Sex, Hormones and Women's Health - Is this Normal with Dr Jolene Brighten

10:28AM Apr 18, 2023

Speakers:

Angela Foster

Dr Jolene Brighten

Keywords:

progesterone

people

book

period

hormones

sleep

pcos

melatonin

thyroid

flame retardants

women

health

important

oestrogen

understand

ageing

question

ovaries

sex

day

If your period is so painful that interrupts your activities of daily living like you have to reschedule plans, there is a problem. That's not normal.

In today's podcast episode, I'm absolutely delighted to welcome Dr. Jolene Brighton back to the show. She was here for our 200th episode, which proved to be hugely popular. She's now back with a brand new book out is this normal judgement free Straight Talk about your body. It's a brilliant book. I'll put a link to it in the show notes below, you should definitely go and grab yourself a copy. And in today's episode, we're talking about sex hormones, periods and everything else you wanted to know. So without further delay, let's dive in.

So, Dr. Jolene, I am so excited to have you back on the show as a second time guest it was such a popular episode last time. Welcome back.

You have thanks so much for having me. I'm so excited to get to chat with you again. And then I'm gonna see you in person and like it's gonna be a great year with you.

Amazing, it's gonna be a great yeah, I love your company. So the new book is just landing here in the UK is this normal? Absolutely brilliant book. I guess my first question is what prompted you to write this like, it's so jam packed full of questions I think we all have what prompted me to write it.

The book is packed, it turned out to be 126,000 words. And when people are like, Oh, are you gonna have great recipes, I'm like, There's no recipe is there's no meal plan actually need it like when you get the bulky four week meal plan with recipes that are all designed to work with your cycle and your hormones. But we couldn't fit it. Because this book was inspired by all of the questions that I've had that my patients ask that my readers ask that everything on social need. But also I say so often that like my patients, readers, social media followers, they helped write this book, because it's all the questions that they they want to know and that they've brought to me asking Is this normal. And I think back to like, when I was navigating, getting my period, or my first yeast infection, all of these things like the old I am, there was no internet. It was like the Dewey Decimal System of like navigating a library to try to find answers. And a book like this just didn't exist. And it occurred to me three years ago, when I started writing a book like this still doesn't exist. And this was during the pandemic. So 2020 Everybody's period start freaking out. I talked about this. In the book, I talked about how stress impacts your period, talk about how the ageing pandemic affects your period, having a viral illness like all of that. And I was sending off to write, you know, the proposal for the book. So if people don't know, you write a proposal first, you'd say, Hey, do you like this idea? And a publisher tells you yes or no, they like this idea. And this idea, I really, like, people got really health conscious. And they even more, they had questions, they didn't have access to their providers, because unless you had something serious providers weren't seeing you. And so that I'd already started out and not just fueled things even more, because I'm like, never should you ever find yourself in a position where you don't have the information you need about the basics of your body, like the very basics of what are the parts named? How do they work? How do hormones work? What do you need to do to take care of your body that we really should have all been taught in health ed, but like, almost no one got this information?

I've noticed that as well. I think like we all get this education. When we're in school, my daughter is going through at the moment, right? She's 10. She's at her final year of prep school. And they're teaching it but even then I almost think sometimes I wonder if it's like taught too early, because I don't know how many times she says to me, she goes, mommy, what's the period again? Like, oh, we gotta go over this again. Because almost like they're maybe not quite ready for it. Do you know what I mean? And maybe I think you cover it then again, in like a science lesson. And I get why they're teaching it so early. But I think it's quite early on. Not everyone remembers it, because I know there's plenty of women as adults that don't really understand their menstrual cycle.

Yeah, that's so true. I think, one, we've got to catch the eight year olds who start their periods, right. And because you should have this information before you get your period. And so people who are listening, if you feel like oh my god, like I'm an adult, I still don't understand my period. I didn't understand my period until I went to medical school. I didn't understand how my body worked. And I was like, I remember sitting in medical school being like, you shouldn't have to go to medical school to understand how your body works, like the menstrual cycle, if taught properly, is something that you can wrap your mind around. But I think it's important for people to recognise that in medical school, we hear the same things over and over and over because it's repetition that creates that memory. And then we go into experience then we go into hands on with the repetition and so it's a really great model to teach your peers You get the basics, do it again, then you get your period. And I That speaks volumes that she comes to you and is like, Can you can you tell me about this again, because a lot of people don't feel comfortable talking to their own parents about this. But you know that repetition and then the experience reinforcing it being in it, being able to recognise things. That's why in the book, I take people through, like, you're gonna assess your hormones, but you're also going to go through this 20 Day programme, assessing your body, assessing your hormones, trying some things, seeing how they affect you take taking in that data, because it's that learn by doing so, my alma mater that was there, that was their motto, learn by doing and I love that because that is exactly how most people learn is by actually doing it and going through it. But you're never going to be an expert the first dozen times, it's just not going to be that way.

to optimise my sleep each night, there are two things that I did on my non negotiables. The first is to get outside and get early access to morning light. And the second one is to block blue light in the evening with blue light blocking glasses. The best lenses I found are those by born charged, they don't let any of that sneaky light come in underneath the lens, which I used to find really annoying when I was reading my Kindle and things like that. These lenses block all the blue light, and they're super high quality and the great thing is they look really stylish to on charges. Glasses are made in optics laboratories in Australia. They're not mass produced in factories in Asia. And they have science backed technology that's been tested to ensure they work and as I say they have dramatically improved my sleep. I'm sleeping longer, deeper, and I'm feeling refreshed the next morning. And the cool thing about their glasses is they come in non prescription prescription and reading options. They also have glasses for every need including computer glasses to help with digital eyestrain, light sensitivity glasses for helping with low mood and migraines, and the blue light blocking glasses that I'm using for improving sleep. They also have other amazing products such as Blue, low blue light bulbs, red light therapy devices, EMF 5g protection, I have that on my mobile phone, I have that on my kids mobile phones, and I also wear their bond charges, EMF blocking bracelet, and their 100% blackout sleep masks all backed by science and bond charge ship worldwide in rapid time with easy returns and exchanges. And you can save a call 20% of any of their products in their range, simply go to bond charge.com forward slash Angela and use coupon code Angela to save 20% That's boncharg.com/angela and use coupon code. Angela, to save yourself 20%. Yeah, that's so true. I love that. And I love the 28 day plan that you have at the back of the book. So for women listening to this, let's start with kind of what are the I think actually a really good place to start would be what does a normal period look like? Because a period for a woman is her own lived experience. Right? Some people get a lot of clotting, some women get a very short period, some women get lots of pain, like is there an optimal way your period should look because obviously it's one of the vital signs that you can check in with monthly

Yeah, let me just say though, that you got period correct. And this might be seem silly. But I am asked this question a lot like what's normal about a period and then people are like, aren't sometimes they're 28 days. Sometimes they're this I'm like, we're talking about a menstrual cycle there. I see this a lot on social media where male doctors are like, a normal period is roughly you know, this many days. And I'm like, and they're talking about the cycle. And like, that's not the same thing as writing the book. There's a whole chapter on periods and a whole chapter on menstrual cycles. They are separate things. They just go they're like besties, right? They're like separate entities and yet they do go together. So with a period, you mentioned clots, so clots or something, they can be normal. If you're seeing small clots, not abnormal, not anything we worry about what it's a quarter size or more that we get concerned about. What that tells us is that the bleeding is pretty heavy because you so if you cut your finger, you want to clot that's a good thing. And if your endometrial lining shedding too quick, your body is going to clot that's what it's going to do. So this is your body keeping you safe and it's also a sign that like something's going on. It could be fibroids, I have a fibroid checklist, it could be Endo. I have an endo checklist. I literally have so many checklists in this book. But it also could be that you have lower progesterone. If you're using like a super tampon and a pad that is too heavy. If you find that you're changing like a tampon every hour, also too heavy. If You find that you're waking in the middle of the night to change things too heavy. And these are things we're told are normal, that they can actually be early signs that there's an issue going on. Now in terms of the length of the period, less than two days, that's usually a sign that our oestrogen is too low. We're not building up the endometrial lining. So three is little more ideal average periods, about five days, if you pass seven, too much bleeding too long something else is going on. And I cover all of that in the book so that you can really investigate, what what could possibly be going on for you. Because I listed these things. Those are potentials, but just having a longer period, that doesn't necessarily mean that like, Oh, you must have endometriosis. It could be something that you have oestrogen access going on, it could be something you don't have sufficient progesterone, which, you know, if you're under 45, those are sometimes really easy fixes. And I give guidance in the book for the things that are easy fixes, and then the things that is like it's time to see a doctor. Now, the last thing you mentioned was painful periods. We're told all the time. I mean, the Mitel commercials tell us like, well, you guys don't have pharmaceutical ads. Like, we have pharmaceutical ads in our country, which are constantly reinforcing that periods are just the worst thing that could ever happen to women. It's like punishment. And it's just the bane of your existence and like, and then here comes like this pharmaceutical and like, oh, the clouds part, the sun shining down. And it's just comical. It's really comical when you look at pharmaceutical ads. My son, actually, so he's never said he had never seen live TV. And we were travelling in Europe this last summer. And he was seeing live TV for the first time. And he's like, oh, yeah, there's some commercials. We came back in the US. I can't remember where we were. But he saw live TV. And he's like, why are that he's 10. Why are there all these commercials mom about like diseases and drugs. And like, he's so upset. And I'm like, this should be the outrage everybody has about this. But also the negative messaging that gets reinforced, you know, whether it's from our family, our friends, pharmaceutical ads, our own doctors being like periods are just awful. No, if your period is so painful that it interrupts your activities of daily living like you have to reschedule plans. There's a problem that's not normal. And periods shouldn't be so painful that you have to pop a pharmaceutical. If it is we have to investigate. So it could be Anna meiosis, it could be endometriosis. Like it could be something else. And you should know that. Because those are different conditions and how we approach that is very different than the most common cause of painful periods, which is elevated prostaglandins.

Yeah, I'm so glad that you've clarified that. And in the book, actually, for those of you listening to this, you know, Dr. Dr. Brighton goes into what PCOS says as you say you have these amazing checklist so people can have a look and see so many times why I have Adam no meiosis might have endometriosis. And some of these conditions are really common. They go together. I mean, for example, we were talking offline. I have PCOS and endometriosis. And I don't think that's an uncommon thing to find.

Yeah, so a lot of these conditions just go together we see PCOS and Hashimotos. We see PCOS and ADHD going together, we see ADHD, autism, and PMDD going together. And so what is this telling us one, there are common root causes to these conditions. And to hormones are a really big deal. The on just your menstrual cycle, you have receptors all over your body, all of your systems for these hormones, and they can impact those systems. And those systems can impact your hormones. And the problem is with Western medicine, we get compartmentalization, where it's like, oh, you've got gut problems. Let's treat that as a gut problem. But it's like, but it's my thyroid. I'm constipated. Because it's my thyroid. And why am I gut symptoms not getting better? Because well, that's an endocrine problem. So we're not going to talk about the gut, because the endocrine problem, but but like, I have to activate my thyroid by way of the gut. That's one of the major organs actually. So I have to have my gut healthy. It's just like this compartmentalization. And so we absolutely see these things go together. And what's the good news about that is that a lot of the same things that can help one condition so for example, I talked about in the book, the connection with ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, and PMDD. And also that your medication if you're ADHD, a lot of my patients would be like, I'm still like, half the month, my medication doesn't work. So I got into the research and as it turns out, yeah, in the luteal phase medication doesn't work as well. But how can we help with ADHD symptoms? How can we help with all of that same stuff we would do to help with PMS and to help with PMDD. So the same diet and lifestyle things can actually improve your ADHD, some of the sensory issues that can go with autism. I'm not Saying like we're gonna cure these things. But I am saying that you do have a lot of power in your ability to feel better in your body to function at your normal, your optimal. And that's something that I want to be really clear on. Because some people are like, is this normal? Are you saying that there's just one normal? And I'm like, No, I am not a full, like there is not the whole programme is to help you understand what's your normal, and what's not, and all those checklists as well, so that you can go to your doctor when your doctor is like, oh, that's normal. You're like, no, no, in fact, sir, it is not normal. I mean, it might be a woman, but like, sort of sounds funny, but it is not normal. And here's the list of symptoms. So those checklists can help you dial it in. But they also are the data that you can bring to your provider to have a more productive conversation and be able to advocate for yourself.

Yeah, that's amazing. That's so empowering. For women. I wanted to talk to you that because you were touching on the link between Hashimotos thyroid health and, and kind of period problems and the link and obviously has linked with fertility as well. And in the book, you have this this pyramid, which I think is super useful in terms of like, looking at insulin and adrenal function, thyroid health, and then kind of the sex hormones are kind of almost the cherry on top of the cake. Right? We can't necessarily look they're

there this next season. You want to go after, like, yeah, exactly. It's just sitting at the top there.

So with that, when when women are looking at this, you've obviously heard Mike as the kind of base foundation, the insulin and adrenal function, which funds all your stress and your blood glucose management. Can you just explain the link there between like thyroid health, the menstrual cycle and also fertility?

Yes. So for sure. And just to touch on the pyramid of what you're saying. And this, this is going to help with like understanding fertility is that the pyramid the foundation being adrenals and insulin, your complex biological system that if you have ovaries and a uterus, your body is like, we need to make babies, okay? And even if you're like, I don't want babies, your biology is like we should do that. Like that would be great. Your choice. And if you don't want babies, we just don't tell your body we just like still set it up for fertility, because that is a sign of optimal health. So with that, things like blood sugar, like how much food is in the environment, what kind of food how much quality food is there, stress, sleep, all of that is going to impact the system, which is why it's the foundation. And if we don't affect the foundation, in a very positive way, it's nothing but negative inputs. And what we see is right above that is the thyroid, and the thyroid starts to get strained when the adrenal glands are like we are in hyperdrive. And the you know, the adrenal glands are in hybrid drive, because you're like, Oh, I'm in stress, and the thyroid is like, oh, stress, I'm going to slow you down. So you rest, like we're not going to make the same conversions in the same way. Now, thyroid hormone is necessary for follicle development to get to an egg that is healthy enough to ovulate. You have to have thyroid hormone, and so with and so it's really important to understand is that in the brain, if people have had their thyroid tested, they've had TSH, most likely it's all they've had. thyroid stimulating hormone, which is a pituitary hormone, even though has thyroid in the name. It is not a thyroid hormone. It just tells you how your brain is communicating with your thyroid. The same mechanism that causes TSH to go up, also causes prolactin to go up. Prolactin is our milk making hormone super awesome to have if you're postpartum and you are nursing. We want to have that. If you are not we shouldn't have that prolactin can prevent ovulation and therefore menstruation so it's very important for everyone to understand ovulation comes first then you men straight. You do not menstruate regularly. If you do not ovulate regularly, is it possible to not ovulate and then get a period sometimes one off, but not consistently. So without the thyroid hormone, we're gonna have that issue with ovulation. Without ovulation, we can never get the corpus luteum. So once we ovulate, a temporary endocrine structure is left behind in the ovaries that secretes progesterone. So without thyroid hormone, you don't get progesterone. And progesterone needs to be at ample amounts for your body to be able to use that thyroid hormone effectively during the luteal phase. So it is all connected. And it's why I approach from a bottom up and I talk about that pyramid. So the sex hormones I want everyone to understand there's a whole chart in the book that's like, here's your you know, cyclical symptom relief chart. Like you've got acne, you've got PMS, you've got periods of pain, like here's what to do about right now, because I'm a big fan of like, you should feel good as possible right now. And then we need to work on that foundation. And this is why so many people find themselves spinning their wheels where they're like, I've tried everything and nothing works and like I'm not getting better or got a little bit better, but not all the way there is because they haven't tended to that foundation. motion, which is the boring stuff. It's not sexy. It's not exciting. It's certainly honestly people like, it's the kind of stuff that I'll see people say like, yeah, yeah, that's nothing new. I've heard it before. And I have patients say this sometimes, and I always say, and how well are you doing it? And that's usually when they pause, and they're like, Oh, I'm like, you wouldn't be here. If it was that easy, because honestly, maintaining these things in the kind of environment we live in, it's a challenge.

Yeah, it's a real challenge. And just as you're saying that I mean, it does, it does sort of make me think about, you know, women who are in their 40s, for example, this is a really difficult time, if they're thinking of either a first child, if they've decided to sort of postpone that for whatever reason. Or they're thinking of adding to their family in their 40s, quite often, not only are they experiencing potentially, you know, some degree of disruption with hormones, but they're also really phenomenally busy. I just think like, being in my 40s. It's just like a busy decade, right? It just seems to have so much in it in terms of like, the responsibilities that you have, either with your work or your business, the children that you may have already and everything they're doing. Your parents are kind of ageing, there just seems to be so much going on. And I guess for for those listening, that maybe want to introduce another family member or a new family member in their 40s. What do you think is the key thing that they need to really focus on? Would it be that adrenal function and stress management and sleep to enhance fertility at that stage?

Oh, gosh, I mean, yes, and there's so much more. So I had my second baby at 40. And people know, I've been on a fertility journey as well in my forte, because like, why, like, Why could not my 30 something year old self be like, yes, I want to grow this family. I mean, I had a child with a chronic illness. And we're finally in a place and I'm like, oh, I want to grow my family. And I'm like, Who decides to do this? Like, I'm like, I'm 42. And here I am. So I could talk, we could have a whole podcast just about this whole entire journey. Okay, so if you're not sleeping, I have a whole diagram in the book, this diagram, you were at the Health optimization Summit. So you saw like the I feel like archaic is the word for it, like you felt sorry, for the first iteration of his diagram that like I was using, well is even then at that point, probably a third iteration, it's still love them pretty. I actually took that diagram, and they sent it to a friend who hand illustrated all of the so the beautiful clitoris like a friend of mine, he hand illustrated that. So there these are like, he drew all these things and the sleep one I was like, can you just make this so it's like palatable for like the average person because I teach this in medical conferences, because and you know, and biohacking. Definitely want to teach this there. Because so many people are like sleep, whatever. Everyone talks about sleep, it's not that big of a deal. Like just get eight hours level of a block, given your doctor saying that like every five to seven hours, and I'm just like, You know what, you just tell yourself stop because of like, the shit sleep that we all got for so long in school, like we just are like, the same with lawyers. Yeah, yeah. Right. Not to sleep. I look back and I'm like, you know why? If I could tell my 12 year old self something, it would just be like sleep. Like

I said, Isn't it crazy? I remember when I, when I had a baby, because of all the years as a corporate lawyer, when the midwife first came around to the house, and she was like, make sure you don't nap in the afternoon. And I was like, no, no, it's fine. I've got the all nighters covered, I'll be fine. Oh, my God. Eight weeks in that was just awful.

You're like recovering from the most intense thing your body has ever done. You have to make milk. And you have to function at a high level with your brain for not just yourself, but also a small human in ways you've never done before. It's just maddening what we put new moms through. So what we were talking about sleep. So this diagram that I've like, talked about so much like let me get into it. So I showed I pulled from the research like what happens when you have chronic sleep interruption or disrupted sleep which we commonly see in nightshift workers, which we absolutely need these people are amazing. I think they need to be compensated more when you get into the research. So this this is how we study and understand the negative effects of not getting quality sleep. We see inflammation goes up, insulin resistance goes up, thyroid function goes down, we can develop an ambulatory cycles and infertility our adrenals definitely take a hit. That's like no surprise to anyone. We produce more free radicals we age, we start accelerating our ageing. And if you talk about accelerated ageing, that's going to have a negative impact on our mitochondria, which from biology people may remember is the powerhouse of your cells. But it's so much more than that. And where it is very much concentrated brain, heart and ovaries. So if you want to take care if you don't want to so like if you're listening to this and you're like I don't care about fertility friend do you care about Dementia, cuz the same stuff that keeps your ovaries that like young, okay, and I for people who are like we don't want to be young forever or you know some people get on that and like you want to be less than your biological age, okay? Like whatever your biological age is, it is better to be less than that. Because that means that what you're doing every day is combating the negative effects of your environment that you do not have control over like environmental toxins, for example. So if we want to keep our brain young, our heart young, our ovaries Young is all the same stuff in terms of taking care of the mitochondria. So yes, we want to take care of our sleep, our blood sugar, absolutely have to take care of your blood sugar. That is like that is not in the US people are like, well, you know, I'm not diabetic, I'm not pre diabetic. And I'm like you have like, you have no idea how easy it is in the environment we live in to end up with blood sugar dysregulation and for it to not show up on our screening test. So I could do a haemoglobin anyone see, I can do a fasting glucose. We can look at your insulin a lot. A lot of people are looking at fasting insulin. That's a really good one to look out to see how that hormones performing. But this is where continuous glucose monitors can come in, because they can show that like, yeah, overall, you might be averaging fine blood sugar, but you have wild spikes and dips. And these are people that are like, Oh, I can't sleep. I'm having anxiety like I'm having mood swings. I'm irritable. It's your blood sugar friend. And as long as your blood sugar is doing that, your adrenal glands have to respond with cortisol, epinephrine and norepinephrine. So we've got cortisol and insulin doing this interchange. And as long as they're swinging, they're hitting the thyroid, they're hitting these sex hormones as well.

Would you like a snapshot of where you are in your health journey right now with personalised advice from me on how to improve, go to your total healthcare.com and take my 62nd biohacking quiz, and I will send you your free health score and personalised report with recommendations on each area of my shift protocol for health optimization. Shift contains the five key pillars you need to focus on for optimal health, sleep, hormones, insights to track how to fuel your body with the right nutrition, light hydration, and breath work and training for your body and mind. Go to your total health check.com To find out your score in each area, and get personalised recommendations from me on how to improve it takes less than 60 seconds. And you can take the quiz as many times as you want to and track your improvement by following my guidance. Simply go to your total health check.com To get started. Interesting. On that point, actually, what have you found leads to glucose drops in the middle of the night. This is a common thing that I think people experience sometimes I know from speaking to some of the sensor companies actually if you're lying on the sensor, you can get a false reading that your blood glucose has dropped. But I know like last night, for example, I definitely saw a drop in my own because you could see it then mirrored with a rise afterwards. Right. And actually, my recovery was poor, my HRV was poor. I hadn't had a good wind down routine last night, that's for sure. It just didn't happen.

When like I see the poor recovery index, I'm like, Hey, we're our heart rate variability for people listening to HRV. Like, I just say, like tracking the data like is like the it's like the mom I never had, where it's like you need to rest today and then do it. And then all my markers are better. And I'm like, Oh, look at that. Like, look at that if I just like listen to my body. How amazing. Yeah,

you wouldn't do it unless it told us the thing, right? If you're like me, you wouldn't do it unless like, my weight went from 89. I went like 89% in the green yesterday to 30% overnight. And I was like, okay, maybe I need to take a little bit easier today.

Oh, man, I'd love to lie and be like, No, I wouldn't push myself and definitely like I am launching a book right now like like getting dizzy. Like you don't do these things. If you're not someone who wishes yourself and yet, like I do need to be monitoring my data, especially as we get older these things change your resiliency is not what it once was last, like Womp womp. Filling and yet it is what it is. So this is something that's really interesting that you bring up when people wake up and they're saying like, Oh, I wake up at night and I'm having hot flashes. I asked the question like, do you wake up and you're like hot, sweaty Navy. And that's it or do you wake up and you're sweat, sweating, and you're hot and maybe you feel kind of panicked or irritable and you're hungry? The ladder is a cortisol issue, not an oestrogen issue going on. And so the former that is what we see as Apereo menopausal symptom, which by the way, people are like, there's been a lot of normalisation of like, oh, that's just perimenopause. Yet when you really break down a lot of the symptoms of perimenopause, the temperature dysregulation that's coming from the brain, brain fog, losing your keys. You know, all of these kinds of like anxiety Like, these are signs that the brain is struggling and that to me, while I feel like society so flippant with like, Oh, it's just perimenopause, I'm like, why don't you take the pause in that word and pause because that is brain dysfunction. And we, as providers should be always asking what's coming down the pipeline. And what's coming down the pipeline is not good if the brain is already struggling right now, because it's not getting the stimulation by the hormones. Now, when you're waking up at night, and you're feeling that it's a cortisol related issue, because your blood sugar dropped, you likely are skipping meals in the day, maybe you're not eating enough protein, fat and fibre at every meal, like there's things going on there leading to blood sugar dysregulation, maybe you already have insulin resistance, maybe you already have inflammation going on. Maybe you had a really stressful day, you're not managing your stress. So in those situations, I saw my first book Beyond the pill that one recipes made it in. There's a recipe called an upgraded turmeric latte, or upgraded golden milk. I don't remember what it is, but this is what it is. And so I have patients drink turmeric, they can add any milk that they like, I'm actually a fan of like the turmeric that have mushrooms in them. Because I'm just like, the more mushrooms we can get the better people like Yeah, totally. Yeah, I think they're so good for your health. My husband's always like, Oh, no want to eat mushrooms. I'm like, but people who eat mushrooms every day are living longer and healthier and happier. So like, eat the mushrooms also, you have to like get your kids to eat mushrooms. So anyhow, turmeric, milk of your choice, collagen and you don't even have to have milk if you're like I don't want to but you need to have some fat in there. So maybe you put butter instead like the or ghee collagen. So getting yourself collagen that's going to give you roughly like 15 to 20 grammes of protein coming in and collagen is higher in glycine, it has a good source of glycine. Glycine also helps you go to sleep stay asleep like it's good for the brain. So we're going to bring in the fat, the collagen, and then the turmeric is anti inflammatory, a little black pepper to help with absorption even more, and maybe a little bit of honey, if you're someone that's like, oh, like I like the taste, it isn't going to hurt your blood sugar if you're doing like, you know, a half to a teaspoon of honey with 20 grammes of protein like that's an ideal setting to bring in sugar. And it may actually be helpful but you know, we're all told about intermittent fasting and like oh, like that's, that's the, you know, mecca of health. But not in this situation. If you're waking up with hunger signals, you need like you're getting a stress response in the middle of the night. You should not spike cortisol, epinephrine and norepinephrine will your melatonin up. They cannot both be where they need to be melatonin. Yes, it's great for sleep. It's also a potent antioxidant. It's protecting those mitochondria. It's protecting your brain, it's protecting your ovaries, we actually use it so if you're in your 40s melatonin is something we would use exogenous melatonin you would supplement with melatonin to support ovarian quality ovarian health we are specifically egg quality is what we want to be protecting. And if you are someone linked, so inositol is something that can help with blood sugar, it also can help with sleep. And so if you are someone who has PCOS, it may be helpful with dinner to be taking an ASO tool. So in the evening, taking inositol as well. If you don't have PCOS, it can help with sleep. It's also great for helping with sleep. With those are the things to bring in. But what we want to do is we want to be helping. So when cortisol goes down at night, we no longer have the anti inflammatory effect of cortisol. So bringing in anti inflammatory food, drinking that beverage, like an hour or two before bed. The trick is you don't want to have to get up to use the bathroom at night. But just something so that after dinner, you have a little more fuel coming in, so that the adrenal glands don't feel like they need to pop off like that while you work on the lifestyle stuff during the day. But if you can't get to that optimal sleep, it's going to be so much like how do you even get the energy to be like exercise tomorrow and you're like, but I didn't sleep like I'm so tired. Like it's hard to do the things that really move the needle when you don't have the energy and then as I explained before, poor sleep is going to reinforce all the things that lead to blood sugar dysregulation.

I love that they're super helpful and we'll we'll find that recipe and link to it in the show notes because it sounds incredible I think and also at all I definitely have used like with PCOS I love it at that I actually like magnesium and loss at all. And what was the other one who and glycine just like really sweet for sleeping and mushrooms? Even just like tincture and Reishi and Chaga and Marcus SoTell. Yeah. So thank you for all of those. One thing you mentioned in the book, this was this was quite interesting was actually seed cycling to improve symptoms of vaginal dryness, which I thought was interesting to increase lubrication. That was something I sort of picked out because this again is a really common thing right for women in their 40s

Yes, so vaginal dryness, by the way is a really common thing, depending on where you're at in your cycle. And so I think often, again, back to marketing ads and everything people think like, vaginal dryness only happens to like, quote old ladies. And it's like, well, no, because you might be like the week before your period, you're like, Why is everything dry? Because that's how the vagina works. This is normal. So with that, I just want to be clear that like if you're postmenopausal, and your problem is, is that your ovaries are not going to make hormones anymore. We're not going to be like seed cycle our way out of that if you need hormone replacement therapy, because you've got friable tissue, that means like it tears really easily you're getting vaginal atrophy, it's shrinking becomes really tight, painful, you're getting UTIs. Like, you may do well to have like an estriol suppository or some cream that's e three, it's a really weak oestrogen, it's the one associated with pregnancy. But it can be really lovely for the tissues as can DHEA and I talked about those in the book. But if you're before menopause, and the ovaries should still be doing their job. Seed cycling can help with that. So it has phyto estrogens in the flax seeds that are there. It's important for people to understand because they're like, oh, so if I get if I eat flax seeds, then my like oestrogen is gonna go up and we can test for that. That's not how it works. It's kind of similar to endocrine disruptors except endocrine disruptors are haters. And the phyto. estrogens are like cheerleaders. They're like, yeah, go. And so what happens is they actually stimulate the receptors, and they elicit change to the DNA similar to what oestrogen would do. And so it's important for people to understand that phyto estrogens can stimulate in a positive way, especially because what we're talking about with seed cycling is going to have fibre, it's gonna have other things in there that helps with optimising your oestrogen. So it's not just stimulating the receptors, but it's also helping move out any oestrogen that you're making, or those endocrine disruptors that can come in, and then endocrine disrupters. They're stimulating tissues just misbehave. They're like that. They're like the bad friend that comes in and like, who's your child? And you're like, don't hang out with them. Like, they're cool, but they're not.

Yeah, they're the bodies. Let's talk about those briefly. And then I want to ask you about progesterone endocrine disruptors, they're everywhere, right? And personal care products. In our water, plastics, people drinking from plastic bottles, which actually is, you know, we're preaching now spring and summer, that's quite difficult for people on the go. Yeah. What do you think? What are the key things people need to

leave usable water bottles, people, please, I actually had somebody asked me is the first time I've ever been asked this before. And I was surprised because they were like, well, if I use a plastic bottle, but I've been using it for a while, then I've leached out all the chemicals right already. And I'm like, Oh, my gosh, no one's ever asked me that. There are definitely people who believe that no, it's in them. It's in the bottle. But you know, so I think like people spend a lot of time like, we talk a lot about personal care products, we talk about plastics, you know, cleaning up the kitchen, what's in your environment. And something that I just don't think gets talked about enough is flame retardants. And, and you know, the research, we need more, we need human studies, we need replication of these things. But I think it's important for people to understand that we knew decades ago that in our pets, the animals in our home, they get exposed to flame retardants that would lead to hypothyroidism or Hashimotos. In dogs and hyperthyroidism or graves in cats. We understood autoimmunity and crime disorder that was happening in our pets, what are they they're the smallest, they're the canaries in the coal mine. They're the smallest little creatures spending the most time on the floor. So these environmental toxins are going to accumulate and so show signs and symptoms much sooner sooner. And yet in humans, we've now come to understand that oh, yeah, this does affect the thyroid. Yes, it does. And so there's been animal studies showing that it actually can cause oxidative stress in our ovaries. So that means poor a quality. And so often, I'm so sick of this, like the dose makes the poison. I'm like, you know, maybe once upon a time, that was like accurate. But when you live in a an environment where you're inundated, and nobody's keeping tabs on the fact that you're sleeping on a mattress for like eight to 10 hours, that's soaked in flame retardants that your children are wearing clothes over, how long have their lifetime, that their pyjamas are flame of flame retardants that your pets beds have flame retardant that your couch has claimed it returns that all of this stuff is settling in the dust now, like, you know, you're you're in inhaling mess, like these kinds of things have a cumulative burden on the body and that is conveniently not studied. It's conveniently not studied, like, you know, we'll hear like, oh, well, it's so little that's in your skincare product and they wouldn't have allowed it unless it was safe, I guess at that level. But no already accounted for the dozen of products that contain that same exact thing that you are exposed to every day. Nor did they say what happens when a lot of women are brand loyal, you're exposed to that for 30 years, every single day, we have no idea saying this dose makes the poison is total BS, because we are exposed to so many things over and over and over. And there are multiple products that we're being exposed to with that, but the flame retardant thing, I think we've got options now. I think for a long time, people weren't really talking about this as much, because what options were there like in the United States, it was like you have to get a mattress with flame retardants you don't now you don't need to buy your children, there's no need to put your child in a flame retardant, like pyjama set instead, get them tight fitting, pyjamas not like, you know, restrictive, but there should be like form fitting, so they're not loose and you know, put a put a down comforter over them if they're not an infant, like do something else. Other than getting these like synthetic fleeces that are like dipped in these chemicals, because we don't have studies about like, wow, you're living you're living in because like, I don't know about you, but my kids, they they on Sundays, they're just staying in their pyjamas unless I forced them out of it. That's something that like, that's a lot of exposure. And so for people to understand, not only is it important to clean up that environment in terms of your exposure, opening your windows once a week is super, super important. And making sure you're vacuuming regularly if because odds are your couch is going to have flame retardants like these things are going to have flame retardants in them. And that is something that you can do to help mitigate the effects on you.

Yeah, thank you for those super important with the endocrine disrupting chemicals, you also talk about like liver health. And I think this is something in the book, you have lots of things to help women support the health of their liver, which is important not just for detoxifying these sorts of things, but also excess oestrogen and the impact of the Astra Bolin that part of the microbiome that helps to regulate oestrogen. What would be obviously alcohol is probably not the best thing to be consuming. What would be your kind of top three things?

I see oh, yeah, we all know,

I'm real, though, that I'm doing an experiment of one year with no alcohol. And I'm kind of Yeah, eight months into it. And I have to say it's been a really interesting journey. Because my husband and I loved buying kind of fine wine, putting it away storing it, it was kind of our fare, and Nick and enjoying the occasional glass together. But both of us now like eight months in or like I don't even know if I'll ever go back to it. We're kind of that.

Yeah, it's so tricky with that. So funny. Because my whole life, I was like, I don't care about wine. And then I spend some time in France. And I feel like I actually drank wine, like it was actually like really good wine. And I like lived on the central coast of California. So I know about like California wines and all that. But like, there was just something different. It's also lower alcohol and a lot of instances like when you're in Europe compared to the US. But yeah, no, I know that that where you're like, oh, it's nice. I actually are enjoying this now. So yes, alcohol. Definitely. I mean, what we know about it, in terms of its negative impacts on their body. I mean, I mean, people know all those things that a lot of people don't recognise is that one drink can increase your oestrogen levels over 10% Because the liver is like I have to have to take care of this toxin that you just consumed because it is and at the end at the expense of taking care of this oestrogen. And so that's, that's part of that cancer or complication. It goes beyond that, because it's also disrupting sleep and melatonin and all of those things. What's interesting, though, is I was just in the Daily Mail UK, because one of their writers decided to give up alcohol for a year. And she was like, sex got better. And so they wanted to interview someone. And they were like, Why? Like, why is sex better when you're off of alcohol? And I was like, Oh, let me tell you, it can be so much better, which flies in the face of so many doctors who will be if you tell them like I'm adding painless sack sex is like not enjoyable. I feel tense. I'm having anxiety like I cover all of this stuff in the book of like, what's classified is like sexual dysfunction. Don't feel like it's dysfunctional as much as this adaptation. And if that and the chapters will often say like, post a while and just relax and it's like, having to have an org can take longer and then you're in your head more or it's just not enjoyable or you're having like problems self lubricating and you don't have lube at home and now it's even more painful. But I'm like that whole like doctors being like, just have a glass of wine. I'm like, it really serves the heterosexual couple when the male counterpart the heterosexual couple of like, oh, but you can't have an orgasm or pleasure. Are we doing? It's not fun for you?

Sorry, breaking up slightly there. It should be, it should be fun. It should be fun. And there's a whole section in the book all about sex and what's normal? Sorry.

The whole first section of the book is

the whole first sections. Exactly. It's massive. And I would definitely encourage people to go because and read that. Because if you've got any questions relating to sex, everything is there. I mean, one question I have for you. And then I want to come back to progesterone because this has been, on my mind, a question I get asked a lot is, in relation to sex with men we look at the optimal amount of sex that they have in terms of regulating testosterone and sperm production. Is their unpaid health and prostate health. Is there an optimal amount for a woman?

That is such an interesting question, because first, it goes to like, how do we define sex? So in the book, there's a chapter called Sex of all kinds, because the way so many people are talking about sex is the very, like, heteronormative approach of like, vaginal penetration by a penis. And then they're told things like foreplay, and indicates the fact that foreplay is sex. That's a form of sex. So and I say, like, sex is how you define it. Like, it's up to you to define what sexes for you. And so what when we start differently, okay, well, what's the optimal amount? Well, first, like, what is sex? And why are you pursuing sack? So women, we do like orgasms. But people in general, when you ask about sexual satisfaction, orgasms are not the most important thing of what people rate as like a satisfying session. What's more important is empathy, connection, intimacy, so actually having that connection. And so why this is important is because you might have a makeout session where you're rubbing up on somebody, and you never achieve orgasm, but you feel connected, you feel like it was intimate, you feel like, Oh, that was really satisfying. And so for women, it's a lot more complex. So for men, we're like, about 21 times a month, you should have Dracula, because that's good for the prostate, we don't want you to get prostate cancer, pretty easy to measure. But for women, they seek out sex for different reasons, they, what brings them pleasure and satisfaction that can be rated differently. And so when it comes to like, what is the optimal amount of sex? What do you want to be having? And what does that look like for you in terms of what sex is? Because if you ask somebody, like with a severe case of endometriosis, what is the optimal amount of socks that you would like to be having? And they're like, I have pain was 00, when I have vaginal penetration as my definition of socks, but for them, if it's oral sex, if it, you know, is maybe using a toy, it's manual stimulation, it's something else than that number changes. And so I think it's just important when we frame it that way of like, what is sex for you? And what's the optimal amount of times that you want to have that kind of experience? Because it's certainly, you know, there's research that shows that orgasming, multiple times a week is going to be beneficial for your hormones, your immune system function, it is going to be beneficial for anti ageing. So many things, like if you want to live longer, like have more orgasms, yes, this is all true. But in terms of like life, it's not just about the length of how long we live, but it's also the quality. And so looking at, like, what does it take for you to have that quality experience? What constitutes a quality sexual experience? And reading that for yourself? That's a long answer.

Nobody has a great answer. And I think the way you break it down in the book is it's amazing. It's brilliantly done. Because as you say, it's so different for for different people. I guess my questionnaire was like, does it regulate women's hormones? So is there a certain amount and you mentioned those benefits and like the skin health actually was in there that was really appealing, like it helps you stay like you looking younger.

That's why I glow.

And you have for those of you that can't see do vote to date and have very glowing skin. I was commenting on that when we first joined. Moving on to progesterone. Why is it that so many women cannot tolerate progesterone and what's going on there? Because we were talking kind of earlier in this in this interview around the fact that particular you know, sometimes if women are very stressed, they're gonna have less progesterone, if they're not ovulating, they're not getting as much progesterone in perimenopause. So then immediate thing then is to think about progesterone and we can talk about the different forms, but some women just really don't seem to tolerate it.

Yeah. Okay. So one thing with progesterone, the most common bioidentical progesterone prescribed in the United States is prometrium. And that's going to be based in a peanut oil. And peanuts can be it's like some people are going to feel like that's like they don't respond well because it's inflammatory for the system. So it depends on how progesterone is given. So sometimes people are like, Oh, progesterone didn't help my anxiety at all. When you ask well, they were using a vaginal suppository. And in that case, a trophy under the tongue or oral would have been better because we need to get the metabolites of progesterone to stimulate the brain, to make us feel calm, to help us sleep. However, there are also so there's practitioners too, that just go like really hard and heavy with hormones. I'm always like, slow and low, like let's start at a low dose and let's progressively increase things. So instead of jumping right on, like 200 milligrammes of progesterone, starting, like 100 milligrammes of oral, progesterone Navy better so that you can you can see, like, how does that affect you? Now, the other thing we know, is that with some women, and this tends to be true among the neurodivergent community, that they utilise progesterone a little differently in the brain, and that they don't necessarily, it's not the response that we would expect. And so this is one of the theories of why PMDD is more prevalent among those who also have a neurodivergent diagnosis. And there is there's not enough research here to really tell us, why is it that their brain isn't using progesterone in quite the same way or that it's getting overwhelmed? Like, if you do too much progesterone, it feels overwhelming to their brain, and they feel overwhelmed and so slightly, yeah, J actually, yeah. And so the titrating that down. And this is sometimes where using, like a compounding pharmacy is really, really helpful. The FDA here was like kind of on a witch hunt for a while against compounding pharmacies. And I'm like, some people need that like even for thyroid, like it just what we're doing isn't working in terms of the standard doses, we have to change things up. And so sometimes you need to go even lower and slowly build it up if somebody is still menstruating. And we want to, we want to mimic their cycles. So sometimes practitioners are like, Oh, just take progesterone all the time. It feels great like, and for some people it does, but I'm waiting until like that midpoint in their cycle, and then bringing in progesterone and mimicking like that 12 days that they would get exposed to progesterone and then doing the withdrawal when their period would come can sometimes who Excuse me, can sometimes be a lot more beneficial to the system because hormone replacement therapy, when we're using it when the ovaries just stop altogether, it is replacing but in the peri menopausal phase, like we're not making enough progesterone, but those ovaries may still be trying and you can support them with vitamin C, vitamin B six. Again, making sure your stress is low, getting with community like doing things that build you up that make you feel wonderful. And reinforcing that. And then progesterone reinforces that doing those things and then maybe using a lower dose of progesterone. And then over time, you may find like, Oh, yes, okay, now I need to increase because the ovaries are there, they're less, they're less apt to make that progesterone.

That's great. Thank you. And what about with progesterone cream? So I know, like certain practitioners have progesterone creams that you can buy. I interviewed Dr. Michael Platt recently and his research around progesterone and adrenaline. And obviously, they don't like progesterone creams. It seems a bit controversial how well it's actually absorbed. What are your thoughts there?

Yeah, there's the question of like, how Bowens and actually absorbed and how well is it mixed? Right? Because like it especially like when you're buying a tube off of Amazon, and maybe it's like a few months out from its expiration date, you have to ask, like, how much is actually biologically available in there? How you're well dispersed, is it so we want to make sure that we're getting the consistent dose in mind. I will say that, like, you know, some of it is definitely absorbed, but how much how much are we getting? That's why it's controversial is that like, we don't like to be willy nilly with these things. We don't like to be like, oh, yeah, one day you're getting 10 milligrammes the next day, you're getting 25, milligrammes like we like to know that you are in fact, that's why like, like compounding pharmacies, they will. So you're like, doctors should always check in with a compounding pharmacy, making sure that it's a homogenous mix. Got the best technology for that. And then you can actually use applicators that have a click, so you just click it and it spits out the amount you need and it measures it for you. So there's none of this like get a teaspoon out, scrape it out, like all of that kind of thing, but it certainly is a controversial thing. And I get just really cautious with hormones that you get over the counter that you just haven't been able to vet the company very well because they're are some companies that make like DHEA over the counter? And it does, it does work well. But then there's ones that I'm just like, I don't know anything about your company, I can't find anything about your company like that just makes me really nervous.

So a bit like melatonin, isn't it? I think there was massive discrepancy. And actually how much was in despite what said, but on the packaging, but it's interesting, because here in the UK, you can't just go you can't get DHEA it would be prescription only. Same with progesterone, you can't get melatonin. It's pretty strict. But I know in the States, you can pick these things up.

In the States, you can get access to a lot of stuff, the whole the melatonin thing I always find really interesting that I'm like, why wouldn't we let people have like low dose melatonin? But you know, it's funny because I have my own supplement company and people was like, when are you going to send it to like Australia, for example. And they'll and people get really upset with me where they're like, why don't you make this available? And I'm like, your regulations are very different and very strict, like Canada, for example. When you manufacture in Canada, you have to put claims on there, you have to be like, This is what I claim it treats and like in the United States, you cannot have any claims. And like, all the regulations are so so different. But I know someone was telling me that in Germany, you can't get vitamin C, I think it was and I was like, That blows my mind. Like why? Why vitamin C? Like with all things? Why is vitamin C problematic?

I think I think Germany is really difficult. I have a client in Germany, and she could just almost never order anything. It's really, really tricky. Amazing, you have literally linked with so much that I mean, I just want to encourage people to go and read Is this normal to really get the lowdown at like every single thing we've touched on here is just in so much more detail in the book, every question that you might be too scared to ask right? And it's empowering as well. Because as you say there are kind of cheat sheets and diagrams and things that you can take and questionnaires that you can take to your doctor with you. How can people find more about you? I know you have a range of supplements. I'm guessing given our discussion there. They're not available in the UK yet. No, yeah.

Yeah, not available in the UK yet. We are working on it friends, but you can find me my main hub is Dr. brighton.com. Dr. B ri ght e n.com. And then I'm also on Instagram, Tik Tok and YouTube at Dr. Jolene, Brighton. So those are all the places that you can come and find me. Dr. brighton.com has a plethora of resources, things that didn't make it into the book, you can find those there. And for people who are like, I had someone the other day that was like, I want to buy your work. But honestly, I'm so bad about reading books, and I don't like I can never get through them. And I'm like, well, here's good news. It's not meant for you to just sit down or read the whole thing, although people will. It's meant that like if you've got a question, if you want to explore a topic, you can get right into that, get the answers you want, and keep moving. And you don't even have to do though. Like you don't have to read section one and two of the book to do the programme. And I always try to write my books that way. Because I'm that person. I'm that person that's like, oh, halfway through, I'm losing interest. I didn't read the blog. I didn't finish it. So I'm like, how do we just make it so it's accessible to people, they just get the information they need? Because we're all very busy, especially we're in the fourth decade of our life.

Yeah, exactly. And it's really well indexed, as you say, and it's all list of questions. There's lots of doctors and practitioners actually that listen to this show. And so it's an amazing resource for them as well. So we just dive in and look up the DS found the research you've shared. Thank you so much. Your tick tock videos on your Instagrams also very, like they're amusing as well. They're really good content to watch. So definitely. Give me give Dr. Jolene, a follow. Thank you so much for coming back on the show. It's such a pleasure. Yeah,

thank you for having me.

Thank you for listening to today's show and for your interest in health optimization for high performance. If you're new to my podcast, you may be interested to know that you can get a free health score and report complete with personalised recommendations on how to optimise your sleep, nutrition fitness and resilience in the top link in the show notes below. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Links to everything we talked about are also in the show notes and if you enjoyed today's show, please subscribe for more