Episode 138: Women's Hormone Balance Supplements

[00:00:00] Autumn Carter: This is episode 138. Today I have with me Dr. Patel, and we are going to talk about women's hormone balance supplements.

[00:00:07] Welcome to Wellness In Every Season, the podcast where we explore the rich tapestry of wellness in all of its forms. I'm your host, autumn Carter, a certified life coach, turn wellness coach, as well as a certified parenting coach dedicated to empowering others to rediscover their identity in their current season of life.

[00:00:26] My goal is to help you thrive, both as an individual and as a parent.

[00:00:30] I have so many people asking about hormones in particular. They're about my age, and I'm turning 40 in the fall, and there is so many misconceptions. So when I heard that Dr. Patel wanted to be on my podcast, I was super excited and I am putting him in as my solo episode spot just so I can get him to you guys sooner.

[00:00:54] I am so excited. Let me start by asking you, Dr. [00:01:00] Patel, to share a little bit about your background. Really give your authority here so that people who. Are starting to listen, really know, like stop what you're doing and pay attention.

[00:01:12] Dr. Nayan Patel: Absolutely. Well, first of all, thank you for having me here today. It's a pleasure and an honor to be here.

[00:01:19] I started my career very early on, about 27, 8, 28 years ago as a compounding pharmacist. And very quickly I realized that compounding to be successful or what the patients were looking for at that time were something different, something unique, what your body's already doing, which is hormones.

[00:01:37] Back then, synthetic hormones was. Uh, was, was given to everybody and it's like Team Bioidenticals was kind of frowned upon or not heavily accepted at that time. But, I start my career, basically start talking to my patients, start educating them one by one. And today, 25 years later, I have literally put down, I, I really literally helped over 5,000 doctors [00:02:00] all over the country help, help start their practice on bioidentical hormone replacement therapy.

[00:02:05] So today, personally, myself, I don't see a lot of patients anymore. I, I usually consult with doctors only and I help them so they can help all the patients in the world because if, if I'm doing my by myself, I can only see so many patients a day. With the, with, if I can treat the other doctors, I can see infinite amount of patients per day.

[00:02:22] And so that's my goal have been. So for the last 20 plus years, my focus has has shifted towards treating doctors, helping design drug protocols that actually make sense and that can help the patient achieve the wellness goals faster. That's my whole goal. That's it.

[00:02:36] Autumn Carter: So just giving yourself a little bit more authority here and showing the difference.

[00:02:36] How much time, and it's okay if you don't know this question. I can edit this out, but how much time do doctors spend learning about medications and deep diving in that compared to you as a compound pharmacist?

[00:02:54] Dr. Nayan Patel: So the medication courses in the medical community, during the school years is very small amount.

[00:02:59] It's probably [00:03:00] one semester. So pharmacology is not one of the major component of doctors learning. Their main focus is diagnosing, trying to find the root cause analysis, making sure what they know, what the cause is, and the treatment plan is read on the pharmacist. The pharmacist spent literally four years.

[00:03:18] Just learning about drugs and how to use it effectively for every human beings. But even in the pharmacist school, we are only being taught to use the medications that are commercially available. When it comes to bioidenticals, it's, you are on your own. You have to figure these things out and some of this information is already there in published literature, but you have to read through that and learn about how to use these medications correctly.

[00:03:41] And so as a compound pharmacist, our number one job is not to make medications, even though that's what we are known for, is making medications. But our number one job is to find the right therapy for our patients. That's gonna work for them. So making medication is okay, but [00:04:00] if the medication is not gonna work for you, it doesn't really matter what I made you.

[00:04:05] Autumn Carter: And then can we talk about what is a compound pharmacist compared to a normal pharmacist? Like in my area in Maryland, there's only one close by and it's about a 40 minute drive from my house.

[00:04:11] Dr. Nayan Patel: Wow. Oh wow. That's, that's kind of far.

[00:04:12] Autumn Carter: And I submit separately. It was a whole thing just to see that compound pharmacist.

[00:04:19] Dr. Nayan Patel: So we are in Southern California and there are plenty of company pharmacy over here. 25, 27 years ago. When I first started, there were only like 12 company pharmacy in the whole state of California. And at the peak there are about 400 of us. In the one state alone, and now it's come down back down to maybe, maybe a couple hundred right now, or maybe less than that as well.

[00:04:39] So there's company pharmacists all over the state in California, so of course, and Maryland, it's kind of, well,

[00:04:42] Autumn Carter: Maryland's this tiny state. I grew up in Arizona, so it's, yeah, Maryland was never on my radar to move to.

[00:04:49] Dr. Nayan Patel: But the company pharmacists are actually doing something different than a retail pharmacist.

[00:04:55] 'cause retail pharmacists, their main focus is to read the prescriptions, [00:05:00] fill the prescriptions. Educate the patients about the proper use of medications and making sure they understand how to take it correctly and to store it correctly, what to do when something goes wrong. Side effects, profiles and things like that.

[00:05:13] Autumn Carter: And they hardly ever do those things, but

[00:05:14] Dr. Nayan Patel: Yes. that's what they're supposed to be doing. But that's, that's, that's what the, that's what the, retail pharmacist would do. A compounding pharmacist is actually working with your physicians. Trying to figure out what therapy is actually gonna work for you.

[00:05:28] And then, uh, it's a collaboration, right? The doctor will call the pharmacist and say, Hey, I have these patients I have, autumn, and this is her issue. And this is what I think is, gonna need her. And then, him or her, I can discuss together to what the therapy will look like and what the outcomes they wish to get.

[00:05:46] And then we get to decide what medications, is gonna be appropriate for her. Now if something's already available commercially. We don't have to make anything right and something is not available commercially, then we gotta go and make those [00:06:00] medications. And so that's the difference. It's a collaboration piece that kicks in, because you cannot make a medication until you understand the whole.

[00:06:09] Uh, patient's history and the history, the doctor has a history. I don't have the history.

[00:06:17] And so it's a collaboration that kicks in with the physician and the pharmacist working together, trying to make a medication that is actually gonna work for you in the way that you can tolerate.

[00:06:27] And by doing so, our hope is the medication is gonna actually gonna work for you. Number two, it's gonna make sure that you have less side effects or no side effects. And the third part is that it is customized to your particular needs. And so in that sense, it's supposed to be Better. that, that's a hope.

[00:06:47] Autumn Carter: You have the right doctor. Well, that's

[00:06:49] Dr. Nayan Patel: another thing too.

[00:06:49] Autumn Carter: Have everything come together in the right way. And then you talked about bioavailability, or no, how, you didn't say bioavailability, you said bio something. What was that

[00:06:52] Dr. Nayan Patel: one?

[00:06:52] Identical. It's bioidentical.

[00:06:55] Autumn Carter: Yes.

[00:06:55] Dr. Nayan Patel: Bioidentical, so it's something that we all should be thinking [00:07:00] about it, right? So hormones are chemicals that your body produces internally. And so those chemicals are there to support your pregnancy. There're to support kidney menal flow every month.

[00:07:16] It, it basically, it's the angel of life and angel of death. Too much can kill you. Not enough. You'll go crazy and you can do the right amount, right proportion every single day, every single month over and over and over again, right? So those hormones are chemicals that are, that are produced internally now.

[00:07:32] The term bioidentical comes in is because if you don't take a medication from outside as a pill or a cream or whatever, you wanna make sure that product exactly is identical to what a body produces internally. Chemically has to be identical.

[00:07:49] Autumn Carter: And what if it isn't?

[00:07:50] Dr. Nayan Patel: And if it's not, then it's called non-binary, or we call synthetic.

[00:07:56] And what does

[00:07:57] Autumn Carter: it do to our body? Why is one better than the [00:08:00] other? Like, I already know, but tell everybody else.

[00:08:02] Dr. Nayan Patel: The thing is, if it's bioidentical, the body has the systems to work with it. The body knows how to get rid of it. Because if you take a product that your body has no idea what to do with it, it will sit in your body for a long periods of time, sometimes 10, 20 days, and sometimes 10, 15 years.

[00:08:22] Before it gets out of your body. And if it stayed for that long, these chemicals are dangerous. And so you want to get in inside your body, get the job done and get out of there. And if you cannot get out of your body fast enough, that's where the side effects the toxicities.

[00:08:39] The long-term issues with medications comes into place like cancer growth.

[00:08:45] Autumn Carter: Okay. We have a really good foundation here, so let's transition and talk about, now that we have this understanding, we're on the right page. Uhhuh, let's dive into hormones. And the actual meat of this.

[00:08:59] [00:09:00] I'm so excited. Okay, everybody grab your fork. So tell us the rest of why you're on here. What are you wanting to talk about? Let's roll this out.

[00:09:12] Dr. Nayan Patel: So I wanna basically talk about hormones in how is it different from other things? Why is this so important? Why are we talking about this Today?

[00:09:24] when I talk to my mom, I said, my grandma took hormones. She never took hormones. Then why are we talking about this today? Right? What's changed over the years that there's such a huge imbalances in the hormones, that we are here to talk about this today, and in the 50 years ago, maybe the hormones were not prescribed as much because the needs were, were not very little.

[00:09:45] Uh, the needs were, were, were very small. And so today the whole things have changed. So change what we will talk about. Why is it affecting in this era and can we do something about it [00:10:00] today, non-medication wise? Can we do something about it so that we don't have to suffer? If you are in your mid twenties today, or even your early twenties today, and listen to this podcast, I want you to feel that there's hope that if you can do things correctly.

[00:10:18] Now, then there's a chance that you may not need to take any hormones when you get older and there, and there's a possibility like that as well available. That's why I'm here today.

[00:10:31] Autumn Carter: Great. And I know that this is so important. This was something that my mom was very fearful, for me. She had thyroid problems.

[00:10:42] My whole life, she still has 'em. She has always been worried that I would too, because I've had other hereditary things from her and I live a very different lifestyle and so far I've been totally fine. The doctors know to [00:11:00] make sure with my blood work and everything, so I know that lifestyle is very important for this.

[00:11:08] Dr. Nayan Patel: Absolutely. There's no doubt about it.

[00:11:09] Autumn Carter: And I know that it can show up. So let's talk about how do we know whether our hormones are imbalanced or not separate from blood work? Just within ourselves. How can we know that maybe things aren't quite right? I know for some people it can show up as acne.

[00:11:25] It can be a myriad of things.

[00:11:28] Dr. Nayan Patel: Of course. There are about 150 signs and symptoms of hormone imbalances. Wow. Hundred 50 of them, right? Is it could be mood swings, anxiety, depression, acne, facial hair growth, even candida, or gut dysbiosis where your bowels are not synchronized.

[00:11:46] There's so many different things. Heart flashes, night, sweat, sleep disturbances, osteoporosis, heart issues. Kidney issues. I mean, there's all myriad of problems that could happen because of hormone imbalances.

[00:11:59] Autumn Carter: Osteoporosis [00:12:00] is shocking for me. I just learned something new.

[00:12:01] Dr. Nayan Patel: The best part is that you, know, if there's something's hormone related, is if you're in perimenopause or PMS stage, at least before menopause, that the symptoms goes away as soon as you start your period. The symptoms goes away, whatever that is, that particular symptom is hormone related.

[00:12:23] Autumn Carter: Interesting.

[00:12:24] Dr. Nayan Patel: So that's in a nutshell is a very simple way of looking at it. But I wanna go over which hormones are we talking about in the first place because. And the reality is that you can talk about all the different hormones, which is way too many to discuss. We only can discuss the few hormones that we have power to change.

[00:12:46] There's no time to talk about hormones that we cannot change anything. And so if we can change estrogen, then let's talk about estrogen. We did to change testosterone. Then let's talk about testosterone. Certain things. Human [00:13:00] beings, we are not willing to change.

[00:13:01] If you look at the whole hormonal problems, it can put them in a pyramid scheme, okay? The bottom of the pyramid is the base, which is a 40% total problem. The 40% total solution. Either way, you can look at it either way, right? The base is linked to stress management or cortisol.

[00:13:22] Autumn Carter: Sense.

[00:13:22] Dr. Nayan Patel: Your adrenal glands, that, that manages your stressors for you and stress management. And because of that, it produces various levels of cortisol. And if it's not the cortisol, then it's adrenaline. And you know what that looks like also, because that's what people jump off the cliff without a parachute and hopefully they'll get somebody gonna rescue them over the time.

[00:13:40] Right? Anyways God bless them. That's the stress management. That's 40% of the problem or 40% of the solution, right? The next 30%, which is the next big thing, or the big chunk, is insulin or diet or nutrition. [00:14:00] Again, you can look at it as a problem or a solution. Some people say, well, I eat healthy most of the time, but I have Fridays my cheat day.

[00:14:10] I said, God did not build human beings with cheat days into it. It didn't factor that one day you are allowed to cheat and the whole system will shut off. So you can just go in and comes out and nothing will happen to it. No human body was not designed to have cheat days, but we have cheat days just so that we can have some fun in life anyways, so that's 30% of the problem or the solution.

[00:14:34] So 70%. The total problems or the total solution is in your hands. How are you gonna manage stressors or stress? And how are you gonna manage your diet? You don't need me for that. You may need me just to get answers or to, or maybe reinforce what you already know.

[00:14:52] Autumn Carter: So you would need me as the wellness coach.

[00:14:55] Dr. Nayan Patel: Yeah, you need a wellness coach for that. Perfect. You do that work. That's not what I [00:15:00] want to spend a lot of time doing it because that's something that is you need to have, a clear idea of how to design your life together. Then comes the 20%. The 20% of the solution of the problem is thyroid.

[00:15:17] Thyroid is such a small gland right above your neck area, and yet it controls your whole body's temperature, the whole body's function and the chemical reaction that happens in your body the whole time. Everything's controlled by thyroid and such a small gland. The thyroid, the way it works, it, it needs iodine to work.

[00:15:36] Most of the iodine in the environment is radioactive, and so there's radioactive iodines when you get inside your throat and inside your gland, guess what? People have a lot of thyroid issues. I mean, it's estimated that 50% or more of the total world's population have thyroid issues, so yeah. [00:16:00] Can you avoid some of those problems?

[00:16:01] Maybe. Maybe some of them you cannot. And so sometimes if you cannot avoid the problems, then you gotta figure out how to get rid of the problem if you do get exposed to it on a daily basis, right? What's your diet that can help you get rid of all those toxic exposure to chemicals and substances or heavy metals that can cause a problem in the first place.

[00:16:23] So that's a thyroid. And the last piece, the 10% of the total solution. For the whole endocrine system is your sex hormones, astro, progesterone, testosterones, DHA, everything in one. That's 10%. But guess what you wanna talk about today is about hormones. That's 10% of the total solution.

[00:16:44] Autumn Carter: Tell me about the 20% though, with the radioactive, I'm curious about that.

[00:16:50] Dr. Nayan Patel: Alright, radioactivity is everywhere. Of course, the higher up you go above the sea level, the worse it gets. So when you [00:17:00] fly in this aluminum chute, we call it the plane, you are exposing your whole body to cosmic race, right?

[00:17:05] So the more you fly, the more chance you have. To damage your thyroid gland,

[00:17:10] Autumn Carter: Was you on Monday,

[00:17:12] Dr. Nayan Patel: which was me all the time, right? Mm-hmm. So it happens. It is not something that I can avoid as much as possible that I want, I would love to avoid. That's why I'm loving that we can, we are able to do this remotely.

[00:17:27] You are in East Coast. I'm on West Coast, and yet we are still here talking to each other and getting this message out to the world. In the previous life, this was not possible, right? And so if you can do that, if we can do that. So does everybody else do the same thing? So stop flying. I hope there's no airline industry CEOs watching this product because others, it'll kill me.

[00:17:51] Autumn Carter: Well, they know you fly all the time, so they're gonna revoke your frequent flyer miles.

[00:17:55] Dr. Nayan Patel: Exactly.

[00:17:57] Autumn Carter: That makes sense.

[00:17:58] Dr. Nayan Patel: That's just one thing, right? But [00:18:00] that land is very finicky. Anything toxic exposure to your body in a voice of thyroid gland and when you toxic exposure. Even viruses can, can increase your thyroid production in your body.

[00:18:15] Autumn Carter: Oh, yeah. My, my body's going through that right now. I had COVID and every time after I have COVID, I have to get something else because it wipes out my immune system and Exactly. Yeah.

[00:18:25] Dr. Nayan Patel: So that's the same thing. Those are lumped into sometime we call them a hashimo thyroiditis, Hashimoto's. It was a Dr.

[00:18:32] Hashimoto who first found out that the thyroid increase in thyroid levels was due to, viral infection. But today they use Hashimoto thyroiditis. For anybody who has high amounts of antibodies, that means the bodies are attacking your own thyroid. But we don't know why. The, why the body history, which antibodies in the first place.

[00:18:50] Is it exposure to toxic chemicals? Is it heavy metals? Is it something else? Is it viruses? We do not know that part. How the heck do you find a treatment plan for [00:19:00] that person?

[00:19:01] Autumn Carter: Makes sense?

[00:19:02] Dr. Nayan Patel: I can make you thyroid for you and it gets you balance of thyroid, but how am I gonna get rid of this chemical or heavy metal or something toxic inside your body that's not supposed to be there.

[00:19:16] I don't even know what it is. So that is the issue with the thyroid. It's one of those hormone that is under prescribed, undervalued but it has a profound impact on patient's lives because thyroid, if it's too much, oh my God. Cause all kinds of problems, too little And shoot, you are in deep trouble.

[00:19:39] And so my mom

[00:19:40] Autumn Carter: went from one to the other.

[00:19:42] Dr. Nayan Patel: Yeah, and it happens all the time in my patient populations. And as practitioners, we are puzzled sometimes as to what to do because we try to give a dose that's gonna be appropriate and hopefully the dose is working for you for a month or two and third month, it just goes high or low, or not working enough for you.

[00:19:58] So we constantly have to [00:20:00] keep on evaluative thyroid, requirements based on how your body's responding to it.

[00:20:07] Autumn Carter: Okay, so let's talk more about this 10%. Now that I understand the radiation part and that I don't wanna live in Colorado for all the people who live there.

[00:20:15] Colorado is pretty, just, it's higher, above sea level. That was my only thought. So tell us about the 10% now.

[00:20:22] Dr. Nayan Patel: So what do you know about the 10%? The hormones?

[00:20:27] Autumn Carter: No, the top of the pyramid. What do I know about hormones?

[00:20:30] Dr. Nayan Patel: Do, what do you know about hormones?

[00:20:31] Autumn Carter: Oh, what do I wanna know? So that is a very good question.

[00:20:37] Let's start with those who are in my age bracket. Okay. They're in the perimenopause. Let's stay there for a while. Okay? But if they're in that phase and they're having the extra weight gain, they're having the hot flashes, they're starting to have that, the cystic acne.

[00:20:55] Those type of things. I was just talking to somebody last week who all of a sudden [00:21:00] is having acne flareups really crazy, and I was asking her about her hormones and she said, you know what? I had some leftover hormone meds, so I'm just taking those again, and it was okay, but maybe she should see a medical professional and make sure and like check the expiration.

[00:21:17] But anyway, that's an aside for her. Let's talk about people who are in that situation. They're female. Since majority of my audience is female. And for those who aren't female who are listening, share this with those who are, because we tend to struggle silently for way too long. And then finally, we tell everybody about it, but it's when we're at our wit's end, and we've already been struggling for years, so please share this,

[00:21:44] Dr. Nayan Patel: hormone changes happens very early on as the first period you have, right? I don't know, age of 10, 12, 15, something like that. When the body goes through changes, it's all of a sudden, now, wait a second, I'm getting [00:22:00] period now for the very first time.

[00:22:02] And so the body has to the pituitary, your brain has to start thinking as to what makes you feel good. What does it make you feel? Good. So it is trying to adjust the hormone levels to make sure that your, your whole body's functioning normally fine without having any, any side effects or, or any effects whatsoever.

[00:22:19] What we call them is if you, something happens to, you call PMS, right? Premenstrual syndrome. All the symptoms that you have before you get your period. So that's what happens very, very early on in your life in teenage years. If you don't correct it, it goes into. Early adolescents, twenties, even thirties, even forties.

[00:22:40] And then it makes the perimenopause years even more treacherous for you because now all of a sudden the body can now figure out what's the right, how much to produce every month. And so, and there are a lot of ladies that have gone through PMS perimenopause into menopause, [00:23:00] and then they come to us and say, oh my God, I wish I had known you 35 years ago.

[00:23:04] Right, and that has happened sometimes as well. So what's happening is that your hormone levels. Are very low or non existing when you're born. And then in the teenage years, the body is getting ready to get pregnant. So you start producing hormones, right?

[00:23:21] Every month you produce estrogens and TRO levels drops. You produce more progesterone because of ovulation. And in the absence of pregnancy, the position levels will drop you have your mens for the first five to seven days of your cycle, and that happens every single month. If you didn't get pregnant, next month starts all over again.

[00:23:39] FSH, which is your pit, will tell your ovaries to produce, more estrogens. Estrogens get your eggs ready. When the eggs are ready. 14 days later, there's an ovulation time obviously happens. Your body starts producing more progesterone. So that if you do get pregnant, that egg and the embryo get into the uterine lining, and if [00:24:00] that happens, the position level starts rising even more.

[00:24:03] But in the absence of pregnancy, the position level will drop again. The day of your cycle, you have your mens get the whole lining and reset the whole process over and over again until you hit menopause. So what's happening is that your hormone levels are very, very high when you are younger, very high because you need those high hormones to have, a very good chance to get pregnant, right?

[00:24:27] And then what happens is that the levels are fluctuated at a very good pace, right? These are, very healthy human beings. No problems whatsoever. And then something about. Perimenopause that's in about, it's about 10 years before you hit menopause, and the first set of perimenopause is the very first time you had a missed period, or the cycle is irregular.

[00:24:50] All of a sudden, oh my God, I'm getting cycles every two months now. The first sign of that happening is the first sign of you going through the change now, and that's, it'll take you another good. [00:25:00] 10 years before you go into menopause. But those 10 years are gonna be, hard, put it in simple term.

[00:25:06] When the patients are going through the changes, what's required is making sure that if your body cannot produce the hormones that it needs to get you in a proper balance. We as a pharmacist and the physicians can work together to give this formula for what your body's missing.

[00:25:24] When we do that part, the hormona gets I balance. And when it gets in balance, you feel better. You cannot measure balance, you just said earlier, besides blood tests. What else? How? How else can you help people? Blood test is not the answer because blood tests, saliva tests, urine tests, I don't care what testing you do

[00:25:36] it's a snapshot, but it's not telling you the whole picture of who you are,

[00:25:39] Autumn Carter: and it's the average. Right. It's average for the population. Exactly. And I know it can be different depending on gender. It can be different depending on your age. Your race. So many things.

[00:25:50] Dr. Nayan Patel: So many things.

[00:25:50] And the other mitigating factors in this whole hormone cycles is your exposure to alcohol, exposure to smoke. Either you cigarette [00:26:00] smoking or fireplace or firefighters. I don't know what kind of jobs you have. But, smoke can also affect your hormone cycles, exposure to a lot of metals like cadmium or arsenic or aluminum or mercury.

[00:26:14] Things like that can also affect your hormone levels exposure to cosmic radiations and UV radiations affecting your thyroid glands can affect your hormone levels, not having proper eating habits.

[00:26:25] Autumn Carter: That is my mom, so, okay. I'm seeing why. Yeah.

[00:26:29] Dr. Nayan Patel: Yeah. So your eating habits can also fluctuate the need for hormones.

[00:26:34] It doesn't affect your hormone production, but it affects the need for hormones, right? When you eat a lot of sugary stuff, your insulin rises. Sometime eating sugar can get you hot flashes.

[00:26:47] Autumn Carter: Hmm, right?

[00:26:47] Dr. Nayan Patel: When you have high stress, you cannot think better. Your cortisol levels are very high . Your DHE goes up very high as well, and that's how you get acne and facial hair growth and, all the side [00:27:00] effects related to too much of testosterones or androgens.

[00:27:04] We wanna make sure that in order to get a proper hormone balancing done at any stage of your life, we had to look into account, your stress, your diet, your exposure to toxic chemicals and any modern day. Conveniences that you bring in your life, like drinking from plastic water bottles or, living in your car the whole time Right?

[00:27:31] consuming a lot of fumes, or driving electrical car. And, electric cars are having a lot of cadmium in there. And so all these are affecting your hormonal cycles. Your ability to have babies. So fertility issues and ability for your body to stay in homeostasis or stay in always in a balanced fashion at all times.

[00:27:54] And when this is out of balance, this is why you have all these different symptoms. 150 [00:28:00] different symptoms you have because of this one reason.

[00:28:04] Autumn Carter: Let's go back to, you were talking about your parents. That was the generation you were talking about, right?

[00:28:09] How much sleep were they getting compared to now? Because I'm sure back then a majority of them followed the sun. Now we have all this artificial light.

[00:28:23] It's now getting dark outside, but you can't tell because I have this nice ring light up here and we'll turn off the lights, but we're on the TV or on our phone or Kindle or whatever. So we have this light that's constantly getting at us. We tend to have a sense of self with how busy we are, which adds to our stress, which reduces our sleep.

[00:28:49] I've read a bunch of research for one of my senior project, it was around sleep. We hold onto so much stress because simply we're not getting enough sleep.[00:29:00] 

[00:29:00] There's so many other reasons why we hold onto stress, I know that sleep is our way of flushing that toilet and letting all of the toxins come out of our body. We simply aren't doing that. I feel like that goes right in that bottom of your pyramid that you're talking about.

[00:29:15] Dr. Nayan Patel: Yeah, so what I talk about sleep. Sleep is a whole different cascade of chain reactions. That changes the whole physiology because what it really does when you go to sleep, it activates all of detox pathways. It activates the pressure of glutathione. That's my whole research. For the last 25 plus years I've been working on pluton the most, and.

[00:29:36] Your nighttime glutton levels rises to clean up your kidneys, kidnap your liver get rid of all the toxins from your body. And if you don't sleep, guess what? You accumulate over time. All this toxic chemicals, pesticides, fertilizers, heavy metals, all those things gets accumulated over time [00:30:00] into your body, which you're not able to release it.

[00:30:02] So sleep is by far the most important thing. I also do a lot of consulting on wellness regimens and longevity, regimens because I have a lot of, uh. Uh, clients, most of my clients are doctors themselves. So doctors they understand the, stress and what needs to be done for themselves personally.

[00:30:22] I design protocols for some of the doctors for longie protocols. The number one thing we talk about is how can we get good night's sleep?

[00:30:31] Autumn Carter: Doctors are some of the worst patients.

[00:30:34] Dr. Nayan Patel: Yeah, they are.

[00:30:35] Autumn Carter: I just had somebody on who, is a burnout coach for doctors for that very reason.

[00:30:42] Dr. Nayan Patel: Yep. And that is absolutely correct and it's something that they had to consciously think about putting them to sleep.

[00:30:49] Autumn Carter: And so do moms. You're kind of a doctor if you're a mom, just with that sleep schedule, especially if you have a newborn.

[00:30:57] Oh my goodness. I do not wanna [00:31:00] relive any of those times again. It was great having a newborn minus the lack of sleep, and I'm supposed to be recovering while not getting enough sleep and taking care of a newborn. That never made sense to me.

[00:31:13] Dr. Nayan Patel: Yeah, the whole system, the way it's set up, it doesn't make sense because.

[00:31:18] You need the mom to be restful in order to recuperate, regenerate and the baby's demands are so high that sometimes it's hard to keep up those demands. Being a mom is probably one of the most difficult thing because the stress levels extremely high and they do age faster than men do.

[00:31:39] Especially after the second third card from before the child, it becomes harder.

[00:31:44] Autumn Carter: Yeah. .

[00:31:45] Dr. Nayan Patel: So it becomes so stressful overall, and men appreciate the amount of stress that women can withstand, and run the house and run the whole life, for all the kids and making sure everybody's care of [00:32:00] it.

[00:32:00] Is extremely stressful. Making sure that people understand that that stress needs to be dealt with. It's not just gonna go away by magic. So we consciously have to think what can we do to reduce it? What kind of, routines can be set up to help reduce the stress.

[00:32:18] If we cannot do that part, make sure the other. 60%, which is your diet, your thyroid, your hormones are completely in sync if the stress is not able to manage it. But I strongly suggest that if we can manage stress better, then everything starts falling into right?

[00:32:36] So yeah, it's hats off to you, by the way, but at the same time, I understand what you had to go through, and by the time you hit menopause, whenever that happens. Having a good coach understands the hormones or making sure that your hormones are already on board to begin with so you don't jump off the cliff.

[00:32:54] One day you have hormones. The next one you have no hormones. You're just jumping off the cliff, and that's what the problem is. [00:33:00] It's not that the hormones levels are dropping hormones drops over time for everybody anyways, but all of a sudden you have high levels of hormones and the next month you have no hormones remaining whatsoever.

[00:33:09] That jumping off the cliff is what seems to be the biggest problem for the pituitary to compensate with how the body is gonna respond to it.

[00:33:18] Autumn Carter: So I was very shocked over all the things I was not told to expect during the postpartum period. Like that my uterus was going to contract and have cramps and it was gonna be miserable and that it gets worse with each pregnancy.

[00:33:38] We don't talk about what to expect with menopause and the symptoms, so let's unpack that I don't even know if normal is the right word to use because we have a new normal, but what is okay and what is not okay, and we need to see somebody.

[00:33:57] Dr. Nayan Patel: So when it comes to [00:34:00] any symptoms you are facing, if you're cramping really hard, yes, you need to see your doctor because if you're not feeling good. There is no gold medal for plowing through the problems. If you're looking for attaboy it doesn't exist. Your husband will tell you the same thing and say, well do something about it.

[00:34:21] Autumn Carter: To know who to go to when having pain. So when I have my gallbladder pain, my husband and gallbladder attacks for three hours at a time while having a newborn and two little toddlers, my husband's telling me this isn't okay. And I'm like, duh, it's happening to my body. Yeah. And he's like, okay, let's go to the er.

[00:34:40] And I told him no, because I'm used to the ER in Arizona where they're so overwhelmed that I'd never be seen, and I wasn't sure if they'd even know what it was. And so I went to Dr. Google and found out it was my gallbladder, and then went through the series to get to the right surgeon.

[00:34:59] Dr. Nayan Patel: Yeah, the concern has [00:35:00] always been part of it's that.

[00:35:01] Autumn Carter: It's going through that whole process and the Okay, I might have the answer. No, I don't. So how do we get through that part as well?

[00:35:12] Dr. Nayan Patel: That part is, again, that's just education. So, either you get yourself educated or you find a doctor who's educated enough to help you with this problem.

[00:35:20] Right? With every pregnancy that you're getting, your hormone levels are dropping really fast and you don't have enough progesterone. When the uterine, uterine learning contracts, that's when the cramping, everything comes into place. But if you just take the progesterone.

[00:35:35] As soon as you deal with the baby, it's just to complete the additional for and at least two or three more months. Then the, instead of jumping off the cliff, the part nose, gradually climb slowly down.

[00:35:46] Autumn Carter: Before,

[00:35:46] Dr. Nayan Patel: all of a sudden, then the pain is not there anymore, right? And so yes, there all this hormones you can take.

[00:35:53] But until you hit menopause, we strongly suggest that you only, instead [00:36:00] of dealing with all the hormones. You can just do with one hormone, and if that one hormone is properly balanced, everything else comes into line.

[00:36:08] Autumn Carter: Oh, so it's not this magical, okay?

[00:36:11] Dr. Nayan Patel: Is that that, that's progesterone. If you can manage progesterone to be the right amount in your body that your body needs, your ene, testosterone is DHA PreOn, everything falls into place and you feel better.

[00:36:25] Until you hit menopause, that's all you need is just making sure the progestin levels are enough in your body. Once you hit menopause, the body doesn't produce any hormones. Everything is produced by the drug glands, and so you need to replace test estrogen, testosterone, DHEA, progesterones. Everything needs to be replaced at this point, right?

[00:36:44] Until the menopause, it's just one, just one hormone, right? Sometimes you may need some testosterone and may estrogens, but that those are very, rare cases. Majority of time, 9%, nine outta 10 times. You can just need some progesterone, to counterbalance all the other [00:37:00] hormones.

[00:37:01] Autumn Carter: So for those that are listening and wanna go even deeper,

[00:37:05] Dr. Nayan Patel: do,

[00:37:05] Autumn Carter: is it.

[00:37:07] Wise to follow you or do you have a list of doctors you've trained that we can go to or,

[00:37:12] Dr. Nayan Patel: yeah.

[00:37:13] Autumn Carter: What's the best thing?

[00:37:14] Dr. Nayan Patel: I do consult with other doctors as well, so I have, I, there's a, there's a company called Thrive Lab. Uh, it's a, it's an online platform that I do consult with them and I have trained doctors on that platform.

[00:37:25] If you go to that platform and see patients from there, all of the doctors are trained by me. We do help support, every patient's needs from there, but that's just one platform. There's a book called Once a Month by Katrina Dalton.

[00:37:39] Now, she passed away a long time ago, but the book is, it's an amazing book to read, especially before you go into menopause. The last edition was printed in 1999, but it's an amazing book to read. It's her whole life of how she dealt with horal issues.

[00:37:55] Dr. Dalton did, and she's an OB, GYN by trade. She went to rescue herself. [00:38:00] Then she started writing the books and started seeing patients herself and helping them over the 50 years of her career.

[00:38:05] Autumn Carter: Sounds like a great book. And then are you the one that wrote the book back there that's in the corner?

[00:38:10] Dr. Nayan Patel: Yes, that's my book called The Glutathione Revolution.

[00:38:13] Autumn Carter: It up here so we can see it?

[00:38:14] Dr. Nayan Patel: Yeah, absolutely. That's my book, the GL Revolution. Fight disease, slow aging, and increase energy with the mass antitoxin.

[00:38:25] Autumn Carter: Wants more energy. So yeah, everybody

[00:38:27] Dr. Nayan Patel: wants more energy. And this has been my research for the last 25 plus years because yes, I love hormones and I help patients with hormones. You need a doctor to be seen to get the right evaluation done and things like that versus the glutathione.

[00:38:43] I can do remotely to anybody and everybody in the whole world. So that's what I've been doing for the last 20 plus years. And now I'm teaching doctors and telling them about the miracle how we can help with that as well.

[00:38:55] Autumn Carter: Sounds like you have several different passion projects that are starting to come [00:39:00] together. It's amazing.

[00:39:02] Dr. Nayan Patel: At the end of the day, I only wanna work with something that our body produces naturally, right? I'm not looking for a miracle molecule that exists in the world. Body doesn't have it, right?

[00:39:14] Guess what? The doesn't need it. It does not need it. The body only needs fuel to survive and everything else it needs to to protect itself is instead of body, right? If you have infections, we have a strong immune system that will kill all infections,

[00:39:30] Autumn Carter: and that's stress right there.

[00:39:31] Dr. Nayan Patel: Unless the stress is that the immune system goes weaker and now all of a sudden, guess what?

[00:39:36] You need antibiotics, antivirals, whatever else you can do to help you out. But if your immune system is intact, you don't need anything to survive.

[00:39:46] Autumn Carter: So for anybody else who wants more of this information, where can we find you? Where can we just dive into your world?

[00:39:54] Dr. Nayan Patel: So my pharmacy is central drugs, and if you go to central drugs [00:40:00] rx.com, that is C-E-N-T-R-A-L-D-R-U-G-S rx.com.

[00:40:07] That's my website, you can contact through that and it will come to me and my team. We have about eight pharmacists working full-time, and our full-time job is to basically educate people and so everybody has a passion to help patients out to master their own health. And so we are here to help you.

[00:40:24] We are here to serve and so we don't prescribe medication. So we'll be more than happy to work with your physicians and train them to help you instead as well. So either way, we'll be able to help you.

[00:40:36] Autumn Carter: I love talking to people who have just this amazing passion to help somebody else.

[00:40:43] That thrive off of that. So I love that you have the same passion, the same thing that makes you tick That I do.

[00:40:49] Dr. Nayan Patel: Yeah. A lot of people have that, but what we have mastered is we have mastered the, the way to monetize it as well. Because you cannot provide free services for the rest of your life to survive.

[00:40:56] As long as we are okay with our [00:41:00] monetization of our products. We are able to keep on offering free services for the rest of your life.

[00:41:04] Autumn Carter: I feel like that's the main point. And then the other one is that imposter syndrome of, no, I actually can help people.

[00:41:11] What I know and what I can do has worth, and then it goes through them. They're still pretty the same in that way. Like it still, it goes to that monetization, but I know so many people have these great ideas, but they just won't take that step.

[00:41:26] Dr. Nayan Patel: True. That is true. Yeah. But if you're looking for a doctor, and if you don't have a doctor, go to thrive Lab.com.

[00:41:32] it's an online portal. They serve all 50 states, and you don't have to leave your house. You can just see patients. You can just see from the online portal.

[00:41:39] Autumn Carter: Perfect.

[00:41:40] Dr. Nayan Patel: Yeah.

[00:41:40] Autumn Carter: Well, I'll definitely be recommending that to all the different people who've been coming to me saying, I need help with this hormone thing.

[00:41:47] So many people that I've talked to. A lot of maybe half of them know it's hormone related, but the other half don't realize that it is hormone related until I say something and they're like,

[00:41:57] Dr. Nayan Patel: gotcha.

[00:41:58] Autumn Carter: Kind of, you can see that light bulb starting to [00:42:00] turn on or screw it or whatever, and it's, it makes a difference.

[00:42:03] And it's crazy how much this small gland takes charge of everything. It's kind of the one that's running the orchestra.

[00:42:13] Dr. Nayan Patel: Awesome. Thank you.

[00:42:15] Autumn Carter: Thank you so much for your time and for just imparting so much wisdom and for your patience with everything that happened dog related during this recording.

[00:42:28] Dr. Nayan Patel: Well, thanks for having me here today. Appreciate the time, and I hope this was informative enough for the consumers to take action right now. You understand what the hormones can do for you don't have to change every single thing. Sometimes a small change can have profound impact in your health.

[00:42:43] And so look for the small changes that you can do every single day in your life. And if you can do that part, you can master the hormone therapy yourself without having anybody mess with your hormones.

[00:42:55] Autumn Carter: I love that. And then the nugget that I took from all of this is [00:43:00] that you don't wanna struggle through the pain, like just go through it.

[00:43:05] If something's not right, do something about it. Start to reach out for help. Just, and the way you worded it, I'm totally screwing up the way you worded it, but that it's not whoever can power through the best if and realizing that. People can go through almost their whole life struggling with hormones and not realize it's just PMS, it's just this.

[00:43:10] And we tend to, as a society, just kind of brush it all into its PMS.

[00:43:14] Dr. Nayan Patel: And unfortunate part because the thing is it says that, oh, everybody suffers, so you are not so special. Mm-hmm. Right. Uh, and you suck it up and just deal with it. Right. That's the society. Is forcing women to deal with it and suffer in silence.

[00:43:31] And what I'm saying is that no, you don't have to do that part. You really do not have to. And that's what I'm saying. You are warriors. But at the same time we don't give you gold medals for suffering. Uh, I wish there was a medal for not suffering, but that's what the society doesn't do that part.

[00:43:50] And so I wish everybody does not. Take this thing for granted that if you have good health, enjoy the good health. But if you're not feeling good, do [00:44:00] not have to suffer. You ask, help you talk to people until you find the solution. Keep on asking the same question over and over again with different people.

[00:44:05] Autumn Carter: I love that. It's a journey. Thank you again for your time.

[00:44:07] Dr. Nayan Patel: Thank you.

[00:44:09] Autumn Carter: Thanks for tuning into this week's episode. I am your host, autumn Carter, a certified life coach dedicated to empowering individuals to rediscover their identity, find balance, miss chaos, strengthen relationships, and pursue their dreams. My goal is to help people thrive in every aspect of their lives. I hope today's discussion inspired you and offered valuable insights.

[00:44:32] Stay engaged with our wellness community by signing up for my newsletter at wellness and every season.com/free resources. When you join, you'll have the option to receive a five day guide called Awaken and Unwind, five Days to Mastering Your Mornings and Evenings, along with Free Guides, special offers on my programs, practical tips, personal stories.

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[00:45:14] So please spread the word about our podcast and about our newsletter. Thank you for being a part of our podcast community. I look forward to continuing our conversation, sharing stories and exploring wellness in all of this aspects. Take care until our next episode. You can also work with me one-on-one or on demand through one of my programs by visiting wellness in every season.com/programs.

[00:45:41] One last thing to cover the show legally, I'm a certified life coach giving general advice, so think of this, this more as a self-help book. This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. I am not a licensed therapist, so this podcast shouldn't be taken as a replacement for professional guidance [00:46:00] from a doctor or therapist.

[00:46:02] If you want personal one-on-one coaching from a certified life and parenting coach, go to my website, wellness and every season.com. That's where you can get personalized coaching from me for you. See you in next week's episode.