hol+ with Dr. Taz MD | The Future of Medicine is Holistic

Want deeper support? Join Circle at holplus.co/circle and use code PODCAST for a one-month trial.

What if the real issue in women’s health isn’t that women are “doing it wrong,” but that the entire wellness system was built on research, protocols, and performance standards designed for male bodies?

In this solo episode, Dr. Taz breaks down why bro science and modern biohacking culture often backfire for women, and how pushing harder, optimizing more, and chasing protocols can quietly drive hormone chaos, burnout, inflammation, and nervous system dysregulation. She explains why so many women are told their labs are “normal” while their bodies are clearly signaling that something is off, and how medical models that isolate symptoms fail to capture how women’s systems actually work.

This episode is rooted in the same clinical patterns that led Dr. Taz to writeThe Hormone Shift. After years of watching women come into her practice exhausted, inflamed, and dismissed by conventional care, she began documenting the repeating cycles she saw across life stages, from teens to perimenopause to post-menopause. You’ll learn why women were historically excluded from research, how that gap still shapes today’s treatment models, and why intensity, calorie restriction, and rigid optimization strategies may worsen hormonal imbalance, metabolic stress, and emotional exhaustion in female bodies. This episode reframes women’s health as a whole-body system, not a protocol stack, and explores why safety, rhythm, recovery, and regulation matter more than force.

This conversation reframes healing as a process of supporting interconnected systems, not overriding them. Hormones, gut health, immune function, nervous system regulation, emotional safety, stress load, and life stage are not separate variables. When these systems fall out of sync, symptoms multiply. When they are supported together, the body can restore balance, energy, and resilience.

Dr. Taz shares:
• Why bro science and biohacking trends often backfire for women
• How “normal labs” can still mean your body is not functioning optimally
• Why women’s bodies were historically excluded from research and how that impacts care today
• How pushing harder, restricting calories, and overtraining disrupt hormones and metabolism
• Why women’s nervous systems require safety, rhythm, and recovery to heal
• How stress physiology, trauma patterns, and life stage shape women’s health outcomes
• Why hormones don’t act in isolation, but communicate with the gut, immune system, and brain
• Where modern tools like HRT, GLP-1s, peptides, and protocols fit and where they fall short
• How to build a sustainable, personalized approach to women’s health that works with the body, not against it

Whether you’re feeling dismissed by your labs, burned out from trying every new wellness trend, or frustrated by protocols that seem to work for others but not for you, this episode offers a grounded, integrative framework for understanding what women’s bodies actually need.
Women don’t heal through force. They heal through safety, rhythm, and whole-system support.

Stay Connected:
Connect further to Hol+ at https://holplus.co/- Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and hit the notification bell to stay updated on future episodes of hol+.

Follow Dr. Taz on Instagram: 
https://www.instagram.com/drtazmd/
https://www.instagram.com/liveholplus/

Subscribe to the audio podcast: https://holplus.transistor.fm/subscribe
Subscribe to the video podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@DrTazMD/podcasts

Get your copy of The Hormone Shift: Balance Your Body and Thrive Through Midlife and Menopause

Host & Production Team
Host: Dr. Taz; Produced by ClipGrowth.com (Producer: Pat Gostek)

Chapters
0:00 Women told it’s “normal” and “in your head”
 1:13 Holistic approach and the “five bodies”
 1:25 Why Dr. Taz is done with “bro science”
 4:25 “Your labs are normal” and the dismissal problem
 5:20 Why biohacking culture worsens women’s health
 6:10 HRT, IVF, peptides, GLP-1s without a holistic context
 8:18 Why AI and protocols can’t replace the whole-woman lens
 9:01 What bro science gets wrong (intensity, restriction, isolated hormones)
 10:31 Life stage, stress load, nervous system, trauma, lineage
 11:45 Bias against women and what it means in the exam room
 13:28 Why “evidence-based” fails women when studies exclude women
 14:20 What “evidence-based holistic medicine” actually means
 16:19 Stats on women’s health disparities and research gaps
 17:55 Where are you on the health spectrum: powering through vs powering up
 18:21 Identify your biggest symptom and quality-of-life limiter
 20:00 Don’t let “normal labs” end the story, track patterns over time
 21:10 Female stress response, intuition, and cortisol sensitivity
 24:15 Hormones, gut, immune system triangle and inflammation
 27:00 Stress processing differences and guardrails
 28:15 Safety as the foundation of women’s health
 30:10 Women’s rhythms: hormones, sleep, food, nervous system
 32:50 A woman’s body doesn’t respond to force
 34:25 What holistic healing for women actually looks like
 35:39 Closing: share this with a woman who needs it
  • (00:00) - Women told it’s “normal” and “in your head”
  • (01:13) - Holistic approach and the “five bodies”
  • (01:25) - Why Dr. Taz is done with “bro science”
  • (04:25) - “Your labs are normal” and the dismissal problem
  • (05:20) - Why biohacking culture worsens women’s health
  • (06:10) - HRT, IVF, peptides, GLP-1s without a holistic context
  • (08:18) - Why AI and protocols can’t replace the whole-woman lens
  • (09:01) - What bro science gets wrong (intensity, restriction, isolated hormones)
  • (10:31) - Life stage, stress load, nervous system, trauma, lineage
  • (11:45) - Bias against women and what it means in the exam room
  • (13:28) - Why “evidence-based” fails women when studies exclude women
  • (14:20) - What “evidence-based holistic medicine” actually means
  • (16:19) - Stats on women’s health disparities and research gaps
  • (17:55) - Where are you on the health spectrum: powering through vs powering up
  • (18:21) - Identify your biggest symptom and quality-of-life limiter
  • (20:00) - Don’t let “normal labs” end the story, track patterns over time
  • (21:10) - Female stress response, intuition, and cortisol sensitivity
  • (24:15) - Hormones, gut, immune system triangle and inflammation
  • (27:00) - Stress processing differences and guardrails
  • (28:15) - Safety as the foundation of women’s health
  • (30:10) - Women’s rhythms: hormones, sleep, food, nervous system
  • (32:50) - A woman’s body doesn’t respond to force
  • (34:25) - What holistic healing for women actually looks like
  • (35:39) - Closing: share this with a woman who needs it

Creators and Guests

Host
Dr. Taz Bhatia MD
Dr. Taz Bhatia is a triple-board-certified integrative medicine physician and founder of hol+, where she brings together science, spirit and the human experience to deliver holistic, whole-person care.
Producer
Pat Gostek
Founder of ClipGrowth.com - End-to-End YouTube, Podcast & Clips Management (you just record).

What is hol+ with Dr. Taz MD | The Future of Medicine is Holistic?

hol+ with Dr. Taz MD is redefining holistic medicine as the future of healthcare—integrating modern science, functional medicine, and time-tested healing systems to treat the whole human, not just symptoms. As a 2025 Webby honoree and pioneering show, hol+ dares to enter the next dimension of health-where both science and spirit converge to drive our health, happiness, relationships and family ecosystems.

Recent guests include mental health advocate and author, Sophie Gregorie Trudeau, best-selling author, Katherine Schwarzenegger, Emmy-winning host, actor, and health enthusiast, Cameron Mathison, supermodel Carol Alt, veteran actress and sometimes medicine woman, Jane Seymour, author and journalist, Tamsen Fadal, wellness advocate and cancer thriver, Kris Carr. 
 
From cutting-edge and innovative experts to celebrities and thought leaders, veteran TV personality, author, and trople board-certified physician, Dr. Taz MD, the host of hol+, leads these game-changing conversations - redefining the future of medicine.

On the heels of her successful 8-year-long podcast, Super Woman Wellness, which boasted over 1 million downloads, hol+ continues to be recognized as a show to watch, recognized in the same category as the Mel Robbins Podcast in the 29th Annual Webby Awards.

[00:00:00] Dr. Taz: Many women are told their symptoms are normal, unexplained in their [00:00:05] head are a normal part of aging. But the truth is that most [00:00:10] research that's done today did not ever include women to begin with [00:00:15] cycling hormones, stress physiology, and long-term symptom pattern. [00:00:20] We're largely ignored and that gap still affects how women are [00:00:25] treated.
[00:00:25] Dr. Taz: Today. In this episode, I wanna explain where science fell short and why [00:00:30] integrative medicine became necessary. Hi everyone. It's Dr. Taz. Before we get into [00:00:35] today's episode. I just wanna pause and say thank you. Your [00:00:40] messages, your shares, your stories are, the reason we make Whole Plus every [00:00:45] conversation here is about connecting the science, the intuition, and everyday [00:00:50] life together so you can feel more like yourself.
[00:00:52] Dr. Taz: Again, if you haven't already hit [00:00:55] that subscribe or follow button, it helps us reach more people who need this. All right, [00:01:00] let's begin. All right. If you've been watching and listening to Whole [00:01:05] Plus, then you may have an inkling about our approach to medicine and [00:01:10] health. It really is very much about the holistic approach, right?
[00:01:13] Dr. Taz: About taking into account [00:01:15] all five bodies, the physical, mental, emotional, energetic, your community body, [00:01:20] and how they all play in the sandbox together. But I've gotta get something off my chest [00:01:25] today, guys, in this episode. And that's simply because I am fatigued. [00:01:30] I am tired of what I'm gonna call bro science or bro [00:01:35] wellness, or science posturing, whatever we wanna call it, with [00:01:40] people saying that things aren't real or worthwhile unless they have [00:01:45] randomized clinical control studies to follow them.
[00:01:48] Dr. Taz: And here's the problem [00:01:50] with all of that. Much of it is funded. Much of it looks [00:01:55] at women in particular, in isolated silos with isolated [00:02:00] symptoms, and it's simply not. How the body works [00:02:05] On this episode today, I wanna talk a little bit about how women and women's health [00:02:10] is not being represented or served well in the current model of [00:02:15] medicine and why.
[00:02:16] Dr. Taz: Evidence-based holistic medicine that brings in both [00:02:20] a functional and integrative approach is the future for women to thrive. [00:02:25] I don't need to postulate or go on and on about the importance of women, [00:02:30] right? I feel like I've written about it, I've talked about it and painted [00:02:35] that scenario where we as women really play an important role in [00:02:40] society.
[00:02:40] Dr. Taz: We're the center of a family. We are the center of communities, [00:02:45] and now we are productive, self-determining, and we [00:02:50] honestly are driving what our communities will and won't do. I think as [00:02:55] I do this episode today, many of you may be in agreement that we are watching the [00:03:00] patriarchy fall. I don't want you to take that comment [00:03:05] as a comment of, I don't like men, or I don't respect men, or any of those things I do, [00:03:10] but what I have a problem with is when we apply [00:03:15] models, whether they're of medicine or learning or whatever it is that [00:03:20] really work for men.
[00:03:21] Dr. Taz: With their chemistry and physiology and brain and cultural [00:03:25] constructs to women. We have done women an incredible [00:03:30] disservice here is what I'm talking about. We have moved from the [00:03:35] era of the weakened and unempowered women. The hysterical woman. The woman who [00:03:40] could not think for herself and needed a male to speak for her.
[00:03:44] Dr. Taz: To the woman of [00:03:45] today who is honestly stressed and getting burned out very [00:03:50] easily and trying to pull a lot of levers all at the same time. [00:03:55] And the equation is not working. The math to use a cliche is [00:04:00] simply not math. And there are multiple reasons why, but [00:04:05] some of that reasoning or some of that gap that women experience [00:04:10] today, and I say women by the way, but I also mean are girls and our teens and our very [00:04:15] young women in their early twenties.
[00:04:17] Dr. Taz: Some of what they are experiencing today [00:04:20] is simply because they are being dismissed. Or told that symptoms are in their head. [00:04:25] Their labs are normal, they're fine. They're just getting old. This [00:04:30] happens, these very sort of lackadaisical, you know, comments [00:04:35] thrown back at them. I was in this conversation with a patient re recently who is saying, [00:04:40] I think people say these things when they just don't have an answer.
[00:04:44] Dr. Taz: Probably what we [00:04:45] should all be saying, myself included, is, I don't know. We haven't discovered that yet. We haven't [00:04:50] explored that yet. I didn't think about that quite yet. But instead we say, [00:04:55] it's not true. It's not real. It's in your head. Or maybe even the [00:05:00] worst of all, you're just getting old. So again, there's so many amazing [00:05:05] women like really driving change when it comes to women's health and women's [00:05:10] healthcare.
[00:05:11] Dr. Taz: But I think the answer to this gap is [00:05:15] understanding that women, especially, although everybody will benefit, women need a [00:05:20] holistic approach to their health. Women can no longer be told to [00:05:25] biohack to push harder, to eat less, to work out more, to pump the [00:05:30] protein. All of that is leading to anxiety, fatigue, [00:05:35] inflammation, hormone chaos, and so much more.
[00:05:39] Dr. Taz: I really [00:05:40] want to help all of you understand why women are getting burned out, [00:05:45] why all of these hacks and trends and one-off solutions are simply [00:05:50] not working because quite honestly, the future of women's health. Actually the [00:05:55] present day of women's health is holistic. And until we all agree [00:06:00] to take this holistic approach, especially when we think about women, we are [00:06:05] not going to move the needle.
[00:06:07] Dr. Taz: I sit right now at a cultural point, [00:06:10] inflection point where everyone is doing a couple of things. Maybe you are too. [00:06:15] Everyone is running towards HRT. IVF peptide [00:06:20] therapy and GLP ones. I bet if you go and Google those four terms right now, [00:06:25] SEO is outta control. Lots of search volume around them, right? Guess what you won't [00:06:30] find?
[00:06:30] Dr. Taz: You won't find these other words attached to it, the holistic [00:06:35] approach to X, Y, and Z. How to think about these things in context [00:06:40] with personalization. I can go through each and every one of those and talk about the [00:06:45] pitfalls. In the HRT world, it's patches for everyone and pills. You know, you get your estrogen patch, you get your [00:06:50] progesterone pill, boom, you're done.
[00:06:52] Dr. Taz: Well, what about the people that can't metabolize that [00:06:55] or don't have good gut health, or don't have good liver health, or have chronic inflammation? [00:07:00] What are they doing with all those hormones? Again, those are bandaids that get them [00:07:05] maybe 50% of the way there, but at some point, every bandaid starts to work against [00:07:10] you if you don't get to the root of the why.
[00:07:12] Dr. Taz: Again, a classic example, we can talk [00:07:15] about GLP ones, right? You have to have a holistic approach to a GLP one. Why? [00:07:20] Because if you overdo it and lose muscle along with fat, then at the end of [00:07:25] the day you are simply sacrificing. Your metabolic rate and you are [00:07:30] impacting everything from skin, hair, joint, and so much more [00:07:35] when it comes to your overall health.
[00:07:36] Dr. Taz: These are examples where we as women, if we continue to [00:07:40] think in this very linear sort of way about our health, that [00:07:45] this one thing is gonna take care of everything when we are [00:07:50] constantly. Going to be chasing outcomes and healing journeys, because [00:07:55] all wins will be for the short term. So again, I want to help us understand in [00:08:00] this episode how we need to be thinking about our health, what bro science is getting [00:08:05] wrong, and how we need new voices when it comes to women's health and health in general, [00:08:10] and how evidence-based holistic medicine is the future of health, [00:08:15] especially in the face of technology and ai.
[00:08:18] Dr. Taz: I'm still frustrated, [00:08:20] guys. I still talk to people all the time and all the innovation is about AI [00:08:25] tools that are gonna be protocoled out and sort of, uh, streamlined, right? [00:08:30] They're gonna make us more efficient as practitioners. Absolutely. They're gonna [00:08:35] maybe provide the information at our fingertips, so we are not going in like hunting 20 [00:08:40] different journals or looking at all the different clinical trials.
[00:08:43] Dr. Taz: Yay, that's a check mark. [00:08:45] But they're not going to be able to think about you as the woman [00:08:50] in the center of this equation and how this all intersects and interacts with her. [00:08:55] Here are the things that bro, science gets wrong, and I don't really know another word for it, [00:09:00] so that's the word I'm gonna use for it.
[00:09:01] Dr. Taz: It stresses optimization, [00:09:05] overregulation, it stresses intensity over recovery. It talks a [00:09:10] lot about calorie restriction, whether it's intermittent fasting, whether it's cycle [00:09:15] fasting, five, two, whatever, all these different things. It sort of negates [00:09:20] the power of your intuition and if you've listened to some of the X.
[00:09:23] Dr. Taz: That have come on the show [00:09:25] recently. Many of us are talking about this female power of intuition where we already [00:09:30] know what we are supposed to be eating or how we're supposed to be moving if [00:09:35] we took the second to kind of get centered and stabilize. Right? I'm [00:09:40] sure you guys all agree with me. Further, the scientific [00:09:45] method in bro science treats hormones as isolated little molecules [00:09:50] that are associated with maybe our ovaries or our uterus or our thyroid and such, [00:09:55] but not as overall power molecules that are [00:10:00] influencing our brain, our gut, our bones, our muscles, our heart, and so much more.[00:10:05]
[00:10:06] Dr. Taz: All of these ways of thinking are working against women [00:10:10] today, and now women are running around. We are spending money on [00:10:15] all kinds of appointments, different specialists, different treatments and medications and [00:10:20] IVs and God knows what, but the integration of that information, [00:10:25] you guys have to be thinking about that or you sometimes you're simply doing [00:10:30] too much.
[00:10:31] Dr. Taz: These are questions that you guys ask me all the time. [00:10:35] Bro. Science is also ignoring your life stage, your stress load, your [00:10:40] nervous system issues, and your regulation. And then what and [00:10:45] where, and how you have lived with trauma or [00:10:50] stress or familial disruption. Right? And I could take it [00:10:55] a step further, and we talked about this, but I could take it a step further.
[00:10:59] Dr. Taz: For women in [00:11:00] particular, that matriarchal lineage, right? The history [00:11:05] of your mothers and your grandmothers and your great-grandmothers is critical [00:11:10] to your health today. Are you carrying their trauma? Are you carrying their. [00:11:15] Tendency to certain nutrient deficiencies. How did they eat? Should you be eating like that [00:11:20] today?
[00:11:20] Dr. Taz: What were their needs? These are all questions we need to be asking when we're in the [00:11:25] exam room, and you should be asking yourself, I need you guys to understand that what [00:11:30] works for a 25 or 30-year-old male nervous system is [00:11:35] not gonna work for a 35 or 40-year-old female. These are [00:11:40] different bodies with different chemistry and different stories.
[00:11:44] Dr. Taz: Take this [00:11:45] example for just a moment. The UN Development Program, the UNDP, uh, [00:11:50] actually did a study that indicated that close to 90% of the people in the [00:11:55] world, this is global. This is not just us. This is around the world. 90% of [00:12:00] people globally hold at least one bias against women, [00:12:05] and a lot of those biases might be in things like economics or education or, or even [00:12:10] politics, right?
[00:12:10] Dr. Taz: We've seen that right here in the us. They're also around health [00:12:15] and medicine and how we take care of ourselves. So that means, as a woman, [00:12:20] we are already disadvantaged entering into that exam room or that hospital, [00:12:25] right? We are already sort of being put on a checkerboard in a particular [00:12:30] place. Now imagine you have postulator of science or science [00:12:35] spouts, or bro science or whatever we're gonna call it.
[00:12:37] Dr. Taz: Come into that room. [00:12:40] They're already biased against you. So until you have somebody, male or female, [00:12:45] right, that can listen to your story and wind that story together, then [00:12:50] we're disadvantaged. Many women fall into this as well, right? We have adopted, for [00:12:55] whatever reason, sort of the metrics by which the world measures our success, [00:13:00] including success in the exam room.
[00:13:02] Dr. Taz: So many women today. Tell my [00:13:05] patients that this is not real. This is not gonna work, this can't be happening. This is not [00:13:10] quote unquote, evidence-based. I kind of wanna call my female [00:13:15] colleagues out on that. How dare you dismiss how a woman [00:13:20] feels or what may be working for her just because you don't have a [00:13:25] male research study to back that up.
[00:13:28] Dr. Taz: Women were not in [00:13:30] research guys. They were not in research until the 1970s, and it's only in the last [00:13:35] couple of years with all the advocacy, amazing people have been doing that. We've got more [00:13:40] research dollars wished. By the way, were also taken away recently by the current administration. [00:13:45] So bottom line, without getting into the politics of this, you need to [00:13:50] understand that we don't have the evidence for women's [00:13:55] health.
[00:13:55] Dr. Taz: It's not there. 'cause the studies aren't real themselves. They're [00:14:00] flawed or they're not designed to think about women in systems. [00:14:05] Instead, they think about women as isolated symptomology and it's not how our [00:14:10] bodies work, honestly. They don't work for men or children either, but especially for women that are [00:14:15] hormonally driven and that have different life stages with different demands.[00:14:20]
[00:14:20] Dr. Taz: This system is not working. And that's a part of what really [00:14:25] drives me in making holistic medicine the medicine of the future. And when I [00:14:30] say that, I'm not talking about, okay, we all are woo woo and just doing herbs and [00:14:35] supplements and things like that. No, it's a combined approach. It's taking the literature of the past [00:14:40] from Ayurveda and Chinese medicine and nutrition and merging it with the technology and the [00:14:45] information of today and of the future.
[00:14:46] Dr. Taz: Right. That's what gives you an evidence-based [00:14:50] approach to this particular discipline of medicine. And evidence-based, by the way, is not [00:14:55] just about research studies, it's also about what we see in the exam room. Clinical [00:15:00] experience is evidence-based. And for women, your story [00:15:05] matters and it's important for you to acknowledge.
[00:15:08] Dr. Taz: That this is a piece of your [00:15:10] puzzle. So remember that when you are headed out, seeing your doctors, [00:15:15] evaluating your information, looking at your labs, being told your labs are normal, normal [00:15:20] for who is always the question, is it really normal for you? [00:15:25] Anyhow, getting off my soapbox there, but all of this, as we look further and more [00:15:30] deeply into it, I'm gonna throw more statistics at you.
[00:15:33] Dr. Taz: And then we're gonna talk a little bit more about burnout in [00:15:35] women and what we need to be thinking about to get away from sort of this like, bro, [00:15:40] science. Science spouting culture. Right? And I like science, by the way. I was trained in the scientific [00:15:45] method. I believe in it, but it's almost like anything, right?
[00:15:48] Dr. Taz: If you believe in things [00:15:50] blindly and don't acknowledge that there are other forces at play [00:15:55] in our lives as human beings, then you're narrow-minded at the end of the day. It's [00:16:00] no different than somebody grounding down in a belief that maybe they got from [00:16:05] who, who knows where, right? Maybe from their parents or their community or [00:16:10] wherever else.
[00:16:10] Dr. Taz: Grounding down and refusing to hear any other perspective [00:16:15] or opinion. And we gotta change this. We've gotta widen the toolbox. We've gotta think about this [00:16:20] differently. A recent analysis from the World Economic Forum and [00:16:25] McKinsey Health Institute revealed gender-based health disparities with [00:16:30] significant socio-economic implications.
[00:16:32] Dr. Taz: They found that women experienced [00:16:35] 25% more years in poor health than men, resulting in an annual loss of [00:16:40] 75 million years due to premature mortality and morbidity. [00:16:45] Notably, and I'm still quoting here, sex specific Conditions, endometriosis, [00:16:50] PCOS, menopause contribute to approximately 5% [00:16:55] of the women's health burden, while 56% account for health conditions that [00:17:00] affect or manifest differently in women, not the same differently in [00:17:05] women than men.
[00:17:06] Dr. Taz: Further compounded by inadequate research [00:17:10] or limited sex specific data collection. Guys, that's World Economic [00:17:15] Forum. That's McKinsey Health. That's not Dr. Taz. I'm getting these stats right out of [00:17:20] the journals. So all of this to say what do we do when it comes to [00:17:25] women? And women's health and the information we're receiving day in [00:17:30] and day out.
[00:17:31] Dr. Taz: Well, this is where I want us to think together through this kind of [00:17:35] collaboratively, right? I know all of you can't come into the practice where we practice this and we follow this. [00:17:40] You know, I have my private community as an option as well to kind of like, you know, help [00:17:45] everybody develop these tools.
[00:17:46] Dr. Taz: But let's do some of this like right now, and one of the things I'd [00:17:50] like all of you to do is to first identify. Where you are in the health spectrum, [00:17:55] are you energized and vital, ready to get through your day? Or are [00:18:00] you experiencing high functioning burnout and exhaustion [00:18:05] where you are having to power through rather than to power up?[00:18:10]
[00:18:10] Dr. Taz: That's a question to ask yourself, and maybe if you're somewhere where you can take notes, jot it [00:18:15] down, where are you powering through or powering up and just write it down so that you can [00:18:20] come back to it. I think the second thing you need to do is identify the [00:18:25] most prevalent symptom you're experiencing.
[00:18:27] Dr. Taz: In fact, I challenge my patients with [00:18:30] this, like, what is the symptom that is interfering with your quality of life before you [00:18:35] even get to the condition? Is it fatigue? That's a common one. Energy is something that [00:18:40] so many people come in complaining about, but they can't really put their [00:18:45] finger on it. That energy deficit may look like brain fog.
[00:18:49] Dr. Taz: It may look like [00:18:50] muscle weakness. It may look like poor exercise recovery. It may simply look like not being [00:18:55] able to get through your day or sleeping eight to nine hours a night and still [00:19:00] waking up tired, grumpy, and exhausted. That [00:19:05] energy deficit could look like a loss of libido, a desire to stop [00:19:10] socializing, but identify where you are with energy and where [00:19:15] is that energy deficit showing up in your life?
[00:19:18] Dr. Taz: High functioning [00:19:20] women experiencing burnout always have an energy deficit. It just [00:19:25] looks different patient to patient, and that's rule number one. Rule number two [00:19:30] is, again, the biggest issue that brings women into the clinic, but I'm [00:19:35] trying to get you guys to identify this before it becomes like a big issue, right?[00:19:40]
[00:19:40] Dr. Taz: If your weight is changing, if there are differences in your digestive health or [00:19:45] in your hormones, that's a call. That's a battle cry to start to [00:19:50] really own your health. And I don't care if your labs are normal. I don't care if [00:19:55] you're told everything is fine. I take that as a challenge. So does my team.[00:20:00]
[00:20:00] Dr. Taz: Well, let's figure this out. And if we're not able to identify it in lab layer [00:20:05] one, maybe we need to go to lab layer two, or we simply need to track a little [00:20:10] bit better. I've literally found hormone shifts in women by [00:20:15] looking at their hormones over the course of six months to a year. Right? That way we can [00:20:20] understand what's happening.
[00:20:20] Dr. Taz: Just yesterday we identified because we're tracking [00:20:25] hormone levels, the fact that a patient of ours was in a late ovulatory phase, [00:20:30] having an estrogen spike at days 18 or 19 of her cycle, which [00:20:35] she's now finally able to identify. Her forties having struggled [00:20:40] with infertility all through her thirties.
[00:20:42] Dr. Taz: Again, I wish we could have rewound, [00:20:45] right? And had had been with her in her early to mid thirties. So these are the [00:20:50] ways that women's health is being underserved in these comments that are made and in this [00:20:55] submission. I don't even know if that's a word, but I just made it up. But in this submission [00:21:00] of many of her symptoms and her, uh, sort of the sort of blanket [00:21:05] statement of we can't check this or we can't check that, and we, you know, it's normal, therefore it's [00:21:10] okay.
[00:21:10] Dr. Taz: Don't accept that, you know, if you're a woman out there. Don't accept that [00:21:15] normal is the end of the story. It's sort of a call to action if you're not [00:21:20] feeling a hundred percent to jump in and to dive deeper. One of the [00:21:25] things that we understand too about women is that our female stress response is very different.
[00:21:29] Dr. Taz: [00:21:30] We have more cortisol, hyperresponsiveness, and cortisol sensitivity. [00:21:35] Here's why not 'cause we're weak. Okay? I know someone might wanna tell us that we are [00:21:40] maybe weaker. It is not because we're weak. Women have cortisol [00:21:45] sensitivity because we are more perceptive and intuitive and [00:21:50] receptive to our environment.
[00:21:52] Dr. Taz: We feel things before we know them. [00:21:55] We sense them before we can say them. And that is [00:22:00] actually both our greatest strength and also our greatest downfall. [00:22:05] It's the reason that people may call us crazy and we can't verbalize it, but we [00:22:10] know and we are right. If that's you, I want you to own that. [00:22:15] That is something that is a part of the empowerment of women in the model of medicine [00:22:20] today.
[00:22:20] Dr. Taz: Own what you feel, what you can't say. [00:22:25] Understand that that is information too. And for us on the other side of the [00:22:30] table, the exam room table or the camera, we should be listening and [00:22:35] processing and sensing, and then agreeing to go down this [00:22:40] journey with you so that we can make it a reality. I can tell you guys so many stories of [00:22:45] which of where this has, you know, been real.
[00:22:48] Dr. Taz: I've had patients come in [00:22:50] and know something was wrong. They knew something was wrong in their [00:22:55] relationships or their marriages, and they were told they were crazy or it was in [00:23:00] their head. And so they came to me saying, I have. I don't know why [00:23:05] I have anxiety. I need Xanax or Klonopin or an anxiety medication.
[00:23:09] Dr. Taz: [00:23:10] And as we dug and as we explored and as we tried to figure out what was going on, [00:23:15] my intuitive sense knew that something was wrong there. Right? But [00:23:20] as a physician wanting to help somebody at this stage of life that they were in, I wrote those [00:23:25] prescriptions and sure enough. 18 months later, the truth revealed [00:23:30] itself, and oftentimes this has happened multiple times, but those women [00:23:35] found themselves in a position where it was time to call it quits on that relationship for different reasons.
[00:23:39] Dr. Taz: [00:23:40] So everything that was happening was not in their head, and they were not making it up. They [00:23:45] were knowing. And sensing before they could say it and put their finger on [00:23:50] it. And that's the power of being female. And that's the piece that a [00:23:55] randomized control study cannot quantify and cannot express. And [00:24:00] why we have always been dismissed as the hysterical female or the weaker one, or [00:24:05] now the one that's just maybe raging for no reason.
[00:24:08] Dr. Taz: All of this is [00:24:10] important. These are all important things to understand. The second part of [00:24:15] why women experience health differently, beyond all the things we've already talked [00:24:20] about is that the crosstalk between our hormones, our immune system and our gut [00:24:25] is very profound, and I think it's something that gets missed over and over again.
[00:24:29] Dr. Taz: I [00:24:30] talk a lot in practice and even on here about. Triangles, right? I have this [00:24:35] visual in my head all the time of how each of you have a personal triangle. I'm [00:24:40] always trying to figure it out what are the corners of that triangle that are driving a particular [00:24:45] process? And when we dial into that triangle, right?
[00:24:47] Dr. Taz: To give you an example, someone who might've [00:24:50] developed autoimmune disease or someone who might've developed a LS or someone who's now [00:24:55] developed PCOS or endometriosis or infertility. Whatever it is, you name it. When we [00:25:00] draw those triangles out, we usually have hormones as one causative factor in [00:25:05] one corner of that triangle.
[00:25:06] Dr. Taz: And again, that hormone story is going to be different for each [00:25:10] and every person. But the other corners of the triangle are what we have to figure [00:25:15] out because hormones, again, don't exist in isolation. They're communicating, so they [00:25:20] communicate with the gut. There's a gut hormone connection, both communicate with the immune system.
[00:25:24] Dr. Taz: [00:25:25] There's a gut immune connection and a hormone immune connection. And when those three corners of the triangle get [00:25:30] together, right, and start to have coffee and decide they want to work [00:25:35] against each other because they can't communicate, what does that look like in your body? [00:25:40] That is inflammation. And as that inflammation and that immune reactivity [00:25:45] progresses, that turns into chronic disease, and that becomes something I've talked about [00:25:50] before.
[00:25:50] Dr. Taz: Chronic inflammatory response syndrome, which again, now looks [00:25:55] like chronic fatigue or an unnamed autoimmune disease of some [00:26:00] kind. Sometimes it, uh, gets named as EBV or Mycoplasma or Lyme or all these [00:26:05] things. But at its core, at its essence, it's inflammation [00:26:10] because the hormone, the gut and the immune system are not communicating cohesively and [00:26:15] driving the inflammatory process again.
[00:26:17] Dr. Taz: So again, it's like understanding that women, [00:26:20] men are vulnerable too, but women in particular are very [00:26:25] vulnerable to this crosstalk. Next women hold stress differently. You [00:26:30] know, we don't compartmentalize, you know, we treat everything maybe because of [00:26:35] our, you know, sort of innate evolutionary propensity [00:26:40] to nurture and to grow things right?
[00:26:43] Dr. Taz: A lot of us treat [00:26:45] everything like it's our child. It is important to us. We can't let it go. We can't go [00:26:50] put it in a box, especially when we have to perform. And sort of a male dominated [00:26:55] linear setting where certain check boxes have to be met. [00:27:00] Unfortunately, we can't let go of things. I saw this when, you know, in the early days of [00:27:05] running our practices where my husband started a practice and I started a practice too, right?
[00:27:09] Dr. Taz: I would [00:27:10] obsess I was up till nine or 10 o'clock at night, either obsessing about a patient, [00:27:15] obsessing about a process or an operational issue. Obsessing, obsessing. Obsessing, right? [00:27:20] I could not let it go. Maybe to my detriment and the detriment of my family to be a [00:27:25] hundred percent honest, whereas he could come home.
[00:27:28] Dr. Taz: He was done. Hands [00:27:30] washed, done, move on. So there was a fundamental difference between how [00:27:35] we process the stress we were both experiencing in our respective [00:27:40] environments. And I am here to tell you, in observing women's sense and [00:27:45] myself, that we just process stress differently. And so for us, a big [00:27:50] part of our health equation and understanding how to advocate for our health is to [00:27:55] be able to have those stress guardrails in place.
[00:27:58] Dr. Taz: And again, go back to [00:28:00] we are intuitive. We know before we can say we feel before we can get our hands on it. [00:28:05] Knowing that that is us, how do we protect that and how do we nurture it [00:28:10] as a superpower rather than cowering from it or seeing it as a weakness. [00:28:15] And lastly, sort of connected to the same theme is that women have a [00:28:20] tremendous need for safety.
[00:28:23] Dr. Taz: I want you guys to think about that. [00:28:25] A woman's need for safety often overrides every other decision she [00:28:30] makes. It may influence the career you choose, or the partner you [00:28:35] have, or where you choose, decide to live. We have that innate need for [00:28:40] safety. Here's where it's coming from. It's evolutionary. We needed home and [00:28:45] grounding, right, because we were getting ready to procreate and start a family.
[00:28:49] Dr. Taz: Who wants to be [00:28:50] wandering the world or who wants to be jumping off bridges? When you're maybe about to get [00:28:55] pregnant. So that need for safety is hardwired into our [00:29:00] DNA. Some of us may be more, you know, uh, willing to take risks than others. You know, that's [00:29:05] gonna vary as is all behavior across the spectrum.
[00:29:08] Dr. Taz: But fundamentally, if [00:29:10] we get down to it, that's who we are and we need to embrace it and understand it. [00:29:15] So what does that mean for our health? Right? You're like, Dr. Tass, where are you going with this? [00:29:20] What it means for our health is that when our safety is threatened. [00:29:25] Whether it's our physical safety, our emotional safety, our mental [00:29:30] safety, or even the safety of our communities or political worlds or [00:29:35] governments or the world at large.
[00:29:37] Dr. Taz: When safety is threatened, our cortisol [00:29:40] hyperresponsiveness goes out of control because we can feel that and sense [00:29:45] that way before there's actually sometimes manifestation of that. [00:29:50] So helping women feel safe is a part of a clinician's responsibility, [00:29:55] and that means providing both the chemistry and the lifestyle tools and the [00:30:00] nutrition to encourage safety in our human bodies.
[00:30:03] Dr. Taz: The idea of safety in [00:30:05] women's health is also connected to the importance of rhythms in women's health. [00:30:10] So again, because of this fundamental hormonal rhythm and the [00:30:15] changing life stages, right? I write about that in the hormone shift about all the different stages women go [00:30:20] through, you know, through their lives, kind of tied to the hormones, right?
[00:30:23] Dr. Taz: So we talked about the teens to [00:30:25] twenties, to thirties, to like perimenopause and menopause, and then post menopause. Those [00:30:30] were all very specific stages of a woman's life, and each stage was [00:30:35] associated with different challenges. Hormonal, you know, uh, [00:30:40] imbalances, strengths, weaknesses, nutritional needs, all of that stuff.
[00:30:43] Dr. Taz: It's all there. You can check [00:30:45] that book out. But one of the things I didn't talk about in that book that part of me [00:30:50] wishes I would, but we can in the future, is that while the hormonal rhythm is critical for [00:30:55] women's health, right, that hormonal rhythm is responsive to all the other [00:31:00] rhythms in a woman's body.
[00:31:02] Dr. Taz: 'cause we are not just driven by one rhythm. [00:31:05] It's not just the hormones. We are also driven by the rhythm of cortisol and our [00:31:10] nervous system, right? So what our serotonin, dopamine, all of those neurotransmitters are [00:31:15] doing. They're on a rhythm as well, and our circadian rhythm and what that's doing. [00:31:20] Like when melatonin is produced, you know when, when we fall asleep, when we wake up, [00:31:25] that's another rhythm that we're sort of, it's very important for us to pay attention to.
[00:31:29] Dr. Taz: There's [00:31:30] a digestive rhythm for women that's critical to follow. When we eat [00:31:35] erratically, it's a bigger deal for us than it is for men because that rhythm [00:31:40] is something that if we don't follow, it's cortisol producing and stress inducing at the [00:31:45] same time. So all these rhythms kind of overlap on each other.
[00:31:48] Dr. Taz: If you wanna think about it, [00:31:50] like, almost like one rhythm sitting on top of another and then influencing each other. It's almost like [00:31:55] a, i, I kind of have a visual of a ball of yarn, right? So we've got rhythm number one is [00:32:00] circadian rhythm. Number two is food rhythm. Number three is, uh, daylight, right? [00:32:05] Light sensitivity, rhythm Number four, it's hormones, right?
[00:32:08] Dr. Taz: All of this is working together [00:32:10] to determine women's health. And so when we have disruption, because we are not safe. [00:32:15] And we are not grounded. And all those rhythms start to fall apart. We forget to [00:32:20] eat, we forget to sleep. We forget, like, oh, I need daylight today. Oh, I didn't get any fresh air. [00:32:25] Oh, I didn't move.
[00:32:26] Dr. Taz: When all of those rhythms are starting to be disrupted, over [00:32:30] time, women's health is compromised and fundamentally it's compromised [00:32:35] because we no longer feel safe in our bodies. And that lack of safety in turn leads [00:32:40] to chronic inflammation, immune dysfunction, hormone imbalances, and so much more. [00:32:45] A woman's body, I want you to remember this.
[00:32:47] Dr. Taz: A woman's body does not [00:32:50] respond to force. Women don't get better when they biohack or [00:32:55] optimize or calorie restrict, or work out excessively. [00:33:00] Women get better when they're safe. When their nervous system [00:33:05] relaxes and takes a deep breath and everything starts to line back out, this is [00:33:10] something you may have noticed on your own right.
[00:33:12] Dr. Taz: I notice it. I go on vacation, I lose weight. I feel [00:33:15] great. Everything corrects. In my early days when I had PCOS and had lost the majority of my [00:33:20] hair, I took a three week vacation for the first time in probably 15 years. Guess what? Every [00:33:25] single piece of hair came back. But of course, the minute I reentered my stressful life, it all [00:33:30] fell out again.
[00:33:31] Dr. Taz: So safety isn't, is [00:33:35] critical for women's health to establish hormone balance and establish all these other things. This is [00:33:40] why a holistic approach to health matters and the future of women's health has to be [00:33:45] holistic because we have to understand where all of these different bodies are intersecting, [00:33:50] where all these different rhythms are playing together, and what we really need to [00:33:55] pull on.
[00:33:55] Dr. Taz: To get somebody feeling better and feeling safe, and we can't do [00:34:00] that. Looking at one lab value or one system. We have [00:34:05] to do that with a holistic whole body approach, the five body approach. And when we take [00:34:10] that approach in, we can set women on a healing journey so that they are [00:34:15] not powering up or powering through or fighting, you know, their [00:34:20] own chemistry.
[00:34:21] Dr. Taz: They're actually owning their own powers and they're actually [00:34:25] more aware of what they need. They kind of need us less. And [00:34:30] that's what evidence-based Holistic Medicine for Women is all about. It's about measuring [00:34:35] and listening and tracking and understanding, and then putting a [00:34:40] pin on where to begin and what the next steps need to be.
[00:34:43] Dr. Taz: And that's what we do [00:34:45] day in and day out at Whole Plus. I think many of us as women, both as women [00:34:50] practitioners and as female patients are just tired. We're [00:34:55] tired of the trending and the hacking and what I'm calling bro science. The [00:35:00] science spouting, and we've all played along for a while, right? Because [00:35:05] we do wanna have standards and we do wanna have boxes to live between.
[00:35:08] Dr. Taz: We don't wanna make stuff [00:35:10] up. Who wants to do that? We want to understand that there's more to [00:35:15] healing, especially as a woman, than one solution, and that it needs to be [00:35:20] well-rounded and well thought of. And we need providers that are going to [00:35:25] do the work to personalize a care plan for you. So the future of women's [00:35:30] health is holistic and it is evidence-based, and the two don't live apart from each [00:35:35] other.
[00:35:36] Dr. Taz: What it's not is more science spouting and bro science [00:35:40] with men telling us what to do, how to live, what to eat, how to [00:35:45] sleep, and what hormones to take. So if you've been watching the show and listening to [00:35:50] the show, I hope you'll walk away with at least knowing. What to start [00:35:55] or where to start, especially if you're a woman or if you know a woman that is struggling, share [00:36:00] this episode with her because hopefully she'll take one little pearl out of this and [00:36:05] understand that it's not in her head and she's not making this up, and that the healthcare that she [00:36:10] may be receiving today is simply not meeting her where she needs to be.[00:36:15]
[00:36:15] Dr. Taz: For everybody else. Remember, as women, we wanna continue to [00:36:20] advocate not only for ourselves, but for our families as well. So if you sense [00:36:25] and feel and are aware that somebody in your family is also at risk, [00:36:30] maybe not getting the care that they deserve as a child or as a senior as a partner, [00:36:35] well let's advocate for them too.
[00:36:37] Dr. Taz: And at the end of the day. We are [00:36:40] only as healthy as the family units in the communities that we live in, so we're kind of in this [00:36:45] together. All right, I'll get off my soapbox. I hope that this made sense and I hope [00:36:50] that if you're a woman listening, this has been helpful to you. Remember, I post new episodes every [00:36:55] week.
[00:36:55] Dr. Taz: Don't forget to subscribe and if there's a topic that you really wanna hear about, [00:37:00] please reach out to me. We are always trying to push this envelope. Further ahead before you [00:37:05] go. Remember, healing doesn't happen all at once. It happens in moments. If [00:37:10] today's episode gave you one of those moments, subscribe and keep learning with me.
[00:37:14] Dr. Taz: The [00:37:15] next video is right here and it picks up right where this one left off.