Episode 107: Viewing Your Health From A New Perspective
Over the past 2+ years of the show, I’ve shared my health journey in a number of episodes, but recently I had an experience that shifted the context of how I view my health.
It’s had such a profound impact on me so, in this episode, I’m taking you behind the scenes with an update of what’s going on in my health and how a slightly different approach in tracking is helping me to get to know my body in a whole new way with a fresh perspective.
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MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE:
Episode 106 - Marrying Macros with Mindful Eating with Katie Garces
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“Everyone’s path to wellness is individualized & different. For many, cleaning up their diet is where they start. For others, clean beauty might be their entry point to a healthier lifestyle. But for so many of us prioritizing sleep may be the first place we need to start above all else.”
Read the Episode Transcript:
You guys know how much I enjoy my real people episodes and this one is no different, other than the fact, that it’s my story.
I’ve shared my own personal health journey in many episodes of this show over the past two years, but it’s been a while so I thought I’d give an update because a couple of months ago, I had a huge “a-ha” moment, that really shouldn’t have been an “a-ha moment”, but it felt so significant that I’m compelled to share it with you today.
I’m a firm believer that everyone’s path to wellness is so individualized and vastly different. For many, cleaning up their diet is where they start. For others, clean beauty might be their entry point to a healthier lifestyle - and I have many thoughts on this that I can get into in another episode.
But for so many others prioritizing sleep may be the first place they need to start above all else - yes even before they switch up their diet.
Sleep has been by far my biggest challenge and my primary focus for most of this year.
My sleep really started to go out of whack, more so than usual back in early April. I remember feeling so burnt out and its as if I haven’t recovered.
Now, I’ve struggled with sleep for as long as I can remember, going back to my childhood. I’ve always been a really light sleeper.
And over the years, I’ve tried everything for it, from prescription meds to supplements, to essential oils, you name it, I’ve tried it. Unfortunately, nothing has helped in the long term.
There are so many problems with not getting enough sleep: Brain fog Feeling so tired you have no energy to workout or really, do anything else Being grumpy, short-tempered and irritable
But also, it impacts the hormonal functions in your body and even your body’s natural ability to detoxify itself. You see, you liver goes to work in the middle of the night, between 11 pm and 3 am and when aren’t sleeping, or aren’t sleeping well, this doesn’t happen.
Over the past 8 months, I spoken to so many of my practitioner colleagues about my inability to get a good night’s sleep and the first thing they all have said to me is - its your liver. And yes, it is, among other things that I’ve recently realized.
So earlier this year, the integrative doctor I’ve been seeing for the past few years, who I loved, stepped back from seeing patients outside of his general practice to further his training integrative medicine. And for a few months, I didn’t see anyone because not much had changed - for better or worse in my health.
But by the end of the summer I was so desperate for sleep that I finally caved and started seeing the doctor who replaced him. My new doctor, a female, is probably the most practiced in integrative and functional medicine and we hit it off right away. I shared with her my professional background and we immediately formed a partnership.
In one of our first visits, she reviewed my health history, as any doctor who practices integrative and/or functional medicine should do, and she zeroed in on my Dutch test results that I had done several months earlier. And if you aren’t familiar with the Dutch test, it’s a gold standard in measuring hormone levels in your body because it measures a number of different hormones giving you a comprehensive view in what’s going on and how all your hormones may be functioning in relation to each rather, rather than just testing one type of hormone and not paying attention to the others.
Hormones work collaboratively with each other and when one hormone is out of sync, it becomes dominoes, likely affecting how your other hormones function. A Dutch test can help you get a clearer bigger picture of this.
At the time we were dealing with more pressing matters in my health, namely removing heavy metal and non-heavy metal toxins so the Dutch test results took a backseat.
But as she reviewed them, she zeroed in on a number of hormonal levels that weren’t at optimal levels.
Now I do want to say that while lab work tells us a whole lot about whats going on in our bodies, they are also a snapshot in time. So she ordered a round of additional tests, not a full Dutch test but ones that involved the hormones that she was seeing out of whack, but here’s the part that’s super interesting about it that I have NEVER had anyone do before -
She asked me to have the test done during a specific phase of my cycle. Some of you might be listening to this and think, “Well, yeah, that’s normal procedure.” but in all my years and experiences, I’ve never had someone take this approach.
So on the specified days of my cycle, I had the lab work done and low and behold the results showed that hormones that should have been high during that phase were low and ones that should have been low during that phase were high.
As weird as this sounds, it was almost a relief when I saw the results because it validated my gut instinct that things were off and my body wasn’t in fact functioning in the way its meant to. Now with my background and training, I more or less know how to read lab results and when I looked at which hormones we had tested, I noticed that they all go back to the function of the hypothalamus which made me immediately think of Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) Axis, or HPA axis which is directly tied to adrenal fatigue which then brought back all my experiences of going through adrenal fatigue a few years ago and I began to recognize how I really do operate more often than not in a sympathetic vs parasympathetic state.
That means that I’m always wired. Always thinking, Always on the go because the truth is, I don’t know how to relax. These are things deeply embedded in who I am and I will get a lot more into this in next week’s episode.
But the point of what I want to make in this episode is that having timed my lab work to very specific days of my cycle and then measuring the results based upon on what hormone levels should be during those phases really opened my eyes.
And I realized, more so than ever before, just how much as women, every aspect of our health truly does revolve around our cycles. And it’s changed everything for me, from how I track my symptoms, to what foods I eat, to what kinds of exercises I do, and in a way, it’s allowed me to cut myself some slack, and give myself some grace because I’m resetting expectations of what my body is capable of and what to expect from it during the different phases of my cycle.
I know that tracking things, whether it be food, calories, poop, sleep, workouts, can be a stressor, it can be a trigger, but its also a very powerful tool in collecting data, and we talked a lot about this in the last episode, Episode 106, and right now I’m geeking out and learning about my body in a whole different way now that I’m tracking it in the context of my cycle.
I’ve said before, many times, and especially in Episode 084 with Dr. Jolene Brighten that her book, Beyond the Pill, is a must-read, must-have for all women, men too, so while none of this is necessarily new to me, it really takes on a whole different tone when it’s actually you going through it yourself.
And as someone who didn’t have a period for over 10 years, due to the pill, I feel that in many ways, I’m learning about my body for the first time - and it’s so interesting and so empowering. So this was a short episode, but next week, will be another solo show and I’ll be sharing with you what we’re doing about my hormonal imbalances, both clinically with my doctor, but also some deeper work that I’m doing to balance out my sympathetic and parasympathetic states.
I hope lifting the curtains and bringing you behind the scenes and sharing with you my own real-life story is helpful, especially if you’re struggling through similar scenarios, I want you to know that you’re not alone and there are things you can do about it.
As always, thanks for tuning in.
Naomi Nakamura is a Functional Nutrition Health Coach. She helps passionate, ambitious high-achievers who are being dragged down by fatigue, burnout, sugar cravings, poor sleep, unexplained weight issues, and hormonal challenges optimize health, find balance, and upgrade their energy so they can do big things in this world.
Through her weekly show, The Live FAB Live Podcast, programs, coaching, and services, she teaches women how to optimize their diet, support their gut health, reduce their toxic load, and improve their productivity, bringing work + wellness together.
Naomi resides in the San Francisco Bay Area and can often be found exploring the area with her puppy girl, Coco Pop!
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