The Livy Method Podcast - Ask Us Anything with Dr. Olinca - Spring/Summer 2024

Episode Date: July 2, 2024

In this special Ask Us Anything Guest Expert segment, Gina and Dr. Olinca Trejo answer your burning questions. Dr. Olinca is a licensed, board-certified Naturopathic Doctor in the province of Ontario. She also holds an honours degree in Kinesiology and has achieved her certification and internship in bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT).You can find the full video hosted at:https://www.facebook.com/groups/livymethodspringsummer2024Topics covered:How The Livy Method provides an amazing foundation for your health - you need to be healthy in order to lose weight! Allied health care practitioner - having a team of practitioners to address the many pieces in the puzzle of our health  How do you know if you are making a difference in the health of your Microbiome? Frequency of bowel movements - if your body is in a state of change, your bowel movements will be in a state of changeThe most important thing about your microbiome is microdiversity Bloating - gas is a normal fermentation process of feeding your flora How to know if things are getting better? Thyroid and Weight loss - nodules, hypothyroid PCOS and insulin resistance - genetics, stress, diet etc. Indication that you have insulin resistance and how to address itHow The Livy Method addresses insulin resistance The benefit of movement after meals The Livy Method is beneficial for everyone Is weight loss harder if you're dealing with anything underlying? The 4 Main Reasons Why Your Weight Might Be Slower To Move Reflecting on why it may be harder for you to lose weight - refocus on your non-scale victoriesProtein intake - how much protein should we be eating?Vertigo - different types of vertigo and suggestions to address it What to expect from Dr. Olinca and Gina's upcoming Hormone add-on to The Livy Method Sending Brenda Huxley well wishes! Connect with Dr. Olinca: [e-mail] learn more about The Livy Method, visit www.ginalivy.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I'm Gina Livy and welcome to the Livy Method podcast. This is where you'll have access to all of the live streams from my 91 day weight loss program. With a combination of daily lives, guest expert interviews and member stories, there is something new almost every day. Miss the morning live? Want to re-listen to one of our amazing guest experts? Well, this is the place. This podcast is hosted on Acast, but it's available on all podcast platforms, including the one you're listening to right now, Spotify, Apple,

and Amazon Music. Hey, 72 week 10 of the program. Dr. Alinka Trejo is back. We are doing a fun little ask her anything today. Hi, good morning. Good morning. Good morning, friends. Okay, so we we did a poster in the group, we did a shout out, we let people know you're coming on. People were able to ask questions, we got a huge variety of questions. But before we get into them, we I know that you see a lot of people, you see a lot of our members who will come and see you. You know, what is there? Is there like there probably isn't a common theme or, you know, things that you talk about outside of our general conversations where we should start this conversation, maybe? Yeah. I mean, honestly, I think that the program gives everybody an amazing foundation that can be our platform. Because a lot of the times when you come and see somebody like me, like an allied healthcare professional, honestly, the vast majority of I would say the first maybe three to five visits, like the vast majority of our time is taken up by cleaning up things like your sleep and your diet and, you know, talking about exercise and the lifestyle piece. And so a lot of the times when people come

to me after they've done this program or after, you know, I've had an initial visit with them and then I've sent them to your program and they come back three months later, then we can start really truly figuring out what the root of their symptoms is, right? Because a lot of the times they're, even with hormone symptoms, right? Like the perfect example is hypothyroidism or thyroid issues. When you Google your symptoms, everything and anything looks like you may have a thyroid disorder. And so when, you know, usually somebody presents to my office and they're like,

I think that I have hypothyroidism. And I'm like, okay. And we do labs and it doesn't really look like we have it on blood work. lot clearer for your clinician like myself to then help you through the hormonal piece or the weight loss piece or whatever it is that hasn't necessarily shifted with all of the work that you've already put in because you guys have put in so much work already. So much work. So much work with the program. That's why people at the beginning of the program, well, I have thyroid issues or I, you know, I have diabetes or I have, you know, this or that or whatever. I'm just like, the program is going to work really well for you because it does address sort of all of the body's basic needs and helps you actually get healthier and you need to be healthy in order to lose weight. I love what you said there about

an allied healthcare practitioner. I love that. That's the first time I've heard that. Oh yeah. We, you know, it's it's a term that we use for like medical practitioners that I guess are, I just think of it, I just think of us as what we're primary healthcare practitioners, but I think that your team should be a lot more people than just like the one person, right? Like your primary healthcare provider, regardless as to whether that's a naturopathic doctor or a medical doctor, it should be a team. Like who? Who should we be seeing? Like in your experience? Yeah. I mean, how much money do I have? I know, for real. Yeah. Because, you know, it's's so interesting I actually find that all of us

look at the body we're trained to look at the body in a different way right like your medical doctor is interested in are you dying are you not and they're trying to diagnose something we look yes um you know is are you living your optimal life like Like, wait, is there anything that we can optimize? Because of course, the ranges of normal are very wide. So we look at optimal stuff. Honestly, I have a great psychotherapist or a psychologist. I think that even when you don't, when you are living your best life, having somebody that can help you work through a lot of the mental and emotional piece can be key in you thriving and vibing and, you know, continuing to ride the wave of happiness and joy and success and all of the amazing things. Because I think that people often think having somebody like a psychotherapist or psychologist or somebody

that you can talk to about that mental emotional piece, it's only necessary when you're struggling with something. But I honestly don't want that to be true. I think that that, I think it is really important when you're struggling, but I think that even when you're thriving, you can get so much out of these conversations. I honestly, I have a great acupuncturist, like I physiotherapist, like I think that there's so many people that if you have access to them, and if you have benefits, or if you, you know, have the means to do that, to be honest, like, you know, my trainer and somebody like the person that helped me create my exercise program wasn't actually a trainer. At first it was a physiotherapist because I battled with a lot of chronic injuries. And so I had a physiotherapist help me through that. And then, you know, she kind of handed me over to a trainer. And so I think that you can get so much from so many people. I actually just tried osteopathic medicine, which I know sounds crazy because I'm a naturopathic doctor, osteopathic medicine, maybe two years ago, and it completely transformed my life. And so I, you know, I mean, I can talk about this all like the entire hour. And I know we have a lot of

questions to get through. But I do think that there's so many pieces to the puzzle of health. And there are so many people that can help you put some of those pieces that you don't see or that I don't see or that your GP doesn't see. Well, I love that. The pieces to the puzzle, because it can feel really overwhelming. I know we have a lot of conversations about, you know, well, you know, there's your hormones and then there's your like, you know, your gut health and your digestive system. And then there's like health issues that people are doing. So it can be a lot. Okay. So I, what I loved is also what you said about money. Cause it can be really expensive and hence the Libby method, man, access to amazing healthcare professionals like you, like Dr. Beverly, like this is, this can be a game changer for people. I'm also thinking

there's so many resources online, right? There's a lot of physiotherapists and personal trainers and even, you know, psychologists like Dr. Julie, for example, or even our own Dr. Beverly, who's out there on social media, who's like sharing some tips, right? So I know it can get expensive, but there are ways of sort of getting that information, you know, that at least can kind of help empower you so that you can be more direct about the care that you need. Okay. Um, there's someone asked a conversation. Can we start with thyroid or I want to start with microbiome because someone asked, how do you know if your microbiome is getting healthy? Like if you're taking the probiotics and the prebiotics and the digestive bitters, how do you know that you're making a difference there? Oh my God. This,

honestly, this is, we, we only know the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the microbiome. You have to know that it's really, truly, um, started getting researched as an organ, right? Like the microbiome being as an organ, probably about a decade or two ago, which in the grand scheme of medicine is nothing. It is like a split second in time. And the interesting thing about the microbiome is that you are about 10 times more bacteria than your cells. And we are only starting to understand the role that they play in things like mood, weight, cardiovascular disease, like, you know, the sleep patterns. Like right now, if you go on Google google scholar or pubmed and you type

in microbiome and anything that comes to mind i am sure there is some research study that will pop up um and so the tricky thing with this is that microbiome right now the way that we kind of look at it we look at it mostly for digestion and regular bowel movements and bloating and things like that, right? And so a lot of people just assume like, okay, well, if I have bloating or if my bowel movements are not Bristol stool chart type 4 perfect, which are those like sneak, smooth, you know, ghost poos that, you know, you poo and then you look and you're like, oh my God, where'd it go?

Because they just flushed right away. Your microbiome, unless you have those, your microbiome can be'd it go? Because they just flushed right away. Your microbiome, unless you have those, your microbiome can be unhealthy, but that's not necessarily the case. Yeah. Because I do have to say that whole Dr. Oz S-shaped Oprah poop thing, right? And so people are like, well, how come I'm eating so healthy and I'm not having that? Well, because when you're doing the program, you're also in the midst of change. You tend to have those looser bowel movements when your body is releasing fat, plus you're making changes in your diet constantly, which can affect your bowel movements, plus you're adding in more leafy greens and you're just, you know, so you're

not really, unless you're sort of like more stabilized, reach your goal, rolling through maintenance, you know, just kind of eating healthy for the sake of maintaining your weight, you're not, because if your body's in a state of change, your bowel movements will also be in a state of change as well. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that you're, it's really important for people to understand that the most important thing about your microbiome is the microdiversity, right? Which is something that you and I have touched on before. And one of the things that we love about this program is that by focusing on like a very colorful, heavy fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, tons of fiber, you're decreasing your

risk of things like visceral fat and cardiovascular disease and all of the things that we always talk about. But the most beautiful thing about it is that that is actually what promotes microdiversity in your gut. And so it's hard because a lot of people, like you were saying, assume that just because you don't have that perfect poop, there's something wrong with your microbiome. And they go and do all of these cleanses and parasite detoxes and things like that, that you don't necessarily need. And we've discussed this in the program before too. You know, the challenge with that is that often when you go and you buy something at the health food store, that's like a parasite

cleanse because you think that there's something wrong with your microbiome. Antimicrobials are broad spectrum, which means that they're going to kill anything in its path along with the good guys. It's not that like, you know, you take olive oregano and olive oregano only kills the bad bacteria and saves the good ones. And so I always tell people, you know, keeping your microbiome healthy, unless you have a diagnosis of something like small intestinal bacteria overgrowth, or, you know, SIFO, or something like that, where it's like a true pathology of your microbiome, the best thing that you can do, instead of taking things away for your microbiome is actually adding

things in. Yeah, adding fruits and vegetables, it's adding fiber, it's adding all of taking things away for your microbiome is actually adding things in yeah adding fruits and vegetables it's adding fiber it's adding all of these things and you know we've also talked about this too because a lot of people think that bloating is like if you're bloated and you don't wake up and go to bed like the victoria's secret model that you feel like um it's there's something wrong with your microbiome, but gas is a natural fermentation process that you feed in your flora. And it is normal to produce up to five liters of gas. Now, if the gas is coming with pain or it's in excess, or, you know, you have concerns

that there's probably room for us to figure out if there is something like small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, or if there is, you know, dysbiosis or something like that. But just because you have a little bit of gas doesn't mean that it's unhealthy. If anything, it might actually be the opposite. Okay, but how would we know if like, how would we know if we are taking these things that things are getting better? Is there any signs or it's just tricky? Because honestly, it's tricky. It's tricky because your microbiome has a hand in everything, right? So I can tell you in my experience, um, the first thing that you see is that you have satisfactory bowel movements, right? Like the

second thing that you see is that you are going to the bathroom a little bit more regular than you used to. And regular, you know, that for some and men, that can be every other day. And that can be normal. Like it doesn't, a lot of people can really focus on like, I have to go to the bathroom three times a day. That is normal for my husband. But for some people it's not because physiologically you might have an extra loop or your hormones or whatever it is. But I think that you honestly, especially because the microbiome has a hand in everything. I just, I feel personally like when your microbiome is getting better, you're starting to feel better in the digestive piece is only one part of it. If that makes sense. Yeah, that does make sense. So you should be, you should be feeling better. And while it's,

it is hard sort of because you are doing so many things when you're following the program that, you know, you should be feeling. Every day you should feel better and look better than the day before. And if not, I always say you should be able to look back and understand why because of the choices that you've made or you didn't get sleep or you're stressed or you're whatever that is. And so whenever you're adding some things in or you're working on your microbiome, you should be noticing a general improvement, we should say, in how you feel. Okay. We have a lot of things to go through. So let's start with thyroid function. Thyroid and weight loss. We just do a general, like there's some questions here. What impact does having a thyroid nodule or

goiter have on weight loss? What are your thoughts on nightshades? Oh, I want to get into this and potential impact on your thyroid function. Uh, any suggestions for those with hyperthyroidism to bring function to a normal range? I know that's a lot. I know. Okay. Yeah, I know. Seriously. Okay. So let's start with the nodules and the goiter, maybe. And then we can kind of move through them. I'll try to make them quickly. Quick. You know, minutes are long.

Well, you can't go too deep into these anyway, because you don't know the history of someone asking. We can't be prescribing. We can just do general overview. Okay. Totally. Okay. So nodules.

Nodules are little growths or lumps that you can get in this like butterfly like shaped gland that we have that is called the thyroid um they're super common about two-thirds of us will have one over the course of our lifetime and um um they are about four times more common in people that are assigned female at birth than they are in men there's a bunch of risk factors but you have to know that about 90 of them are benign. And so a lot of times we find them, we call them incidentally. And so we're looking for something else, or we're trying to figure out if there's a thyroid issue or whatever, and we find them, but a lot of them are not active and they don't do anything. But there are some of them that can actually make your thyroid work more. And so you can kind of

lead into hyperthyroidism. There's some that can make it work less and can really impact the function of your thyroid that way. So that's nodules. And so they can, nodules can actually make you hyper or hypo, depending on the time or they can, depending on the type, sorry, or they can have no clinical impact on your thyroid at all. They can just be sitting there as like a little tiny growth. The way that you kind of grow more and it can't, it doesn't have to be cancer. It's kind of the same thing with a nodule. Okay. Now goiter is more an overall enlargement of your thyroid. And that's typically a result of a, either a number of like nodules that have come together,

which is called the multinodular goiter, or it can actually be enlarged overall as a result of an iodine deficiency or thyroid disorder, like thyroid itis or an inflammation. So it's tricky because, you know, it depends as to which one, what the root cause of your goiter or your nodule is, what the impact that is going to have on your weight. So that's the very first thing. The hard thing about hypothyroid is that, so we know that thyroid has a huge role in your metabolism, right? And so we know that the extra weight gained in hypothyroid patients is due usually to an excess accumulation of salt and water at the beginning. Massive weight gain, and we're talking about like 50, 60, 70, maybe like 100

pounds, is not typically associated with hypothyroidism. The research actually says that in general, people only gain about 5 to 10 pounds. That's like specifically related to thyroid, but for sure there are some outliers and they can be up to 30 pounds over time, but we're not talking about like massive, massive weight changes. We're talking weight. Yes. Okay. That's crazy. That's really big because a lot of people, so what you're saying is for thyroid issues and people who've gained a, like, it's really not this thing where you have thyroid issues and you're getting 50, 60 pounds. Typically it's like five to 15. Kind of. Yeah. I know. Um, the research on at least, so, so there's again, right, there's the

outliers, but the vast majority of us will be about five to 10. And most of that is actually water and like salt that we gain. And some people for sure over the course of the hypothyroidism, if it doesn't get treated, can gain up to 30 pounds. But those massive, massive weight changes in the research, we know that they're not usually associated with hypothyroidism. Now, the tricky thing is, is that if weight gain is the only symptom of hypothyroidism that we see, or when you, you know, rebalance the thyroid, we give you adequate medication. And the only thing that doesn't change is weight. It's very, very, very, very unlikely that the weight gain or the difficulty in losing weight is solely due to thyroid. Okay. I love this. This is great. This

is really exciting because so many people I think feel hopeless. You have thyroid issues, they're not going to be able to lose weight. And I'm like, it's just, it's, you're going to be fine. You're going to be able to lose your weight. I think it's, I think what you don't do when you have thyroid issues, you starve yourself and deprive yourself and you over-exercise in order to try to lose the weight. And you know, it's so complicated because when you, if any of our listeners have suffered through hypothyroidism or they know somebody who has either suffered through it or is suffering through it, they know one of the other big things that they experience is a lot of fatigue. When you're tired and when you don't feel well, you usually don't eat well, you don't exercise.

Like it's such a complicated conversation. But when it comes to thyroid on its own, the weight gain is actually not very big. Okay. Amazing. Some of the topics we're going to get into, endometriosis, PCOS, insulin resistance, we're going to talk perimenopause, menopause, menstrual cycles. We're going to talk probably protein intake and a few more. So if you guys want to just get a heads up on some of those. If you guys have some, I'm also reading the comments as well and keeping up with those.

Okay. So PCOS. Yes. All the time. PCOS. People are like, well, can I lose weight at PCOS? Um, we have a post on, you know, on fertility menopause and, um, your cycle and whatnot. Sorry, not menopause, your menstrual cycle, but PCOS, let's talk about PCOS. Okay. So PCOS, I always oversimplify it to my patients and it's not completely true but PCOS it's as if you were over has had diabetes that's how you want to think about it um yeah because it's it's insulin resistance honestly is the main driver for the condition about seven yeah 100% what do you think about insulin resistance because it's become such a huge it's blown up insulin resistance has blown up so to tie it into pcos is this what it was all along and we're just now learning more about insulin and insulin resistance

yeah honestly it is in pcos anything that is in syndrome and medicine is very complicated because a lot of the time the um it can either a diagnosis of exclusion, which means you don't have a bunch of all of these conditions and therefore you belong in this group. Or it's very poorly understood. And honestly, again, it's something that I always chat about during these groups, but women have been historically understudied, right? And there isn't a lot of funding for our studies. And it's only recently that they've really put in a little bit more funding into things like PCOS. But we know actually that about 70 to 95% of obese women suffering through PCOS and about 32, honestly, the data, depending as to where you look at, but 30 to about 75% of women that have normal BMI or, you know, they don't necessarily

fit that clinical picture of like obese women with PCOS actually have insulin resistance. And the key of it is that the insulin resistance is actually what can impair ovulation and cause the ovaries to produce excess testosterone. And it's that insulin resistance that also leads to the fat storage, particularly around the abdomen that you typically see in women with PCOS. And it makes it easier for them to gain weight and harder for them to lose it. And it is unfortunate because it truly, the insulin resistance piece, even if women are diagnosed with PCOS and don't have those high testosterone levels, they may still have that insulin resistance piece that can make it really, really, really hard for them to lose the weight, even if they are not overweight. Insulin resistance. What is that from?

Do you think it's just from our lifestyles, our high stress, our diets our processed foods we are just like what what i mean when doesn't everybody have it now don't we all have insulin resistance now yeah to an extent we always do it's kind of like fatty liver um yeah when it comes to pcos there's so many risk factors like genetics is like a big one um but i do when it comes to a general population i honestly i even in practice like i really do see that most of us to an extent have a certain degree of insulin resistance again that that's that's a huge spectrum right but like a lot of us um because of our stress levels because of our poor sleep quality because of our high processed diets because we don't move as much as we should because we're meant to be moving because honestly and i

always say this but it's true it's not even because we don't move as much as because we sit for too long yes it's not just that moving is good is that sitting is bad yeah and so now i'm thinking about you talk about insulin resistance and that storing in that belly fat. And then of course I'm thinking now perimenopause menopause. So is it all connected, all part of the same, same, but different? Same, same, but different. And the same, you know, principles that help combat insulin resistance during, if you have PCOS or if you're perimenopausal or if you're postmenopausal, apply across the board. The only difference is that for some of us, before we reach postmenopause, we have a little bit of that estrogen protection, right? That makes you a

little bit more insulin sensitive. And so it may just make your journey a little bit easier. Or if you have PCOS because your metabolism is actually lower, and we actually know this, like for women who have PCOS that have the exact same metrics, so the same weight, the same height, the same BMI, as somebody who doesn't have PCOS, it's actually harder for them to lose weight because their metabolism is lower. Yes. Well, what's the difference with their metabolism being lower because of PCOS or their metabolism being lower because they've spent years dieting, starving, depriving their bodies, just feeling the need to store fat, shut everything down, low metabolism as a result of dieting. What's the difference? Low metabolism as a result of dieting versus PCOS. Same, same?

Ish. The result is the same, but the driver's a little bit different in the sense that, um, you know, for PCOS, there is like a huge insulin resistant component to it. And, um, the benefit that they have obviously is because they have the higher testosterone, it is easier for them to put on muscle mass, right? Yeah. The hard thing about the starvation and the insulin resistance that also happens with that is that a lot of us, in order to be thin, give up our muscle mass. And then we struggle to put on that muscle. But the end result of that is like, or I guess like the root cause of it is kind of like the same. And the things that we need to treat are the same.

It's just that our journey through this might look a little bit different because of genetics and lifestyle and age and sex and hormones. Right. And yeah. Yeah. Okay. So a couple of questions. How do we correct insulin resistance? I feel I'm probably insulin insulin resistance. How do I get tested? You know, what is PCOS exactly? So, so the program, this is where the Libby method comes in. And this is where we say off the top, you're already doing so much, right? Making sure you are, you know, getting your digestive system on track, right? Nice, healthy microbiome. You are managing your stress. You are getting some sleep. You are moving your body. You are adding in that, uh, that resistance training. I mean, everything you're doing with the Libby method is going to help increase your metabolism and help with insulin resistance. So that is my take on it, but you

know, let's, let's hear your take. So, so let's break those down. Um, what, what can we do about it? Anything else? Is there supplements? How do we get tested? What do we do? Yeah. I mean, listen, we, I do have to plug this because it's true. We are working on a program that is going to answer all of this in detail. It's so hard because we can only give a really quick overview about this, but I do encourage you guys to actually take our program because we are going to do a super deep dive on the ins and outs and hows and whens and questions to ask your doctor and test and all of these things, which I think is so important so that you really walk away with a thorough understanding as to what we're talking about. So insulin resistance.

Okay, so testing. I just want to stop there because people are going to be like, what program? So Dr. Link and I are working on an add-on to our weight loss program. So those of you who are interested in going down the rabbit hole of hormones specific to perimenopause, menopause, postmenopause, rather than because we obviously can't have this huge, massive conversation in the group where we'd spend all of our time talking about it in the group. We're going to be working on a course or an add-on for the fall. So we'll definitely give you some more information about that. Because it's one of those things like how do i fix my insulin resistance and like i it's basically do the liby method which takes three months but also yeah yeah okay so what else once so it's like once you've done that like where do we take you right okay so in order to figure out whether or not you're insulin resistance or not which i think was part of the question is um we need we need some tests right we we need some so you can test

yes you can absolutely test there's blood work that we can do there's a oral glucose tolerance challenge that we can do and honestly a lot of the time um even just taking a measuring tape and measuring your waist to hip ratio will help us understand whether or not you're insulin resistant, right? That you don't even need blood work to do that. Can you assume if you are gaining weight in your midsection or like, is it like you've always had weight in your midsection or this is like as you're getting older or like what's the difference? Yeah. So there are for sure, you know, there I you know they're like um my my mom will always tell you this like it doesn't matter how old I was I always had a little belly and like that is

just part of my constitution right and I am I've been uh uh generally like slim for most of my life but I've always carried a little bit of a belly. Does that make me insulin resistant at 13? No. Okay. The way that you gain weight usually, and this is again, like a soft statement. This is not a black or white situation, but generally when you deposit weight around your abdomen or viscerally, right? And you increase that visceral fat, especially in the setting of things like PCOS, perimenopause, because you're losing that estrogen, right? And estrogen makes you insulin sensitive, estrogen is anti-inflammatory. Or a lot of the times actually males who don't necessarily have that cue from estrogen saying like, no, no, don't deposit it around your belly and like, let me take it to your bum or your thighs. And your waist is the same width as your hips or like, you know, more than that, or like, you know, you have, you have

a bigger waist than, than you do hips that can actually be an indicator with a bunch of other things, but that can be an indicator that you have insulin resistance and visceral fat. Okay. So I am thinking about, I got to get my vertigo's back. I'm going to ask you about vertigo and menopause in a second, but I'm thinking about the different body types, the pear shape, the this shape, the that shape, and all the workouts that people used to do depending on your shape. It could be that where your, where your body is storing your fat could be an indication of insulin resistance or not, or how your body is choosing to store your fat. Yeah. Yeah, it can for sure. But there are other things like genetics, right. That play

a role into it. And I, um, you know, I've been very humbled in medicine a number of times. I've seen women who are very slim. They fit the perfect BMI according to that terrible scale that we have in medicine. And then I do blood work and their sugar is out of control. The hemoglobin A1C is 6.4. And like you look at them and you're like, oh, you're a skinny fat. But then on blood work, you are insulin resistant and are pre-diabetic, right? And so there are, again, those exceptions, but generally, yes, absolutely. A lot of the times where you gain your weight, how quickly you're gaining it, how hard it is, honestly, to lose weight, a lot of the times can also be a main driver for it,

but it makes sense, right? Because we know that higher insulin will actually tell your body to lock up your fat stores. And a lot of the time that will go viscerally, which is right around your abdomen. So it does mean that if you're gaining weight around your abdomen during your adult life, because that can actually be an indicator with a bunch of other things that you may be insulin resistant. Okay. So I go in I get the test. I'm insulin resistant.

Then what? Then what? Have we done the loving method or haven't we done the loving method? Okay. You know, if you haven't, then I send you here. If you have, and it's not working, we need to figure out why, right? It's not working because there, I really truly believe that this is the diet and the program that we're putting you through, that you're changing your life with. Really, truly, honestly, resets a lot of the signaling.

Does it happen overnight and does it happen in the first program? Honestly, sometimes no. It takes time. Yeah, sometimes it can take like six months. Sometimes it can take nine months because it also depends on the chronicity of your symptoms. If you've been insulin resistant for the last 25 years, right? Because this is also the challenge. And I'll just go in a little bit of a tangent, but this is also the challenge in medicine. You have to know that we,

one of the things that we use to diagnose or to kind of figure out what is happening with your blood sugar is something that's called hemoglobin A1c. And it is your red blood cells live about 90 days in your bloodstream, and they come in contact with a bunch of stuff in your bloodstream, including sugar. And so we just measure the thickness of the sugar crust around your red blood cells. And so your hemoglobin A1c, if it's, for example, a 6.5 and over, you're diabetic. If you're 6 to 6.4, you're pre-diabetic. And in medicine, for example, if you go see your GP, a lot of the times,

if you're 5.9, which is real close to 6, right? They're like, look, your blood sugar is fine. But when you're 6, it's like, oh, we should do something about it. And so when we look at blood work, we look at like, Hey, if you start getting at like 5.5, like we're starting to sweat a little, right. Being like, we should do something about this. And so usually from a 5.5 to about a 5.9 is usually the like, okay, we need to work at it. And with, even with blood work, things don't change overnight. So I always tell patients with this, just be patient because if you've been 20 years in that 5.5 to 6.2, it's not going to take three months for your body to be like, Oh my God, this was magical. Thanks so much. Okay. I'll just go back to being like 20 years old. It takes work and it takes a lot of like, it, it takes time for your even cells to

be more receptive to the messages of these hormones. It takes time for you to build muscles so that you have more cells to actually take up more of the sugar. And so changes don't happen overnight, but they do happen. And they happen with consistency, not with intensity, right? If you do a crash diet for two months or three months, or you take this program, I was like, I'm just going to do this. And then it's going to be great. It's like, no, no, this should be a lifestyle thing, especially when you are prone to insulin resistance because of PCOS, because of genetics, because of whatever, this is a lifestyle change. Yeah. Well, we've seen this. We've seen people go from that pre-diabetic range back into the

normal range. People drop in their numbers when they do have diabetes. So it's pretty amazing what you can do. There's an interesting question. Someone asked, is it best to eat certain food groups together to combat insulin resistance? I don't know that you're combating insulin resistance, but with the program, if you go through the basic food plan, there is a rhyme and a reason to, you know, starting your day higher in protein. You know, yes, there's a rhyme and a reason why your food is on your own in the beginning in the first few weeks, but then also why now we're adding a protein and fat to it. While you're making sure for lunch, you have your protein and your your vegetables, your leafy greens, your healthy fats, all of the foods, basically the rhyme

and the reason behind all of them on the program are central to around insulin. There used to be a lot of litter, like a lot of verbiage in my diet or that talked about insulin. And then I was like, you know what, I want to break it down and simplify it and get it away from that. I'm actually thinking because now that it's way more, more mainstream and people are more savvy is but adding it actually back in. But this is where also Dr. Link and I are going to be talking about this and that add inin program. But I think this comes from maybe the glucose goddess. You know, she's that girl. She's out there telling you to combine. There is truth in the fact that if you eat like an apple, right, your body needs to utilize a certain amount of insulin to allocate what it's doing with it, with that glycogen. And then if you add half an apple, and you add protein and fat to it, it does decrease the amount of insulin overall, your body will end up using.

But do you want to add more to that? Yeah, I mean, this is actually why we always focus on making sure that every single one of your meals has fat, it's got fiber, and it's got protein, right? And how the easiest way to think about it is that they coat the upper intestines and they create this like mesh that not only prevents your body from absorbing too much of that sugar all at once, but also slows the movement of food through your GI tract. So it doesn't allow your body to actually absorb sugar as quickly or as dramatically as it typically would. And we actually know that when you are combining your meals with fiber and protein and healthy fats, the glucose and insulin levels after your meal, postprandial, can be lower for up to 30 minutes after your meal. Yeah, that's crazy. The other thing that you can do that honestly has like amazing evidence is that if you take exactly

what you're learning with a living method and method, and then you walk for 15 minutes after your meal, it is life changing. It's a game changer. I have been doing this now. I haven't been walking. I've been swimming. So after all my bigger meals, cause you know, I'm dealing with hormones and all of that and I'm my stress and it's through the roof. And so I've now, because when I was, what was really interesting is when I was in, um, when I was away at Christmas, we went to like Singapore and Hong Kong and we were walking our faces off and we would have a bigger meal and then we'd walk afterwards. And I felt like, I felt like a, like it was a, there was a, you can

feel it. You can feel it. And if you just go out for a walk after your bigger meals, especially your dinner, like your lunch and your dinner, it's going to be a game changer, not just on how you feel, but also on your, on your insulin, on the way the body processes foods, on your stress, all of that. Game changer. Game changer. Game changer. There was an interesting grace here. My husband is six, is six, eight and thin doesn't need to lose weight. So does he still need to be on the Libby method? I think the Libby method I know, cause I, I created it. It was, it was always a, it was first a lifestyle diet. It wasn't a diet. It was lifestyle. It was how to get healthy and it helped you get healthy. And the side effect was weight loss, but no one wanted to buy it 30

years ago. They're like, what, I don't want, what is, what is this lifestyle you talk about? I want to just lose weight. And so I think the Libby method is how to get healthy 101. Like people are getting off their blood pressure meds, decreasing their cholesterol. You know, it's doing wonders for people who have diabetes, thyroid issues, PCOS. Like it's really a how to, how to be in tune to your body and help your, there is, there is literally in Ruth Kane and her team have studied this. You take all the other diets out there, there are negatives to it. There are definitely cons to those diets. Keto, fasting. Yes, they can help with this, help with that, but then they cause

this, cause that. And the Libby method, there's like zero negative to doing the Libby method. And I think if you are just trying to get healthy, the Libby method is like a how to get healthy one-on-one. I don't know, but like, what's your unbiased opinion? Because I know you're biased about the Libby method. I know you guys. Yeah, honestly, I mean, I started hearing about it years ago. And it was people that actually worked with me in my office started doing it. And one of my colleagues started dropping a bunch of weight. And I was like, what is this you speak of? And she, because I've always been skeptical of diets.

Because I think that deprivation leads to 99% of the reason why we're here in the first place. Um, and I, I took it, you know, this, like I was, I was a living loser and I loved it because I think that it is everything that I've taught, tried to teach my patients. Unfortunately, don't, while I have, you know, the luxury of spending a lot of time with them, I don't have the community and like a lot of the things that you get with this. And I, I've told you before, like, I wish that you marketed it as a lifestyle program because they think that it is so much more than weight loss. And this is exactly what you said to me, like nobody bought it, right? Because like nobody was interested in improving their life. They only wanted the change in the number. Um, so that, that's exactly what I explained to my patients. It's like, you know, I just, I need you to do these basics because it makes my life so much easier. It will make you feel so much better. And then we can actually figure out what the issues are because there are so many confounding

factors that are clouding my picture. And I'm going to waste your time and your money trying to figure this out when you can do this for peanuts less than a dollar a day um and they got to me and then like we can figure out the rest of the stuff right but it is I think that it targets the uh the not targets but it it addresses a lot of our creaky foundations and pillars of health that we don't focus on because we forget to or because of whatever. But I, yeah, that's honestly, that is my unbiased opinion. I would say that to anybody. Well, yeah, because this is what the diet industry has sold you a load of crap. I like this here. This question, hypothyroidism, PCOS, I mean, you can add in, you know, all of it, hairy menopause, menopause, does it make losing weight harder? I mean, to me, how do I answer

this question is, like, if you've been dieting for 20 years, five years, it's, it's, it's, I mean, unless you're 19 and never done a diet before, right? Like, chances are weight loss is going to be harder than any other with the living method. You might perceive it as harder because when you do those other diets, you get that quick fix in the beginning, right? You can lose that weight, but then you gain it all back plus more each time. And then that compounds the situation, making it harder. And then you add in, you know, insulin resistance, PCOS, thyroid issues on top of that, but it's not impossible. And I love Suzanne, Suzanne's response. I have Graves disease, no thyroid, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, inflammatory osteoarthritis, and I lost 55 pounds. Yeah.

And have maintained that for over two years. I have more to lose, but I need to work on my commitment to myself. However, my body continues to change and I'm seeing new non-scale victories. I mean, this is the whole point of this. Like we could go through every single health issue that you have and tie it into how the things that you're doing on the Libby method are going to help you with that. So I wouldn't say harder, but this is like comes down to four reasons why your weight might be slower to move. And this is sort of where PCOS would fall in hormones would fall,

fall, fall into that, right? hypothyroidism, again, fall into the thyroid category. So that's sort of that info. And both of those would fall into inflammation. So those four reasons why your weight might be slower to move that inflammation, hormones, digestive issues, gut health and whatnot. That sort of, so yes, yes it's harder but not impossible that's the whole point of the living method in because you could it could be the fact that you're not being consistent or you have your you keep sabotaging yourself or you have that mental piece that actually is what making it harder for you not actually that you have pcos or thyroid issues or whatever so it's it's a tricky thing to answer.

Yeah, that's exactly what I was going to say. I think that you, um, we need to reflect back on like, why is it harder? Is it self-sabotage? Is it I'm trying everything and my body's not responding. And there may be another reason as to why, and this is maybe when you go see somebody and say like, Hey, this isn't working. I don't understand why. But you know that I love the non-skill victories and I try to refocus our energy into, it truly is like the weight loss. I know that that's why you're here. The weight loss is here, but like, I don't want you to forget about how important it is that you are feeling more energy, that you are sleeping better, that your mood is better, that your skin is glowing, that, you know, your bowel movements are more regular. Like those are the non-skill victories that mean, honestly, in the grand scheme of things, they can mean so much more than just weight as a number because you are so much more than that

number. And so work with somebody to figure out like, you know, if it's continuously self-sabotaging, maybe you need to talk to a psychotherapist, psychologist to be like, you know, I need more tools or I need this or I need that or do all of the work that's presented by Dr. Beverly, right? Because this is where the knowing what to do is not the problem, it's the actually doing it that you put energy into. Yeah, because I don't know that it makes it for most people any harder than anyone else who's struggling in other areas. But this comes down to those four. Like if you are following the Libby Method and you are not losing weight and you are not seeing any non-scale victories at all, that is definitely a sign that there could be something else going on. And that's where you want to head to your doctor and do your blood work. Okay. There's so many things I want to talk about. I want to talk about protein intake. You know, my take on this is with the Libby method, you're including protein at every single meal. It's not about getting more

and more and more protein in that you need. When people talk about not getting enough protein, they're usually associating that with crappy, shitty diets, where you are starving, where you are depriving, and you are just counting calories. But how important is making sure you're getting that protein in your diet? And do you have a specific amount that you suggest people try to get in? I'm not into counting, weighing, measuring, but I want to ask the question. Yeah, because it's okay, if we do need to get a certain amount. Yeah, honestly, we do. We the research is a bit wishy-washy on this, but we do know that it depends as to what your goals are to maintain your muscle mass and actually for bone health. Protein is super important for bone health. The research says that you probably need

anywhere between 0.8 to about minimum 1.2 grams per kilogram of body weight. If then you look at other research that says like you want to build muscle mass and all of the stuff that actually the guidelines actually recommend that you go a little bit higher, it's probably closer to 1.6 to 1.8. Right, it's hard because a lot of us don't necessarily crave protein but one of the things that i think is really important is to make sure that every single one of your meals has protein every single one of them um you know it's it's it's also amazing if you can choose at sources that are high protein and also have high fiber you know like legumes or um lentils or edamame or nuts and seeds or things like that. And so I actually do think that a lot of the times actually when I take my patients

that have either been doing the Libby method or actively doing it right now, and we will do like a tracker actually for three days. And I always tell them it is the only time in my life that I'll ever get you to do this. Part of it is to actually see their macronutrient ratios and just making sure that they're meeting their, uh, the adequate amount of protein they should be having. And generally most of them are about like the one to 1.2 to 1.4 grams per kilogram of body weight. So in my experience, um, if you do actually focus on the, the basics that we're teaching you through the program and then making sure that we are adding the protein at every meal and you're having your nut and seed snack and all

of that stuff, you actually do meet the requirements. Yeah. You're going to meet the requirements if you're following the Libby method, but you don't want to overdo your protein either. Yeah. This is actually the tricky thing, right? Because you don't, too much of a good thing is not a good thing either. You don't want to be overdoing anything, which is actually why the mindful eating that you're being taught through this program is so important and listening to your body and listening to your hunger and satiety cues. But push comes to shove, you know, if I, you know, if you were going to snack on something that's not your fruit or your nuts or your seeds or whatever it is, I would rather it be something that's like higher in protein than like crackers. So obviously, you know, we're not doing that in this method. But

what I'm saying to you is like, I love protein, I think it's super important. We know that is really great to prevent bone loss and muscle loss and all of that stuff. But I do think that the range of protein requirements that are in social media right now sometimes are not necessarily what you need. I'll just leave it at that. Bodybuilders too. They're coming from that the high protein ratio is coming from people who are like doing a serious amount of exercise as well. Okay. I'm just cognizant of time.

I want to talk about vertigo because there's any suggestions for vertigo in relation to menopause. A couple of things. Frozen, there's some things, there's so much coming out with menopause. Like, first of all, do we talk, is menopause the catch all? Because I know menopause is one day. Do we, if I say, you know, vertigo and menopause, can I assume we're talking perimenopause, menopause, postmenopause it's can I assume we're talking perimenopause menopause postmenopause the pauses all the pauses all the pauses so what was really interesting is I had frozen shoulder I've had it a couple times well or whatever it could have been this it could have been that could have been whatever had it horrible for about I don't know eight months maybe a year

and all of a sudden one day just magically went away. Just really totally fine. Um, but wasn't diagnosed as frozen shoulder. I was like a joint thing, whatever. And then vertigo. So I started thinking about like, I got vertigo a few years ago. Now they thought I had a brain tumor. Now, mind you, they, they diagnosed me with being low in my B's and my magnesiums and my D's. Like I had to make sure I keep up with all of those, but I find it's, it comes back. It comes back. Now I'm wondering, does it, is that menopause? Like, am I like, what is, let's talk about those. Let's talk about vertigo. And then let's talk about some of the other weird things that could be happening that we don't think is menopause. Yeah. Um, I mean,

vertigo for when, when you have symptoms of vertigo, the first thing that you need to do is make sure that you have vertigo, right? Because there are different types of vertigo. There's peripheral peripheral vertigo and there's central vertigo. I'm going to assume that we're talking about the most common type, which is actually the, I can never pronounce this, benign paroxysmal positional vertigo or. Because there's vertigo that's inner ear vertigo, vertigo right yeah and so that's not what i have mine had nothing to do with that mine has some weird vertigo that i don't even know well

this is the thing right like you need to first understand what type of vertigo you have and what's causing the symptoms the bp bpb oh my gosh see can't ever speak bppv which is the most common one, which is actually what people usually refer to when they talk about vertigo, has to do with these tiny little crystals that we have in our ear, which sense movement and maintain balance, kind of shift out of position or clump together. And then your inner ear then signals to your brain that you're moving even when you're standing still. That's actually the, which is the, the, the, the vertigo that we're talking about. Meniere's disease, acoustic, acoustic neuromas, trauma to the head. There's like a bunch of other things that can cause vertigo, right? And so medications can actually cause certain symptoms of vertigo, but we actually know that vertigo is actually more common in women than it is in men and hormonal fluctuations can influence your inner ear. The loss of estrogen,

believe it or not, can also not only influence the inner ear and make it more, make you more prone to dislodge those little crystals that trigger vertigo, but they can also alter almost like the viscosity and the volume of fluid in your inner ear that can, that, that also relates to balance. And so it's tricky. Okay. So the first thing is we get the diagnosis, but if you have the most common vertigo, that is the BPPV and the treatment of it usually is something that's called Epley's maneuver, which is they kind of like try to put the calcium crystals back into your ear where they belong.

And, you know, your brain kind of gets reoriented and not as dizzy, believe it or not. So HRT actually has actually been shown to decrease the incidence of vertigo in perimenopausal menopaus women, more than placebo or no treatment, and vitamin D. So this is a crazy one. But like, you guys, if you have vertigo, you need to get your vitamin D tested because there is a lot of research that says that if you are deficient, getting restored with your normal vitamin d levels or optimal vitamin d levels can actually decrease the recurrence of vertigo and which is very common actually in postmenopausal women um but honestly i i think that game changers are um vertigo physiotherapists or vestibular rehabilitation which are like people that just dedicate their lives to um retraining you and

like balance and stabilization and things like that and actually studies show that about 85 85 percent of patients with inner ear problems get some relief and about 30 percent of them completely get better especially if you have the type of vertigo that you have that's like just recurrent over and over and over and over again but i work with an amazing physiotherapist that has all these little gadgets and like it's almost like they help your brain get retrained in like the incorrect messages that it feels like it's constantly being bombarded with and like reinterpreted the signals as like correct so that it just resets that didn't make sense but you know what I mean no it didn't make sense yeah it's just it's a lot because I think sometimes we just deal with

these things we deal with vertigo we deal with whatever and we're not really getting into like what more can we do about it we just kind of live with it I know there's someone saying I've had it on and off for 28 years like you know it's it wasn't until I got it that I realized how prevalent it was okay we could go down i mean we could sit here for another six hours but we don't have time we're out of time um are you coming back again at the end or is this our last no i think i'm coming back um oh we're gonna do it yes yes i think we're coming back yeah i am coming back i am coming but i don't think i'm coming back alone we'll come back as a team it's a power you're coming back. I am coming. But I don't think I'm coming back alone. We're coming back as a team.

As a power. Oh, you're coming back. Are you going to be on our panel? You're going to come back and be on it. Oh, okay. That's so super fun. I mean, we're a couple of people. We're going to need that.

Okay. So we did touch on that. We are working on a hormone menopause, paramenopause add on. It's going to be a course. Do you want to talk a little bit about what we're going to cover and what we're going to do since I have you for anyone who's interested? Yeah. Yeah.

So, you know, I think that you and I agreed that we, um, there's so much information out there and all information is good. So we wanted to put something together for people to really, um, do a deep dive into the ins and outs of hormones because we, because as you know,

I'm like, I love hormones, but really understand what happens, not just to your body during that, like this transition, right. Which can actually last up to 14 years for a lot of us. And so we wanted to talk about, you know, the pre-menopause, the perimenopause, the menopause, the post-menopause, what happens, signs and symptoms that you can look for. Home replacement therapy, you know, this conversation that is so big. And I think that there's so much misinformation out there. And so we really want you guys to understand the risk and the benefits, like whether or not it's right for you, questions to ask, how to look for a practitioner if it's something that you're interested in, tests that we can do also that are probably really important before we even consider it. Like we just really

want to empower you with all of that. And then break it down into modules of things like, okay, so we actually know that when you're going through this transition, there's risks for, you know, your bones. And so we wanted to do a module for like bone health, and we're going to go through, you know, what it looks sort of at sites and symptoms, risks for developing these types of conditions, tests that you can do, modifications that we can actually make to the Levy method and things that you should consider, supplements that you should consider talking to your primary healthcare practitioner about or allied healthcare practitioner about, sorry, insulin resistant is going to be a huge one. Health I wanted to talk about because as

we discussed actually through our perimenopause conversation, the microbiome changes dramatically during this transition. And gut health has to be something that we focus on. So again, like how to look for signs and symptoms that you may not be healthy, like how to look for the right probiotic for you because there's so many out there, right? Like how to change your body in the way that we should. And so we're dividing it into probably about like 12 different modules, if not more. And our goal is that you walk away after every module feeling not just informed, not overwhelmed, but informed with a bunch of takeaway points that you can actually start implementing that day. Things that like conversations that you want to probably spark with your team and say like,

you know, I'm worried about this or I'm talking about this or I learned that during this transition, I should probably start focusing more on my cardiovascular health. And like, should I be tracking my blood pressure? What like what should my cholesterol look like? Like Tesla, you need to talk to your doctor about like things like that. Because we think that this, I mean, arguably, you have the at least half of your life left to live. And these should be the best years of your life. And even though the research says that women are living longer, we have research also that says that we are living in poor health because we forget of ourselves. And so we are here to tell you that we are going to take care of you and we're going to teach you

how to take care of yourself and how to love yourself and love and thrive and feel like this is a new beginning for you. Because I think we feel like it's the end and it shouldn't be. Yeah. Well, we're taking it to the next level because there's the weight loss conversation the, there's the weight loss conversation. Of course, this is going to relate to that, but then there's this whole other conversation that is so big that we need to get into, but we just, we would literally spend all day every day talking about it. So yeah, it's going to give us an opportunity to go there. Yep. And, and really have the conversations that we want to have every single time. Even, and really have the conversations that we want to have every single time. Even honestly, I could talk about nice shades in one module on its own,

right? Yes. Oh God. We'll talk about it like during a module and have more conversations like this AMAs, right? Where we can actually go through the modules and like, really, I mean, while I am not, I am a doctor and I'm not your doctor, I want you to have amazing conversations with your doctor so that you can get the care that you need. Yes. Okay. Well, we are going to give you guys, people are asking about it. We're going to give you more information on it as soon as we know more. The details, logistics, all of it.

We want to give you a heads up that we are thinking about you and we are thinking about this conversation and we are having the conversation about the conversation that needs to be had. So thank you, Dr. Alinka, for joining us today. I hope that you guys got a lot out of this. There's some good little tidbits in there, a few little aha moments. Thanks everyone who joined us live. Thanks for Dr. Alinka to joining us. I do just want to take a minute. We've had a lot of well wishes. We have a member, Brenda Huxley, who has lost over a hundred pounds with us. Talk about getting healthy on the Libby method, going in for brain tumor surgery today. So we want to send her lots of love and wrap her in a big, ginormous hug. It really puts your health and wellness into perspective. I've been thinking about Brenda a lot in the work that she's done to from barely being able to leave her house to really working really hard,

not just losing weight, but doing it in a really healthy way. And if that doesn't put your health and your wellness into perspective, I don't know what has, but just want to send her massive love and thank you. Thank you to everyone who joined us live and thank you, Dr. Alinka. I will see you. I'll see you again soon. Thank you.