Metabolic Health After 40

Right now, there is a phrase that's showing up in all kinds of headlines, podcasts, and supplement ads. It is metabolic health. And if you're anything like me, you probably have no idea what it really means. Maybe it's weight, maybe it's something with metabolism, right? Many times in our forties, that's when we start to realize it might be something we should pay attention to.

So today, I'm really excited to be sitting down with Jessica Morell, owner of Radiant Health and Hormone. She's going to explain it to us in plain terms, which I'm very excited about because I need the plain terms. Jessica and Radiant Health and Hormone was one of the first groups in the entire country to be certified in functional medicine. And she's spent more than a decade helping women through exactly this window. So that window where things start to get a little dicey, you start to get a little belly fat, you start to wonder what's going on.

That's when Jessica and her team can help you navigate that help you figure out what numbers you should be paying attention to, the changes that your hormones go through and hand flow things that can actually help. Health and wellness is confusing. There's a new trend every week. Everyone's got an opinion and half the time you can't tell what's legit and what's just good marketing. And we get it.

We're in it too. Welcome to Dialed In Health. I'm Melissa Goodwin. Every episode we bring in the people who actually do this work, providers, practitioners, the experts who see clients and patients every day. We ask the questions you'd ask if you were sitting across from them so you can find the right people, make better decisions and feel confident about what's out there.

Whether it's peptides, gut health, water quality, ADHD, biohacking, or something you've never heard of, we're covering it. So let's get into it. Let's get dialed in. Thank you, Jessica, for being on the show again today. Yes.

I'm excited to learn more about this. So for people who don't know radiant, who have never maybe stepped foot in here, tell us a little about infusion, mature, metabolites, greenhouse away motives, mod constituents, isolation, senator's in hormone. I would say we're kind of an intersection between traditional medicine and a holistic integrative approach. Functional medicine takes a bigger look at lifestyle of broader evaluation of environment. We just have more tools to use.

There's a place for traditional medicine sometimes somebody has to have blood pressure medicine. Like we you just sometimes have to do that. But we can take a deeper dive. We take more time. Listen, ask more questions than maybe you can get traditionally and try and find what are the things that are in my life that are affecting this health outcome.

Yeah, interestingly enough, I was at a provider earlier this week and I had to list the things and I just started doing hormone replacement therapy and he said, well, where are you getting that stuff at? Do you really need that stuff? And I said, well, yeah, I think it, I think it helps me. And he goes, okay, I guess that can help people through whatever that thing is you go through. Okay.

So then he goes back to his medicine thing and it wasn't, it's not a knock on him, but it was just, it was, it's just, I think describes perfectly what happens to many of us when we go to our primary care. Part of it is the training. Yeah. You know, for a long time hormones were voodoo and so bad and more and more research is coming out to prove that, no, that's not the case. That study in 2001 was terrible.

Um, in fact, it is protected to the cardiovascular system. In fact, it is helpful for the immune system. It does help your bones. It does help your cognition. Yeah.

More and more information is coming. So you're one of the first groups, you were one of the first in the functional medicine field. Um, I'm really curious, your, your master's research was on hormone therapy. Um, why has this been so important to you? Why, why did you make this your life's work?

That's an excellent question. It just kind of happened. I knew I wanted to go into women's health. And when I started, I actually thought I was going to work with pregnant women because I had been working, um, in the air force. And I was in Alaska and I was counseling all these newly pregnant women who didn't have any family around them.

And this is kind of, there's a need for this. This is kind of fun. And I got into my master's program and then we started talking about menopause transition and shift in hormones. And I just refocused because that was so much more interesting to me. Wow.

That that, and I think, you know, babies are one of the things, obviously that's the time of life and everyone's attracted to that. But in the, in your forties and fifties, sometimes earlier than that, like it, the transition, it is no joke. It can be severe. So tell us when a woman finds their way to you, what is the feelings that you hear when they walk in? What are the things that they describe and say to you over and over again?

They don't feel like themselves. They're very irritable. They are gaining weight and they have not changed thing about their life. They're not sleeping. They have no energy.

They just feel like they're having an out of body experience or they're not connected with themselves. You know, it's interesting that, and I hear that a lot, like that they don't feel like themselves. I had gone, gotten so far away from myself that I didn't realize that that was happening to me. It's so gradual. And so I knew that I was starting to gain weight.

I knew that I was feeling, you know, just tired a lot, but I had, you know, three kids at home, a really demanding job. I thought that's really what it was. And so until I had some replacement therapy, I had no idea I could feel good. I was, it'd been years of just feeling drained all the time. And so I didn't know.

Right. And then people tell you, oh, it's, you're just busy. Yeah. You're just busy. Stressed out.

You're stressed. Which yes. Which we are. Yes. Okay.

So tell us, you know, what are the things you've seen a lot in functional medicine and now we see more and more people in the space. What do you see that you find really encouraging? More people in the space, more talk about it. Right. It's a recognized term.

I think I'm most encouraged by people paying attention to what they're doing in their lives. And the shift that has happened by consumers, because now when you go to the grocery store, there's so much more available either in information on the label or for food allergens or just that consumer demand has shifted from when I first started this, like to find something gluten free in the early 2000s was impossible. Sure. For, you know, when we're doing elimination diets and now there's just so many more options now that they're not all good options. And a lot of this stuff, we're still a lot of junk food that is healthy.

But I think the awareness and the growth in consumers that has changed, even cleaning products, facial care is really encouraging. So tell us now that there's all these people in this space and a lot of attention on the space. Conversely, what do you find discouraging or what do you worry about? The level of education. Okay.

Because now there's a lot of programs out there, but it's maybe a weekend online seminar. Right. And now you're certified in something. So I just know that can get people in trouble if they don't really understand what they're doing or what they're looking for. I think another thing that concerns me is sometimes you can become an absolutist where, you know, even from patients, like they will, they have it in their mindset that they've been on these eight medications and now they want to change their lifestyle.

So they're just going to stop all those medications. And that's kind of scary. You can't do it that way. Yes, you can probably get off some of your medications, but has to be gradual and it has to be monitored. And so I think swinging too much one way should be a little concerning to I do see a lot of folks that seem to be now like I'm now a peptide coach or now I'm a, you know, I do Dutch tests and then I'll coach you through weight in things like that where it seems like specific and not connected to the other maybe aspects of your health.

Is that concerning to you? What's more information for people? You know, the peptides are new to the general public. Right. Very exciting.

But they are not magical. Yeah. They're helpful. They're a piece of the puzzle, but we are all looking for quick fixes and we think the peptide is going to do that. And nothing works if you do not have the consistency of a balanced lifestyle.

That's the hard part that none of us really want to do. Right. When sometimes the world makes it very hard to do that. It is hard to do that. We are.

We live in a society where production is valued. Right. Like if you're not working at least 40, 50 hours a week, what are you a slacker? And if you would take time to do something for yourself, that's how, how can you do that? D R.

Yeah. You feel, you feel guilty. Yes. Shameful for doing that. Let's talk a little bit.

We came to talk about metabolic health and I'll be honest. I hear, I see the term too. And I'm like, well, what exactly does that mean? Help us understand when someone says metabolic health, what are they talking about? We're talking about the energy production in the body.

Okay. So also the way the body uses glucose, what happens with insulin lipid panels, the blood pressure, which is a kind of a measure of inflammation in the vessels if it's high. Basically when you fuel your body, how that is processed, how it moves through the body, that's metabolic health. So your metabolism is part of your metabolic health, how your body breaks down cholesterol, stores it or doesn't store it. If your body can actively store glucose correctly so that you can use it later, that's ideal.

And that's muscle has a great impact on that. Sure. So I guess when I hear metabolism, I just think, wait, are you here? They burn it off fast. So when you're, when you're looking at someone's metabolic health, how are you measuring someone's metabolic health?

Like do we all have different metabolisms? Yes. So tell us a little about that. We all have different metabolisms, but I would say the key markers are a fasting glucose. Insulin is a very important marker.

Okay. Metabolic health, rarely measured blood pressure, lipid panel, waist circumference. Okay. Body mass index to some degree. I think that's a terrible measure of overall health because you can have some very fit, very muscular that will just be high on the BMI where they have very low body fat.

Okay. So, but it does play a role. I think another interesting measurement is grip strength. Oh, yeah. That is a predictor of longevity because it does tell you muscularly where someone stands.

I'd never thought about that. That's an easy, easy thing to check. Okay. Yeah. And something you can measure and see improve.

So when you're, so I'm assuming you test those five things, insulin. And so when someone comes to you and says like, I can't lose weight or I'm really struggling, I'm eating less. What, what is, when do you start to suspect, let's, let's start to take a look at this and measure it and see how do we improve it? Right away. Okay.

Even in, even in people who have fatigue, if weight hasn't really changed, but they feel like their cognition has changed or they're fatigued. Okay. They don't have exercise stamina. I start looking at that. Okay.

Because you will have these vague symptoms before you have a 20 pound weight gain or also obviously in people who have gained a lot of weight rapidly we do or just any weight gain over time. Quick break. This episode is brought to you by vitality growth labs. If you're a health or wellness practice and you're wondering why your phone isn't ringing in the way it should be, Vitality Growth Labs builds the systems to fix that. Get found, build trust, fill your calendar, AI authority stacking videos that connect with your clients, real tools, strategy, and execution that results in real revenue.

Visit vitalitygrowthlabs.com or check the provider directory at vitalitygrowthlabs.com slash the directory to find a trusted wellness provider near you. All right, back to the show. So you said insulin is an important one that has almost never measured. What does insulin tell you and why don't most, why do we not get it measured very often? I don't know why we don't get it measured because it's not a hard test to measure.

Okay. But it tells us how hard the body is working to transport that glucose. So if I, um, I'll often have somebody do a fasting glucose and insulin, and then we'll give them a 75 gram carbohydrate challenge. They'll intake 75 grams of carbohydrate. And then we'll measure their labs at one hour and or two hours after, and we will see a spike in the insulin.

And that tells me that they are an insulin resistance. It is taking so much more insulin for them to transport that glucose. It's inefficient. Pancreas is working hard and insulin promotes fat gain and and cognitive issues. So you, you, when you're measuring not how much you have, but the insulin's ability to spike.

Tell me, tell me, you're measuring how much you have at this fasting period. Yep. And then you're measuring after that carbohydrate challenge, how much is the body having to make? How much do you have then? Okay.

Because that's what's transporting the glucose. Got it. Okay. And so you can see the efficiency there. Yes.

All right. Or inefficiency. So if you're inefficient, what do you do? We take a very long look at their diet. All right.

Exercise has a huge impact on that insulin production. Sometimes we'll do some herbal, sometimes we'll do some prescriptions, sometimes we'll do a peptide. It depends on what the signal, how much it's changed, what the patient wants to do, how aggressive they want to be. Okay. But it is foundational as always diet and exercise.

Why do you think, um, as we get older, you know, we, we, we have issues with weight. Is the inefficiency, just the fact that we're getting older or have we all is that inefficiency all sudden just happened when you turn 40 hormones do play a role in that. Okay. As estrogen drops, you become much more, uh, inefficient metabolically and you start losing muscle and you can't burn the brown fat, the visceral fat. That's the dangerous fat around your vital organs.

And you start gaining that, which makes your metabolism more inefficient causes weight gain. Same thing happens with testosterone. So it happens to both men and women. Um, that's a big, a big piece. Um, and just, if over time you have not been a consistent exerciser through your thirties and you've started to have some muscle loss, which is also starts to catch up.

Right. And so the less muscle you have, the slower your metabolism, the less ability you have to store that glucose that can then be used for glycogenesis. So then you're storing more in fat and it just becomes a compounding issue. Right. It's a vicious cycle.

So one in eight adults is healthy on all five of those markers. So that means a lot of us are, are having issues with metabolic syndrome. So is it, it's, it's age and exercise and what else? What you're feeding your body, toxic exposures, it all impacts the mitochondria, which are the little energy produces in your cell, right? Little engines, not really, but that's the best way to describe.

Sure. They, the mitochondria is what makes that ATP, that energy production, which the glucose is so important for. Okay. And so as you lose muscle, you lose that ability. The mitochondria is affected by not only the loss of muscle, cause that's the most efficient way to do it, but it can be impacted by the toxins surrounding you can be impacted by lower hormone levels.

So when you go out with your symptoms, do they all just pepper you with questions about what to do? Not usually. Okay. Just curious. And they're like, what should I do?

So what if you are thin? Can you still have a metabolic problem? Oh yeah. Skinny fat people. Okay.

Tell us about the skinny fat people. What's going on there? They don't have muscle mass. Okay. I think one of my biggest concerns with all the weight loss that has been going on with the was empic is that they are losing muscle.

Which is then damaging their mitochondria. And eventually this, the metabolic system is just shot. So if you are losing weight rapidly by losing muscle, you're not helping your long-term longevity. Right. Well, and it feels good to be in a smaller size sometimes, but then yeah, what is that actually costing you in the long-term?

And that's why the number on the scale is really the body composition where you can see what is the body muscle mass versus the body skeletal mass versus the fat, both the subcutaneous fat and the visceral fat. Okay. That is really what should be monitored. Do you guys monitor that here? We do.

We have a 3D scale called a staiku. Okay. And it just takes a minute. Just stand on it. It spins you in a circle and it does all measurements and tells you your brown fat.

That's the term I was not familiar with. Okay. Visceral fat. All right. So, um, tell me around, you said hormones.

So is insulin a hormone? Did we say we talked about that last time. So hormones are running everything. Um, and your hormones, as those change, you'd said insulin is one of the main things that is not measured. What are the other four things that we need to pay attention to glucose glucose?

I think I really sugar intake. Usually. Um, but if somebody's on a steroid that'll throw their glucose off. Okay. Stress can throw your glucose off illness.

Um, I think a really interesting tool that is so easy for people to get now as a continuous glucose monitor. Yeah. Yeah. Just wearing one for two to four weeks. Well, really, um, show you what you're eating does to your glucose because there may be things that are really healthy, but it spikes your glucose because it's not healthy for you or it's too much, or you're not pairing it with enough protein and other fiber.

Right. So I think that's a really valuable tool for people to have to see what their intake does to their individual blood sugar. That is interesting. I've seen those, uh, you know, Facebook ads and whatever, and I, I'm curious, but so it's a good tool, but that's just one of the measurements is the correct. Right.

So it helps foods that will spike your spike is not good. You want continue. You want steady glucose. Well, if you have a spike, as long as it comes down quickly, I mean, you don't want a spike too high, but you will have variability in your glucose is normal. Like every time you eat, every time you eat, there should be some, some spike, but within the normal range.

Right. Okay. So, um, glucose insulin, what else should we be paying attention to cholesterol panels? Okay. However, we can only monitor that with a grain of salt because LDL is the bad cholesterol, but there's two forms of LDL.

There's the big fat, fluffy LDL that's really not platforming. And then there's the small density LDL that we should be worried about. Okay. So if somebody has a high LDL, I like to do an advanced panel to see what's their small density versus our large density. What's a lipoprotein a, um, which is a probably one of the biggest risk factors for cardiovascular disease if that's high and it's partially genetic.

So it's hard to move the needle on that one. Okay. But we'll do advanced lipid panels. If the standard lipid panel looks a little out of range. And how does your cholesterol affect your metabolism?

It's more of a, um, marker that you have a poor metabolism. Okay. Then directly impacting your metabolism. Got it. Okay.

So if you're eating a, you know, a lot of really high saturated fat foods and things that's not necessarily. Yeah. It is a correlate correlative, but not necessarily causing. Not causing not necessarily causing metabolic issues, but it is your cholesterol is off because you have metabolic issues. Sure.

Okay. That makes sense. So, um, you mentioned mitochondria and ATP. So tell us a little bit about, um, is that something that we as the consumer need to worry think about? I know there's all kinds of supplements and things that talk about cellular level and mitochondrial health, but I don't really know.

Like I don't have time to sit and do a biochemistry breakdown and what all that means probably need to worry about what do we need to think about? I think you need to worry about what can I do consistently that is good for my body? Okay. Because that is going to help my energy production, whether you know, it's because of ATP production or mitochondria or not. That doesn't matter.

It matters that, you know, you need to be doing the things 150 minutes a week of exercise, varied strength, some cardio, eating well, getting whole foods, those practical things consistently. There's no magic. I wish I had a magic wand to make. Yeah. That's such a bummer.

I really want a magic wand too, for a number of reasons, not just food, but other things too. All right. So, all right. So I wanted improve my health. Tell me specifically when you, you talk about food and protein and fiber.

Uh, I know we talked about psyllium husk a while back, you're talking about fiber. I bought some. It doesn't taste like anything. It's sort of like drinking like a, it's really thick, like a jelly kind of thing. It was to drink it fast.

It wasn't bad. Yeah. Okay. This is all right. So tell us about food, protein, and fiber.

Like what should we be high level? You know, is, is there any, any general rules you give to people who are like, I have no idea what to do. Where do I start? There are some nuances, but I would say as a general rule, you want protein throughout the day, an average of 30 grams per meal. You dependent on the person.

Um, you want 25 to 35 grams of fiber minimum a day through a variety of sources, not all from a supplement. Um, lots of color in your vegetables and fruits. And you have to be hydrated. It sounds like not a lot of fun. It can be very fun.

Just look colorful plates. Yes. I agree. I agree. I was giving you a little bit of time.

So when you talk about muscle, how does muscle and sugar, blood sugar and muscle, what is the, what is the correlation there? The more muscle you have, the more flexibility you're going to have in the amount of sugar you can have, because you're going to be able to store it more efficiently and use it more efficiently. Okay. So the body stores the excess glucose and then when the body needs it, so if you've eaten and three hours later, you're doing something and your body needs glucose, well, your muscles got that and it just keeps it in homeostasis. Okay.

So if you have never thought about my muscle mass, let's say, you know, and it's funny, I joked this morning because I started to wait another new weightlifting program and I said, you know, in the eighties and nineties, girls to lift weights, like that was not a thing you ran. Like we did the sports and stuff, but we did not step aerobics. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Right.

Uh, step rope, it jazzercise, maybe something like that. Um, and so if you've never done anything with weights or you don't know anything about your muscle mass, how do you find out what you have? Where are more am I at? Like am I in a good range? The stank who will tell you, okay.

3d body scan, uh, grip strength will tell you, tell me about the grip strength. What are you testing there? What do you use to test that? You just, it's a, just a little device that you squeeze and it gives a number. Okay.

We have a scale that tells where, where you are based on age, um, which if you really want longevity and you are 60, you probably don't want the grip strength of a 70 year old or 60 year old. You want the grip strength of a 40 year old. Okay. People know if they're weak, they know if they don't have good amounts of mass. If you can't lift your suitcase up in the airplane to put it above the above your seat, then you probably don't have great muscle mass.

You need to start grabbing some, some weights. Yes. And if you have never lifted weights, just start with body weight or some bands, lightweight and work your way up because we don't want to create injury, right? Right. And working with someone who is trained in that probably would be a great idea to start.

Right. That makes sense. So tell me about how hormone therapy fits in the midst of all of this medical, because I would imagine people come in because they're like, I don't feel good. I feel like I don't feel like myself. Got some belly fat.

What is, how do you, how does hormone therapy fit? Estrogen really impacts metabolism because it impacts the way you store fat. So that's why when estrogen drops, we start to notice increased central weight gain. The other thing that happens when hormones drop is cortisol goes up because it's trying to compensate and cortisol promotes weight gain as well. So that's kind of a double whammy.

Testosterone impacts muscle mass. So as testosterone drops in men and women, we have a hard time maintaining muscle mass. So the whole drop just promotes sarcopenia. Okay. And what is that?

The loss of muscle mass. Sarcopenia. Okay. You said something I central, you said central weight gain. Yeah.

I like that term. Having a little feeling, a little central weight gain. Yes. Sounds so much nicer than belly fat. I like the dangerous gain because that's the visceral.

A lot of times that's around the vital organs and that's what you don't want fatty liver. And you don't want that. Right. Okay. So, so tell me, we talked a little bit about GLP medications, but what, on a high level, what are they doing to your body from a symbolic standpoint?

The body creates GLP on its own. When this, you know, signal of food has come, there's a GLP release. So the GLP medications are augmenting that. Okay. A lot of times as we age, the peptides in the body, because most, almost all the peptides are naturally found in the body, their amino acid chains, we just can't complete the chains as we age.

Okay. Or because of injury, illness over time. So the peptides are just giving the full amino acid chain to make that process work. That's already been going on in the body. Okay.

So it is making the glucose and insulin, maybe communicate a little more efficiently, stimulating the appropriate insulin production, calming the system down. Okay. Finding a lot of inflammation goes down with these as well, because it, I think it stabilizes the insulin more. And that's with all of them. There's so many different GLP ones.

It's really confusing. Does that, is that kind of a general rule for all of the GLPs? Yes. Okay. Yeah.

So the, another thing you started doing some, you started offering some genetic testing. Yeah. So without me, without going into like a ton of detail, because that could be its own probably conversation, how does knowing your own genetic makeup change the focus of all of this? So the, the test will show us where your susceptibilities are, what nutritional deficiencies are you susceptible to? Are you a person who's likely to feel full after you eat appropriately?

Are you going to get that signaling? So people who don't have that signaling, we know we have to tell them, you have to be very diligent about looking at your portion sizes and just knowing that's enough because your body's not going to tell you that, which is really helpful when people know, okay, it's not, it's more than just willpower. It also tells us what type of exercise is going to be most efficient for this person, what they're going to. How is that possible? This is, this is always kind of throwing me for a loop.

So tell me, how can you take a genetic test and then tell me what type of exercise I could do? Because of the genes that it's testing, we'll say if you're more of an endurance person, or are you a short, like a short muscle exerciser? Okay. And so it will tell you not that you can't do those other exercises, but it also tells us, are you going to be efficient? And when you exercise, you're going to make gains quickly, or are you going to be inefficient?

And you're not going to see a lot of gains when you exercise, because when people work out and they don't see any gains, they stop. Right. But if they know genetically, I'm not going to see gains, but I know it's helping things, but I know genetically, I'm not going to see the gains. They're more inclined to continue going. So your, your genetic testing can tell me what kind of exercise I should do, or will give me the most gains.

What's going to be most efficient for your body? It will tell me my ability to signal that I'm full. Yeah. If you have that or not. Also will tell us, are you prone to having B vitamin deficiencies?

Are you prone to, you know, mineral deficiencies? Okay. And that would change your diet because you might need a supplementation or what should we test for these things? Okay. Oh, interesting.

Well, this is probably don't need to test all those vitamins in every person. Right. I know you're genetically susceptible to a zinc deficiency. I probably want to check your zinc. Right.

Oh, that's super interesting. Okay. Well, so that's test is available right now. Yeah. It's a cheek swab.

Okay. Oh, that's easy. Nice. Yeah. I like it.

Okay. So I've got some statements here and you're going to tell me if they're true or false. If we're going to move into the myth busters section. All right. So if a woman has 15 minutes a day and that is all actually this is like a maybe I don't know if this is a myth buster or not.

What is the first thing she should do? Move her body and make a meal plan. A meal plan. It's like for the next tomorrow, what am I going to eat? Yeah.

And 10 minutes of movement. I love that. And I never do it. I need to do that because I go to the grocery store and I'm like, I want to show you one of these, maybe some of this. You got to meal plan first and then go to the grocery store.

That's right. I know you're right. I need help with this. Can you go? Yeah.

Do you have services for that too? No, maybe a possibility for expansion down the road. Okay. For people like me. All right.

What's that one habit that compounds the most over a year? Exercise. Okay. Resistance training. Resistance training.

Resistance training consistently. And resistance training means bands. It means any kind of weight training. Okay. If a listener takes one thing from this conversation, Jessica, regarding metabolic health and overall all the things that you need to be.

That they're really in the driver's seat. There's a lot of noise and a lot of things that will target your metabolic health. But if you can be consistent at moving your body and fueling your body, anything else that we will do, because you're still going to have the needs, that's not going to fix your hormones. It's not going to fix your thyroid if it's off. But everything else that you do on top of that will only work better.

I love that. So a perfect client. I see all kinds of people come through your doors. All ages, men and women. Tell me if there's somebody out there that really needs help in the med.

If you're feeling this, what might they be feeling if they're like, need to give you a call? If you're feeling X, Y, or Z. I would say just if you don't feel like you're on top of your game and you don't wake up in the morning excited about the day, you need to come see us. I love that. All right.

So now I'm really going to read some statements about some MythBusters here. So metabolic health is just about your weight. No. That's probably the worst measure of your metabolic health. The worst measure.

Okay. Because it isn't telling you how efficient are you at making energy. It doesn't say anything about your muscle mass. And there can be some very metabolically unhealthy people who have an excellent BMI. Okay.

Belly fat in midlife, you just need to eat less. No. You probably need to eat more. Women have been starving themselves their entire lives. And it just has depleted their metabolisms.

And when you start gaining weight, because your estrogen has dropped and you are already under feeding your body, you're just shutting your metabolism down more. We have been starving ourselves our whole life. We have been. Yeah. Entire lives.

And so for those women that have been doing that, what's the fix? It is probably working with a nutritionist would be helpful, but you have to overfeed for a while for a couple of weeks to get the metabolism revved up and then drop it a little bit and keep the activity going because exercise really promotes that metabolic movement. So exercise and stay nutritionist. More cardio. So I grew up in the land of cardio.

Jane Fonda was all over. I think there was, I think there was like a buns of steel in there. So she was doing some. Tybo. She was doing some squats, but mostly yeah.

Tybo, Jane Fonda, Jazzercise. So I grew up in the cardio era. Cardio is still important, but it's not the only thing. Okay. It needs to be a mix of resistance training and cardio.

Okay. A slow metabolism after menopause. It's just, it is, it's just going to happen. There's nothing you can do about it. If you don't do anything, you, there's nothing the.

You can do about it, but you can do things about it. Is it going to be as easy as it was when you're 20? No, a, but you can boost it. There are things you can do. And that's those things are also really important for your bones and your balance.

And if you want to live independently, when you're in your eighties and nineties, you have to have strength and you have to have balance. So all of this is too complicated, not worth understanding. Okay. That's just giving up. No, it's not.

It is the back to the just simple baseline. You have to fuel your body with real food, enough protein, good fiber, and you have to move your body consistently. All right. Last one, um, is I feel fine. So my metabolism is fine.

That's possible. Um, or it's not because a lot of times we think we feel fine, but do you feel great? Right. And if you compare yourself to 10 years ago, do you feel the same? Well, that's, I think that just goes back to right.

I didn't think I was, I didn't think there was anything wrong necessarily because I thought I was just overworked and overstressed and overthink, you know, all the, all the things that happen in midlife. Yes. So you might not even realize you're really not fine. No, you don't until you really take a good look and compare where you were five or 10 years ago to where you are now. Right.

So let's talk a little bit about, um, metabolic health. And so obviously when you start to gain weight, that's problematic. And then there's like a certain point, um, where that becomes really problematic. So tell us a little bit about insulin, you know, the dangers of not paying attention to your insulin. What can happen?

The whole reason I'm testing this early is to try and prevent someone from going into type two diabetes. Okay. The, um, I guess the culmination of really poor metabolic health is cardiovascular disease and type two diabetes. And that's where we really don't want people to go. Um, cardiovascular disease is the number one killer of women.

Okay. It's not cancer is cardiovascular disease, which is a metabolic issue. So that's why knowing where you're at metabolically, um, really helps maintain longevity. And that's what we want. Having a baseline of your glucose, insulin, your cholesterol, and there was blood pressure, uh, waste circumference, waste circumference.

And if you can get a, um, an understanding of what your body composition is, the fat to muscle ratios and your grip strength, all of those things. And you guys do all of that here. You can do it all on the baseline, see where you're at, see where your risk, um, risk zones might be. Yes. And what can you do to course correct?

Love it. And your genetic tests to tell you what you should do. I love that. Um, anything else that you would want someone to know about, um, anything, anything else that is commonly misconstrued about metabolic health that you'd like to clear up while you have the opportunity? Just changing to artificial sweeteners is not going to fix it.

Yeah. It's not just about sugar. No. And actually when you have an artificial sweetener, you get that sweet sense on your tongue, which sends a message to your brain, which tells your pancreas to release some insulin because there's glucose coming, but there's not glucose coming. So now you have spiked this insulin and there's no glucose for it to transport.

Oh, does that, is that with stevia too, other things like that, alulose and all of those as well. Yes. So you shouldn't be doing those. Well, now that you can't do them, but you can't think that there's no reaction by the body. No repercussion.

Not sugar. Okay. I didn't know that. Yeah. Okay.

Now I have to rethink everything. I thought it was, I mean, not that I thought it was all about sugar, but I did think reducing sugar would help a lot from a dietary standpoint. And it does. And it's not that you can't use a stevia once in a while, but it's best if you have it not alone. Okay.

With a, with some protein, with some fiber. Got it. Well, this is why we need you, Jessica, why we need you and your team. Cause there's just so much information out there. It's really hard to know for the average consumer.

You might think you'd be doing, you're doing something good for yourself and then kind of shooting yourself in the foot. Yeah. So to speak, I think another problem. Yeah. I've got it.

I've got it covered full of alulose stevia, monk fruit. Yeah. Because I thought I was doing a good thing. And those are much better than some of the other artificial sweeteners. Okay.

All right. Well, thank you so much for being on the show. I, every time I meet with you, I'm like, Oh, gotta redo that. Okay. I didn't, I didn't realize that was happening, but it's helpful too, because now we can understand, you know, some of the repercussions of that.

Thank you again for being on the show. I look forward to the next time we're going to talk about more of the, maybe the genetic testing or maybe who knows what we'll be new, what we'll be closing. Thanks, Jessica. Hey, that's our show. If someone came to mind while you were listening to this, if you thought, Hey, my sister needs to hear this, or I should send this to my mom, or my buddy would get a lot out of this, please share it with them.

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Thank you for being here. And I really mean that. I'm Melissa Goodwin. See you next time.