262: The Hormone Fix
Dr. Anna Cabeca
Let’s talk about hormones! What they are, how they influence our health, and especially how they change as we age. I will be addressing all of the hormone symptoms that are affecting many of you. My guest today is Dr. Anna Cabeca, and she’ll give you the lowdown on weight loss resistance, erratic emotions, low libido, hot flashes and more.
Additional Information:
What's Happening To My Hormones ebook
Order the Hormone Fix by Dr. Anna Cabeca:
BREEZE THROUGH MENOPAUSE 10-DAY MASTERCLASS The Keto-Green Way to SLIM, SANE and SEXY launch details
Transcript:
Ashley:
Hello, everyone. Welcome to Cellular Healing TV. I’m Ashley Smith. Let’s talk about hormones: what they are, how do they influence our health, and how do they change as we age. Dr. Pompa will be addressing all of the topics that are affecting many of you. His guest today is OB/GYN, Dr. Anna Cabeca. She’ll give us the low down on weight loss resistance, erratic emotions, low libido, and hot flashes.
Just a bit more about Dr. Anna. Dr. Anna Cabeca is a triple-board certified Emory University trained physician and hormone expert who was diagnosed with early menopause at age 38. Devasted, she set out on a personal wellness journey to reverse her menopause side effects which resulted in her delivery of a healthy baby girl at the age of 41. After experiencing her own health successes, Dr. Cabeca began counseling others ultimately changing the lives of thousands of women across the globe. Her new book, The Hormone Fix, is empowering and transforming women. She has programs which help women of all ages become their best selves again. You can discover more about Anna Cabeca at dr.annacabeca.com. You can read more about her in our show notes.
Practitioners who are listening, please be sure to check out HCF’s Live It to Lead It seminar in Nashville where we’ll have a lineup of top health experts who will explore the latest research and most effective strategies in the field of cellular healing. Please go to hcfevents.com for more information. You can use the code CHTV to take $150 off your weekend pass.
To the rest of our CHTV audience, we have some exciting news. We have opened up one day of this conference to the public. Please go to events.drpompa.com if you’d like to attend and hear amazing speakers who will leave you feeling inspired and ready to take action. We hope to see you there. Alright, so let’s get started and welcome Dr. Pompa and Dr. Anna Cabeca to the show. This is Cellular Healing TV.
Dr. Pompa:
Welcome to Cell TV, Dr. Anna. This is a really sexy topic I have to say. Glad you’re here to get these questions answered that I’ve been flooded with about perimenopause, menopause, sex drive libido, how do I save my relationship, my marriage, all the topics no one wants to talk about. We’re going to talk about it today because we’ve had such an influx of interest in this topic. Truthfully, I think it’s one of those things that people really want to hear about, but nobody wants to talk about except for you.
Dr. Cabeca:
Exactly, I am happy to talk about it. You’re absolutely right; it’s that unspoken conversation. I try to get—I let people know I’m their girlfriend doctor. You can talk to me about anything and let’s have a conversation about it. There is nothing off limits here. Shamelessly, guiltlessly, let’s have a conversation.
Dr. Pompa:
This sounds fun. I’m glad my wife’s not in earshot because she’d be—end up running in here as I through her under the bus a few times. No, actually, her hormones have really transformed. I’ll offer people hope right there because my wife was a hormonal disaster honestly like her mother I have to say; well, not that bad. She would actually chime in right there, come on; I’m not that bad. Her mother hormonally ended up with breast cancer, 10 years later uterine cancer, 2 years later died. Obviously, not that bad, but I always say my wife was heading down that road, frankly.
Dr. Cabeca:
Oh my gosh. That’s one of the big things that bring fear into this topic, into this topic of aging because it’s something I saw in my practice, too. I saw that early symptoms of fiber cystic breasts, irregular periods, mood swings, all the hormone imbalance symptoms, and then the diagnosis of breast cancer, and then the uterine cancer and hysterectomy, and then what’s next: colon cancer. Or what’s next versus—the breast are innocent bystanders, the uterus an innocent bystander of the underlying hormonal imbalances that are going on.
Dr. Pompa:
I just spent a few days down at Hope4Cancer in Mexico, one of the top alternative cancer clinics. Toni Jimenez will be in my next seminar, folks, if you’re—by the way, this will be the first time the public actually gets to come or even join us Livestream for a whole day of this seminar. Maybe my team can put that link in here. Toni Jimenez is speaking.
I was able to spend a day with a lot of breast cancer ladies. It’s the same story. My wife was there, so their story started a lot like my wife’s, just the typical symptoms that people aren’t looking at as cancer necessarily, but where does it end? It can progress into much more serious problems as what happened to these women that we were speaking to in the clinic and could have happened to my wife.
I’ll tell you; my wife went through cellular detox. She did a lot of stuff, but it took time. There was some crazies in there. I'm telling you; it was tough. God forbid, we told her what’s going on right around this week. She transformed. Me and the kids were looking at each other, and we weren’t allowed to speak about it, so things got really hard. Forget about sex; there was no sex by the way.
Dr. Cabeca:
Right, and she’s not alone. Let’s talk about a real person if you’re open now.
Dr. Pompa:
Here’s this one thing though. Here’s the hope part: she’s not that person anymore. If I didn’t throw that in, she would literally noose—I’d have to have a whole show of me just talking about that.
Dr. Cabeca:
There’d be no more sex again story.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, right; exactly. She’s in her 50’s as I am. I’ll tell you; I have trouble keeping up with her. She has an amazing sex drive now. She’s balanced; we don’t deal with that mom for that week of the month anymore. A lot of other things are absolutely normal like the weird, bizarre stuff. There’s the hope. However, you’re going to give us amazing tips and tricks that I wish I had honestly going through that period of time getting her where she is.
This is your deal. I want you to start actually with your story because I could easily just—you’re so like, I can’t wait to tell them this. Start with your story because I believe our story is really what makes us the expert, honestly, not our years of studies. Tell us about that.
Dr. Cabeca:
Right, and I wouldn’t be an expert in this area if it wasn’t for my story. You’re absolutely right. Even as an Emory University trained gynecologist and obstetrician, at age 38, I was diagnosed with premature menopause, early ovarian failure, early menopause, and infertility. Permanent and irreversible infertility was my diagnosis. I was 38 years old.
This was devasting news upon devastation because our family went through a traumatic situation. In fact, we lost our son in a traumatic accident. He was only 18 months old and three days. That turmoil brought us into a tremendous amount of grief, and despair, and physiologic havoc, just my physiology changed. We don’t talk so much about stress causing menopause, but I’ve seen it over and over again now that I have the eyes to see it.
Dr. Pompa:
By the way, it could be physical, chemical, or emotional. I’ve had women get into car accidents and boom, it triggers into menopause. Emotional traumas as you just mentioned, in chemical exposures and traumas, mold, all of it, the body doesn’t know the difference and can land you what you’re saying.
Dr. Cabeca:
Yeah, perceived and real.
Dr. Pompa:
The body doesn’t know the difference.
Dr. Cabeca:
Not at all. That lead me on a journey. I call it my healing journey around the world to learn that everywhere you go, there you are. I went around the world to learn that everywhere you go, there you are. That’s the place that I teach from no matter what circumstances you are in. Let me tell you; trauma didn’t stop there. It was the other from there on. It was that sense of, okay now, wherever you go, there you are.
Despite that, we can be the eye of the storm and the ocean, not the waves. Fixing our internal physiology so that we can experience joy, and peace, and calm, and love, and connection despite what’s going on around us. That’s the transformation that I encourage and help and hopefully inspire hope in women to make, and men, throughout their life, through—despite what they’re facing.
My journey was that irreversible infertility at 38 amongst depression, amongst—you can imagine. I didn’t want to open my eyes in the morning. It hurt. I had the physical aches, too. It hurt to put my feet on the floor. My feet actually hurt to touch the floor.
I was an OB/GYN. I ran two practices, a medical spa. I hit the floor running non-stop. Would sometimes be at the hospital three days in a row, didn’t have a complaint. All that, I would say God had his hand in teaching me and making me humble; that’s for sure. I learned to use natural remedies. When my doctor bag was exhausted, I didn’t have anything else in it, I had to find the answers.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, that’s interesting you coming from that side because the patient comes from after they go through all the meds, the doctor thing, and then they end up looking for this. You were on the end of, well, your doctor bag being empty. Now, okay, there’s got to be something else.
Dr. Cabeca:
Yeah, and so, low and behold, with functional medicine which I had started learning in 2004, 2006 I was diagnosed early menopause, completely infertile. Reversed menopause, and good news, became pregnant and delivered a beautiful healthy baby. I was 41 years old when I conceived her. That was against all odds. We don’t talk about reversing menopause once you’re diagnosed with it; very rare especially at age 38.
That was my story. I reversed menopause until age 48 when I experienced many of the symptoms that my clients experienced. One of them, one of the most aggravating one being when a patient would come in and tell me—I’ll be honest about this. Patients would come in and say, Dr. Anna, I’m gaining 5, 10, 20 pounds, and I’m not doing anything different. I’d be like, really, you’re not? That skeptical surly you’re doing something. You’re eating an extra helping. You’re not exercising, something. Low and behold, I say God makes me humble, I gained 5, 10, 20 pounds, basically so fast, and I wasn’t doing anything different. Do you hear that, too?
Dr. Pompa:
Something I always say is hormonal weight loss resistance, that is not a food problem as much as a hormone problem by the way. You and I resonate on that. That’s exactly what was happening to you.
Dr. Cabeca:
Absolutely, metabolic resistance, metabolic stall, total hibernation. Beyond that, something that worried me more even than the weight gain—although I’ve been over 240 pounds, lost 80 pounds, and keep them off for nearly a decade. Had tremendous hair loss back to the near crown of my head, just tremendous hair loss; stress-related hair loss, not thyroid related hair loss. I learned about that, too. That was devastating. I didn’t want any of that to come back, so I was desperate for answers at that point.
Besides that, it was the brain fog, the lack of clarity, lack of focus that was really debilitating from a financial perspective, from a relationship perspective, from a business perspective. That throw me. What I needed to do, and that’s what I write about in my book, the steps that we need to take to really restore that balance. I call it the Keto-Green way. I learned that we needed to get our body into ketosis through intermittent fasting, some healthy fats, but lots of alkalizing plant-based foods: grains, lots of low carbohydrate grains. You probably do this, too; I don’t know if you tell your patients to check your urinary PH. Let’s get that PH alkaline as a marker for health. Do you have your clients do that?
Dr. Pompa:
I really don’t because I know when they’re on this particular diet, it’s like typically we’re going to see the normal fluctuations in acid and alkalinity. What you’re saying is right on the money. I think that when people even think of ketosis, they’re often putting this massive emphasis on the fat. I always remind people, well, first of all, let’s look at what actually puts you in ketosis. It’s not eating more fat; it’s eating low carb. Again, it can be low carb with really an emphasis on a lot of the greens. A matter of fact, we’ve put people in keto on vegetarian/vegan diets for goodness sake. The point is oftentimes the greens are the missing part. It’s obviously a part of your whole theme.
Dr. Cabeca:
It’s so important for detoxification for cellular health and healing. We need those micronutrients. We need the micronutrients so much to support detoxification especially when it comes to our liver and our hormones.
Dr. Pompa:
That’s right. Yep, absolutely. Okay, so there’s your book. It’s behind you. You go through a lot of that in the book. Is the book out yet? Where can they get it?
Dr. Cabeca:
It is out now. It is available anywhere books are sold. We have a book bonus page. I believe you have that link for that. We have some extra supplementary material that just helps support readers. It’s 400 pages, good content, 10-day Keto-Green detox, plus 21 days of extra meals. That’s one part of it. The rest is the lifestyle component to help manage stress, to help manage our hormones, and what we need to do to optimize our hormonal balance.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, and that’s a big part. I think that’s where people really need a lot of help. Your book brings that. Talk about why ketones could be beneficial to this. We’ve talked a lot about ketosis. We’ve talked a lot about the benefits of ketones, but I don’t know if we’ve talked about it from the benefits of benefiting your hormones. Talk about that.
Dr. Cabeca:
Yeah; as a gynecologist, I would often say, I would love to say it’s all about estrogen, and progesterone, and testosterone, even DHEA. The reality is those are the students in the classroom; say they’re the college students in the classroom. They’re pretty awesome and they’ve got their own missions. The professors are insulin and cortisol. The dean is oxytocin. Insulin, cortisol, and oxytocin are the major hormones.
What I learned, again, I want to get to the cellular issue. I want to make the smallest improvements that have the biggest results. I keep wanting to get to those underlying issues that are causing all these imbalances: the hot flashes, the swings, the night sweats. I really boiled it down to those three hormones: oxytocin, insulin, and cortisol.
Many women suffer from debilitating hot flashes not just for one to two years, but often for even over a decade. I’ve had clients talk to me about this. One of the unspoken reasons for hot flashes is insulin resistance. Ketosis, and we get there in my program through intermittent fasting and through lower carbs, but the carbs we choose are all those great alkalinizers and micronutrient-rich carbs. I have clients test, not guess because everyone’s a little different in what their body needs. I have them just check simply—
Dr. Pompa:
It’s a motivator for them, too.
Dr. Cabeca:
Totally; and give them clues, what’s working, what’s not working because it’s again not just about what we eat. I tell clients if you had this amazing, great Keto-Green meal, and you were stressed and angry at the dinner table, you’re acidic. If you have this amazing Keto-Green meal and even splurge with a glass of wine, but with friends and were laughing and having fun, you’re alkaline. Powerful diagnostic tool, powerful clue of discerning what works for you and what works against you. Getting into ketosis helps in so many ways: certainly, with weight management, it leads to help with the weight loss resistance. Certainly, that’s an aspect once we’ve reestablished some metabolic flexibility. Detox: because if we’re not detoxing well, we’re going to hold onto the fat no matter what we’re doing.
Dr. Pompa:
Absolutely, even as a protective mechanism. The insulin, we know that insulin is a fat storing hormone. If you’re insulin resistant, you’re having trouble with insulin, I don’t care what you do, your body is going to be holding on to fat and creating other problems, too. It will start stuffing the glucose in other areas of the body and other organs of the body. You end up with fatty pancreas that makes everything worse. Fatty liver, that makes everything worse. We’ve interviewed Jason Fung on here and he talks about that. Is that insulin problem your body starts having, it’s so damaging the glucose that it will just start stuffing in other places and makes everything worse.
Dr. Cabeca:
Yeah, 100%. Getting into ketosis through intermittent fasting, stopping snaking, we see insulin sensitivity improve. We see the hemoglobin A1C significantly decline. That’s what we want to see. Insulin sensitivity is key.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, and like you said, the HbA1C is good indicator long-term of what your glucose and insulin are doing. Okay, that’s part of it. Now, I would say the cortisol we know is linked to stress, stress disorders.
By the way, when you elevate cortisol, guess what elevates? You’re glucose and insulin. There’s a relationship there. When you get stressed out, why is my glucose going up? Why am I having trouble getting my glucose down? I’m eating perfect; well, where is your cortisol and your stress levels? Talk a little bit about that relationship.
Dr. Cabeca:
Yeah, and that’s powerful to know. Now, I come also from a place of—I’m an OB/GYN, so stress is—I lived a life of stress. Then I experienced post-traumatic stress. The trauma that we experienced really put me into a hormonal shutdown that took a lot of angles to improve. It takes more than hormones to fix our hormones. Getting those lifestyle factors in to—
Dr. Pompa:
I like it; go ahead.
Dr. Cabeca:
Yeah, getting those lifestyle factors in to reestablish a beautiful circadian rhythm, that’s key to get cortisol back up from being suppressed, to get our body communicating again, and say okay, cortisol is not an enemy anymore; it’s a friend. We need to just work with it, getting our hormones to work with us instead of against us. Cortisol is one of those lifesaving hormones. We need it. It’s not all bad.
It’s really essentially good, but when it’s on too long, or—and then it gets suppressed from our brain saying, okay, you’re frying me out, totally frying me. Let’s suppress you. At least, that’s my interpretation of what’s happening. We suppress cortisol and we get into this very dangerous state of cortisol being low and oxytocin being low. Because when the paraventricular nucleus suppressed cortisol, I believe it’s also suppressing oxytocin.
Dr. Pompa:
Now, explain oxytocin a little bit. It’s called the love hormone. Obviously, it makes us feel a certain way. Explain what oxytocin is before you get too far down with oxytocin.
Dr. Cabeca:
Yeah, oxytocin is a hormone that we thought was only secreted in our brain, but it’s actually secreted in our heart. It’s secreted from our uterus, our ovaries. It’s secreted in different areas of our body which is really beautiful. If anyone’s ever experienced a heartache, there are oxytocin receptors in our heart. That is something definitely I physically experienced. I had no idea at that point that there were oxytocin receptors in our heart or that our heart produced oxytocin. That was eye-opening for me as I dug into the research and trying to understand what happened to me, what’s happening to other people just like me.
Oxytocin is our love and bonding hormone. It’s a hormone of connection. Many women experience it when they hold their baby in their arms. For women and men, when they hold their baby, their newborn in their arms the first time, you get that connection, that imprinting that defies all explanation.
Also, in labor, sometimes we give oxytocin intravenously. It’s called Pitocin. We give it IV to help contract, to help improve those contractions. That’s again a very safe in lower doses hormone to give intravenously for that reason. Every time we breastfeed, we secrete oxytocin. Every time we orgasm, with intimacy touching, kissing, hugging, play, laughter, generosity, having fun, all of those, experiencing pleasure increase oxytocin.
Oxytocin is actually the love, and peace, and joy hormone that I call, and I talk about this for chapters in my book, the crowning hormone. This is the overarching hormone. It influences our other hormones as well. It’s really the hormone that we want to enjoy for the rest of our life. The satisfaction of a life well lived.
Also, what I’ve been able to experience despite the trauma and subsequent traumas I’ve experienced is that peace that surpasses all understanding. To be able to have joy again and to be able to repair relationships and have connections which I’m blessed to say that I have the best relationships with my daughters that I’ve ever had in my entire life. The list goes on. Being able to reestablish this great hormonal physiology, they’re able to achieve the goals that you want to achieve in your life.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, I think it’s pretty obvious what we have to do for insulin. I think it’s becoming—it becomes a little less obvious what we have to do for oxytocin. People are going, yeah, okay, I have these hurts in my life, my love life. I have in relationships disappointments, post-traumatic stress disorder. All of these things obviously wipe—literally deplete and affect your oxytocin which then affects cortisol. It then affects insulin. All of these are working together.
Okay, where are some crutches here? In other words, what do we do about this? I’m trying to heal my relationships. I’m trying to work on these things, but in the meantime, my oxytocin’s trumping me, and I can’t fix these other hormones. What do we do?
Dr. Cabeca:
Yeah; I go through that too in my book, The Hormone Fix. There’s a few good things that we need to do. I want quick fixes. In the meantime, part of my practice was the patient would come in and say with these same symptoms. One thing that I would start them on is detox because we’ve got to open up those hormone receptors so that they can use what your body is producing naturally. Detoxification, alkalization, really clean up our diet, open up those receptors. While I’m waiting for the bloodwork to get back, I’ll be doing that.
I may also add a bioidentical progesterone and pregnenolone depending on their age, what’s happening with their cycle, or if they’re post-menopausal. Progesterone helps us get a good night sleep, helps us rest, and restore, and repair overnight. I’m a fan of bioidentical progesterone. That’s a big part of it. A good night sleep goes ages in towards—into healing as well as rebalancing cortisol, getting that—resetting that circadian rhythm. I’ll be doing that as well as increasing nutrients.
Another crutch, I created natural solutions where none existed for me or for my patients. My Mighty Maca Plus formula that has over 30 superfoods and is loaded with adaptogenic, natural adaptogens, Maca, organic Maca from Peru, turmeric, quercetin, resveratrol, lots of greens, fiber enzymes that work on the cytokine pathways that work to reduce—that work to help your body fight inflammation, or support your body’s natural inflammatory response, and support your body in detoxifying and hormone production. We give it the nutrients, the substrate it needs. That’s key.
Then in my Keto-Green way, the principles, that gently moving into longer intervals of intermittent fasting. Gently working on the principles that make a difference in resetting our cortisol, so mindset. It’s starting with positive thinking, positive verbiage. I give clients a cheer word. Because it takes more than—it’s not just about the food we need to nourish our body. We have to feed our mind, our spirit, and our relationships to really be well.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, I agree. By the way, I love—it’s back there behind you on your right, the Mighty Maca product. At Revelation Health, there will be a link for it. They started carrying it. I think it’s a fantastic product. I’ve been a fan of Maca for a long time for men and women by the way. I think it’s one of the really safe—everything you have in that product are really the safe hormone support adaptogens. I think it’s a fantastic product.
You and I feel the same, too: there’s a time for hormones as crutches. If you’re not doing all these other things you’re talking about, and you just think you’re just going to take these hormones and win the game, and progesterone is going to work for you, think again. It’s just simply not. Without looking, oftentimes, it can be transferring into more toxic forms of hormones. You have to obviously be careful especially if you don’t make those lifestyle changes and detox, etc. Talk a little bit about that as well.
Dr. Cabeca:
Yeah, and I talk a lot about the endocrine disruptors, the toxins, and also healthy estrogen detoxification which is so important. What comes in must go out and we need it to go out safely very simply. That’s a big part of it. We know that if we’re not—if we’re constipated, if we’re not having regular bowel movements, if our microbiome in our guts not healthy, we’re likely to have more toxic forms of estrogen circulating back into our bloodstream. That’s a really big problem.
If anyone’s listening and they’ve struggled with constipation for years evens decades, I’ve had clients struggle for decades, we can turn that around. It’s amazing how good you start feeling very quickly. That’s a big one for women. Sadly, it’s not just about that. For women from the sexual health standpoint as a sexual health expert, we get prolapse. We get discomfort in—with intercourse from issues that stem from constipation, from relaxation of the pelvic floor as well, or breaks in the fascia from straining. That’s a whole other topic.
Dr. Pompa:
Actually, I want to discuss some of these symptoms here. Because okay, here we are, women in perimenopause. We have an increase—talk about the increase in back pain and pelvic pain. That’s up; they’re going to every chiropractor. They’re talking all this, but meanwhile, that’s an estrogen thing. Literally, estrogen can basically affect this ligament laxity that occurs. I want you to talk about that. Then it also can affect the bladder. Talk about that because I just had probably three emails on that.
Dr. Cabeca:
Yes, yeah. Going back to the whole concept of the reason I’m a propionate of getting into ketosis at least cyclically is because our brain uses ketones for fuel more efficiently in the post—perimenopausal, post-menopause because of declining estrogen. Making glucose, utilizing glucose for fuel in the brain is an estrogen-dependent process. As those levels decline, women experience this brain fog. We think that’s it: down the road, we’re going to have dementia. Not if we switch our fuel source, so go from gasoline to jet fuel. That’s going from glucose to ketones.
Dr. Pompa:
[00:29:34] back around the estrogen.
Dr. Cabeca:
Exactly; certainly, we’ll substitute sometimes with estrogen, and progesterone, and DHEA. Absolutely, big fans of that. A little bit goes a long way, but also recognize that this is what’s happening. Let’s address the cause of it.
The same with the pelvic floor. Not only are there estrogen receptors in the fascia but there are progesterone receptors in the fascia. Why women start to experience aches, pains, incontinence, pelvic relaxation, thinning of the tissues, loss of musculature, estrogen, progesterone, testosterone all have a role in that as they decline. This is where we can support with some bioidentical hormone use. Again, just that little bit with pelvic floor exercises, let me tell you that we need to do those Kegels or pelvic floor exercises until we die; we’ve got to keep doing those, can really help.
Dr. Pompa:
I feel really bad that you have to do that. Right now, everyone wants to kill me because I’m being vicious, but I really mean it. That’s a lot of work, honestly.
Dr. Cabeca:
Men have to do it, too. Men should do their own Kegels, too.
Dr. Pompa:
You’re right; prostate issues is another subject. We won’t even go there. I think a really good place to start is your Mighty Maca honestly. Start there. Literally, 50% of the women, that might be your answer.
Dr. Cabeca:
Yeah absolutely, that will help. The other product I created to help is Julva. I have it here, too. It’s a natural anti-aging formula for the vulva. Julva, I created it because I wanted a topical anti-aging solution for women that was natural, paraben free; like a cosmetic, but natural, paraben free. It contains DHEA which I know you’ll love. Topically, you use it from the clitoris to anus; keep all that tissue healthy. It also has plant stem cells from the Alpine Rose.
It helps with the vaginal dryness symptoms. It helps with the accidental leak when we cough or sneeze. It helps with just nourishing that tissue. It really does change lives because women suffer. I always tell clients if you have pain every time you do something like for example having pain with sex, or discharge, or odor, or urinary infection after intercourse, why would you want to? That’s definitely going to kill your libido. If we can increase the pleasure, increase the sensation and sensitivity and improve that, certainly decrease discomfort, why wouldn’t we want to?
Dr. Pompa:
That’s something you can use daily. You just rub it in basically. It helps with the problems you were just talking about. It’s very safe that way as well. You’re bypassing the liver. A much better way of delivering it.
Dr. Cabeca:
Exactly, yeah. It smells good, tastes good. It’s a good product.
Dr. Pompa:
I believe we’re carrying that yet. I haven’t tried that one with people yet. I can’t wait to. Again, we’re talking about a big area of covering a lot of women. These are really safe crutches here. That’s the exciting part.
This is an area I think when we look at some of these symptoms that people are—and going to their doctors. They end up on a lot of dangerous hormones; let’s face it. They’re not doing a 24-hour urine test to see if they’re producing toxic forms of estrogen like 4-hydroxy estrone that leads to breast cancer and other cancers or toxic forms of testosterone. They can even feel better. I always say sometimes you’ll feel better actually developing cancer and not know it. Some of these things that you’re talking about, they are much safer no doubt about it. Obviously, testing is something that I would still recommend if you’re taking a hormone.
Dr. Cabeca:
Yeah, I agree. Testing gives us an idea again what’s that interaction between our physiology, and our genetics, and our environment; those three key points in looking at that. I’ve done serum testing, urinary testing, salivary testing; you name it, I have done it. I say if you’ve come into my practice, we will test every body fluid you have at some point or another.
Dr. Pompa:
Let me ask you something: are most of the symptoms you see in perimenopause, are they related to low progesterone, low estrogen, or at least tell us the ones that are related to high estrogen levels which sometimes happens, and why.
Dr. Cabeca:
Yeah, typically what I see initially are the symptoms from declining progesterone, probably DHEA too, but we never pinpoint it. The reason I say that now is we just did a survey on 2,000 women age 30 to 60. Seventy-one percent of women who had a difficult time with menopause, had menopausal symptoms, post-menopause, said their symptoms began at age 36. That’s when we’re classified as advanced maternal age in the gynecologic diagnostic book. I hate that terminology.
That’s when our ovarian function is notably declined on average. That’s when progesterone takes its deepest drop. I believe it’s that quick drop in progesterone that causes the initial symptoms: the PMS, the symptom of hating your husband only two weeks out of the month. When that happens, I always say it’s your hormones, not your husband.
Dr. Pompa:
I’m glad you’re protecting these men right now; that’s good.
Dr. Cabeca:
I think it probably is some component to blame, but if it’s only two weeks. That irritability, that PMS, those mood swings, and women, we don’t like to feel that way. We don’t like to feel like, look, I don’t want to act that way. I don’t want to be nasty. I don’t want to act witchy or bitchy; whatever it is. I don’t want to be that person. There’s physiology that our body is crying for help. We have to hit those areas through balancing the hormones.
Definitely, all the low [00:35:46] lifestyle factors, we’ve got to create that internal peace, that milieu of internal peace despite what’s happening, despite what’s going on in our life. It can be done I guarantee you no matter what you’re dealing with. I want to emphasize that, but certainly, it’s that drop in progesterone and DHEA. We have to restore the adrenals. We have to prioritize what’s important to us.
I’ll share with you, and I just published this in my blog this week, but I wanted to tease out what made me go from that point and totally transform to this better stage and quality of life that I have. I would say it’s I paused, I had to take a break, had to stop the hamster wheel from turning so to speak. Stop from running around the world, stop from running. I just had to be still and listen to that still, small voice within me. I had to pause and pray and then prioritize. What’s the most important thing for me? What am I so glad I did yesterday? To get that perspective of what do I—what matters to me most in life?
Then pour: pour into myself for healing to nourish my body, mind, spirit, soul, relationships, and pour out into others in that area. The last thing we do is to pour out into others because we can’t give from an empty cup. I want to say that again to the women listening: we cannot give from an empty cup. We have to fill our tank. With doing that, these steps, and on a regular basis, that reestablishes a great energetic magnetism about us and about our mission towards our family, towards the things that we love most to do. That just feeds us back, continues to circle back to us to feed our souls. That’s been my practice.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, wow, that’s a great message. It’s a true one too because you just don’t realize the connection. If you think about it back from those three hormones that you talked about, obviously, you said that the oxytocin being at the top, well, there you have it. It’s directly or indirectly affecting oxytocin all of those things which again is a big factor. You had mentioned oxytocin is a very safe hormone. Where would you get oxytocin? Rarely do you find someone taking oxytocin.
Dr. Cabeca:
Yeah, it’s very rare. There’s a lot of challenges in prescribing it. Certainly, I did prescribe oxytocin periodically. I’ll tell you when I prescribed it, but it’s so much more powerful when we create those habits and practices in our life to do it. Sometimes it’s just like, okay, let’s just manage cortisol. Let’s start the day with a green smoothie. Let’s intermittent fast. Let’s start with a couple of steps.
Anyone listening, start with a Keto-Green smoothie. Start with what’s the next right step you can make today. Start nourishing your body in these positive ways. That will help you gain perspective Number One.
Number Two is oxytocin, increasing healthy oxytocin behaviors: calling up a friend that makes you laugh, watching a funny movie. I bought my daughter—now we’re in the middle of book launch, one of the most stressful times in my life. At Christmas, I got my daughter a puppy. I know puppies increase oxytocin, so I wanted to bring that in during the stressful time. I should have got a puppy—a potty trained puppy, however. To bring in oxytocin, pets do that to us as well. Think of things like that.
As a prescriber, when I saw clients that were disconnecting, that had been through trauma or were under significant stress or daily stress, and especially physicians, teachers, principals, before they come home as they leave work, a sublingual oxytocin can be beneficial, can just help reset. Now, it’s a crutch. It’s temporary. It’s a crutch. The problem is it’s hard to test for oxytocin deficiency.
Dr. Pompa:
It’s is, yeah.
Dr. Cabeca:
Those are the challenges. We have an oxytocin quiz that I have clients take. If I was going to prescribe it, I would give an injection, intramuscular oxytocin and watch the reaction, monitor the response. Then say, okay, definitely oxytocin will help you, let me prescribe. I could document that from a safety perspective.
Even 10 to maximum 50 IUs a day, daily sublingual, or even intervaginal oxytocin can help. That’s what I experimented with my clients with really good success, too. Again, it’s temporary. I typically have clients maybe three, four months max that needed it.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, exactly. It’s a crutch just like anything else. God didn’t create us needing to take progesterone or anything else. However, the lifestyles today really puts a strain on these pathways from physical stress, emotional stress, chemical stress, all of it. It really is straining women today.
One of the things that I’ve found too is women really support the home in every aspect. Health is what they support it with. Their health declines. It’s affecting the household from the top down. This is a big subject. When do most of these symptoms start? You said 36 is when oftentimes some of things happen but is that when the typical perimenopausal symptoms happen or is it more in the mid-40’s?
Dr. Cabeca:
From what I studied as an obstetrician and gynecologist as a resident in study that it was in our ‘40s. In our mid to late ’40s, we expect to see the perimenopause; however, I do see it in our 30’s.
Dr. Pompa:
I think you start seeing the brain fog, the lack of just that feeling you as I hear it described; I just don’t feel like myself type thing. Then by the mid-’40s has typically been when it’s diagnosed. Okay, now I know I have a hormone problem type of thing.
Dr. Cabeca:
Yeah, or the hot flashes start. Typically, mid to late ’40s, early ’50s, we really see the issues with the hot flashes. That can be certainly very lifestyle limiting.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, and again, some of the quick tips and tricks that you have for the hot flashes, give us that. How about the sleep? Give us some of those. They’re probably going to go back to what you already taught us, but I just want people to hear specifically. You gave us some tips for the pelvic pain that we oftentimes see, the bladder stuff, the intercourse, the sex stuff, but what about some of the sleep issues and that?
Dr. Cabeca:
Yeah, and that’s so important. For hot flashes, because they are the ban of our existence, one thing certainly is bioidentical progesterone in the evening. That’s two-fold. It helps with the brain and is neuroprotective. It helps the brain. Helps with a good night sleep. It can help with some hot flashes. That’s one.
The second is becoming more insulin sensitive. Hence the Keto-Green approach again because insulin resistance associated with worse and more frequent and longer duration of hot flashes. Becoming insulin sensitive, that was eye-opening to me when I saw the research around that. I’m like, huh, I never learned that; how cool. That makes a difference. We’ve seen hot flashes completely diminish or go away within two weeks. Especially if they’ve been dealing with it for years, that’s liberating. That means the night sweats are gone too which keep us up in the middle of the night.
One thing I teach in my book is that a good night starts with a good morning. How we start our day can really change the way we end it. I think that’s really important.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, that’s huge. Alright, let’s finish with the most sensitive topic of all. That’s the sex topic. Men today lean towards Viagra and get past their dysfunction. I don’t agree with it, but that’s what men do. What do women do? Obviously, from a healthy standpoint, what can women do? I know it’s going back to some of these things we already talked about, but I want to be very specific because again, this is the unspoken topic.
Dr. Cabeca:
Yes, women typically, what they currently do is bear with it, power through it, silently avoid it. That’s what they typically do, but that’s not what they have to do. That’s again one of the reasons that I created Julva to just help with any discomfort that we’re experiencing from declining hormones that create that vaginal thinning, the loss of lubrication, those symptoms. Also, again, the second thing, pelvic floor exercises.
I teach and have a program online called Help Doctor, My Sex Drive Has No Pulse, a free webinar. I love it because I teach women that it’s normal for us to have a secondary desire. In other words, men are like, okay, I’m interested; let’s go; 0 to 90; here we go. Or, I’ll take the Viagra; honey, I’m ready. Okay, well, first of all, guys, foreplay starts at breakfast; bring me some coffee, bring me coffee to bed, the nice little things, some sexy texts.
For women too, we got to get in the mindset. We just need to be receptive and understand that once—and this is what my patients would say, once get started, then I get into it and I’m interested. They would say, I never want to get started. Hormone balance like with Maca, with detoxing, keeping those hormone receptors open, maybe we need a little bioidentical hormone but even without, just know that once we start petting, touching, caressing, we get that oxytocin flowing, and then we’re receptive.
Dr. Pompa:
Got it, okay. Hopefully, the men who are listening to that part. Women, you play that little part right there for your men; right there. They have responsibility. They have responsibility here for sure. That is so true. Then you get the oxytocin going with the touching and the kissing, and women of course then respond to that.
It’s like men are more visual. It’s like, I see; that gets me going, but that’s not women. Women need more of the touching and the caressing. Like you said, the compliments, the emotional part of that, my wife has to remind me every once in a while that sex starts in the kitchen. We don’t actually mean the kitchen, but you know what I’m saying.
Dr. Cabeca:
Maybe tonight could be your lucky night.
Dr. Pompa:
Maybe I better start complimenting her somewhere in the kitchen; I don’t know. Anyways, I have a [00:47:13] for the health guest as you can tell. It’s a really delicate subject, but I think the oxytocin plays such an important role that you get a better buy probably if you let your husband watch this.
I think how many women are doing pelvic exercises? Very few, but it’s an important thing because again, all the pelvic muscles there, they have all the estrogen receptors. If you’re already low in most of your estrogen and progesterone, that’s going to get laxed. Then you’re going to have pelvic pain, low back pain, and nothing’s going to work. Then the bladder gets involved.
It keeps going on and on; all those tissues are getting involved. Then you don’t have a sex drive. Then that affects your marriage. Then that makes your oxytocin worse. You see where I’m going with this. This is the crazy cycle.
Then again, then it’s the opposite. Meaning that if you’re able to get the relationship right, sex is going to improve your oxytocin massively. It’s going to improve your hormone sensitivity. It’s going to improve all your hormones because we need it as humans. You see it’s either winding the correct way or the wrong way.
Dr. Cabeca:
I 100% agree.
Dr. Pompa:
As I just said it, I’m like, wow, that’s a crazy cycle that again as we just speak of that, how many people are in the crazy cycle. The very thing that unwinds is the very thing that you need to fix it. I’m thinking that’s what this lesson is. We need more of this to go in the other direction. This is a complicated thing, but you have to be intentional. You need a plan. Would you agree with that? Obviously, that’s what your book does, too. It gives you a plan. Otherwise, this is a battle you’re not going to win.
Dr. Cabeca:
Right; yeah, and I’ve been there. I’ve been through it. I’m happy to say there is light at the tunnel—light at the end of the tunnel and every step along the way, too. Exactly what you said; we have to prioritize. We have to do the practices whether we want to or not that are going to improve our physiology because that affects our behavior. We’ve got to do the behaviors to improve our physiology.
Dr. Pompa:
Here’s the thing; none of these things unless you literally have a plan and you’re intentional, you’re—life is going to—that was your point earlier when you have to feed into yourself and part of all of that. All of these things, ladies, you better rewind this, watch it again, send it to your friends. Because if you don’t have a plan, you’re going to lose the war. Then your relationship is affected. Then it’s going to feed back in. There in lays the crazy cycle, but there’s an answer. The answer is these things that are so obvious, yet so hard to do unless you’re intentional about it.
Dr. Anna, we thank you for coming on this show, thank you for your book, thank you for the products that I think are going to be a big help. I’m glad Revelation Health is carrying them. Look for the products here. We’ll put them right in the show notes and the link. I’m sure that they’re going to offer some sort of discount if you use the link I’m sure; they always do that as we carry a new product like this. It’s a very—
Dr. Cabeca:
We have a free trial. We have the free trial of Mighty Maca, four sample sticks of Mighty Maca, and/or—and we have the free trial of Julva, a seven-night supply. We have that for your audience, too.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, no, it’s a great product. I don’t carry hormone products because I want people to change their own life, but these are great. Awesome; Dr. Anna, you’re just a great wealth of knowledge in a topic that was so overdue here. We are so glad you’re bringing sanity to the crazy cycle as we just pointed out.
Dr. Cabeca:
I love that. Thank you.
Dr. Pompa:
Alright, thank you; bye-bye.
Dr. Cabeca:
Bye.
Ashley:
That’s it for this week. We hope you enjoyed today’s episode. Practitioners, don’t forget to check out our HCF seminar in Nashville where we’ll have a lineup of top health experts who will explore the latest research and most effective strategies in the field of cellular healing. Please go to hcfevents.com for more information and use the code CHTV to take $150 off your weekend pass.
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