27: Hormone Harmony ft. Dr. Mary Pines

Hormone Harmony at Any Age with Dr. Mary Pines

===

[00:00:00] Introduction to the So Frickin Healthy Podcast

---

[00:00:00] Dr. Mary Pines: So think of your body as this incredible orchestra full of different processes, different parts, instruments. that need to be cued at precise times, at the right volumes, in the correct keys, to create this beautiful, harmonious symphony.

[00:00:16] Meet Dr. Mary Pines

---

[00:00:16] mary-pines--she-her-_2_06-20-2024_074131: Welcome to the So Frickin Healthy podcast. My name is Dr. Mary Pines. I am a Cambridge trained biomedical scientist and longevity expert with a combined 23 years of research experience, education, and consulting.

[00:00:31] Danna Levy Hoffmann: Hey Megan

[00:00:34] Megan J. McCrory: Hey, Danna. So we have Dr. Mary Pines with us today. Thank you for being here,

[00:00:39] Megan J. McCrory: Mary.

[00:00:40] Dr. Mary Pines: you for having me. I'm delighted.

[00:00:42] Megan J. McCrory: I'm always in awe because Danna, Danna is usually finding most of our guests and she is just so good at finding really awesome people to talk to. I feel like Danna. Somehow you should be paid for finding interesting people. if, if you ever have another hobby or another side hustle, you collect amazing people and Dr.

[00:01:02] Megan J. McCrory: Mary is one of them who I've heard about now for literally months. And I'm so excited to

[00:01:08] Danna Levy Hoffmann: Oh, thank you, I think like attracts like, so there you go, Danna. She's super amazing I have to say that Mary, we met probably it's been a couple of years, I guess, on and off, but like, we've been working together at the startup for, I guess, the last year. And, Mary has also been part of my kind of like support system.

[00:01:29] Danna Levy Hoffmann: Mary has been incredible and she has been really super supportive and she is just a fountain of knowledge, which is why I was super excited to have her on the podcast because there's so many topics that she is just, you could wake her up in the middle of the night, shake her. and ask her a question and, you know, she won't even wake up.

[00:01:50] Danna Levy Hoffmann: She'll just like blabber on, go on a tangent. And today I really wanted us to focus on something that's really, really important, especially for us three who are at that stupid age called perimenopause. And Mary, Knows that shit from, beginning to end. So really excited to have you on Mary

[00:02:10] Dr. Mary Pines: Thanks Danna. That's very sweet of you to say. I'm delighted to be here and to have been able to support someone as amazing as you with your deep knowledge. So, yeah, I should, I need a spokesperson. Maybe I can contact you after

[00:02:24] Dr. Mary Pines: this. Awesome.

[00:02:29] Megan J. McCrory: so we, we want to have Dr. Mary on a couple of episodes because her fountain of knowledge runneth over.

[00:02:36] The Importance of Hormones

---

[00:02:36] Megan J. McCrory: So, but we're going to start with some basics on this first episode with Dr. Mary, and we're really going to just talk about hormones. in general at any age. I mean, we're going to, we're probably going to lean a little bit more on women's because women's hormones suck.

[00:02:52] Megan J. McCrory: so we're probably going to talk a little bit more about that. We're going to touch a little bit on the men, but for the most part, we're three women and we really want to talk about this. So that's what we're going to do. Cause it's our show. Dr. Mary.

[00:03:04] Understanding Hormones and Their Functions

---

[00:03:04] Megan J. McCrory: Could you maybe start us off with explaining what hormones are for the people who hear this word all the time and they think they might know, but just to be on the baseline and why they are so critical or crucial to our overall health.

[00:03:22] Dr. Mary Pines: Absolutely. Great question. We'll, we'll start with the foundations. Hormones, yeah, they can suck, but they can suck because they're just so sensitive. they get perturbed by lots of things and I'll, I'll just go into briefly into what they are and, and why. Okay. So, Hormones are basically little cellular messengers, they're molecules, small molecules produced by a few glands in our bodies, for example, the thyroid, ovaries, testes, if you're a man, the adrenals, pineal, et cetera, and they, they're secreted from these tissues and they act on them. On other tissues throughout your body. There's about 50 of them and they control at a really high level. So many of the vital processes that go on in our bodies, our entire lives from the time we're a single cell until the time we move along. and my favorite analogy about hormones is to think of them like this.

[00:04:19] Dr. Mary Pines: So think of your body as this incredible orchestra full of different processes, different parts, instruments. that need to be cued at precise times, at the right volumes, in the correct keys, to create this beautiful, harmonious symphony. Well, your hormones are the conductors of that symphony, ensuring every instrument or process happening inside is happening at the right time and at the right level. So you can see that on the whole, Our hormones are really our keys to vitality, and if they're kind of not right, if they're wonky, if they're sucking, lots of things downstream are going to suck, because they operate at a really high level. They're big managers. So they're really our fountain of youth, and we need to care for them and care for, so they can care for our bodies to ensure that they remain as robust as possible long term. And as I mentioned, the thing about them is that they're sensitive. They don't really respond well to stress and unhealthy habits, and they're often actually the first things to go wonky when we're faced with hard times. So they're like the canaries in the coal mine. And this kind of really makes sense when you think of the role of, say, your sex hormones.

[00:05:37] Dr. Mary Pines: This is really what we'll be mostly focused on today. The role of your sex hormones in,Evolution and fertility in making your body vital and, you know, ready to make a baby evolution wouldn't be having us getting pregnant if we're really stressed out or we don't have enough food, for example. So the first thing to go when we're stressed, our sex hormones start to tank. And I mean like severe or sustained chronic stress. And stress of all kinds. So this could be like perceived stress, you know, an annoying boss, a really hard job, I'm not sleeping well, or hidden stress, like, uh, nutrient deficiencies or toxic burdens. And, this is probably a part of, you know, the infertility pandemic we're in today. We've got all of these stresses and some of them we're not even aware of. So,This is one reason why, stress is a really key topic when we're talking about hormones, and we'll get to that for sure, I'm sure.

[00:06:37] Hormone Imbalance and Its Effects

---

[00:06:37] Megan J. McCrory: So all this is to say that the 50 or so hormones in your body are extremely important to your health, and it's really important that we care for them. Good. And I think then you, you mentioned specifically sex hormones. So we're talking about estrogen, androgens, all these different, uh, which, kick in the most, when we go through puberty, and then also dictate our, our sexual reproduction. but besides those, there's other hormones in our body, like insulin is a hormone and people don't often think, oh, that's also a hormone.

[00:07:09] Megan J. McCrory: and. I'm assuming because you just talked about like food, for example, and like, I'm assuming that if something is wrong, with like, if you have a metabolic disease where your insulin is affected, how, how does that knock on to your sex hormones necessarily? Or do they do those different kinds of hormones within your body, like trigger reactions in different areas of the different

[00:07:35] Dr. Mary Pines: Great question. Absolutely. Like everything in your body, you, you tapped into it, that everything is connected. And so, metabolic dysfunction, like you mentioned, insulin, if insulin is too high, For whatever reason, sometimes we're eating too many carbs. Sometimes it's genetic as in, type one diabetes or, type two diabetes, which is lifestyle related that can really impact how we produce sex hormones, and can really, knock down their production or up.

[00:08:07] Dr. Mary Pines: It depends a little bit on the individual, but, there are conditions like PCOS tends to be associated with. maybe higher androgens and higher insulin. and often when our blood sugar runs high, so for women and men, the sort of global picture of hormones, sex hormones particular, can go down. But it just sort of depends.

[00:08:33] Dr. Mary Pines: It's a bit context dependent. I think one, another couple of hormones really worth mentioning. In this vein are cortisol, the stress hormone, and th yroid So, Synthroid, across the world, which is, synthetic thyroid hormone, T4, is one of the most prescribed drugs on earth. Because we

[00:08:56] Dr. Mary Pines: are, yeah, We are so stressed out. And when your thyroid's not working well, like due to chronic stress, that has a trickle down effect and impacts the level of sex hormones being produced. And so then we get, this vicious cycle and cortisol is similar. There's a

[00:09:15] Dr. Mary Pines: mechanism where chronic stress, Chronic stress will actually cause progesterone, a calming hormone which is really really important for, women, especially as we get a little bit older, it will cause it to decline because cortisol and progesterone are made of the same upstream precursor called pregnenolone. And when we're stressed out, the body will. Steal that pregnenolone from the, progesterone synthesis pathway to make more cortisol to prioritize that stress response so you can really see, you know, and then that stress response means that our thyroid's working harder to pump out more energy so that we can, you know, run from that imaginary tiger.

[00:10:01] Dr. Mary Pines: So it's all really interrelated and it comes back to some really basic lifestyle things, which we'll get to, but that's a great question and really deep one.

[00:10:10] Danna Levy Hoffmann: I have to

[00:10:11] Danna Levy Hoffmann: say that first of all, I love the orchestra analogy because it's just a perfect way of thinking of how our body works. And then, you know, everything is interconnected and a lot of people just want to understand, how do I learn lower my cortisol or how do I just take care of my thyroid if it's high or low, like whatever it is.

[00:10:31] Danna Levy Hoffmann: And they're really looking for that one thing and with functional medicine, um, There's no such thing. We are always trying to look at the bigger picture. We're always trying to connect things together, and I'm curious, and I would love to hear from our listeners. How many people thought there were 50 50 hormones?

[00:10:50] Danna Levy Hoffmann: Because I know people talk about maybe three that they know of, and I don't think people understand the The complexity of the body

[00:11:00] Dr. Mary Pines: and the complexity of each part, and what they're that, that each part is actually responsible for, which again is endless amounts of things. I wanted to ask you because you're talking about certain hormones that are a bit out of whack. How would one actually. Notice when their hormones are out of balance, and are there specific signs for specific hormones? Yes, great question. Hormone imbalance in men and women definitely has similar, some similar telltale signs between the two. So, commonly, you'll see things like fatigue, Or, mood dysregulation, sleep disruption, weight gain is common, skin issues like acne, there's a whole host of, of signs and symptoms and, uh, definitely if you start to feel some of these major ones, it's, it's, Time to go to the doctor and ask for some simple blood testing to find out what's going on under the hood.

[00:12:11] Danna Levy Hoffmann:

[00:12:11] Testing and Monitoring Hormones

---

[00:12:11] Danna Levy Hoffmann: Now those tests that you mentioned, Are those tests widely available? Is it something that every doctor, whether they're functional medicine or not, will lead us towards the right test? Uh, I know you know why I'm asking this question, but just for the listeners, you know, there are a lot of tests out there that A, either will not necessarily give us enough information that we need outside of the functional medicine world. And, uh, we also look at different scales and numbers. And that's basically why I asked.

[00:12:44] Dr. Mary Pines: Yeah. Yes. Great question. So generally in the two streams of medicine, as you mentioned, we have this functional approach and we have the conventional approach and the approach to hormones in each one is different. It's so insanely different, it's almost comical. So if you were to go to your standard, medical provider, your GP, they could order you blood work for maybe the big four hormones that you'd probably want to look at, especially if you're, you're a female later in your cycling years, which would be.

[00:13:18] Dr. Mary Pines: as Megan mentioned, estradiol, which is a form of estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, DHEA. You might also wanna look at LH and SFSH, but those are sort of the very basic ones, and you might actually have to even fight to get those, uh, at least here in Canada. So on a, on a functional. Medicine approach, though, that's not really, that's not really the complete information that we're looking for, because while the blood testing can take a little snapshot of each of those 4 sort of major actors, what's really important is to also understand. What's going on in the broader picture of how your hormones are being metabolized. And what I mean by that is the body metabolizes or processes each of your hormones in different ways. So the metabolites are the different hormones have different functions in the body and some of them are. Very important for helping us stay calm and sleep well, for example.

[00:14:25] Dr. Mary Pines: And some of them are actually harmful to our health. Like there's an estrogen metabolite that we want to keep an eye on because it can be cancer promoting. And so to look at these metabolites, as well as a whole bunch of, precursor molecules that are used to synthesize the hormones. It's so good to do a more comprehensive hormone panel now and again and I really really like One called the dutch test which stands for dried urine test for comprehensive hormones It is available in Europe, directly through the company that makes it called precision analytical or through, Nordic labs. But what the Dutch test is, is a phenomenal test that shows, it shows all the, all the major hormones, the four I listed, their metabolites, how they're functioning in the different pathways, you know, your different levels of them, because every woman is different in her, in her kind of hormone signature. It also, Shows your cortisol response over a 24, sort of four time points over 24 hours, which gives us an indication of how well your adrenals are functioning. and plus it gives you some insight into, you know, whether you have adequate levels of some of the precursor nutrients required to support your hormone pathways, and your sort of brain chemicals, your neurotransmitters that are also important to the process. So I would say best practice. For testing is to get your sort of basic blood work done do it well if you're, if you're listening to this or you have a younger daughter, you're listening to this and you're maybe 30, 35, I would definitely start getting your blood work done like once a year, maybe twice a year, even if you've had some. Maybe hormone issues. by the time you're 25, the time you're 35, you want a baseline for what your hormones look like, sort of in the, in the prime of your life before they start to see. shift in perimenopause and into menopause. so later on, when it comes time to adjust them, you can work with your doctor to figure out whether your levels, if you're going to do supplemental hormones, for example, whether your levels are sort of matching your, Your younger years, or at least somewhere in the ballpark.

[00:16:44] Dr. Mary Pines: So you, so you want to do the basic blood work every now like pretty regularly and then do a Dutch complete or a similar complete hormone panel that shows you a lot more information, you know, earlier in that life, like 35 or, or even earlier. and then again, you know, once you start to look at, okay, what's going on, I think I might be entering perimenopause.

[00:17:09] Dr. Mary Pines: Like, how do I? Which of my hormones are shifting, and what do I do, and then into menopause, it's really, really useful to have had that data to look at.

[00:17:17] Megan J. McCrory: Oh, Dr. Mary, where

[00:17:19] Megan J. McCrory: were you 10 years ago?

[00:17:21] Dr. Mary Pines: Gosh.

[00:17:22] Dr. Mary Pines: You know, it's funny you should,

[00:17:23] Danna Levy Hoffmann: I was like, abysmal.

[00:17:29] Dr. Mary Pines: new. Like, doctors are not taught about this stuff yet. It's so tragic, and I'm sure both of you are aware of that. The research for women's health has been so behind. It's disgusting. Yeah,

[00:17:44] Megan J. McCrory: Yeah.

[00:17:44] Dr. Mary Pines: here we are now.

[00:17:45] Megan J. McCrory: I have some issues with this because, I had a hysterectomy, a total hysterectomy

[00:17:51] Megan J. McCrory: just before when I turned 39

[00:17:53] Megan J. McCrory: and so I still have my ovaries, no uterus and no cervix for people who don't know the difference between the different hysterectomies.

[00:18:01] Megan J. McCrory: So I'm still producing estrogen and I asked at the moment when this happened.

[00:18:04] Megan J. McCrory: what is my prognosis for menopause? Like, how is this going to affect menopause?

[00:18:10] Megan J. McCrory: And I, at the time I'm thinking, why did I even ask? They have no idea how this is going to affect, but I figure I might as well ask because I would kick myself if I didn't. And they're like, well, you've got strong blood going to your ovaries.

[00:18:22] Megan J. McCrory: So they're really, you know, they're got, they're got a good blood supply. So maybe you might go into menopause like six months. six months early. And then I've heard other things saying like, Oh, if you've had a hysterectomy, even with your ovaries, you could go into menopause four years early or, you know, like, like drastically different things.

[00:18:40] Megan J. McCrory: And I asked my gynecologist maybe last year or the year before I just turned 45. So it's been six years since I had my history or almost six years. And I asked

[00:18:51] Megan J. McCrory: her, Last year or the year before and I'm like listen I know I'm gonna be getting close to the perimenopause thing and I want to know because I don't have a mensis I want to know like am I gonna go through it?

[00:19:04] Megan J. McCrory: Like when am I through it or whatever because I asked my mom like mom What kind of symptoms did you have going through menopause? She's like I don't really remember. I'm like, well, it must not have been that drastic if you don't remember it. Cause I know women who were going through it and their entire life is turned upside down.

[00:19:21] Megan J. McCrory: So I feel like if I don't have like a data telling me that I've gone through menopause, I might not know I've gone through it other until I like maybe turn 50. Right. And then you can just assume you've gone through it.

[00:19:33] Megan J. McCrory: But I also, I asked her, I'm like, What can I do? Can I do like, you know, three months of blood tests to get like a baseline hormone palette.

[00:19:42] Megan J. McCrory: And then next year I can do another one. So I can start to see the trend analysis, you know, trending. Cause I know like one data point, even if it's, you know, it doesn't tell you much, you have to get multiple data points in a row to get that trend.

[00:19:55] Danna Levy Hoffmann: you tell Megan is

[00:19:56] Megan J. McCrory: I don't know why I have to explain this to doctors. Why do I have to explain this to a

[00:20:00] Dr. Mary Pines: wild.

[00:20:01] Megan J. McCrory: Like just today, I I'm sorry, I'm going to go off in a little rant here because I just was at the doctor's. I just got my lab test back

[00:20:09] Megan J. McCrory: today, blood test results and A1C, which is nothing what we're talking about, but it's your average blood glucose. Cause I was in diabetes for 17 years. So for me, to be in the diabetes field, I'm very cautious and I'm a little overweight cause I don't want to have diabetes, so I'm like paranoid about testing for my A1C.

[00:20:31] Megan J. McCrory: And when I was super fit, maybe 10 years ago, my A1C was like 4. 8%, which is amazing. And last year it was 5. 2%. And I told him, I'm like, maybe I do my A1C again this year. He's like, yeah, but 5. 2 is okay. I'm like, yeah, but it might be 5. 4 this year. And then I've got a trend upwards and I don't want to get anywhere near 6%.

[00:20:54] Megan J. McCrory: So can you just test my blood? Like, why do I have to ask? Just test my fucking blood. You know, anyway, okay. Rant over rant over. I'm just saying,

[00:21:05] Dr. Mary Pines: I just so feel you on that, it's so

[00:21:06] Dr. Mary Pines: frustrating and it's so good that we're talking about it because it encourages people to advocate for themselves. So yes, please, like your doctor, if you make the case and you're like, you've got to explain to them because they have so little

[00:21:22] Dr. Mary Pines: time as we all know. So if you go in armed with your cause, then yeah, I hope you got your way.

[00:21:28] Dr. Mary Pines: I hope you get your way every time.

[00:21:30] Danna Levy Hoffmann: and

[00:21:32] Megan J. McCrory: I'm, I'm really glad we're having this conversation now, because one of the things that I wanted to have tested was my androgens, my androgen level, because I'm finding it very difficult to, I'm gaining weight and find it very difficult to lose weight since my hysterectomy,

[00:21:48] Megan J. McCrory: and I want to check off the list.

[00:21:51] Megan J. McCrory: How are my androgens? If they're too high, I know that this can be a major cause in weight gain. And then as soon as you gain weight, then the fat itself produces hormones that perpetuates this fucking mess. And so, he said, okay, you need to go to your gynecologist for that. So I'm like, okay, that's great.

[00:22:12] Megan J. McCrory: But now I know about this Dutch test. I'm going to look into

[00:22:14] Megan J. McCrory: this.

[00:22:15] Danna Levy Hoffmann: can, I can hook you up

[00:22:16] Megan J. McCrory: already. I feel like I should send you a check in the mail.

[00:22:19] Danna Levy Hoffmann: So Megan, unfortunately, and this is something that I wanted to bring up when, when Mary mentioned the Dutch

[00:22:26] Danna Levy Hoffmann: test, unfortunately, it is out of pocket

[00:22:29] Danna Levy Hoffmann: because the insurance won't cover it because then you'll know too much and you will be healthy and then you won't need the sick care.

[00:22:36] Danna Levy Hoffmann: Right? But, it's not that hysterically high. I think it's around the two, 300 bucks. and I can

[00:22:43] Danna Levy Hoffmann: get you that

[00:22:44] Megan J. McCrory: this was a, but that's what normal blood test is anyway. I mean, that's what I'm paying in Switzerland. And until I meet my franchise, I'm paying it all out of

[00:22:51] Megan J. McCrory: pocket

[00:22:52] Danna Levy Hoffmann: that's what I'm saying. And it's money that's going right back into your own pocket, not someone else's. So, that's something that again, functional medicine doctors will be able to do. Some of us

[00:23:01] Danna Levy Hoffmann: health coaches will be able to do. I mean, like I can send you the test and you can do it at home.

[00:23:07] Danna Levy Hoffmann: I have to say I did the test just, last week

[00:23:12] Danna Levy Hoffmann: I did it on a Tuesday or Thursday or something.

[00:23:14] Danna Levy Hoffmann: I have to say, you got to make sure that that day you have like zero plans because it was like peeing a cup. As soon as you wake up and chew on this thing to give us our saliva, your saliva 30 minutes later, do the same fricking thing. 30 minutes after that, do the Same thing. And like two to three hours after that, do the same thing. And I was like, okay. And they're like, do not exercise. Do not do this. Do not do that. I'm like, all right. My day off is just, you know, chewing on this thing to collect my saliva. And. Pee on stuff to collect my pee and here we are.

[00:23:48] Dr. Mary Pines: There you are. Yeah. It's a bit of a thing, but it's so worth it.

[00:23:53] Dr. Mary Pines: a nice

[00:23:54] Dr. Mary Pines: excuse to slow down and pee on stuff.

[00:23:57] Danna Levy Hoffmann: Yeah,

[00:23:59] Dr. Mary Pines: Oh,

[00:24:02] Megan J. McCrory: I know we went off on a bit of a tangent there, so let's bring back, because we've, you've talked about functional medicine a couple times, Danna, and I want to make sure that, I mean, I feel like, because we're talking a little bit of difference between functional medicine and conventional or traditional Western medicine, where Traditionally, that would be, hormone replacement therapy, or, yeah, whatever, yeah, HRT, hormone replacement therapy, when somebody's hormones are out of whack, or when they go through menopause, or something, like you talked about, like the thyroid medication, which is also a form of hormone replacement therapy, so maybe, to give the kind of alternate view on that.

[00:24:41] Lifestyle Tips for Hormone Balance

---

[00:24:41] Megan J. McCrory: What are some of the things that you can do from a lifestyle base, which is where functional medicine is coming from to help people try to get their hormones more in balance, or to maintain hormone balance if they're younger into the, you know, what can younger people do already to help them. You know, into their thirties and forties.

[00:25:05] Megan J. McCrory: Maybe you could talk a little bit about those

[00:25:07] Dr. Mary Pines: Totally. Absolutely. gosh. This is a whole podcast on its own, but I'm gonna give my best shot at the sort of lowest hanging fruit and the most important things. And, you know, asides getting to know your hormones through testing nice and early in life so that you have that baseline data, I would say, from a lifestyle perspective, um, You can support your hormones in a few really key ways. So I would start with your sleep and circadian rhythm. So, the emphasis on this cannot be too strong. So I, I, I would say circadian rhythm, which encompasses, you know, what your sleep wake times are, how much sleep you need, when you eat, when you exercise, When you focus on work, kind of all of the rhythms that we have in a 24 hour period, that's what a circadian rhythm is, and sleep falls into that as well. So, you know, you wanna kick off your day starting your circadian rhythm and on the hormones that are related to, wakefulness and energy production by kind of getting outside for a walk, or your coffee, like first thing in the morning, within 30 minutes of waking to get that bright. Nice natural light in your eyes unfiltered, which sets your circadian rhythm for the day. And that rhythm is really like a cascade of hormones that happen all the way up until you go to bed all the way through your sleep. The next day, it's a 24 hour rhythm that also correlates with our habits. So. You know, starting right on the, in the morning, you want to also at the, mid point of the day, get outside, get that full spectrum, uh, sunlight in your eyes that sends, beautiful cues to your body of what time of day it is. And then later, of course, we talk a lot about this. I'm sure you've talked with guests before about, good, nighttime routine, minding your bright light. and a blue light, your screen exposure at night within an hour and a half of bed, like, No scrolling on the phone. Please, please, please. If you do, if you love your Netflix, that's cool.

[00:27:15] Dr. Mary Pines: But get yourself a dorky pair of these orange tinted blue light blocking glasses. I wear them every night. sometimes we'll watch a show. Sometimes I'll be, you know, on my, on my phone, but really I try to read a book or something, but just really minding that blue light that destroys melatonin or prevents it from building up and making you sleepy and setting off a cascade of hormones that are so essential for you to have really healthy sleep is really important. if you're a caffeine junkie in the day, like, keep it early. we have a tendency to not to think about, um, you know, I had my cup of coffee at 10 a. m. and then I had a decaf, but then I had like chocolate at 4 p.

[00:27:56] Dr. Mary Pines: m. and I had a black tea. Well, there's caffeine in those things too. So we have to really be mindful of our sources of caffeine because it's such a sneaky disruptor of circadian rhythm. and then the other area around sleep, is, you know, sleep hygiene. So they call it like setting up, setting yourself up for success with your environment and your habits.

[00:28:19] Dr. Mary Pines: So like a really dark room. Nice and cool, you know, like 815 to 20 degrees, uh, sort of the range Celsius and, um, you know, no electronics in the room or mentally stimulating activities within an hour of bedtime and having like a wind down routine. I talked to so many clients who have trouble sleeping and they're, you know, doing all the things right.

[00:28:43] Dr. Mary Pines: And their, their sleep hygiene is generally great. And they're not watching TV, but they're reading a book that's like so gripping. and and then they're just like, I don't know what's going on. I'm doing everything right. And it's like, well, you're not like, it's so important to calm the mind and just to give yourself that hour or at least half hour, just. And yeah, it's really a top down effect. Yeah, so sleep would be the top of the hormone support pyramid. The second one, which I've already mentioned, is to reduce your stress. Because hormone production, I mentioned all the glands, but it really starts in the brain and then relies on the mitochondria, which are your energy factories, but also they're super important for signaling.

[00:29:32] Dr. Mary Pines: And this is kind of new science. We didn't really realize that mitochondria don't just produce energy. They're conducting all sorts of complicated crosstalk and, and telling your body about things. And both your brain and your mitochondria, have to be functioning really well and not on high alert stress or sensing threat in order to tell the ovaries or the testes of your man to have Produce healthy levels of sex hormones and, and, and other hormones in your body too. I mentioned the pregnenolone steel. That's a big one. and prioritizing your body will always prioritize the stress fight or flight response over the rest and digest and produce the nice hormones response because that's the immediate threat.

[00:30:21] Dr. Mary Pines: So really. I think it's important for everyone, especially as we get older and we're more, a little less resilient to stress because of our hormonal decline, to really take a stress inventory and be super honest about anything you're doing that causes you stress, even the small things, like if you're constantly leaving a few minutes too late to get to where you're going, or you're putting too much on your to do list daily, Right here, forcing yourself to maybe

[00:30:51] Dr. Mary Pines: work out when you're tired or staying up too late.

[00:30:54] Dr. Mary Pines: And then the alarm goes, you know, like, Oh God, you know, toxic people in your life is another one tend not to think about. I have a lot of clients who tell me, Oh, I'm not very stressed. I I'm good. And then we look at their lifestyle and their habits, and it's super clear that they've got all these.

[00:31:08] Dr. Mary Pines: hidden stressors happening.

[00:31:10] Dr. Mary Pines: And you know,

[00:31:11] Danna Levy Hoffmann: go this way for

[00:31:12] Dr. Mary Pines: we can't get rid of stress in our lives. Of course. But resiliency and learning to manage them well can really help. So just knowing what they are getting rid of the insidious ones that are dumb and we can do something about, and then ensuring that there are certain foundational habits in place, like breathing properly. Ensuring that you're breathing through your nose, into your, you know, with your, your diaphragm, your low abdomen, rather than this like rapid chest breathing or mouth breathing, that really activates the sympathetic fight or flight. So just being mindful of your breath, obviously like taking time to relax. Do things that are

[00:31:55] Dr. Mary Pines: calming, soothing, you can produce a hormone called oxytocin, which is kind of like a love hormone, like from cuddling someone or a pet, you can do stuff like taking a bath and meditating, all these things, Um, that shift Your nervous system into parasympathetic And and then you can also use some fun little tools like biohacky tools, to sooth the sort of The master vagus nerve that runs from the race of base of your brainstem all the way down to the bottom of your spine and touches a lot of your organ systems.

[00:32:29] Danna Levy Hoffmann: It's kind of your master control nerve, the vagus nerve that, can shift you into parasympathetic and the way you stimulate it. Is you can sing or hum to sort of like tickle it. It's really cool. Um, there's, yeah, there's all sorts of, you can gargle water. electric, uh, toothbrush.

[00:32:50] Danna Levy Hoffmann: You can put your electric toothbrush against it if you're really not into singing or someone will probably murder you if you do You can just do that as well I mean, there are special devices that do that, but you can literally just put the back of your Electric toothbrush on you know It's really interesting that you mentioned the stress and just one thing and I guess we'll just have a whole other episode about it

[00:33:10] Danna Levy Hoffmann: We have so many episodes about stress, but you can never talk enough about it. I find that like The main problem with stress nowadays is not even, it's unavoidable, unfortunately, but it, people don't even realize or they think it's a norm to come, you know, to, to not be able to wind down after a day at work, you're just all like you're every single cell in your body is tingling and you think that's not stress. You know, or, or, or as you said, you know, being in a toxic relationship or whatever it is, we think it's like, well, it is what it's life, right? It is what it is, and we can't do anything about it. And so I love that you're bringing up ideas on how to actually calm down without having to quit your job, although sometimes quit your job, girl,

[00:34:00] Dr. Mary Pines: Absolutely. Yep.

[00:34:02] Danna Levy Hoffmann: right?

[00:34:03] Dr. Mary Pines: Yep.

[00:34:05] Megan J. McCrory: But you, you, yeah, Danna, you, I think this is where we, our brains are on the same wave. Actually, all three of our brains are in the same wave because so many of the things. I think that the nail on the head is really, people don't recognize that they're stressed. And so even if you think you're not stressed, I don't think I'm stressed, still doing a five minute meditation, doing five minutes of breath work.

[00:34:31] Megan J. McCrory: It will, even if you don't think you are, it doesn't hurt to do it. But I see so many people, like you said, they just can't sit still. They can't calm down and they just, especially in North America. They just think it's normal to have that level of stress all the time, because it is normal to have that level of stress, but then they, they're never taught.

[00:34:55] Megan J. McCrory: We're never taught how to do that in school.

[00:34:58] Megan J. McCrory: What are our school health programs talking about? I don't remember, but it certainly wasn't how to calm down and how to de stress, especially when you're a teenager. You needed a lot then.

[00:35:09] Dr. Mary Pines: Absolutely.

[00:35:10] Danna Levy Hoffmann: Oh,

[00:35:22] Dr. Mary Pines: taught me a thing or two there and it makes a

[00:35:25] Danna Levy Hoffmann: kick you in the butt.

[00:35:27] Dr. Mary Pines: It really does.

[00:35:28] Dr. Mary Pines: Yeah,

[00:35:29] Dr. Mary Pines: you know what?

[00:35:29] Conclusion and Upcoming Episodes

---

[00:35:35] Danna Levy Hoffmann: And I'm so excited because that will be our next episode. So guys, we're gonna jump on the perimenopause wagon on our next episode with Mary. And Mary, I have a feeling we're gonna do quite a few episodes with you because you're a ray of sunshine and you give us a lot of information that we can geek out on.

[00:35:49] Megan J. McCrory: and if our listeners have any questions, we're trying something new as well.

[00:35:55] Megan J. McCrory: because Dr. Mary's hanging around we're hoping that maybe after the end of some of these episodes, that we can get your questions and have just one whole Q and a, episode with Dr.

[00:36:04] Megan J. McCrory: Mary. So I will leave information in the show notes on how you can leave us a voicemail. 60 seconds asking your question directly to Dr.

[00:36:13] Dr. Mary Pines: Amazing. Thank

[00:36:14] Dr. Mary Pines: you. Thank you so much for having

[00:36:16] Danna Levy Hoffmann: me. It's been so fun. yay, you'll let's let's hear what you'll say after like seven episodes together.

[00:36:24] Dr. Mary Pines: These are my favorite things to talk about. So keep them coming.