Essentials: How to Optimize Female Hormone Health for Vitality & Longevity | Dr. Sara Gottfried

“But micronutrients play a huge role in terms of hormone production. Magnesium is hugely involved in the way that you get rid of estrogen, as an example. So micronutrient testing, what I usually do is a combination of blood and urine. And so I'm looking at all of the micronutrients that we can measure that have some clinical scientific basis behind them.”

“And then I'm looking at some of the minerals. Magnesium is really the most important. And we know that somewhere around 70 to 80% of Americans are deficient in magnesium. That's like the lowest hanging fruit. I would be curious, for instance, like with magnesium, if that number of people are deficient, does that mean that that number”

“supplementing with magnesium? And if so, what forms of magnesium? You have to measure red blood cell magnesium, like whole blood. And with deficiency, it's interesting with... Supplementation. For my patients who tend toward constipation, and that's frankly about 80% of the women that I take care of.”

“So like with almost any pharmaceutical, the oral contraceptive depletes certain micronutrients, magnesium, there's certain vitamin Bs that are depleted. It also affects the microbiome.”

“And I think a lot of that is pharmaceutical influence. The oral contraceptive is two hormones. It's ethanyl estradiol and it's a progestin. So it's not the normal progesterone that your body makes, that your ovaries make and your adrenals make.”

“It is a synthetic form of progesterone. And it is the same progestin, similar, same class that was shown to be dangerous and provocative in the Women's Health Initiative. So I'm not a fan of progestins.”

“And we give you some fish oil and SPMs, maybe a little aspirin when you've got your period. Like, let's find some other ways to deal with it than to take the oral contraceptive, which you have not received informed consent about, because it can trigger your clit by up to 20%.”

“So like with almost any pharmaceutical, the oral contraceptive depletes certain micronutrients, magnesium, there's certain vitamin Bs that are depleted. It also affects the microbiome.”

“in the blood is driving those theca cells in the ovaries to overproduce testosterone. Are you a phenotype? Are you a fan of continuous glucose monitors? The hugest, most gigantic fan of CGMs. I've never seen any tool that I've ever used in medicine change behavior the way that CGMs do. Like I think really understanding what the mediators are of your glucose control is essential.”

“And we give you some fish oil and SPMs, maybe a little aspirin when you've got your period. Like, let's find some other ways to deal with it than to take the oral contraceptive, which you have not received informed consent about, because it can trigger your clit by up to 20%.”

“They could do that in a chocolate smoothie. They could add some greens. I like greens. Powders are super convenient. So that with, you know, kind of a taste that they like, whether that's chocolate, which is what most of my clients want, or, you know, vanilla with berries and that sort of thing.”

“And we give you some fish oil and SPMs, maybe a little aspirin when you've got your period. Like, let's find some other ways to deal with it than to take the oral contraceptive, which you have not received informed consent about, because it can trigger your clit by up to 20%.”

“people who do a lot of cardio and don't do much resistance training, they tend to have much high cortisol levels. And you can buffer that with vitamin C. Vitamin C can decrease the effect, but chronic cardio doesn't always serve people.”