In this episode of The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett, Sara Szal, an expert on menopause and hormonal health, shares insights on the significant impact of hormone imbalances on overall wellbeing. Szal delves into the various health issues that can arise from imbalances in hormones like cortisol, estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone, and explains how women are particularly susceptible due to factors like higher stress levels.
Szal emphasizes the importance of lifestyle modifications such as diet, exercise, and stress management in optimizing hormone levels. She also highlights the often-overlooked challenges women face during perimenopause and menopause, and the need for better understanding and treatment of these hormonal transitions.
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Sara Szal, an expert on the topic, underscores that hormones like cortisol, estrogen, progesterone, and [restricted term] regulate key bodily functions like energy, metabolism, and mood. According to Szal, balancing these hormones through lifestyle medicine is crucial before considering pharmaceuticals.
Szal warns that hormone imbalances can lead to serious health conditions:
Szal attributes women's higher stress levels compared to men as a key driver of hormonal imbalances, making them more prone to conditions like depression, PTSD, insomnia, and autoimmune diseases. She links her own cortisol imbalance to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs).
Szal highlights significant gaps in understanding and treating hormonal changes during perimenopause (transition to menopause) and menopause:
Szal advocates lifestyle modifications like diet, exercise, and stress management as crucial for optimizing hormones:
The gut microbiome significantly impacts hormone production and metabolism, according to Szal. Dysbiosis (imbalanced gut bacteria) can lead to excessive recirculation of hormones like estrogen, increasing disease risk.
1-Page Summary
Hormones play a critical role in regulating bodily functions, and hormone imbalances can lead to a myriad of health issues. Sara Szal, an expert on the subject, delves into the significance of hormones and the consequences of their imbalances on overall health.
Sara Szal emphasizes that hormones are not only a crucial starting point for understanding human health but also an indicator of common issues affecting energy and mitochondria. She specifically identifies cortisol, [restricted term], estrogen, and progesterone as hormones affecting energy, metabolism, and mood. Szal focuses on balancing these hormones primarily through lifestyle medicine, such as breathwork, before turning to pharmaceuticals. She also highlights the measurable effects of hormones in blood tests.
Szal brings attention to the often mismanaged hormone cortisol, which may fluctuate throughout the day. For instance, after Szal ordered her own hormone panel, she found her cortisol level was thrice the optimal range, which had implications on her health, including high blood sugar issues and being pre-diabetic. Moreover, the harm of high cortisol levels includes depression, and about 50% of people with depression have high cortisol. Increased belly fat is a consequence due to cortisol receptors in belly fat cells, and studies from the University of Texas in San Antonio and Cornell have shown high cortisol can shrink brain volume in women from their 40s.
Szal's concern is particularly relevant given that, during the pandemic, NBA players in the isolated bubble recorded low [restricted term] levels—suggesting that mental states impact hormonal balance. While cortisol is related to stress, [restricted term] is essential for vitality, affecting fatigue, libido, and response to exercise. Excessive [restricted term] in women can lead to PCOS, [restricted term] resistance, and excess androgen symptoms like acne and hirsutism.
Szal's evaluation of professional athletes, where an estimated 90% have issues with cortisol due to high stress loads, reflects the broader impact of life situations on hormone levels. Steven Bartlett, in the conversation with Szal, explores signs of hormone imbalances, such as mood changes, irritability, depression, and belly fat in men, which, while related to [restricted term], also points to broader health concerns commonly associated with hormone imbalances.
Estrogen and progesterone are not only pivotal to fertility but also vital to women’s bone and skin health. Szal asserts the need for monitoring ...
Hormone Balance and Its Impact on Overall Health
Sara Szal opens up about her personal history with trauma and discusses how this has been manifested in her own hormonal imbalances and chronic health issues.
Szal links her cortisol and pre-diabetes conditions to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), suggesting that these early adversities can lead to ongoing physical manifestations if not addressed.
Szal and Steven Bartlett discuss how childhood trauma, as measured by the ACE test, leads to a greater risk of chronic diseases. Szal reveals her ACE score is six out of 10, including experiences such as childhood divorce, abuse, neglect, and a parent with a substance use disorder. She explains that higher ACE scores are linked to a greater risk of 45 different chronic diseases for middle-aged individuals. Szal indicates that for those who experience toxic stress or trauma, cortisol initially goes up as part of the body's stress response. However, individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder may experience high cortisol levels that later transition to low cortisol due to the inability to maintain high levels. This pattern of stress response set by childhood experiences is very hard to break and may lead to difficulty in changing behaviors later in life, possibly due to hormonal imbalances.
Szal dives into how higher stress levels in women can lead to various health conditions, emphasizing that this stress is not biologically based but rather due to societal structures and power imbalances.
Szal talks about the interdependent relationship between cortisol and other hormones, such as high cortisol production leading ...
Trauma, Stress, and Gender Differences in Hormonal Imbalances
Sara Szal and other experts raise the alarm that a significant number of women face challenges and gaps in understanding and treating hormonal health issues during perimenopause and menopause.
Women go through mood swings, sleep issues, weight gain, and 100+ other symptoms during perimenopause, yet the condition remains misunderstood and undertreated. Sara Szal underscores the importance of understanding estrogen’s “hundreds of jobs” for women specifically and discusses the growing interest among women in perimenopause as an area of concern.
Women experience drastic body composition changes after the age of 40, and during perimenopause they experience more than 100 symptoms including mood swings, trouble sleeping, night sweats, and unexplained belly fat. These symptoms arise as the “hormonal veil” is lifted and women start to express their true feelings regarding happiness and satisfaction in various aspects of life, including marriage.
A disturbingly large number of women are not receiving the treatment they need during perimenopause, with Sara Szal stating that 75% of women are undertreated. She criticizes the insufficient medical education on the topic and the shortfall of treatment options, pointing out the common practice of prescribing birth control pills as a default treatment, which she disagrees with.
Doctors often dismiss or misunderstand women's symptoms, attributing them to aging rather than recognizing them as part of a natural transit ...
Challenges and Gaps in Women's Hormonal Health During Perimenopause and Menopause
Sara Szal delves into how lifestyle modifications—including diet, exercise, and stress management—are crucial for hormonal health, and further discusses the significant impact of the gut microbiome on hormone production and metabolism.
Szal emphasizes lifestyle as the most effective means for managing blood sugar issues, advocating for diet alterations, increased physical activity, and evolved stress management approaches rather than solely depending on medications like [restricted term]. Continuous glucose monitors act as a tool for behavior change by providing immediate feedback on dietary choices and their impacts on blood sugar levels and metabolism. High sugar consumption can disrupt metabolic function and thus influence hormone levels indirectly.
Szal discusses the relationship between diet and hormone regulation by observing blood sugar levels and mitochondria biochemistry. She mentions that diets like the ketogenic diet affect hormonal balance by producing ketones which increase satiety. Fasting and the ketogenic diet can activate pathways beneficial for hormone balance and [restricted term] regulation, with fasting inducing ketosis more swiftly to influence hormones.
Nutrition, tailored to individual requirements and ambitions, plays a vital role in hormonal health. Szal is intrigued by the analysis of dietary profiles such as Steven Bartlett's protein and carbohydrate consumption, as well as nutrient levels like vitamin D, to ensure optimal hormone function. She also suggests the use of continuous glucose monitors for managing blood glucose tied to hormonal health.
Genomic predispositions might necessitate dietary supplements like vitamin D or B vitamins for maintaining hormonal equilibrium. Vitamin D, crucial for maintaining gut integrity to prevent leaky gut, showcases a link between nutrient intake, gut health, and hormonal balance due to its wide array of functions in the body.
For athletes with elevated cortisol levels, Szal prescribes practices like breath work, varied movement forms, and meditation to harmonize the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems. Additionally, she recommends cortisol-lowering supplements, including ashwagandha and phosphatidylserine, as well as rhodiola—an adaptogen known to help with cortisol and focus.
Diet substantially affects hormones, as demonstrated by a study showing a significant reduction in [restricted term] levels within seven days on a low carbohydrate diet for those with PCOS. In a ketogenic diet scenario, lower [restricted term] levels appear beneficial for metabolic health; nonetheless, continuous monitoring of thyroid function and inflammation markers is vital for those on the diet long-term.
Body composition shifts associated with hormonal changes, such as weight gain, may be managed through exercise, including heavy weightlifting and cardiovascular fitness, as well as well-managed diets. Managing metabolic health, such as proper glucose disposal, is crucial in preventing negative body composition changes with aging.
Lifestyle and Gut Microbiome's Role in Hormonal Health
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