Greetings,

hello,

good day,

wherever you are in the world!

Thank you so much for joining True Hope Cast,

the official podcast of True Hope Canada.

My name is Simon,

and I have got the pleasure of being your host

today.

Today,

we welcome back to the show Women's Hormone

Specialist Karen Martell.

Now,

Karen is a certified hormone specialist and

transformational nutrition coach,

and an expert in women's weight loss.

And today,

we're going to be discussing what Karen has been

experiencing with her clients in the wild world of

2021.

We know how much stress,

anxiety,

and fear can cause damage to the body,

but what is it doing to our hormone health?

So,

Karen,

welcome back to the show.

How are you?

Oh,

it's Simon.

It's great to have a second debut here on your

show,

that's awesome!

I'm happy to be here and happy to talk about this

topic that I feel is not talked about enough.

Well,

hormone health in general isn't really talked about

enough in my opinion.

I think people are aware that we have hormones in

our body,

but when it comes to the importance of them,

especially when it comes to women's health,

it's just...

people just don't know enough information.

I don't know whether that's because there's

conflicting information out there or there's too

much when people Google stuff.

But getting hold of,

you know,

an expert like yourself,

and being able to,

you know,

get to the the real um,

the real issues and the real root to these things

is really important,

so I really appreciate it,

and yeah,

like not many people have had a second try out on

this show,

so congratulations,

thank you,

I feel special,

but yeah,

regardless,

you are special.

Thanks Simon.

Before we kick off,

can you just give us a quick overview of your

work and the type of clients that you support?

Well,

going back to just what you just said,

Simon,

which is like,

why you know women are not getting this

information,

and it's really because your medical doctor Is

taught very little actually about the hormonal

system,

and nothing about things like perimenopause,

menopause,

bioidentical hormone replacement,

xenoestrogens all these amazing things that we're

going to talk about here today.

But doctors are not trained in that,

and yet we tend,

especially as Canadians,

to go to our medical doctor for this information,

and they don't have the answers.

Then,

besides that,

people could go maybe to an endocrinologist for

something that's a little bit technical and you

know maybe they've got something wrong with their

adrenal system like an autoimmune condition with

their adrenal System,

you know maybe they've got Graves' disease or

hypothyroidism or something where maybe that an

endocrinologist could step in but even they they're

not taught in what's called anti-aging medicine

which is all about the hormonal difficulties women

are having in perimenopause,

menopause and just even in fertile years,

you know.

Or you'll go to an IVF clinic if you're if you're

not fertile and you're shot full of hormones and

lots of different synthetic things that will help

you to get pregnant so there's very few people

that are actually talking about this stuff so I

think that that's that's why I do as well as I

do

In my practice,

because I get thousands of women that are telling

me 'I've never heard this information before,' you

know they're listening to my podcast and they're

like,

'I have never heard this,

why aren't we being told this information?' And so

it's just like,

I feel like it's my job now to just get this

information out there to women and for them to

understand that there's so much that they can do

for their hormones and our hormones,

they run everything,

so you know talking about your emotions and your

mental state,

your physical state,

like how much weight you're going to put on or

how much weight you're able to lose,

all of these Things are very hormonally based,

many women don't realize that and how much they

can impact even your relationship of course right

it has everything to do with sex drive being able

to be fertile but not only that it has so much

to do with multiple different things just our

emotional state you know and how that can affect a

relationship is huge and so there is an answer and

there is things that women need to know about when

it comes to their hormones,

in your experience when it comes to those people

who are looking for some answers with the hormone

health so they might go and see a GP to start

with and as you said,

you know the education.

For these individuals,

you know like you know a general practitioner has

got to know a little bit about kind of everything,

but when it comes to the specialization of

something that's really common like hormone health

and I just wonder what's the is there a common

pathway that one of your clients might go through

through the conventional medical system before they

come to you because getting a referral to go and

see an endocrinologist is not a common thing and I

think for a lot of people it's a really difficult

thing to to get if you're just going into your GP

to discuss your hormones,

so what is there like a conventional Pathway that

people go on,

yeah absolutely it's almost the same that I hear

from everybody across the board,

which is sometimes it's multiple different physicians

or different clinics that they've tried trying to

say come on,

I know that there's something wrong here.

A lot of thyroid patients they probably struggle

the most and have gone through sometimes a dozen

different practitioners trying to find proper help

with their thyroid,

and even they will get referred to the

endocrinologist and still don't get the help that

they really need.

So the typical path is,

geez I don't feel great,

I don't have any energy or I just seem To be

this brainless and I don't have any energy and I

just seem to be this brainless and I don't have

any emotional disaster.

Suddenly,

what's going on.

I'm going to go to my doctor or,

you know,

I've got insomnia.

I've got anxiety.

Suddenly about depression.

Suddenly when I never used to have it,

this oftentimes will come after women have children

or when they're heading into peri- or

post-menopause.

And so they go to their doctors being the first

thing that they do.

And what they're told is,

'Oh yeah,

you're,

you know,

for the menopausal one.

Oh yeah.

You're here's your antidepressant.

Here's your sleeping pill.'

Here's your cholesterol lowering,

lowering drugs,

statins,

antidepressant,

anti-anxiety pills.

Like that is the most common thing that the common

journey to me is I've been to my doctor.

I was told to go on this,

or they're given the birth control pill.

That's a very common thing.

Even in like 45 to 50 year old women are being

put on.

Birth control or given a hysterectomy.

And instead of having their hormones addressed,

which is really,

really sad.

And that happens all the time.

And even for younger women,

it's always the answer and the go-to when you go

to the doctor,

which is,

Oh,

here's your birth control.

Oh,

you're having funny periods.

Here's your birth control.

You know,

here you've got polycystic ovarian syndrome.

Here's your birth control.

And that's like,

the worst thing that most women could do.

It's so just even just thinking about that process.

It's so,

it doesn't really seem like medicine.

It doesn't seem like an investigation.

It doesn't seem,

you know,

using particularly one,

one pharmaceutical or just like you going straight

to that is,

I just sound so,

so damaging.

And I'm sure a lot of these people who have gone

to see multiple doctors or the same doctor multiple

times,

and then they go there and they explain their

symptoms and they probably deal with one symptom at

a time,

and they go on a different drug for a different,

for a different symptom.

And that's not working.

They go back and then they could easily be on

three,

three medications in the space of a year.

And that whole time,

that big duration of time,

the hormone idea is never really looked at because

we obviously like we have this in conventional

medicine.

Anyway,

this very reductionist viewpoint of,

no.

Okay.

You've got headaches.

Okay.

Let's just deal with that.

Or you've got fatigue.

Okay.

Let's just deal with that.

You've got insomnia.

Let's just deal with that.

Rather than like,

okay,

what's,

what's the,

what's the solution.

And,

and,

and,

and,

the root problem what's going on here.

I just feel so much for those individuals that

must go through,

I want to say in some cases maybe decades of

these medications with their known side effects,

before it's even because it can't be that difficult

to figure out.

Okay,

you do have a hormone imbalance because at the end

of the day like we know what normal hormone ranges

should be and then we can test and see if you're

in or out of those ranges so like say for

example,

you were,

you knew,

you had you were the health minister of Canada and

you could like provide is there is it like a

specific test that you could like quickly do that

would give you a lot of information that could

save these people years of kind of crap medicine.

In as in a test through your doctor,

yeah test for your doctor or one that if there's

one available that you could do privately for

example,

like is there is there is there a test out there

not in the medical system,

there isn't.

Unless you're menopausal,

if you're menopausal you can go into your doctor

and get blood work done to test what your hormones

are doing so if you're you know oh maybe you're

just starting to lose your period or you've lost

your Period.

And you're into menopause.

You could go and get pretty accurate and get a

test for your doctor,

and get a test for your doctor,

and get a test for your testing done on the main

hormones like estrogen,

progesterone,

testosterone.

You could really see in the blood at that time

what where the levels are at rather if you're a

fertile woman or you're still cycling then it's a

little bit trickier because blood work only tests

what's called bound hormone levels and so it's

bound to a protein,

so I always say it's like a little bus that the

hormone is going to sit on and that bus is

shuttling it all over the body and it drops it at

different Receptor sites,

which are like okay these little satellite dishes

that are going to hold onto that hormone and bring

it into the cell to use when it comes off the

bus.

It is then the free hormone ready to be utilized

by the body when it's hanging out on the bus.

We can't use it and so blood will only test that,

and the other problem is the doctor will just say

'fine',

you want to get your hormones tested because they

usually get angry about it.

Fine,

go and get tested,

and they don't tell you when to use it and they

don't tell you when to use it and they don't tell

you when to do the test,

and our hormones fluctuate dramatically on a

day-to-day basis.

basis throughout a 28-30 day cycle so if you just

randomly go in,

let's say you're 10 days into a cycle,

you're going to look like you've got no

progesterone and super high levels of estrogen,

so person's going to think they're estrogen dominant

and start taking stuff to drain their estrogen when

that you know second half of the cycle you produce

progesterone not the first half of the cycle,

you're going to have to do the second half of the

cycle.

So it should be tested on day 21 of somebody's

28-day cycle and to do either saliva or urine

which is going to test free hormone levels and

hormone metabolites which also give you an

Idea of levels of hormones,

so those unfortunately our medical system doesn't

provide patients with,

and so we really as Canadians,

especially,

we have to stop counting on our doctors to do

this stuff; they're not trained in it,

like you said,

like they're never going to get to the root of

the problem and that needs to be okay because

that's not their job.

But because we as Canadians have free healthcare,

we just that's we're just brain we're just got

this like tunnel vision of 'I i have a problem,

I go to the doctor,

it's free.' We have to let go of that; they're

only trained to give you the band-aid and to do

sometimes very life-saving things.

and they're super necessary and we have to let go

of that,

and we have to let go of that,

and we have to let go of that,

and we have to let go of that,

and we have to let go of that,

and some drugs are very very necessary but know

that that's when you go there for hormonal reasons

they are only trained to say here's the sleeping

pill here's the birth control this is what they're

trained in so we have to let exactly symptom

management when there could be you know root cause

of all these problems that you just can't go to

the doctor for anymore I think you're totally right

in regards to a defensive approach from you know

if you if you you went Into your doctor,

and you you know you’re trying to advocate for

yourself to get a hormone test,

and there's this kind of defensive thing comes up.

I've experienced that with my clients with other

tests as well,

where yeah the doctor has a different opinion or

something and doesn’t really want to be challenged.

Do you think why do you think that defense comes

up?

I think number one is cost because we don't pay

for you know we pay for it but we don't pay out

of pocket for it we're paying through taxes etc in

Canada so they are told and trained by the

government,

you know,

to keep costs as low as they can.

Right?

So,

to do testing,

testing.

is very expensive so they are taught to do minimal

amounts of testing because it saves the government

money so i think that that's number one and then

number two there is um i could just imagine

actually and i do sympathize with doctors people

like me come in or maybe people like you too

simon that will come in and we're not going to be

able to do it you know we know a lot i'm very

educated and i'm actually far more educated than my

doctor is about hormones so if people like us we

walk in and we're like well actually i know that

you know i do have a hormonal problem and i do

want to test it and i want you to test my

thyroid they get their

Back up their egos,

bruised?

Right,

doctors tend to have a quite a large ego in that,

like I know it all right.

We've always we've put them up on that pedestal

and so if you come in or if you're the person

that comes in,

I can just imagine...

but how many people go 'uh,

well I googled this and I think I have this' you

know,

I think I might have cancer because I googled the

symptoms and the doctors are probably just like,

'that would be super annoying,

it would be.' And so you do have to sympathize

with them with that right.

Absolutely no spot on there.

Um,

so the last couple years have been insane for

everybody.

Are you seeing anything differently?

In are you seeing anything different in old

clients,

existing clients,

new clients who are coming in like rather than

previous years considering like what's been going

on?

I find it interesting enough; I've had a massive

uptick in just clientele like I've seen since Covid

started.

And I think that a lot of people are definitely

wanting to pay more attention to their health right

now and maybe they've got some time because they're

having to stay at home or whatever it might be.

But it's very interesting how business has actually

really gone up since Covid started,

and I almost feel guilty about that because I know

a lot of people have lost their business but i

think that it's made people really want to take a

look at their health and their and say okay maybe

i need to be working on this a little bit because

i don't want to get sick or i don't know um

besides that i do see that there's a lot of

stress there is a ton of stress and some people

are having a really really really hard time with

it and stress is like if you don't manage stress

there's nothing worse on the hormonal system it's

absolutely terrible because cortisol the stress

hormone he's like the big bouncer at the front of

the bar that doesn't allow a lot of people in and

so you can think cortisol

Is like that,

and he who's going to he she's going to take over

a lot of people's health and they're going to have

other hormone functions and mess with these hormone

functions because cortisol is our survival hormone

and survival always trumps everything else including

fertility.

So if you're highly stressed and you're worrying

about Covid and you're,

you know,

you're being locked up at home or you've lost your

job or any of these horrible things that have been

happening if that stress is really getting to you

and you're not managing it well,

it is going to affect your health.

And you're not,

so many of the different hormonal systems in the

body do you see any patterns in regards to that

you say you've got this uptake of clients which is

which is good for you i suppose uh but a lot a

lot of people are experiencing stress you see any

patterns in those individuals like when they're

coming to you and you're asking them you know like

why have you why are you seeking a hormone

specialist is it just the fact is it just the

fact that people have maybe got a bit more time

on their hands and they've seen this you know we

we genuinely don't make big changes in our lives

and until there's something traumatic or chaotic

happening right do you think it's just the

case is it just a case of that i think it is i

do yeah i think a lot of people they have more

time on their hands they're at home they're working

from home so they can make the appointment people

are have listening to more podcasts right now than

ever before ever before it's crazy so just they

have the time to take in the information and then

they're like huh this sounds like me i think i

think i need to seek this person out to get some

help yeah i think that for somebody myself i've

never really experienced like anxieties or or i

want to say proper stresses especially the last 10

years of my life but the last year or so has

been like

I've I've experienced anxiety on multiple occasions,

and when that happens for somebody who's not really

experienced it,

I think it's a good time to start looking at the

experience that before it is really um it can be

a scary thing to experience because you're,

you know,

you're changing your your chemistry is completely

changing and you're feeling things very,

very differently in your body.

And I suspect there are loads and loads of people

out there who have not really felt their anxieties

before because you know we have anxieties about

money and our families and everything right,

but they're kind of like normal anxieties.

That we subconsciously just like feel,

and we don't really recognize them; they're just a

part of our life.

But what we're seeing right now in the world,

I think that there's this new level of anxiety

coming up for people,

that's making them super,

super aware that they are feeling,

thinking,

and behaving in different ways.

And especially when it comes to hormone health for

men,

particularly for women; yeah,

that driving factor of of stress and cortisol –

like,

your body just can't deal with that on a daily

basis,

and it's absolutely devastating to every single part

of your body.

Yeah,

I feel a lot of people out there super Struggling

and desperate for answers,

and that's when you know it's really good that

people are like advocating for themselves and not

necessarily just going with what the their doctor

might say,

but you know trying to educate themselves with

podcasts and um and yeah again advocating for

themselves because at the end of the day,

like they're going to have to do the work

themselves and there are there are good people out

there that can offer that type of information,

yeah I I it's funny that you would say it like

this just this morning I'm like you I don't I

have never really suffered with anxiety before or

depression um I felt it at different times because

my hormones actually drove the depression.

Um,

but this morning I had this feeling of depression

and I,

and it was the first time in a long time,

and I kind of thought,

'Oh,

what's that?

You know?'

And I just felt really down about the way the

world is right now,

and I usually don't let it affect me.

And I was like,

'Oh,

I'm just feeling like depressed.

Like I feel like I'm already cooped up in my

house again.'

Because we just had all you know,

throughout Canada and BC,

we've just had more restrictions put on us.

So I just kind of felt like,

'Oh,

you know I work from home.

I live up in the mountains away from the city.

And so I'm a bit of a recluse and I'm like,

I just feel like I've been spending too much time

by myself in my house at my job.

And I started to just kind of,

ooh,

and then I was like,

stop.

And I,

and I want your listeners to hear this because

this really works for me,

this tactic,

which is,

I thought,

I said to myself,

I could,

this is a story that I'm telling myself and I can

change that story.

And so my story this morning was kind of 'poor

me'.

I need to get out more.

I need to be more social.

I'm working too much.

I'm sitting at home by myself and I can't go out

and do anything,

and the mask.

And then I'm like,

change the story.

And I'm like,

it's up to me to either be depressed or not to

be because I don't have a chemical imbalance,

depression mine is circumstantial.

And so I just,

in that instant,

Simon,

I changed it just like that.

And I'm like,

you know what?

I am so lucky.

I get to work from home.

And where I am right now is stunningly beautiful.

It's coming fall and the leaves are turning and

it's like the perfect weather,

the sun is shining.

And I'm like,

I get to stay at home and work,

well how lucky am I?

And it was like instantly I felt better and I

went on with my day and I had a great day.

And so So you can do that.

And I don't think a lot of people realize the

power that they actually have to change their mood

and change their story they're telling themselves.

Yeah,

I think that it's a common practice for a lot of

people to not even become conscious of that

depressive thought or feeling or anxious thought or

feeling.

And we kind of like,

especially within men,

you know,

we just,

we're just trained to suppress those things and not

express them whatsoever.

Right.

Which is just,

you know,

a big mistake.

But so important,

like your,

your whole explanation there of that experience that

you had,

you know,

you've actually like stopped and sat and you

thought about the thoughts that have led you to

that situation.

And yeah,

you've just changed the pattern a little bit.

But the big step there is becoming aware and

digesting that whole experience like you would a

meal rather than just like got on and done

something else and just forgotten about it because

it's going to come back up later.

There's a massive difference between digesting an

experience than just.

Oh,

a hundred percent.

And just that awareness is just so huge.

If people could just take that first step.

And I,

I know that that's hard if you are depressed,

because when you're depressed,

you just want to wallow in the depression,

but know that it's possible to a lot of the time

to change the mood very quickly if you want.

Yeah.

And that's when literally stopping and taking some

breaths and just,

you know,

assessing things a little bit and,

you know,

learning to respond to what you're experiencing

rather than just like letting your body

subconsciously habitually react.

You will be able to sustain that prolonged feeling

of that depression significantly if you just take

that second and,

you know,

you can,

you can kind of package it up a little bit more,

but yeah,

it's a wild stuff.

Yeah.

I had like a,

it wasn't like a panic attack.

It was like an anger attack.

I was doing a workout in my gym at home.

And,

um,

I was skipping and the skipping rope was clipping

the clip in the roof.

Yeah.

That made me mad and angry at that.

Because it was just,

I mean,

it wasn't about the workout whatsoever.

It was,

you know,

it,

oh my God,

because it's gone outside and done it,

but oh my God,

like I'd had a 15-minute period where I just like,

it was just so angry about everything.

And I just had to,

I had to get in the ice bath immediately.

I stopped my workout and I just put,

I just needed to change my whole experience and

just need to slow down.

And sometimes for me in the middle of the day,

when I'm,

when I'm,

when I'm,

when I'm busy,

I have to put myself in a like a seven-degree ice

bath to make myself stop and breathe.

How weird I am sometimes,

but that's my thing.

That's what works for me.

I know that.

Okay.

Something's going on here and I need to change up.

I need to do something.

And I like to change,

be able to,

if I can change my body's chemistry by jumping in

ice-cold water,

then that's what I need to do.

I'm not suggesting that everybody does that,

but that's just my thing that works for me.

Yeah.

But we,

I suppose.

The point is there's so many different tools out

there that don't require money or they don't

require equipment or an,

you know,

or a subscription or something that,

you know,

you can very quickly do take some practice,

but becoming a bit more aware of like what you're

experiencing is,

can just be fundamentally powerful.

And if you're able to reduce how long you're going

to be stressed out for or anxious for your,

your,

your,

your body's going to,

going to thank you because you're not going to be

in that constant state.

Of stress,

inflammation leading towards chronic disease.

You know,

that's very,

very important.

A hundred percent.

Yes.

So back to the topic at hand,

um,

I'm interested to know what type of symptomology

might come up or somebody who suspects that they

might have not necessarily big hormone issues,

but just hormone issues in general,

because people know their bodies really well,

better than any doctor could ever know them.

And we know when.

Something's off,

we know when something's off of our sleep,

we know when something's off with our thoughts,

our energy,

you know,

we're so,

we're so habitual when something comes,

something changes in that habit,

awareness comes to it.

So I'm convinced that you're your best doctor for

sure.

So,

is there,

are there some things that like might lead you to

determine that somebody might have a hormone issue

and that they should,

you know,

maybe get,

get something looked at if they can anyway.

Yes.

So I,

I kind of group everybody into different sections,

right?

We've got the fertile woman,

the perimenopausal woman and the menopause woman,

and there's,

you know,

different,

but similar symptoms,

but the fertile woman.

So we're saying like ages as a teenager up until

probably 30,

35 in there in that time,

you know,

if you've got something amiss with your hormones by

looking at your cycle,

and this is probably for all age groups.

But if your cycle is not regular,

so you're,

you know,

you're experiencing sometimes 40 day cycles,

you go 40 days without a period.

Sometimes it'll go two months without a period,

or you'll go two weeks and then you get your

period again,

or you'll bleed for more than a week at a time.

So anything that is a miss with your cycle really

is your first huge,

big red flag of saying,

Oh,

there's something off here.

Where,

because as women,

we should be cycling on a 28 to 30 day cycle.

Some women are a little bit more than that,

but if it's right,

as long as it's regular.

So every 30 days you get your period,

that's a good sign that those hormones are doing

their job the way they should.

So that can be a first sign.

The other thing that can happen,

which happened to me in my early thirties,

was weight loss resistance.

And this can happen.

It can happen definitely through the ages,

right?

Where you'll just first see it as maybe an extra

like five,

10 pounds comes on.

You'll try a few different diets and it just,

it's like maybe a pound will come off.

Then it comes back on immediately.

It's like,

no matter what you do,

that weight's not coming off.

That's so common,

right?

It's so common right now.

And it's because of the environmental fake toxins,

the fake hormones,

right?

That are coming into our body that mimic our

actual hormones.

And so this is men and women that this is

happening to women are going to get more symptoms

of that because we are cyclical.

So we're going to see it differently than a man's

going to see it.

Men were seeing it right now.

They're having a hard time losing weight too,

or maybe they've gained some weight.

They've got some man boobs.

That's a very common thing right now for men.

This is.

It's a sign that there's too much,

you know,

estrogen in the environment that that person's in

or they're drinking too much.

That's another reason for that.

So there's that.

And then for women,

they just,

it's like,

they just can't like all their friends.

That's what I always thought to myself was: look

at all my friends.

Why are they so skinny?

They're eating whatever they want.

I'm doing what they're doing and I'm eating way

better.

And yet I'm 20 pounds heavier than they are like,

what the hell's going on?

So there's.

That big,

big sign is the weight loss resistance.

And then as you age and you're heading into your

late thirties and into your forties,

that is a massive sign in a massive problem that

happens.

And we're not just talking five to 10 pounds.

When women start to go through perimenopause and

menopause,

average right now is 10 to 20 pounds,

15 to 20 pounds is average right now for a

menopausal woman to gain.

And they'll notice it,

that it all goes in their stomach.

Younger women,

they can tell where they're putting their weight on

kind of what hormone it might be like thyroid

problems.

You tend to gain weight all over your body and

with it comes fatigue and hair loss and depression

and no motivation.

And of course,

just,

you just keep gaining weight for a lot of room

with hypothyroidism.

That's interesting.

So if somebody's talking to you about their weight

gain experience,

you can ask them like,

where in your body is happening?

And that can,

that can give you some ideas.

A hundred percent.

Yeah.

Very cool.

Yes.

Yeah.

Estrogen dominant.

So we see a lot of women that have too much of

this estrogen,

the xenoestrogens in their body,

and that shows up on their hips and their bum.

So you'll have,

you'll,

that's where you'll carry your weight.

If you've got blood sugar issues,

insulin resistance,

also with high testosterone,

those two go together.

Then you'll have more weight in your,

in your stomach.

And it's a little bit harder,

rather menopausal belly that happens because of the

lack of estrogen is soft,

squishy belly.

And,

but if they're insulin resistant,

then it's harder,

but yeah,

big in that area.

So those are the different weight places that

you'll put on,

depending on what hormonal imbalance you might be

feeling.

No,

totally.

And I think it's really important to know,

especially as a man that the female cascade of

hormones that happens throughout the month is really

complicated and it makes a lot of sense to me

because I've got a bit of experience and education

in it.

And it would,

it makes sense to me that a little issue in that

big cascade that's,

you know,

it needs to,

it needs to be cyclical.

As you say,

like all these hormones respond to different signals

and then they pass this on and they pass this on

basically all the way from the brain.

Down to the,

down to the reproductive areas,

but if something happens in that big cascade,

then it just,

it knocks the whole thing out of balance.

Right.

And especially if it's happening for a long period

of time,

men are a little bit simpler in many ways.

Yeah.

But still being affected.

And I don't think men realize actually just how

much they're being affected right now.

I think it's a growing problem.

I think,

I think you're right.

You've seen people's bodies changing.

Yeah.

You can see sex drive completely changing fertility.

Oh my gosh.

Like that's outrageous,

outrageous at the moment,

but can you touch on,

you were talking about like Xeno estrogens and

foreign estrogens that are in our environment,

which are,

you know,

not normal for us to come in contact with,

but the last 50 years,

like we're just experiencing more and more of

these.

Can you explain what those foreign estrogens may be

and yeah,

give us some examples please.

Yeah.

So the number one,

one,

I think that everybody's heard of,

of course,

is BPA products.

So anything that's plastic,

I always tell women that all women right now in

the world should be getting rid of all plastics

out of their house.

And I know that that's like probably pretty

challenging.

And I don't mean like,

you don't have to be so nitpicky as getting rid

of your shampoo bottles and changing them to glass,

but things like food containers that are plastic,

those should all be gone.

I don't have any,

any more plastic containers in my cupboards and

haven't for years.

And there's so many alternatives.

You can go to the dollar store right now.

And most of the lids tend to still be hard

plastic,

but you can get the ones,

you know,

the food's going to sit in glass.

And so you could get that anywhere.

And that's super important because a lot of these

containers now say BPA free,

but they're being substituted with something that's

just,

if not more toxic and more xeno estrogens.

People don't know that.

So all plastics got to go,

even the BPA free,

you don't put your kids food or drinks.

Like don't go,

don't get squishy water bottles.

My son just came home with one in before school

got out and he had a race,

like a,

I don't know what it was like a school race

thing.

And so they,

they all got these very soft water bottles and I

was like,

sorry,

you can't keep that.

He was so mad at me.

And I'm like,

no.

It's not even hard plastic,

it's soft plastic.

So rid the house of that because that's one of

the biggest places that we're getting it.

Receipts.

When you go buy something at the store,

always opt to not take the receipt if you can,

or opt for the email receipt.

It's very,

very high in the BPA stuff.

And so you don't want to go near a receipt of

all things like that's,

I think a very common one that people don't

realize that they're being exposed to.

So,

um,

all of our water,

this is terrible,

but most water nowadays are tainted with hormones

in them.

This is for several different reasons.

One of them being that women on birth control pee

into the toilet and that goes into the water

system and then comes back into the drinking water.

There's other things,

yeah,

it's true story.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And so many other pharmaceuticals as well that we

consume,

we pee out and,

you know,

we do have great filtration systems obviously,

but these,

these,

these molecules are so small that they bypass that

and we get them right back in.

Yeah.

Yes.

Um,

if you consume grains,

that's another one that people don't realize the

grains are held in big silos and these silos,

a lot of the time mold on the inside and create

Xenoestrogens.

So when you eat grains,

you're going to be getting these Xenoestrogens.

And so everybody understands Xenoestrogens is

mimicking.

It's like,

it looks very close to our own estrogen,

which is one of the most important fertile hormones

for,

and just actually for it has 800 different

functions in the body.

It's it's incredible.

We love estrogen.

And these are taking over your estrogen in your

body.

Yeah.

In a bad way.

And the receptors,

remember the receptors,

the little satellite that's going to grab onto the

estrogen and bring it into the cell for you to

utilize your receptor per will prefer the

Xenoestrogen over your own estrogen.

So you could have totally fine levels of estrogen,

but you got,

you're having all these symptoms of estrogen

dominance.

You're putting weight on in your butt and your

hips,

you know,

you're feeling like you're carrying a lot of water

retention.

Your periods are super heavy.

Your breasts get super tender.

So you're like,

I got to get rid of all this estrogen on my

body,

which is very common right now.

Everybody thinks they have estrogen dominance and

it's Xenoestrogen dominance that you actually have.

And so clean up your house,

anything that has an artificial scent,

this is huge.

And I tell you,

I promise all of you listeners that once you get

rid of artificial scent,

you can never go back.

And I mean,

never,

there's something that happens.

Even my husband says it.

When I first met him,

he was the guy who was using two dryer sheets

that had the perfumey smells to them in his

clothes,

his whole house smelled like it.

And he even gets a whiff of that smell now,

and he can't stand it because you're,

you do,

you become overly sensitive to chemical smell,

chemical smells of all kinds.

Anything that says perfume.

Anything that's scented.

Unless it's scented with an essential oil is going

to mimic estrogen inside your body.

And that is not good.

So we're talking perfume and laundry detergent in

those dryer sheets are super toxic.

Anything that's in the cleaning solutions that you

use to clean your bathroom,

the countertops,

if that has a strong smell to it,

get rid of it.

There's so many things that you can buy nowadays

for a very decent price that don't have these

things in it.

It doesn't have to cost you an arm and a leg.

You can go to the,

your grocery store and get even Clor-X makes green

free,

you know,

scent-free products.

Now you can buy stuff online.

You can use vinegar.

Vinegar is an amazing cleaning solution that kills

the bacteria in the house.

Yeah.

It doesn't smell all like vanilla bean,

lilac,

ocean breeze,

like the other stuff does,

but you're doing yourself a favor.

We have to,

Simon,

we have to 150% do as much as we can in our

immediate environment,

because we can't do anything about what's out there

when we go out there into the shopping places,

what we're eating - it's a lot of that is very

hard to control the pollution that's in the air.

All of those things,

they are going to affect the hormonal system.

So you are so best to just get rid of anything

that you can that's in your household.

And even if you have to do it step-by-step,

you know,

slowly get rid of the plastics in your covers and

slowly start replacing them with glass,

you know,

going through like,

don't wrap things in Saran wrap anymore,

start putting everything into a glass container.

Or nowadays you can actually buy these really cool

little wax paper things that you can reuse.

And I use them in my kids'

lunches to wrap stuff up with,

so much the beeswax wraps.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

They're so good at the farmer's market.

For sure.

That's super available.

I'm not going to go into details now,

but no,

you're spot on in regards to focusing on the home

and taking things kind of like one thing at a

time because yeah,

they all add up,

right?

Like our interactions with these plastics.

Yeah.

And organic,

but I know that's very hard for people to do,

but anything that has a pesticide on it,

that is a hormone mimicker.

So if possible,

or you go look at the Dirty Dozen list,

which is available to everybody,

which is going to tell you the things that have

the highest amount of pesticides on them.

And then the things that don't,

that you don't need to buy organic,

but you know,

you can there is a way either you grow your own

food,

you can go to the farmer's market,

you can go to big stores,

like even Walmart,

super store,

all of those places actually have pretty affordable

organic produce.

Now.

Yeah.

I feel like there are solutions available for kind

of every budget and every,

you know,

depending on how serious you want to go with it.

Yeah.

I think,

well,

there are solutions for everybody and there's no,

no question.

There's going to be amazing articles,

YouTube videos about how you can kind of start

cleaning up your house and people offering you

ideas on that and how to do it in the most

cost-effective way.

It's just,

yeah,

not many people really know about how these,

because we don't feel it really happening.

It's super subtle.

It's like seeps into our body and like really

affects us,

but at the end of the day,

it's just biochemistry.

And if these molecules can do the same thing that

our organic molecules can do,

then they're going to significantly affect us in a

kind of negative way and then render our own

production of these endogenous hormones kind of

useless.

And then they're floating around and yeah,

it just,

again,

it's this cascade of like issues that,

that come up.

I've got a wild story with the receipts.

So I,

I,

in Victoria and I live there,

I did a lot of my nutrition sessions at Whole

Foods.

They had a really cool corner,

little set up there that I would take clients on.

We'd get a coffee.

We'd sit down and have our sessions,

and across the road from Whole Foods is a Save On

another client there.

She was 23 and she'd been working for about three

years,

pretty much every day,

as hard as she could to get through school and

then pay for school afterwards at the,

at the till of the checkout.

And she was touching receipt after receipt,

after receipt,

10 hours a day,

every day for three years.

Yeah.

And we've been working together for a few sessions,

and I was just trying to figure some of her like

primary external impacts in her life,

whether it was a diet or an environment; and she

left.

And after the session,

I went up to Whole Foods because I used to spend

hours and hours of every day in there,

but I lived in Victoria and I got my receipt and

I swear to God,

this was 30 minutes after she left.

I turned over my receipt and they use a specific

ink in their receipts at Whole Foods that don't

have these phytoestrogens.

And these are the xenoestrogens in,

and I was like,

boom,

that has to be,

it has to play a part because she was telling me

I could see the ink on our hands in some

sessions.

It was that it was that bad.

And I don't know,

like I don't keep my receipts,

I don't know,

unless you know,

unless you're going to write the tax off.

I don't know why you would keep one,

especially at a supermarket anyway,

constantly touching these receipts.

And I was like,

it was my proper Dr.

House moment.

It was awesome.

And we spoke about it and within about a month

later,

she was stuck.

She got a job at Whole Foods instead,

but,

and then she's,

you know,

she's doing really good.

I'm not saying that was exactly what was wrong

with her,

but she had so many hormone issues,

but I think that's been our skin is just like,

so,

so beautiful and so supple and it just absorbs

everything in and yeah,

this poor girl,

but like,

no,

she just,

just that little bit of that information and she

just significantly cut down on the most subtle

poisonous part of her life.

And then once she took that out of her,

out of her diet or a lifestyle,

um,

her body,

her body was able to just like clean up and do

what,

do what it's used to.

And it was pretty profound for her.

So yeah,

like that's a,

that's a serious thing.

And not many people take that ink receipt thing.

And there's,

there's a new term that's being thrown around a

lot right now,

which is called obesity genes.

And these are the toxins that are in our

environment that are,

that they love fat.

They love fat and including the fat on your body

and they'll store themselves in your fat cells.

And you'll go on some extreme diet and you release

all of these toxins,

these obesogens into the body and it can make

people really sick and actually make them gain that

much more weight afterwards.

It's crazy.

Yeah.

That's a,

that's wild how these molecules and these

microorganisms can,

can do that type of thing.

Like Candida is a big example of that as well.

If you go too hard on the antifungals,

you,

the die off of like Candida and the endotoxins,

the toxins that get released can cause people to

have like serious,

significant flu symptoms for a long time,

even though they're doing their body good.

So we have to have some respect for the process

of these and we need to be just as they're very

subtle in regards to their kind of insidious

overtaking of our life.

We have to be,

we have to be careful in how we attempt to

eliminate them,

which is,

you know,

I think that's an important piece.

I think so too.

Yeah.

Um,

so apart from the plastics massive at home

everywhere.

Yeah.

And in increase seats,

you spoke about some specific foods as well.

Are there any other,

um,

any other kind of big ones that we know can make

people aware of?

Of course,

the conventional meat is a big one.

Um,

we know that a lot of conventional meat,

cows,

and chickens,

pigs; they all get injected with hormones,

and that horn,

those hormones get passed on to us when we eat it

as well.

They’re eating GMO corn in a ton of it.

Yeah.

And that once again,

anything that’s got a pesticide on it is going to

be a terrible Xeno estrogen inside the body.

Um,

there’s things that,

you know,

pesticide stuff that you spray,

even just in your yard.

A lot of people don’t realize that has is a Xeno

estrogen.

Um,

we’re seeing it; it is so bad that we’re seeing

crocodiles of all things,

crocodiles and frogs.

Yeah.

They’re becoming asexual,

so they are not female,

nor are they male.

And this is from these fake estrogens that are in

the water that they’re in.

And for some reason,

they’re more sensitive,

sensitive to them than other animals and reptiles

in the kingdom.

This is where they’re seeing it.

And so,

I'll have to wonder,

I talked to,

I interviewed somebody for my podcast about this.

And,

and I actually asked him,

I'm like,

do you think that this could be why I know that

we're embracing the LGBTQ community much more than

we ever have before,

which is amazing and wonderful and beautiful.

I do wonder,

are we seeing a rise in people not knowing what

they are,

whether they’re,

you know,

whether they’re gay or,

you know,

whether they’re transgender,

like how much is our environment?

Is it creating this,

like,

how much is the impacting how people are being

born into this world now?

And I,

you have to,

I would think that a hundred percent that it is

impacting it.

I think the fact that you mentioned it,

I mean,

I don't know about the crocodile thing.

That's really cool.

I'd like to look into that more,

but if something that we've done,

even in the last 50 years has made an animal

that's been on the planet for 300 million years

change so quickly,

that has to be,

that has to be.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well,

it can't be evolution.

That's just,

that's just not a thing.

It has to be,

it has to be environmental.

So,

that's,

that's a really interesting point.

I never thought about that before.

I would read the book and this,

I,

I interviewed the guy,

the author; it's called Astro Generation.

Dr.

Dr.

Something.

J.J.

something.

I can't remember.

Anyway,

Dr.

Something is Astro Generation.

Look it up.

But he talks about all of the stuff that's in the

environment.

And he's the one who talks about the,

the crocodiles and the frogs.

Yeah.

That makes it,

it totally makes a lot of sense.

We know what these things do and over long periods

of time,

and if we're not doing anything to counteract them

and we're not even really aware of them,

you know,

they're gonna change completely change us.

And you know what?

We are in an obesity epidemic right now,

but yet we are also in an epidemic of people

being more health-conscious than ever before because

of this.

Like we.

We have millions of podcasts.

We've got so much information about health and diet

and wellness,

and yet.

Obesity is growing exponentially and we're,

we're,

we're coming into a generation that our children

are not going to outlive us,

sort of thing.

They're going to die because of all of these

things.

And we have to start looking at it because right

now we all think when we need to lose weight,

that we can just change our diet.

Exercise.

Exercise more.

And the way it's going to come off.

And I'll tell you what: you,

every single person that is struggling to lose

weight,

you and,

and who isn't - we all have to start detoxing

regularly,

right?

Where you,

even if you've cleaned up your environment,

you still should be doing you know,

quarterly liver detoxes or you know,

taking something to support your detoxification

system on a daily basis,

whether you you know,

you go to the sauna regularly or you know,

making sure that you're pooping every single day

that you're drinking lots of water.

Like this is something we all have to do and have

to get on top of because it's not going away.

It's only going to get worse.

Yeah.

I think bar the last couple of years,

we've never lived in a,

in a world that's so good.

Like we've never had it so good in regards to

like comparative to a couple of generations ago.

Right.

And it's so,

it's so easy to be.

I don't like using the word lazy,

but it's so easy.

It's so easy to be lazy these days without the

ramifications of losing financial status or your job

or whatever,

you know,

got all these like comforting protections,

which is many aspects are really,

really important.

Right.

But at the end of the day,

like the issues that we have of our,

of our lifetime now in comparison to a generation

ago is significantly different and it makes us not

take responsibility.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And it's,

uh,

it's,

and it's,

it's changing us biologically.

I always think,

oh,

I wish I could be one of these people,

like a homesteader.

Like I just wish so bad I could be that person

that just lives off the land off grid,

growing my own food,

raising my own animals,

and I'll...

it's just not me.

I can't do it,

but you know,

I'm trying to lead halfway do what I can.

I think that,

I think that particular Google search has been

blowing up servers the last six months.

But yeah.

Yes.

Um,

just to finish off,

I,

I just had the thought around birth control and

specifically the pill,

you know,

taking,

taking that type of a drug,

especially at quite a young age that most people

are taking it.

And even in many cases,

it's not even,

it's not even birth control related.

Right.

Um,

how bad is that?

Because as a guy,

yeah.

And a lot of men I spoke to who whose partners

are taking birth control,

they're not really the men aren't really in the

knowledge.

They're not in the game.

It's just like,

oh,

we've got birth control.

Let's just use that.

It's fine.

But they're not taking any like further

responsibility in regards to what that actually

means and what that actually does to the biological

health of their partners.

How,

how bad is that type of birth control for God?

I mean,

you can talk about upset many women,

but it's really,

really bad and we're not being told how bad it

is.

And I think one day we're going to look back and

go,

oh my gosh,

what did we do?

And I know that that sounds extreme and you're

probably thinking now she's being overreacting.

I'm not,

I've researched this so much.

Every person every woman that takes birth control

is going to get a leaky gut syndrome.

Now we all as North Americans all have leaky gut

to some degree,

but the birth control pill really exasperates this.

So this means that,

that you're going to,

you're going to have an immune system reaction to

it in some way,

shape or form.

We know that there's a massive gut-brain connection.

So you know,

your gut's not doing well,

that can trigger anxiety and depression,

ADD,

ADHD,

mind stuff,

right?

Your gut is extremely important.

You don't want.

You don't want it to be severely leaky,

right?

It also some new research that's just come out

shows that it actually long-term use of birth

control shrinks the hypothalamus part of the brain.

So it's shrinking your brain.

Not only that,

if we are completely suppressing the hormonal

system.

So women are being put on this at,

you know,

the ripe age of 13,

because she's got heavy periods.

They're on birth control and then she's coming off

at 30 and saying,

okay,

now I'm ready to have a kid.

And there's no,

she's infertile now because she's been on birth

control,

suppressing her normal cyclical ways for,

you know,

20 years,

whatever it is,

it's got,

most of them have progestin in them,

which is one of the most toxic synthetic hormones

there is.

And that's the one that has been linked to an

increase in breast cancer.

So,

there is now evidence showing that on birth

control,

you will have a small increase of being able to,

or getting,

uh,

breast cancer from it.

Something women are not being told,

um,

your chances of clot go up because you're taking S

synthetic estrogen orally.

So,

your chances of heart attack and stroke go way up.

I've heard recently an OBGYN who's brilliant.

Actually,

yes.

Living with cancer,

and that happens for several weeks.

You know,

she knew she was being basically hypothermic.

But,

and she didn't think it was making one or ten

million dollars,

but it was like over the coast,

$500,000 back then,

six years on it.

Well,

you know,

it gives us like the question for triplets.

Where they,

the,

the,

during the winter,

you know,

that's really hard for a lot of us.

And it kills young women.

Why?

I don't have it.

That messing with that model might be bad for the,

you know,

pharma business,

but yeah,

I'm sure there are definitely other applications for

not using that as well,

but oh my goodness,

like yeah,

it's even just knowing a little bit about how the

hormone system works and how important it is to

actually have those signals and have that feedback

loop,

and to mess with that for a decade and then

expect to come off that and be able to house a

child,

which many can,

don't get me wrong; I'm just saying that you are

don't think you're not causing your body detriment

by being on birth control long term,

and and it's once again,

it's one of the worst band-aids,

it's always handed out like candy in the doctor's

office for every single female gynecological problem;

it's here's your birth control,

and you are masking what's really going on,

and you want to get to the root of that problem

because as we've talked about today,

your hormones are everything,

they even say that it affects cortisol levels so

you have a very,

and you'll talk to women I just talked to one

yesterday who said her mood is flat since she's

been on birth control; she's Just flat,

I said 'yeah' because it affects cortisol,

so you don't get the the joys of cortisol's up

and down right when you get excited and things

happen in your life,

cortisol goes up.

Yes,

it can also go up when there's fear or anger,

but you're losing that ability to feel emotional a

lot of the time; it kills women's sex drive,

it makes them just feel flat in that area because

now they've got no hormonal spiking going on which

is supposed to happen.

It just...

oh,

I could just go on and on!

So,

in regards to the answer to my question,

that is birth control bad the answer is 'yeah',

yeah,

yes; but yet,

at the same time,

on the flip side,

we don't you know.

We obviously,

everything has its place for sure,

but we need to be aware and educated that these

things make an educated decision about it,

yeah.

And I think that's the problem because most people,

because we just,

you know,

we go,

we go to our doctor,

we trust them to give the give us the right

information and give us all the information about

side effects and what this is going to do and

mean.

But that's just not happening unfortunately to the

to the uh,

you know,

especially when something has been in the in the

medical system and in our culture for such a long

time there is this very dogmatic um approach to it

all,

so yeah,

again like we've used the used the term about

being irritable and we've used the term about being

irritable and we've used the term about being��고

and your own advocate for your own health and

there's no excuse anymore really in regards to the

amount of information that is out there you might

have to do some digging and some filtering but

there are some really smart people putting out a

lot of good information and there are books and

podcasts and articles and everything on these topics

it can be tricky at sometimes because there might

be too much information but at the end of the day

you don't know nobody knows your body better than

you

Do,

I am of the opinion that nothing is irreversible

to an extent,

and that you can do so much in regards to your

own psychological and physical health by addressing

a lot of these things.

And yeah,

hormone health is so so key.

And if it's you know being being damaged by things

we're consuming or things that we're just just in

our environment then you have to,

or in our head stress,

yeah we just have to expect there are going to be

problems down the road.

Yeah,

yeah.

I agree.

Maybe we can come back on the show and we can

talk specifically about birth control because I'm

pretty well versed on the topic but there's

definitely

things i don't know and i think that just speaking

as a you know as a guy i think that when you

are looking to as a as a couple get onto

something like that and looking at all the options

i think there's not there's not enough conversation

done around done around it like i know that there

are really really great like cycle tracking options

that need to be obviously done really really well

that we can that we can talk about in the future

but yeah i think that yeah um it's not just it's

not just um the lady or the woman to be

responsible for that type of thing that's not

that's not okay that's not fair yeah so i'm just

yeah i'm standing

Up for the ladies on this one,

yeah,

for sure,

yeah.

Thanks,

Simon,

yeah.

Many times what I do,

um,

oh,

thank you so much for joining us again,

Karen.

How can people get hold of you?

Um,

the best way is just karenmartell.com on the

website,

uh,

or you can find me on my podcast,

which I think we've got almost 200 episodes now,

it's called The Other Side of Weight Loss and I'm

still waiting for Simon to come on it as a guest,

it's gonna happen,

I know it is,

it's gonna happen,

I promise you.

Well,

Karen,

I really appreciate your time as always,

thank you so much,

so insightful,

um,

I love that we're able to discuss these big topics

and provide solutions at the same.

time i think that's what we need now we it's not

just a matter of time it's a matter of time we

need to know we have to know how these days so

it's great that we're able to give people some

practical advice so i really appreciate that thank

you you bet thanks for having me on simon of

course thank you so much for listening everybody

this has been true hope cast the official podcast

of true hope canada we'll see you next week we're

able to discuss these big topics and provide

solutions at the same time i think that's what we

need now we it's not enough to know we have to

know how these days so it's great that we're able

to give people

Some practical advice,

so I really appreciate that.

Thank you!

You bet,

thanks for having me on Simon of course.

Thank you,

you so much for listening,

everybody.

This has been true hope,

cast the official podcast of True Hope Canada.

We'll see you next week.