. Like, get to know her in a new way. And I'll throw this out here. My husband and I have been married 30 years, and we met in our early 20s, and we have now defined that there were three parts to our marriage. There was marriage 1.0 where we didn't have children. There was marriage 2.0 where we had children. And now we're creating marriage 3.0. And in marriage 3.0, he knows, because we've been talking about it, that I'm a different version. I need a deeper connection. I need things different, differently, because of the neurochemical change of menopause that I went through.
- [52:58]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah. Wow. That's so powerful. Thanks for sharing this. I think these discussions are so important because my belief is that the single greatest factor that impacts our health today isn't our diet. That's number two. It's a strong number two. But number one is our spiritual and emotional and mental health and our connections. And I think some proof of that is one, there's this Harvard longevity study that shows. It's almost. It shows that the number one determining factor for longevity is human connection. It's support, it's community. That's so important. And just looking at so many patients, how many people have health conditions, everything from cancer to hormone imbalance, because they're living in a state of fear or worry or wanting to please everyone around them, or they're rushing around trying to accomplish something, something to make their parents happy from when they were a child and things like. So all of that. I just think it's so important that we talked about this, and I'm glad we did. I do want to dive back into nutrition a little bit and ask you about supplementation. You talked about the foods you eat on a regular basis, the biggest needle movers for menopause. What are some of your favorite supplements to support menopause?
- [54:11]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
So the absolutes, the two that every woman should be bathing herself in is magnesium and zinc. So magnesium, these are nutrients. And this is the way. Think of it like you're gonna bake a bread. If you're gonna bake bread, you need to make sure that you have all the ingredients so the bread rises.
- [54:29]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah.
- [54:29]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
It's the same thing with our hormones. We've gotta have plenty of magnesium and plenty of zinc, and those are the two I See are the biggest deficits. Then we go to the next layer, which is vitamin D. You gotta have a good vitamin D level. If, you know, vitamin D is one of the pre prime vitamins to make all hormones. So watch your vitamin D levels. We have a, you know, we're sort of told that vitamin D is okay if it's around 30, 40, 50, but for a menopausal women, it should be up to 70, 80, 90. Like we want high levels of vitamin D. Then the third one, and we've kind of talked about this, and we talked about even more on my podcast, is all the omegas, because the, you know, you got to get that balance right of omega 3, 6, 9, because you need that cell, the outside the cell, you need it to be nourished. And it's a bilipid membrane. And so feed it the right, give it the right fatty acid so that it can bring the hormones into the cell and work its magic. Those are like, and those are the musts. And then of course, you know, we have the wild yam and those, those kind of things that help. But you know, it's, it's the same thing that I say with our HRT when I find that a woman dials her lifestyle in, she doesn't really need as many of the supplements.
- [55:53]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I totally agree. I totally agree. In most cases, if you're just doing things right nutritionally, getting the stress down, that's another, you know, that's another.
- [56:03]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
That's huge.
- [56:05]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah. Topic. Because. Because one of the things I found is that if you fix two hormones, everything else fixes itself. You mentioned one earlier, and that's insulin, but the other one's cortisol. Right.
- [56:16]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
I was just going to say.
- [56:17]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah, it's like you fix those two things. Talk to me a little bit. I mean, does cortisol, how does that, does that change at all in menopause? Or is it kind of the same? Yeah, yeah. Share that with us.
- [56:27]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
Yeah. I'm super happy you brought cortisol up because I think that I was thinking when you were talking earlier about a couple of stories of people, I was thinking, you know, it's interesting that we actually logically think that you take a very stressed out woman in menopause and you rub some cream on her and all of a sudden everything's gonna be okay. That's not how it works, people, in case you didn't get that memo. So here's the interesting thing about cortisol is that when a woman goes through menopause, starting at 40, think of it this way. Your ovaries are like, okay, we don't have a lot of eggs in here. We're not going to be producing as many sex hormones. So we're moving ourselves towards retirement. But your brain still needs some estradiol. Your brain still needs progesterone and testosterone. So what we're going to do is we're just going to hand that responsibility over to another organ. And this organ is to be with you till the rest of your life. And that organ is your adrenal glands. So if you are maxed out, the adrenals are like, wait a second, ovaries. I'm over here working triple time and now you want me to make sex hormones? No. So when we go through menopause, if we are in a high stress world, our sex hormones are going to be tanked because the adrenals can't handle the load.
- [57:57]
Dr. Josh Axe
You know what's so interesting is in Chinese medicine, when a woman has these symptoms that we're talking about, when they're having the prominent menopausal symptoms, the number one thing they're typically diagnosed with in terms of a pattern is they call it a kidney. It actually means adrenal. It's an adrenal energy deficiency. They'll say that's really kind of one of the core areas that's the most efficient. And the other one would be spleen chi, which is actually your pancreas. It's actually insulin. That's the secondary one. But those are the two in that same way. Let me ask you this, I'm curious, have you tapped into peptides at all yourself? Have you ever used.
- [58:35]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
- [58:37]
Dr. Josh Axe
Are there any that you've noticed or seen that have benefited women as they go through menopause?
- [58:43]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
Oh, yeah, yeah. Thank you for asking. I hope your new clinic's going to have peptides.
- [58:47]
Dr. Josh Axe
Of course, I assume it is.
- [58:50]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
I will tell you, the one that has been a game changer for me, and I'm preaching it from the rooftops, is cerebralysin. It stimulates bdnf. So I'll use the example when I was writing this book. One of the challenges that a post menopausal woman, or menopausal women in general, will have, is focus. And as I was writing the book, I was just finding I would have to set timers and be like, okay, in an hour you can get up and go walk. And then I started doing cerebralysin and all of a sudden I noticed I was sitting at the computer for eight Hours straight. Like, I didn't need to get up. So I love that one. Okay. The other one. The other good one that I hope your clinic's going to have is ghkcu.
- [59:38]
Dr. Josh Axe
Oh, amazing. Yeah. The copper peptide. You know, actually I've used that a lot myself for. So when I had my. My spinal infection, I needed to support tissue regeneration. The blend I did was BPC157, TB500, and GHKCU. And there's great studies on GHKCU also for skin health, anti aging.
- [59:57]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
I mean, it's a. Yeah, I have a funny story. So Leann Rimes is a good friend of mine. In fact, she's all over Nashville right now.
- [60:07]
Dr. Josh Axe
Oh, yeah.
- [60:08]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
And so we've been geeking out on peptides for a long time. And so she. She said to me one day, hey, I have a friend I ran into that I hadn't seen in like a month. And he looked so young. I didn't know what he had done. And he told me he had done GHK C U every day for 30 days. So I started taking it. And then like 30 days later, I was heading over to Leanne's house and I said, okay, here's what I'm going to tell you. You haven't seen me in a month. You have full reign to tell me, can you tell a difference in my skin or not? And if it's a no, you can't tell. I'm totally fine. No hurt feelings here. So I show up and she looks at me, she goes, oh, my God, you are not joking. She was like, the moisture in your skin, it looks more moist. The wrinkles are less pronounced. And I was like, yeah, ghkcu. That was it.
- [61:00]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah, yeah. It's amazing, you know, going back, I mean, peptides are found in the high. We talked about this a little bit earlier, but. Or we talked about glandulars, but that's where they're found is in the highest doses, like historically. So all of them, they have these class of peptides called bioregulators within these organs. So I think we're gonna see in the future because these aren't very prominent in the American market right now. They're more prominent in Russia and some other countries.
- [61:29]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
Interesting.
- [61:30]
Dr. Josh Axe
But they're actually bioregulars for ovaries, for uterus, so really specific peptides for those organ systems. For thyroid, there's one called thyrogen. So. So it's going to be really exciting over the next few years to see how some of these peptides can be used, you know, to support, you know, longevity, hormonal health, and everything else.
- [61:51]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
I'm so happy we're having this discussion because I actually believe it will replace hrt.
- [61:57]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah, I think so, too.
- [61:58]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
Once we figure out the stack, we figure out the right combination. And I've asked. I don't. Do you know Dr. Naysha Winters?
- [62:06]
Dr. Josh Axe
I've heard the name. I don't know them, though.
- [62:09]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
Yeah, she teaches naturopaths how to basically, cancer. Like how to help patients that have cancer.
- [62:16]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah.
- [62:17]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
And so of course in that discussion is, should these people take hrt? And of course she's like, no, they shouldn't take hrt. And so then what? What do they do? Well, her group has been talking about peptides and what would be the appropriate peptide stack? So somebody's going to nail it. I don't know when it's coming, but I think that's going to be the next wave after we fall out of love with our HRT experience.
- [62:43]
Dr. Josh Axe
100% agree. 100%. One of the things that happens in menopause is there's some very specific symptoms that women will experience. But one of those things I hear from a lot of women is women will wake up around that 2am or 3am marker during menopause. Why is that? And how do they change that symptom specifically? Yeah.
- [63:03]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
So, okay. The chapter I had the most fun researching was the sleep chapter for this book. And what I found, and I don't know why nobody ever taught me this as a woman, was that estrogen stimulates melatonin. And if you think about it like, God, our bodies are so brilliant. So melatonin, believe it or not, spikes a day after estrogen spikes. That's how brilliantly we're designed. So that if an egg, you know, estrogen spikes, an egg is released. That takes a lot of energy from a woman. And now melatonin comes in so you go to sleep so that you can rest from the experience of releasing an egg. That's why. And you know what comes in two days before estrogen hits her peak is oxytocin. So you feel like connecting.
- [63:53]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yes.
- [63:54]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
We're just so brilliant. Anyways, I just had to. I just. I geek out on how well we're designed, so. But then estrogen, what it does is every time it is released, it goes up to the timekeeper in the brain. And that little spot in the hypothalamus, it's called the suprachiasmatic nucleus, is the part of the brain that is assessing where you are in your day. And when estrogen pings it, it's bathed with estrogen receptor sites. It then sends the message onto the pineal gland to make melatonin. Okay, so you were regulated. This is what women need to know. Your sleep was regulated by estrogen. You don't have as much estrogen. So you need to tell that timekeeper where you are in the day. It's in your responsibility. And so you do that with the number one thing is light. You've got to see that red light in the morning when the sun comes up so that melatonin production turns off. You need the red light at night so that you see the sunset. So melatonin production turns on. You need to go out in the middle of the day. So I loved what you said this on my podcast about all the different types of light we get in the middle of the day from just the sunlight so that you. You're telling your body where it is in within the day. It doesn't come naturally to you anymore. So light is a big one. Movement. Let's go back to our hunter gatherers. They moved in the morning, they didn't move in the afternoon. So go to rearrange your workouts. They need to be in the morning because that's where how you tell your body where it is in. In within the day. Food. Eat in the light. Don't eat when it's dark out. The body mixes up the whole melatonin system. So we need our eating window to be in the middle of the day. And then the last one that I found that was so interesting was temperature. And we keep thinking that temperature is because, you know, you're getting these hot flashes and it's turning up the heat in you. But when I went to go look at the research, what we know is in order to get melatonin production after dark, you need to have the temperature in the room slowly go down so that by the time you are in bed, it's gone down at least 2 degrees compared to what you were your temperature was your body was experiencing earlier in the day.
- [66:27]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah.
- [66:28]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
So you need whatever room you're reading a book in. If you're watching tv, you got to put some blue blockers on. But you need that room to be a little cold. This is why the bedroom has to stay cold, because it's another signal to the body that to make melatonin. And if you don't nail those, the body doesn't make melatonin. And you're up at 2 in the morning.
- [66:47]
Dr. Josh Axe
Yeah, it's so critical. We need to mirror nature. Right? You need to do it in a, in a friendly way inside your house, minus the, you know, maybe storms and wind. But yeah, we need to model nature. We were designed and created to live in tune with nature and it's so important. Well, Dr. Mindy, thanks so much for coming on. This has been wonderful. You know, I think that there are so many women that are suffering and going through menopause and they don't know about a lot of the natural protocols and ways and things that can be done to allow them to soar through, even thrive through, and even. And I love that you really put an emphasis on this being something that's good, it's exciting, it's something that is a blessing. And I love that that's the mindset as well. And I want to encourage everybody to run out and check out Dr. Mindy's book. It's called Age Like a Girl. Okay, so Age Like a Girl and it's a great book about longevity, a great book about menopause for women. And so again, and Dr. Mehti here, she's a New York Times best selling author. She's a great author and writer. Amazon.com, bookstores nationwide, you can find the book. Also, she's got an amazing podcast you can check out. And then what's your handle on social for people to find you there? Dr. Mindy?
- [68:03]
Dr. Mindy Pelz
Yeah, it's just Dr. Mindy Pelz. I would say what a lot of people don't know is I put out three to four new videos on YouTube. Going into the in depth on all this stuff, looking at the research so you can find me anywhere. But YouTube is really the main hub of where we launch everything from.
- [68:20]
Dr. Josh Axe
Amazing, amazing. Well, awesome. Well, hey, thanks everybody for tuning in here to the Dr. Josh Axe Show. Remember, each and every week we're diving deep into the science and principles behind how you can heal physically, mentally, spiritually and take your health and your life to the next level. Also, big thanks to Dr. Mindy Pelz here. And hey, if you're watching on YouTube, let us know what is something that really stood out to you about some of the wisdom that Dr. Mindy shared with us today. And if you want to support the show, do us a favor, subscribe. By the way, if you're not subscribed, sometimes these videos may not show up in your feed. Reason being, we've had a few of our videos shadow banned because we talk about really controversial topics. Everything from cancer to sometimes even hormone replacement therapy. And these types of things. So make sure to subscribe so you don't miss a video and you have it show up there as well. And also thanks everybody who's sharing who's on mission with us here again, there's a lot of women who could greatly benefit knowing the truth about how to age like a girl, eat the right foods, take the right supplements, have the right mindset around menopause. So thanks everybody for sharing this as well. Thanks again to Dr. Minnie Pelt and we'll see you on the next episode. Limu Imu and Doug. Here we have the Limu Emu in its natural habitat helping people customize their car insurance and save hundreds with Liberty Mutual. Fascinating. It's accompanied by his natural ally, Doug. Uh, Limu is that guy with the binoculars watching us. Cut the camera. They see us. Only pay for what you need@libertymutual.com Liberty, Liberty, Liberty Liberty Savings. Very underwritten by Liberty Mutual Insurance Company and affiliates excludes Massachusetts.