In today’s episode, we are joined by a certified physician assistant and founder of Elevate Health and Wellness, Marrie Simpson. Marrie helps us understand the signs that come with pre-menopause and menopause. She dives into the best tests and ways to help your body through this season in life. Tune in as Marrie shares her best tips on estrogen, balancing hormones, and how to reduce stress during a difficult time like divorce.

In this episode:

[2:32] Marrie discusses what made her jump into functional medicine. [4:30] What is Elevate Health and Wellness? [6:37] Understanding pre-menopause and menopause. How do women balance hormones? [9:28] Are there foods that can help balance hormones? [11:22] How does alcohol impact hormones? [14:56] What are the best hormone tests to use? [18:54] What creams are safe to use for hormones? [21:05] Is estrogen by prescription only?

Key Takeaways:

Lifestyle changes can help balance hormones such as nutrition, getting enough sleep, lowering cortisol, and exercising. People don’t make as much melatonin when stressed, which can impact sleep. Don’t start using hormones without seeing someone experienced; visit a functional health doctor to determine what's best for you. 

Quotes:

“Stress is a huge contributor to imbalance of our sex hormones, and obviously, when you're going through divorce or going through marital issues, most people are pretty stressed. And so that is going to contribute to some of the symptoms you could get. Oftentimes hormones become imbalanced, and we tend to see more estrogen dominance, meaning higher amounts of estrogen and smaller amounts of progesterone. And we really want to balance those hormones.” - Marrie Simpson

“Birth control pills are the number one cause of stroke in women in their 30s and 40s.” -Marrie Simpson

“I think the number one thing to do is to do foundational nutrition and lifestyle pieces. So making sure you're eating really healthy, getting whole foods in, focusing on vegetables, healthy proteins, and again movement, sleep, managing stress, all of that is very important. Because we can take 40 different supplements, but if you're not eating healthy, you're not getting movement, you're not getting good sleep; you want to get those foundations down and then get some building blocks on top of that.” - Marrie Simpson

Guest Bio:

I am a wife, mom, and grandma.  In my free time, I enjoy spending time outdoors, swimming, biking, and hiking, and I have a love for learning. My faith and love for Jesus are the foundation of who I am, and I desire His love and wisdom to shine through in every facet of my life.

For nearly thirty years, I’ve worked exclusively in the medical field as a Physician’s Assistant. During my time as a PA, it became clear that Western Medicine was not adequately treating the deeper, underlying issues that my patients were experiencing. This left them with unsolved chronic health issues, often pain, inflammation, fatigue, difficulties losing weight, and digestive and metabolic disorders.  I knew there had to be another solution.

Roughly 18 years ago, I became certified in functional medicine through the Metabolic Medical Institute/A4M and took several courses from IFM and other functional and environmental platforms. Through this, I gained insight into identifying and treating the root cause of illness.

Resources:

Marrie Simpson ~ Functional Medicine Health Coach

EWG.org - Clean Products

Lesa Koski Website

Lesa’s Online Courses