Menopause Explained: Hormones, Glucose & What You Can Do

Summary

In this enlightening episode of the Glucose Goddess Show, Jesse Enchowski delves into the complex world of menopause, debunking myths and revealing surprising truths about this natural phase in a woman's life. With a focus on the role of glucose and hormones, Jesse shares practical tips to alleviate menopause symptoms through dietary changes and lifestyle adjustments. Exploring the unique human experience of menopause compared to the animal kingdom, Jesse highlights the importance of maintaining stable glucose levels to reduce symptoms. The episode offers insights into hormonal shifts, the role of diet, and practical glucose hacks that don’t compromise your favorite foods. Jesse also touches on the significance of muscle mass and bone health during menopause, making this episode a comprehensive guide for anyone navigating this important life stage.

Highlights

• The average age for menopause is 51, and by 2030, 1 billion women will be in perimenopause or post-menopause. 📅
• Humans live long after menopause, unlike most animals, suggesting a unique evolutionary role. 🐋
• Stable glucose levels can significantly reduce menopause symptoms, with simple hacks like eating savory breakfasts and moving after meals. 🚶‍♀️
• Hormone replacement therapy, particularly transdermal patches, shows promising results in reducing symptoms with fewer cardiovascular issues. 💉
• Muscle mass and bone density are crucial during menopause; lifting weights and increasing protein intake are essential strategies. 🏋️‍♀️

Key Takeaways

• Menopause is more than hot flashes; it includes a variety of symptoms like joint pain, mood changes, and brain fog. 🌀
• Stable glucose levels can help reduce menopause symptoms. A few simple dietary changes can make a big difference. 🍏
• Humans are unique in living long after menopause, which might serve a significant societal role. 🌍
• Exercise, especially weightlifting, and a higher protein diet can help maintain muscle mass during menopause. 💪
• Diet quality has a major influence on menopausal symptoms, with evidence suggesting a significant reduction when improved. 📉

Overview

Menopause is a natural biological process, yet it often goes misunderstood and stigmatized. In this episode, Jesse Enchowski, the 'Glucose Goddess', sheds light on the broad spectrum of menopause symptoms beyond traditional perceptions. You’ll learn why humans outlive their reproductive years, contrasting sharply with most animal species.

Jesse explains the critical role of glucose in managing menopause symptoms. With the right dietary tweaks, one can significantly reduce the discomfort associated with menopause. Stable glucose levels are pivotal, acting as a barrier against insulin spikes that exacerbate symptoms. Jesse shares her top glucose hacks that won’t require giving up your favorite meals!

Beyond diet, muscle and bone health are pivotal during menopause. Jesse recommends weightlifting and a protein-rich diet to combat muscle loss and maintain bone density. With a call to action for more research and awareness, this episode is a comprehensive guide for navigating menopause effectively, offering practical advice and scientific insights.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:00: Introduction and Overview of Menopause The chapter titled 'Introduction and Overview of Menopause' highlights recent research indicating that the severity of menopause symptoms can be influenced by dietary choices. Jesse Enchowski, a French biochemist and host of the Glucose Goddess Show, welcomes listeners and promises to aid in understanding their bodies and health.
• 01:00 - 03:00: Human Menopause vs. Animal Kingdom Human menopause is a significant topic, often misunderstood as merely involving hot flashes and decreased usefulness. However, it is much more complex and affects many individuals.
• 03:00 - 06:00: Menopause Symptoms Beyond Hot Flashes The chapter discusses the transition into menopause, starting with the perimenopause stage, where fewer eggs are produced, and levels of estrogen and progesterone decrease. This hormonal change leads to irregular periods. Once a woman has not had a period for a whole year, she is considered to be in post-menopause or 'menopaused.'
• 06:00 - 09:00: The Role of Glucose Levels in Menopause This chapter highlights the significance of glucose levels in relation to menopause. It begins by noting the average age of menopause onset, which is 51 years old. By 2030, it is expected that 1 billion females worldwide will be in perimenopause or post-menopause stages. The chapter points out a unique aspect of human biology: unlike most animals, human females tend to live for a significant period after menopause. This is an unusual characteristic not shared by the majority of the animal kingdom, where most animals tend to die shortly after losing reproductive capabilities.
• 12:00 - 14:30: Adrenals, Stress, and Female Hormones The chapter discusses the uniqueness of human reproduction, noting that unlike many animals, humans experience menopause. It contrasts humans with other animals like tortoises, which can reproduce for nearly their entire lifespan, such as up to 100 years in the case of tortoises.
• 16:00 - 19:00: Impact on Muscle and Bone Health This chapter explores the phenomenon of menopause in mammals, including orca whales, shortfin pilot whales, belugas, and chimpanzees, with a specific focus on a 2023 study indicating menopause in wild chimpanzees. The discussion highlights the longevity of humans compared to these species.
• 20:00 - 23:30: Hormone Replacement Therapy The chapter titled 'Hormone Replacement Therapy' discusses the historical context of human life expectancy, which traditionally was around 60 years. Despite the lower average life expectancy due to high infant mortality rates, humans have lived until around 60 for a long time. The discussion highlights that females have always experienced menopause, living beyond their reproductive years. The chapter seems to be setting the stage for exploring why menopause occurs in humans.
• 24:00 - 26:00: Conclusion and Encouragement In the chapter titled 'Conclusion and Encouragement,' the discussion focuses on a supplement called anti-pike formula designed to maintain steady glucose levels. The speaker emphasizes the importance of stable glucose levels for both physical and mental health, especially highlighting their relevance during peri and postmenopause to potentially reduce menopause symptoms. The formula utilizes two powerful natural plant molecules to achieve these health benefits.

Menopause Explained: Hormones, Glucose & What You Can Do Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 But here's the great thing, my friends. Here's the great thing. There's more and more research coming out showing that you can actually change how severe your symptoms are with [Music] food. Hello angels, and welcome back to the Glucose Goddess Show. My name is Jesse Enchowski. I'm a French biochemist and today I'm going to help you understand your body and your health
• 00:30 - 01:00 because science is my passion. And in today's episode we are covering the very important topic of menopause. Now for a long time menopause was just associated with hot flashes. Now you have brittle bones and you're useless. That couldn't be further from the truth. It's really important that we dive into this fascinating topic that is going to affect or affects so many of us. So as a female body ages slowly their ovaries start producing and releasing
• 01:00 - 01:30 fewer eggs and also start producing less female hormones estrogen and progesterone. Now this leads to periods becoming irregular and then eventually stopping. So when your periods become irregular, you're said to be in perry menopause. And once you haven't had a period in one whole year, then you are in post menopause or you are menopaused
• 01:30 - 02:00 if you will. Now the average age for menopause is 51 years old. And in 2030 1 billion females in the world will be in perry or post menopause. Now there's something really unique about humans. Human females live for a very long time after going through menopause. And this is not the case in most animals. Most animals die shortly after no longer
• 02:00 - 02:30 being able to reproduce. Or if you put it another way, most animals live their whole lives being able to reproduce. Even animals who live much longer than humans. So humans are a very special case. And this is quite interesting. For instance, turtises live to about a 100red years old, but never go through menopause. They can reproduce until they're about 100 years old. And scientists have now only discovered a
• 02:30 - 03:00 few species of mammals that experience menopause and that stay alive after no longer having periods and being able to reproduce. And these species are orca whales, so killer whales, shortfinn pilot whales, belugas, and a new groundbreaking study from 2023 also shows evidence for menopause in wild chimpanzees. So it's quite interesting because humans have always lived fairly long. You know, even in ancient times,
• 03:00 - 03:30 humans would live until about 60 years old. The average life expectancy was much lower because a lot of people died very very young. There was a lot of infant death, but humans have been living, you know, until six years old for a very long time. And so, females have been going through menopause forever and living past the age of being able to reproduce. So, why does menopause happen in [Music] humans? Time for a quick break to tell
• 03:30 - 04:00 you about the supplements I have developed, anti-pike formula. Now, listen. In my years of research, I've understood one key thing. Keeping our glucose levels steady is the foundation of physical and mental health. No question. And if you are currently going through perry or postmenopause, this is going to be of interest to you because helping your glucose levels stay steady has been associated with fewer menopause symptoms. I created anti-spike with two really powerful natural plant molecules
• 04:00 - 04:30 in it. The first one is malbury leaf extract. And listen to this. In a review study of 12 randomized clinical trials on over 600 people, scientists found that mold relief extract significantly reduces our glucose spikes after a meal by up to 40%. It also significantly reduces our insulin spike after a meal by up to 40%. And it reduces our fasting glucose levels by 8 milligrams per
• 04:30 - 05:00 deciliter after just two months. So this molecule from mold relief reduces the absorption of glucose in our bloodstream. It actually slows down how quickly starches turn to glucose in our bloodstream. Therefore creating a massive reduction in the glucose spike of our meal. The second main molecule in antis-pike formula is a molecule from lemon called aocitrine. It's the molecule that makes lemons yellow, but it also has a really cool effect on our gut. It basically helps our gut produce
• 05:00 - 05:30 more GLP-1. Clinical trials show us that GLP-1 production increases by 17% after just two months of taking it. More GLP-1 means healthier glucose levels. I take two capsules of antis-pike formula every single day before the meal of my day, highest in carbs and sugars. So, go to anti-pike.com to see all the science behind these ingredients, to see testimonials from thousands of people who've tried it and to order your own
• 05:30 - 06:00 anti-pike formula bottle and try it for [Music] yourself. I think this is a really key question to ask ourselves. And the thing is, scientists don't really know. Sorry guys, no real good answer. What we do know is that one, men can reproduce until they die, right? but females can't. So to me this shows that there is a great advantage for human society to having females amongst them who can no
• 06:00 - 06:30 longer reproduce because they serve a very important function in human society. So just remember that I know that menopause has been dis dismissed a lot and that there's all this taboo around going through menopause and that post menopause you're no longer a useful part of society. But biology shows us exactly the opposite. Biology has favored the fact of having females among human society who can no longer reproduce because they serve a vital role in society. Possibly. We don't know
• 06:30 - 07:00 for sure, but there's definitely an advantage. Otherwise, females would die right after going through menopause. And that is not the case. Still, there's very little research on this topic. There's stigma. There's a belief that menop that menopause is just hot flashes. Actually, there's a lot more going on. It's super interesting. I want to talk about a specific study from 2024 called diet quality is associated with lower prevalence of menopausal symptoms. The Zoey predict three study. And this
• 07:00 - 07:30 study showed us that it's not just hot flashes. There are many, many symptoms that you can experience as you go through Perry and postmenopause. Let me just name a few so you don't feel alone. Joint pain, thinning hair, dry skin, water retention, weight gain, slowed metabolism, fatigue, memory loss, brain fog, headaches, sleep disturbances, mood changes, anxiety, low mood, depression, irritability, vaginal dryness, loss of breastfulness, low libido, chills, night
• 07:30 - 08:00 sweats, and finally, hot flashes. And importantly, very importantly, almost 100% of females had symptoms and 66% of females had more than 12 symptoms in pmenopause and 41% of females had over 12 symptoms in post menopause. So let's quickly talk about our glucose levels because there's really substantial scientific evidence that shows us that
• 08:00 - 08:30 unfortunately in postmenopause our body cannot handle carbs as it used to. So carbs as a reminder are starches. That's bread, rice, pasta, potatoes, oats, and sugars. Anything sweet from a slice of apple pie to a banana smoothie. And what goes on is that the same carbs that you used to eat before menopause now are creating bigger glucose spikes in your body than before. So without changing your diet, you're going to be
• 08:30 - 09:00 experiencing bigger glucose spikes for the same exact food. And if you're looking for numbers, there's a large 2022 study that looked at a thousand women. It's called menopause is associated with postprangial metabolism, metabolic health, and lifestyle. The Zoey predict study. And they found that there was a 42% increased magnitude of glucose spikes for the same food. And this is not based on age, okay? It's whatever
• 09:00 - 09:30 age you're going through menopause. It's not an age thing. It is truly a hormonal shift thing. So let me show you an example. This is to illustrate the concept. So here you see a cookie that you would eat before menopause. And then you would see the same cookie that you eat post menopause. And this study shows us that the post-menopause cookie is going to create a spike that is up to 42% bigger for the same food. Now, this
• 09:30 - 10:00 kind of sucks if I'm being perfectly honest. This definitely sucks because glucose spikes create symptoms. Glucose spikes create cravings, fatigue, bloating, inflammation, mood swings. they can lead to weight gain, etc. So, if you don't change your diet, you're naturally going to be experiencing more symptoms from just the same foods as before. And another thing is that glucose spikes have been shown recently to increase brain fog because they can slow down the speed of information
• 10:00 - 10:30 between your neurons. So, a lot of the symptoms that you might be feeling during Perry and postmenopause could actually be being aggravated by glucose spikes. So, what do we do here? Listen, the most important thing is to start with glucose hacks. So, I have a set of 10 glucose hacks that are very easy, don't cost any money, don't ask you to give up any foods, but are going to help you reduce your glucose spikes. And if you're going through pmenopause or postmenopause, this is the perfect time to start implementing them so that you
• 10:30 - 11:00 can reduce your symptoms, feel better, and also reduce your risk of getting any chronic diseases like heart disease, type two diabetes, etc. So, to download them, click the link in the description of this episode. I have a PDF, a one-pager with my 10 glucose hacks, and I'm going to go through a few of them very briefly. Savory breakfast, putting clothing on your carbs, having vinegar once a day, starting your meal with veggies, that's for lunch and for dinner, not so much for breakfast because I find it a bit hard to do the veggie starter in the morning. Never
• 11:00 - 11:30 have sugar on an empty stomach, always after a meal. And finally, move after eating. So, that's just a few of them. You'll find all 10 there. And truly, these can help you alleviate symptoms. And another thing I recommend is supplementing with both mulbury leaf extract and lemon antioxidants. This is the perfect combo to reduce your glucose spikes. Essentially, mal leaf reduces the spike of carbs by up to 40%. Helping you counteract what's going on perry and postmenopause with your hormones. So
• 11:30 - 12:00 that even if you don't change your diet, you're still going to see a decrease in those glucose spikes with the malberry leaf. And second, the lemon antioxidant to help your body produce more JLP1, which is going to help reduce hunger and intense cravings. Link in the description of this episode. The supplement is called Anti- Spike. It has the best source of mold relief and lemon antioxidants to help you on your journey. So, let's talk now about your adrenals. Let me go pull up our adrenals. So during menopause, the job
• 12:00 - 12:30 of making female hormones switches from your ovaries to your adrenals. Your adrenals are little glands above your kidneys. And not only are they now in charge of making female hormones, and by the way, they make way, way less female hormones than your ovaries, they are also in charge of cortisol and adrenaline, which are the stress hormones in your body. And scientists have hypothesized the following. They believe that when we have a lot of
• 12:30 - 13:00 glucose spikes in our body, this creates stress. And we know this from studies. We know the more glucose spikes you have, the more you might be experiencing a stress response in your body because large swings are quite difficult for the body to handle. And so, as a result, with lots of spikes and drops, your adrenals need to work to release all the stress hormones. And as a result, they're less present and less available essentially to produce female hormones effectively, which could be one of the reasons that we see a clear link between
• 13:00 - 13:30 having more glucose spikes and having more menopause symptoms. For instance, let's look at a few studies. So the first one I want to mention is called vasom motor symptoms and insulin resistance in the study of women's health across the nation. In this study, researchers have shown that hot flashes and night sweats, very common symptoms of menopause, are more common in women who have high glucose and high insulin levels. Again, there's a connection. But here's the great thing, my friends. Here's the great thing. There's more and
• 13:30 - 14:00 more research coming out showing that you can actually change how severe your symptoms are with food. The study I want to mention is called high glycemic index and glycemic low diets as risk factors for insomnia analysis from the women's health initiative. And this study showed that reducing your glucose spikes and flattening your glucose curves is associated with fewer menopause symptoms such as insomnia. Now something else the study I just mentioned earlier the
• 14:00 - 14:30 predict study it also shows that symptoms can be alleviated when your diet is changed they even measured it they said there's about a 30% reduction in symptoms when diet is changed and improved and among other things when glucose levels are rebalanced. So, if you're going through Perry or postmenopause and you want to reduce the symptoms you're experiencing, think about balancing your glucose levels with my glucose hacks. It's a really, really
• 14:30 - 15:00 good place to start. Again, there's a free PDF in the description of this episode to download my 10 glucose hacks and you can feel the difference very, very quickly. In general, people who implement my glucose hacks will feel better within one day. one day. Yeah, it can be very fast and you don't have to give up any of the foods that you love, but we have to do something to counteract the unfortunate situation that we end up in, which is that the same foods are causing bigger spikes. Here's another hormone related interesting fact about glucose levels.
• 15:00 - 15:30 So, in females who still have their period, the lutal phase, which is the phase right before your period, also sees bigger spikes for the same foods. Here's one of my favorite examples. Um, this is from me. This is ice cream 2 days before my period. So, a lutal phase compared to ice cream 7 days after my period. So, no longer in the lutal phase. And as you can see in the lutal phase, the top graph, the spike is bigger even though I'm eating the exact same food. Of
• 15:30 - 16:00 course, it's not the same thing as menopause because in the lutal phase, we see a rise in progesterone and in menopause, we see a crash in estrogen and progesterone. So it's not the same mechanism going on, but what we can infer from this is that female hormones impact our glucose spikes. And in the moments in life where we have bigger glucose spikes with the same foods, such as before our period, if we still get our period, or such as in per postmenopause, it's really important to learn what we can do to counteract the
• 16:00 - 16:30 symptoms of these glucose spikes. Does that make sense? I hope it's helpful. Let's look at muscle and bone health in perry and postmenopause. This is a very very important topic that I want to mention. So the study that I read that was really interesting is called mechanism is called mechanisms of estrogen influence on skeletal muscle mass regeneration and mitochondrial function. So let's look at our muscles. Yeah. So as we lose estrogen our muscle mass also declines. This is bad for
• 16:30 - 17:00 multiple reasons. First of all, with less muscle mass, we are less protected as we age. Second, muscles are actually a very important organ of longevity. They also help us manage those carbs and those sugars because the more muscle mass we have, the more our body has the ability to put excess glucose away in them. They're like the perfect storage unit for having eaten too much glucose. And it's really, really key. So, as you
• 17:00 - 17:30 go through per and postmenopause, you might see your body composition change. You might just see that because there's less estrogen in your body, you're naturally losing muscle mass, and it is also harder to put on muscle. And with less estrogen, we also see that fat deposits in a female body sort of shift from being on the hips to moving towards the belly. And this is something that many women who go through this per and postmenopause will say their body composition has changed and they get more fat mass around their belly area.
• 17:30 - 18:00 And lower estrogen also unfortunately means lower bone density which means you're more likely to break a bone if you fall. And because you have less muscle mass also you're less protected. And as we know as we age breaking muscles can really be the beginning of the end. we oh sorry breaking bones not muscles breaking bones can really be the beginning of the end and we really want to counteract that as much as we can so that we stay alive and healthy and able to move. So how do we counteract this muscle loss? Two things. First thing,
• 18:00 - 18:30 lift weights. Lift weights, my dears, three times a week. Don't be scared. We're not in the 90s anymore. You don't have to just do cardio all the time. Go to the gym, pick up some weights. Ask somebody to show you the proper movements. But like and please not one pound. like build up to being able to, you know, bicep curl 10 lbs, to squat 100 lbs. Like, we need to be lifting way, way heavier than we think we should, okay, females, ladies out there, lift some weights, please. But the
• 18:30 - 19:00 weightlifting only works if you eat enough protein. And this is another super key topic. I'm going to have a whole episode on protein, but we just simply do not eat enough protein. And most of us are completely under protein. We actually should be eating about one gram of protein per pound of body weight per day. So if I'm 150 lbs, that means I should be eating 150 gram of protein a day,
• 19:00 - 19:30 considering one egg is barely 7 to eight gram of protein, that's 20 25 eggs I should be eating. That's a lot. It's a lot of eggs. And in order to help you start, I've made a free PDF that you can find in the description of this episode that will help you calculate one, the amount of protein you need per day based on pounds or kilos of body weight, and two, we'll show you examples of lots of real foods and how much protein they contain so you can get to it. So, combine my glucose hacks, 40 grams of
• 19:30 - 20:00 protein for each meal, lifting weights, and your menopause symptoms are going to be tremendously helped. Last topic I wanted to mention, hormone replacement therapy. Uh, no episode on menopause would be complete without this. So, here's what the science is telling us. It's telling us that trans ddermal hormones seem to be associated with fewer cardiovascular issues than pills. So, transitioning to transermal hormones like the patches seem to be better for our health because there have been some
• 20:00 - 20:30 associations between hormone replacement therapy pills and cardiovascular issues. Now, of course, this is a conversation to have with your doctor, but indeed, using HRT is a great way to alleviate symptoms. So, speak to your doctor to see if you're a candidate, but this in combination with everything else going to help you go through Perry and postmenopause feeling really damn good. Okay, that's my plan. I'm only 32, but when I'm going through per and postmenopause, you bet your ass that I'm going to be doing all the hacks and lifting weights and doing all the
• 20:30 - 21:00 things. So, we still need way more research on menopause. It's still something that is heavily underresarched, but I hope we can all continue to have this conversation and encourage the scientists that are doing wonderful research on this topic and helping us understand it better. So again, if you're going through per postmenopause, download my hacks, try them out, let me know. I think in a few days and definitely in a couple weeks, you're going to feel a great difference. And I hope it helps you. I'll see you next time.
• 21:00 - 21:30 [Music]