Hello and welcome. Welcome, welcome, welcome to Almost 30. Hi, everybody. Welcome to the show. It's Lindsay. This is my best friend, Krystal Williams. I was at a baby shower this weekend and I heard the same old joke. What was it? What about Almost 60? And I said...
hey, you bitch, listen up. Let us evolve. I said, ha ha ha, that's a great joke you've got. I wonder like what my face is when people say that. Actually, you know what else? I'm like, you guys are, boomers be booming, dude. Boomers are so, everything has to be about them. You can't just be like, I have a podcast called Almost 30. I know. And then be like, that's cool. Sounds good. What's it about? They have to be like, how is this not about me?
what happened to radio? Yeah. No, they just have to be like, I'm almost, they literally cannot have a thought enter their brain that concerns another person. So they have to be like, oh no, but I'm almost 60. It's like, great. This is not your podcast. Dude, boomers are insane. Was it someone's grandma? No, it was an elderly person. I don't know what they're. Just a random person. Yeah, an elderly woman. Literally. I don't know what her range was. But like, yeah.
At this baby shower, it was my friend's baby shower, and she was like, hey, can you facilitate the day? So welcome everybody, move everyone through the day. At every event, you need a person that's going to be the guide or the reference point. The mom didn't want to be. So I was like, I'll just ask the mom. I'll just ask her nicely to include her and be like, hey, is it okay if I facilitate the day? I don't know if you want to do it. She's like, absolutely. I'm not doing it. I'm doing my cheese wheels. No, no. She was like, I'm sick. I'm sick.
It's just, and then when I go to stand up to ding my glass to start, she rolls her eyes at me. Why? I don't know. Do you chip the glass? I was like, ding, ding. And she's like, oh, and rolls her eyes. I was like, lady. I kind of love just the, I love when people don't have control of their responses or reactions and they're just so obvious. Oh, I said, you know, like it was later in the day and her daughter who's pregnant was a baby shower. She goes,
she's looking really fluffy about her pregnant daughter. And I go, oh, you've been out of the house for too many hours today because now the things that you're saying are psychotic. Exactly. You just called your pregnant daughter fluffy? I was like, you need to put your muzzle back on. But it's funny because I've had so much experience with that, with my journey, that I was like, I just know this texture. I know. I was going to say. I was like, yeah, that's your daughter that you love.
baby showers are so interesting. I think they're so sweet and like, but it's almost like there's a part of me that like wouldn't want to do it again. Cause it's like, it's not that it's like, oh, it's about me and that's uncomfortable. It's like, I don't know. They're just like an interesting thing. Yeah. I don't, what do I want to say about that? I think it was fascinating that it's always men are not included, which seems kind of, and I'm not like a person that's like,
let's be progressive you know like the boys should be have like stuff their bellies and walk around but i think that i just think they're very old school yeah i just want the activities i want activities yeah totally totally we did like a mobile of flowers and then like a meditation and then i just told dating stories to entertain people so it's comedy show yeah i was just like
I'm about to morph. So when you're not pregnant, this is what you do. So how do you guys get kissed on the first date? Dude. They're like, who's this girl? And then everyone's giving me advice. And after like three minutes, I'm like, I didn't ask for serious advice. I just wanted like a conversation. Holy moly. Anywho. Well, welcome to the show. If you're new to Almost 30, Krista and I started during this transition between our 20s and our 30s. We actually...
wrote a book about it. So I'll plug the book now. Our book is available for pre-order. It is something we're so proud of and so excited to share with you all, whether you're going through that transition from your twenties to your thirties, or just going through a season of change and transition and just feeling it. We really wanted to support you. So it has our own personal stories, our learnings and musings and wisdom from some of our incredible podcast guests. It's
It's incredible. So right now when you pre-order, you can get some goods. Yeah, it's funny. I was leafing through it the other day and I think my perception of myself is that everything I do is just mid, but I keep reading it and I'm like, this is so good. It is truly the best of the wisdom that we've accrued
over the years doing the podcast from some of the best people ever put into one place. And everything that brought us to that from the place of feeling so lost in our lives, feeling so alone when we met to a place where I feel happier than ever. You're happier than ever. And I feel like people, especially when you're going through that late 20s transition, you don't understand that there's actually something like
cosmically happening, even if you're a little skeptical of astrology, like there's actually something that everyone goes through. And once you're aware that that is happening, it can become like a really empowering time because you're like, oh, shit's about to get real. Some things are going to be flipped upside down and it's supposed to happen. And then you're just like you brace for it in a different way. It's less of like a what the why is my life falling apart and becomes more of like a
curious exploration of like, okay, so why is this falling apart? Maybe it's so that I could reevaluate what might be more aligned for me. Yeah. A hundred percent. I, this is the one thing I keep coming back to with the book is I'm like, if I would have had this, my life would be so different. Oh,
I would have been so much happier. I'd be so much further on my path. I'd be so much more clear. Like I wish I would have understood what was happening during that period and how to support myself and to take all of everything that we've learned and put it in one place as a resource for like $30 is so crazy. Yeah. So excited. So almost 30.com slash book and you guys can get the book now. You can preorder it and there's really great preorder incentives that you can dig into. Yeah. I'm excited about this one. I want to talk about women's health.
Yeah. Dr. Kayla Osterhoff joined me in New York and it was just a really nerdy conversation, which I love. She is a neuropsychophysiologist best known for her research and innovation in the field of women's health.
And she is really at the forefront of understanding how there are gender gaps across the board when it comes to diagnoses and within the workplace and how it all connects to a woman's biology. So when it comes to our hormones, for example, the main hormone that contributes to women's
how neurologically a woman operates is oxytocin. For a man, it's dopamine. So it's like, it was a really interesting, uh,
aha for me around like, you know, if I'm thinking about my male relationships, my husband being the main one, just how we respond to things differently, what gives us energy, what, you know, drains us of our energy, what really like supports our own biology on a day to day basis. So that was really fascinating.
We talked about like various diagnoses that like women are very much underdiagnosed with. So whether it's autism or ADHD or other like neurodivergent conditions, because most studies are done on males. Wow. And so I wonder, are there more diagnoses needed or is there less actual issues needed? What's going on? Why are there so many people with so many problems? Yeah.
You know, I don't know. And that's like, that's an interesting thing to think about where it's like, there's a label for something. Yeah. And then you're like, I have that. Yeah. And then you kind of walk around the world. You're like, I'm ADHD or I'm. Yeah. And I don't mean to sound patronizing. It's more just like, I think it's either liberating for people and they're like, oh my gosh, like.
this is what I've had my entire life. Okay. Like I can kind of chill on the self-criticism and the whatever. Like if that's part of how my brain works, how can I, and I think this is the conversation now, like how can I really leverage the gift of having that type of brain rather than like, let me take the medication for it. Let me suppress it, whatever. I think there's a way to kind of work with these conditions now. Yeah.
I guess it can either be like a permission slip or a prison, the labels, because you can get permission to be who you are or it can be like a prison because it keeps you in the same space. But I'm like, great. I'm glad that we're diagnosing more. But I'm like, I think we need to be concerned about what's making what's causing us to just be so sick in America. You know, we're just so incredibly sick.
Yeah, I mean, we can go down a rabbit hole. But I think we have on 700 episodes. Yeah, I think for some of these like neuro centric conditions, and we talked about this, like, I'm kind of curious just about
having a fucking computer in our pockets all day and like looking at the phone and just having our attention grabbed, grabbed, grabbed like every five seconds, you know, being unable to focus, like not having a great short term memory. Like, I just wonder how my brain would change if I put my phone in a drawer for a month.
I mean, I think it would change dramatically to be honest. It would be, it would be blossoming soil. My computer, my screen time last week, 13 hours and 33 minutes a day. I mean, that's it. But I see that I'm like, how, but it's true. I literally go.
Have you ever looked at the amount of pickups? I'm fully AI. Nope. Don't want to know. Oh God. I'm fully, fully merged in AI. Worried about AI. I'm fully merged. Also, this is a conversation that I'm just going to bring into the room. We don't need to explore. We need to talk about everyone's use of chat GPP. I was literally going to, I was thinking about this on the airplane. My girlfriends, one of my girlfriends who will not be named. I have many friends. You guys would never know.
She downloaded the entire text conversation she's had with this guy. She's been dating for months. I saw the TikTok on this or the Instagram. And has like it analyzed him. And like so anytime she's like, hey, what do you think X person would think about this? And chat GPT knows him from the text conversations. That's crazy. And will answer like, oh, he'll think this or he'll do this or he'll do that.
That's kooky, kooky, kooky. My fear, and I really want to be mindful, I want to leverage AI for things that I have no interest in doing or learning to be better at. Yeah, that's a good one. You know, I want to be a better writer, so I don't always want to leverage chat GPT for things like that. You know what I mean? I have in like pinches.
But that's something I'm aware of where I'm like, ooh, is this really taking away that creative writer in me that like has always been there? And now just because I'm on a deadline or I need something quick, I'm kind of leaning on that. I think there's a difference between like long form writing or just like having a longer deadline and really kind of like working that skill as opposed to like, shit, I have to have an email out tomorrow. Like help me out with an outline for an email. Yeah.
But I've been thinking about that too, where I'm like, are we just going to be a society of like not very creatives? I mean, a hundred percent. I call it daddy chat. I mean, it can be really helpful. There's really cool prompts that you can do that can be supportive. I think you can be helpful in therapy. If you write some notes in therapy, you're like, okay, these are the three things I'm struggling with. Can you give me an action plan, some affirmations, some practical exercises I can do to work with these issues? Because sometimes in therapy, they don't give you
practical steps. So you can use it for things like that. You can also do things based off... One of my clients uses based off her astrology and gene keys. She'll be like, hey, can you tell me what careers I should do or how I should...
Like, do this schedule my week based on my gene keys and my astrology, blah, blah. You can even, like, speaking of health and wellness, you can even get diet plans, like... Oh, yeah. Meal plans for the week. Meal plans, like, travel itineraries. Yeah, that's a great one. For when you travel places, you can be like, hey, I'm really hip and cool and young. Can you find me a travel itinerary for a place that's whatever? Well, it's almost like... And...
I feel like I've seen a few people kind of leverage this and like teach people how to do this. It's like making chat GPT or assistant. So how do you, how do you kind of train it and like have them be in your world? Get to know, I get to know how, how you kind of move about speak, et cetera, and be able to leverage it as literally a personal assistant. I call mine Jemmy. Jemmy. Why? Yeah.
I wanted to. Okay. I decided I'm going to be really nice to robots. Oh, yeah. You know those little Cocoa?
They have them in New York. It's like their little robot that do Postmates and Uber. Oh, okay. I don't know if you guys have seen these. I may have seen. I thought I saw them here. They're like little robot carts and there are these little boxes on wheels that are called Coco and basically restaurants put the food in. Right. And then it's a little robot that wheels all the way to the delivery place. Wow. So it's a person. Dude, if that came in my door, I'd be freaked. I know. That's freaky. I know. I say hi. Knows where I live. I know. That's true. That's weird.
granted a person knows where I live and then they have Waymo's in LA which are the driverless cars yeah yeah yeah yeah I don't like that I don't know you know what's funny though is I'm like I'm an Uber slut so I'm talking to I'm like in the weeds with the Uber drivers but I'm like it would be kind of a refreshing moment for me to have just air yeah not time working not time being a therapist yeah I don't know man we it's a slippery slope when we got to be aware of how much we're using this stuff
Personally, I just think there's a part of me that gets sad because I feel like people will get ahead that
This is what my story says. People will get ahead that don't deserve it because they'll be using chat GPT to gamify and use it against people's lower judgments or whatever. Like, you know, with the algorithm as an example, people that succeed are oftentimes people not that are more creative, but just know how to use the algorithm. Yeah. So if you basically know how to use AI, you can basically use the aspects of like the human experience to your advantage and like get more clicks, like, you know,
do the right colors, whatever the things are that really hooks people. Yeah. But I guess it's more accessible to more people if people really want to do that. And like, you know what I'm saying? As it's becoming more, it's true, like mainstream, I guess. But then the algorithm is going to change again. They're going to make something that people have to pay. I don't know. I know. It's just a kooky thing. But I guess what's good about it? Yeah. Let's say that. You know, it's funny. I was talking to someone about it. Actually, you know what?
What I was going to say is pointless, so I'm not even going to say it. But what's good about it? It helps save time. It's more efficient. I don't know. I'm not against it. I just don't necessarily know the breadth and depth of it to speak enough to it. What do I use it for? I'll use it sometimes with client stuff when I could use a little bit of support in...
like expounding on topics where I'm like, dude, it's crazy. Like, I'll be like, Hey, can you do a cord cutting ritual for someone that's having a breakup with someone they had past lifetimes with and needs to like get rid of the energy in two months? And it will AI spiritual. Yeah. It's so spiritual. No, it's it. You guys, it's crazy. It'll be like, yeah. Like where's that? Like, where is it pulling from? No. And like a honest question, like
I guess everywhere. I don't know. I don't understand AI and how that like information. It's like, who's telling you those secrets? It's a Ouija board in the back. You know? I don't know the Bible. No, it's weird. I think it's basically it's they source all the information that ever exists on the Internet to find what you need, basically. So it's just like a sourcing of information to conglomerate into one. Mm hmm.
Anyways, this episode. Okay. Crazy. Talking about specifics related to women's health, which obviously is very important for almost 30 audience. Closing the gender gap in health science. Just being aware of that. Because I think, you know, we go into doctor's offices or we like read about certain things and we don't realize that the research is mainly based on men. Like just having that awareness as a woman, like...
understanding that those intuitive pings that say like hey that actually doesn't apply to me or our biology is very different and it applies to so many more things than just what we think is obviously our health it applies to how our brain works and just our like social connection so I think her her mission is really interesting she's going into corporate settings she's you know working with women one-on-one she's working in groups just kind of bringing awareness to that um
her website and platform, herbiorhythm.com. Um,
is just a real place of advocacy for including women in this research moving forward, whether it's neuro research, whether any real, really any health research. Um, it's just so crazy that there's like a, I know we're in 2025. She's like, she wants to include women in health research. You're like, what? But it's kind of crazy. This is my thing though, is a lot of it's like animal research and stuff. I'm like testing on animals. Okay. What humans are they testing on?
That's a whole... Hey, let's... Yeah, the testing piece. Hey, let's pull that curtain back because sometimes it's homeless people. Sometimes it's people prisoners. Yeah. It's weird. Well, thank you, Dr. Kayla Osterhoff. You can go to herbiorhythm.com. This is a very...
Interesting. Very good. Nerdy, beautiful conversation. I appreciate you joining us. I say nerdy with a lot of love because it was just so fascinating to me. And we have over 750 episodes now. So please just dive into our archive, everything from health and wellness to spirituality and
so much more in between, share this episode with a friend. Maybe I'll start a fun conversation. Yeah, especially all the information that you didn't know about. It's so crazy. So enjoy this. We love you guys so much. We'll see you on the other side. Okay, it is Friday when I am recording this and I'm really excited to create my zero proof little cocktail.
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They loved it. They loved it. I love it. 82% of participants found their mood lifted when they took rosé tinted glasses. So I don't know, y'all. I think this is like the new new where we're not getting wasted. But herbs are just incredible. And I had the founder of Apothecary on a little while back, and I just loved hearing her passion and just her own experience with herbs.
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Um, there's like our mothers and even their mothers to some extent are part of this like generation of lost women because it was like the big transition from, uh, a hundred percent family focus into like the career woman. Wow. And my mom never really figured out
Where she was because she wasn't full. She couldn't fully just be family because we were very low income family. She had to work a couple of jobs, so she had to do that. But then she also.
Had to like she put family first and that was her whole life. And so once all the kids were out of the house, she completely lost herself and she still doesn't really know how to orient herself in her life because there's no like purpose without the kids there and and all of that.
Even the drama and the stress that the kids bring, you know, there were four of us. That's why she had to work a couple of different jobs. And then when we're all out and that stress is kind of gone and then it's like, where do you go? What is your life about? Yeah, that like primal connection and especially that purpose connection to being a mother, I think is something that is...
very topical right now. Yes. At least in my circles where we're going from being... So maybe this is happening again, honestly, if we're thinking about our parents' generation, but then also...
our generation where we had the girl boss era. Yes. So Krista and I kind of were on the come up during, you know, the girl. Yes. You too. And like totally run myself out. Yes. A hundred percent. Our tails off. I just remember like sometimes looking at each other being like, are we okay? Um, doing the most,
being really fulfilled, but by this, and we can go into this because I know this is a part of your work, by that dopamine hit of growing our audience and making money and being successful. And all of these things are not bad, right? They're exciting. And I think something we're super proud of to this day. And as I've kind of had this change in transition into motherhood,
I had this like period of like weird shame of like, can I fully lean into motherhood and still stay relevant quote unquote?
In this world that I'm in, does that even matter? Like just coming to terms with and really this like reckoning of like, what does that mean for me? And I feel this like primal pull. Yes. To be with my child and also...
to stay on my creativity and create different things outside of taking care of my child. So can you speak a little to this? Cause I know that like you were similar ages and kind of on the come up in that girl boss area. Well, I think the first thing that's kind of like coming through right now is you're talking, there's so much that we can get into. Um, but yeah,
I think it's vital that women are able to lean into not only motherhood, but that primal purpose that we have to be caretakers and care for others and be a centerpiece of a family. And really what it is, is it is creative energy.
That's why you were so good at what you were able to do in your career. It's a, it's a creative endeavor, right? And now not only that, but your body was able to go into full creation mode, create new life, which is a miracle and unfathomable. And it's so amazing that the female body can literally create new life inside of it. Um,
And it's also what makes us so complex and unique and all the gifts that we have as women. So I think it's all of that. It is a desire to be more creative, whether you are creating a child or you're creating something that's going to go out into the world and support communities and people in your family. And that is an inherent desire.
biological predisposition of females. And so it's something that we should really be embracing and exploring more and not feeling shame about. But the shame really isn't coming from that. It's coming from our societal perspective, right? So
Yes, we live in the patriarchy, right? We live in a patriarchal world and our society and our systems and our infrastructures and everything that we live our lives based upon are very male focused and male centric. And so that creates an inherent like rub within the female biology and neurology. And there's already a knowing that it's,
not fully in alignment with what we need and how we operate and the ebb and flow of our systems and bodies. And society's just not set up that way. Um, and it's not, uh, you know, there's a lot of conversations that go on around the evils in the world and the powers that be that are trying to like hold women down and all of that. And I don't think it's that well thought out. I think it's more of a, um, of an, uh,
accidental and yes maybe there are some that leverage it but more of like an accidental occurrence that happened historically with the fact that women are not studied we don't understand female bodies and all of our data which is not just health and biological data but we're talking data that we collect in all different ways to set up our society while we're in the age of information right everything's based upon data and evidence and
That whole database and evidence base is...
extremely male focused male skewed and and carries this male bias and that's how we've developed our systems our infrastructures our policies our laws our regulations our schedules the expectations um our economies are all built upon that and so that's why it's it's more in alignment with the male neurophysiology and the male needs and male gifts and the male qualities and
some issues for women like what we've experienced with extreme levels of burnout. Yes. And also feelings of guilt and shame. Like, is this what we should be doing? Why is this so hard? Why can't I work consistently nine to five or more just like my male counterparts? Why is it hard for me? And then we go through all these kind of self-criticisms that stress us out even more. And then the adrenals increase.
get worn out and then eventually the hormones get worn out. And now we see a whole population of women who are struggling to get pregnant, that are struggling with their adrenals. Burnout is like a global, massive issue. It's a huge economic issue and it mostly impacts women. So there's just so much going on there under the surface that
so many people are just not even aware of, including myself for most of my life. And then I was just kind of reacting to everything that was happening and not really understanding it, not really understanding my own body and why I was feeling burnt out and why am I having these self-judgmental thoughts and why is it so difficult to be as successful as my male counterparts? Mm-hmm.
Okay. So much, so much. Where to begin? So I think the first thing I want to pull on is just this idea, because you said it so beautifully, how creating a life within our bodies, something that doesn't take any thought, you know, the body just knows what to do, is a really beautiful way to reframe your own creative process. And I've experienced that
So much where, you know, there there's so much patience that is needed. There's so much trust. There is so much surrender. There's it's just a beautiful way to recalibrate how you approach creativity. And I wondered, how did I get here where I am rushing my creative process, impatient, comparing myself, feeling like I need to launch and create something every five minutes. Yeah.
And it's because we've, we're in this world where information is in our back pocket. People are creating things so fast. And in a lot of ways, this is exciting. You know, a lot of ways, you know, I'm so thrilled to be living at this time. Yeah.
And I really feel like the balance is non-existent and there's not a lot of honoring and respect for, say, a slower creative process or a process done in private. Mm-hmm.
Or Rick Rubin talks about it a lot. Just like not necessarily creating for the approval of the audience. But how about we create something that feels really good to us? So I just wanted to emphasize that because I think women in particular just have, and I would love for you to speak on, just how we are biologically different.
made to create in a different way. And so like, let's talk about the gifts because I think a lot of women, especially our corporate girlies are in, are in these environments where,
where they are not feeling like, and I'm just generalizing, I know it's not across the board, are not feeling like their gifts are able to be leveraged or they're suppressing their gifts and trying to be something that they're not. Yeah. So again, this kind of goes back to a lack of awareness thing.
thing. Um, so I'll kind of back up and start with what is the neurophysiological gift of men or of males. So when you look at how their body is set up and how it operates, it is, uh, based on a 24 hour repeating cycle. Um, it's set to the sun, uh,
That's why kind of like the sun is considered more masculine and the moon is considered more feminine. Well, from a biological perspective, there's actually a reason why that is. So for men, their whole neurophysiology, so their brain, their nervous system, their cardiovascular system, their respiratory system, their musculoskeletal system, their immune system, their digestive system,
their metabolism, all of these things are on a repeating 24-hour cycle that is set to the pace of the adrenal, so cortisol, and then melatonin at night. So it's that sleep-wake cycle, the circadian rhythm, and that's what sets the pace of the whole male neurophysiological system, so the whole biological process.
And so from day to day, men are consistent, biologically speaking. So the same processes repeat on a daily basis. It's consistent. It's the same from day to day. And it repeats. Yep.
So that in and of itself makes it inherently easier to operate in a system that is a repetitive 24 hour expectation. Things are the same. They repeat the same every day. Right. So there's there's that piece. And then we'll talk about what the female side looks like in a moment.
Layered on top of that for males is a neurophysiological regulation by one main neurotransmitter.
All of them play a role, so it's hard to kind of tease things out, and I hate to be siloed. But when we're pinpointing the one that regulates this whole system and has the biggest impact on the neuroendocrine cascade and helping to regulate the male sex hormone testosterone, it is dopamine.
And so dopamine, you know, is the reward neurochemical. We get it through achievement, checking things off the to-do list, getting recognition, social media. You know, there are many ways that we get dopamine and abundant ways that we get dopamine in our world, the way that it's set up.
today. And for the male system, it's mostly a positive correlation. Everything is a bell curve, right? So too much of anything is also is always going to be not a good thing. But up to a certain extent, and there's a pretty high threshold,
Men benefit neurophysiologically from getting constant hits of dopamine because what happens is dopamine regulates the male neuroendocrine cascade through the HPG access.
And hypothalamic pituitary genital access. That's what it is for men. And through that, it helps to regulate the adrenals and then regulate testosterone. So it upregulates testosterone production, which obviously... What types of things...
should men be doing to kind of in a healthy way stimulate that dopamine? You know, they don't really have to try because that's the way our society is set up. Got it. Because there's so much opportunity for dopamine out there. And yes, dopamine overload, like
social media for hours and hours and things like that. That does drain the resources of the brain. So you don't want too much. But in just living through regular daily life, there's lots of opportunities for that, especially in like the working world, right? Because it's about checking things off the list and wins and the grind.
and the achievements and recognition and that's what it's all about. And so those things are actually really great for the male neurophysiology. And I also don't think those things necessarily need to change, especially for them, because it is a healthy way for males to work and operate.
So then when you're looking at the male neurophysiological system, there is this overarching what I call gift that they bring and offer to the world and especially to the economy and the way that things are set up now play a super important role in leadership. And that is productivity.
Everything about the male body is set up for productivity. We need productivity in our world, at least the way it's set up today. Right. And in the perspective of what productivity means to us today, it is really perfectly aligned with the male body and how it operates, generally speaking.
So then we look and so that's their form of creativity is going to be more focused on productivity, production, producing something. What you were saying, creating something new to put out every week, right? And sell and promote and all of that. That's actually very aligned with the male body and how it operates. Okay.
So then we look at creativity through the lens of the feminine or the female body, which is a totally different thing. And I would even say beyond creativity, I'll even say leadership.
So male leadership is really what we're talking about. And the examples of leadership that we see in our world today are pretty much all male-based leadership or male neurophysiological-based leadership. Even in the women that we see that are leaders, they're doing it in a very male-centric way. Then we flip to women, female leaders, female creativity. And we have a whole different operating system.
Yes, we're all human, right? But the operating system couldn't be more different. And the biggest difference is a timing issue. Not issue. It's a timing difference, right? So the male biorhythm is that 24-hour repeating cycle set to the pace of the adrenals, the
The female biorhythm, so that whole global neurophysiological process with all the systems that I mentioned before, it's not set to the pace of the adrenals. It's set to the pace of the ovarian hormone cycle.
And so it's a totally different ballgame. It's also way more complex. There's so many more moving parts. And the reason being is because the female body does generate new life and has a whole different system for that. And so the whole neuro regulation of that system is also different as well.
So because that's all set to the ebb and flow of estrogen and progesterone, it's a month-ish long biorhythm that is different for each woman. So there's so much complexity and variation there that there's no consistency in terms of like
between women and between cycles and between men and women. There's just no similarity. It's very individual and very different. So with this ebb and flow of estrogen and progesterone, there's an ebb and flow of the whole global neurophysiology. So the metabolism changes, the brain changes, the cognitive states change, the metabolism
Everything, how the body is fueled, how food is digested, what things are needed to feed different hormones. The sleep cycles are changed based on where women are in their biorhythm. The neurochemistry, really everything. And so that is a month-long cycle that goes through four distinct hormonal phases. And
And so that's why I joke and I say women are actually four different women over the course of a month. So this is also the reason why women have been left out of the research since the beginning of time. And even to today, we still don't put women in, you know, those gold standard clinical trials that we need in order to develop research.
treatments and medications and policies and whatever. Yeah. But the reason is because women are so complex, it's almost impossible to control for all these different moving parts.
And because we're changing biologically little by little every single day throughout a whole month-ish. And then each cycle is different. Each woman's different. Can't change be the constant, though? Like, can't they do a just female study? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So there is a way to do it, but it's very, very expensive. So I study women exclusively now, and it's so...
Expensive. Wow. And time intensive. So I'll just give you an example. So if you want to do like a point in time study where you collect data at one point, that's like the cheapest way to do research. Right. OK. Or if you do like a pre and post something like that. OK. Yeah.
Just to really simplify it. With your male subjects, even when we're talking about male lab animals, so rats and monkeys and whatever, you can take point-in-time pieces of data and pre and post, things like that, and just a one-time data collection, and the results will be relevant for that population. For females, you absolutely cannot do that, even though...
research setting that does include women which is very small percentage of research most of them are still doing that but it's not appropriate at all and the results are not accurate or applicable to women with a hormone cycle which is you know a huge portion of women yes um
So what happens is when you want to study women, the gold standard would be to collect data every single day because everything is shifting so much throughout the whole month over the course of at least three months, three full cycles in order to compare the data and get accurate results. So now you're talking about
that could take a day or two days to collect. And now you're looking at 90 days, 90 days at least. Right. And it's, it's so difficult to manage research subjects like that to get lost to follow up is
crazy. And then you have to account for all the different kinds of hormonal cycles and variations going on between women. And it's a lot. So this is why we just kind of skip that part. And we either don't include women or we go ahead and include them, but then we don't delineate the results by male, female, and we don't collect the information on women appropriately. So then of course, when the results come out and they're developing like these medications and treatment protocols and health policies,
And then later on, after they're implemented, they find out, oopsie, that doesn't work for women. And now we have women being injured or killed because of inappropriate treatments that were developed for women.
Yeah.
For women, it's oxytocin. So this is through the HPO access. So the ovarian is that last piece.
So what happens is oxytocin will upregulate through the neuroendocrine cascade. There's a lot of different steps that happen, but eventually what it does is it helps to regulate the adrenals and then it helps to increase estrogen and progesterone or, you know, maintain the levels of estrogen and progesterone. So it has a similar effect.
Very similar effect as dopamine on testosterone, which is what we're talking about, like the end of that neuroendocrine cascade, oxytocin to estrogen and progesterone for women. So here's where it gets really interesting. Oxytocin is totally different.
And it is, um, related to things like, uh, it has the nickname of like the cuddle hormone, right? So yes, cuddling. It's also related to different, um, processes in, um,
in childbearing. So it's needed for the actual birthing process. It's also needed for breastfeeding. Um, it's related to connection with your child, things like that. Right. Um,
And oxytocin, you can get oxytocin from a deeply connected conversation. This conversation that we're having is probably giving us a nice amount of oxytocin to be able to connect, look into somebody's eyes, eye gazing, physical touch, if it's safe, obviously, things like that, snuggling with your pets. These are all things that would upregulate oxytocin. So then oxytocin.
You zoom out and you think about it. Look at how our world is set up. Look at how we value things and even how we value creation in the creative process for females. We're going to need oxytocin to keep the whole system regulated just to operate on like a baseline healthy level. Right. Yeah.
And there's just not that many opportunities for that in our, the way that the world is set up. So you look at the infrastructures and the policies and the systems and the schedules and everything is really aligned with productivity, but not really. And dopamine, right? But not so much oxytocin. It's not so much about connection, um,
So the worst part about this component of the conversation is that oxytocin is also squelched by dopamine. So not only are we living in a world that's like dopamine driven and dominant and we're trying to fit in, we're trying to do the grind and work consistently, which our bodies don't actually do. Um, and.
But we're also draining our system of oxytocin because we're overloaded with dopamine. We're getting a lot less oxytocin. The whole system is becoming dysregulated. Plus, we have all the dysregulation of the cortisol and the adrenals and the stress of trying to operate in a way that doesn't align with how our body actually works.
And so the creative process for women oftentimes gets also squelched, right? Because we're trying to create in a way that's not natural to our system. And it's not that we can't do it. You and I have done it for many years, but we pay a price, right? Eventually the system wears down. Eventually you have adrenal fatigue and adrenal burnout. Eventually your hormones get dysregulated.
And this is something that so many women are dealing with across the world.
Which has also led to where we are today from an economic perspective. We have this crisis going on where women are leaving the workforce at mass across the entire globe. And policymakers and governments and large corporations and all of these economic powers are finally paying attention because it is a real issue.
And this is where I have started to be brought in and my work has started to be brought into these conversations on a really high level in different countries and with different organizations to shed light on some of these pieces. Because if we really want to solve this issue and we want women to not only be attracted into the workforce, but be retained and also for them to be able to provide their creative opportunities.
Yeah.
I don't know, 4,000 years or whenever the advent of agriculture, which is when industry started, that's when like the economy basically began. That's when nomadic people became stationary and then cities popped up. And then we had from there, we went through the age of enlightenment where we were focused on science and education and all of that. And then we went into the age of industry with the booms and
uh industrial revolution and all of that right so all that whole way all of that um we'll call it a playing field right the playing field of the economy and um and society uh were all the players at that time period up to um the industrial revolution were all male all men right
So then only about a hundred years ago, women enter the workforce basically for the first time. And of course it became more and more robust until now there's,
should be equal parts men and women in the workforce. And that happened because of the World War eras and women were brought into the workforce when the men went to war. And so that's kind of what sparked it. And then, of course,
we stayed and we came in more and more and more. And that's what we were talking about at the beginning of the podcast, where there's this generation or a couple of generations of women who were in between the space of a hundred percent home life being their focus and their purpose to now they're, um, expected to be present in the workforce and have a career and be career focused. Um,
And then there's us who we came in knowing, oh, we're going to crush this. We're going to do everything we can. We're going to get the education. We're going to get the job. We're going to do all these things. And then we burn ourselves out and then we're like, what the heck is going on? I don't understand. Right. So that's what I was saying around. I don't feel that like the patriarchy and how things ended up are
are like inherently evil. I think that it is a shame that we're still here and we're not aware after women have been playing in these areas now for
you know, over a hundred years. Um, and we're still so slow to respond, but then of course we have these systems and structures and infrastructures and policies and everything that were set up for that first 4,000 years, right. Where there was mostly men in these areas. And then we only have a very short period of women in the last hundred or so years that have come in. And then of course we have the gender gap in the data.
And we're in the age of information now. Data is so vital and important. And so this is why it's so crucial that not only do we study women and do we start to include them in these studies and we start to gather the data on women specifically and we start to understand their bodies and their biorhythms and the differences and we start to speak about this stuff and put it out into the world and put it into our policies and put it into our systems and our infrastructure and all of that.
But it's important for the world to acknowledge these things. Yes. Right? We have to acknowledge the differences and this is where we will make real systemic change. But it's going to take a huge amount of effort and a real sobering look at...
This whole path that we've come, where we are, and kind of a backup dismantling and rebuilding to create truly inclusive systems, infrastructures, economies, you know. Yeah. Because I think we've confused inclusive with equal. Yes. And so we're...
we're saying, yes, 50, 50 men, women, let's pay you the same. Let's, which I don't know if that's actually happening, but, um, let's treat you the same. Let's give you the same amount of work. Let's have the same expectations. Yeah. And that never like sounded right to me, but I didn't know why, you know, I was just like, Hmm. Okay. So let's like, I'm so thrilled to hear that you're working, um, at a high level with, uh,
whether it's various corporations and such, because I was actually talking to my husband about this. He's in finance. And I was like, babe, why don't you, cause he's in a position of leadership of sorts and he is. And so I, I was like, why don't we, and I'm going to recommend you, but I had just talked to an astrologer and we were talking about just how to leverage your gifts based on your chart. He's like, I don't know if you can go the astrology route. Like people aren't really hip to it. Like whatever. Yeah.
So now that we're talking about the science and the data, I'm going to talk to him tonight. But I was asking him, I'm like, how in 2024 have we not gotten to a point within corporate America to leverage data?
the gifts of men and women recognize that they're different, be okay with that, compensate them properly for those gifts and like respect one another's gifts. Yes. And I think it's just very at a base level, lack of education. Nobody knows. So 10 years down the line, let's say, I hope it happens sooner, but 10 years down the line, I guess, what do you envision as,
your work influencing in say a corporate setting? What does leadership look like? What is the flow of creation and progress look like? Give us a peek. Yeah. So you are hitting the nail on the head. Um, equality is not about everyone being the same. It's about, um, equal opportunity, right?
For everyone. Yeah. So equal opportunity is not about leveling the playing field and making the same playing field for everyone. Sure. Right. Which means same position, same expectations, same schedule, same policies, same goals.
everything, right? Pay. That actually does not create equality. That actually creates further separation because there's a huge missing piece, which is acknowledging our differences and acknowledging our different gifts and leveraging those. So I always say that women are the greatest untapped resource in modern society because we are not understood. We're not supported properly in order to operate at our best.
And we're not given the opportunities to really do that and bring the feminine perspective, bring feminine leadership, which is totally different thing. Even when we look at our brains and our different cognitive capacities between males and females, it's,
There is a totally different system. There's a totally different set of skills and capacities that are natural to women and the female brain versus men and the male brain. And both are absolutely needed. If you look at it, it's such a beautiful melding. If you bring the two together, if both are being honored for their differences, if both are being recognized and then
offered the opportunity to lean into that and each bring those pieces and then come together. My vision would, and my dream would be that we would have a male and a female in each of these leadership roles, not just one person because each biological system brings something different. So when you look at the male brain, um,
it is not only physically, but, but, um, physiologically a totally different system than the female brain. And this is something that is, um,
very new research and information that has only come out starting in the last like 10 years. But really the conversations are only starting to happen now because there's starting to become more robust data to understand these sex differences in the brain and cognition. And so when you look at the male brain and how it works, there's a few really key differences. One is that the male brain
And even this idea of you've heard of the idea of like left versus right brain dominance, right? Right. That's actually a very male perspective of the brain because the male brain has stronger intra hemispheric activity. So within hemispheres and brain regions, they're stronger, like localized activity.
And then when you look at the female brain, it actually has stronger inter hemispheric activity. So between hemispheres and regions. So it's more of a global processing system where there's more connectivity and communication between all the hemispheres in the regions. And so, yeah.
That makes sense. Yeah. And then with the male brain, it's more localized. Yeah. This is also where a lot of the research that looked at multitasking and stuff was mostly male subjects were included in that research. And the idea around humans can't multitask anymore.
and or they're not good at it. Right. And the research has been kind of all over the place. Yeah. But like the the overarching conversation now is that people don't have the ability to multitask.
Well, actually, males are not very good at it. Females are better. Not to say that we should. But we're better at it because of how our brain works. It's more of this global processing of information system. And so more than one thing can be focused on at a time. Multiple dimensions of the experience. So it's like the actual here. Yeah. So we can do many things at once. But it's also...
I'm thinking about like the emotional state of my child over here. I'm thinking about what are we having for dinner? I'm thinking about, did I send that? You know, it's like, it's layers. And that's how the female brain works. And that's also how our thought processes work. And there could be conversations around, you know, is this nature versus nurture? Were we born this way? Or was it because we were, you know, mostly in the caretaker role for
you know, as long as humans have been on this earth. Or we can get it conditioned out of it too. Right. Right. So there are conversations around that. However, there are inherent of sex born differences on the, um, chromosomal level, right. Which is sex based and not something that changes, um, throughout somebody's life, regardless of how they identify or, or whatever kind of hormonal process they may go through. Um, um,
So with those sex-based differences, there are some really interesting key pieces, one of which is related to development. Really interestingly, female babies in early stages of development and as their cognition develops develop,
they are strongly oriented to facial expressions and emotions. Whereas male babies are more strongly oriented to objects in space. So then you fast forward to adulthood.
Females are still extremely reliant and, um, oriented to emotions and facial expressions. Whereas males still are more oriented, stronger oriented to objects in space. Yeah. Then you look at the female, uh, brain systems and you can see why, um, there's an emphasis on like, um, emotional processing and, um,
compassion and these qualities around emotions because the emotional systems of the female brain are actually stronger and
and have stronger activity. And those areas of the female brain are actually bigger, whereas the male brain is overall larger in size. The female brain is smaller and has more gray matter. So it's denser neural network. And that's because of this global processing that happens. And also in the female brain, there are areas that are larger. And that is like the anterior cingulate cortex,
which is in the frontal part of the brain, the hippocampus, the insula, the hypothalamus. These are areas of the female brain that are larger, have a lot more denser neural networks and are more active. And all of them play a role in this emotional processing piece. That's also why women
like the sixth sense of, you know, understanding nonverbal cues or the emotional undercurrent of a situation. That's a real cognitive skill that females have that is stronger. And this is not to say that males don't have this or that females don't have the same skills that males have. It's just what's naturally stronger, right? What's, what's
easier to utilize, um, in each sex. And it's based on the brain differences, or at least as far as we understand today. So kind of backing up to your question, what does this look like in our economy, in our world, in our policies, in our corporate spaces? Um,
Again, I would love to see an acknowledgement of these differences. And there are so many more, right? We could talk about this for hours and hours and hours and not really go through all of them. But even just understanding the few that we've been talking about today would make a huge difference in how we might operate within an organization. So just a couple of examples. I work with
large organizations across the globe. And this is part of what we do together as we sit down and audit their policies and systems and, um, through the lens of, of equity and inclusion, diversity, equity, and inclusion, which is, you know, a big topic now and millions and millions and millions of dollars poured in with little change happening. Um, so, um,
we take a look at these systems and policies and infrastructures and the awareness level and the education level and address all of these different places to be truly inclusive of not only women, um, but all people within the organization. And what that looks like is taking a narrow focused and, um, and, uh,
and unflexible systems and increasing flexibility and expanding them so that it becomes a place where all are not only welcome, but welcome to bring their unique gifts and skill sets. Which ideally would benefit the entire ecosystem at the company. Would it ideally make more money, increase success? Just as like a question within this explanation, like
Where do you see or why do you see the resistance happening? Is there resistance like from, let's say, the men at the top or whatever? I can imagine that change feels...
scary too much. We don't have the time. We don't have the resources. What does that feel like? There's definitely resistance and it's not just coming from men. Sure. It's really coming from a fear of the unknown, which is something all humans have. Like it's something that's built into us is to be afraid of what we don't know or understand. On a global societal level,
basis, we don't really know or understand the female system. So there's already kind of underlying fear when I start talking about these things. It's like, Ooh, I don't know about that. It doesn't, I don't know that it doesn't feel comfortable. Sure. So I like to bring people into a place of comfortability through education and information, data, science, statistics, facts, right? I like to speak
people's language that they understand and science happens to be a language that almost all people understand or curious about or curious yeah yeah or respect at least right um
And so when I'm, for instance, at the mahogany table, so to speak, with the executives, which mostly are men, there are some women there, but mostly men, we have to speak about the economics of these changes.
What does happen to the bottom line? What does it mean to utilize your human resources, which are the most valuable resources in any organization to their fullest capacity? What does that look like in order to get there? And then what does that look like when it's happening? What are the benefits of that?
Not only is your bottom line going to improve, but your entire company culture is going to. We have lots of data about this. We also have lots of data about how organizations that have more female leadership outperform and outpace organizations who have less female leadership.
And this isn't even with the information that could allow them to utilize the female technology to its greatest capacity. Yes. Right. So these are the kinds of conversations that we're having. And these are also the conversations that need to be had at the highest level, you know, at the White House, in the ministries of health, which I've worked in previously.
a lot over the years. I used to work for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a health scientist. And when I was there, I was working with, you know, global governments and ministries of health. And it's all the same as the corporate structures is the same issues. It's a one fear of the unknown that is causing the initial resistance, but that can be worked around with information is kind of the solution there.
And then the secondary piece of resistance is the upfront resources that are going to be needed in order to make the change. Because what are we going to have to do? There's going to have to be a certain dismantling of what exists and a backing up to correct the original problem, right? So the original problem is this lack of
Understanding women, lack of researching women, lack of getting that data, and then lack of having that understanding to create female informed policies, systems, infrastructures. Right now we have male informed everything by default. Right. And very little female centric information is available.
included in, in that, or even considered when it's available. It's, it's oftentimes not even considered because it could be seen as too difficult. So each, uh, level of government or corporate or whatever you're looking at will have its own level of, uh, readiness and
Um, and so I do like to kind of give organizations a readiness score so that they understand where they are and where they're headed based on their goals and, um, what it might take to get there in terms of resources and what are the low hanging fruits and what do we need to do first? And what are they willing to do? What is their budget like? Right. Um,
And then after a while, the systems and processes and everything will be expanded and become more flexible and become more
more inclusive and then as you're collecting the data about the outcomes of that you see these organizations begin to thrive the ecosystems work better and more smoothly everyone not just women feel more included the company culture improves and there's just a stronger purpose behind the whole thing
So it's really a beautiful process to see, but it's also can be bumpy and difficult and lots of resistance. And especially when you're working on big systems, right? So this is what we need on a global scale that we're only starting to do on in these smaller ecosystems, but it's really going to be a necessary step for our world, especially in this
Age of information where everything's speeding up and technology's coming out and everything's changing. And at the same time, women are starting to become more and more irritated about the system. They're becoming more and more sick and tired and starting to use their voices, starting to seek this information and starting to say, no, I'm not going to, I will not participate in a system that is not
not healthy for me. And that's why we see this mass exodus and, and this is happening. So it's the perfect time for the awareness to be improved. It's perfect time for these systemic changes to be made.
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Yeah, I'm, I'm super excited about this work, because I just think it has a massive trickle down effect, whether it's, you know, if we're seeing I actually don't know the stats. So I might be speaking out of turn. But I can imagine that the amount of children being born, like, you know, people are waiting to have children and
Also, just the fertility rates, the ability to have children, I think, is being affected. But then also like the inter relational dynamics of men and women, I'm sure, are affected. So I can I can imagine or I like envision, too, with this work that it breeds a lot more compassion, both in the workplace, but then in their own personal lives. So if
the men and women of an organization are being educated about, you know, what we've talked about today for men to realize, oh, wow, they, they aren't the same every day. Yeah. And actually that's a superpower. Yeah. And we can leverage that. Oh, well, I am generally the same on a 24 hour cycle every day. Yeah. This is my superpower. And just having a bit more respect and honoring for that, because I,
Yeah, I think what's happening is that without knowing it, the men of an organization might be having these certain expectations of women that they're not meeting and then their women are less valuable, quote unquote. Yes. To them. And so I'm really, really excited by this work. Yeah.
I wanted to take a little hard pivot. Yeah. This has been really amazing. But I also want to talk about, because our audience is so obsessed with the science and data. So I'm so happy. We've talked about what we've talked about so far. And I just to talk about the day-to-day health of our brain and our hormones in communion with one another, um,
What can we be doing lifestyle wise supplements? Yeah. Food. Yeah. Within that realm to just support a healthy, healthy systems. Yeah. So for women, I,
of course it's a kind of different system. There's different regulatory processes. Our hormone system is, is, um, needs has different requirements and it's, uh, an ebb and flow system versus a consistent system. So, um, if you look into the world, even of health, healthcare, um, biohacking, um,
wellness, whatever. Right. A lot of these things are based on consistent effort. Right. And it's like, take this one supplement every single day, do cold plunge every single day, do sauna every single day, exercise and sweat every single day. And right. All of these things.
That's also a very male-centric perspective. And if you look at any of the folks, the doctors and the influencers and the policymakers or whoever are putting this stuff out, and you look at the research that they're quoting, those studies are...
male centric. And so that's, those are actually beneficial things for the male system. Generally speaking, there's always the outliers, right? So for the female system, it's not about a consistent effort. It's about understanding the ebb and flow and being able to not only support what's needed in each phase,
But it's also about being able to leverage the gifts of each phase because as yes, we're these four different women generally or 30 different women, right? If you want to look at the slow changes or the daily changes.
But we have different needs throughout the month that need to be addressed and honored and supported, not only by ourselves, which is the first step, but also by our communities, our communities.
workplaces, our bosses, you know, whatever support systems we have need to be able to align with this. So just for instance, the way that women eat
really should be different based on phase. Because not only do the hormones need to be fed certain things at different times, right? There's different times where estrogen is going to be a focus and then there's different times where progesterone is going to be a focus.
And there's going to be different times where more detox, hormonal detox is needed. And there's going to be times where more nervous system support is needed because the nervous system becomes more sensitive at certain times. So understanding that and knowing that there's not like one end all be all diet.
the carnivore, the keto, the whatever, right? All these things that are super popular right now. There's not one particular diet or way of eating that is consistently going to be applied and be effective for women. So I like to take the limitations off of women and the stress and the pressure of being consistent because...
all of us any women listening can think of different things that they've tried to apply in their life and have felt like wow i'm a failure why can't i do this or i'm doing it perfectly every single day and i'm feeling worse like what the hell is going on it's because of the ebb and flow is not being acknowledged um so there's that but then if you kind of zoom out at the whole system
There are these three core components that I call like the three legs of the stool that if you knock one out, you knock out the whole system eventually. So you have to have these three legs of the stool to be very healthy and no other kind of health intervention really should be considered like these special things like sauna and yoga.
infusions and all these like special things that people do to solve their health issues. Um, if you do not have these three legs of the stool that are sturdy, then this is your problem. So you have to back up and really look at these things. And so one of my mentors, um, uh, named this, uh, uh, the sugar sex and stress, uh, kind of trifecta and that's Dr. Nisha Winters. Um,
So I call it the women's health trifecta and it's these three legs of the stool. So the sugar piece is blood sugar regulation, right? Insulin sensitivity, that piece. The next one is the adrenals, um,
So cortisol, cortisol regulation, but also cortisol and melatonin regulation, production support. Right. And then sex is the sex hormone. So estrogen and progesterone are the main ones that we focus on. So all three of these interact with all three others. So you can't just have one strong hormone.
And one week and, you know, the other one. So, so you're basically going to end up, if you have one week leg of the stool, you're going to knock the whole thing down eventually. So yeah,
Oftentimes, for instance, like women will find out that they have a blood sugar regulation issue. At the same time, they may or may not know or find out that they also have a cortisol regulation issue. And at the same time, they may or may not know or find out that they have hormonal dysregulation issues.
So, that's because all three are interconnected. So, cortisol is one of the biggest factors of blood sugar dysregulation. And a lot of people think it's just food, right? What am I eating? Am I eating a lot of carbs or sugary things, pairing the right foods together? That's important, but it's almost more important about your cortisol regulation. So, again, we look at the bigger picture here.
When we are stressed and there's stress on the system because we are operating in a way that is not in alignment with our system and there's a lot of pressure and we're not getting the things that we need throughout the month for our body and to work optimally, then we start to cause stress on the adrenals, right? And melatonin gets dysregulated, cortisol gets dysregulated. That starts to dysregulate the blood sugar.
Then once the blood sugar gets dysregulated, which is our metabolism, right? How our body is fueled. Now we're not getting proper fuel to the body, to the brain. And we start to feel things like brain fog and energy crashes and things like that. And eventually down the line, after several cycles of this happening, the sex hormones begin to
Get dysregulated and then, you know, down the road from there we get infertility, but there's a lot of other issues that come along with that. So I like for women to look at these three areas of their health and see where they're see how they're doing. If all three are regulated, then we can go into some of the more fun stuff.
Right. But really that, so there's those three and then aligning things with the bio rhythm, which is the month long cycle in the four different phases and understanding what's needed in each phase to regulate the system. Right. Okay. Maybe to kind of close us out and review, because we've talked a little bit about this on the podcast before cycle syncing, et cetera. So,
I guess from your perspective, what would you tell people, women, about each stage of their cycle?
What would be one or two things that are really important to remember? Yeah. So I'll just kind of do a quick run through of the four and then maybe a couple of things that we can do or leverage in each phase. Um, so I know cycle syncing has become really popular. I love all the conversations around this. There's a lot of really good information out there, but there's also a lot of, uh, really, um, inaccurate information as well. So just, um,
What women can do is kind of lean into their intuition with that stuff. And if you're trying something and even if it's a cycle syncing and it's not feeling right in your body, trust that. Sure. Also know that we do have a higher cognitive capacity for intuition. So a lot of times those feelings are true and right. What in particular is, have you seen as inaccurate?
Um, so just, yeah, yeah. So just, uh, no, no. And I, I'm not into that, but, um, but, uh, there's a lot of things like around, um, you should eat this particular thing or take this particular supplement. And a lot of those things are not fully accurate. So I'm just going to give some broad strokes so that women can, um, understand what's going on on like a physiological
level and then you might understand um how things might be working yeah so another area that's kind of controversial is like exercise throughout the cycle right um there there was a thought process that was um
prevalent saying that women should exercise like men uh during menstruation when their hormones are the lowest because they're physiologically most like men that couldn't be like yeah the most opposite of what you should actually do let's take a light walk yeah please do not do that um
So there's a lot. Those are kind of like the misconceptions. And it just comes from a long line of misunderstanding. It's not like inherently bad or to misguide people. It's just lack of understanding. Yeah, I mean, I used to do my workouts like the day of my period. Oh, me too. What's wrong with me? Yeah. And then I would feel horrible. Miserable. And I'd be like, it's fine. I'm just going to push through. Or I'd have like an energy drink before that. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my God. Yeah.
I cringe, even though girl loves a taste of a Celsius, but I...
I just remember like the, I almost felt so depleted. And someone told me that it like lowers your chi. I don't even know. I believe it. Cause I was like, I feel awful, but this tastes great. So, okay. Yeah. Yeah. I definitely have gone through that whole thing. I had to break up with coffee, unfortunately, because I love it. But my adrenals were just like, did you have a lot per day? I have one cup per day and I'm feeling okay.
But what were you having? I was having a lot more. Like I was having it all throughout the whole day. Oh, wow. Just like every time my energy would go down a little bit, I'd have more and like stay in like this hypervigilant like. Yes. And then, of course, have a problem creating melatonin to go to sleep and like stay asleep. When I see people at Starbucks at 4 p.m., I'm like, what are we doing?
Yeah. Y'all want to sleep tonight? No. Or kids after school. I live in a neighborhood with a lot of kids. Holy moly. Oh, my gosh. Drinking their ventis? Yes. It's crazy. Anyway. It's crazy pants. So we'll start with that phase. So menstruation is when women have their period. Typically, if they have a period, all women will have this phase. But whether they have a period or not, it doesn't matter.
matter, but it can be identified where if you do have a period, you know you're in that phase. So that's where estrogen and progesterone are at their lowest level of the four phases. So with estrogen and progesterone, which
are not only key sex hormones for females, but they're also key neurotransmitters. It was only about 10 years ago that we discovered that there are estrogen and progesterone receptors in the female brain. And a lot of them in particular areas that we talked about earlier, the prefrontal cortex, the hippocampus, the hypothalamus, these areas have a lot high densities of these receptors. And that's why these areas of the brain are
ebb and flow like the ovarian system. So anyway, back to phase one. So estrogen and progesterone are at their lowest level, which also means that there's a whole neurophysiological downshift in the female system. So the metabolism actually slows during this time period. So what happens is the conversions of macros, so fats, carbs, and proteins are
Through the whole cycle, through the citric acid cycle to generate ATP, which is the fuel for the cells, that whole thing, glucogenesis, glycolysis, all of these things slow down. Okay. So there's less fuel for the body during this phase.
So less energy during this time period. That's natural, normal, supposed to happen. We're not supposed to then run out and drink venti coffees and do HIIT exercises to make it not the case because it is a biological phenomenon.
and predisposition, we have to accept it. That's just what it is. It's not, it's not a bad thing. So there's this down regulation of the system. There's also a down regulation of the neurological systems and neurochemistry. So what I mean by that is there are less excitatory and mood boosting neurotransmitter activity during this time. So at
epinephrine, norepinephrine, glutamate, dopamine, serotonin, all of these neurochemicals are also suppressed during this time period. So if you think about it, if you naturally go through your period and you're not doing all the opposite things to try to change your state, what women will feel is lower energy during that time period. They might feel a little brain foggy
It depends on lifestyle choices and how the energy that's available is being used, right? They will also have a naturally lower mood during that time period. They'll be less outwardly focused because their resources and energy are really needed for more of like internal processing systems.
So what you see also, interestingly, is a more introspective state, cognitive state that happens during this time period and a higher intuition ability. If you're allowing yourself to go into more of that introspective state during that time. If you're not, then you're kind of bypassing the gifts of this state.
time period completely. So then you go into the second phase, which is the follicular phase. Also, I want to mention these don't fit into their own perfect boxes. There's overlap of each one of these. So the follicular includes the menstrual, but we'll separate them in terms of hormonal state. So
The follicular phase is marked by a steady rise to a peak in estrogen specifically. So estrogen is key player in this phase and it goes to ovulation.
So as estrogen is rising to a peak, the metabolism starts to speed up. The ability or the availability of fuel for the body. So glucose metabolism speeds up. Fat metabolism and fat oxidation is actually increased during this time as well. So, you know, the ideas around more of like a ketogenic style diet are
tend to work pretty well during this phase because those systems are upregulated for women during this specific time period. So the metabolism is increasing, energy levels are increasing, ATP, fuel for the cells, glucose, fat metabolism, all of these things are kind of upregulated as estrogen increases.
So does the excitatory and mood boosting neurotransmitters. So those all those ones we mentioned before, those are also upregulating as estrogen increases. So during this time period from the end of your period to ovulation, women typically feel their best during that time period.
They are more outwardly focused. They have more energy, more focus, more power, strength, endurance, stamina. They also have more of like an external focus. And interestingly, they're they're
Emotional processing systems are also upregulated. So like the emotional intelligence increases during this time period. And there's more compassion available if the system is regulated, understanding more, better communication.
Things like that are possible during this time period. Then there's the ovulatory phase, and that's the peak of estrogen. Also, luteinizing hormone, follicle-stimulating hormone. So it's like a lot of hormones happening at this phase. This is when women feel their best of the month.
because all of these juicy hormones are in their body. They have all this energy. They have all the fuel for the body, the brain. They have all these neurochemicals. Everything's feeling very energetic and high level. They have their peak and power, strength, endurance, stamina, focus, emotional intelligence or capacity is heightened during this time. Now, here's the problem.
Women tend to get to this point and hold themselves to that bar for the entire time. And then when they aren't reaching that bar...
In other periods of the month, they have that negative self-talk, that judgment. They have that wondering why they can't and pushing through and I'm going to get there no matter what. Right. And so this is why we drink all the coffees and we exercise really hard and we do the cold plunge every single day and we do anything we can to get our energy up and try to be able to operate at this level consistently.
It's just not possible. It is not possible. We need to stop holding ourselves to that standard. And we need to also acknowledge it as a gift and a time period to leverage. Right. So this is when I typically do my social work.
types of events, um, networking, pitching, anything that I need really, uh, like influence, um, a higher level of connection, um, the energy, the focus, the stamina, um, going for, you know, personal records in your exercise, things like that. Um, this is a great time. So you have like that week and a half of, of being able to really, um,
crank it up and leverage that time period. And it's not that you only have one good week and a half of the month. It's just understanding what are the most appropriate ways to allocate your resources in each phase. So every phase has a certain amount of resources and then a certain level of needs. And
And so we want to appropriately apply those resources to the specific needs and then understand what we're working with from there. So then we go into the final phase, which is the longest one. It's the whole like second two weeks.
of the cycle, the back half of it. And this is when, um, progesterone rises to a peak. So estrogen falls off the cliff there and goes back down. And there's a little bit of a rise in the middle of estrogen, but the star player is progesterone, which rises to a peak. So mid, um, luteal is when progesterone is peaked, which is about a week before the period starts again. Um,
So as progesterone rises to a peak, there's a whole neurophysiological shift that happens. And some of those things are related to the neurochemistry and the metabolism and those kinds of things. Right. So the metabolism does start to slow down again and there's less fuel for the body, but it's more of like a gradual versus like, um, a total drop off. So that's why like the first week of the luteal, we still feel pretty energetic, pretty good. Um,
But as progesterone rises to a peak, so does a couple of really important neurochemicals. One is brain-derived neurotrophic factor. So this increases neuroplasticity. So how moldable the brain is, how the ability to learn, adapt, grow, that's heightened. And then also neurogenesis is increased during this time. So the brain is creating new neurons at a
a higher pace during that time period in the female cycle. So this is why I call it kind of like the brainy phase. And it's actually a really important one to leverage because at the same time, there's an upregulation of a different neurochemical. So the mood boosting and energy-based neurochemicals are kind of coming down again. But the downregulatory neurochemical GABA is upregulated by progesterone.
So what does GABA do? GABA helps us to downregulate the nervous system. It helps us to get restful sleep. It helps with myelination of the brain cells. Memory consolidation is related to these processes. So you have an upregulation of these processes if...
you are allowing yourself to get quality sleep. Right. So if you're not pushing through and, you know, trying to like stress yourself and do all the things that maybe you don't have the full energy and capacity to do, then your sleep might get dysregulated. Then you're kind of bypassing these benefits. Sure. Um, but if not, if you are getting the good sleep and you're, you're giving your nervous system and your body what it needs during this time, and you're kind of leaning into that down regulation, you have a higher, um,
intellectual capacity, a better ability to learn, adapt, grow. This is when it would be a really good time for us to be studying, doing our continuing education credits, learning a new skill, changing a habit,
Things like this, which we all do, right? But it's about where do we apply these different things. So as you can see, it's like this beautiful progression that happens every single month. Each piece has its own
gifts that we can leverage for our ability to function in the world and operate at our highest level. But most of the time we're bypassing most of those things because again, we're trying to hold ourself to the standard of one week. And it's just, it's not possible to stay there. Yeah. And I'm so glad that these conversations are being had more, especially with women, just understanding their cycles. And I think
I'm excited for the next stage, which is, you know, I think for men to understand more deeply. And also, I think there's an element of really intense comparison that happens. Yes.
all the time throughout the day. It could be you're grabbing coffee with your mom friends and one mom might be talking about, you know, the huge, you know, business venture she just launched or like all the things she got done this week. And then you're kind of sitting there, maybe you're, you know, in your menstrual phase and you're feeling like my brain doesn't work like it did, you know, whatever. It's just these micro moments that I think I'm wanting to
and wanting us to just be a bit more aware of where we really disconnect from what is so natural to us and our bodies. And we put a lot of pressure and judgment on what is. And I'm just really happy we're having this conversation so we can illuminate the gifts, illuminate each stage of the cycle.
And again, I think a lot of people watching or listening have heard this, but not in this way. And so I think it bears like a deeper reminding so that we can incorporate this into our everyday and bring this into conversation with people that are close to us, our friends, family, our partners. I was I explain this to my husband yesterday.
often. Yeah. And he's kind of got it. He's like, so I'm on a 24 hour cycle and you're on, you know, he's got it on a basic level, but it's helpful. So I don't feel crazy. Yeah. Um, and he doesn't think I'm crazy. So, um, yeah, I think it's just so incredibly powerful. And the neuroplasticity piece is really so interesting to me. Um,
Because I noticed just on a week-by-week basis where I'm like, how was I able to just ferociously
you know, consume something and learn it and put it into practice. And then this week I can't even reply to an email or like, you know, it's like so different. And finally I'm at a place where I'm like, it's all good. We're on a cycle. It'll come back. But yeah, it takes, it takes a minute. Yeah. Um, I would say for
Women and men, whoever's listening, the greatest gift that you can offer to women and to yourself is flexibility. Is, you know, you don't have to hold yourself to such a stringent
strict standard. Um, even if you were able to do that last week, if you're not able to do that this week, that's okay. And it's natural. And there are other things that you are able to do if you're willing to be flexible and shift. Right. And so that's what
I would say is the greatest need of our society right now is to just give some flexibility and be curious, right? Because we're only just now understanding the female body and how it works. And even though that is the focus of my research and my career,
I'm still learning new things every single day and there's new research coming out every single day. And so there's a lot still to be illuminated. So even there, we have to stay flexible with ourselves, with each other, especially with other women too. Right. And if we can do that, then I think we will see some big changes very rapidly that will be in the support of
our full human evolution wherever that's taking us next this is a necessary step and it's uncomfortable right now because again it's unknown but if we stay flexible and open and allow our our ideas to change as more information comes um then I think we're going to be
we're gonna be fine yeah we're gonna be good yeah perfect place to end yeah thank you so much thank you so powerful all right thanks for listening y'all we'll see you on the next one bye
Thank you so much, Dr. Kayla Osterhoff. You're the best. It was so good to see you in person. You can go to herbiorhythm.com. You can follow her at dr.kaylaosterhoff on Instagram. Her Instagram pops off super informative. And thank you all for listening. Subscribing to the show means a lot. And thank you for pre-ordering our book, Almost 30. It's available for pre-order now. And you get some really special bonuses when you pre-order the book.
You get a 70-page Saturn return guide. So this is specific to you and where Saturn is in your chart. You get a ticket to camp, which is the best virtual event of the year. It is the best people in the game. Thousands and thousands of you from all over the world. And then we also have a masterclass of Lindsay and I. So Lindsay and I recorded a very special masterclass on navigating change during your late 20s and everything that we did to support ourselves. So almost30.com slash book. We love you guys. We'll see you on the next one. Later. Bye.
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