Just As Well, The Women's Health Podcast - The One Supplement Most Women Are Missing

Episode Date: February 3, 2026

What if one simple supplement could support better sleep, stress resilience, cravings and energy — and most women aren’t getting enough of it? . Nutritionist and naturopath Rhian Stephenson joins Gemma Atkinson and Claire Sanderson on Just As Well to explain how to use supplements properly, starting with food first and adding targeted support only where it’s genuinely needed. . They discuss magnesium, vitamin D, creatine and electrolytes, how stress and life stage affect nutrient needs, and why supplements should complement — not replace — good nutrition, sleep and exercise. . A practical, science-led conversation for women who want to feel better without falling for wellness hype. . Hosts:  ⁠https://www.instagram.com/glouiseatkinson/⁠  ⁠https://www.instagram.com/clairesanderson/⁠  Wellness video producer: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/chelia.batkin/⁠  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hi, I'm Gemikinson. And I'm Claire Sanderson. And we have just interviewed Rhian Stevenson for Just as well. She's a leading nutritional therapist and a naturopath. And she is also the founder of Arta Supplements. So she took us through everything you need to know about supplementation, what you maybe should be taking, things to look out for when buying supplements, our price points important.

She was very big on as well in pointing out that a supplement is that it's a supplement, a supplement for a food it's not a replacement for a food and she was very big on honing in on the fact that if you can alter your diet first and then see what needs to be added into it and she was very open about how she was very poorly as a child there was lots of things like suggested to a mother to help treat her and it turned out it was an allergy to cow's milk of all things so she said after nearly ten years of feeling so so poorly it took just three months for her to feel great again. She was very open about her journey. She'd had five miscarriages. Yeah.

Which is just awful for, one miscarriage would be horrendous for anybody. Five. Five. She's now got two beautiful children. She's a mom. She's a thriving business woman. She's so, so knowledgeable. I learned a lot. We've actually made a list of supplements, aren't we, that we're going to go? We have. Yeah, we've made a list of supplements that we're going to take. I also loved hearing the process you should go through before deciding what supplements work for you. I think that's really useful takeaway tips she gave there. It's different for everyone. Yeah, it's not a one

size fits all approach and it should be personalised but there's the way you can do that without having to have expensive blood tests. So here it is our chat with Rian. So Rian, thank you so much for joining us. For anyone who's new to your work or your

social pages, how would you usually describe what you do because you're spinning many plates? Yeah. So I'm a nutritionist and a naturopath and my goal is really to empower women to feel and function well by using, you know, a variety of things, but mainly nutrition and targeted supplementation, but also lifestyle factors like like fitness and nervous system recovery. So, Riham, we've known each other for quite some time because we first messed when you were working with a boutique spin, a boutique spin company.

Yeah. So your your profession in wellness, has gone on for years and years. Yes, I've been around. Yeah, so when I first moved to the UK, I was in a clinical practice for about seven years, and then I sidestepped into the fitness world, because that's another huge passion of mine. And then I left that business

after I had my first baby in the pandemic, and I kind of went back to my roots, which really is nutrition. So, yes, I've been around for quite a while in many different hats. And when you say nervous system recovery, that's intriguing. kind of like from people who've been stressed or how does that happen? Yeah, I think for women in particular, one core pillar that we haven't really focused on is

stress, right? Is how is my nervous system actually coping with my life? Because when you think about health, you've got nutrition, you've got sleep, you've got fitness, but then your stress and how your nervous system can cope with all of it is a fundamental part of how well we are. And so I think that's just a key part. Because it's responsible for so much, isn't it? I mean, it goes from the top down to the bottom.

And I think anyone listening will know if you're going through a breakup, you have that pit in your stomach. If you're going for a job interview, you get that nervous pit in your stomach. And that's all nervous, isn't it? Yeah. Nerves, I should say, sorry. Yeah, well, and it's even just how stress are you on the day to day, right? Because we can't function at that chronic high stress just all the time. But many of us do, right?

We're constantly in fight or flight. And that impacts everything. That impacts sleep. That impacts how well we can add muscle. It impacts our digestion, our immune system. So it really is a core part of the puzzle, especially for women. Yeah, massively. Yeah.

And you trained as a nutritionist and neuropath. Yeah. What originally pulled you into that health and well-being space? Is it something you've always wanted to do? Yeah, so I was really unwell as a child. I was chronically sick with horrible IBS, with horrible migraines. I had acid reflux and had to sleep propped up. Like, this is when I was nine.

Went to see endless amounts of doctors, had all the tests and everything was fine. So kind of by the time I had seen all those specialists, they kind of just told my mom, she's just kind of unwell. You know, this is her constitution. And so I found that really hard because I just constantly felt sick. I felt terrible. I was exhausted. And then when I was about 17 or 18, I actually found out. that I have cow protein allergy.

So I had a food allergy that I just didn't know about. I changed how I ate and it changed my entire life so quickly. And I was just so inspired by that that I just knew that that was something that I wanted to get into, just how food can be so transformative to your health. So how did you find out that you had the allergy? Did you start eliminating food yourself? Yeah, so I went to a naturopath in Canada and we did an elimination diet. We did some functional tests.

We did some blood work. and I got better within, I mean, three months, which sounds like a long time, but it's not a long time, right? When you've been ill for 10 years, that's really fast. And so nutrition got me, you know, about 80% of the way there, but because I'd been so sick for so long, it really was then also using some really good quality targeted supplementation that got me the rest of the way there.

And then I just became quite obsessed with that area of health. And that was why. So you went and then got qualifications and trained. Yeah. And then when I was in clinical practice, what I saw was when I used really good quality supplements, the outcomes were really good. But when people were using high street ones that weren't good quality that maybe didn't have the right things in them, the outcomes weren't, right? I just really wanted to create a practitioner-led brand that looked chic, looked great. You could understand, but really gave you like a good quality, highly effective supplement.

That can really help to improve how you feel. And that's when you... And that's how Arta was born. I was going to say you developed Arta. I had a look at it on Instagram. It looks fabulous. Yeah, thank you. And it's great that you've walked the walk as well in terms of people who may be feeling

how you were years and years ago in terms of, I don't know what's wrong with me, but I'm ill, I'm sick. Can't get out of bed properly without feeling, ugh. Yeah. And people are screaming everywhere. Food is medicine. Yeah. But also we've got a lot of people say, no, take this pill instead.

Yeah. Lifestyle and factors kind of come at the end of the checklist, doesn't it? Yeah. Like if you've got a headache, a lot of people are quick to get a paracetamol than check if they've been hydrated for the day or if they're stressed. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's great that people like yourself are saying, no, try these lifestyle changes first. Yeah.

And then if you need to, we can go down medical changes. Well, there's no quick fixes, right? And I think the problem with the wellness industry is that everything is sold as that. And so I think that when you think about what a supplement is there for, it's there to supplement, right? It's there to fill a gap or to support you. It's not there to replace food or to replace sleep. So when you use them well, they can be incredibly helpful. When you use them with the wrong expectations,

then that's when you're probably not going to get the results that you're looking for, right? Because the supplement industry is a bit like the Wild West. You can walk into your high street store or even, you know, a very well-respected health store and there still be so many on offer. It's quite hard to navigate which ones to go for. What makes a good supplement?

better than a bad supplement? So look, I think you hit the nail on the head, right? Because it's an unregulated industry. So it's very low trust industry. And you really want to look for a brand that invest in things like third party testing, in clinical research, in really high quality ingredients. And so that can be hard when you just walk into a shop, right? You need to do the research because there's so much out there.

Where do you start when working out what supplements you should be taking? Yeah, like it's a good question. So I always say the first place to start when you want to change anything about your health. And this is really dull, but it's so effective is just like pause and make a food log. Food log, sleep, how do you exercise? Just so you can get an idea of what are you actually doing every single day, right? Because I think we don't spend a lot of time paying attention to that. A good example is if you asked me how many coffees I had a day, I'd probably say two because that's what I, that's what I aim for, but I probably actually have four. Right. So because I love it. And it's so easy to, oh, yeah, I love another one. So firstly, just become aware of what do you actually eat? How often? How do you feel? How much do you train?

And see where your pain points are, right? Look for solves that you can make with your diet. So maybe you need more fiber. Maybe you need more protein. And then start to layer in from there, right? So I think when it comes to women's health, there are some really obvious ones that could be quite helpful. You know, like the National Diet and Nutrition Survey showed that women across all ages,

on average, don't meet the recommendation for magnesium. And that's such an impactful one. So you can start with a foundational one like that. Or someplace like Arta, we offer free consultations to help you understand what's actually best for you. So you can work with a brand to kind of see what you actually need for your lifestyle. This episode is sponsored by. award-winning nutrition brand, Arta. They create targeted science-back supplements

designed to help you optimize what matters most for your body, your lifestyle and your goals. Founded by nutritionists and naturopath, Rianne Stevenson, Arta's supplements and nutrition program helps you address the key pillars of foundational health. Get 20% off when you shop with code, WH20 at Arta.com. My PT a long, long time ago,

suggested I take, I have magnesium every night before bed But he suggested I Up my dose a week before my period Because that's when I'm craving I'm like I just want chocolate And he said it's not that you're craving chocolate He said your body's craving magnesium

Yeah, and serotonin Yeah He said so if you just up your magnesium dose That week before Just clock the difference And it helps It's like literally the week before I'll be like oh I'm due on next week

I'll have more magnesium tonight and the craving that I thought I had for it's completely gone. Yeah. Well, I think that's a really good point because there's reasons to take a supplement and there's reasons that you shouldn't. So we kind of already covered why you shouldn't, which is as a quick fix or to replace healthy habits. But you can take them just to help you feel well, right?

Like to help to optimize where you are in your cycle or your life, right? And I think that's really powerful, especially for busy, active moms and with the research coming out now I'm obviously women's health advocate for it as well I'm sure you are but create a creatine yeah exactly it's like it was just for the gym brols now the cognitive function benefits for women who are busy and a friend of mine whenever she's jet lagged she'll just have some creatine yeah if she's jet lagging she's got to get a day done she'll have a scoop of creatine and she said she's like on fire you feel switched on yeah and that's a really good example of one you

wouldn't get from food right because to eat to to get five grams, which is kind of your maintenance amount, you would need to get a kilo a steak. So there are, there, there are, there are certain ones that you can use to just really help to complement where you are and what you want to achieve. And that is one that's so helpful for, for perimenopause, for training, for menopause, for cognitive health. So it can be really impactful. Can you explain to me what creatian does then?

Because I know that it's good for my training and metals, etc. But I didn't realize I could take it to smash through. a productive day. So what is creatine doing to me? So creating basically helps you to create energy. So it helps you to create ATP, which is our cellular unit of energy. And what we used to think is that I was only for things like sport, right? Really energy intensive environments, but we know actually it can be used across any system. So our brain is a very energy intensive organ. So the same, we need the same kind of energy for our brain as we do for our muscles. So it can help to power that as well. There's been some really interesting research on

creatine where they've done studies with sleep deprivation. So what I think they did was 21 hours of no sleep. And then they gave the participants a dose of one gram per 10 kilos of body weight and it really helped to kind of offset that fatigue the mental fatigue the issues with memory with concentration so it can be very powerful I take more on nights where my kids just don't sleep because mentally otherwise I just feel exhausted and is it one gram per 10 kilos of body weight is about what we should be aiming for no not on the day to day but that was what they used in that clinical study to see what the dose was for brain health right so on days where I'm just taking it for training or for for life I'm taking a

maintenance dose and that's in between three to five grams I take four and but what you can do is you can titrate up on days where you feel particularly tired or you didn't sleep or you're jet-legged right so I do I have five every day yeah and then on days like say we were doing a full day podcast and yeah at the end of the day I'd take one before the last guess so you're like woo yeah I would just say, though, if you're not used to taking 10 grams at a time, you need to work your way up slowly, right? But yeah, it can be very helpful. So for people who have not yet tried supplements, but after this chat, are thinking of it, can you get everything from food? Or is it a must for supplements for everybody?

I think it's never a must. So we should always be aiming to have a food first mentality, right? But I think when you take a step back and look at just the realities, sometimes it's just really hard, right? We have really busy lives. We have to eat on the run. We travel. We're stressed. We have food access, food quality issues.

So it's very difficult to eat kind of the perfect kind of diet. Even when you do eat a very good diet, it can be hard to get certain things. And it can also be hard to get those things, like the creatine we already kind of spoke about. That can actually make a big impact. So you don't have to. You should never use supplements to replace food,

but they can absolutely help you to fill that gap or to help to kind of optimize. I generally like to say there are four priorities when it comes to supplementation. So the first is to correct a deficiency, so something like vitamin D3, which we all need. The second could be to fill a dietary gap. We've already kind of spoken about that. The third is to support a life stage, so pregnancy, breastfeeding, perimenopause. And the fourth is just to optimize, right?

We've both said that we take magnesium to help us to sleep. There are things that you can do that are just going to help you feel better in the day to day. And I think if you can find a good quality supplement that is safe and you can trust, then you should do it. It's funny. You mentioned that if you're at breastfeeding, I was reading a book. It was the Vonda Wright, Dr. Vondra. She's great. And she was saying, and I was never told this, I breastfed both my kids.

And she said you should be supplementing with calcium. a lot of calcium when you're breastfeeding because although it's fantastic for the baby it affects women's bones and I was like What? No one told me and she said all you need it. She said I'm not saying do breastfeed don't breastfeed You do what you can she said but if you are choosing to breastfeed just get some calcium as well well and and and omegas and I think what we don't ever really think too hard about is when you go through pregnancy and you give birth and your breast feeding you are using so much nutrition and our bodies are really smart so it's going to take whatever it needs to make sure your baby's milk is good so you don't usually have to worry about that as much but it's going to suck

from you right so just how we are so nutritionally kind of exhausted by the time we get through a full pregnancy breastfeeding sometimes miscarriages ahead of that that you really just need to replete and so taking a good quality supplement for that can be extremely helpful. Is price point a good indicator of a quality of a supplement? Not necessarily. So yes, on the lower end of the spectrum, right? So I think if you can make a supplement for six pounds,

I'm going to say I wouldn't go near that, just because I know what it costs to make a good quality one. But at the same time, you don't have to go for one that's 150 pounds. So I think what's the most important thing is you look at a brand that invests in high quality ingredients and third party testing, right? Because that means they've sent their product off and someone has independently tested for contaminants, for yeast molds, for heavy metal,

and to actually verify that what you say is in it is in it, because there's been a lot of controversy there as well. And to take you back to magnesium. I've heard Gemma before talk about how magnesium wards off her cravings. We are in the depths of winter. Yes. And I am struggling to snap back into healthy living. Yeah, it's so hard, isn't it?

I am in a cycle of not feeling great about myself. Serotonin is low, I can tell it is. It's super dark outside. Yes. Still reaching for sugar, even though I really tried to nip it in the bed after Christmas. Yeah. You know, I haven't managed. Yeah.

Yeah. Could increase in my magnesium intake help me snap out of this fug that I found myself in. So it could. Where magnesium is particularly good is if you're very stressed, very active, and don't sleep that well, right? So that's probably us. That's probably all of us. Yeah. When all those are happening, we're churning through it at quite a high pace. One thing I would say, though, is that we often forget some of the fundamentals like your vitamin D3. Are you taking that? I'm not. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're like to what do I say. Right. So there's a universal guideline that says all adults should take it between autumn and winter months and most of us don't right I think only one in five of us do

and that's not something that's going to kind of help you not want sugar kind of fast but it does help over time to really help with those symptoms of sad when it comes to sugar the things I usually do is when I'm trying to to come out of a phase where maybe I've had more I really look at what I'm having for breakfast and that has got to be kind of like no added sugar at all high protein high fiber And that's going to help you really feel full all day. So that's kind of the first. The second is taking something specific for blood sugar. So either something that has a chromium in it,

we have one called metabolic fix, which can be very helpful. Right. Right. And then right. And then also magnesium can be a really helpful. Especially if you crave in response to stress, right? Because it just helps calm down that stress response. A lot of people, I think when they are stressed, it is either that I need a glass of wine or I need to eat something or I need to, in my case, I need to punch something.

Yeah. It's those three things. I think the punching something's better though, isn't it? I'm not wine. I don't. I don't look for alcohol at all. Yeah. No, I don't.

It's chocolate. Yeah. Yeah. And it's that sort of instant fix of you feel better, but you feel crap quite quickly. It's. You can also try, and this often doesn't, this won't always kind of help, but you can try going up to like a super dark ones so like 90%. Yeah, but you do that, don't you?

I've got 100% 100% yeah. So I, should have a square. But it does hit the spot, right? Yeah, but it doesn't taste that great. For me, I have. So it doesn't give you that emotional like I've had chocolate.

It's too rich to a full bar. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you can have a couple squares. It's good enough to satisfy the craving. Yeah. So I always have a square. Mine's 100% black. I have a square of it after every meal. Yeah, but Gemma is so well behaved.

that you are really disciplined. I was over Christmas. I wasn't. I still trained over Christmas just because mentally I feel better when I've moved. Me too. But I mean, we lived on Toblerone and cheeseboards till well into early January to the point where I was like,

you need to get dressed and get out. Yeah. But I think it's, I don't, it's not the kid's fault. I think it's my kids' fault. I mean, it's definitely there. Since having children, I found it harder to get up and in a rut straight away. I find, everyone knows, you know, the body will go for the path of least resistance.

It doesn't want to just change. It gets harder as you get older. And people said that to me who were in their 40s and 50s when I was in my 30s. And I was like, no. Oh, it does get hard. It is, it's true though. Yeah. Are there certain life stages where something literally happens and your body just goes,

I'm going to make it so much harder for you. We had a guest on earlier this morning. And she was in her 50s and she said she wished she'd have started training in her. 40s because it's hard is that yeah it's just a thing yeah yeah yeah so when you look at something like peri menopause specifically right there's a bunch of things happening one is that our ovaries are starting to shut down a bit right or to slow down so we're not making the kind of the level of hormones that we once once were the second thing is that we're less sensitive to insulin right so it's harder to control our blood sugar that can that can manifest in energy but it can also manifest

for cravings or more belly fat, right? So that just gets a bit harder. And then it becomes harder to maintain and build your muscle, right? So all of those things are happening all at once. And then at the same time, it's usually when we're at the peak of work, we have kids, or we're very busy. And so the stress and the mental load is just super high.

So all of that's happening at once, you need a bit extra. It's much harder. And so I think the earlier you can start to cement the healthy habits, the better because it is hard. It's hard at any age, but it's especially harder once you get older, I think. Especially if you've not slept because the kids. Well, yeah, that's, that's one thing that I found the hardest, right? Because I've always been fit and healthy.

I've always had good nutrition. And then once I had my kids, my kids, they cluster fed, they don't sleep, they have night terrors. The lack of sleep, I thought I was going mad. Like, I just felt emotionally exhausted. I would cry. I could handle it. I thought I was going mad. And so when that's happening, what I noticed is if I didn't take care of myself in the best way possible, it was unmanageable.

I just couldn't do it. So I think it's one of those things where when you hit certain life stages, you're like, oh, my gosh, I got to take care of my body because this is a lot harder than it was. Well, it brings us on to biohacking. Yeah, biohacking. I know that you're a big proponent for biohacking, but let's strip away the hype. Yeah. What exactly is biohacking? Yeah, so I think when people think about it, they think about men with crazy protocols, spending tons of money. But what it really is is making those intentional changes every day to work with your biology so that you can feel well, you can perform well.

And I think that all the fundamentals of it are actually quite simple and a lot of them are free, right? It's good quality nutrition with a focus on protein fiber and veg, right? It's making sure that you're exercising with a particular focus on strength. It's sleep hygiene and sleep management. It's proactive stress management, so that nervous system stuff that we already talked about. And then it's a core kind of stack of supplements that you can use to optimize. And that's the basics, right? You add on from there, like all the cryo or the injections, but the fundamentals of it are just getting in touch with your body so that you,

you can use food and your lifestyle to really feel as well as you can, which I think is so important for women. A lot of people are getting into it now as well. I think at first when, you know, almost as little as two years ago, if you were known as a biohacker, they assume you were at home with Tim Foil on your heads. Yeah, a bit mad. Yeah.

Whereas now everyone says, how do I become a biohacker? Yeah. What things can you do? Yeah. I personally love a cold plunge. I love a cold plunge. I think you're both mad.

But I can't handle a sauna. I don't know if I don't sweat properly or fast enough, but I just feel suffocated. I love a cold plunge. So there's so many tools. You can use whichever one suits you best. But I mean, there are so many things that can just make you feel well in an instant,

like a cool plunge or a sauna or some breathwork, right? And the science behind a cold plunge, the reason I started doing it was because I had an injury on my hip flex. and someone said, oh, it would be the inflammation. You need to try and get your circulation going. Yeah. Try and move.

I said, well, it hurts when I move. And then they said, we'll do a cold plunge because that'll open your blood vessels. And it healed a lot quicker by, I mean, I don't do it every morning, maybe three, four times a week. But if you've done a gym session and you've got dawned or you're a bit achy, cold plunge really does help. Have you gone one at home?

Yeah. Oh, amazing. Yeah. You're like shaking your head. Insane. Even a cold shower. He's got everything. No, I'm not doing that either.

It's things like that. See, I don't like cold showers, but I can do a cold plunge because it feels a bit more like, I'm being hardcore, but a cold shower, I'm just like, oh, it's weird. But I don't know if I could do a cold water swim, like an open water swim. I can do any of it. Let's move on from cold then.

I think you'd like it. Do you do saunas? I don't mind a sauna, but I get a terrible rosacea. Yeah. And it is heat sensitive. So sadly, even hot baths can set my. rosacea off and I'm noticing that getting worse with age so I think that's a perimenopausal what could red light could you go on a red light bed um even a red light mask I've tried

and that sets my rosacea off even though they're supposed to be good for for rosation I I think I've got a particularly resistant kind so I have tried because I my motto in life is do what jemma does she everything she's trying apart from the cold plungers I'm not doing though but I have tried because you swear by red light don't you but I like red light I love a red light

as well yeah it's my dog loves red light we've got a red light in the morning I just put it in my dog sits on my mat as well my dog Benji

I'm like move over yeah she's actively seeks out the red light and when we put the mat out and the red light's not on he's not interested when we put the red light on he curls up

yeah and it's like if it's good enough for a dog we put it on in the morning and if Mia's doing any reading I'd just say just sit on this mat for five minutes why you're doing your reading just to kind of calm her down.

What would you? Just calm them down. Just calm down. There's a magnesium. Here's a red light. Arta's mission is to empower you to perform, whether juggling the demands of daily life, navigating hormonal change,

or seeking more energy, or striving for lasting well-being. They invest heavily in third-party testing for contaminants, purity and label claims, as well as independent clinical studies on their products, so you can trust exactly what you're putting in your body. Find out more at arta.com What do you wish women would stop believing about their bodies

when it comes to things they aren't and are capable of? Because I think we get to, women get to an age whereby we were speaking about this recently. They used to call it the change, which is just awful. Where they seem, after you've been through the change, you have to disappear, hide yourself, if you're not good for anything. You're not sexy.

Yeah. What is it you wish they'd tell themselves instead? I think women in general, I wish they would stop thinking that feeling just a bit crap is normal, right? There are so many women I speak to who deal with a ton of symptoms and they're like, oh, just part of being a woman, I guess I can't. And there's so much we can do to improve our health. When it comes to the change to menopause, it's the same, right? Yes, it's harder. Yes, we're facing more challenges, but there are absolutely things that you can do that are within your power to feel better and have a great second half of life. So I think it's important not to ignore the fact that we are going through something that's a lot harder, but there are things that we can do to support our body through that that can hopefully make it a lot easier. Yeah, such as, you're going to give us fitness, nutrition, supplementation.

I think that women think you either go on HRT or you do it all naturally, but actually use everything, use everything you possibly can to feel as good as you can. And for so long, we were also afraid of HRT as well, right? But actually, hopefully soon it will just become the norm, right? Because we are going through so much and we are taking on so much more than we would of 20, 30 years ago, that we just need that extra help. because women go through you go through a lot

so I think when it comes to like going through pairing of men and posts like you say it's tough but when you look at the 40 odd years 50 years that you've already had women have been through a lot of shit anyway and they've come through it they've overcome it so you think right this is just a natural part of life and like you say

there is a light at the end of the tunnel if you can navigate your way through it as best as possible yeah and I would also love them to stop thinking it's all about willpower right we don't have a willpower issue We have a bandwidth issue. There's only so much I can do. And I think when you look at, like, we have kids, we have a business,

there's only so much that we can take on without just that extra layer. Like there should be no shame in taking hormones and taking supplements in doing whatever you need to do to feel well because it's a really challenging time. Yeah, because the HRT piece that you just discussed, there was a lot of fear around HRT. Because of the nurses study. Yeah, yeah, a study that has since been discredited. Yeah, exactly. I genuinely was panicking thinking, oh, I don't get cancer.

Yeah, I don't know if I would take it or not. I'm 41 now, so I'm not, I don't need it yet anyway. But my mum never had it. She just, she said she had hot flushes and it was a bit irritable, but she just got on with it. Whereas my sister, she was really struggling. She went on it, but for her it didn't work, so she came off it. but her friends are thriving on it.

Yeah. So again, it would depend on the individual, wasn't it? Yeah. But she went on it. It's like, yeah, give it me. After about six months, she's like, no, this is, I need to come off. So it's funny how it affects people differently, doesn't it? But it's the same with any medication.

It depends on the person. Because you've been on it for a while. Yeah, I've been on it since I was about 40. Yeah. Obviously, we're not medical doctors and people should speak to their GPs. Of course. Of course. exploring it themselves.

But my mother had breast cancer when she was younger than I am now and I've still been taking it. And I just... The media puts a fear in you for everything. For me, I just function. You know, I don't... I don't feel...

I don't know if I feel much better or I feel much worse. I just take it and I functioned. I wouldn't like to come off it. And do you stay on for life or just till you're in... Well, there's varying opinions on this and maybe you can shed some light re-end but my understanding is some doctors say you should

take the minimum dose for the shortest time possible but then others will say it's unnatural to be without hormones and you can take it forever more so there's i don't know what the NHS stance is on it i don't know what the NHS is but i mean there's it's such a difference between um practitioners right so some the doctors say slow and low some say yeah spit down as long as you need so I don't know what the right answer is yet. I think we're going to know a lot more over the next five to ten years, hopefully, but it's still quite variable, right? So to anyone listening, should speak to your doctor and see what they recommend.

Yeah, so I'm 43, and I've already done a short course, but I only did one for one year because, so I had my second baby when I was 39, and before I got pregnant, I had five miscarriages, So I've had seven pregnancies only too successful. The stress of being in a business. And by the time I breastfed my second baby, I just felt like garbage. Like I felt so exhausted. I felt like I couldn't bounce back at all.

And at first again, I was like, maybe this is just normal. Like maybe this is how you feel. But it didn't lift and it didn't really go away. Like some things made it better. So I got back into fitness and that has. I got back into my supplements and my whole routine and that did help. But there was just something about, like I felt like I had no edge and my motivation was really low.

My sex drive was really low. And I just was like, I think there's something wrong. So I went to see a doctor and my testosterone was on the floor, on the floor. So I did eight months of it and it transformed how I felt and then I stopped. So you can use it in so many different ways. You don't have to be on it forever. but yeah with me was incredibly helpful but the issue with testosterone is that you can't get that on the NHS in the UK I had to pay and you have to go you have to go private yeah it was very

expensive but I prioritized it because I felt horrible and I had gone to see a doctor on the NHS and they were basically like well you're you're you're a mom you're you're just quite tired yeah what do you expect yeah yeah and I left being like oh so is this just how I'm supposed to feel forever which for me was really hard because I'm used to feeling really well and I went home after that and I cried because I was like oh my god is this how I feel like this is so so upsetting and then it went on and I was like no no and so I went to see and they what they did like a blood test just blood tests and my yeah estrogen and testosterone yeah my estrogen was low my testosterone was on the floor

yeah so it could just be something as simple as let's get your testosterone back up Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm not on it now, but I did it for for eight months and I just felt so good afterwards. So yeah, it's hard, right? So you can't, because I'm on progesterone and estrogen, but not testosterone because I haven't gone private. Yeah. And it's the only way to. It's the only way. Because I think I could benefit from it. Definitely. Yeah. Because I'm older than you guys, sadly. Nearly 48. Yeah. Yeah. Probably in the trenches. Yeah. Yeah. But you can't, if you're a man,

get testosterone on the end. You can get like that. Go in and say, yeah, got a low libido and they'll prescribe it but if you're a woman they won't. Yep, it's very challenging. You have to send your hubby in making mistakes.

Yeah. No, don't do that. Don't do that. I'm joking. Please don't do that. I know I'm listening. Please. Not going to be the same dose.

No, just going to come back. Is there any, is there any, okay, on that note, is there any, obviously strength training? Yes. It's great for testosterone.

Is there any supplements or foods that women can be, doing eating to help them get more testosterone? Yeah, so look I think when it comes to supplements you that that's not really what they're there for right you aren't going to take a supplement that's all of a sudden going to increase your estrogen or your testosterone but what they can do is they can support your system overall and your stress and the thing is when we are chronically depleted from stress then that sucks away from our hormones right so with food you want to be making sure you're you're eating enough protein so right now the VR day is 0.8 grams per

kilogram of body weight but I think we all know that now that's not enough is it's a bit outdated so now it's about 1.2 to 1.6 grams I kind of aim for 1.4 because I'm quite active. You want to be eating a diet that's rich in whole foods so you're getting all the micronutrients that you need like zinc selenium. You want to make sure you're getting enough of your oily fish if you aren't, make sure you take an omega, because again, only one in five of us are getting enough. And then vitamin DT, D. So there's all the foundations,

but one of the key things there to support your hormones is supporting your stress and your nervous system. And you've obviously achieved a lot. You've got the brand, you've got your business, you're a parent. What still excites you the most in terms of where you're at the minute? One thing that's become really clear since having kids, and I'm sure you guys feel the same way is that I just want to stay as well as I can for as long as possible, right? Your focus really shifts because in my 20s, I was like, I want to look good, you know?

But now I just want to feel as good as I possibly can. I want to go skiing with them. I want to be able to run and hike. And so just seeing how much I can optimize my health really excites me because even when I looked to where I was five years ago, I feel so much better. I feel way stronger. So that really excites me. And then what excites me about ARTA is we're investing quite heavily right now in clinical trials. So I just really love to see the science that comes out of that.

We've already done our first clinical study on our electrolyte, which is called cellular hydration. We had fantastic outcomes there. We had people improved energy, improved productivity. The brain fog was gone. their cravings were down, their athletic performance. So that kind of stuff really excites me from kind of a business point of view, just seeing how well our products can perform under real-life environments and helping so many women.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And where do you think we'll be in 10 years' time in wellness? I mean, if you look back in the last decade, how much has changed. But since I've joined woman's health.

Yeah. Well, we'll be in 10 years. Well, I'll still be at one's self. Yeah. One of the things I'd love to see is just more of a shift towards women's health and the research in that maybe having the testosterone available in the NHS. But just I think one of the frustrating things right now is it takes so much to get any info about our health. So making the testing for endo, for P-C-O-C-OS, for perimenopause, the norm and something that you can easily access.

I would love to see that happen. Yeah, because we're kind of treated when it comes to. testing and trials were kind of treated as a small man it's the kind of it's not specific is it a lot of the time yeah and it should be because it'll save so much money down the line anyway or we're told that's just your hormones it's how that's that's normal like you're a mom we know our body is like we we know when we feel off right and so I think it could be so frustrating because you go in and they're like oh you're just a mom you think I'm just a mom what have we don't do you know what I It just did. You know that I grew a human and I birthed it and I'm feeding it. And it can feel like, it can feel so frustrating because you're like, just a mom. Yeah. Yeah, I'd love to see that. Yeah.

With thousands of five-star reviews, Artar supplement range is designed and loved by practitioners, meaning formulations draw from years of working with real people and decades of nutritional expertise. From energy, metabolism and stress resilience to digest. immunity and hormone balance. Discover nutrition for your next level at arta.co and use the code WH20 for 20% off your order. Well before we wrap up Rianne we have some quickfire questions for you for you. They're easy don't worry about. That's okay. So Gemma and I are coming to yours for dinner okay and we were wondering what you're going to make us. Well I kind of always fall back on like a big side of salmon, a couple of veggie sides, and then maybe like a brown rice kind of salad. Oh, that's good.

Yeah. That does sound nice. It sounds lovely. So two veggies. Maybe I'm really into cauliflower for right now. Some spice sauce. Yeah. Lovely.

What's the one thing that you would take to a desert island? Cellular hydration. My electrolyte. Yeah. You need it, wouldn't you? Yeah. Right on that. Yeah.

You'd need it there. I'd be hungry, thirsty, hot. So I've written down metabolic fix and cellular. hydration hydration I'm feeling fabulous after this coffee or wine coffee every day all day coffee girl after our own heart yeah what was the last thing that made you really belly laugh my kids they're little jokers aren't they they're just they're ridiculous my three-year-old said that she can't wait to grow up so she can move out but I'm still allowed to come and cook and do her life she's three I'm constantly shocked

it with these, what they say, but she said it in the funniest way. She's like, oh, like she's pointing at me, she's explaining it like this. And she was wearing a witch's outfit. So, just made it all the more. I was like, I was like, you go, girl. I will come, I will come cook for you. I'll do whatever you want. What's one thing that someone listening or watching today can do to make themselves be that little bit better? Oh, just start now. Stop thinking about it. Just do something, right? I think we overcomplicate it. We start on Monday. There's so many things that we can do to just start. Just don't wait. Day one or one day.

Oh yeah. It should be day one. Day one. Yeah. Let's get you in a cold bath. I'll go in a sauna. You're going to cold bath. I'm going to not eat sugar at lunch though because I am definitely in a bit of a sugar well

at the moment. I have a lunch, yeah. We're going to go and have a nice Spanish fibre healthy lunch. Spanish green lunch. Well just make sure you have some carbs because I think when people are trying to cut sugar they cut all carbs and fruit

and then your body's like, I still knew carbs. Hi. So have your protein, but have some carbs. Have a piece of fruit. Still sweet. And I've got that dark chocolate. You can choke that down.

Rang 100% dark chocolate. No, not that. That's pretty strong. Right, well, thank you so much for coming in to see us today. It's been an absolute pleasure. Where can people find your supplements? Oh, it's at arta.com. So A-R-T-A-H-C-O.

And you're on Instagram. At Re-N-Stevenson. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you.