EPISODE OVERVIEW:

Join healthcare veteran Heather Walker, and host Betty Wang for an intimate and eye-opening conversation about women’s health and menopause. From navigating bodily changes across different life stages to exploring treatment options, this candid discussion breaks down complex topics into relatable insights. Drawing from both clinical expertise and personal experiences, Walker and Wang tackle the questions many women think about but rarely discuss, offering practical wisdom and evidence-based guidance for taking control of your health journey.

TIME STAMPS: 

[02:17] Holistic Wellness 

• Benefits of holistic wellness
• Gaps in women’s health

[07:35] Nutritional Recommendations 

• Importance of nutrition
• Hormone replacement therapy

[34:33] Intermittent Fasting

• Benefits of fasting
• Weight management

[40:10] Nutritional Value of Food

• Farming practices
• Essential supplements

[57:17] Maintaining Balance 

• Strategies for mindfulness
• Hobbies for satisfaction

KEY TAKEAWAYS: 

• Women’s health and wellness: Understanding how dietary and life choices directly impact overall health.
• Hormone replacement therapy: How modern medicine is revolutionizing treatment approaches, from managing hormones to embracing holistic care.
• Significance of nutrition: Understanding how dietary choices directly impact hormonal balance and overall health
• Alternative therapy approaches: Exploring evidence-based alternative therapies that complement conventional treatments
• Personalized health solutions: Why one-size-fits-all approaches are becoming obsolete in women’s healthcare

GUEST INFO: 

Heather Walker, Physician Assistant 

• Website
• LinkedIn
• Instagram

RESOURCES:

• Join Betty in a free consultation call for your financial goals
• Subscribe to the Betty’s Smart Friends YouTube Channel
• Follow us on Instagram
• Visit my website for more info
• Follow us on LinkedIn

Betty Wang is an investment adviser representative of BW Financial LLC, a registered investment adviser registered in the State of Colorado. Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training. The views and opinions expressed are as of the date of publication and are subject to change. The content is for informational or educational purposes only, and is not intended as individualized investment advice. This information should not be relied upon as the sole factor in an investment-making decision. You are encouraged to consult with a financial professional to address your specific needs and circumstances.

TRANSCRIPTION:

Betty Wang 00:00:06 Hello everyone, and welcome to today’s episode of Betty’s Smart Friends. I’m Betty Wang, your host. Today we are talking about women’s health and wellness, specifically focusing on perimenopause and menopause, hair loss, weight gain, night sweats, foggy brain, low energy, emotional ups and downs. Do any of these symptoms sound familiar to you? If so, you’re in the right place. We are thrilled to have Heather Walker here with us today. Heather is a physician assistant with over 20 years of patient experience in ob gyn and women’s health. She is passionate about holistic wellness and has explored various innovative therapies for overall health and longevity. With her medical experience and knowledge of alternative therapies. Heather is a perfect person to answer our questions on women’s health. I am so excited to welcome Heather today. Please welcome Heather to the podcast. Hello. Hi.

Heather Walker 00:01:04 Hello. Thank you so much for having me. It’s awesome. It’s really fun.

Betty Wang 00:01:10 You’re welcome. Well, tell the listeners a little bit about your background. You’re a physician’s assistant, and you also have this passion for women’s health and alternative therapies.

Betty Wang 00:01:22 Tell us where you started and how your what your journey was like.

Heather Walker 00:01:26 Yeah. So I went to PA school in the early 2000 here at C.U., and after that I was doing a rotation with one of the ob gyn docs. He needed a lot of help. He was a solo practitioner and I was like, don’t you think you need some help? And he was like, yes. So luckily, right after graduation, I started with him. I was there for eight years. I did first assisting for surgery. I did lots of rounds in the hospital and lots of clinical work. Right. So seeing women in the ob gyn clinic day in and day out for all of those years after that, I just switched to a different practice. Also a similar concept for assisting in surgery and lots of clinic time. Doing rounds at the hospital for post-op patients and post-partum patients too. So after about 20 years and both of those were at Rose Medical Center, which everyone’s probably familiar with if you’re from Colorado.

Heather Walker 00:02:17 So after that, as I’m going through the motions, getting a little bit tired of my super busy schedule, I was seeing annual exams for 20 minutes at my OB-GYN clinic, and I adored my clinics, both of them and all of the providers there, I really did. They’re very excellent providers, too. So I am going through the motions, though, of thinking, why do I not have more time to talk about hair loss, nutrition, and not even hair loss as much? But people saying to me, wait, you keep saying my labs are normal, but I don’t feel that good, right? And especially the women that were either postpartum or in their 40s or perimenopausal age and starting to starting to just really not have a lot of time for talk of nutrition and sleep and how important water and exercise and different types of supplements could be. And I felt so badly. Or even libido problems. Right? I felt so badly saying, well, everything looks normal. And people were just like looking at me thinking, there has to be something more, right? So I finally started referring out to some other places that were doing a deeper dive into why people just aren’t feeling that well.

Heather Walker 00:03:25 You know, it’s not that they’re ill or having a disease, but just not feeling super awesome or at their optimal health. So after I was referring out, I thought, what am I doing? I also had been introduced by another friend of mine to a supplement company that was really beneficial in some perimenopausal symptoms and helping with energy helping with sleep. And I started kind of dabbling in that. I can talk about that a little bit more later, but that really opened my eyes to certain things that I didn’t even know. I wasn’t taught in PA school as far as why certain things are so important. Nutrition, etc. so you know, some of the sidebar things that it sounds like. Oh, an apple a day keeps the diseases away. Right. Joke. You know, apple a day keeps the doctor away. But really it had to do more with. Why in the world are we not talking more about some fundamentals that are super important for longevity and feeling better? Right. So I started looking around for another position, and I was very overwhelmed with my clinical schedule.

Heather Walker 00:04:28 And I had been doing it forever, but also high stress. Right. So finally, I just this year, just this year started working with a clinic called, well, it’s at Sky Ridge and it is a a little bit more of a functional medicine place, but it’s still traditional medicine as well. And we’re just doing a lot of hormones, a little bit of weight loss, a lot of nutritional counseling and really doing like a deep dive into why people aren’t feeling as good.

Betty Wang 00:04:53 I think that’s amazing. I mean, you and I talked offline about this, but, you know, I’m experiencing all this, and it’s hard to know where to go. Do you consult your OB or do you consult your GP? I run into friends from my kids grade schools. I ran into one last week at the grocery store, and the first thing she told me she’s going to see a functional doctor medicine. She’s gained £30. And just the emotional ups and downs, she can’t handle it. And then I thought, well, do I need to go to a functional doctor? And what is that? Who’s in? And I also have an endocrinologist because I have grave disease a thyroid condition, and they specialize in hormones.

Betty Wang 00:05:36 So should I be going to them. And I think it’s really confusing and all. In the meantime, all I get from Instagram feeds are hair loss, weight gain and the supplements. You know, I, I go into these deep dives and I really don’t know where to start or what to do. So I’m really excited. You know, on a personal note, but I know that I’m not alone because, you know, my friends were all talking about it and we’re sharing our resources, but none of us really know. And we’re just saying, well, my OB suggested this and Myob’s adjusted this. And so we’re all just kind of crowdsourcing this information, but it’d be great to have information from the source, like someone like you. And I know that some of it’s going to be trial and error, but when you’re feeling this way, it’s like, how long do you have to try to know that it’s not working? Or there was no question in there. I guess the question is where to start?

Heather Walker 00:06:36 I agree.

Heather Walker 00:06:37 So I do believe where to start. Could be if you have an OBGYN who you think is, you know, giving you good answers and giving those things a try, right? There’s definitely some places and some providers that are going to going to be really open to having a more time for a conversation, right? Which is one of the issues. Do they have time for that conversation? And I do think that that’s a very good place to start. I also think that there is a lot of information that isn’t so good out there, like you just mentioned. It doesn’t hurt to try certain things. Changing our diet, trying to get better sleep, trying to get more water. And you know, eating a more protein based diet is actually quite good for people in perimenopause or menopause or post-menopausal, right? And that’s definitely not a bad place to start. I do think some supplements are really helpful. And again, it depends how much you want me to talk about this. But most people I’m finding these days are deficient in quite a few things.

Heather Walker 00:07:35 You know, not just from a blood test, but because of age and because of our environment. And a lot of us have some toxic, you know, our bodies are quite toxic, probably right now with a lot of the toxins that are in our foods and pesticides, and the soil is depleted. And all of those reasons we have long term needing some more supplemental help, right. So the food literally has become depleted. The soil has become depleted. Vitamin D we can’t get enough of because you need to get it from the sun. And we’re putting sunscreen on, which yes, of course we need. And especially for our faces. Right. Don’t forget. But you know, vitamin D, ironically, 80% of that comes from the sun. And we’re supposed to be outdoors to get that. We are indoors a lot. We’re in cars and in, you know, establishments like homes or office buildings for long, long periods of time now. And our bodies weren’t really meant to be that way or to do that.

Heather Walker 00:08:30 Right. So that’s one example. But we’re really probably deficient in quite a few things. And so you just have to really know to get a pharmaceutical grade, higher quality vitamin of several different things. And of course everybody’s different. I can’t blanket statement say everyone needs one, two, three, four and five. But for sure I would suggest vitamin D is a is one place to start. So to back to your question, OB-GYN is a good place to start. If you don’t feel that you’re getting some of those answers or trying something for three ish months. And if you’re not feeling better, right. Whether they offer hormone replacement therapy or not, whether they offer just some nutritional and, you know, food things or supplement ideas or not, right. But trying whatever they suggest may be for three months. And then if that’s not cutting it, yeah, you have to find someone else who might have a little bit of again, like a deeper dive or a longer kind of listening or ability to take more time to deal with specific symptoms.

Betty Wang 00:09:26 So there’s no silver bullet, which is what I’d love. Right. Something that just knocks it all out.

Heather Walker 00:09:33 I do think that hormone replacement is one thing that is quite helpful for many people. So that could be your little silver silver bullet.

Betty Wang 00:09:44 Well, can you tell us like. I mean, I think from the symptoms of let’s start with perimenopause, because the more I learn about it, the more I feel like I hear most about the hair loss and the weight gain, and then the loss of libido and hot flashes, hot flashes and night sweats, or I don’t know if they’re the same difference. Are they different?

Heather Walker 00:10:07 They’re different. But one is more during the day and one is waking you up at night.

Betty Wang 00:10:11 Okay. Thank you. But I’ve also heard that tinnitus could be one or itchy ears or the brain fog, which is hard when we’re all so busy that sometimes we just think we’re foggy because we didn’t sleep while the night before. And then you read that insomnia is also another piece of it.

Betty Wang 00:10:30 I mean, when does when can these symptoms start or when? When do you start thinking, oh, maybe I should talk to my OB about this or do they start bringing it up?

Heather Walker 00:10:41 Well, a good provider should bring it up, but many people don’t write their asking more about complaints often. So I would say perimenopause is probably about seven years, maybe even ten prior to menopause. So it could be starting in your mid 40s. It could be starting in your early 40s. So menopause itself is actually the it sounds crazy, but it’s only like one day. But the word menopause means after you haven’t had a period for 12 months a natural cycle, right. So if you haven’t had a period for 12 months, you have menopause. And then literally like the next day you’re post-menopausal, right? So it’s just you’re in perimenopause or so. Menopause is a broad term that people use for I’m having a lot of symptoms, right. Who cares about the definition? It doesn’t really matter. But Perry just means your prior to missing your cycle for 12 months and irregularity of your actual period is when we’re in perimenopause.

Heather Walker 00:11:39 So people start to say, well, I’m getting my period less often, or it’s shorter or it’s longer now. Like it’s changing. What’s up with that? Right. And then many of the symptoms of quote unquote menopause are very similar to perimenopause and post menopause. But they are, as you just mentioned, hot flashes, night sweats, memory fog, libido changes, weight gain, especially in our bellies. Right. People complain about that a lot. Tinnitus. And that your itching is definitely a part of it, but it’s pretty uncommon. I don’t hear that a ton. And but you’re right, that is is a common thing with hormonal changes for sure. And we also just have unfortunately risks that come with all of this, which is bone loss memory. And the fogginess of our brain is unfortunately an estrogen depletion issue. And so that’s why we know that estrogen replacement therapy only for the right person of course, can really help with that. But anyway, that’s a little bit of a side note.

Heather Walker 00:12:35 But there’s so many problems with either bone health, even losing muscle and, you know, losing some cognitive function to can be all a part of this. So it’s really normal. But doesn’t mean that we have to be like suffering. Because imagine if you’re starting in your 40s or early 40s and you’re not done until 5354. That’s that’s a big chunk of time to not feel good, right? Yeah.

Betty Wang 00:12:58 And so just because I don’t I really don’t know. After menopause when you’re postmenopausal, do these symptoms continue or they kind of subside more or they can. Do you do you have ten more years of looking forward to that? I don’t of like.

Heather Walker 00:13:18 They can continue. That’s one of the hardest parts. So yes. So most people it subsides. But it depends on when. Right. And that’s very genetic for a lot of people. If you kind of have an estimate of your mom or aunts potentially having a certain age of menopause and then, oh, good, they sailed through it with no problems.

Heather Walker 00:13:37 That’s a good sign for you or us. But if it’s like, oh, they had a really hard time again, there’s tools that we can use to help people do a little bit better. But in general, it could be several years after you’re done with your cycle. Right. So the post-menopausal time of having symptoms could be like 2 to 8 years, maybe still. So that’s why our 50s are probably the time when most people are talking about this. And then around, you know, 58, 60 ish. A lot of people are like, oh, good, I’m done with all that stuff. But some people it’s only two years and they stop, you know, having them after 2 or 3 years of losing their cycle.

Betty Wang 00:14:15 And we’ll talk more about how supplements or non-medical is not the right term, but the typical treatments that we’ve thought about. I mean, I guess me coming from a not educated perspective at all, it’s I feel like my choices are suffer through it. Tough it out or go on hormone replacement therapy, which, you know, people I feel like are divided or by friends who’ve gone on it.

Betty Wang 00:14:40 Some really hated it, some really loved it. And anytime you’re dealing with hormones, that’s going to mess with your brain a little bit. Right. Like, it takes your body a little bit to get used to. Or I think of it as like going on the pill, like I remember doing that and that was not necessarily smooth. Right.

Heather Walker 00:14:57 Yeah. The birth control pill is meant to completely stop our ovulation and to not get anyone pregnant. Right. Which it’s used for that in such a good way. And many, many people need that. But hormone replacement therapy is like very fractional as far as the amount of hormone. It’s probably about a 10th or an eighth of the actual hormones of what a birth control pill is. That’s why we tend to take people off when they’re kind of getting closer to 50. We take them off the birth control pill, and we very easily transition. Even for people with high blood pressure or with other problems, we easily can give hormone replacement therapy to those folks just because it’s such a different dosing.

Heather Walker 00:15:37 Yeah. So it’s quite a different thing. But so it’s not quite as difficult. And most people find a lot of relief from hormone replacement therapy.

Betty Wang 00:15:45 And I know that there are some myths around. Or maybe they’re not myths. I don’t know. But you hear that? Oh, if I go on it, then I’m I’m more susceptible to cancer or breast cancer or I forget the there’s just some negative. I don’t know if it’s fear based thoughts about hormone replacement therapy is that I mean, I’m sure there’s some risks, but are they as bad as some people make them?

Heather Walker 00:16:09 So there’s there’s a lot of controversy about this. But in general. So the why is the World Health or the Women’s Health Initiative that started in the study started in the late 90s, and it ended abruptly in early 2000. It was actually 2002, and I was in my rotations. I remember the day that it happened. It was crazy, but everyone stopped cold turkey taking their hormones because what happened was it’s it’s quite a long story, but some people were alluding that this study was showing that there was a tiny increase in breast cancer incidence, and the study was originally meant to show that it is good for prevention of cancers and cardiovascular disease, as well as Alzheimer’s and dementia.

Heather Walker 00:16:51 So for brain and breast and heart health, it was that was what the study was for. The people in it were much older in their 60s. The average age was like mid 60s for the study. And long story short, there was a small it was like 0.08% increase of incidence of breast cancer in one of the groups. And so they announced this, the news announced it and everyone went off their hormones. So ironically, now we have actually seen more people with breast cancer, heart disease and dementia. And again, convoluted amount of studies, lots of them. And it’s difficult to kind of prove this. Exactly. But there’s a lot of people that say now because they yanked everyone off of it back in the day. There was probably more problems. Also osteoporosis problems, of course. Right. So hormones are good for our bone health. Heart health. And actually most cancers are prevented with hormones. So again that’s complicated because we’re talking about estrogen and progesterone. Testosterone all of them some of them you know etc..

Heather Walker 00:17:55 But there is some evidence that it is not causing cancer. So that’s the toughest thing. So it was four out of 1000 people were having cancer in that study. Breast cancer actually on placebo. And then five out of 1000 had it with the hormones. So they decided that that was enough to pull people off of the study, but it was 0.08% increased incidence. So that’s pretty remarkable. And now that they’ve restarted a lot of a lot of it, tons of like I just said, papers have come out. Good studies have shown that it is not probably the case, and it was unfortunately kind of misread at the time the data was being misinterpreted. But that’s where all of the fear has come from.

Betty Wang 00:18:40 Yeah. Well, that’s good to know, right? I mean, it’s that’s.

Heather Walker 00:18:45 Where all of the fear has come from. Yeah.

Betty Wang 00:18:47 So is. I mean, you start with your OB and they recommend jobs typically right away recommend HRT or do they.

Heather Walker 00:18:57 A lot of them. Yeah.

Heather Walker 00:18:58 A lot of them do.

Betty Wang 00:18:59 Maybe you could choose not to go on that for personal reasons or I mean as you’ve talked about you talk about supplements. You’re approaching it from a wider lens. Would you recommend people start supplements? Try that first because it’s more natural or you have a bigger lens, is what I’m saying.

Heather Walker 00:19:19 Yeah, I do I do think supplements are a really good thing to start with. There are some things that are natural, like you’ve heard of black cohosh and evening primrose oil and that kind of thing. There’s some natural things that do help with hot flashes. It doesn’t help with everything, though. That’s one of the kind of the feedback that I was getting when I was recommending certain things. There’s some really good combination ones, you know that, for example, the company that I work with has that is called Menopause Support. It’s a really good helpful thing adding even omega three seconds and this menopause support. And like I said, the probably vitamin D a lot of people are deficient in vitamin in some of the B vitamins.

Heather Walker 00:20:01 Some of those things are really helpful to try again. I think three months of trying some of those supplements, there’s a lot of over-the-counter ones that I can’t speak to, whether they’re good, bad or otherwise. Right? It’s difficult to say, but I do have some more tried and true ones that people do get quite a bit of relief from, but it’s not every one of those symptoms, right? We just listed so many symptoms, and not all of those are going to be fixed by just supplements. It’s a lot of that, including trying to get our sleep back on track, right? Because, I mean, people are waking between 2 and 4 a.m. typically, and it’s hard to get back to sleep. And why is this right? It’s it’s confusing and frustrating sometimes it’s a weird blood sugar issue, but a lot of times you’re waking up with night sweats and then you have to go to the bathroom and you might as well. And then it’s hard to get back to sleep, but it’s very common hormonal issue when our hormones start to change.

Heather Walker 00:20:55 And so that makes us, you know, tired throughout the day as well as not, you know, it’s not just, oh, I’m kind of tired and I have brain fog. And so most people really do say fatigue, brain fog. And it’s a little bit of chicken in the egg where it’s like, did I not sleep well, like you mentioned the last 3 or 4 nights and now I have this kind of memory issues, brain fog type of feeling or is it, you know, and it’s really all related.

Betty Wang 00:21:20 So let’s say that they, they’re, they’ve decided they’re kind of hitting a wall with their OB Obi or whoever they’re seeing is the best thing to come because you’re a functional practice. Is that what how to define it or how does that work?

Heather Walker 00:21:38 I think so, yeah. Our practice is it’s considered a wellness clinic. And we do have there’s four of us as providers and we all are working a little bit more with hormone replacement therapy taking quite a bit of time to say, hey, what’s really going on, and then doing a really comprehensive, you know, blood draw and to try to make sure that we’re giving good answers, including supplements, right, giving good answers, including supplements, and often giving hormone replacement therapy, but not to everyone.

Heather Walker 00:22:08 If your cycle hasn’t even stopped, we won’t give you any estrogen. But we could help with progesterone, which is really helpful for sleep. And we do testosterone at this clinic as my at my new clinic as well.

Betty Wang 00:22:19 Can you explain the difference between what the three hormones do or briefly just for I mean, yeah, I know Testosterone men, estrogen women, and then progesterone. I’m not quite sure.

Heather Walker 00:22:31 So one of the other hard things about explaining to people why and when they’re coming in, let’s pretend I have like a 46 year old who comes in and she says, I need my hormones checked because I feel off, right? If she’s still cycling, it’s very challenging to say, oh, let’s check your hormones, because the four hormones we normally check is FSH, LH, estradiol and progesterone. And then the fifth one would be testosterone. So the problem is every week of our cycle, if, I mean, I could draw out the menstrual cycle for you and how those hormones change. But every single week we have a change in all four of those because our body tries to be pregnant.

Heather Walker 00:23:10 We get the egg ready to ovulate. Once that’s happened, we start upping our progesterone. And then are we pregnant or not? Yes or no? And if we’re not, of course, which happens every single month since you’re 12 years old, we have these fluctuations in all four of these hormones. But so if I just drew your hormones today and you’re still having a cycle, I would have no idea. If you’re about to ovulate, your estrogen is going to be really high. If you just ovulated, your progesterone is going to be really high. So people that come in a lot, they’re so sad when I’m like, I can’t really check all of your hormones and give you the best answer about what we need to add in. Or and I can’t suck your hormones out either right of your body. So it’s hard to remind people when they’re still cycling, that we have a different level of all five of those hormones at different times of the month, right? That being said, if we’re done with our cycle for 12 months and we’re postmenopausal, it’s much easier to be able to identify what’s really going on.

Heather Walker 00:24:07 If you’re early postmenopausal, your estrogen is going to be not as low as if you’re ten years out right from being postmenopausal. So it’s again, very individual. But what estrogen typically does if we overdo estrogen it can cause some breast tenderness. It can cause some abnormal bleeding. But really, it’s important for bone health. Absolutely. As well as testosterone is important for bone health. It’s important for memory. And it’s important for decrease in dementia and over time, neurocognitive decline. Right. And estrogen in general will help us with hot flashes. It also helps with sleep. So that’s kind of that one. Progesterone helps with sleep as well. Progesterone is what’s high after we ovulate. And it holds on to our lining and keeps it’s really nice and tight. So we don’t have abnormal bleeding too. But again it’s it fluctuates. They all fluctuate. So oftentimes when we give it to people when they’re done with their cycle it helps them to feel just more. Even progesterone can help with belly fat a little bit and so can estrogen.

Heather Walker 00:25:07 The reason we get belly fat more is because of estrogen decline. But it’s also a little bit of progesterone. So progesterone can help for sure make us tired at night. And it can help us sleep better through the night. And a lot of us are just deficient in it. So all of those hormones are declining with age anyway, so the difference of 40 to 30 were all lower in a lot of those hormones anyway. But it depends on, you know, the time of the month and that kind of thing. Testosterone helps with bone health, heart health, probably cancer prevention, and it helps with energy and libido.

Betty Wang 00:25:42 And so for somebody who is perimenopausal, how if we came to your clinic, what happens? I mean, you do the blood work, but knowing that it’s not exact is it sort of taking that and the symptoms to try to figure out what might work and knowing that it it won’t be as exact as if you were post-menopausal.

Heather Walker 00:26:04 Is that correct? Yep. That’s correct. So then we would just talk more about symptoms.

Heather Walker 00:26:08 I often give progesterone to many people who are perimenopausal and it works really well for evening, our mood and also for sleep. And then it depends if they’re interested in Interested in testosterone. I often give perimenopausal people testosterone nowadays as well. With my new clinic. At my new clinic.

Betty Wang 00:26:26 And are those pill bays or are those like. What is that?

Heather Walker 00:26:29 So testosterone in a pill base doesn’t really work. Testosterone typically is a trophy. That is something that goes, which is a little. Dissolvable thing that goes through the mucous membranes and goes through your bloodstream. That way it gets degraded in your stomach too much. And so it doesn’t work well. You can have a cream or you can have even pellets.

Betty Wang 00:26:49 Interesting. What type of patients do you have at your clinic? Like how do they know when it’s time to come to see you? A lot of.

Heather Walker 00:26:56 People are coming because of hot flashes, brain fog, or low libido or weight gain a lot.

Betty Wang 00:27:03 Since it’s with a medical clinic. Do insurance companies typically cover it? I know it’s dependent on insurance companies, but are you just considered a specialist within the field of women’s health in the medical community?

Heather Walker 00:27:16 Our office actually doesn’t take any insurance, it just happens to be that way.

Heather Walker 00:27:20 It is, I guess a tiny bit more like concierge ish, if that makes sense. But a lot of clinics do take insurance. Right? Ours does not. The medications are often covered by insurance, though. If I send a prescription to the pharmacy for you, of course your insurance can pay for that.

Betty Wang 00:27:35 And tell us more about these supplements, because I was telling you before we got on the call that I read the Galveston Diet, and now I get all these Instagram messages and things about hair loss and the weight gain that we should be lifting weights that, you know, maybe we could just go by certain advice one by one, and you can supplement and you can say, okay, that’s not real. And this is real. I mean, you’ve already talked about the protein that that is something that we should be doing because that has been coming up a lot. Right? We keep hearing more protein and weightlifting and that’s where I get confused. Is it heavy weight lifting? I mean, all of us I think growing up in 90s.

Betty Wang 00:28:18 I mean, most of us grew up in the 90s, but like all we heard was cardio, right? Cardio. Low fat, all carbs. And so this is, you know, a mind flip for us and the heavyweights. Does it have to be heavyweights or can it be what does that look like?

Heather Walker 00:28:37 It doesn’t have to be heavyweights. But one of the reasons for perimenopausal people that it’s important is their sarcopenia is one of the big issues. But I also agree with you. It’s just it’s a little bit sounds more like a trend. But for women I would say 40s and above. It’s pretty important to do weight lifting, some type of weight training. One of the reasons is because as we’re building our muscle and making it, you know, hypertrophy, right? Every time we are lifting weights we get sore. Our muscle fibers are breaking down, they’re reforming and they’re getting a little bit bigger. But as that’s happening we have good metabolic kind of return right. So that takes energy for that to happen.

Heather Walker 00:29:17 And so over time, our if we did, let’s say you ran on the treadmill for 30 minutes in the morning. Of course that’s good for our heart. It’s good for our cardiovascular system. It’s good for a lot of reasons. It can be fat burning, but our metabolism is only elevated for those 30 or 40 minutes or what have you. For weightlifting, it takes a lot of energy to kind of break those muscle fiber down, rebuild them, and that will keep our metabolism high for the whole day. But it also and not exactly the whole day, but for much longer hours compared to just doing some cardio. It also is really good because it’s actually pulling on our bones. So as we’re strengthening our muscles, it actually pulls on our bones. So if you’ve ever heard someone say, don’t forget weight bearing exercise, vitamin D, maybe calcium weight bearing exercise that’s just thrown out as like a phrase. It’s physically meant because it builds and helps keep our bones stronger. Does that make sense? So a lot of people are like, oh yeah, I’ve heard that phrase for so long, I didn’t realize, especially if we’re sitting a lot in our chairs during the day, we’re not doing much standing or, you know, we’re not doing much activity.

Heather Walker 00:30:22 Even again, our bodies were meant to in the old days before DJing, hunting and gathering and physically moving all the time. And so even from standing or, you know, different types of muscles in our core are being used if we’re standing more or walking more. And so weight bearing exercise is really important for those reasons. And longevity wise, people are calling it like the currency of longevity now is muscle. And it has to do not just with metabolism being higher to burn fat, but also cellular processes working better over time. So there’s a lot of different people talking about how important muscle is now.

Betty Wang 00:31:04 Hi there. Hope you’re enjoying this episode of Betty’s Smart Friends. I wanted to share a quick money tip with you. The tip Give each dollar a job. Give every dollar you earn a job. Some dollars will have the job of paying your taxes. Some dollars will have the job of paying your mortgage, others saving for retirement. But don’t forget that fun self-care or buying your precious time back are valid and important jobs for your money.

Betty Wang 00:31:35 The key here isn’t to judge the job or how much goes there. It’s to be mindful of where your hard earned money is going and to make adjustments. If you discover it doesn’t align with your values and your goals. Hope you enjoy the rest of the episode and remember, you’re not alone. Now back to the show. And you use this term that actually I saw an Instagram and I had to look it up. The sarco.

Heather Walker 00:32:04 Sarcopenia. Yeah.

Betty Wang 00:32:06 Will you explain what that is and how that affects women over 40?

Heather Walker 00:32:10 Yeah. It just means muscle wasting. So or muscle loss. So muscle mass loss. And over time because of our aging it just we don’t have as much muscle. So there’s certain supplements that I have actually through my life business. One of them is called load. It’s really helpful. There’s other ones you can get pills that have something similar in it, but it has a little bit of creatine and also some other things that help literally keep our muscle mass. If you weren’t ever even working out, I give it to my 84 year old mother in law because she’s older, right? And we really want to make sure that her muscle mass stays good, including her bones, too.

Heather Walker 00:32:49 But the muscle mass supports the bones. It really has a lot to do with osteoporosis and metabolism and cellular processes that do better when we’re building and trying to keep our muscle. So even if you’re not going to work out with weights, then you should be helping to supplement and try to support your muscle mass.

Betty Wang 00:33:07 So the creatine that’s that’s actually what I just started this past weekend with taurine. Is that how you say it? You’re also recommending that to clients or older who are aging just for the. Does it build muscle or it just.

Heather Walker 00:33:21 It just helps keep us from wasting.

Betty Wang 00:33:23 Prevent your muscle from wasting.

Heather Walker 00:33:25 Yeah. It helps if you’re if you’re working out, it does help to build muscle as well. But if you’re not working out, it helps it to decrease from wasting and.

Betty Wang 00:33:32 Weight bearing exercises. What does that actually mean? Like when I’m walking, it’s carrying my weight. Is that considered weight bearing? Or you’re carrying.

Heather Walker 00:33:41 Your weight in your core and your pelvis and your legs, but not as much in your upper back.

Heather Walker 00:33:47 Right. And your arms. So weight bearing exercise, kind of walking is considered that. But then I always tell people you can literally take like some 5 to £10 weights and try to make sure we’re working our arms, our chest and our back a little bit as well. And lifting with legs is also good. But if if you’re not going to do that and just do walking. Then I would recommend doing something.

Betty Wang 00:34:12 Baby steps. Yes. What about. I felt like this was a trend maybe for five years before this new protein. I guess it’s not new, but the fasting. The intermittent fasting, and. Yeah. Is that good? Is that bad? I think the Galveston diet, she’s a proponent. What have you found or what have you seen in your practice with that?

Heather Walker 00:34:33 I do think a lot of perimenopausal and menopausal and postmenopausal people benefit from it. To be honest, they really do. I figured out that I’m not a good intermittent fasting because genetically, I took a DNA test.

Heather Walker 00:34:47 Again, this is with my ID life company. I took a DNA test and I tried it three times, and I kept thinking, why is everyone else doing so well with this and kind of losing a little bit of weight? Right. I did it for 2 or 3 weeks at a time and I my window was small, right? A lot of people do benefit from it. I’m definitely thinking that if you don’t know if you’re going to benefit from it, you should try it. And the windows are probably it’s best to maybe do like an 18 six, right? So that’s or it depends. It depends. If you’re new to it, I would do it a little less aggressively and start with a shorter fasting window. But long story short, it’s really beneficial for a lot of people. I ended up getting my DNA test and I was like, oh, thank goodness I figured it out because it tells me. It just says to me that I’m not a good intermittent faster, because what happens to me is I overeat in my eating window.

Heather Walker 00:35:39 And so I realized, oh, and I mean, my DNA said that, that I would probably have that issue. And I was happy to know that I was not crazy, basically.

Betty Wang 00:35:50 Well, that’s really interesting. So your DNA can tell you DNA testing is different than the hormonal testing, right?

Heather Walker 00:35:58 So you’re born with your DNA and you’re some people do better. I mean, some people have kind of overeating genes, if you will. It sounds crazy, but it’s very true that it you know, obesity can run in certain people’s family and it’s not always like, oh, they just had a poor diet when they were young, or they learned how to eat poorly from a youngster age. It’s often genetic, right? We also have some people that have more insulin resistance from the get go, and they can have more trouble with eating, but also burning their fuel properly and holding on to certain fuels. A lot of people can shuttle a lot of their glucose into fat cells, and if you have a lot of toxins, that’s also a problem.

Heather Walker 00:36:37 And why people can be obese. And that’s a whole nother topic.

Betty Wang 00:36:40 But that’s really interesting. I mean, in your DNA, the tests that you do with your ID, id, life business, it does that.

Heather Walker 00:36:49 It does. Yeah.

Betty Wang 00:36:50 What about. Well, I want to talk about how that connects with your your clinic work too. But let’s maybe continue with the other things that we’re hearing and then maybe go back to that. Because I think that’s really interesting. Right. Because when you’re going through this, you just want to figure it out. You just want to figure it out rather than trying everything. So that all sounds very appealing. The other thing the Galveston diet had said was high fat. And that was interesting too. I mean, again, it sounds like that might depend on your DNA and.

Heather Walker 00:37:21 It might depend on your DNA, but there’s a lot of there’s a lot to be said.

Betty Wang 00:37:26 Hi. Good fats. Right.

Heather Walker 00:37:28 Oh, yes. Please. I was just going to say there’s a lot to be said about what type of fat you’re eating.

Heather Walker 00:37:32 So, for example, most people’s lean body mass is around 100. And I can’t remember exactly what the what it would be called after that. But lean body mass is supposed to be how much grams of protein we’re having per day. And so I have like a calculation I can do. Or we have an in-body test at my office, at my clinic where we can tell you what your lean body mass is. That’s supposed to be the amount of protein in grams that you’re supposed to have per day. So I would start with protein first and not worry about the fats, and good fats are definitely fine. You can only fit so much food in for a day. It also depends if your goal is weight loss or muscle gain. Right? If you ever were to try, doing a composition change is a nice way to say it’s a nice way to say it.

Betty Wang 00:38:19 Yeah. Yeah.

Heather Walker 00:38:21 So we’d like to, you know, get rid of some fat and maybe build muscle, which I would highly recommend.

Heather Walker 00:38:27 That will change our body composition. Right. Our clothes will fit differently. We will look different. It’s definitely a good thing for longevity and for health. It is really important to probably have at least I would say 90 to 110g of protein a day for almost everybody. And that’s very hard to do. Very hard to do. So if you focused on that first and not worried as much about the fat, you would find that you’re eating a lot of protein, which is in lots of things, right? It could be in cottage cheese, it could be eggs, it could be some other dairy, which again, you mentioned you weren’t doing as much of, but you can get it in some nuts or some nut butters and different types of things. I have a thing at my office that is a handout that I have hanging there that everyone I say take a picture of this. It says how to get more protein right? But the reason for that is because, again, metabolically, it’s really good for us.

Heather Walker 00:39:14 It helps us to keep our muscle for longevity reasons. And also most of those fats in the proteins are the healthier fats, right? Not bacon per se, right. But over time adding into a little bit of grains because fiber is still important. We can’t say I’m not having any carbs, right? But having natural carbs from vegetables or fruit is much, much better for us than the processed stuff. So for every single person on the planet, that’s probably the case. But even more important for perimenopausal and postmenopausal people.

Betty Wang 00:39:45 That’s super helpful. But the other piece that they that she does talk about, and I think she started her own supplement business because she thinks it’s so important, was for the reason that you were talking about that we’re not getting this from food. And it’s also because our food is not as healthy as it used to be. A carrot from, I don’t know, 100 years ago. One today has less nutritional value than that.

Heather Walker 00:40:10 Correct. And even in different countries. Right.

Heather Walker 00:40:12 We have different nutritional value from because of the soil and some of the regulations and the way things are farmed. Yeah. So a lot of people even claim, oh, I can how come I can eat pasta in Europe or bread in Europe? And it doesn’t cause me to feel bloated in that kind of thing. And it’s because we have the husk of the wheat has been removed, and there’s not a lot of nutrients in that. And it’s very it’s very different. We also have a lot of pesticides here. And even organic labeling is not always meaning the same thing in different countries. And so and the mass production of food is very different than kind of more farm to table type of situation.

Betty Wang 00:40:48 Interesting. Yeah. So I had read and you know, this is so timely that year and you’re here that that the vitamin D for women or people in general. And then is it the fish oil fish oils. But omega threes.

Heather Walker 00:41:06 Omega threes. Yep.

Betty Wang 00:41:07 In the right is also very important for women going through menopause.

Heather Walker 00:41:11 Yes. Omega three seconds are from fattier fishes. Right. And the omega threes that are made well are not just like boiled. So the the when they’re made poorly it’s boiled down. And they just take this big like slew of the omega three fatty acids off of the top. So the cold pressed type, it’s just the way that that’s actually produced is really important as well. The other issue is there’s EPA and DHA ratios that are really good. Sixes and nines for omegas are probably inflammatory. Those are not very good. So you want to make sure if you have an Omega supplement or a fatty acid supplement or a fish oil supplement, that it’s probably just omega threes and not the sixes and the nines.

Betty Wang 00:41:48 Can you talk about the supplements that I mean, of course every woman’s going to be different or every patient that you see is going to be different. What are some typical ones that you are telling folks to use? And from what I’ve read and what you’ve talked about, there’s different efficacies of different brands of vitamins, right? Some brands have a lot of filler and some don’t.

Heather Walker 00:42:12 Right. You want to look for something that’s probably in a capsule instead of a pill form. So capsules like you could open it up and sprinkle it on your food, for example. That’s going to be much more easily digested. The fillers of the actual pills, the way that they’re pressed and like made, is probably not always the same across the board. So that’s not as good. So that’s one way to kind of recognize that it’s probably a higher quality. But yeah. So for example there’s some brands that are better than others. I mean I don’t know if you want me to list them all off. I have the vitamins from my ID life company. Omega threes are super important for women. I think 3000 to 5000 of omega threes, only without the sixes and the nines is probably a good benefit for most people. Again, I don’t know if I should say numbers because everybody’s a little bit different. Sure. Yeah. But vitamin D3 with K2 is very important or with cofactors because it helps to shuttle the actual vitamin D to the right place and not help to deposit calcium into our vessels.

Heather Walker 00:43:12 So we want to keep it in our bones and helping our immune system. So vitamin D3 is good for immune system. It’s actually probably good for a little bit of weight loss. It’s good for memory and mood for sure. Mood. Not as much memory. I shouldn’t have probably said that, but mood balancing and it’s like again, immune system so healthy. And so some people claim it’s if you’re really super low you have higher chances of getting cancer. Right. So long story short, that’s easy to check in people’s levels. Vitamin D3 with K2. So I would say 5000 to 10,000 per day or with cofactors. Most people are deficient in some B vitamins. And so like a good high quality b-complex is really good for us. it should be methylated. That’s a whole nother story. There’s something called mthfr, which is a reductase enzyme that some people are deficient in. And if you take regular B vitamins that are not methylated, it’ll just gunk up your whole system. So that’s another reason, actually that some people are feeling really poorly.

Heather Walker 00:44:12 And it’s a very long story, but we have inflammatory markers. One is called homocysteine that will be really high if you have an Mthfr mutation. And so if you’re taking any processed foods that have folic acid in it. So in the 90s they started putting folic acid into everything for women, for pregnant women, for neural tube defects, for babies. But the problem is not everyone can actually process folic acid. It’s the synthetic version of folate. So we need real and that’s B9. So folate is B9. So again methylated B vitamins super important for just across the board. Unless you wanted to do a test to see if you had the MTA for Mutation, but there’s about 40 to 50% of the United States population has a mutation in that reductase enzyme. So that’s a whole nother story. But that’s important for all people to kind of pay attention to, too. So I would just suggest methylated B vitamins.

Betty Wang 00:45:05 And is there a way to avoid taking, you know, three different pills five times a day? You know, we’ve read about what is it Athletic Greens is like super popular.

Betty Wang 00:45:17 I don’t know if it has all these. Or is it better just to take these specific vitamins and just get over the fact that you’re going to be taking vitamins?

Heather Walker 00:45:27 A lot of people take way more than 3 or 4 pills a day, right? For supplements, I mean, most people are taking like 8 to 10 probably a day. I think Athletic Greens is okay. I haven’t studied it enough to to say that. Yeah.

Betty Wang 00:45:40 I don’t know either.

Heather Walker 00:45:42 I’m not sure. I can’t say that for sure, but yeah, a lot of people are taking supplements.

Betty Wang 00:45:46 So the way that you approach it are people taking like, 8 to 10 a day? Okay.

Heather Walker 00:45:53 But again, it’s because I take three omega threes, right? Every night I take two vitamin D’s with K2 every night. So either through a blood test or through actually for IDD life, there’s an assessment, a quiz that you can take and it’ll say, oh, because you have Native American heritage, you have a higher propensity for diabetes.

Heather Walker 00:46:11 Therefore, we should probably have something that will be helpful for glucose support, that kind of thing. So again, you know, if you have high cholesterol, you should probably have CoQ10. There’s so many reasons why we should have different things. And every individual is so different. So there’s a way to either do a little quiz or kind of guess what we probably need. And honestly, if you have too many of certain supplements, we p it out. And maybe it’s a waste of money, but it’s not hard on our kidneys or it’s no problem to do that. So I do think that Whole Foods is always better, but we just don’t have the most amazing nutritional Whole Foods at this time. You can eat as amazingly well as you want, and you can say that you’re the cleanest eater on the whole planet, and you probably still would need a few supplements, right? So there’s a little quiz. You can take that if you wanted to. Or you could just start with some of these things and see if you feel better too.

Betty Wang 00:47:06 In the timing matters. Right. So I can’t just take all of them at the same time.

Heather Walker 00:47:11 No, you could, but it’s better to take them at different times. Yes. So certain things like B vitamins do you take in the morning? Thyroid supplementation of any type you take in the morning because it can give you energy. You don’t want to take it right before you go to bed if it’s going to keep you up, right. For example, progesterone, which of course is a prescription you have to take at night because it makes you sleepy. Omega threes are really well digested with a bigger meal. And so a lot of people take those at night. You don’t have to write. If you’re going to forget them every night, then make sure you actually get them in your system. Some things require a little bit more food. I would say B vitamins require a little more food because you might feel nauseous. That’s usually the complaint When people say they feel a little nauseous from a multivitamin or something, it’s usually from the B, the B vitamins in there.

Heather Walker 00:47:52 Yes, D3 and K2 is meant to be at night. Yeah, there’s a chronicity like a chronological chronicity type of thing that is a biological helper at certain times of the day. But if you can’t remember things, then I would still say, just try to get it in your body.

Betty Wang 00:48:07 And seeing somebody like you at your clinic, you could also help them if they’re taking, you know, I take a thyroid supplement and that’s something that we could talk about, about what supplements I shouldn’t take at that time until it, you know, an hour or two after I’ve taken my thyroid supplement.

Heather Walker 00:48:25 Yeah. I mean, typically for your thyroid supplement, you should wait 30 minutes for everything else.

Betty Wang 00:48:30 Yeah.

Heather Walker 00:48:31 Yeah, I know it’s hard to do.

Betty Wang 00:48:33 I know I’m trying. So explain to us how your clinic work and your ID life business, how they complement each other. Or you know, why can’t it all fit under one bucket?

Heather Walker 00:48:48 Yeah, it could fit under one bucket. There are some things at my office like I obviously some things are prescription right.

Heather Walker 00:48:57 So testosterone, estrogen and progesterone are prescription drugs, which of course I can prescribe whenever needed. But supplements can definitely be a part of that. At our office, we use a few of the things from Mighty Life at this point, but it’s more that it is the things like for example, the load, which is to help with muscle mass is definitely accepted there, but it’s because all the other choices for the other brands, if you will, are more expensive and more annoying to take. So taking four pills instead of a tiny little scoop that you can put in your protein shake is much easier. So it’s more of like a competitive kind of situation. But I mean, I love helping people inside and out of the office, and if someone just wants to try some of the ID life things, they don’t have to see me in the office. Right. And we There’s no fee. And I can just say, hey, here’s how we can start you off with some supplements with the assessment.

Heather Walker 00:49:50 And here’s some other things I recommend for some symptoms. So that’s without coming into my clinic that I can help you whenever on the side. But I’m happy also to see people in my clinic if they need prescriptions of any type.

Betty Wang 00:50:02 And what’s the best way to contact you? Do you have a website or.

Heather Walker 00:50:07 To contact me? Would probably be email. I should have a website I can. I mean, I’ve been meaning to get it finished and I don’t have it done.

Betty Wang 00:50:16 Work in progress. Yes yes yes in progress.

Heather Walker 00:50:19 But when I do have a website soon, I would definitely love to share it with people. But email is a great way to contact me too.

Betty Wang 00:50:26 Or to find you at the contact you through the clinic.

Heather Walker 00:50:29 Yeah. Yeah.

Betty Wang 00:50:30 Of course. I mean, what what do you typically recommend for the mood swings that some of us experience? I mean, is that are these other supplements? They all they take care of certain things and is the idea that that will in turn help the mood swings? Or is there something specific that people take to help with the mood swings?

Heather Walker 00:50:50 I feel like mood swings is a little tough, right? I think that the progesterone to help with sleep is one of the vital keys to help with mood swings, and also probably vitamin D3, to be honest.

Betty Wang 00:51:02 What about calcium? I mean, a lot of times when you see D3, people are saying, take calcium. Is that something that should be on our radar or not? You know, these other three should be priorities.

Heather Walker 00:51:13 I would say it’s not a top priority. A lot of people get enough calcium in their diet, to be honest. We used to overdo calcium a lot, and now the concern is that we don’t want to be laying it down in our arteries. We have calcium score testing that we do for cardiovascular health and atherosclerosis. Right. That we don’t want to have too much calcium. So we used to really talk about high levels of calcium for women. And now we need it to be 500 or below per day. Definitely is a good complement to D3, but I don’t think it’s as necessary as we used to think. So that has definitely changed over the past ten years.

Betty Wang 00:51:48 Can you tell me a little bit more about this ID like if that’s your business. Like what? What exactly is it? It’s a supplement that focus on health and wellness in general.

Betty Wang 00:51:58 Or is it mostly women’s health?

Heather Walker 00:51:59 It’s health and wellness in general. It’s a business that I’ve just been using to help people feel better for. I’ve been doing it about three and a half years, almost four years. And it’s how I kind of realized that I didn’t know as much about nutrition and other things in the whole world of health that is not talked about as much in conventional medicine. And it’s crazy. So like even the Mthfr mutation, we talk about it for over for pregnancy loss it life was talking about it years ago and I was like, wait a second. People are knowing that there’s nutritional problems with when you have an Mthfr mutation. It’s very fascinating. Anyway, I started learning so much from them that I was like, I need to delve into this a little bit more. And so it’s I have a website for that. I do have a website for that. And we have a new product even called Bio Age, which is helping with cellular regeneration and mitochondrial repair. And it’s for anti-aging essentially, which is kind of sounds like a, you know, a little bit of a buzzword right now, but it’s yeah, it’s.

Betty Wang 00:53:01 Pretty like self-care, right?

Heather Walker 00:53:04 Yeah, exactly. But it’s pretty awesome. It’s really science based and science backed. And there’s over 50,000 white journals that are referenced for a lot of the different supplements than different things you could take. So there’s a little bit for workout stuff if you want it. There’s collagen. There’s, you know, different things. There’s definitely vitamins that are individually designed. So Betty, if you took the quiz versus my if I when I take the quiz, our vitamin recommendations will be totally different, right? Even though we’re both females of the same similar age. But your symptoms versus my symptoms, we may have a little bit of different suggestions for supplements, so it’s just a cool tool. It’s not the end all be all. As far as like that’s the only thing I talk about. But I do love the science behind it and it’s really good quality stuff.

Betty Wang 00:53:49 So yeah, I mean, is that what. Because when I went down my deep dive, there are a lot of supplement companies out there.

Betty Wang 00:53:56 And, you know, me as a layperson, I did the Consumer Reports, I did the Wirecutter from the New York Times, if you like to see where. And I still don’t know, but you’ve been in the medical community for over 20 years. What drew you to this company? Obviously reputable and effective. I mean.

Heather Walker 00:54:17 Yeah, well, my yeah, the person who introduced me to it is a physician assistant also. And she was doing internal medicine. And then one of my OBGYN friends has also been doing it. Right. So it’s one of those, you know, medical doctor of course. And they are just a lot about it. And then there’s some functional medicine people there, and the science of it is just very reputable. And so it’s easy for me to just trust that they’ve done a lot of research in creating everything that’s done, you know what I mean? It’s easier for me to be like, oh, phew, I can just trust that that’s, you know, high quality and that it’s made well and done well and well especially.

Betty Wang 00:54:55 Yeah. You’ve spent time looking at it for yourself. Yeah. Is there anything else that women should know who are going through perimenopause or in the post-menopausal that we should be thinking about? I mean, obviously I think supplements are coming up more. I mean, I do remember my mom taking Evening Primrose, but that was all I remember her dealing with. Right. But it sounds like it’s becoming more and more important as how to help with our mitigate our symptoms, or at least make them more manageable. Right?

Heather Walker 00:55:26 Yeah. I think it just it’s so hard because there’s no like, magic solution. As you said, hormones might be a magic solution. Eating super high quality foods is very helpful and doing things that kind of are hard, right? Doing things like, yes, I really need to get my exercise in that. That also helps us with sleep, right? It helps our cardiovascular health. It helps cancer prevention. Right. But it also can help you feel better throughout the day if you’re exercising.

Heather Walker 00:55:54 So there’s just it’s hard because it’s a lot of the very cliche things that it’s like, oh shoot, I yes, I do have to get my workout in. Yes, I do have to drink more water. Yes, I do have to try to, you know, prioritize my sleep and my nutrition. And it’s kind of frustrating, like you said, that there’s no magic like solution.

Betty Wang 00:56:13 No, I’m just, you know, making sure and making sure that there’s just not one supplement I can take once a day and everything will be so much better. But no, I mean, I think it’s it’s really good to understand the whys and that it’s moving forward. Right. And that you don’t have to just tough it out, that there’s options.

Heather Walker 00:56:31 I don’t think you have to tough it out at all. Yeah, and I do think that hormone replacement therapy is maybe underutilized in some places. And there’s really good ways of getting, like, bioidentical hormones through the pharmacy. Right. It’s not it doesn’t always have to be something weird or woowoo.

Heather Walker 00:56:48 You know what I mean? There’s definitely ways of getting good stuff from traditional conventional medicine to. But sometimes it has to be a little bit more individually designed. Right? That’s the that’s the part that I think is important to remember too.

Betty Wang 00:57:01 Yeah. Wow. I feel so informed. Thank you. That was amazing. I do always ask, as you’re so busy and working two jobs and having kids, what do you do to maintain your own balance and peace?

Heather Walker 00:57:17 Yeah, and I was just thinking this before you asked that I should have also mentioned not just exercise, sleep water or nutrition supplements, but in hormones potentially, but also like mindfulness. And while you’re out on a walk, like really enjoying and looking around and trying to even some, you know, grounding or that kind of thing is so important to really remember that we need to do that. So for me, yes, I meditate every day. I definitely exercise most days. And I feel like my sleep has gotten a lot better since I started hormones, to be honest.

Heather Walker 00:57:49 Much better. So that’s improved. And having a less stressful job for me has been quite amazing and I truly enjoy it. And so I really enjoy this work and helping people feel better. That helps a lot too, in remembering that, right? Being grateful for what we have and and trying to remember that that’s a good practice to do. So I think meditation, a gratitude journal sounds again a little cliche, but I love doing all that stuff. Yeah, an exercise for me is a really big stress reliever reliever.

Betty Wang 00:58:19 Actually, though, it’s I mean, my next question is, you know, I work with a lot of women who are thinking about retiring or in retirement. And studies show that if you have a hobby or a or a particular passion that it’s really indicative of how satisfied you’ll be in retirement. Right. Are there do you have hobbies or interests that that you share with the listeners that that might be of interest to them? I mean.

Heather Walker 00:58:43 I do a lot of reading, I will say, and I’ve always enjoyed reading, so that’s anything.

Betty Wang 00:58:49 Good. What are you reading now? I’m a big reader, too.

Heather Walker 00:58:51 Yeah, well, I was just reading this empty too far book. That’s actually a little too heavy. Like I’m like, oh.

Betty Wang 00:58:57 Yeah, I don’t think I’ll be taking that recommendation.

Heather Walker 00:59:01 The science of it. I’m like, I don’t think anyone’s gonna want to read this. Yeah, that’s probably what I most recently read. I read a lot of menopause stuff, and I read a lot of more sciency things. But what have I read? Yeah.

Betty Wang 00:59:14 Well, do you have books that you recommend for women who are trying to learn more about what we’re going through? I mean, my OB had recommended the Galveston Diet and then that’s why I picked it up. But do you have other books?

Heather Walker 00:59:26 I do think Marie Claire is pretty solid and she is an OBGYN MD. Yeah I’m working. I think Peter Attila’s outlive book is really amazing and it’s excellent. I think that’s really excellent. I listen to the Huberman Lab podcast a lot, and there is the one of the ones about muscle mass is a female physician that is on there, and I can’t think of her name right now.

Heather Walker 00:59:53 Oh, oh, Lions. Lioness is her name. That one’s very long. Those are 2 to 3 hours often, which is a little daunting. But but he’s he’s typically really good. And even when Peter Attia was on the Huberman Lab podcast, I thought that was great. I listened to a lot of like, biohacking stuff, but that’s also a little.

Betty Wang 01:00:13 Bit oh, no, I mean, I think it’s great because that information helps those of us who it’s not our natural interest. Right?

Heather Walker 01:00:20 Yeah. I mean, we ski as a family. I love doing that. I like weightlifting actually quite a bit. I really do enjoy that. I can always help anyone who wants help with that of how to start or what to do if you don’t like weightlifting. I’m all about it. So yeah, that’s all I can say. I don’t have like crocheting or any. I don’t do.

Heather Walker 01:00:39 That.

Betty Wang 01:00:41 I think it’s funny when I asked this question, we all are like, should we be crocheting or knitting? I don’t know what it means.

Betty Wang 01:00:47 It’s just, you know, some people find gardening really relaxing. It’s just and I think learning for you might be something that’s like your hobby and interest that will take you through life. I don’t I don’t know, you know, it’s all kind of we’ve got to figure it out. But I think it’s nice to just hear other people’s ideas.

Heather Walker 01:01:04 Yeah, for sure. And you’re right. The kids keep us so busy, right? We’re we’re attending sports events all the time, constantly. So.

Betty Wang 01:01:10 Yeah. Well, thank you so much for your time. I thought this was really helpful information to me. And I’m hoping that I think our listeners will find a lot of value for it, too. So thank you for joining me.

Heather Walker 01:01:21 Thank you. Yes, everyone. Please, listeners, don’t give up. Don’t give up. There’s definitely some solutions. So.

Betty Wang 01:01:28 Oh, that’s good to know. I need to hear that. Thank you.

Heather Walker 01:01:31 Yes, yes.

Betty Wang 01:01:33 Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Betty Smart Friends.

Betty Wang 01:01:37 I hope you enjoyed today’s conversation and that you learn something new. You can connect with us on social media to stay updated on future episodes. Share your thoughts and join our community of smart friends. You can find us on Instagram at Betty Financial, and don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode! If you are feeling ready to be more empowered and less alone in your financial life, please schedule a complimentary 15 minutes with me. The link is in the show notes. Please see the show notes for important disclosures regarding BW financial planning and this episode. Until next time, remember you are not alone. We got you.