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The environment around us is a swirling vortex of chaos, but you can navigate it when you have an anchor that can keep you steady. Each episode, Liz Herl dives into data driven strategies and real world tactics with Dr. Tim Caldwell to help you become more grounded and centered in a world that is constantly shifting and changing. Learn to effectively navigate family strife, career challenges and handle the anxiety of the unknown that the news is constantly bombarding us with. Liz is a Licensed Clinical Marriage and Family Therapist and Dr. Caldwell is a retired primary care physician and personal trainer. You can lean on their decades of experience to find stability and peace without having to control circumstances or people around you. You can be anchored in chaos.
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[00:00:00]
Liz Herl: Hello everyone. Welcome back to Anchored in Chaos.
Tim Caldwell: Hey Liz,
Liz Herl: I'm your host, Liz Herl.
Tim Caldwell: Liz,
Liz Herl: and you are my co-host.
Tim Caldwell: I'm Dr. Tim Caldwell. Hi.
Liz Herl: So we are gonna tackle something today that I don't know many women. I would definitely say our managing and working through including oneself. And that's why I was just sharing, I might intermittently if you're [00:01:00] not watching.
You'll never know that I go between some special glasses that I now wear versus what I used to not.
Tim Caldwell: Special glasses.
Liz Herl: Yes. It's for superheroes. You wouldn't Yeah, they're like glasses. They only get, they only get assigned to superheroes.
Tim Caldwell: Uhhuh. See, I have, I've worn special glasses my whole life.
Liz Herl: Eh, I don't think they're that of, of my caliber of, of superhero hero.
No.
Tim Caldwell: Away. Special earlier than mine.
Liz Herl: All right. Well, what we wanna kind of dive into in a more intentional matter is really women's health overall. It is. We're gonna hit on the physical, mental, emotional, and that is really of, of women that's going through the change of life, as they call it, menopause.
Menopause. Yep. And it's really all over right now. Mm-hmm. And being of an individual that is experiencing that, that's been really enlightening and really you know, personal growth of what people really struggle with through this and the health of women. Like what happens to women, not just the reaction behavior that everyone says, like the [00:02:00] crazy woman or the hysterical woman.
Or the psychotic woman. Yeah. Which are really, that's really unkind in the fact that there is a reason for what is happening and. When you feel outside yourself, what is really going on? So to kind of, start that off. We're looking at women really the onset of menopause, right? Right. Is between the age of 45 or 40 to 45, but onto 55 because up until then your perimenopausal, so perimenopausal is.
Tim Caldwell: Essentially if we were to look at historically, if we look at baseline, a uh, patient female patient, let's say clinically comes in and we take her blood, a blood panel then represents exactly what her ovaries are doing as far as development of ovaries, release of ovaries, which would be the menstrual cycle.
Which then goes on to the point where that cycle, a woman's cycle begins to taper off and be altered, which means that the [00:03:00] primitive ova, which is being produced in the body are no longer maturing and being released, but that process is beginning to slow down and halt. Mm-hmm. When that happens, what people don't realize is that the hormonal responsibility impacts the systemic health of the woman.
Mm-hmm. We are very quick to assign testosterone and estrogen to the reproductive responsibilities in the body. They are, however, in their absence, there is a systemic impact mind, body, and soul. We say that all the time, but they're in the beginning phases. As a woman enters into the menopausal stages the most impact to a woman is in the mental, almost kind of psychotic realm, is that a woman can, and that nice to hear, a woman can feel like she's really losing it, right? Yes.
Liz Herl: Well, and that's what I wanna [00:04:00] speak to on my side of the house of a being a woman, and that's why I appreciate your insight and expertise on, into the viewpoint
of what is happening within the woman's body. Right. Related to hormones. And, but the other side of that, of this disconnection, a woman is struggling with mm-hmm. With what oneself used to be prior to the experience they're having. Right. Whatever that might be. And, the point there being is that when a woman is beginning to go through this process and filling all those areas, you know, not to be repetitive, but of disconnection,
Tim Caldwell: right?
Liz Herl: What is going on and how do I grab hold of what once was? We have the opportunity, we have an individual's, case file, yeah. Of, of blood panels from 2022 to current Exactly.
Tim Caldwell: Yeah.
Liz Herl: And a baseline of what transpired during that time.
Tim Caldwell: Exactly. So what you and I will be referencing is, we'll say in this case file from 2022 to [00:05:00] 2025.
This client patient had blood panels done on a regular basis and it was a general. Health panel, however, they were quite specific done by A-A-O-B-G-Y-N, who actually specializes now in regenerative cell therapy and regenerative health at a cellular level. So we got to see a very intrinsic panel, and we got to look at all these things.
Now, the interesting thing is. And I will touch on this repeatedly, is that it's really beneficial for us to all have a baseline. So having a healthy panel and the small adjustments that were made by this treating physician, we got to watch this female go from 2022 to a regular, a relatively good base.
Mm-hmm. It begin to alter and finally completely changed. Mm-hmm. Right. It, it, it literally dropped off. And what I talk, what I'm talking about here is this person had entered into [00:06:00] full blown menopause,
Liz Herl: right? Yes, correct. And like a freight train crashing kind of.
Tim Caldwell: Yeah. This was, this was within let's say 30 days, this person reported repeatedly that there were changes that just were making her world uncomfortable. Right.
Liz Herl: So understanding that turbulence that someone is facing. One of the things that I have really dived into, or I would say looked at a little bit more intensely around this, is that perimenopausal stage is something that we really need to bring more insight to, not just menopause.
Sure. Because you, there is actually some, proactive pieces around physical health, mental health, and how you're taking care of yourself to not just offset or be prepared, I guess, for mm-hmm. Menopause. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. But to be aware of where this plays into, and this is where I wanna go into the cardiovascular, neurological, and skeletal part of Yeah.
Excellent. Of a woman. Excellent. Like, it's all of those pieces, it's not [00:07:00] just your hormones.
Tim Caldwell: So as we, if you'll just walk us through this, I'll give you some detailed breakdown on kind of how that happens physiologically.
Liz Herl: Perfect.
Tim Caldwell: Yeah.
Liz Herl: The first part is talking. I wanna kind of go into that initial part of brain fog.
Mm-hmm. With that we, that women are. Mm-hmm. Sharing, like I can't find, you know, I can't, I walk in. It's different when you walk into a room and can't find what you're looking for versus being in mid conversation and then forgetting your train of thought or not grasping. Yeah. That fluency is affected and it really makes you feel like you're just crazy.
Tim Caldwell: So I will say this because this is a reproductive systems related to reproductive systems we've all heard of baby mom or baby brain. Mm-hmm. And that is new mothers. Or expectant mothers who just can't finish two sentences, right? Mm-hmm. They're just all over the place. Well, hormones are raging during this developmental time, and the mother is in preparation for delivery of a [00:08:00] baby.
Well, as we reach a state of maturity in the female body and the ova begin to decline in the output or completely cease those same hormonal signals have now been altered. And I would say it's very similar because. This, your system, the homeostasis of that system is so used to working on a regulated release, a regulated dosage of its own mixture that as that becomes altered, here we go again.
Now I've lost some. I've lost my ability to concentrate. I've lost my ability to motivate. I've lost, I have a, a focus to attention and detail. Those things begin to slide. That's more of a cognitive, but we also see that fatigue sets in. Mm-hmm. We start to see that, I mentioned motivation, but the libido will drop off.
It can drop off immensely. Mm-hmm. And, and as we continue in this discussion, we'll break all those factors down. We'll talk about that more in [00:09:00] detail because as that declines, I want everyone to be aware that there's a male counterpart to this just as powerful as menopause and that affects men.
Liz Herl: Absolutely. Yeah. And we will be going over men's health next. Mm-hmm. And that's something that. I was sharing with you earlier we were doing some pre-show, you know, reviewing Sure. That some of these seem to intertwine with men's health and women's health. I think most definitely, I think there's such a lack of understanding of that.
Most definitely. Yeah. And understanding estrogen is one thing that I've really looked at. You know, you think you know something and then you realize estrogen is actually really powerful for, specifically women again, I'm not familiar just yet with how that really affects men. Sure.
Because men have it as well. Exactly. But understanding that deficit, that transpires, that affects everything else. It's impacting multiple systems that you had no idea it was responsible for. Absolutely.
Tim Caldwell: We hear a lot reported in the O-B-G-Y-N society more towards, not [00:10:00] society, but in the culture of sexual and reproductive faculties.
But we talk about how it can affect bone density, osteoporosis. We talk about the likelihood of fractures. Well, we're beginning to understand now that a lot of women, especially women that are now advanced into their let's say sixties and seventies, that these fractures that are very common at the surgical neck of the femur as it enters into the acetabulum quite frequently, the bone is so weak, it fractures and then they fall.
We've always, we've always had kind of a basic understanding that someone falls and breaks their hip. No. We actually have some evidence that that bone actually breaks and they fall. Well, that's a dangerous thing for anyone to break a large bone in their body because we run the risk of a very much an uh, emergent situation where we have an embolism and a complete thrombosis where there's this huge release of adipose into the blood [00:11:00] and those adipose tissue begin to cause dyslipidemia.
We get frothing in my cells. Those become. Those become obstacles in the blood vessels and they can lodge themselves in those smaller vessels, but most importantly, at the heart, at the lungs, and the carotid mm-hmm. We get stroke. So these are, these are important things to keep in mind, right?
Sure. Very much important things.
Liz Herl: Well, and I think that understanding how our bodies are operating and there's a preventativeness that I want to continue to highlight in our conversation around everything that you're saying. Mm. That at some point, even if you're already through or in the process of steering per perimenopausal or Ben menopausal
Tim Caldwell: mm-hmm.
Liz Herl: For any other individual or woman educating men and women education around, you know, these are some. How do we take care of ourselves and be aware of what's going on. Now, I don't wanna jump too quickly there because I wanna talk a little bit about the, the protective role that estrogen provides. Now, you and I had an in-depth conversation and we wanna [00:12:00] invite the listeners into that because I've noticed sometimes when I go to review, that I will reflect on our, our conversations and what we were transpiring or what we were conversing about. So you're aware of the conversation is the increase of LDL cholesterol and the decrease of HDL cholesterol and the elevated blood pressure and insulin resistant that women seem to go through through this stage.
Sure. And you kind of broke that down for me a little bit. That was really kind of helpful. I did. So,
Tim Caldwell: a few things to unpack here. First of all, most of what I'm gonna describe to you, I am not an endocrinologist. I have knowledge of, and I will break that down fundamentally, but that all of our hormones are essentially made.
The moans, the moans, that's what I call 'em, you should call them. Um, They're all fundamentally, uh. constructed on a backbone of cholesterol. Okay. So cholesterol's always been a big topic and it still is, and it has been this drive to push cholesterol down in the body, stop eating egg [00:13:00] oaks and saturated fats.
There's a lot of science has just been completely reversed about the scientific, they debunk it. Yeah, the scientific ideas behind saturated fats and cholesterol related diets. Simply the fact is, is that three generations ago, cholesterols were in the two hundreds, three hundreds, and they lived, they lived healthy lives.
Why is that important? Because cholesterol is a fundamental building structure that has to be built in our body and dietary intake is typically the chief way of how that's gonna, how to work. Now that being said, modern society, as we drive down the cholesterol, it seems to be affecting, and I say seems to be science will prove it out, but it seems to be affecting our hormonal maturity rates and the advancement of.
The menopause. And even that equivalent into men. So we begin to see men who [00:14:00] have a rapid decline. We already know this. Dietary intakes have. Harshly diminished men's testosterones. Okay, so when we talk about cholesterol, we're talking about the fundamental building blocks when we talk about lipids, when we talk about HDL, which is high density lipids, low LDL, which is low density lipids.
There's also VL DLS and ROMs ROMs, I think that's the name. Yes. But they all, they're all description of essentially the same thing, except that. They vary in sizes and concentrations in different components. Mm-hmm. So HDL is higher and is typically higher in proteins. Okay. Mm-hmm. HDL got tagged the good cholesterol.
Mm-hmm Because they, in their research prior to, had always assigned the HDL as being this dense, this dense lipid that goes around and kind of scavenges from the other lipids. Well. They're finding out that that's not all, that, not really all that [00:15:00] true. They're also finding out that the LDLs and the V LDLs have a very functional purpose too, and that dietary intake doesn't really produce these things.
This is all in vivo. Your body makes this all naturally correct. Right. So. I would argue, and there's lots of people who would side with me, is that there's really no good or bad cholesterol. It just is. Mm-hmm. But when we see the hormonal, the, the chief hormonal operators of estrogen and Right
testosterone begin to flag or completely, or progesterone. Or progesterone mm-hmm. All of the moans, if they begin to drop off, what we see then is that there can be an aberrant behavior in the way that lipids begin to accumulate in our body. Correct. So I, my dissertation when I was leaving as a doctor was thyroid related.
Dyslipidemias. Those dyslipidemias, those things that are happening with fats and deposition of fats in our vessels [00:16:00] can lead to harmful deposition within the vessels. So lack of estrogen can drive that. Correct. And now we have, that's yeah, that's where we're going. Yes.
But the importance of estrogen is we see comparatively between the sexes male and female, and there own our only two sexes, is that estrogen has very remarkably kept women. Pretty much safe from heart attacks? No, not exclusively, but if you com compare, males have far more heart attacks than females and they theorize that the estrogen, I suppose it's beyond theory, but estrogen plays a very important pack of a part of that.
Mm-hmm. Is the protection of the cardiovascular system. Mm-hmm. Now. I would say that the estrogen has a, a powerful impact because of the properties in dyslipidemia. It helps prevent loss of bone thickness, which is osteoporosis. It helps to protect the vessels from the dyslipidemias.[00:17:00]
So, I don't know all the research done it. I just know that those properties do exist. Mm-hmm. And. As a result, when those things begin to fall off, you become actually a risk to yourself. Mm-hmm. Right. And I, that's, I know that might be a little confusing and certainly not very professional, but we need to, that, that's what's nice to have a baseline.
Mm-hmm. And when we see it start to drop off and we see it completely stop, we need to restore to the best of our abilities. To somewhere close to a natural pro um, levels so that we can continue to function and have longer functioning operating bodies. Vitality. Yeah. Vitality is, yeah. That's really what it comes down
Liz Herl: to is vitality.
Thanks. Yeah. I think I had some smarts. Yeah. So one of the things that, you know, I don't want to, clinically overcast, like to be too much clinical language 'cause mm-hmm. We want people to kind of have that, a natural understanding. Right.
Tim Caldwell: I've never said dyslipidemia more in my life, but I just did.
But go ahead.
Liz Herl: Yes. But [00:18:00] I think it's important that when we go back to the importance of the role of estrogen and what it's, what it's protective role is for us. And then when it's gone, what happens. Exactly. And I, I'm almost curious now, I'll be honest. In the research that I looked at, and I know that they talked about that women are more.
Risk of a myocardial, what is it? Myocardial
Tim Caldwell: infarction it.
Liz Herl: There it is. Heart
Tim Caldwell: attack.
Liz Herl: Yes. A heart attack. The fancy word for it. Five to 10 years post-menopausal. But I wonder almost when you go into the breakdown of cholesterol, whether it when people wanna classify good, bad, or the other. Mm-hmm.
Is that you had shared with me about how it can, is it calcify and break up and create a clot, which, where people are having strokes higher or women at higher risk of strokes more than a heart attacks.
Tim Caldwell: Yeah. So the so Ansel Keys, who, created the food pyramid, which has been totally rocked in this last 10 years mm-hmm.
Just terrible information. That whole thing was built on some very terrible [00:19:00] premises. But the theory is, let's see, and I'll, I'll, direct this specifically to estrogen. Yes. Is that in the absence of estrogen, being a part of the hormonal makeup for the female, systematic order is in its absence now, lipids, and lipidemia. Those problems with lipid deposition and function have been altered to the point where now they begin to get, what's the term? Minow belly.
Liz Herl: It is minno
Tim Caldwell: belly. It is real. So they get an increase in deposition at all levels of the body, but it will happen for women.
They'll, have an increased likelihood that they will begin to increase visceral fat.
Liz Herl: Yes. So what I read in that is how the body used to function and how it would naturally push maybe those fats and proportionate to your body. They set, they, it's not pushing the same way. Well,
Tim Caldwell: it's mostly it's mostly it's appropriate use, right?
So, remember all of these things [00:20:00] are contingent and reliant on the others, so. If my energy's dropped, my activity has dropped, but my appetite hasn't. It may have increased. So now I'm taking in more calories, I'm working less. And now that energy, which should have been used up in the daily activity is no longer.
Now I have fat deposition. And this is where women will frequently talk about the changes in, let's say Saddle Fi. Mm-hmm. And they have. Their bellies they begin to get more truncal. Thickness, right? Mm-hmm. So their slim waist seems to go away, their six pack goes away, their hip bones kind of go away.
All normal for the condition that they're now facing is that estrogen played a part, played a significant role in signaling your body to do different things,
Liz Herl: right? And that's what I found interesting is that when I talk about a systems failure and women are, are, I think that. Sharing that and saying like, I feel like everything is, is crashing.
Sure. That's literally what's happening. Sure. And there's [00:21:00] a, there's a compassion to that.
Tim Caldwell: That's right.
Liz Herl: Around that. And I don't know if that's always seen, and especially of course, this plays a significant role and we'll get to that around mental health.
Tim Caldwell: That's right. That's right.
Liz Herl: And you went over osteoporosis and how that kind of, you kind of touched on how that affects women and when I So
Tim Caldwell: functionally, the estrogen, the estrogen should be signaling your bone
to lay down new osteoclast, lay down new bone, and in the absence of the estrogen, that doesn't happen as frequently. And now calcium isn't being deposited well. Well, they theorize it's all calcium, but calcium, vitamin D absorption, that isn't happening as it as it used to. And now these long powerful bones are now begin to become more porous.
There's more lattice being exposed, and as a result those bones can't take it. And they break.
Liz Herl: Right. And I think you had shared that, I can't remember which doctor you were listening to that said that the high likelihood of death after a broken,
Tim Caldwell: I've heard several. I remember hearing [00:22:00] Dr.
Lyon speak about it. I can't remember the one who was most poignant about driving home that fact that women postmenopausal see, was this specifically women? I think it's, I think it was distributed mostly to men. But about the age of 55, she may have had a range of 50 to 60, but around 55, those that fracture a large bone, 15% will die.
From a broken bone. Because of the fat embolism that can occur. It's a release of all of these fats into the blood system. That's why it's really imperative that you seek medical attention. And they may treat you with blood thinners and all of these things to fix a bone. It doesn't seem right, but they're finding that this is true.
Now, the in there's no inverse. I'm gonna say that the, the likelihood of people who are osteoporotic and I think beyond 65. 50% of those people who break a bone after [00:23:00] that, they'll die. Mm-hmm. So there's really unfortunate, there's people who are impacted and there's people who are impacted immediately.
And it's, it's tragic and it, the one thing that we, you have heard us say and we continue to harp about even on my, even when I do my stuff on the Genuine Effort Podcast and discussions, is that most every disease known is preventable. Mm-hmm. And this is another one that although it's fundamentally a process that happens naturally, it's still something that we can have some controls over.
Liz Herl: Well, and that's what this whole conversation is about today. That in the ears of our listeners, our viewers that this is awareness, this is education, this is insight to yourself. And seeing all of this, there's something to be done about it. It's not hopeless. It can feel really overwhelming.
That's right. Yeah. But it's, it's information to say, now I know what this is or what to do about it. Now I have to do something. Right. So continuing on, I wanna go [00:24:00] into another portion of this is sexual health. Mm-hmm. For women. And how that definitely takes a toll on women.
Yeah. On how their body used to operate
Tim Caldwell: Yeah.
Liz Herl: And how their, suffering in different ways. I think their pelvic floor I was talking to you about, that really gets
Tim Caldwell: it change, it changes a lot, even the tissues of the vaginal area. Mm-hmm. It all changes. It thins the female begins to have thinning, which can cause irritation, even bleeding.
It can make, make it intercourse almost impossible. Vaginal secretions diminish a lot. Mm-hmm. And that's one of the signs I always ask. Clients that will divulge that stuff is in your intimacy. Do you need to use lubricants? Do you need anything? Those are signals that things have changed.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Because if it used to be in abundance and now it's not, things have changed and you should always make that inquiry. Mm-hmm. We were talking about UTIs and the UTIs. That's right. the health of the pelvic floor changes completely. Yeah. So, uh, the, As the estrogen is absent in the female [00:25:00] body.
Progesterone as well. Libido will drop mm-hmm. With that excess weight may come onto the body, activity will drop libido. I just don't have it anymore. Sex drive has almost diminished, and then when it does happen, it's, painful. On a personal, private. Level, you may develop incontinence.
You may develop in all likelihood, UTIs, you will have the pelvic floor begins to become weak and fragile. The round ligament can let go and now the bladder drops in and now you have. Age-related incontinence, which all of these things are corrected with surgery, but what if we just look at the hormonal balance mm-hmm.
And see if we can't maintain. Right. Right.
Liz Herl: I, I will keep using the word preventative. Exactly. You know, preventative. Preventative. What do I need to know now? Um, And even if you're at a stage where these things have transpired mm-hmm. We'll go into those pieces as well. Exactly.
Tim Caldwell: It's far easier to have vision of what it looks like healthy and try to maintain that.
To a point beyond there's a point past maturity and stuff like [00:26:00] that mm-hmm. Where the effects of the lack of estrogen are not as, bad they just don't impact you as well. But I have clients that are in their in their eighties and they tell me that, yeah, ultimately you do have to go through it, but now I don't really miss it.
Right? Mm-hmm. I don't, we're not that sexually active as a couple. It's just things that they cope with a little bit easier. And all I ask them to do is stay physically active. that helps in all three realms, especially the cognitive.
Liz Herl: Mm-hmm. Well, and I think the one thing that I would talk about is the psychological factors for women.
Mm-hmm. Everything that women probably and identify with as being a woman is all impaired. And that's life altering. Yes. So when I say that's like, it's hitting all systems there, it's like, what happens? Now that I'm, does this make me not as feminine or Yes. You know, softer whatever. Especially when you are this area of delayed, you know, reaction or dysfunction, what's transpiring all the things.
It causes [00:27:00] those things to really come into question. And now,
Tim Caldwell: in and in fairness and imbalance is that is exactly. The same mirror image protocols that we see happen with men and ed and erectile dysfunction and their incontinence and their ability to fair either achieve or maintain. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Absolutely.
Liz Herl: Yeah. And I think that's very imperative again. Exactly. We'll be covering that next. And so now we wanna go into, so we've broken down the basics of what's going on in a woman's body and her health risk. What she needs to be aware of, and her partners and people, her loved ones in her life that need to be aware of.
If you are noticing someone in your life that is, you know, they're not just, it's like when people say, oh man, she's a mean old woman. And it's like, well, maybe there's a reason she's a mean old woman. How about some grace there? We were just talking this morning and I'm sure that Nancy wouldn't mind me saying this, that she's like, I remember who, when I would be like, my husband would be like, Hey, like, you gotta, like, you're getting, you're a little angry. And she'd be like, [00:28:00] oh, I didn't even know, you know, and that disconnection Yeah, that's what I say.
It's really challenging. Yeah. Like, it's like being able to say, I didn't even know I was getting upset. Yeah. Like that disconnection is, is really overwhelming. So we're gonna talk about like some therapeutic strategies. That are offered clinically, medically, and then psychologically. Okay. Yeah. So first one is of course, your genre is lifestyle changes.
So they offer you know, increased nutrition or healthy nutrition.
Tim Caldwell: Yeah.
Liz Herl: Calcium. Would that be for the vio osteoporosis?
Tim Caldwell: Yeah. Well, okay. So let's look at it systematically and let's look at it appropriately. What's the first thing I'd like to. Establish is blood work. Okay? Gotta have blood work.
I love it when people, and this is the first time I'm gonna hit on this thing, is the baseline, if you will go see your doctor even when you're not sick, and have some baseline done every six months, especially as you get past the age of 40. Now I will say that full disclosure, I had it, my hip replaced seven [00:29:00] years ago.
Every six months I have blood work done. Why? It's because I started TRT. My with my hip.
Liz Herl: What is TRT? Dr. Caldwell,
Tim Caldwell: that's that's TRT is essentially hormone replacement therapy. Yes, it's okay. HRT. But mine is testosterone replacement therapy. So as we examined my health related, related around my left hip is I had a very old injury.
I had systemic inflammation. 'cause you're old. Thank you, Liz. I had systemic inflammation. Now because I had systemic inflammation, my blood panels were all over the place. I had high indicators inclu, which included high blood pressure, so I took it upon myself to say, when we get this hip fixed, we're doing, we're starting over.
And at that point, I began giving blood.
Liz Herl: Yeah, let's talk about that just a minute. We didn't touch on that yet and we,
Tim Caldwell: we didn't, and we will come back to this because it's paramount. I think it's a paramount thing. You'll be hearing
Liz Herl: this a
Tim Caldwell: lot in our
Liz Herl: upcoming episode. You absolutely will. [00:30:00] Episodes as well.
Tim Caldwell: But the oil change. But the ideal is, the ideal is is that, okay, we're gonna get this hip fixed. I'm gonna take care of my systemic inflammation and I'm gonna look at my blood panels. Blood panels revealed my testosterone had tanked. Mm-hmm. I mean, I had a 56. Right? And that's. Horrible. That's almost non-production.
So I suspect as, it wasn't just related to my age, but my systemic inflammation and pain, yes, very good. Very good. Destroyed my normal system. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Okay. Now why do I bring that up? It's because with women as they approach, if they have a baseline of, let's say 2002 or 2022 to 2025, I've been giving blood.
I'm having checkups. It's really something to have as we comparatively go through, okay, now this person hit the wall. Mm-hmm. And we're looking at FSH and lh, the luteinizing hormone, they completely tank. Mm-hmm. So it's, it's a very clear indicator. I'm no long, [00:31:00] I'm, I am completely menopausal now. Yep.
100%. I'm no longer peri, I'm no longer sliding. I'm in because those systems shut down. Luteinizing hormone and Fs. Stimulating hormone. You can look those up. But I'm shooting from, I'm shooting from the hip. Those are indicators on blood panels. They have their purpose, but most importantly is that when that happens, I'm able to look back and say, well, let's do something about it.
So, let's get a blood panel, let's have an expert make some recommendations as to what can be added back in correct if possible. And we need to get into a physical state of better health. I am of the opinion that being in really good physical health, when these things happen, you adapt to them easier, they're easier to correct.
I, I just believe that that is true. I mean, fundamentally, in almost 40 years of training, I've seen that completely true from clients that are in their teens, to clients that are in, you know, my dad's 97. These [00:32:00] people come to me. We talk about these things and I'm not telling you I'm an expert.
I'm telling you these indicators show, and if you'll speak to your expert, they typically correlate. One of the best ways to get rid of all of this junk that's in our body is doing exactly what I have been. I have been a proponent of this thing for almost eight years now, and that is giving blood regularly because giving blood regularly is a systematic oil change.
I'm pulling out blood that is full of inflammation, full of the, all the cholesterols, everybody's so concerned about it's pulling stuff out of their body. Now. Those bones, which everyone thinks are just these rigid sticks, we walk around, they're alive, and that marrow begins to produce new red blood cells.
Mm-hmm. The spleen expresses all of this blood that it's held in reserve, and we get an oil change. Mm-hmm. And then 60, I think it's 60, 63 days, whatever they [00:33:00] recommend. I drop my blood pressure, 40 points in six donations. Mm-hmm. Other people can do that too, and I recommend that for everyone.
I have clients who actively give blood now. I appreciate that. And so do they. Mm-hmm. Because they lose these particular clients, you can see it in their skin. They lose this rosacea. They see this, these big red puffy faces and their complaints of systemic aches and pains. They go away too.
It's very simple now that in, conjunction with an expert's administration and your participation in prescriptive drugs, specifically those targeted for your estrogen replacement therapies or progesterone, they always need to be in balance. Even testosterone. Those things can come into play.
And now we are getting back into what you would, what some people would say is a more, regular rhythm for their body. And they feel like, oh, it's all kind of calming down. Mm-hmm. I don't feel like I'm, well, there's a sense that it is, your body's not
Liz Herl: necessarily [00:34:00] on fire anymore.
Tim Caldwell: Yeah. And I, I don't feel like I'm going crazy.
Liz Herl: Right. And
Tim Caldwell: it does, that's a very real thing.
Liz Herl: Oh, 100%. And so. Their preventatives around lifestyle change is nutrition. Oh, I was talking about like as far as supplements. They're talking about calcium, vitamin D. Vitamin D is always the big one. And you are talking about the the movement, the exercise.
Yeah. They're talking or they're talking specifically about strength, strength training and not just aerobic therapies. That's right. Which was something I thought was really fascinating. I thought it would just be aerobic, but it's not. No,
Tim Caldwell: no. And we'll talk about two terms that are really important.
That is. Sarcopenia.
Liz Herl: Yes, we right? Yes. And then
Tim Caldwell: what is
Liz Herl: sarcopenia for hospital? Okay.
Tim Caldwell: Sarcopenia is, I learned this recently. Sarcopenia is a medical term for muscle wasting, right? So I argue in my profession have been doing it for decades, is that we're not only over fat or under muscle. Correct. Now I'm hearing some great doctors out there, Dr.
Lyons, they helped push this. I love it. I'm glad people are [00:35:00] finally talking about it is, occasionally you have to lift heavy weights. Mm-hmm. Not, not in training, but in your activity. We have to be strong. So that two fundamental, let's, let's look at bone health. Two fundamental laws come into play.
Manns and Wolfs. That is the need for. Resistance on our bodies are a connective tissue and the muscle that will help the body lay down new bone. Mm-hmm. Now, if I maintain or get that estrogen back in my, in my body, I can help synthesize new bone. Those osteoclasts begin to lay down good bone.
And the chances of going into osteoporosis is diminished, maybe even completely arrested for many, many years. But this has been proven that if you continue this lifting of heavy, you know, I'm not gonna be, or too specific about it, but you need to do some resistance training.
And occasionally do some really heavy stuff. Mm-hmm. Excellent. Pick up things that are a little [00:36:00] heavier and not, it's not, it's not what's comfortable, it's not what your body needs but as a result of that, your body responds by laying down bones and you have stronger bones.
Liz Herl: Yes. So one of the things I wanna talk about that came to mind when I was talking about strength training is that I did kind of gloss over this part and that is that the
women during or postmenopausal suffer in their lean muscle mass. Yeah. Because it starts to depreciating. That's what I was gonna say, Well's about diminish Same. It it's diminishing. It's diminishing. Yeah. It's deteriorating. Yeah. Because of the lack of that hormone. Yes. And. You know, knowing that that is something yet again, to be aware of, it doesn't mean that it's something it can't be maintained or built back in.
Yes. But that's why there is such a need for the strengthening disease and Exactly.
Tim Caldwell: Now, so the nutritional part in conjunction with the reintroduction of your HRT, the hormonal replacement therapy by taking in good foods, especially I'm a big protein person because proteins break down into. What can be us used as usable materials [00:37:00] for building muscle?
Liz, we've seen that transformation in you. We've seen it in numerous people. I've seen it my entire career. The idea behind that is if I can keep the proteins coming in and your hormonal balances within normal operating ranges, you're gonna stay stronger, longer, leaner, and able to ward off these, lipid depositions, right? You're able to just stay more active. And sitting is the new cancer. It literally is the new cancer. It destroys everything. Not just osteoporosis, but we see degenerative disc disease, we see bellinger humps, we see people just growing round in a circle.
Mm-hmm. All of that's preventable, although that's correctable to a certain part. Mm-hmm. But if it's gone on for years and years, the less likely it is, we're gonna correct
Liz Herl: it. It's a hard, it's a hard turnaround. It is. The other part of this, and this is challenging for women that are.
You know, even peri or postmenopausal and that is an incredibly necessary need for your sleep [00:38:00] hygiene. Yeah. Like you're awake and sleep and, and trying to get, that's gonna play a significant role in how you
Tim Caldwell: feel overall. Yeah. Yeah. You know, one of the things, we spoke about this in our earlier discussion.
The therapy, the treatment of giving people Gabapentin and SSR. Well, we're
Liz Herl: getting ready to go over that just a minute. Um, So that's where we're going. So the, thank you. So it first goes into lifestyle interventions and then we're gonna talk about the pharmacological.
Tim Caldwell: Pharmacological.
Liz Herl: Thank you. Mm-hmm. Therapies, which is HRT hormone replacement therapy. Mm-hmm. And there's a lot of naysayers I would say about where there's risk included in that. Always, you know, seek your professionals and your experts on this. I think that there's, with everything there is a research that will contradict another research. Mm-hmm. So it's kind of interesting, but no doubt,
Tim Caldwell: that's no doubt
Liz Herl: true. The benefits of it is obviously symptom relief. It's actually, it helps protect your heart. Sure. There's this going to help regulate your mood. It's going to help you with your sexual health, all those things that are being [00:39:00] impaired, that hormone replacement
is going to help with all that and also goes into bone protection as well. There are some studies, but I would, definitely say you have to look into what are the risks associated therein around stroke or cancer, breast cancer, and things of that nature mm-hmm. That are associated therein.
But again, I would always say go to your experts on that before you just automatically not utilize h
Tim Caldwell: Absolutely. And I'm always critical of people who want to become WebMD professionals. Right. Do your own research. Look everywhere. Look everywhere. If you, you know, I use my own sources, but look everywhere, right?
And take everything with a grain of salt until you begin to hear from people who are very much they, they're noted for their accuracy and candid. Disclosure on what the, here's the pros and cons. Yep. That's what you need to hear. Absolutely. And you don't want to buy into the snake oil salesmen, these people who sell supplements.
Everybody's selling something. Find out how you can do that without having [00:40:00] to an arm and a leg and commitment every month and join a club. It's not necessary. You can do this on your own. Mm-hmm. Takes a little work, but seek out those people who know how and ask around, they'll help you.
Liz Herl: Right. Find, find your experts. Yeah. And so when we go into non-hormonal therapies or options, I would say the one of them that is included on there, and it's very close and near and dear to my heart, which is your mental health around psychotherapy. Right. Understanding the normalization of like what's transpiring, so you don't feel so disconnected from yourself.
And how you have to be a little bit more patient. You have to slow down a little bit more and learn how you're processing a little different, I think that's 100% necessary to a point. Mm-hmm. As. Finding some grounding around everything that's transpiring in your life. Some other parts of this, they do go into SSRIs or SNRIs, and that's for the, the mood symptoms and helping you manage that decline.
[00:41:00] That's what's happening from the lack of estrogen. That used to be a protect not protective measure. And that's where I, I don't, I don't want us to yeah. I don't, I guess I would say putting fire out with fire, if you will. No. Or unplugging systems. That's, we talked about, the
Tim Caldwell: analogy I always make is you're essentially pulling the fire alarms out of a burning building.
Liz Herl: That's what it is. I remember there was analogy of some sort.
Tim Caldwell: And the, and I'm good. I'm good with analogies. Yeah. Anyway, I always want to point out that I find it offensive that a person come to you and they say, I have this, this, and this. And my blood test, my blood panels will show this, this, and this, and the doctor go, you know what, if I just took away your feelings.
Mm-hmm. You wouldn't have all those things. Right. Okay. I guess that works. Sure. I, I could get a lobotomy, I could, I could get all kinds of things right. But it doesn't what you, it doesn't remove the urgency of what needs to be going on. I find that to be incredibly lazy and dispassionate to people who are in real [00:42:00] need.
They wanna sleep better. Okay. I'll drug you. They want to not have hot flashes. Okay. Take gabapentin. Gabapentin. Mm-hmm. Gabapentin. Yeah. You, you, I was really surprised at that way. You wanna take something that makes me think slower and dulls my entire brain. No.
Liz Herl: Well, and all of these and, and again, these are, these are just our personal opinions on They are, yeah.
I wouldn't have clarified. They are that, you know, they're, my goal for a person is to stay as much as the person you are, that, that. God made you like Absolutely. You being attacked person, orient your yourself to person, place and thing that you know what's going on and you're you and you're not disconnecting and you're not, you know, masking or, you know, covering something else up.
You wanna be yourself. And how you do that is gonna be a little bit challenging. You gotta discover what that process looks like. That's why I think psychotherapy would really be important.
Tim Caldwell: You bet.
Liz Herl: And as well as, you know, I wanna know more about what I'm just. [00:43:00] We go to quick gratification. I say that all the time of what is the quickest thing to make me feel better and I want it now.
I wanna feel me now. Yeah. And it doesn't really work like that. Yeah. Like there is a process of rediscovery. So for instance, the, individual that has the blood panel from 22 to current 2025. Mm-hmm. Is now there is a time that they have to transpire to see where they're gonna be going now that they are gonna be utilizing HRT and seeing how that's helpful.
Yeah. And it is important to note that, In 2022, they did start a mild treatment of testosterone and progesterone at that time. 'cause they were perimenopausal. Yes. So they have already had some, now they're going to be starting the estradiol Yes. Into that process. Yes.
So it'll be interesting to see that progression of how this person is doing and what they're. You know, what their symptoms and how the reduction works and all those
Tim Caldwell: things. So interesting enough about this particular patient, this client that we are talking about is on both a testosterone estradiol [00:44:00] or about to begin a new estradiol progesterone mix.
Notice how they're all involved mm-hmm. Is because we all have our own, males and females have estrogen and testosterone. They're at different levels. Males have much higher testosterone and lower estrogen. And the inverse is true for women, but they're, I would always tell people, I, and I've had patients who came to me, especially when I was still in clinic, and they, they, they're typically women in their fifties and sixties and they're taking estrogen with no progesterone.
I go, well, that's, why would they do that? Well, this is what my doctor wants me to do. Mm-hmm. It was all, I see
Liz Herl: a lot of women that only take a surgery. It was, it was
Tim Caldwell: all the rage to take no. You, you need to find this balance. You need to get back to this balance because progesterone has a lot to do with, well, what I might say is the emotional component to some of these things.
Liz Herl: Mm-hmm. 100%.
Tim Caldwell: So, I might be able to get your estrogen up and your panels look good, but how's, I'm still kind of a wreck. I'm still kind of, I'm moody, I'm, I, they swing, my cognitive, I can't keep a thought straight. Can't [00:45:00] sleep. Can't sleep. Mm-hmm. Still the hot flashes. Estrogen might handle some of those things, but we know that progesterone and testosterone need to be involved in those things too.
It has to be a complete panel.
Liz Herl: I think it's interesting. I'm glad you mentioned that. Mm-hmm. 'cause I do wanna say one thing specifically, is. There's a lot of women that find it interesting that women take testosterone. Yes. And when I tell people that someone's taking testosterone, progesterone and not, well, this person will be taking estol, but they're like, they're taking testosterone and they're a woman.
And it's like, yeah. Because they, you actually, and that's a major component to their sexual health and Yeah. And this and their whole overall system.
Tim Caldwell: And there's, and their a sense of wellbeing, right? Yes. Because to testosterone in itself has a bit of an effect. I don't, it won't make you aggressive, but it makes you more, more energetic.
Mm-hmm. It give it, I think, gives you confidence. That's what testosterone does. It's one of the fundamental components of it without bracketing into exactly what it is. Now, I will say this, and we will speak to this about [00:46:00] mental men's mental health too. Mental and physical health. Men have been sold this bill of goods.
Do you feel run down? Do you feel blah. Well, let's, let's get those T levels up
Liz Herl: mm-hmm.
Tim Caldwell: Without ever addressing, oh, my estrogen.
Liz Herl: We will definitely talk about that.
Tim Caldwell: And I know more young men who have started. Now remember, I come from a powerlifting strength and bodybuilding career. I've seen, I've seen all, all spectrum of drug use, total abuse.
And appropriate abuse. But I've seen young men try to ride this fast track to getting big, getting strong really fast, and they're taking estrogen inhibitors. Which blocks estrogen while they're taking testosterone. Well, your body needs that estrogen. Mm-hmm. And it begins to freak out. And without it, man, you become the, you are a mess.
I don't think it'd be beyond description to have somebody in the mental health go, man, you're bipolar. Mm-hmm. Sure. You are all over the place. Yeah. You're all [00:47:00] over the place for sure. Plus by rid yourself completely of the estrogen, you raise the risk of your cardiac health.
Exponentially. I'm not sure. I've never really looked into that study completely. Most all of this stuff is just stuff I've been exposed to and have carried with me for a very long time. But we can't do that. Yep. You, you can't, you can't just take the stuff willy-nilly. You need to be in the hands of an expert.
Liz Herl: Absolutely. And that's something we will go over next is men's health. Mm-hmm. And from. Well, a little bit from going over our health and everything. The same thing we've done today.
Tim Caldwell: Yeah. That's right. That's right.
Liz Herl: And so to wrap up, the one thing I'm gonna talk about is just the key takeaways that we wanted to make sure that everyone was being able to hear and kind of bring in around menopause is the increase of cognitive decline that happens.
Depression, osteoporosis in the course, heart health and. How you find your individualized hormone therapy. Mm-hmm. That definitely seek that out. I will absolutely give my doctor a shout out for [00:48:00] Dr. Ray Rogers. At Mid Kansas Innovations for intimacy, beauty and Wellness. It's really a mouthful, but it's really awesome.
Um, And she has definitely. Help me with my own process in, in going through my own life experiences around what happens in our body and educating me in that as well. And I would definitely say that's, it's imperative that you have that. So, finding your own individualized hormone therapy and what works the most effectively for you.
Yeah. And just understanding that this is a physical, mental, and. Your sexual and emotional health are all very important. Absolutely. Absolutely. And be mindful of that. Yeah. Take care of yourself and, you know, kind of Yeah,
Tim Caldwell: good point. Liz, I, I, a couple things. Mine is, I will always encourage people to establish baseline labs.
Yes. Yes. Right. If you are, let's say if you are 30, as much as they recommend [00:49:00] men get prostate and colonoscopies at a certain age, once you're past the age of 35 or 40, you should get your blood work done at least annually. Mm-hmm. And if there's any markers, get it done every six months. If you start a TRT or hormone replacement therapy, every six months is a minimum.
You have got to watch what's happening. You can't just take something and wonder. That is, that's misdirection. That's. You're ultimately not serving yourself because you could be underdosing, you could be overdosing. And you're gonna have all of these problems too that go along with too much of anything.
The other is most definitely take care of your health now. Mm-hmm. Right. Having good health is what's going to prevent you from having a serious impact when something like that happens. And I will speak to that personally on another episode that impacted me. Directly Liz was there. She knows exactly what I'm talking about, but it was my good health that [00:50:00] kept me from becoming very much an emergent care
Liz Herl: and the good Lord
Tim Caldwell: and the good Lord, absolutely good people around me.
The other, the other is I want people to understand that you have control over this uhhuh. Most everything is preventable. And I. Liken this again, another analogy to people who drive a car who's got all these squeaks and rattles, and one day the car breaks down and they go, I wonder what happened.
Well, you're not paying attention to all those squeaks and rattle.
Liz Herl: And life is busy. I get it. Life, life is busy and you've got a lot going on and I don't have time.
Tim Caldwell: Medical stuff can be expensive.
Liz Herl: Well, very expensive. Yes. And it's like, you know, especially, I'm glad you mentioned that when people are like, man, every six months, I don't know if I can afford that.
It's almost understanding. You can't, you're gonna, can't afford not to. You can't afford not to. That's,
Tim Caldwell: That's a great sales point in itself. I mean,
Liz Herl: and I, you can't afford not to in the fact that. I really need to do this. I just do it and take care of yourself and get back to you know, who you are.
And this is specifically for women today, but we're, I really wanna lean in [00:51:00] next time to talk about Men's
Tim Caldwell: health as well. I, that's great. Liz, one thing, shameless plug, I just wanna, I want to thank Liz for all our help to get genuine Effort body Systems up and online. She's a trooper. She did a really great job and you can locate me on genuine effort.
LLC on most all the platforms, but it's on a Gmail account too, so, yes. Always look us up. But the same thing I do on for. Teaching people how to take care of themselves as they make it affordable to you. Mm-hmm. For less than a cup of coffee a day. We can get you on the right track and I'll answer any question you have about health and wealth wellness.
Right.
Liz Herl: And you don't know the answer. You, you'll, you'll try and find, that's fine. I'm
Tim Caldwell: happy to tell you I don't know everything and I'm not, I'm. I'm, I, I hate the word expert. I'm knowledgeable in some things, but I'm, I'm just, we'll figure it out. Right, right. We'll figure it out. Absolutely.
Liz Herl: Well, I appreciate you being on today.
I hope this was helpful for everyone, and please tune in and definitely go in like, and subscribe to all of our future episodes.
Tim Caldwell: [00:52:00] Absolutely. Thanks Liz. God bless. Take care.