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For high-performing women who are exhausted by weight gain, hormonal chaos, and vanishing energy — this is your reset. I’m Dr. Ade Akindipe, a DNP, obesity + hormone specialist, and health coach.
On this show, we demystify metabolism, gut health, hormone balance, longevity, and the root-cause mindset behind lasting transformation.
If you’re ready to stop fighting your body and start living with more clarity, energy, and confidence — this is your space.
Dr. Ade Akindipe (00:00.086)
What are some signs that you're seeing that you can kind of point that woman in that right direction? Like, hey, I think you're this might be related to digestive issues.
Sometimes it clicks, sometimes it doesn't. But either way, it's going to click one way or another because as a provider, you are the authority on that subject, on that topic.
This is what I do. I do all the things and I get home and I eat and I eat. So maybe it's just you trying to relieve that stress. And sometimes you just, like you said, have to pull it out of them. It's very, very important.
But just to give you like a concrete example, I have a patient who has come into me with like chronic headaches. I'm not sure if they're post-traumatic or if they are because she did have like some sort of accident where she hit her head or if they're related to hormones, eating, all of these different hosts of things. So in trying to figure all of that out, I have been working in connection with her naturopathic physician.
Dr. Ade Akindipe (01:05.197)
All right, welcome everybody. Today we are talking about something a lot of women are in their 40s and 50s and beyond are feeling, but may not be connecting the dots on. So we do know that women in midlife often have these physical changes during perimenopause and menopause. They show up in the body looking like pain, stiffness, posture changes, sleep issues. And we want to talk about how chiropractic care might be a powerful drug-free support for you.
So today I'm joined by Dr. Aimee, an Anchorage based chiropractor, founder of Gentle Roots Chiropractic. And we're going to talk about what she sees in her practice, signs your body might be asking for help, and how chiropractic care fits into the bigger picture of heart health, hormone changes during this season of life. Dr. Aimee, thank you so much for joining us today. Welcome to the show. Yes, absolutely. So for listeners who are new to chiropractic care,
Thank you for having me, Dr.
Dr. Ade Akindipe (02:03.822)
Can you share a bit about who you are, what your practice is, and what led you to work with women in this stage of life?
As Dr. Akindipe mentioned, my name is Dr. Aimee Burgess. I am a chiropractor. I actually do have a focus in perinatal and post-natal.
chiropractic care. I see women through pregnancy. I see their infant children, small kids and stuff like that. I took a lot of special courses in order to know how to handle those types of populations. But also I see lots of women, perimenopause and otherwise, including the elderly in my practice. And I just, love them.
amazing that you went that extra step and actually specializing in that it's that's important work you do there. Thank you for sharing that first. So let's start with what's actually what you actually see in your office. What's a typical woman who walks into your office like, let's say they're in their 40s and 50s and they come to see you and they're telling you they have neck pain or me or some things that maybe they may not be connecting the dots on and that you can help.
Yeah. So what is coming in most often that I notice is a lot of women who are mothers. they're, they're very postpartum. Maybe they are in perimenopause and are not aware of it. And there's also the possibility of quote unquote birth injuries where maybe the mom had an epidural, maybe she had a C-section or something like that with her pregnancy. And she's having maybe some sciatic issues or some other types of issues related to.
Dr. Aimee Burgess (03:37.698)
that experience. Also, what I'm noticing in the women in the perimenopausal and menopausal space is I'm noticing a lot of sleep issues. I'm noticing a lot of digestive issues. I'm also noticing a lot of, like you said, like stiffness and things like that related to, I'm just going to say like not moving enough, like not moving their bodies enough.
How are you able to tell in that scenario? mean, I've been to you multiple times now, and I know that sometimes you can just kind of tell, but what are some signs that you're seeing that you can kind of point that woman in that right direction? Like, hey, I think this might be related to digestive issues, for example.
So a lot of times what, so it's through the paperwork really, and then through our discussions. So if I notice on the paperwork that you say you are very high stress or you have anxiety or you have sleep issues, depression and digestive issues, any of, any number of those things that are together.
And I also see, because on my paperwork it asks, that maybe you're not exercising or maybe you've had some trauma in the past, like physical trauma. A lot of that stuff plays into how it is that our bodies function on a day-to-day basis because, I mean, I don't know who out there in your audience is familiar with Bessel. gosh, I can't remember his name. Vanderhawk or something like that.
We'll research and find out and let the audience know.
Dr. Aimee Burgess (05:07.596)
The name of his book is The Body Keeps the Score. And essentially he says in his book that anything that we experience epigenetically, just coming, coming in from our environment, what is already happening with us genetically and other types of stressors are like sometimes get trapped in our bodies. Yeah. The only way to really get that stuff out is to have it investigated, especially if you have like a myriad of symptoms and
body pain, then that to me is a big indication of, maybe we need to look a little bit deeper, not just on the surface level of your body pain, but just like what might be going on with you mentally and emotionally.
Well, that is such a great point because that's a part of kind of how our process works too. There's it's there's such an important thing about discovering often women will go seeking for help but if you are not aware or Keeping score like that that books talked about keeping score of what's happening with your body It's really hard to kind of figure out what the problem is, but
Women that maybe are not as in tuned with what's happening or how the external environment is affecting them. Maybe they don't have a diagnosis of anxiety or depression or things like that. How are you able to help them get there to say, I noticed X, Y, and Z from your physical exam. I think here are some things that might be going on or maybe queuing them to kind of discovering it with them.
So, I mean, I just definitely walk them through it, just like you explained. If I notice something in what they're telling me, it's maybe it's not in the paperwork. Maybe it's telling me. And then I gently help them connect the dots, gently walk them through. Okay. Well, do you, have you ever noticed blah, blah, blah, or, did you know that this could be linked to this or, know, something, something along those lines, just to kind of gently.
Dr. Aimee Burgess (07:04.936)
nudge them into that self-awareness space where they're like, maybe, you know, and it clicks. Sometimes it clicks, sometimes it doesn't. but either way it's going to click, you one way or another, because as a provider kind of, you are the authority on that, on that subject, on that topic. And so if they, even if they kind of brush it off in their mind on one occasion,
It will come back if the problem perpetuates itself into something else, or it's just something that keeps going on.
Sure, sure. Absolutely. It's sometimes, I don't know if it's something that we subconsciously do, but sometimes it takes cueing. Hey, I noticed this is your pattern. Yeah. Whether that looks physical, your tight shoulders or whatever or ways you're eating. Hey, I wonder if this is related to stress because there are such a thing as stress eating. Yeah. Unless you're really aware that at this time of the day,
This is what I do. I do all the things and I get home and I eat and I eat. So maybe it's just you trying to relieve that stress. And sometimes you just, like you said, have to pull it out of them. It's very, very important. So how, from your perspective, how do hormonal shifts in midlife show up physically or are you seeing that kind of showing up physically in women?
I am absolutely. Hormone shifts in like my perimenopausal and even the menopausal and postmenopausal women. It's showing up as lots of body stiffness, lots of it. mean, of course it's tension, but I feel like it's deeper than that. it, it's, like a tension that is a tension that's like really deep. can't even, I don't even know how to explain it because my hands are what's touching it, but it's, it's like a tension that I can, I can feel is
Dr. Aimee Burgess (08:49.836)
deeper than just your normal every day. I, my low back sometimes hurts when I sit for too long. No, what I'm noticing is I'm noticing like patterns, like muscle patterns that are chronically off, or I'll notice a, a segment of your spine, whether that's down low or up high, that I always adjust. That's something that to me, that's a clue that we need to work on something other than the bones.
because your nervous system operates in many different ways, you know, like we have so many branches of it, but the one that we're most concerned about or what the one that I'm most concerned about is the autonomic nervous system and how that is maybe the patterns of the muscle tightness or the bones going out of alignment is causing these mental and emotional and hormonal things to happen within your body because everything is affected by your nervous system, everything.
Yeah, absolutely. Especially these women, like all women in midlife, that nervous system plays such a huge role. And as we shift into perimenopause and beyond, what's happening is our hormones, again, are doing this yo-yo thing, they're high one minute, low one minute until they gradually decline. And our ability to handle stress, it's not as like a 20 year old or a 30 year old body would. So if you are losing your hormones,
and then compounding that with life stress, right? Aging parents that you're caring for, multiple jobs, taking care of children, doing leadership roles, whatever that looks like for you. All of that, all of that shows up on our bodies and how we carry ourselves and how you're sleeping. So can you tell us a little bit more about how spinal alignment and nervous system can support all of that? Because the myth is you go to the chiropractor, they crack your back.
you know, they crack your neck, but it's deeper than that, right? Because I've experienced that. Walk us through how that how you see that and how that changes that woman's body.
Dr. Aimee Burgess (10:53.254)
So yeah, a normal, I mean, if you go to, I'm not going to say any other chiropractor than me, cause that's, I don't know. But, the way that I practice, I like to focus more on, so I do more of like a tonal method, right? So I'm inquiring with the body through the muscles. Okay. So where, where do we need to focus this treatment? And if in the beginning of our sessions, you tell me, I have.
anxiety, digestive issues, blah, blah, blah, all that kind of stuff. I know that a lot of that is like the, the kidneys have the hormones for stress comes the cortisol. That's where it comes from. Right. And so what I'm doing is I'm trying to relate some of that symptomatology to a place in your spine. And most of the time that's coming from the sacrum and the lumbar spine. Right. So if we have digestive issues,
those nerves down there in the lumbar spine, innervate those organs down there. So the kidneys, digestive tract, the liver, like all of that stuff that is supposed to help our body process, not only our foods and the things that we put into it, but also sometimes the stress that we embody. And if we're good about taking care of ourselves with movement and maybe massage, all of that stuff needs to be released as well. So if you're not doing a good enough job getting that stuff.
out of yourself, then that's another thing to be cognizant of. But definitely I try to relate some of this stuff to a section of the spine. And for instance, let me just give you a concrete example. So with my pregnant ladies, when they're nearing the end of their pregnancy, I don't like to do mid back adjustments. And it's because most of the thoracic spine, like the spinal cord in the thoracic area,
mostly deals with the sympathetic nervous system. And I want to affect the parasympathetic nervous system, which is mostly upper, upper spine, lower spine. And so that's where I'm focusing my adjusting and loosening their muscles in those areas and all of that kind of stuff. And so it really just depends on the, the skill level of the practitioner, obviously, and, also the intention.
Dr. Aimee Burgess (13:16.694)
Like the intention behind what it is that they're trying to affect and with women in many perimenopause and all of that kind of stuff, I definitely want to focus more on areas that are going to be beneficial to what it is that they're dealing with. So I might focus more on like a relaxing kind of treatment versus just crack, crack, crack, have a good day sort of thing.
That makes perfect sense. mean, you want to make sure that the focus and that's why that a detailed history is important. What there's, you know, what are they trying to achieve? Because a woman that is having a lot of cortisol spikes from whatever is happening in her life will definitely need that. And oftentimes I find that when women are in a stressful situation or just have had experienced trauma and they're dealing with weight gain.
being stuck and they're trying everything possible, including working out seven days. I tell women all the time, sometimes this is your body's signal to relax a little. As the five to seven day cardio workouts, we're hitting the gym every day and pausing meditate, maybe seek chiropractic care to really work on reducing the stress level. Otherwise, your body thinks that you are running away from a bear.
bit totally.
Dr. Ade Akindipe (14:33.398)
all the time and it doesn't happen the weight loss will the it's trying to protect the body so it's going to hold on to stored energy you don't get the benefits that you're looking for right
And the quality of the sleep is important too at those junctures where somebody comes to you for help and they're like, I don't know what else to do. And I'm like, okay, so how are you sleeping? How are you pooping? Those are the absolute-
Especially with the with the having a bowel movement. It's like we're gonna say I had a bowel movement It's normal for me to have a bowel movement every three to four days and I'm like, no you're not eliminating Filling up all these toxins in there and all of that needs to be released your gut probably needs a reset So all of that matters. Absolutely So moving into red flags and clues that your body needs help like there are some signs. So for me, I'm looking at Maybe some labs
maybe some things that they're telling me in person or from their assessment forms. What are some specific signs or patterns that you make that may make women think I can really benefit from chiropractic care?
So in the, you know, perimenopausal stage, what I, the kind of red flags that I'm looking for is if I do like a neurological exam on you and you have decreased deep tendon reflexes, you have some muscle weakness, anything like that is kind of a clue that your nervous system might be overloaded, that you might be experiencing some sort of fatigue of some sort, like your body is just overloaded with too much stimuli and
Dr. Aimee Burgess (16:06.466)
To me, that's definitely a clue that we need to hone in on being more intentional with the tonal approach. Like I said, versus just doing like the crack, crack, crack kind of, I mean, I don't really do that anyway, like that actually having, having a whole body overhaul versus just, my, back hurts and they cracked it and it feels better. Like, no, I'm talking about like, okay, how are your feet connecting to the earth? How, like all of.
all of the things like I'm just looking at all of the things. because I feel like any kind of nervous system reset that we can do through the body is going to affect everything, especially in a woman who might have this going on because of perimenopause.
Yeah. And I think also, and again, a woman has to be very self-aware. When I see women have recurring headaches, sometimes I wonder, there's a place for hormone replacement if that's needed, but it's not always that, right? Again, like you said, it could be the nervous system. One side of the hip hurts more than the other. Sometimes I'll see, I'm like, is it really because you overdid it at the gym or is this because of the hormonal balance or is it also stress? So yeah.
Lee.
Dr. Aimee Burgess (17:24.589)
Well, well and stress in the mind all of that translates itself into the body with like aberrant muscle stuff going on. like you could have an upper cross. I mean, I'm using like technical terms, but you can have like an upper cross syndrome or a lower cross syndrome where certain muscles that are supposed to be working when you do certain activities, especially if you're like a woman who lifts a woman who is
constantly doing cardio in the gym, all of that kind of stuff. If you have those muscle patterns that are kind of out of sync or out of whack, then your body, I mean, you're going to experience that one-sided symptomatology and or just your body is kind of like, I don't feel right. Like your body is telling you that essentially. To me, that one-sided symptomatology, that's another red flag that I would throw in there.
That's awesome. So for the women listening, that they kind of know, okay, well, these are, they can start to tie those in together. And sometimes I'll tell women to just journal, pausing to take time to journal how they're feeling, what time of the day, because we're just so busy. We're doing so many things and push it to the side and say, well, that's just part of my everyday. And it doesn't have to, you don't have to push through. So it's really good to kind of have that, hey, stop and think about these things that could mean maybe you can benefit from chiropractic care. So even
Even if you're just throwing it in a voice note.
I my voice. No, honestly, I pull it out as soon as I remember. put up, pull it out and I use it. You don't have to have a little book if you don't have it. For the women listening, let's say they have a primary care or holistic functional provider, whoever that they're going to. How do you collaborate with other practitioners to kind of get them the support that they may not necessarily be getting from those other providers in the care of in terms of chiropractic?
Dr. Aimee Burgess (18:54.926)
for this.
Dr. Aimee Burgess (19:13.902)
Oh my gosh, I love co-managing patients with other providers because it gives me an opportunity to learn more, not only about their specific case, but also any other case that might walk in that's similar. But just to give you like a concrete example, I have a patient who has come into me with like chronic headaches. I'm not sure if they're post-traumatic or if they are because she did have like some sort of accident where she hit her head or if they're related to hormones, eating,
all of these different hosts of things. So in trying to figure all of that out, I have been working in connection with her naturopathic physician to, okay, we might need labs for this. We might need to do a food intolerance test. We might need like a hormonal panel, just to kind of see like where this person is physiologically so that I know how to handle their care from my end.
And also if I need to relay information to this other provider, but definitely I send people to Rolfers and massage therapists and medical doctors all the time, especially if it's a case where you have a ridiculous pain, means that maybe they have like numbness and tingling in their, in their hands and feet. that is not a normal thing that should be going on. And, if that is going on, I want to know if there's a nerve root issue. So I'm going to send them to get X-rays and them to get an MRI, maybe send them for an orthopedic.
consult, that kind of stuff is really important knowing when to pass the patient along to someone else that maybe has a better understanding of a certain process for them.
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, as a provider in general, I think we can specialize. We have knowledge of other things, but obviously being able to care, coordinate and like you said, pass it on to someone that can help. Parapractic care is an amazing way to support women's nervous system. They could also benefit from maybe some nutritional coaching to kind of help them with gut health, maybe some hormone coaching. Maybe they need to help with weight loss because we know that obesity
Dr. Ade Akindipe (21:18.55)
Is also a factor that can also cause a lot of joint issues if you can get some of that weight off. You know, that'll also help in that in that in that regard. So that's great. So this has been super helpful. What would be the next step? Let's say somebody says, I want to go to gentle roots chiropractic. What is the next step that they need to take for them to come see you? So.
So my practice is open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. I have kind of interesting hours, but Tuesdays and Thursdays I'm here all day. yeah, I'm located in Mountain View. My address is 4210 Mountain View Drive. yeah, they can go to my website, gentlerootschiropractic.com to schedule. I have the link there and yeah. And of course just call me and inquire about any questions. I can take texts as well.
That telephone number is 907-217-102.
Awesome. And we'll make sure we put everything in the show notes too. Ladies, you don't have to have a pen and paper right now. worry about that. It'll be in the show notes. We'll keep it for you. So to those of you listening, if you're in that paramedic pause and menopause season, your body is not betraying you. As you heard Dr. Aimee said, your body's communicating with you. Your nervous system is so important in this season of life. So if this episode resonated with you, share it with a friend and then also reach out to Dr. Aimee, cause chiropractic care could be something that you can add in.
to your care to help you during this season of life. Thank you so much, Dr. Aimee, for joining us today. I really enjoyed our conversation. Dr. Aimee has a very nice tip sheet, a resource for you. If you are looking for ways you can improve your posture, improve pain, it'll be in our show notes as a resource. Go ahead and click on that. And if you have any other questions, please feel free to reach out to Dr. Aimee personally. Thank you again.
Dr. Ade Akindipe (23:11.536)
resonates with you, don't keep it to yourself. Share it with a friend who needs this conversation too. And if you're ready to stop guessing and start thriving, head over to our website. listed in the show notes to learn more about our Elevated Women's Coaching Program. That's where we take these conversations deeper and create a more personalized plan for your hormones, your weight, energy, and more. Check out our show notes.
I've linked free tools and cheat sheets to help you get started right away. For more daily tips and inspiration, come hang out with me on Instagram at TheElevatedWomanCoach. And don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel, Thriving Over 40 with Dr. Akim Depe. Until next time, stay elevated.