B (28:34)
Yeah, but it. But getting that test was a game changer. When it came back, it explained everything. So let's head back to the whiteboard and let's take a look at what we learned from this test. So this is Sage's Dutch test, and this is a 24 hour urine test. I think this is the gold standard for women's hormones, especially if you are perimenopause, premenopause or post menopausal and you want to get an accurate picture of your hormones. The reason why is this doesn't just take a snapshot in time. It looks at the ratio of hormones. And listen up, women. The ratio of hormones is as important as your levels because at some times during the day they can be at different levels. So when you just take a blood test and you just get a quick snapshot, you don't really get the true picture. And then it's hard to prescribe hormone therapy because you don't have the full profile. So before I explain what's going on here and before we go into this test, understand that estrogen is a category of hormones. So women have something called E1 and they have something called E2, and they have something called E3. So there is estrone, E, S, T, R, O, N. Estradiol. Yeah, estrone, estradiol. I'm going to tell you number three here in a second, but it's this estradiol that I want to focus on here for a minute. And the third one is estriol. Okay. So the importance in understanding that there's three different variants, if you will, of estrogen is that they are active at three different times, meaning some are more prevalent postmenopausal, which would be E1. It's a very weak estrogen. Some are more potent during your menstrual cycle when you are still a menstruating female. That would be E2. In fact, E2 is 10 times more potent, 10 times more potent than E1 and 100 times more potent than E3. These are still important. But estradiol, the most potent estrogenic hormone is 100 times more potent than estriol and 10 times more potent than estrione. The reason why that's important is, like, this is the master hormone, and this is very high in premenopausal women. And then it tanks in menopause. Okay? So when this hormone tanks, let me tell you what this hormone is responsible for. This estrogen hormone is responsible for mood. It's responsible for skin elasticity. It is very linked to your emotional state. It's linked to your libido. It's also linked to your menstrual cycle. So why does your menstrual cycle stop when estradiol tanks? Because this is the main potent hormone for your menstrual cycle. Why does your mood get thrown off? Why do you have emotional outbursts? You're happy one second, you want to kill somebody the next. That's because this is a very, very powerful form of estrogen. Why does your skin look like all of a sudden you started aging? And why does the elasticity of your skin change? Why does libido just leave the building? Because this is the main driver of all four of those things. Okay, so when we look at the Dutch test. Let me erase this for a minute. I'm just going to walk you through this. When we look at the Dutch test, you see this is the summary of the testing. And thankfully, Sage has just been very willing to be vulnerable about this. Now, the good news is we fixed all of this, but she's been very willing to be vulnerable about this. And I'm going to show you guys a follow up test when we get one done. Because she's on hormone therapy now and almost all of these consequences have been mitigated. So you see this little arrow right here that's pointing to this little purple square? This purple square represents postmenopausal. It is pointing directly at the postmenopausal area. It's not in the green range where it would normally be if she was still having a normal menstrual cycle. Same with progesterone, which, by the way, helps women sleep, can also help men sleep. So what I would suspect is that mood would be off, skin elasticity would be off, the menstrual cycle would have ended or be very, very off. I mean, massive gaps in timing because this hormone, which is between 10 times and 100 times more powerful than the other estrogens, is floored out and in the postmenopausal range. So if you see this, you have a perfect explanation for why you're Feeling the way that you do. The thing about progesterone is when progesterone floors out, you have a difficult time falling asleep and staying asleep. This is why sometimes progesterone can be a magic pill for men and women, usually in younger ages, that are having difficult time sleeping. The other thing that I want to point out here, and I'm going to explain this later in the test, is that we have a waking hormone called cortisol. And if we look at waking in the morning versus nighttime, a normal pattern for cortisol, as you may know, and this is one of the reasons why I think that you should be getting morning light, is that cortisol is rising in the morning. Cortisol is our waking hormone. It's responsive to light. That's why first light in the morning, getting sunlight in your eyes in the morning is such a good thing. It actually starts to fall in the morning into the afternoon. This is why you feel more energy later in the morning, because you feel that energy in the morning and you feel lack of energy throughout the day because the cortisol is falling. This is very normal. And then as you go into your nighttime sleep pattern, it falls off to a low. This is when melatonin starts to rise. So actually look at Sage's cortisol cycle. So do you see here how cortisol is barely rising? This means it's really hard to wake up in the morning. So this is one of the catastrophes that also happens in menopause. Why? Because cortisol is made from another hormone called pregnenolone. It also makes aldosterone, but it's made from pregnenolone. So when you go into post menopause, your estrogens start to drop. The most powerful estrogen gets floored out, the mood changes, the skin elasticity changes, libido leaves the building, and you feel like a crazy person. Right? And your menstrual cycle is all jacked up if you even have a menstrual cycle. So that explains those four things. If we don't have cortisol rising in the morning and falling later in the morning, this is waking up, this is morning, this is afternoon. So by mid morning, it's peaked and then it starts to fall off during the day. But look at this low rise in cortisol, she has no cortisol. I'm going to show you why. Because her pregnenolone, the precursor to make this hormone, was also floored out. Which is why if you're going to do hormone replacement therapy, talk to Your ob GYN about replacing the entire suite of hormones including pregnenolone, testosterone, progesterone, E1, E2 and E3. The other thing is, look at what's happening in the afternoon as cortisol should be tanking. Look at the direction of her cortisol. So her stress hormone is rising when the circadian cycle should normally be tanking, right? And then it barely goes down and matches her normal cycle. So we're out of the hormone. We've run out of the hormone cortisol, which makes it very, very difficult to wake up in the morning. Look at the 24 hour free cortisol. Look where that's pointing. It's completely deficient. Look at her ability to clear cortisol, very deficient. That's a solid F, right? On a 0 to 100 scale, 30% is a solid F. So we're not clearing cortisol, we're not producing cortisol. It's actually rising for a prolonged period of time when it actually should about this point, start to fall off so that she's in a normal circadian cycle. So now your circadian rhythm is off. You're trying to wake up in the morning without a waking hormone. You're trying to go to bed at night without a sleeping hormone. Your mood is off, your energy is off, your menstrual cycle is completely out of balance, your skin elasticity is decreasing, libido has left the building. And this seems like a major catastrophic catastrophe. And all of this is linked mainly to these two hormones. Let me show you something going on on the next page. I won't bore you with all of this. These are the different phases. You're welcome to look at those. So look here. This is what I meant about a precursor. Okay? So remember, these purple blocks are postmenopausal. So when you see these things pointing to these purple blocks, that is the postmenopausal block. This is the postmenopausal range, right? So you see that all of these hormones are in this postmenopausal range. Look at this. See this postmenopausal range here? The important point that I want to make now is that there is a hormone called pregnenolone. Pregnenolone is this precursor. Look at this dhea, also low in her progesterone. What kind of sleep can you expect to have when your progesterone is like this? So it's like, it's literally like an evil wizard. I mean, it takes your libido away, makes your skin less elastic, throws Your menstrual cycle off, throws your mood and emotional state off and throws your sleep into the toilet because the progesterone is also off. Now progesterone is going to become two other hormones. It's not important. I don't want to get too deep into the hormone therapy here, but you see, if this is in the post menopausal range, so are its sub constituents. Then we look at what DHEA becomes. Well, DHEA comes over and helps to makes the Android hormones that are precursors for testosterone. This has not yet fallen. It also makes testosterone which becomes free testosterone. So if we look at this cascade of events, her E1, which is a relatively weak estrogen, is floored out. The most powerful estrogen in the body has become postmenopausal. This actually increases in postmenopause. Her most powerful estrogen hormone is floored out and even her E3 is off. So all of these hormones are floored out. It is no wonder you feel the way you do. This is why I love this test, because it gives your doctor a chance to actually replace all of these hormones. Look at the metabolized cortisol. Look at this, guys. There's no way. And then guess what happens. All of this happening at one time throws women into fight or flight. You're stressed out because libido's gone. You're looking in the mirror and you're like, wait, all of a sudden I'm aging faster. I can't wake up in the morning, I feel like a lead balloon. I have no motivation, my mood is completely off. You get something called flat affect or mood numbness, where the peaks and valleys of mood disappear. So you don't get really, really, really happy. You don't get really, really, really pissed off. You're just kind of very melancholy. There's no positive aggression towards life. There's no positive aggression towards working out. And stress causes the brain to release acth, which stimulates the adrenal glands to make hormones, including DHEA and cortisol. So stress aggravates this even, even more. And mainly the stress hits during the day when your cortisol should be low. So you see that even though she doesn't have a lot of cortisol, the stress is actually causing it to rise when, when it should be falling. So this is why it can wreck your metabolism. This is why women feel so off and they feel like a crazy person and they have brain fog, like they literally can't complete a coherent thought. This is not them breaking down, this is their Hormones going in the tank and we don't have to suffer like this. Women, you do not have to suffer with the consequences of menopause. We know how to treat this now. And this is the gold standard test. So DHEA production, thankfully, is still in the normal range. It's postmenopausal, but it hasn't completely flattened itself out. Look at this. Waking in the morning. So what do we want more of cortisol. What do we want less of? Melatonin. So melatonin upon waking, we want melatonin in the cycle from here to here. The lower the melatonin, the easier it is to wake up. Cortisol rises in the morning, melatonin falls. Look at her. Melatonin off the charts. So no cortisol, no waking hormone plethora, an excess of melatonin. So it's no wonder she feels like a lead balloon, or she used to feel like a lead balloon getting out of bed in the morning. This is not them being lazy. This is not them not being motivated. They literally do not have the hormones to accomplish a normal day. They wake up more exhausted than they went to bed. And it is hard to even get out of bed and find motivation because the motivation is gone, because the mood and emotion is off. And the ability to actually just get up and conduct your day is even harder because you are literally being drugged by your own body. Your melatonin is through the roof. I mean, this is off the charts, right? This actually cannot register any more waking melatonin. So it's like taking your sleep medication in the morning and taking your Adderall right before bed. Right? So take an amphetamine, try to sleep, and then by the time you fall asleep, you wake up in the morning, take sleep medication. That's kind of how it feels. Your body is drugging you because the hormonal cycle is so off. The DHEA production is also in the postmenopausal range. So this is what you'll see on this. This is why I love this test. This is why I think every woman who's going through menopause should do a test like this. Hopefully you have an OBGYN that can read this test. And then what you do is you do the prescription based on these levels because you have a 24 hour urine test. So the next thing we're going to do is talk about exactly what hormones she's on. Because Sage not only had the mood, the emotional, the poor waking cycle, just absolutely felt like she couldn't get out of first gear. And some Nights, she was getting good sleep but not getting good rest. And this is because the hormonal cycle was so off. So in addition to that, when you go in and you replace these hormones, you don't just replace the hormones, you replace the precursors, like pregnenolone. It's better to do your testosterone in the morning and do your estrogen in the evening. That's more in tune with your circadian cycle. So usually you will split your hormone doses into two types, and I'm going to show you exactly the doses that she's on. To add insult to injury, there is a correlation between frozen shoulder, what's called adhesive capsulitis, and menopause. So as she plummeted into menopause, she actually got frozen shoulder. She got adhesive capsulitis, and she couldn't raise her. Ooh, that was good. She couldn't raise her arm above about right here. A few weeks after she was on hormone therapy, she could raise her hand all. All the way above her shoulder and point straight at the ceiling. Her mood improved, her emotional state improved, her sleep improved, her brain fog went away. All of these things are perfectly normal. Don't think you're crazy. I also want to point out the fact. I think I talked about it on the podcast, but I also want to point out the fact that the very same study that linked estrogen supplementation and estrogen hormone therapy to breast cancer was debunked in the same study by furthering the study over a prolonged period of time. Happy to link that study below. So women do not be afraid of hormone therapy because you think it's going to increase the risk of breast cancer. In fact, in some areas of the study, breast cancer went down. The breast cancer risk was reduced by being on hormone therapy. So years ago, we used to take rifle shots at these hormones. We used to just give estrogen, or we would just give testosterone, or we just get pregnenolone, or we would just give progesterone. And that is not a way to treat women. If you're going to replace the levels, you have to replace them all, and that way they feel normal again. Listen, there's what I share on this podcast, and then there's what I share with my inner circle. If you've been following me for a while, you know how I hold nothing back here but my VIP community. That's where the real magic happens. Picture this. You're struggling with energy crashes, brain fog, or just feeling like you're not operating at your peak and you don't know where to get real answers. But here's what really sets this apart. You're not just getting my insights. When I have incredible guests on the podcast. VIP members get to submit questions for a private podcast segment. So that world renowned expert we just interviewed, you get exclusive access to their knowledge, tailored to your specific situation. This section is under the private podcast section in the Ultimate Human Community. And speaking of exclusive, you're getting my personal protocols, the exact tools I use for water fasting, gut optimization, and morning routines that have taken me decades to perfect. This isn't theory. This is what works in the real world. The community launches challenges throughout the year where you get direct access to me and my network of experts. It's like having a personal health advisory board for less than $100 a month. Your health is your wealth. And this investment pays dividends for Life. Join the VIP community at theultimatehuman.com VIP and step into your ultimate potential. Now, let's get back to the ultimate human podcast. This is why a standard blood test doesn't tell the whole story. We pulled standard blood on Sage at the same time. She's been very willing to show this too. This is another byproduct of menopause. As you become less sensitive to insulin, so the hemoglobin A1C, the three month average of your blood sugar, starts to rise. She would have been Pre diabetic at 5.7. She was at 5.6. I can assure you my wife eats very, very well and she exercises every day. She is the cleanest diet in our house. There is no reason for her to be almost pre diabetic. The rest of her levels look amazing. You know, kidney function, her blood, urea nitrogen, her creatinine. When you look at her iron levels, they're all within the range. She had done an IV close to this test, so it had B12 in it. What's called a Myers cocktail. So we can discount this level. Her vitamin D3 is in a great range between 60 and 80 nanograms per deciliter. So when you're walking through labs, I mean, look at her. She's not on cholesterol medication. Cholesterol is amazing. Her triglycerides are fantastic because she doesn't eat a lot of sugar. Let me actually blow these up. So her LDL cholesterol, she is not on a statin. Total cholesterol. Her triglycerides are in a great part of the range. They're nowhere near 150, which is about the high end of the range. 149. Healthy levels of HDL cholesterol because she eats fish oil, olive oils, a of lot, a lot of good, healthy saturated fats, black seed oil. So everything is looking good. Even her thyroid is relatively in the normal range. It's a little low on thyroid hormone, T3, but her homocysteine is fantastic. You know, she takes trimethylglycine for that tmg. So these labs tell a totally different story. There's the stress. Right. There's the stress coming from cortisol right there, which is no reason, I mean, no wonder why she was actually floored out. Her testosterone would still tell you that. You know, you should have some libido. Your testosterone's still in a good range. You know, the high end of the range is 50, but the low end is 4, almost 6 times that level. You have free testosterone. You know, it's not zeroed out. Your cycle appears to be in the same phase, so there's no reason for your cycle to be. Be off. The test did pick up the fact that her DHEA was on the low side. It's not flagged low, but look at this. You could increase her DHEA by 100 points and she would still be in the normal range. This will eventually have an impact on testosterone and other hormones because it's a precursor for those things. But what I'm telling you is this lab doesn't tell the right story. Okay. Everything is within range. Her hermatic rate or blood viscosity, her total red blood cell count, her immune system's not lit up like a Christmas tree, so it just doesn't tell the right story. And sadly, what happens is people just do a simple blood test and it says, hey, it's. You're healthy, everything's within normal range, or it's slightly out of the range. That's why the Dutch test is so powerful, especially for women. Okay.
