Dr. Jolene Brighten: Balance Your Hormones, Boost Your Libido + Become Your Best Health Advocate

Ever found yourself wondering if what’s happening with your body is normal?

And when heading to Dr. Google leaves you more confused than ever – it’s hard to know where to turn for the real deal.

I’ve got you! In this episode of Habits & Hustle, I’m joined by Dr. Jolene Brighten, a board certified naturopathic endocrinologist, and fierce women’s health advocate. Together we discuss how to identify signs of hormonal issues, such as mood swings, insomnia, acne or hair loss and what that means for your hormones.

She also shares the critical role of diet, particularly fiber intake, in maintaining a healthy microbiome for long-term health and weight management. And some of the most unusual things you can add to your smoothie to boost your libido.

Dr. Jolene Brighten is an internationally acclaimed hormone expert, nutrition scientist, and thought leader in women’s medicine. She is board certified in naturopathic endocrinology, trained in clinical sexology, and completely dedicated to uncovering the root cause of hormonal imbalances.

What we discuss…

(03:42) How to recognize the signs of hormonal imbalance
(11:43) The shocking reality of stress and depression in Gen X and Millennials
(16:34) Simple ways to take care of your microbiome, increase fiber, and reduce belly fat
(24:10) Navigating nutrition controversy and bias in the world of social media
(29:51) The true power of being properly hydrated for muscle and brain health
(35:24) Easy nutrient dense foods to boost your libido
(38:58) The important role progesterone plays in female health
(56:40) Getting the right supplements & testing to optimize hormone health

…and more!

Thank you to our sponsors:

Pendulum: head over to pendulumlife.com and use my special code HUSTLE15 for 15% off your order.
Therasage: go to therasage.com and use code B-BOLD for 15% off

Find more from Jen:
Website: https://www.jennifercohen.com/
Instagram: @therealjencohen
Books: https://www.jennifercohen.com/books
Speaking: https://www.jennifercohen.com/speaking-engagement

Find more from Dr. Brighten:
Website: https://drbrighten.com/
Instagram: @drjolenebrighten
YouTube: @drjolenebrighten
Order the Book: https://drbrighten.com/is-this-normal/

How do you even know when you have a hormone imbalance your hormones may be struggling if you are somebody who feels at the mercy of your period your PMS so you’re having mood swings insomnia hot flashes night sweats these point to issues of estrogen and progesterone other signs of a hormone imbalance may

Be that you’re having irregular cycle oily skin acne losing hair on your head that can point towards a testosterone imbalance as we commonly see in polycystic ovarian syndrome or PCOS and then there can be other things more related to you’re having fatigue your skin looks dull and dry maybe you’re

Having digestive issues like gas bloating constipation your joints are filling achy and that could Point towards hypothyroidism hormone issues can show up because they’re interacting with every single system in your body they’re out there communicating what is going on and they influence how each system function so that can be anywhere

From nude to how your joints are able to move to how motivated you are to exercise and how well you recover from exercise um so this is really a pleasure to have you on the podcast Dr Brighton uh the book is behind you uh I don’t I

Don’t have my hard copy but I did read the uh audio the audio and the PDF and it’s a very it’s a it has so much information that is very timely and actionable that people can actually use today to help themselves so let’s just start let’s go right into it besides

Saying thank you very much for being on the podcast yeah well thanks for having me I’m so glad that we could connect I know it’s been uh a bit of a struggle with my schedule to make this happen it’s yeah but you know what it’s better late than never they say right uh

Absolutely uh and so your book actually called is this normal how long has it been out now like 2 years a while right three years 2023 no it just came out um oh 2023 yes and the paperback is just on its way out in just a couple months wow

So I must have I must have read it before it was even like maybe just before it launched like I when I got the PDF probably from your publisher yeah they probably sent you the galley so you had the uncorrected proof uncorrected proof well nevertheless I thought it was fantastic

Um why don’t we start with the the the most obvious question right like give us an origin of who you are what you do and then I I have like a plethora of questions I want to talk to you about sure so I’m board certified in naturopathic Endocrinology certified in

Sex counseling and my background is in nutrition science so I started out way back more than 20 years ago really as food as medicine foundation and and I have been working in women’s health for well over a decade listening to people in my office and online asking the same questions over

And over is this normal yeah I mean you know in my 40s I feel like things I never even thought I would even think about like I never thought about it never even knew it existed in my 20s and 30s now I’m asking is this normal so I feel like it every

Woman at some time of their life will pick need to pick up this book so my first question is how do you even know when you have a hormone imbalance when do you know like that is to me the first thing absolutely so hormone imbalance is

Like a big bucket right it’s a catchall term and lots of people use this hormone imbalance and as medical providers it’s on us to sort it out of what does that actually mean so so your hormones may be struggling if you are somebody who feels

At the mercy of your period at the mercy of your PMS so you’re having mood swings insomnia maybe you’re having hot flashes night sweats these point to issues of estrogen and progesterone other signs of a hormone imbalance may be that you’re having irregular Cycles oily skin acne

Losing hair on your head that can point towards a testost estone imbalance as we commonly see in polycystic ovarian syndrome or PCOS and then there can be other things that don’t they’re not so cyclical they’re more related to you’re having fatigue your skin looks dull and dry maybe you’re having digestive issues

Like gas bloating constipation your joints are feeling achy and that could Point towards hypothyroidism so what I just took you through is a whole lot of ways that hormone issues can show up and that’s because they’re interacting with every single system in your body your cells have receptors for these hormones these

Hormones are chemical messagers they’re out there communicating what is going on and they influence how each system functions so that can be anywhere from mood to how your joints are able to move to how motivated you are to exercise and how well you recover from exercise so

There’s not any part of your life that isn’t touched by your hormones right I I yeah I I understand understand that I’m curious because someone like myself right and I’m sure a lot of people who listen to this podcast you know who are into fitness working out doing all the

Things they think they’re eating properly they are doing strength training workouts as many like three or four times a week like prescribed and they’re not able to keep the muscle that they had or they are getting they it takes much longer much harder to even maintain it and they are fatigue like is

It something that how do we kind of like balance that out like how do we stop the hormones from or is it possible if we’re doing all those things in our 40s how do we kind of maintain what we have without losing muscle mass and having our moods

Tweak and change like what’s the is there is there a way to kind of stop this from this aging process I mean yeah so this is a big question question because we’re talking about maintaining muscle mass and what’s going on with body composition and then there’s mood and these things can absolutely be

Related so when it comes to maintaining muscle mass this is the thing that’s like when I was studying for my masters in nutrition I was studying sarcopenic obesity and that is basically muscle deletion as we age and what I knew 20 years ago from the research that still

Holds strong Branch chain amino acids getting yourself compl complete proteins in your diet now what changes as we enter into our 40s is that you know what I call metabolic cities like you know how we did in our 20s where the way we ate the way we lived was like literally

Like cussing out your body sometimes it was very derogatory um you can’t get away with that as much anyone uh and people can let us know in the comments if they have noticed that as they enter their 40s they have one or two cocktails and they’re like I’m dragging it it’s

Definitely effective me things are shifting and changing that we have then have to adapt to it doesn’t mean that we’re getting weaker or something is wrong with us it is time to adapt to this phase of life so we need to increase our protein we need to make

Sure that we are fueling appropriately uh you know we’re of the age where the eat less move more Mantra be fat free was still influencing a lot of our lives that doesn’t fly in our 40s and Beyond so fueling with appropriate muscle mass and nutrient density you have to

Strength Trin regularly muscle is expensive to maintain it’s very expensive so you got to put you got to put inputs in that tell the body let’s maintain it so we need the fuel we also need the movement so strength training and if you are in the you know if you

Are like I am strength training adding additional things like a weighted vest and a treadmill desk into your routine is a way to help stimulate even more the bone mass that we need and the bone density going into later in life and also maintain that muscle mass now in

Addition like when it comes to hormones I always have the question of is testosterone starting to decline and what is going on with insulin so when it comes to testosterone roughly about 50% of your testosterone production is coming from your adrenal glands they never quit never will they quit your ovaries they

Will retire they will be like make me a cake I’m out I am done and so even once you go through menopause and some women this may resonate with them as they’re making that per menopausal transition or they enter into menopause they may notice that they’re losing more hair on

Their head because estrogen and progesterone are no longer there and testosterone just gets to shine and do its thing so the idea that just because we’re aging we’re absolutely going to be out of test testosterone not necessarily true but you may have to bring in testosterone replacement therapy or

Maybe by way of DHEA which is the adrenal hormone that gets converted into testosterone so we’ve got the you got to eat you got to move and you got to check your hormones the last thing I’ll say is inflammation and Insulin we have to be paying attention to those estrogen is

Super protective for our metabolic Health as that declines we can find ourselves edging towards that diabetes which is insulin resistance and that is going to affect your body composition also cognition how well your brain works and if we find oursel in this inflammatory state that is going to be

Very very problematic in terms of our mood and our brain health I could also talk more about the microbiome but I’m going to pause and let you kind of chew on that yeah no no I I’m writing notes as you probably are watching me writing notes because you’re touching upon all

Of these things that I wanted to talk to you about and you’re just like you’re like just kind of getting them all in that one great sound bite um but let’s start with this let’s go with testosterone first okay because yeah there’s a lot of different controversy

Around it so interestingly enough a lot of the a lot of my friends people I work with we all work out and yet we all have been like we we do all for the people who do all the things we get blood tests regular we get all the biomarkers

Checked and a majority of us are like showing very low testosterone like very low and these are people who are like myself I’m almost like zero and yet I I do weight training all the time what is the reason for that and is the like then the the the U

Answer what a lot of my friends are doing is they’re getting these testosterone pellets they’re getting testosterone creams is that like is that a safe option that’s the first question I’ll let you answer that and then I’m going to go into my next thing okay awesome okay so

Here’s the thing as I said the adrenal lines are going to make testosterone a lot of us are we’re part of the hustle culture Fallout so to speak so if you are burning the candle at both ends if and I want to say this very specifically to

The women who are in their 40s and 50s you are in a very unique generation where you happen to be caretaking in a lot of instances parents and children that is super stressful and Society barely set us up to be successful as mothers let alone successful to navigate

This there was actually some research that came out saying that the Gen X and Elder Millennials we expect that there’s a phase where we go into depression and and then come out I don’t let we can talk more about the hormones around this and how we can prevent this how ever it

Has been hypothesized that Gen X and Elder Millennials will be the first generation of women not to come out of that depression because they’re so absolutely depleted so number one is we have to be taking care of our adrenal glands and that looks like things like getting adequate sleep not overtraining

And undereating which is sometimes feels like the solution as the the the belly fat that can come up at that phase of life sometimes that feels like the solution cuz it would have worked in your 20s but it won’t necessarily work for you in that way tending to

Inflammation that can look like things like looking for hidden infections as well so we definitely have to be taking care of our adrenal glands and when you mentioned testing I have seen people come back with low testosterone total testosterone what we actually want to test in women is free

Testosterone along with a sex hormone binding globulin and why that’s important is because that protein sex hormone binding globulin if it is elevated it is holding on to your testosterone so maybe you don’t have a testosterone production issue but actually that sex hormone binding globulin which is coming primarily it’s

Going to be coming from the liver that’s the problem and we want to actually do lifestyle shifts take care of the liver and things to balance out that protein so we make that testosterone bio available free testosterone so the total is just all that’s out there free testosterone is what your cells can

Actually use utilize so to your point about using testosterone therapy I am not a fan of pellets so much I think they’re cost prohibitive and once they’re in we can’t like we can’t modulate it so easily it’s in and that’s it that being said there are people who

Are like I tried it all the pellets worked best for me as long as they’re not going extremely high with their testosterone we can be okay but that’s a bit of the problem is a lot of times that testosterone pellet is far too much testosterone and any of so estrogen and

Testosterone progesterone they also modulate the immune system so we want testosterone on board because it can help us have a healthy immune response but when we start to push these hormones in different directions that can be problematic and as the case with too high of testosterone that if that’s converting into

Dihydrotestosterone that I talk about in the book DHT that that can lead to irreversible hair loss your follicle becomes small it’s miniaturized and at that point the hair shaft is so so thin until it doesn’t grow anymore and we are never getting that hair back and that’s why

I’m always like testosterone is good but that doesn’t mean because it’s good that more is better that’s first of all that’s so scary I mean I I’m nervous about those things because like you to your point you don’t know like if it’s too much or whatever then it’s stuck in

Your body and you can’t do anything about it but it’s something that a lot of people in that I know around in Los Angeles there everyone’s just putting a pellet in now can you gain like can you also gain weight from testosterone if you’re like some women depending on

Their body type maybe I feel like they get super lean but then I’ve seen other friends of mine and they’re getting like they’re they’re looking heavier more masses on them yes so some people will gain more weight with testosterone you can see more belly fat coming from that

It can actually work against you and in the case of polycystic ovarian syndrome we do see the Inplay of testosterone and Insulin leading to that midsection weight gain so when we see mid section weight gain in a woman we we have to look to those metabolic issues that’s

Typically how we see men gaining weight but in the cases of PC us that’s something that we’ll we’ll see will be a lot more common and so you know as I mentioned before about talking about the microbiome and belly fat this is something where the other thing you know

Besides hormones we have to talk about is eating enough fiber and getting at least 25 grams of fiber in every day in that late phase per menopause and then once you cross that menopause threshold your estrogen goes down and what we know is that as estrogen goes down so does

The diversity of the microbiome if you want to live long and healthy and you know stay lean with your efforts then we have to take care of the microbiome as well and that’s where making sure that you’ve got those fibers coming in if you are someone right now who’s like I don’t

I eat like five grams of fiber a day great add another five after a week add another five and work your way up slowly until you hit 25 if you usually eat five and tomorrow you eat 25 you’re going to be so mad at me because you’re not going

To feel good so go slow and that can look like things like adding pelium husk eating chia seeds making sure that you’re eating fermented foods because those will also help with probiotics and and the postbiotic creation which is going to help you overall and this is

Something that not a lot of people talk about metabolic Health in the microbiome but it is absolutely crucial do you believe that we need animal protein uh to keep and maintain our muscle mass then as we age okay I love this question because when I was doing my research I was a

Vegetarian and I was like this is cognitive dissonance because I’m studying this I see the outcomes I see how frail and I want people to understand like this isn’t just about how you look muscle is a very important endocrine organ that’s means hormone organ it is a tissue of longevity so

It’s not just how you look it is your risk of fractures and falls and we know the the more you have in the thighs the more mitochondria you have the healthier your brain is and women are very high risk for dementia so with all that being

Said I was a vegetarian and my goodness the hustle to get Lucine isol leucine and veine in those are the branch chain amino acids and I was taking supplements and eating mass amount of eggs and just try and and dairy and trying to do all of this stuff and it became very

Apparent to me that this was going to be diff like I it was consuming me I was and here I am in my 20s right you get you get a lot more wiggle room and so if someone is vegan or vegetarian I think what the mistake the vegan and

Vegetarian Community makes is acting like protein just happens that like you’ll just get protein and it doesn’t and I have had patients who are vegetarian by you know by statement and when we look at their diet they’re actually a carbar so what they’re eating is just mostly carbs and not getting

Protein and knowing that not all protein is created equal that’s the other thing that I see a lot of them get wrong where they’re like well if you combine rice and beans then you’re going to and I’m like that’s a lot of carbs though and that’s a lot to consume so there you’re

Going to probably have to lean on supplements as you get older you know we we all benefit from taking creatine not only for muscles but for our brain health as well it’s very well researched but I do think well I don’t only think it but we know it from the research that

Animal protein is Superior in terms of what it delivers for amino acids and for people maybe listening to this and they’re like I’m vegetarian I don’t want to eat a cow maybe you can make the step towards fish which L you know that is in the same vein as the Mediterranean diet

Which we also know wins in the research so that was a long way of answering that but I just want people to know that I was once a vegetarian too and then I read and studied and was like wait a minute this is not necessarily going to

Set me up for the healthiest 80-year-old version of me no I I listen I’m a big believer in what you just said so I feel like it’s I think all of it has become very political and we’ve lost track of the actual science that you know points

To the importance of animal protein um especially for vegans I think that someone like yourself who’s very knowledgeable and knows you know what’s what and what Lucine for example even is the average Joe doesn’t and I think it becomes really difficult like I’ve seen

It like if you need to be on point if you’re going to be a vegan and you’re going to try to get all your Macros and my whatever it is you need it’s like it’s like a project like it is a full-time job it is it’s not easy and if

You’re a if you’re a busy on the-go person it’s so much it’s it’s lifestyle wise I find it just so much easier to to integrate animal protein or eggs like vegan people won’t even eat eggs obviously or or or dairies so you’re really kind of you know take you kind of

Screwing yourself a little bit but even the fact of you know you me you kind of touched upon this uh like whey protein like protein powder all of these things that are protein uh obviously products that the the bioavailability from an egg versus a protein powder is very significant ific

You get way more ability for that protein bioavailability from an egg so like you’re saying not every protein is equal either no absolutely and the egg is like the perfect protein right an entire organism grows from it and to your point you know I see there’s when I was

Studying nutrition when I was first getting my degree they made it very clear to us that there are three areas where people have irrational emotional attachments and will attack you if you challenge the belief okay so I’m studying science and they’re like it doesn’t matter and that is religion

Politics and food food we have science to support that religion and politics those are ideologies those are beliefs that’s acceptable but with food there are a lot of beliefs and I know as somebody who was a vegetarian for a decade it becomes you know in some ways

It’s like your identity and I remember this vegan patient of mine where you know after we did blood work and we were looking at everything and they were like oh I have to supplement with this I have to supplement with that and like look looking at everything and they were like

How is this better for the planet cuz that was their motivation when I’m doing all of these things I also had the benefit of getting my degree at a school that was a heavy agricultural school so when I was studying nutrition we were also learning about the farmer we were

Learning about the food industry as a whole and I don’t think people understand how impactful and harmful monoculture crops are and how so to the environment and how they’re they’re really deating the planet and how a farmer who has grass-fed cows are really benefiting the planet and the microbiome

Of the earth and how much that is really set up for positive impacts on climate change but there is so much propaganda every time I don’t even watch Netflix documentaries when they come out anymore um well I think it was like Forks Over Knives that was like the last one I saw

And now they all come out they all pretty much say the same thing and they’re highly highly biased and that’s what I find a lot in these conversations you know on the flip side we have the carnivore diet and that is like no research really to support that either it’s an Extreme

Elimination Diet will you feel good in the short term probably if you’re somebody who’s struggling with you know various symptoms but in the long term we have to ask is that extreme of elimination really the right step forward the unsexy thing that most people just don’t want to hear is that

The truth about what is best for your nutrition is somewhere in the middle and it is nothing nothing that any newss source is going to make a flashy headline about or that any algorithm on social media will ever reward you for talking about and that I think is what

Confuses people so much is that the algorithm rewards controversy it rewards people who are going against the grain and who are saying outlandish things and that’s what’s Landing in your fyp or on your feed all the time to the point where you’re just like I don’t know what

To think and to that I say always sit back and ask is this true for me is this right for me A lot of people are saying true information in some capacity my book has a lot of true information but not everything in there will be

Absolutely true for you um I say that and although the book has a lot of ranges of like this is normal this is what’s normal but when it comes to the nutrition piece that’s what I invite people to do test things out see if it’s true for you there are things that we

Know absolutely don’t exceed 25 grams of refined sugars or added sugars in your diet get your 25 gram of fiber but even as they say that 25 grams some people may find that if they have like rheumatoid arthritis for example that’s an autoimmune disease it’s questionable

That like 25 grams or more is that really helpful so you do have to ask what’s true for your body and you live in it which means you have unique expertise that nobody outside of your body can have I love that God I like you

You got a I like how I like the I like how you explain things and I I I really I I I I I’m in such agreement with what how you speak and like your overall uh like I guess your approach because the truth is like social media

Will always favor the people who are the most controversial because it does well for them if you the people want the magic pill or they want those people people who are polarizing if you speak facts like oh actually it’s it’s in the middle it’s kind of like it’s not this

Or that it’s like a combination you’re not interesting bye we won’t we won’t reward that but a couple things I wanted to talk about keep on going with because you I keep on making these notes women creatine I get a lot of questions about creatine because women are afraid that

Creatine will again create weight gain get because it water retention uh bloating because it’s always been very known back you know back when as like a like a very manly supplement could we just talk about that yeah totally it’s uh and because it’s always been known as

A manly supplement it got more attention in the research because anything that’s associated with testes gets more attention in research so um you know the reality is is that this can not only so using it as a supplement about 5 gram is what seems to be best if you do find you

Have any digestive discomfort I ask you to read the labels and make sure that you’re getting a good clean version ideally things that are third party tested because they’re verifying that what they say is in there is actually in there that’s something that with my supplement line I’m very picky about is

That I’m like I’m going to put this in my mouth I want to know what I say is in there is actually in there and nothing else so it’s the unfortunate thing that um sometimes you pick up supplements like at a big box store and they don’t

Actually have what they say they do in there fish oil was a good one where uh Consumer Reports found that it was actually just a bunch of inflammatory oils or there were also herbal supplements can you say that again cuz the Wi-Fi just went out weird Okay so

Fish oil was a big one that when Consumer Reports looked at it they found that it wasn’t actually Omega-3s primarily in there but there were a lot of inflammatory oils and there’s also been been you know Consumer Reports showing that like herbal supplements are like household plants when they actually

Test them like nobody wants to be taking that so firstly it might not actually be creatine it might be the supplement that you’re taking or other stuff that’s added into it that might cause digestive issues and if it’s not you’re like no this is good stuff you may have to do it

In divided doses where you’re doing 2.5 grams and then 2.5 gr later Beware of the gummies I’m somebody that I’m just like I don’t want to have to drink a smoothie every day and I’ve been looking into gummies and some of them have like six to 10 grams of sugar in a serving

And I’m like I just told yall don’t go above 25 grams of added sugar and I’m right there I’m like beware of that so uh there’s a lot of tricky ways sugar comes in now the other thing is that Beyond just your muscle health so it can

Be sto it’ll help with energy it’ll help with performance it can help your muscle Health overall but it also can help your brain health and that I think when we stand back and we consider that roughly 66% of the dementia population is women we’re at really high risk for this doing

Whatever you can to preserve your brain is really important now in terms of water retention so firstly if you were blessed with ovaries you are not blessed with the biological framework to get bulky and you know I’ll hear women say like I don’t I don’t want to lift weights cuz I

Don’t want to get bulky like a man and I’m good luck with that if you can figure out how to do that let me know uh because most people are struggling as you were saying in their 40s just to maintain lean body mass now with that if you’re

Noticing water retention it is a question of like you know is something going on with your progesterone like is something else going on but having a little bit more hydration you hold on to isn’t always a bad thing so you know when we get dehydrated we can feel more

Fatigued we when we have when we’re adequately hydrated we have less fine lines and wrinkles like we can feel a lot better but if you’re noticing that like no I have water retention it’s a good idea to talk to a provider that you’re like why is this happening for

Your body CU there might be something else going on because that shouldn’t be something normal to expect so if you’re don’t take if I’m not a shake person because I think shakes are uh just a massive amount of calories and sugar and people under index underestimate what they’re really I don’t believe in

Drinking my food I believe in like chewing and eating personally M um how do people take creatine or how do people take the collagen and all these things that people say are necessary as we get older for our hor hormones you can always make a beverage

With them and just mix it in there so you can just mix the supplement in there as you talk about shakes uh this is where so one definitely chewing your smoothie if you’re going to be a smoothie person it shouldn’t be so liquid that you just suck it right down

You there should be like a little bit of chewing to it because that is going to liberate digestive enzymes and get the the enzymes in your mouth that break down carbs going I now I’m going to tell you guys like what I put into a smoothie

And just stay with me okay so I’m just get out of the way cod liver oil and people are always like gross doesn’t it taste like cod liver heard it’s amazing yeah so I add cod liver oil it’s a great source of vitamin A vitamin D and

Omega-3 fatty acids so cod liver oil goes in there selan husk and other fibers so I’m going to be adding pelium Husk in there sometimes it’s you know I’m getting like chia seeds cacao nibs I’m looking at different different fibers that I can put in there to try to

Get at least five to 10 grams of fiber into that shake that’s or smoothie that’s going to slow things down so it’s not just running through my uh system going to feed my microbiome but it also will make it so that any absorption of sugar is slowed it’s not just a rapid

Absorption I am putting fresh vegetables in there I will put like a handful of spinach or some kinds of other greens I also encourage people who are maybe struggling with their liido or ability to orgasm to freeze watermelon rinds so you want to wash the outside of the

Watermelon because it can have mold on it and then you can chop it up you can grate it I’m super lazy so I just chop it up and put it in the freezer and will add it to my smoothies it’s rich in citrine which can help with clitoral

Engorgement but also just getting blood flow everywhere uh it’s also a trick for people that are difficult blood draw uh you have a harder time getting your blood draw that can be a trick to add in as well because it’s going to help with your blood flow so that’s going to be

Another source of fiber as well so interesting ways to put fiber in there we’ve got our healthy fat which is going to be the omega-3 fatty acids from the cod liver oil and and then protein and that I like to see people putting 20 G

Or more of protein in there and again if it is so liquid that you just suck it down it’s going to be harder for you to absorb and get all of those things in and if you drink a smoothie and you’re hungry like within 45 minutes to an hour

That that didn’t have enough fat fiber and protein in it so it’s an opportunity to deliver fat fiber and protein not an opportunity to just eat a bunch of fruit and my son actually said to me so I make and I will usually put like dark tart

Cherries in there those are great for your like melatonin production they are a great source of vitamin C that supports progesterone adrenal health and my son said to me like why can’t we just drink normal smoothies like other people do with fruit in them and I was like do

You want to know what normal people’s metabolic profiles look like like why don’t we just get diabetes and have heart disease like that’s what you’re asking your mom right now like we are not doing that and um I also when I like to throw in probiotic powders in there

As well so like I I have my own probiotics that I just open up the capsules and dump in there sometimes I’m opening up capsules of magnesium and putting them in there because I’m like you know why not if I’m going to deliver this I’m just going to get it so there

Is a way to make things nutrient-dense but to your point if it’s completely liquid like a green juice you’re going to spike your blood sugar sugar it’s going to cause metabolic chaos in you at least for that period of time and it’s not going to be satiating so if it’s

Thick enough that you kind of need to chew it you need a big like a boba straw to drink it through and you’re chewing it that’s the better way to go oh my God I love that okay first of all that watermelon rind I had never heard that before for your sexual

Libido yes okay can you so yeah talk about that and talk about give me some more very unusual things that people can eat to help them with their hormones or libido that aren’t so basic and common yeah okay so the citrine that’s in the watermelon that can help with the tissue

Engorgement so penis clitoris same tissue responds the same way um the only thing unique really about it is that the clitoris doesn’t have to pass urine or ejaculate and it’s tucked up inside so it gets to be a lot more sensitive and only serve the purpose of pleasure

Something else that people usually don’t talk about is saffron so I love saffron because not only is saffron been shown that like people who are on ssris they can experience anorgasmia inability to orgasm or low libido they’re not even in the mood for sex and saffron’s been

Shown to overcome ssris and in the average person it can also help as well in those areas and the other reason why I really love it is because when we were talking about Perry menopause in that phase of life so that late per menopause moving into menopause

It can be as high as 38% the rate of women diagnosed with depression who are going to be at risk for that and saffron has been shown in some research to beat out ssris in terms of helping your mood so it’s good for your sex life and it’s

Good for your mood and who doesn’t love like eating like Indian food or Persian food you know the research has been done in supplements and you can certainly supplement but you can also just add these things in your food you know it’s a lot like turmeric yes we have turmeric

Supplements but there’s also benefit to just grating fresh turmeric into food and actually eating the fibers as well and having that so saffron and citrine from watermelon rindes those are the two that I think a lot of people don’t think of as aphrodesiac when it comes to when I say

That word most people are like oysters oy I know and that’s one where it’s like well maybe it’s the act of eating oysters you usually like in a higher end place like it’s a it’s a you know there’s different Ambiance to eating them you have to be very Mindful and

Paying attention if anyone’s everever eaten an oyster you know what I’m talking about if you haven’t you there’s a way to slurp it you got to you got to do everything just right for this to be enjoyable but they are rich in zinc and zinc can help testosterone levels which

Is one of the hormones so testosterone and really estrogen are two of the key hormones driving sexual desire arousal your ability to self lubricate by the way I go through a list of a aphrodisiacs in my book and I talk about different foods that you can eat for all

Of that but oysters it may be the zinc it may be the Ambiance it may be just slurping on some shellfish I I love that okay so could we talk what does what does progesterone do what is that responsible for ah so progesterone I love this hormone

So much I’m so sad that it ever goes away so the only way to Progesterone the sufficient amounts in your body that are going to affect your mood and your metabolism that is going to be by way of ovulation so we ovulate What’s Left Behind is the Corpus ludum the Corpus

Ludum is a temporary endocrine structure in the ovary that makes progesterone and when it is optimal we are going to fill a lot more calm less anxious we’re going to sleep better and it’s going to be helping with the endometrium get ready for a baby uh if you’re in your 40s

Though you might not be wanting a baby so you might be like well whatever what else is it doing for me so it does have that crucial role it’s also involved in our bone health our brain health and something that’s interesting that I talk

About in the book is that we can see a 5 to 10% increased caloric need during our ludal phase that is ovulation until your next period because of progesterone so progesterone Rises makes us a little less sensitive to insulin but it also raises our metabolic rate we can feel a

Lot hungrier that is normal to feel hungrier during that time but for some people too because it raises their body temperature and it’s very slight but some people are sensitive they find that they’re training they feel like they get fatigued faster or it’s a little harder

To go hard in the gym during that phase just because they’re feeling a little bit warmer and that’s where I’m like listen if you’re going to the cycle class get be the person to get there early and get in front of the fan like there make sure you have moisture

Wicking clothes which seems like simple and obvious but I do have patients that are like oh I’ve been going in like my sweatpants and a hoodie and I’m like ah not during your ludal phrase friend that’s so interesting I find like yeah like my appetite I feel

Whenever I I I have my period my my menstruating I feel I’m starving like ravenously hungry and that’s that’s normal and then I just kind of dissipate as I guess it goes like through the week or so right like yeah absolutely normal and it’s where I’ll see people telling

Women like you just have to have more willpower and like don’t eat as much and that you’re asking them to overcome their biology and their hormones and instead of saying don’t eat so much instead we want to focus on where are those extra calories coming from

Nutrient dense foods this is a good time to add the sweet potatoes in into the diet so why sweet potatoes great carbs but also full of nutrients or maybe cold potatoes and so you bake a potato and then you have it cold maybe in a salad why because that will actually the way

The starch changes won’t spike your blood sugar in the same way and it’ll actually be very beneficial for your microbiome is that is that called resistance starch like the exactly yeah exactly so explain can we just talk about resistance start so changing how like even if it’s the same food it can

Make a difference can you just like touch upon that a little bit Yeah so it’s the things that are uh so things that are cooked so like we can do it with bread as well but when the potato so we’ve got the potato we We Fresh

Freshly just baked it or steamed it or whatever you did with it and if you eat it right then and there warm because of the type of starch that it is you will break it down easier and you can see a spike in your glucose and a spike in

Your blood sugar should follow by the way that’s a normal physiological response that if glucose comes up insulin should come up so I know a lot of people are chasing insulin and being like we don’t want our insulin to come up friends if your glucose comes up

Insulin has to follow so we have to go Downstream and never spice like that glucose in an extreme way now is a potato your biggest problem no the biggest problems are like just a bowl full of like ice cream or eating a candy bar like that’s a bigger problem than a

Potato but for people that really are trying to dial in or maybe they have concerns about their metabolic health or they’re just like I really want to help my microbiome Thrive putting that potato in the fridge letting it cool down those starches will actually change now we’re

Not going to get that huge swing in our blood sugar and our insulin and we’re going to feel more satiated so full and we’re going to have as we have that even blood sugar right so blood sugar goes up a little bit as you eat and it comes

Back down that makes it a lot easier for the rest of our hormones because when we have spikes and drops and spikes and so we we got the Peaks and troughs that’s where we then have to start mounting a physiological response to that with our hormones so releasing hormones that tell

Our liver give up your glycogen G give up your sugar your storage form of sugar and put that out there and then here comes another blood sugar wave and so that is one way like one trick if you like uh a friend of mine who’s a gut

Health expert he was saying like don’t eat the french fries and I was like hear me out homemade french fries that you put in the fridge and then like eat the next day that’s that works you do yeah so if you do like potatoes or if you are

Training really hard I think this is also a pitfall is that um you know first it was like vilify fat then it was vilify carbs it’s like you know it’s just always something that has to be like the devil of food if you are training really hard and you’re just

Like I am plateauing look at your carbohydrate intake if you are not getting adequate carbohydrates in that can definitely be difficult in your training but it also can negatively affect your hormones I was going to ask you that because I what like a lot what

Like what I do which I think is a terrible thing but it’s now like you know it’s it’s a bad it’s a habit and I’ve been trained to think carbs are bad like my whole life right but well like my whole life like you know what I mean

Like the last God knows how many years I’m so sorry my what oh no your talk just parked oh no no I didn’t even hear Sor okay you’re good oh so sorry um no I was going to say that I’m using fruit as my carbs but is that too much sugar

Because I’m like Massy I mean I think a lot of people do this I because you don’t want to have real like you don’t want to have like a chocolate bar or and you want to like you want to you want your sugar craving you want to kind of

Temper that Sugar craving I’m having like six l pounds of grapes instead of having a chocolate bar or ice cream or whatever it is I really want and in my brain even though I know it’s a carbohydrate you know it’s you know I’m like well it’s fruit it’s healthy it’s

It’s it’s natural and I’ll have like I said like pounds of cherries pounds of grapes and then I’m gaining weight and I’m like why am I gaining weight you know so yeah okay so fruit is not bad but at the same time let me not but that

Fruit is not bad and we can over consume it so with that you really have to ask the question would a couple of squares of dark chocolate have satisfied you over six lounds of grapes right so fruit is not bad and we can definitely overeat if we’re passing like two servings of

Fruit or more that might be too much for our body and there are benefits to eating things like dark chocolate they have polyphenols in them so the dark chocolate also has magnesium so there are benefits to eating those things when we’re talking about ice cream it’s like

Okay yeah we all know that ice cream is like not not the best thing for our blood sugar but we can certainly have a very sensible meal prior to that that has the fiber fat protein like I talked about and then have a serving of

Ice cream I don’t think we should be so restrictive I think there’s two there’s you know two camps out there that have become very problematic we’ve got diet culture and we’ve got the extremes of anti-diet culture and I think both have become very problematic and toxic and if

You’re listening to this and you’re like well I identify with being part of anti diet culture if you’re not out there being like eat whatever you want and anyone who talks like about sugar you know they’re just part of diet culture like if you’re not that person this is

Not you okay it’s not you but there are people who are like hey we like you should just be able to eat whatever you want whenever you want and I’ve had people come at me when I talk about sugar and they’re like sugar is the gateway to diet culture and the only

Reason you’re talking about that is cuz you just want people to like you know be a certain size and I’m like that was a huge leap okay okay that wasn’t about me and I’m talking about the science and just because we have body image issues we have inappropriate expectations of

What women’s bodies look like like Society because because we have all these problems in our society doesn’t mean we just go ignore the research on this because to me the number on the scale is the least interesting thing about your health what is more interesting to me is what is your blood

Pressure what is your hemoglobin C the marker of your blood sugar for the last 3 months what’s your fasting insulin look like what are the markers that we know can lead to cardiovascular issues or longevity these are the things that are most interesting and I will tell you

You will not achieve optimizing those if you’re just eating anything you want whenever you want or if you’re completely restricting all of the time either one of those extremes we are not going to achieve the goal which I hope is everybody’s goal to not just live

Long but to live very health healthy and to feel good in your body on the entire Journey um I also yeah I agree with you also testing we’re talk we touched upon it you talked about it again there it’s become a very big Trend now like a very

Big hashtag all these testing the genetic testing getting tested for this getting like which ones are the most accurate to test so there’s a lot of testing out there right and I think that if you are have unlimited funds and you absolutely want to hack your longevity then go for

It and get the full panels like I’m somebody I got a full body MRI right now in the medical community people are like that’s frivolous like people shouldn’t be doing that I’m like I want the data I actually found out I have endometriosis and adenomiosis du chronic conditions

Because I did this screening exam and so you know this is all to say it depends you know for the average individual that’s going to be too much so what should we be looking at let’s say like if we have insurance our doctors willing

To run it what are we most likely to get covered so hemoglobin A1c hemoglobin A1c is what your blood sugar has looked like on average for the last 3 months it’s going to tell me more than a fasting glucose but the fasting glucose comes with a comp metabolic panel that’s going

To tell me about kidney liver function that is really important we want to know that at least annually when I do a hemoglobin A1c I want to see a fasting insulin I will see problems with your fasting insulin before I ever see problems with your actual blood sugar

Measurements so I want to head that off at the pass that is really important to be having done vitamin D we need to be screening that we know that people live further from the equator they get less sun exposure their vitamin D is lower they have higher risk of certain cancers

That’s just cancer there’s all these other things that vitamin D is linked to as well so we talked about blood sugar liver kidney vitamin D thyroid panel absolutely should be looking at thyroid panel we know you know the most current estimates are saying about 27 million Americans have thyroid disease and half

Of them don’t even know it if you are struggling with your metabolic Health your menstrual cycles fertility you’re losing your hair you know we talked about some of these symptoms early on we want to look at thyroid disease primary cause of hypothyroidism in the United States and any developed nation is

Autoimmunity by the time we catch autoimmunity in people people cuz they have symptoms so bad that their doctor like oh I guess maybe we should test this and we find those antibodies they can on average have two or three more autoimmune conditions so if we’re doing these panels and we’re screening full

Thyroid panel TSH fre T4 freet T3 TPO and thyroglobulin antibodies annually and we see those antibodies ahead of time again we can head it off at the pass before you go on to develop maybe more autoimmune conditions so that’s some of the things that your insurance

Should cover and of course like a CBC a complete blood count which is going to tell you about white blood cells red blood cells risk of anemia people always are like oh yeah but like how common could anemia be very common iron deficiency anemia B12 deficiency anemia full8 deficiency B6 deficiency these

Anemas very common cause fatigue brain fog this is where Sometimes women in their 40s come to me and they’re just like I feel like I’m just getting older like I’m losing my Competitive Edge like I’m not as sharp at work I can’t keep up I used to multitask all of these things

I’m so fatigued and we’ll find simple nutrient deficiencies from people who are eating pretty good diets but you know sometimes there’s something else going on or there’s just a deficiency in the way that they’ve been eating so what’s that test that last test that you said what is that called

CBC it’s a complete blood count it’s a very standard test and usually I mean if you’re payt out a pocket you can get that test from like $7 to $15 um it’s not very expensive it’s not going to directly show us like what you know what the nutrients are doing but

For example if your red blood cell is very small it’s microtic and your hemoglobin is down then that’s telling us so we’ve got iron deficiency anemia and I usually like to partner that with a fertin which is the storage form of iron and that one is important because

It can tell us if iron deficiency anemia is coming it’s like your savings account your blood cells they’re they’re the checking account they’re out there spending it and when the fertin gets below 50 some women can experience restless leg syndrome they can start to have anxiety and they can start to

Experience hair loss so it’s a good one to look at and again these are all the inexpensive ways to monitor your health if something comes up in any of that then then we can start to go deeper we can start to look at all of the other

Panels out there you know things like doing a Dutch test or you and I I like the Dutch test because it also shows uh you know oxidative stress it tells me about melatonin there’s a lot in there but for the average person if they’re going to their primary care provider the

Tests they just list are going to be the easiest for them to get and their insurance is going to cover them they’re going to get a lot of data from that how about genetic testing genetic testing what I want people to understand is that genetic testing can have utility epigenetics

Though is really the gold mine so while we might find something you know for example like Angelina Jolie went and got a blood test it showed she was at higher risk of developing breast cancer because of her genes that she got bilateral mastectomy got her breast removed and

You know I don’t really know her family history and I don’t don’t know everything about that why bring that up well one you’re in LA but two I had an influx of patients who were like test me for this and maybe I should get my breast remove and it’s like well hold up

There’s a lot of things that influence those genes so we know walking every day just movement basic movement positive influence uh for people listening maybe you’re like I don’t resonate with like going to the gym or I’m not really into fitness I want you to understand that

Just two minutes of doing something that gets you breathless it’s uncomfortable you can’t talk 2 minutes a couple times a day positive impact huge positive impact on your health so everybody can start somewhere with that uh eating cruciferous vegetables bringing in broccoli Sprouts eliminating environmental toxins like there are a

Lot of places to look and so yes genetic testing is helpful getting things like if you know your family history and you’re at very high risk of you know you’ve had you know ants with breast cancer ovarian cancer maybe your mom had it we start looking into those things cardiovascular

Disease people are having heart attacks before they’re 50 we start looking into what are your genetics and the utility in that is that then you understand genetically you are at higher risk and that you really need to be on top of your things and what markers you need to

Monitor and you need to run you know there’s a really popular test uh MTHFR that it was really popular everybody was doing it now it’s I think a little less popular but definitely more well known about uh with MTHFR this is how you’re processing folate uh with these people folic acid

They don’t tend to do too well with it they can be at higher risk of blood clots so that might affect their fertility it could you know be putting them at higher risk for a stroke higher risk of a heart attack and we just see that with those people you know what we

Want to do is we want to eat folate from the diet lots of plants and we want to make sure that we’re not taking in folic acid kind of that you know the synthetic version that you find in a lot of supplements not everybody’s going to be

So do so bad with that but people with the MTHFR mutation they may not feel as well with it and then we want to watch out for how do you detox how like you know what are you bringing in through your environment environmental toxins and then how well are you tending to

Your detox Pathways like supporting Liver Health by how you eat drinking enough water and moving so that you poop regularly those kinds of things so I hope this helps people understand that even if genetics like is inaccessible to you you’re like I can’t test for that

What we do with people when we find these things is a lot of the same nutrition and lifestyle stuff that you can take action on right away in terms of should you absolutely get certain genetic markers screened that is what a doctor can really guide you through

Advise you on taking your family history and knowing you as an individual can help guide that uh because otherwise it’s like you’re doing a 23 and me and you’re getting all of this data and sometimes you know genetic testing can also be scary because you’re like oh my

God I’m going to get this something that you were never had on your mind you never thought about but you were already living in a way that put set you up for Success do you believe in have you heard of like methylated and all this other stuff like methylated supplements and do

You believe that yeah so in my supplement line we use methylated B vitamins those are the activated B vitamins wow yes um I look again I take my supplements and I’m like I want I want high quality stuff I love that yeah so we do use the activated

Forms of B vitamins the most bioavailable absorbable forms of minerals like we make sure that it’s the easiest to utilize so that people are getting the most from it there are people that you know they push back and it’s so interesting to me that uh it’s really torn in the obig community when

It comes to pregnancy because they’ll say no no no folic acid like you you folic acid has all the research and I’m like well okay I have a background in nutrition science and I can tell you that like the whole pathway and how things work like this methyl folate is

Going to be helpful yet their whole claim is that well there’s no research directly on just methyl and neural tube defects and I’m like well that would be unethical at this point for us to do that when the question you know is will we do harm to a developing baby that’s not ethical

We’re we’re probably not going to get studies like that uh but what I will say is that so when I was pregnant in my 40s my Maternal Fetal Medicine specialist this is what you get when you’re high-risk pregnancy she was like take the methyl foli don’t even mess with the

Folic acid like I don’t even want to have to test you or bother with it just take the methyl folate and that was so interesting to me to see this high-risk specialist saying that and yet other hris Specialists will be like no take the folic acid and it’s like a hill that

They’re going to die on with this and I’m just like you know and yet you’ll have other obig being like we acknowledge that there are people out there that cannot utilize folic acid they may not know they can’t use f folic acid and that does cause harm I’ve had

Patients have five miscarriages and switch to a methyl fola and then not have a miscarriage now did I test everything and know and say absolutely definitively without a doubt but like that’s a that’s a that’s a pretty pretty strong Association that’s happening there and if you spend some time on the

Internet listening to women there’s a lot of women with that story so that’s why I’m like you know it’s safer that we we go with this methylated form when we consider there’s about 40% of the population with this MTHFR mutation that might have this issue and we’re going to

Get pushed back we’re going to get this is highly controversial because you know they’ve been pushing folic acid forever I will tell you that it takes a very long time as someone who has been in the health and wellness field for over 20 years 26 years now actually it takes a

Very very very long time for your average doctor to even accept the research that’s in front of them I’m not talking about get the research accept it actually accept it and change their mind about the Dogma that they had integrated into their life do you still have a

Private practice then do you still see patience I see patience part-time so it’s very limited once upon a time I had three practices and my son came down with an autoimmune condition that affects his brain and I had to change my entire life it’s called pandas pediatric autoimmune neuros psychiatric disorder

Associated with strep any mama who knows it knows you it’s absolutely Ely terrifying your child loses the ability to talk to sometimes stand still they have ticks there’s all kinds of issues that come up and there’s really no way to know that we know of at this point

Who’s going to get it you get a strep infection which what kid doesn’t get a strep infection right strep throat ubiquitous you get a strep infection it activates the autoimmunity that attacks the brain and now we’ve got OCD Tendencies we stopped sleeping I mean he

Was sleeping like 4 hours a night and I was like I can’t running all these practices and seeing this huge patient load that I had on 2 to 4 hours of sleep while I’m completely panicking about my child’s health so it was um it was unfortunate at the moment but a very

Fortunate thing because I shifted and did so many things different in my life and I have to say that I would never want to go back and have that again and I if I never he never had to have it I would prefer that and at the same time I

Would say he is and I feel like because of that we rearranged our entire life and it is it is all for the best wow I’m glad there’s a happy ending I that’s that’s good yes I will say I was just really fortunate to have a friend who is an

International expert in this condition and So within three days we were able to identify it and I’m just really grateful that you we went the pharmaceutical route this is something that um you know we didn’t talk about pharmaceutical so much in this I’m very integrative practitioner we used Pharmaceuticals but

At the same time I’m like we’ve got to heal the gut if we’ve got immune system chaos we have to heal the mitochondria we have to like there’s a lot of things we have to do and I’m I’m like if I didn’t know what I knew we wouldn’t have

Been out of it as fast as we were a lot of parents spend about six years with their child being like this before they get an answer and they start to heal wow would you um I got to wrap this for both I mean for both of us but would you mind

Coming back and doing another episode because there’s so many questions I still haven’t even gotten to like that you know yeah well we should do it in person I would love it I thought you’re not able to I thought you’re in Puerto

Rico I am I will be able to uh but as of right now we have no Cal I think we missed each other because I was in California um I did two California tours for over like a 10day tours last year and so that’s what I think happened is

That we missed each other and then I came back and I’m like it was the holidays and everything going on so I’m like I have to like it’s about 19 hours of travel to get to California so I just have to get it all set up but what we

Usually do is we plan in advance and then I have like you know three four podcasts in a day and just hit them all so yes but I’m not in California anytime soon which is why we’re here now I know and I like I said I hate doing it this

Way because I can I just even notice The Internet’s been kind of kind of wonky saying it’s struggling so I’m just hoping that we can you know we’ll have as we can use as much of this as possible but you you’re such an amazing you’re you’re like just an amazing

Wealth of information honestly and I love your perspective I love the information you’re obviously so a knowledgeable I love to do a part two like I I didn’t even get to like most of my questions but um I love you’re like sheets and sheets I have sheets and and

It took note so like tell people the book is called is this normal uh Dr Jolie I mean Dr Jolene Brighton uh so good so good at I know follow her on Instagram buy her book where else can people find you so Instagram Tik Tok What do we got now threads YouTube but

My main Hub is Dr Brighton so b r i g h tn.com I’m so grateful and I blush sometimes because women call it the Google of women’s medicine and you will find tons of information there that’s completely free on how to support your body navigate your hormones and have a

Better conversation with your doctor so that you can get the testing and the help that you need thank you so much for being a guest please don’t hang up I’m going to I’m going to end this but thank you very much you and I’m going to see I

Want to do a part two so just letting you know okay all right right let’s do it okay good