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Dr Andrea Robertson is an Osteopath, Naturopath, and Nutritionist. The information shared in this podcast is for educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult your healthcare provider before making changes to your health regimen.

Show Notes

Episode Transcript

Episode 9

[00:00:00] The wobbles up and down of estrogen and the decline of progesterone through the perimenopause transition is normal. But the severity of every single hormonal symptom, like the degree to which the changes disrupt your life, it's absolutely shaped by your inflammatory load. And that is where the power lies, because inflammatory load is not fixed.

And when you reduce it, the hormonal experience changes in ways that for many women feels nothing short of a miracle

Our sponsor today is Mineralite, an Australian electrolytes brand. And I have to tell you how I found them because this is a genuine story. Now, I'm really into paddle tennis, some may say obsessed , and a friend of mine introduced me to Mineralite to use for my hydration support during games. I was a little curious because I'd been recommending clients avoid those terrible sugary sports drinks for years, but I wasn't really sure what other options were available.

I now know that Mineralite is the option I'll recommend. It's unflavored and contains no sugar, no sweeteners, no artificial colors, no nasty [00:01:00] additives. Just clean electrolyte support in drops you can add to your water or any hot or cold drink. And my paddle? It was noticeably different. My energy held, my focus held, and I even won some games.

Mineralite is now in my water every single day. Go and check them out at mineralite.com.au or find them in most pharmacies and health food stores throughout Australia and New Zealand

Here is something that I've said to more women in clinical practice than I can count. You are not hormonally complicated. Instead, I tell them, "You .Are hormonally inflamed." Because the irregular cycles, the heavy periods, the PMS that has escalated year on year, the perimenopause symptoms that feel completely unmanageable, none of this is random.

None of it is inevitable, and none of it means your hormones are simply done and dusted beyond repair. Today, we ,go through the drivers behind these hormonal changes. I'm Dr. Andrea Robertson, osteopath, naturopath, and nutritionist. [00:02:00] Here, we nourish because food is medicine, and what you eat changes everything. We heal because the body has an extraordinary capacity to self-repair when we remove what's blocking it.

And we rise because feeling well isn't the destination, it's the foundation for living the life you truly desire. This is Nourish, Heal, and Rise.

Before we begin, a quick and important note. Everything I share on this podcast is for educational purposes only. It's not personal medical advice, and it can't be, because in the context of this podcast, I don't know your health history, your medications, and what else is happening in your body. What I want this podcast to do is give you the knowledge to ask better questions, understand your body more deeply, and make more informed decisions in partnerships with the [00:03:00] practitioners who do know you.

If something resonates and you wanna take action, please work with a qualified healthcare provider who knows your full picture

Welcome back to Nourish, Heal, and Rise. This is episode nine. If you are new here, welcome. You have landed at a great episode. This is the final episode in an eight-part series on chronic inflammation, specifically on the eight most common signs that chronic inflammation is running unchecked in your body.

And while every episode in this whole series stands completely on its own, this one, like today's, is the one I've been really building towards because hormones have been quietly woven through every episode in this series, every single one.

When we talked about fatigue in episode one, estrogen's role in the mitochondrial energy production was there. When we talked about weight loss resistance in episode two, cortisol, insulin, estrogen, thyroid, all of them. Brain fog in episode three, we talked about estrogen's neuroprotective function.

And then in joint pain in episode [00:04:00] four, estrogen's anti-inflammatory effects in synovial tissue. And in gut health in episode five, the estrobiome. Skin in episode six, the hormonal inflammatory connection through the gut and the liver. And then mood in episode seven, progesterone, GABA, serotonin, and the HPA axis.

Then perimenopause in episode eight, the amplification effect of inflammation on every declining hormone. Hormones have been present in every conversation so far on this podcast, and today they take center stage. And I want to give you something in today's episode that I think is pretty rare.

Not just the science of what is happening, though we are going to go deep on that, and not just a list of supplements, though we are going to cover that too, but I want to give you a complete picture. How you eat affects your hormones. How you support your body naturopathically affects your hormones. How you live, like the stress, the sleep, the movement, the daily choices, how they affect your hormones just as much as any medication or supplement.

These are not separate [00:05:00] conversations. They are one conversation, and today I want to really have it properly. So let me map out what we're covering today so you know exactly what's coming. We are going to start with what hormonal chaos actually looks like and why it's often missed, dismissed, or perhaps mismanaged in conventional medicine.

Then we're going to go into the science, the six key mechanisms I see through which chronic inflammation disrupts the entire hormonal conversation. This section is the one I want you to really sit with. I am going to go deep, but it is going to make sense of things that have felt perhaps impossibly complicated for a very long time.

Then we will move into my three pillars. Nourish, what you eat and how food as medicine directly changes your hormonal environment. Heal, the naturopathic tools, the targeted supplements, the gut and liver support, the thyroid work, the progesterone nutrition.

And then rise, the lifestyle and mindset work that ties everything together and makes the rest of it all stick. Let's begin.

I wanna start with the clinical [00:06:00] picture because recognizing yourself in what I'm describing is going to be important, and because I want you to understand that what you have been experiencing has a name, a mechanism, and a path forwards. Hormonal chaos in women presents across a pretty wide spectrum, but the common thread across all its presentation is this, something that used to be predictable, like the cycle, the mood, the energy of the body, that predictability has become unpredictable,

and the unpredictability is exhausting. So let's go through some of the more common presentations of hormonal chaos in women. We're gonna start with irregular cycles. Think periods that used to arrive reliably, always pretty much on time, that are now coming earlier or later than expected,

So cycles that are getting longer or shorter. Periods that are being skipped entirely. And so this is one of the earliest and most telling signs of hormonal disruption. When I'm taking a health history with my patients, I always ask questions about their periods, like how long is the cycle, how long is the [00:07:00] bleed, any clots, any PMS, and breast tenderness, how dark or red is the blood.

Like they're all clues. They're all questions I ask. And this is what I love about periods. It's like they're a monthly report card into looking what our health looks like. So a healthy body has a healthy period, and if the period is not so healthy, well then that gives us clues.

Now, this change in cycle length is a normal part of perimenopause, and so it's okay and nothing to worry about in that stage of life. But, but if this is happening to you earlier than your late 30s, it's something that can be addressed and supported. Okay. So heavy periods are also something I look out for.

Think flooding, clotting, periods that require double protection and disrupt your sleep, perhaps through the night because of that heaviness, and even periods where the bleed is lasting longer than it used to. Heavy periods are... I know they're an inconvenience, but it's not just about that. They're a real clinical sign.

It's a sign of estrogen dominance, of progesterone insufficiency, and of the inflammation driving [00:08:00] both. Too often, heavy periods are kind of normalized, and it's just how it is for some women. But they're not normal, and again, this gives us clues. Okay. PMS that is really bad or that has escalated, gotten worse year on year.

This was one I had to deal with a lot through my 30s when I was running my clinic and I had really high stress. I remember sometimes having a full day of patients booked in when I was premenstrual. I literally couldn't cope. Like, I just had nothing left to give, and I, I really felt like I couldn't push through.

So when that would happen, I'd have to reschedule all of my appointments and go and sit on the couch at home and just watch TV for an afternoon. Then as soon as my period would come, I'd feel completely normal again, and I'd be back on track full of energy.

It's so crazy, hey?

Now, some premenstrual symptoms are a normal physiological response to the hormonal shift before menstruation. Like if you can feel a little less motivated and maybe a bit more internal in the luteal phase.

That's the second half of your cycle before your period comes, the luteal phase. And it's [00:09:00] normal to feel a bit more quiet and internal during that time. But PMS that is really bad or worsening year on year, producing incapacitating mood changes or debilitating physical symptoms or a week of wanting to sit on the couch like I did,

Well, it's not something you should be working around. It's a sign of worsening progesterone-estrogen imbalance and a body under increasing inflammatory stress. Then we come to perimenopause. Think symptoms that feel unmanageable, hot flushes that are frequent and severe, night sweats that doona's on, doona's off, and they break your sleep consistently.

Mood swings that arrive without warning, like you just lose it for no reason, and they feel really disproportionate. Maybe weight gain that's not responding to anything. Like all my beautiful clients, they often come to me saying, "Everything I used to do doesn't work anymore."

And then anxiety that has become a constant kind of background hum. Brain fog too that's affecting your work or your daily functioning. Now, I have another story here, one that I'm super embarrassed about, and I [00:10:00] cannot believe I'm about to tell you this, but it shows what perimenopause can do to the best of us. Now, I get very few perimenopause symptoms because I work really hard to have an anti-inflammatory diet and lifestyle, but the brain fog gets me even at times.

So it was a couple of months ago, and we had a tournament at my local paddle club. And I remember I'd been playing some games. My partner Mike was playing some games too, and we had our little puppy dog, Sunny, with us. And at one point, , I went home to pick up Mike's son, and I came back, and I had my friend Lita in the car with me, and she's a full chatterbox.

But all this cascade of events happened that kind of led to what happened later. So Mike's son was hungry, and he was pestering me about what food he was going to eat. And then we found a little old lady on the side of the road who got lost, so we helped her.

And then Lita was chat, chat, chatting away. Like, all of these things came together. And we got back to the club, took some food out that we'd gone home to collect, and I went up to Mike and said, "Where's Sunny?" Like our little puppy dog. "Where's Sunny?" And he was like, "Well, haven't you got her?" And I'm [00:11:00] like, "No."

And I said to Lita, "Is she in the car?" And she said, "No." Anyway, I was in tears. I had, like, 100 people at the club looking all over the sports grounds and the ovals and the club, everywhere looking for her. And then at one point, I thought, "Maybe I better just check the car." Oh my God, I was so embarrassed. She was just in the car asleep in her crate.

So yes, even the best of us get bitten hard by brain fog and some perimenopause symptoms at times. Oh my gosh, I can't believe I told you that. I'm still super embarrassed, but anyway. Here is what I want to establish before we get into the science. Every single presentation I have just described has inflammation as a central driver, not just   the only driver. Like the hormonal changes of perimenopause are real and biological. The wobbles up and down of estrogen and the decline of progesterone through the perimenopause transition is normal. But the severity of every single hormonal symptom, like the degree to which the changes disrupt your life, it's absolutely shaped by your inflammatory load.

And that is where the power lies. Because [00:12:00] inflammatory load is not fixed. It's not predetermined. And when you reduce it, the hormonal experience changes in ways that for many women feels nothing short of a miracle. I can also think of a patient here. I'm gonna call her Claire for privacy reasons.

She came to see me at, uh, I think she was 44, and she'd been to her GP, to a gynecologist, and to a private endocrinologist, and her bloods had come back to her and been ... She was told she was all normal at every appointment she went to, like the bloods were all normal. Perimenopause wasn't mentioned, which I was really surprised about when she told me that.

And she told me her symptoms, like the heavy bleeding, the two weeks of premenstrual hell, the brain fog, the weight gain she couldn't shift despite weight training five times a week. Well, she was just told this was all stress and just eating too much bread. Can you believe that? Anyway, she had tried the pill, she had tried antidepressants, and neither had helped her much.

What had never been looked at for her was that no one had looked at her inflammatory picture. Her gut, her liver function, her [00:13:00] estrogen clearance, her thyroid. Like a full panel, not just the TSH, which is commonly given as a first checkpoint in a blood panel about thyroid. Also, her fasting insulin wasn't looked at.

Her dietary patterns, other than bread eating, wasn't looked at, and when we looked at all those things together, everything became clear. So when we addressed them, Claire's experience changed within three months. That's how quickly the body can shift when you address the right things.

So Claire was definitely perimenopausal, just the early stages, which didn't show up on blood tests, but all of those symptoms settled when we reduced the inflammatory load. Okay, let's talk about why. What is the science and what is actually happening? Your hormonal system is not just a single organ or a single pathway.

It's a full conversation, a continuous, complex, sensitive conversation happening between multiple organs in your body all simultaneously. The brain, the pituitary gland in your brain, the adrenal glands that sit [00:14:00] just above your kidneys, the ovaries, the thyroid here in the neck, the gut, the liver, the fat cells.

Every one of these organs has a role and every one of them is affected by chronic inflammation

And this is why inflammation creates hormonal chaos. Not because it disrupts one hormone in one place, but because it disrupts the entire conversation at multiple points simultaneously. The compound effect of that is far greater than any single hormone disruption alone.

Let me take you through the six key mechanisms of how inflammation affects our hormones, our endocrine system. That's the fancy name for hormones. Mechanism one is HPA axis dysregulation and the progesterone steal. The HPA axis, the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis, which is your body's stress command center, is the master regulator of the stress response.

And we have established throughout this series, chronic inflammation keeps the HPA axis chronically elevated. [00:15:00] Cortisol stays elevated. The stress response stays on. Here is where this directly disrupts the sex hormones. Cortisol and progesterone are both made from the same precursor molecule, pregnenolone.

Think of pregnenolone as raw material the body uses to build multiple different hormonal products. Under normal circumstances, the body allocates pregnenolone between cortisol production and progesterone production in a very balanced way. But when chronic inflammation and chronic stress keeps calling for more and more cortisol, the body prioritizes cortisol over progesterone.

It diverts the shared pregnenolone raw material towards cortisone production line and away from the progesterone production line. This is called the progesterone steal. Think of it as the cortisol factory taking the supplies that were meant for the progesterone factory, and the result is chronically insufficient progesterone, regardless of whether a woman is in perimenopause or not.[00:16:00] 

An insufficient progesterone relative to estrogen drives heavy periods, worsening PMS, breast tenderness, fluid retention, sleep disruption, and the anxiety and emotional rawness that makes the weeks before a period feel like they belong to a different person

Then mechanism two, estrogen dominance. Now, think of this not necessarily as too much estrogen in absolute terms, but as too much estrogen relative to progesterone, and it's one of the most common hormonal imbalances that I see in clinic. This was my problem when I used to get really bad PMS in my 30s, and inflammation drives this through three mechanisms simultaneously.

First, something called aromatase upregulation. Aromatase is an enzyme. Think of it as a biochemical converter that turns androgens like testosterone into estrogen. Inflammation turns up the activity of this converter. More estrogen gets produced, and here is the part that matters enormously. [00:17:00] For many women, fat tissue, particularly the visceral abdominal fat where inflammation and cortisol accumulate,

It itself is a significant site of aromatase activity. So the abdominal weight gain driven by inflammation creates more aromatase, which creates more estrogen, which drives more estrogen dominance, and more estrogen dominance symptoms. The cycle just starts feeding itself

Secondly, impaired liver estrogen clearance is worse with inflammation. So the liver processes used estrogen, called estrogen metabolites, breaking it down into water-soluble metabolites that can be excreted. Think of the liver as the estrogen recycling plant.

When the liver is overburdened by alcohol, by high toxic load, by stress By excess processed foods and by the inflammatory burden itself, its estrogen processing capacity is impaired. Used estrogen is not efficiently cleared. It recirculates, and the estrogen load builds. Then third, [00:18:00] gut estrogen reabsorption through the estrobolome.

This is the mechanism we introduced in the gut episode. Once the liver has processed estrogen and sent it to the gut for excretion via bile, the gut microbiome is responsible for getting it out of the body. But when the gut microbiome is dysbiotic, when it's inflamed, when the bacterial balance is off, an enzyme called beta-glucuronidase is overproduced by the dysbiotic bacterial species.

So think of beta-glucuronidase as the naughty kid at the birthday party unwrapping the pass the parcel when they're not meant to. The liver carefully packages used estrogen for excretion. It wraps it up like a parcel so it can't be reabsorbed. But beta-glucuronidase, that naughty kid, it undoes the parcel, and it releases the estrogen, and it gets reabsorbed straight back into the bloodstream through the gut wall.

So we can now have more estrogen produced through aromatase, less cleared by the liver, more reabsorbed through a dysbiotic gut. And that accumulative estrogen burden [00:19:00] from these three mechanisms operating simultaneously is what produces the heavy periods, the breast tenderness, the mood irritability and instability, the period clots, the fluid retention, the experience women describe as feeling like their hormones are completely out of control.

Then mechanism number three of how systemic and chronic inflammation can affect our hormones

HPO axis disruption and irregular cycles. The HPO axis, hypothalamic pituitary ovarian axis is the hormonal signaling system between three organs that govern the menstrual cycle. Think of it as a precisely timed series of signals from the hypothalamus to the pituitary to the ovaries that orchestrates the whole cycle.

So FSH, follicle-stimulating hormone, is released from the pituitary gland, rising to stimulate follicle development. Estrogen rises as the follicle matures. The LH, luteinizing hormones, this [00:20:00] surge also from the pituitary gland, well, it triggers ovulation, and then progesterone rises after ovulation.

And if pregnancy doesn't occur, the decline of both progesterone and estrogen then triggers menstruation. This sequence depends on precise timing and precise signal strength at every step. Think of it as a beautiful hormonal orchestra, every instrument playing exactly its note at exactly the right moment for the whole piece to work.

Chronic inflammation disrupts this orchestra at the level of the conductor.

We have the hypothalamus and pituitary, and then inflammatory cytokines, which are the chemical messenger molecules your immune system produces when it's activated. Well, these directly impair the sensitivity of the hypothalamus and pituitary to hormonal feedback. Think of this as the conductor losing their ability to hear the orchestra clearly.

The result is imprecise or n- not accurate hormonal signaling. FSH may not rise enough to stimulate adequate follicle [00:21:00] development. The LH surge may not occur at the right time or with enough strength to trigger reliable ovulation. And when ovulation doesn't occur, progesterone production, which depends entirely on something called the corpus luteum being formed after ovulation, well, this doesn't occur either.

Cycles become irregular, and the symptoms of those anovulatory cycles, which means no ovulation, well, they reflect the progesterone deficiency that then results

Okay. Mechanism four of how inflammation affects our hormones, the thyroid gland. So the thyroid, your metabolic engine, is affected by inflammation in ways that directly ripple throughout the entire hormonal picture. When we have low thyroid function, whether from autoimmune Hashimoto's, from inflammation-driven impairment of T4 to T3 conversion, with T3 being the active form of thyroid hormone, or from iodine or selenium deficiency, well, this affects our reproductive hormone balance through multiple pathways.[00:22:00] 

Thyroid hormone is required for the liver enzymes that process and clear estrogen. Low thyroid function means impaired estrogen clearance, so also contributing directly to estrogen dominance

Thyroid hormone also regulates the production of something called sex hormone binding globulin, SHBG. Think of SHBG as the transport protein that carries sex hormones, your reproductive hormones, through the bloodstream and controls how much of each hormone is actually available to the tissues for use.

When thyroid function is low, SHBG levels shift in ways that alter the balance between free and bound estrogen and testosterone, producing hormonal symptoms even when maybe total hormonal levels appear normal on standard testing. This is one of the most common reasons women come back with normal bloods but feel like anything is normal.

So SHBG is a really important thing to get tested if you've got some of these hormonal imbalances. And hypothyroidism, like an under-functioning thyroid, directly impairs fertility. It drives irregular [00:23:00] cycles, it worsens PMS, it increases the severity of perimenopausal symptoms, and contributes to fatigue, brain fog, weight gain, and mood disruption that compound an already overwhelming picture.

So we need a full thyroid panel done, free T3, free T4, TSH, reverse T3, and thyroid antibodies. Like, that's an absolute non-negotiable in women with significant hormonal symptoms, not just the TSH. We want the full picture. Okay, mechanism five on how inflammation affects our hormones, insulin resistance and the androgen connection.

So elevated insulin, which we have covered extensively across this series as a primary driver of inflammation. While elevated insulin creates a specific problem in the hormonal context, it directly stimulates the theca cells of the ovaries.

Think of these as the androgen-producing cells in the ovarian tissue. Well, insulin tells these cells to produce more testosterone and more DHEA. These are your androgen hormones. And when androgen levels are too [00:24:00] high, developing follicles are exposed to an androgenic environment that impairs their maturation and can cause them to stop being formed, creating the small, unformed follicles characteristic of polycystic ovarian syndrome, PCOS.

As I mentioned in an earlier episode, PCOS has now been renamed PMOS, polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome. The name change only happened in May 2026. So PCOS or PMOS, which affects somewhere between 10 and 15% of women of reproductive age. It is, at its root, like a metabolic problem, a condition of insulin resistance and inflammation.

Hence, the new name really is much more appropriate. It's not primarily a gynecological condition. It is a metabolic and inflammatory condition that expresses itself through the ovaries. And addressing the insulin resistance and inflammatory load that drives PMOS is a really clinically effective approach.

Okay. Now we have mechanism six of how [00:25:00] inflammation affects our hormones, the perimenopause amplification effect. So as estrogen and progesterone decline through the perimenopause transition, which is biological and normal, inflammation amplifies every symptom of that decline

Think of the hormonal transition as a volume dial gradually being turned down. Like the music, your hormonal support for energy, mood, metabolism, sleep, cognition, joint health, skin integrity, it's all being turned down or declining. The music's going down. And that is happening regardless. But inflammation turns up the sensitivity on the speakers.

So the same decline for one woman in volume, the same hormonal change, produces a dramatically louder, more disruptive, more overwhelming response in a woman with high inflammatory load rather than a woman with low inflammatory load. This is why two women of the same age going through the same transition with the same declining estrogen and progesterone levels can have completely different [00:26:00] experiences.

One can move through perimenopause with minor or very easily managed symptoms, and the other feels completely overwhelmed, unable to sleep, to work, to manage her moods. Like, the hormonal transition is the same, but it's the inflammatory environment that is different.

And that difference changes everything about the perimenopause experience. Hot flashes are amplified by inflammation because inflammatory cytokines directly sensitize the hypothalamic thermoregulatory center, the body's internal thermostat, making it more reactive. Night sweats can also be amplified by histamine elevation, and that's what happens for me.

As soon as I have too many histamine foods in a day, like too many delicious tomatoes or avocados, very sadly, then I get the night sweats. And brain fog deepens as neuroinflammation builds where estrogen's neuroprotective effects used to be.

Joint pain intensifies, mood instability worsens. Every perimenopausal symptom is a hormone event amplified by an [00:27:00] inflammatory environment. And reducing the inflammatory environment reduces the amplitude of every symptom. That is the science. Now let's talk about what you can actually do about it. Let's start with the nourish section, nutrition and food as medicine.

And I wanna start with food, because in my clinical experience, this is where the most powerful hormonal changes begin, and it is also the place where women are most often given some wrong information. The low-calorie diet that tanks their thyroid, the low-fat diet that removes the raw materials for all steroid hormonal production, the high-carbohydrate diet that drives insulin resistance, aromatase activity, and androgen elevation.

Food is central to the hormonal conversation Let's chat about fat and why low fat is such a hormonal disaster. So every single steroid hormone in your body, estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, cortisol, [00:28:00] DHEA, they're all made from cholesterol. Cholesterol is the raw material, so we need some cholesterol in our body.

Think of it as the foundation stone that every reproductive hormone is built on. When you follow a low-fat diet for extended periods, you deprive the body of its substrates that it needs to manufacture its hormones. Like, full stop. They're not there. Can't make its hormones anymore. The women who come to me on long-term low-fat diets and who are struggling hormonally, like with irregular cycles, low progesterone, worsening PMS, they often experience improvements simply from introducing quality healthy fats.

Avocados. Put olive oil on everything. Oily fish, so wild salmon, sardines, mackerel, and eggs, and a small amount of quality seeds and nuts. These are the raw material of hormonal production. Omega-3 fatty acids, specifically from oily fish, from flaxseed, from quality fish oil supplementation, have a direct anti-inflammatory effect that reduces the inflammatory [00:29:00] cytokines driving aromatase upregulation and HPO axis disruption.

Do you remember we talked about those earlier? Research has shown that omega-3 supplementation consistently reduced markers of systemic inflammation, including the prostaglandins that drive painful, heavy periods. So if you are eating oily fish twice a week, and you're eating flaxseeds regularly, you are doing beautiful targeted hormonal work through your food.

Okay, now, cruciferous vegetables. These are a daily non-negotiable for hormonal health, and I cannot overstate this. Broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kale, cabbage, bok choy, every single day. They contain compounds called indole-3-carbinol, or IC3, and its gut-derived metabolite, DIM, diindolylmethane.

Think of IC3 and DIM as the liver's estrogen processing assistants. The personal assistants. They specifically support the phase I and phase II liver detoxification pathways that [00:30:00] process used estrogen, called estrogen metabolites, and they help the body to avoid estrogen dominance. One serving of cruciferous vegetables per day is therapeutic, but two is better.

This is food as medicine in one of the most targeted expressions possible. If you are eating broccoli every day, you are actively supporting your estrogen clearance every single day. Well done. Now, fiber. Think of dietary fiber as the escort that accompanies processed estrogen to the exit and makes sure it leaves the body.

Without adequate fiber, specifically the plant fiber that binds estrogen in the gut, processed estrogen has nothing to hold onto for excretion. It sits in the gut, available for the beta-glucuronidase enzyme to reactivate it and reabsorb it back into the body. Remember we talked about that earlier, too.

Now, ground flaxseed is beautifully effective here. It contains lignans, plant compounds that specifically bind estrogen in the gut and support its excretion. [00:31:00] So one to two tablespoons of freshly ground flaxseed daily, like in a smoothie, stirred into yogurt, sprinkled over your turkey mince scramble, or in my no-egg paleo bread that's in my recipe book.

That is a great one. So you can buy my recipe book anytime you like from my website. Well, adding that linseed to something in your food every day is a simple daily habit that has a direct hormonal impact. Beyond flaxseeds, legumes, vegetables, fruits, seeds, and nuts, all of those are great. Aim for 30 different plant foods across the week.

The diversity matters as much as the volume because different plant fibers feed different beneficial bacterial species, and microbiome diversity is directly linked to estrobolome health and estrogen clearance. We talked about this extensively in the recent episode on gut health, so go back and listen to that one again if you haven't already.

And then of course, how can we not mention protein? For blood sugar, , hormonal signaling and liver function. [00:32:00] Protein at every meal is one of the most stabilizing hormonal interventions available. It stabilizes blood sugar, which directly reduces insulin spikes, which directly reduces aromatase upregulation and androgen stimulation in the ovaries.

It supports liver function. The liver enzymes that clear estrogen and convert T4 to T3 are protein-dependent processes. And protein supports the production of sex hormone binding globulin, the SHBG, that regulates hormonal bioavailability. Think 25 to 30 grams of protein at breakfast specifically, but every meal, but breakfast specifically before anything else goes in, is one of the best dietary interventions for insulin sensitivity, blood sugar regulation, and the cortisol rhythm that drives the progesterone steal.

It is a weight loss strategy to have more protein, but also think about protein as food for our hormones

Let's go deeper on one point I just mentioned, which is blood sugar stabilization. The refined carbohydrates, the sugar, the [00:33:00] ultra-processed food that spike blood glucose and drive insulin elevation. These are not just bad for weight or your energy. They are directly driving the insulin androgen pathway that produces irregular cycles, PCOS, and hormonal acne.

Removing them or significantly reducing them is one of the best targeted hormonal interventions available from a dietary perspective. And then the always, sometimes, and special occasions food framework that I use in my 12-week Whole Health Solution program is the most practical way I know to implement this without turning food into a source of stress, which we don't want.

Always foods are the foods that nourish and heal, and you can have every day. Sometimes foods are the ones that are not daily staples, but are perfectly fine in context every so often. And special occasion foods are the ones that are genuinely occasional, and then you build from there.

Eating for stable blood sugar won't feel like a restrictive diet at all when you're eating an abundance of the foods that you love, that love you back

Okay, we [00:34:00] have to mention alcohol, and I want to be straight talking with you here. Every unit of alcohol directly impairs the liver's capacity to clear used estrogen. If you are struggling with heavy periods, significant PMS, breast tenderness, or worsening perimenopausal symptoms, and if alcohol is a regular part of your life, well, reducing it will produce really big hormonal improvements.

Better yet, cut it out completely. It's toxic. It's a hepatotoxin, a toxin for the liver, and cutting it out is better support for the liver than any supplement that I can think of. The liver cannot prioritize estrogen clearance while it's processing alcohol. Those two processes compete, and in the presence of alcohol, estrogen clearance loses.

So I'm not anti-fun. I am totally up for a social event. But I want women to understand the direct hormonal cost of alcohol, not so they can feel [00:35:00] guilty, but so they can make informed choices. And I feel we have a pretty big problem here in Australia with the social acceptance of alcohol and how it's considered kind of weird to not drink So when I lived in Adelaide, I had my beautiful friends there that I'd known for 15 years I was there for, and they all knew how healthy I was, and many of them were the same, and many of them knew that I just didn't really drink alcohol anymore.

And a couple of years ago, I moved to Melbourne, and I remember an event that I was at, and someone offered me some wine, and I said, "Oh, I don't drink." And I'm so used to my friends in Adelaide just be like, "Oh, yeah, that's Andrea. She doesn't drink." Like, They would never offer me wine or a, or a drink.

They'd always have an alternative for me if I was visiting their house. But this particular day, I was offered wine, and I said, "Oh, I don't drink," the same sort of thing I would've always said, and the comment I got back was, "What? Ever?" And it was really interesting because I hadn't had that kind of judgment feeling for such a long time, and so I really remember what it's like now for people to have that response when they're not drinking alcohol.

And I was talking to a male [00:36:00] patient yesterday actually who was told when he wasn't drinking, 'cause he realizes how bad it is for his health, and he's trying very hard not to. He's a tradie, so it's a big part of his life. But when he told his friends over the weekend that he wasn't drinking, he was told, "Don't be a pussy."

Now, I've got a problem with that phrase as it is, but I've definitely got a problem with it when it's pushing someone into drinking alcohol when they don't want to.

[00:37:00] 

Okay. Now it's time for the heal section of this episode, the naturopathic tools, the targeted supplementation, the specific nutritional interventions for each of the mechanisms we have covered in the science section. This is where we get precise.

And I wanna be clear about something before we begin this section. Supplements are targeted support, but they are not the foundation. The food comes first. The gut health comes first. The lifestyle comes first. You cannot out-supplement your way out of a poor diet. But when the dietary foundation is solid, and you add targeted supplementation on top of it, the results can be fabulous.

So these two things work together really well. Okay. Let's address the progesterone steal we spoke about earlier. Magnesium is directly required for the steps that convert pregnenolone to progesterone. Think of magnesium as a critical tool in the progesterone production workshop.

Without it, the conversion is [00:38:00] impaired. I recommend magnesium glycinate or bisglycinate specifically, 300 to 400 milligrams before bed. This form is beautifully bioavailable and is least likely to cause digestive upset. It also supports the sleep disruption and the anxiety that progesterone deficiency produces.

Magnesium is, without question, one of the best supplements for women with hormonal symptoms Then vitamin B6 at 50 milligrams per day directly supports the corpus luteum production of progesterone in the second half of the cycle. Multiple clinical trials, including in the British Medical Journal in 1999 by Wyatt and all, has shown that B6 supplementation reduces PMS symptoms, including the mood symptoms, anxiety, and physical symptoms driven by progesterone deficiency.

However, be careful here and always work with a qualified practitioner as you'll wanna make sure you don't have too much and tip into B6 neurotoxicity. Zinc is also great. It supports progesterone receptor sensitivity, meaning it helps the body [00:39:00] respond to the progesterone that is being produced. Without adequate zinc, progesterone can be present in the bloodstream, but not effectively heard by the tissue.

Think of zinc as like the signal booster for the progesterone message. Uh, 15 to 30 milligrams of zinc bisglycinate or zinc citrate daily is what I prescribe, but always have it with food 'cause otherwise it can make you feel a little nauseous. Now, one of my favorites, and I personally had to use this a lot during my 30s, DIM supplementation, diindolylmethane, for estrogen clearance.

For women with significant estrogen dominance symptoms, heavy periods, breast tenderness, significant PMS, worsening perimenstrual bloating and weight gain. It doesn't have to be all of those together, it could just be one or two of those.

Well, DIM supplementation provides a concentrated dose of the estrogen metabolizing compound found in cruciferous vegetables. So it's like all the best bits of broccoli banged in together. At the dose of [00:40:00] 100 to 200 milligrams per day, but again, always taken with food. So DIM specifically shifts estrogen metabolism towards a 2-hydroxy pathway, it's a more protective metabolite, and away from the 16-hydroxy pathway, which is associated with more problems.

DIM works best when the gut is also being addressed because without adequate fiber and a healthy estrobolome, the estrogen that DIM helps the liver process can still be reabsorbed in the gut. So these two interventions really work closely together.

A couple more of my favorite supplements for hormonal health. Let's start with Vitex Agnus-Castus or chaste tree berry. Vitex has well-established clinical evidence for supporting progesterone production, reducing PMS severity, and improving cycle regularity.

It works by modulating the pituitary's output of LH, luteinizing hormone, increasing the LH signal that supports corpus luteum function and progesterone production after ovulation. Think of Vitex as [00:41:00] gently calibrating the hormonal conductor of that orchestra back towards clarity. This is another one that I had a lot of during my 30s to help ease the terrible PMS I used to get.

So Vitex is available as a supplement, though it's not a fast-acting supplement. You're not gonna just have it one day and then see results the next. Allow two to three months to really assess its full effect. And always discuss with a practitioner before starting, particularly if you are on any hormonal medications, as Vitex can interact with oral contraceptives and other hormonal treatments.

Now, inositol for PCOS, now called PMOS, and insulin-driven androgen excess. Myo-inositol, also shortened to just inositol, is the most robustly evidenced supplement I know of for insulin sensitivity, specifically in the context of PMOS. Think of inositol as a second messenger for insulin.

It improves the cellular response to insulin signal, reducing the insulin [00:42:00] resistance that drives androgen elevation and cycle disruption. A 2023 meta-analysis published in Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology shows inositol to be comparable to metformin for cycle regularity with a significantly better side effect profile.

Now, metformin is the pharmaceutical insulin sensitizer for improving hormonal and metabolic parameters in PMOS. Here, the suggestion is we can use inositol for similar outcomes. For inositol, the typical dose is four grams of myo-inositol per day, divided across two doses, morning and night.

This is a supplement I have recommended to many women with PMOS over the years, and the clinical response has been consistently strong. Now, berberine. This is great for insulin sensitivity. Berberine is a plant-derived compound, a herb found in barberry and goldenseal, and it has significant evidence for improving insulin sensitivity,

reducing androgens in PMOS, remember that's the new name for PCOS, and supporting cycle [00:43:00] regularity. Think of berberine as a plant-derived metabolic recalibrator. It activates AMPK, the same cellular energy-sensing enzyme that the pharmaceutical drug metformin that we spoke about just then activates.

So it improves insulin sensitivity at the cellular level. Always discuss with a practitioner, though, as berberine interacts with some medications, including blood thinners and diabetes medications

The heal section would not be complete without addressing thyroid support, so selenium, zinc, and iodine. Selenium is the most important nutrient for T4 to T3 conversion, T3 being the active form of thyroid hormone. Think of selenium as the cofactor, the molecular scissors that snip inactive T4 into active T3,

the form of thyroid hormone that actually drives metabolic rate and hormonal regulation. Two Brazil nuts per day provides approximately 200 micrograms of selenium, and it's one of the [00:44:00] simplest dietary thyroid interventions available. If you can't do Brazil nuts, 200 micrograms of selenium methionine as a supplement is a pretty good equivalent.

But food first, a supplement second. Then iodine through seaweed and quality seafood, or a supplement if needed, is the raw material of thyroid hormone itself. Without adequate iodine, the thyroid can't manufacture its hormones. I mean, it sounds so basic as to be obvious, yet iodine deficiency is making pretty big comeback in Australia as many health-conscious people have replaced some of those iodized salt that we used to get in like a red and white container that was always on our table in the '80s.

Well, that's often being replaced these days with beautiful unprocessed sea salt, which doesn't contain any iodine. So if you've switched to sea salt or Himalayan salt, which has amazing health benefits, you will need to make sure you have another iodine source. So eat your fish and your seaweed.

And zinc, as we've covered in the progesterone section, is also essential for thyroid hormone production and receptor sensitivity. So get [00:45:00] your full thyroid blood panel tested if you have any hormonal disruption. Free T3, free T4, TSH, reverse T3, and thyroid antibodies, so you know what you're working with.

And interpret those results through a functional medicine optimal range lens, not just the general population reference range. And of course, we cannot talk about hormones without talking about gut healing and the estrobolome intervention

Everything we covered in the gut episode applies directly to hormonal health through the estrobolome, the community of gut bacteria responsible for estrogen excretion. A diverse, robust microbiome reduces beta-glucuronidase activity, but a dysbiotic, low-diversity microbiome elevates it. Targeted probiotic support, specifically Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium strains, alongside the prebiotic fiber that feeds them, is the best gut-based hormonal intervention available.

And the cruciferous vegetables, the ground flaxseed, the 30 plant [00:46:00] foods a week. They are simultaneously feeding the estrobolome and reducing estrogen reabsorption. The food and the naturopathy work together here in one of the most elegant ways I know in clinical practice. And now it's time to rise.

So we've come to the part that I think most women or many women underestimate, and I understand why. The food and the supplements feels more concrete, more actionable, more like you're doing something. The lifestyle and mindset work can feel softer, less medical, less like intervention. But I wanna be firm with you on this, so I'm gonna get my bossy pants on.

The lifestyle factors like the stress load, the sleep, the movement, the nervous system state are so important for the hormonal work. Because as long as the progesterone still is running, as long as the cortisol demand is chronically high, no amount of nutritional support will fully compensate.

And you cannot out-supplement your way out of a body that is chronically under threat. The [00:47:00] nervous system has to be calmed. The cortisol demand has to come down for the progesterone production to come up

Let's start with sleep, the foundational hormonal reset. So sleep is where your body makes its own hormonal recalibrations. Growth hormone surges in the early hours of the night. Cortisol should drop to its lowest point through the deep sleep hours. Melatonin, which has a direct anti-inflammatory effect and which supports progesterone production, it rises with darkness and stays elevated throughout the night.

The hormonal repair work of sleep is real, ... And if you're consistently compromising it through late nights, through screens, through the swipe, swipe, swipe, through the night sweats even, that are themselves a symptom of hormonal chaos, well, all these compound every hormonal imbalance.

And remember from our previous episodes, have seven to eight hours in a cool, dark room for sleep. Screens off at least 45 minutes before bed. And consider a magnesium [00:48:00] glycinate or bisglycinate supplement before bed, not just for its hormonal support, but also for its role in nervous system calming and supporting the sleep.

These are hormonal medicine. And movement, strength training specifically. The research on strength training and hormonal health in women is strong and clear. Strength training three times per week with progressive overload improves insulin sensitivity through a mechanism that is independent of the insulin signaling pathways.

Contracting muscle tissue can take up glucose directly without insulin. This is insulin-dependent glucose uptake, and it's one of the most powerful natural insulin sensitizing foods available. So do your exercise. Strength training also reduces visceral abdominal fat.

That's the fat that is both driven by and drives aromatase activity, so it's metabolically active. We don't want it. And strength training preserves and builds the muscle mass that declines in perimenopause. So it helps us maintain our metabolic [00:49:00] rate.

It helps us improve our body composition and supports the physical capacity that makes daily life feel manageable rather than hard work. So I personally train at the Iron Viking Gym in Moorabbin here in Melbourne with progressive overload programming. And I cannot overstate the difference that targeted strength training has made to my own hormonal health through this transition.

It's about supporting your physiology. It's about giving your body the metabolic stimulus that keeps it sensitive to insulin, resilient to cortisol, and capable of the tissue repair that declining estrogen makes harder

Now, onto cortisol. And I wanna talk about this honestly, because the advice to reduce stress is both completely correct and often completely useless, because it doesn't come with a mechanism or a practice. Like, how many times have you been told, "Just go reduce your stress"?

I actually really believe you can't reduce your stress, as stress is an external influence on our bodies. It comes from life, work, family, kids, [00:50:00] busyness. But what we can change is how our body responds to those stresses. Here's the mechanism. Chronic psychological stress, that's the kind that comes from an overfull schedule, from relationship tension, from financial pressure, from a nervous system that never fully gets to rest.

Well, that activates the HPA axis and raises cortisol in exactly the same way that chronic physiological stress does. So the body can't distinguish between a tiger in the room that's about to pounce And an inbox that never gets emptied. The cortisol response is the same, and that cortisol is stealing pregnenolone away from progesterone production.

Remember that from before? So the question is not how to reduce stress, it is how to reduce the cortisol demand on the body. You can start with some of the outside influences, of course, like take a look at what's going on in your life and what is generating chronic cortisol, and ask whether it has to be there.

But some of [00:51:00] it's just practice, so, because the nervous system can be trained towards a parasympathetic, that rest, relaxed digestion nervous state. And that training is as real as any kind of gym training or physical training or s- progressive overload training. The practices that have had the clearest physiological evidence for reducing cortisol, and I wanna name real ones, not just a vague list, are slow, extended exhalation breathing, where the exhale is twice as long as the inhale, and this activates directly the vagus nerve and the parasympathetic nervous system, so the rest, relax, digest nervous system.

Also, walking in nature. Yoga, specifically the slower, more restorative forms. Cold water exposure in the morning, like have a quick little bit of cold at the end of your shower. So that brief, deliberate cold water is increasingly well-evidenced for HPA axis regulation, those stress organs.

And also what I call genuine rest. Not, not scrolling on the couch or not just passively watching [00:52:00] television, but activities that really restore the nervous system. Reading, creative work, time in nature, time with friends or people who don't require anything from you.

Now, it's a big topic. I am gonna go there. I wanna have a conversation about HRT from an informed position, though, of course. And I want to address this here in the rise section, because I think that the decision about whether to use HRT, or more accurately called menopause hormonal therapy rather than hormone replacement therapy, sits most naturally in this area, the mindset and agency part of this conversation.

My position is this: hormone therapy is not the first thing, and it is not the only thing. The inflammatory drivers, the gut health, the liver estrogen clearance, the cortisol and the progesterone still, the thyroid, the insulin resistance, all of these need to be addressed. Hormone therapy doesn't address any of them.

And without addressing them, the biological environment in which hormone therapy is [00:53:00] operating remains inflammatory, dysbiotic, and metabolically compromised, limiting its effectiveness and leaving the root causes untreated. But for women who have done the foundational work, who have fully addressed their diet, their gut, their liver, their stress, their sleep, and added targeted nutritional support, and who still have symptoms that are impacting their quality of life, well, body identical HRT can be an appropriate clinical tool.

Not something to be afraid of, but also not something to reach for before the foundations are in place. The long-term prevention conversation matters here too. So estrogen has protective effects on the cardiovascular system, which becomes the leading cause of death in women postmenopausally as estrogen's protective effects are lost, and on bone density.

For women who are doing everything right, who have a family history of cardiovascular disease or osteoporosis, hormone therapy as a long-term add-on is worth a serious conversation with a practitioner who understands both the [00:54:00] evidence and your individual risk profile. Make the decision from an informed, empowered position, not from desperation, and not from dismissal, but from knowledge.

Now, I wanna chat about testing, about knowing your hormonal picture. And I wanna finish the rise section with this, like knowledge is power. And the most empowering thing you can do for your hormonal health after implementing the food and the naturopathy and the lifestyle, is to know what your hormones are actually doing.

The blood tests most relevant to this picture. Okay, progesterone on day 21 of a 28-day cycle, or about seven days before your expected period. That helps assess whether ovulation is occurring and whether luteal phase progesterone is adequate. And then test estradiol at multiple points in the cycle if possible.

Also testosterone and DHEA, particularly for women with PCOS or PMOS or with hormonal acne or excess hair growth. Also, a full thyroid panel, free T3, [00:55:00] free T4, TSH, reverse T3, and thyroid antibodies. Also test fasting insulin, SHBG, the sex hormone binding globulin.

So all of those tests together give a beautiful, coherent hormonal picture that allows for really targeted intervention rather than kind of just guess-based work. And for women with a complex, persistent hormonal picture, there's something called the Dutch test. Stands for Dried Urine Test for Comprehensive Hormones.

Think of the Dutch test as a complete audit of the entire hormonal symptom, measuring not just hormone levels, but hormone metabolites, which reveal how hormones are being produced, used, and cleared. It gives a really interesting window into the estrogen clearance pathways, the cortisol rhythm, melatonin, and organic acids reflecting neurotransmitter production.

It does require a naturopath or functional medicine practitioner to order and interpret. But for the right woman, the one who has been through multiple rounds of normal tests and still feels far from normal, the [00:56:00] Dutch test can be a great addition to your knowledge about yourself Okay, let me bring everything together before we close.

The science told us this. Chronic inflammation disrupts the entire hormonal conversation at six key points simultaneously. The progesterone steal, cortisol diverting the shared raw material away from progesterone production. Estrogen dominance through aromatase upregulation, impaired liver clearance, and gut reabsorption through a dysbiotic estrobolome.

HPA axis disruption, with inflammatory cytokines impairing the precise hormonal signaling that governs the menstrual cycle. Thyroid interaction through impaired T4 to T3 conversion and altered SHBG. Then insulin resistance, driving androgen elevation and the ovarian disruption at the root

of PCOS, now called PMOS. And the perimenopause amplification effect, where every decline in hormone produces a louder, more disruptive inv- experience in an inflamed woman than in a woman with a low [00:57:00] inflammatory load. In the nourish section, we looked at food as medicine. Quality fats daily, the raw material of every sex hormone.

Cruciferous vegetables every day for estrogen clearance. Ground flaxseed and abundant plant fiber for the estrobolome. Protein every meal, specifically breakfast, for blood sugar and liver function. Remove refined sugar and refined carbohydrates for insulin and androgen regulation. And reduce or remove alcohol for liver estrogen clearance

Then under the heal section, we looked at the naturopathic tools, magnesium glycinate, vitamin B6, zinc for progesterone production and receptor sensitivity. DIM supplementation for estrogen metabolite clearance. Vitex for progesterone and cycle regularity. Inositol for PCOS and insulin-driven androgen excess.

Berberine for insulin sensitivity. Selenium, zinc, and iodine for thyroid conversion and hormone production. [00:58:00] Targeted probiotic and prebiotic support for estrobiome health. And then for rise, we addressed lifestyle and mindset. Sleep,

seven to eight hours in a dark and cool room are really foundational hormone reset. Strength training, three times per week for insulin sensitivity and visceral fat reduction. Cortisol support through breathwork practices, nature, real genuine rest, and structural changes to chronic stressors. Then HRT, hormone therapy.

Considered from an informed, empowered position when the foundations are in place. And pathology testing. Know where your actual hormonal picture sits. And so we come to the end, not just of this episode, but of this series. Nine episodes. First of all, my why, and then eight signs. One underlying thread running through every single one of these conversations, which was inflammation.

Fatigue that does not improve with sleep, [00:59:00] weight that will not shift, brain fog, joint pain and body aches, gut disruption, skin conditions, mood changes, and today, hormonal chaos. Eight completely different symptoms. Eight completely different clinical presentations.

Eight ways the same underlying inflammatory process expresses itself through different systems in the body. And in every single case, whether the entry point was fatigue, the weight, the brain fog, or the hormones, or all of the above, the path forward has been the same. Understand the root cause. Address the drivers.

Reduce the inflammatory load, and support the specific systems most affected. This is what functional medicine is. Not treating symptoms in isolation, not asking what medication matches what symptom, but looking at the whole person, the whole biological picture, [01:00:00] finding the common thread and addressing it at the source

I wanna say something to you as we close this series that I mean with complete sincerity. If you have been struggling, if you have been tired for years and told you're fine, if you have been gaining weight

Despite trying everything and being made to feel that the effort was insufficient. If you have been foggy and achy and moody and hormonally chaotic and sent from specialist to specialist without a really clear explanation. If you've been dismissed or minimized or told it's your age or told it's your stress or told to come back when things get worse, I want you to know there are real answers.

Real biological, mechanistic, structural, evidence-based answers, and many of them have been in this series, in every episode, in every mechanism, in every practical step. Knowledge is power, and the knowledge you now have about your own body, about what inflammation is, what drives it, how [01:01:00] it expresses itself, and what you can do to address it, is the most powerful tool available for changing your health.

So use it. Start with one thing today. One meal built around protein, fat and fiber. One more glass of water. One walk after dinner. One early night. One swap to a cleaner beauty product. Every single step reduces the inflammatory load and every reduction in inflammatory load moves the conversation

in your body in a better direction. This is where the healing begins. Not in a dramatic overhaul, but in consistent, intelligent, compassionate daily choices that add up over weeks and months and years to a body that functions the way you deserve it to function.   And if you're ready to move from understanding this into actually taking action, my three-week inflammation detox is the perfect starting point. Three weeks of structured, supported, anti-inflammatory eating, removing the primary triggers, building the nourishing foods, and supporting [01:02:00] the gut, and experiencing firsthand what it feels like when the inflammatory load comes down, the energy, the clarity, the reduction in bloating, the mood stability, and the shift in weight.

And for women who want to go deeper, who want to address the full, complete, comprehensive picture over a sustained period with complete clinical guidance, personalized treatment plans, and community, my 12-week whole health solution is where the complete transformation happens. Both are available at andrearobertson.health I would truly love to support you in taking what you have learned in this series and turning it into the health you deserve.

Now, this is not the end of Nourish, Heal, and Rise. This is just the beginning. The inflammation series has been my foundation, the science I most wanted you to have first, but there is so much more to come. I have some extraordinary guests lined up, clinicians, researchers, and practitioners at the forefront of women's health, and I cannot wait to bring these conversations to you.

Alongside that, I will be continuing with [01:03:00] solo episodes too, because breaking down the science and turning it into something you can actually use is my favorite thing to do. And I'm starting something that I'm super excited to bring you, one episode a month dedicated entirely to your questions.

Whatever is on your mind, whatever you want me to go deeper on, whatever you have been wondering about your own body, send it through. You can find my podcast page at andrearobertson.health/podcast, and that is where you can submit your questions. I would love to hear from you. So stay with me. The best conversations are still ahead.

So please hit subscribe or follow the show on whatever platform you are listening on right now, because you do not want to miss a single episode. And if someone in your life needs to hear this, please share it with them too, because the more women who have access to this kind of information, the better.

Just a little note, all of my free resources, my three-week inflammation detox, and my 12-week whole health solution can be found at andrearobertson.health. [01:04:00] Everything you need is right there waiting for you. If you loved today's episode or any episode in this series, please take 30 seconds to leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

It genuinely helps more women find the show so they can nourish, heal, and rise too. Until next week, nourish your body, keep healing, and never stop rising. I'm Dr. Andrea Robertson, osteopath, naturopath, and nutritionist, and this has been Nourish, Heal, and Rise.

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