The Liz Moody Podcast - Actress Ashley Greene & Olivia Khoury On PMDD, Cycle Syncing, & How To Understand Your Hormones To Transform Your Health

Episode Date: May 6, 2024

Hummingway founders, Ashley Greene of the mega-hit Twilight series and Olivia Khoury, discuss the commonly untreated major hormonal issues women face like PMDD, cycle syncing, menstrual health, and so much more. Exactly what PMDD is & how it differs from PMS How to figure out if YOU have PMDD–because 90% of women are not diagnosed Ashley’s two huge hormone journeys: post-birth control and postpartum  The tiny tweak that will make your hormone testing way more accurate   Ashley’s terrifying story of her first panic attack right before a magazine cover shoot How the Twilight cast navigated a sudden skyrocket to fame during key developmental years Ashley & Olivia’s relationships with alcohol & what led them to being sober-curious How to cycle sync and why it’s an absolute game changer And so much more For more from Ashley and Olivia, you can find them on Instagram at @ashleygreene and @livkhoury. You can find Hummingway on Instagram at @ourhummingway and www.ourhummingway.com To join The Liz Moody Podcast Club Facebook group, go to https://www.facebook.com/groups/thelizmoodypodcast. Ready to uplevel every part of your life? Order my new book 100 Ways to Change Your Life: The Science of Leveling Up Health, Happiness, Relationships & Success now!  This episode is sponsored by: Puori: go to puori.com/LIZMOODY and use promo code LIZMOODY for 20% sitewide. Cymbiotika: use code LIZMOODY on cymbiotika.com to get 15% off plus free shipping on subscription orders. Great Lakes Wellness: use code LIZMOODY for 25% off your first purchase at greatlakeswellness.com. BON CHARGE: visit boncharge.com and use promo code LIZMOODY to get 15% off, plus free shipping and a 12-month warranty. Seed: go to seed.com/lizmoody and use code LIZMOODY for 25% off your first month. Previous episodes referred to in this episode: 5 Science-Backed Habits Of The World’s Most Successful People How To Hack Your Circadian Rhythm To Increase Energy, Sleep Better, Improve Gut Health, Fight Jet Lag & More With Dr. Russell Foster  A Celeb Trainer Spills All Of His Workout Secrets with Ben Bruno The Liz Moody Podcast cover art by Zack. The Liz Moody Podcast music by Alex Ruimy. Formerly the Healthier Together Podcast.  This podcast and website represents the opinions of Liz Moody and her guests to the show. The content here should not be taken as medical advice. The content here is for information purposes only, and because each person is so unique, please consult your healthcare professional for any medical questions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, friends, and welcome back to the Liz Moody podcast. I'm your host, Liz Moody, and I'm a best-selling author and long-time journalist. This podcast is all about helping you live your healthiest, happiest life, whether we're discussing the science-backed habits of the world's most successful people, learning how to hack our circadian rhythms to maximize our energy, or getting the best workout advice from the trainer who works with Chelsea Handler, Justin Timberlake, Kate Upton, and more. And yes, those are all real episodes, and they are linked in the show notes if you want to

I am so excited to welcome Ashley Green Corey and Olivia Corey to the podcast today. You might know Ashley as Alice Cullen from a teeny tiny movie franchise called Twilight, in addition to dozens of other movies and TV shows that she's appeared in since. Ashley and her sister-in-law Olivia are the co-founders of Hummingway, which is a menstrual cycle care brand that focuses on finding solutions to root causes and taking care of your menstrual health holistically, rather than isolating care to individual phases of your cycle. Huffingway was born out of Ashley's experience coming off of hormonal birth control and Olivia's PMDD diagnosis, both of which we discuss in depth in this episode.

We are going to get into exactly what PMDD is and how it differs from PMS, how to figure out if you have PMDD because 90%, 90% of women are not diagnosed. We're going to talk about Ashley's two huge hormone journeys, both post-birth control and postpartum. We're going to talk about the tiny tweak that will make your hormone testing way more accurate. Ashley's terrifying story of her first panic attack right before a magazine cover shoot. How the Twilight cast navigated a sudden skyrocket to fame during key developmental years of their lives. Ashley and Olivia's relationships with alcohol and what led them to being sober curious. How to Cycle Sync and Wyatt is an absolute game.

changer and so much more. The girl chat vibes are strong in this episode. But I'm also so excited that Olivia and Ashley are putting a spotlight on a subject that is unfortunately still so taboo and way too underdiscust, which just results in so many people needlessly suffering. We would all love to hear what you think, especially if you have any aha moments about your own cycle. So please tag us on Instagram.

I am at Liz Moody. Ashley is at Ashley Green with an E and Olivia is at Live Corey, K-H-O-U-R-Y. Olivia and Ashley, welcome to the podcast. I'm so excited to have you guys here. Thank you so much for having us. We're excited. We have a lot to get into today. So I want to just kick it right off.

Let's start with you, Olivia. You were diagnosed with PMDD. Yes. Can you tell us what that is and what the journey to your diagnosis was? I love how we're getting right into it. Yeah. So PMDDD is premenstrual dysphoric disorder. And it's practically like PMS on steroids.

And I thought for most of my life that feeling crazy or having these bursts of anger and feeling like no one understands me and feeling like I don't even really understand myself, all of that thought that it was normal, thought that the pain and the frustrations and the crying was normal. Doctor said, yeah, it's just typical of being a woman and go on birth control. And thankfully, my mom and Ashley's mother-in-law, very much in the know, always has been, was like, you're not going on birth control. She's like, that's not going to do anything for what's going on. It's not going to get to the root cause. It's just shutting your hormones off completely. So it became really frustrating. It's like, well, okay, then I just have him stuck like this.

This doesn't make any sense. And so I started doing so much research alongside Ashley about our menstrual cycle. And there's different phases and there's different things we should be doing in different hormone profiles. And there's so much that we don't know and so much that women have been left in the dark about our bodies and the lack of nutrients. So much of my PMDD is because I don't have enough magnesium. For something that could ruin my life, it's not even that deep. It's because I wasn't taking magnesium and B6.

And nobody told me that. No one's ever brought up magnesium deficiency to me in the doctor's office. Granted, I don't have like, you know, Ashley has one of our medical advisors as a doctor, Shamsha Mirce. She's amazing. I don't have, you know, the greatest insurance or the greatest doctors. And so it was really up to me to take my health into my own hands and figure out how to manage this.

I'm still figuring it out. I fucked it. I went on Lexapro for a year, and it was great. I was happy. Nothing bugged me. My ludial phases just came and went. But with Lexopro, it lowers your dopamine and raises your serotonin. Low dopamine, that means I have more ADHD.

And so now I'm off Lexapro, and the PMDD is back, and I'm still just on this journey of figuring it out. And it's just having compassion for myself, knowing where I'm at my cycle, knowing that these symptoms are going to show up, knowing that they're temporary, having a community, having my sister-in-law by myself. side, all those things. So I'm still out here figuring it out. So with the insurance that maybe many people have without the access that Ashley or somebody like that might have, how did you go about getting a diagnosis? I had a therapist and I worked with her a lot and she kept saying, like, you only are really having this once a month. Have you ever thought about journaling or tracking your menstrual cycle? And I was like, well, I know my period comes, it comes regular. Like, that's tracking, right? And she's like, no, there's phases to it. There's a ludial phase. So

during your ludial phases when your PMDD symptoms show up and that's like right before your period. For a lot of people, it can last seven days. For me, it lasts the 14 days. It's almost a switch after I ovulate. I'm immediately, I feel like a different person. I could go on forever. There's so many different reasons why someone might have PMDD.

I feel like a lot of people don't know as much about PMDD as they do other things now that are being pushed to the forefront. For sure. When one in 20 women probably have PMDD and 90% are not diagnosed, it's very hard to get diagnosed. You very much have to advocate for yourself in the doctor's office. And what tips PMS to PMDD? PMDD gets in the way of your life, like completely. You lose days. I was losing days. Like I wasn't getting out of bed. I wasn't working. I think 30% of people with PMDD have thoughts of suicide. You feel like you're possessed by this dark, depressed spirit that you truly don't recognize

as yourself and you say things and you push people away. And then you bleed. And you're like, Huh? What happened? It sounds like you're a crazy person, and everyone's made you to believe that that feeling crazy or being crazy is normal, so you're just like, well, I'm just a woman, but none of it's normal. And it can be a hormonal imbalance, but more science is coming out, that it could be a genetic sensitivity to the hormone fluctuations, so I could be sensitive to the progesterone increase that happens in your ludial phase. There's also another crazy thing, a histamine intolerance. So again, I'm not an expert, just me trying to figure out my own life, but I think I may have a histamine intolerance and my body is not getting rid of the

histamine. There's like an enzyme, the DAO enzyme that helps your body flush histamine. I might have too much estrogen, too. Who knows? But if you have a histamine intolerance, it can be another root cause of PMDD. I don't know all these things deeply, but just these little tidbits you could probably take yourself and start researching it and you can kind of figure it out. It's still an ongoing journey. It was just recognized in 2019 by the World Health Organization that it's actually a disorder. So when you have something like PMDD is just the awareness, the most helpful thing? So you're like, I'm not crazy.

This has a reason. Or are you trying to put it into remission of some sort or manage the symptoms to the point where you won't experience these things? Yeah. I don't think PMDD is something that you have to be stuck with for your whole life. There's this one woman, Natalie Ryan Hebert, and she has cured herself from PMDD through rapid transformational therapy, RTT. And the way she views it is that PMDD is trauma-based. You have all this trauma in your life. And right before your period, these hormone fluctuations almost act like a truth serum.

And so you jump into your trauma box with a magnifying glass. And all of a sudden, everything that you've ever experienced just feels so overwhelming. It all comes to the surface. And so she says if you can heal that trauma, then when you jump in the box of the magnifying glass, if there's nothing there, then you're good. So she focuses very much on trauma and mental health. part of it, I think that there's a mixture. I think it's trauma. I think it's hormonal imbalances. I think it's histamine intolerance. And I think that we're all so different. And so everyone's going to have to figure it out on their own. And it is a long journey. But I do not want to be like this forever. And I

definitely am really scared about having kids. So I'd like to get this in order before I have children. Because if it is a genetic sensitivity to progesterum, that's the hormone that you have when you're pregnant most of the time, right? It's what makes the pregnancy viable. Yeah. It's what makes sure that everything sticks in place and you definitely see a spike in it during pregnancy. It's so interesting you say that PMD maybe that you have a severe sensitivity to progesterone because I feel like some of the things you describe are what I'm now because I have no progesterone that I'm experiencing. Yeah. Yeah, you said that. You were like, is this how you feel all the time before your period? Listen, my life is busy, right? We're all very busy now, especially adding a child into the mix.

So there's certainly like an added layer. I can understand that. But all of the things. that I'm generally able to manage just seem unbearable. And my triggers are so short. And I got tested and started doing research on it. And I mean, progesterone almost acts as your like chill, calm factor. And so the lack of that makes everything so much more intense. And then I think you add on my estrogen's really high. I'm taking in a lot of caffeine. My adrenal's therefore shot. Like all of those things are this perfect storm to me. I think maybe experiencing something similar to what you go through on a monthly basis. Mine's only been the past three months is when I realized that something was off. But it really is incredible how important hormonal balance is to your life. Oh, 100%. And how like,

and you know, we've been told for so long that it's funny, right, where they're like, well, you're not equal to a man, but you should operate the same way as a man. And everything we're going to test on is a man who does not have the hormonal fluctuations as you. I think it's such a service to women because I think once you understand your hormones and if you can balance them, it's like a superpower and you start understanding that during your follicular phase, like you are so much more social and that's when you should get all these things done. And during your luteal phase, you may not be a social, but your ability to focus on something is insane. So if you were writing or if you had like tasks that were daunting that you need to get done, that would be the time.

And like we haven't been taught how to work with our own bodies in the same way that men have been taught to work with their bodies. And it's wildly frustrating, especially as I'm experiencing these, like, really intense highs and lows in my hormones. Yeah. So, Ashley, I'm curious with you because you had your first hormonal journey when you got off birth control and all of these symptoms that birth control was masking cropped up. And you were like, oh, wow, I need to address these. I need to figure out what's going on, which I think is a really common experience. And I think a lot of people are like, oh, I'm withdrawing from the pill. And I had a hormonal doctor on the podcast. And she was like, typically that is not a pill withdrawal. It's just the pill has been suppressing all these symptoms.

And now they're rising to the surface and you need to figure what they are. So you had this first journey, which we can talk about. But now you're having a second journey. And I'm curious how you are approaching it differently, knowing everything that you know now. Yeah. On the first point, what is so frustrating, we're definitely like if you want to go on hormone to birth control, absolutely do. But the fact that we never were given the knowledge of what was actually happening inside of our bodies is insane. but he knows, hopefully more people do now. But in fact, when you take birth control, you're shutting down the communication between your brain and your body.

And you're not actually having a period. It's not actually telling you anything about your body. And as you said, you're suppressing everything that's festering under the surface. And some people are lucky and they don't have that big event imbalance. I was not one of those people. And so when I came off hormonal birth control, I went from having no symptoms to having every symptom under the sun. And thus, this is why Hummingway was born.

The route that I'm taking now, I think the biggest difference with my hormonal fluctuation now versus what I was experiencing coming off hormonal birth control is that I have the knowledge and the understanding and the compassion and the ability to know what to look for. When I came off hormone of birth control, I was just like, what is wrong with my body? I'm 30-something years old. No one can give me answers. My doctor has nothing for me. I didn't tell anyone for a long time. I just suffered in silence and felt like I was less than because I didn't understand my body. and didn't also understand that part of me feeling less than was probably a hormonal fluctuation.

Now I could identify, oh, this is not what's normal for me. Mind you, everyone has a different normal, and that is something you have to find out for yourself in the same way that your health and fitness is an everyday journey, the same way that your mental health is in everyday journey, so is your hormonal health. Unfortunately, there's not like a pill that'll fix it. It's something that's going to ebb and flow. But for me, I recognize right away, oh, this is not normal. and knew that it was most likely a hormonal fluctuation due to my pregnancy because it takes

a while for things to really balance back out. And so I knew that I needed to get tested. I knew that I needed to get tested in my ludial phase between day 19 and 21 for it to be an effective test. Why is that? You're in your ludial phase. And basically within that time, they know exactly what numbers they should be looking for. If you tested during your follicular phase, obviously your estrogen and your progester are going to be different than what they are during these days in your ludic. phase. We now know your period starts on day one, and then you count from there. So first day of

your period is the first day of your cycle. You get to day 19 and 21. That's when you test. Okay. And so I tested and I came back and the doctor was like, whoa, you are basically menopausal with your progesterone. Your estrogen is through the roof. And then I took it a little bit further, went to my gynecologist and said, can you look at my uterus and see what's happening? I had my period. It was a five-day period. So day eight, we looked in my uterus and she was like, oh, wow, you have the amount of estrogen that you should have right as you start your period. And it just finished. Way too much. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's really long-in-way of saying that even though I'm dealing with the symptoms, it's fascinating to me and it's exciting to be able to find

an answer and to have these things validated and to know that I deserve to have them validated and to go into my doctor and say, I'm experiencing ABCD, EFG, these are the things that I think it can be linked to. Here are the things in my life that have changed that I think may have had something to do with it. And it's almost like serving it up on a silver platter because my prior experience was, oh, well, you could go back on hormonal birth control or, oh, you're having acne, we could put you on acutane. You want to go on an SSRI because you're having mood instability?

Just like bopping down the symptoms. Right, of like, why is this happening to me? What is going on? And give me the tools to be able to fix it. I'm still in the middle of the process. I'm still going through the symptoms. But it's really exciting for me to go, like, I could start seed cycling because I know that flaxseed will bind to excess amount of estrogen.

And I haven't been doing that. I didn't have an imbalance. Now I can try all these things and see what starts kind of rebalancing me. And, hey, in six months, I may not have the answer and I may have to go and get a progesterone oil. That's worst case scenario for me. But it's pretty cool and exciting that I feel empowered about my body and I can advocate for myself. And I do know what's going on. And now I just have to figure out how to fix it. Why is it happening? Is that typical post-pregnancy? Or what answers have you gotten? Yeah, post-pregnancy, again, because a lot of this is really understudied. There's not like a direct

answer. When you are breastfeeding, your progesterone levels just plummet. Hergesterone is one of those hormones that has a harder time coming up by itself. It's not something. My estrogen's like, whoo through the root. Pagestrone is not always the case. Again, like you see this right before menopause, it drops. So it's a little bit more tricky. I breastfed for a year. I came off. This is my six period back. So my body is still also like adjusting and re-understanding how it works. I liken it to what it was like when you first get your period. It's not quite normal yet. Your body hasn't like figured out its cycle. And so that could be a lot of it. Also, I did two movies back to back and then worked a couple of those weekends for work events. Also, I'm trying to be a working mother, which is such a, like, insane thing to think about.

You are always working as a mother because it's 24-7 and then you have a job on top of it. And it doesn't go unnoticed by me that I'm certainly probably doing too much. And I need to take a break because it's, you know, one of those things. when, again, like, you drink a ton of coffee, your adrenals are shot, that's going to have an effect on your hormones as well. And so it's all very connected after this second movie that I shot this year. I said, I need a break. I need a second just to, and I'm lucky enough to be able to say that where I was like, give me like two weeks to try and rest and figure out my body and try and rebalance some of these things. How has that transition back to working with having a baby been?

It's one of my biggest fears around having a kid is that I feel like my career is just in a really good place and I'm thriving. I'm also the primary wage earner and my family. And the idea of all of that just coming to a screeching hall is terrifying to me. Yeah. Unfortunately, our system in the U.S. is not really set up for women to be able to have children and be taken care of. And so for me, I worked really hard the two years before I knew I wanted to have a kid. It was a full body mind reboot. That's when you went off birth control and you guys started humming way and you really

thought about your body, your bind all that in the way. Yeah, I wanted to make sure because I knew that it wasn't going to be easy. And I knew that especially in my industry to do what I do isn't easy anyways. It's very unstable. And then to add a child into it is a whole different thing. So first I said, like, let me make sure that my mental health isn't check, that my body is as healthy as possible. And then I worked and saved and said, if I get pregnant, and as soon as I get pregnant, they were like, oh, we don't have any jobs for you for two years.

What can we survive on, basically? Which is not the answer that a lot of people probably want to hear. But for me and my mental health, I was like, I just need to know that I'm set up in that. And so I worked really, really hard and we saved. And then I got to a point where I said, okay, let's do it. And the rest, you kind of figure out as you go. I think there is something really incredible that happens when you do have. have a child where your ability to function like a superhuman and multitask and get as much work

as you used to do in eight hours into like three is pretty incredible. So that certainly kicks in. And then I've, again, not perfect and certainly given my state of hormones or things that I need to work on, but creating boundaries around your work life, your social life, and your family life that are very defined, I think is important. Because if I said that, There are not things that fall to the wayside. Again, I think being empowered to pick and choose what those things are and figure out what balls you can drop and which ones don't really matter that much and what you're doing for other people versus you're doing for yourself.

Like, I think in this stage of life, being selfish is important. What does that look like for you, like specifically in action? There's a lot of acquaintances that I don't see anymore. Like, my circle has gotten much, much smaller because when I do have the time, there's about five people that I spend time with because I went from. having, you know, weekends. And so I think making the decision to just keep the people who are really, really vital in my life was a big part of it. Because we'd say yes to a lot of things. Saying no to things that aren't really important to me and my family is another big one.

Because you don't want to say yes. And now I say no to so many things. And clear, clear communication with, like, my husband really wanted me to go to this party with him tonight because we don't get a lot of us time and I looked at him and everything in me wanted to be like, okay, fine, I'll make it work. And I looked at him and I said my bandwidth is about this small right now is what I need you to understand. And he was like, okay, I'll find someone else to go with me. And for me, that was like a really big thing because I want to go and make it all happen. But I'm going to be much happier putting my baby to sleep tonight, getting a full night sleep and getting up tomorrow morning and being able to do what I need to do. I very rarely get genuinely excited about skincare, but this is one of

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is basically accepted that sleeping next to me is like sleeping next to like a little fire. And the birch mattress has been a game changer for that. It's made me sleep so much better. Like I can see my sleep score going up because I'm not hot all night long. It's also hypoallergenic, which is really worth paying attention to if you find yourself waking up stuffy or congested. Dust mites in a conventional mattress can actually impact your breathing and your sleep quality without you even realizing it.

And again, we need to be able to breathe to get good sleep. And getting good sleep is the foundation of our health. And then comfort-wise, Zach sleeps on his back and then I sleep on my side and my stomach. So we have two completely different sleep styles. And we both wake up feeling really good, no aches and pains. CNN actually named the Birch mattress, the best mattress for side sleepers. And Wired named it the best organic mattress period. So there you go.

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Birchliving.com slash Liz Moody. How has it impacted your relationship with your husband, your brother, right? Is it weird to hear her talk about, like, her relationship? Are you one of the people who's like, yeah, you made a baby? I love your love. Are you like, I don't need to hear about that. Oh, no, no, I'm obsessed. It is funny, though.

I remember like before when you guys were like, you know, still dating. Like I would always, if they were out in fights, I'd be like, yeah, Paul, you're dumbass. What are you doing? Like, I would take her side. Who were her, like Team Ashley. Yeah, we'd be like, bye. I'm not really freaked. I don't really have boundaries.

We're really close with my parents, too, so it's all just jumbled. Yeah. We've a very close. My family, his family, our worlds, like all intersect. Speaking of boundaries. Yeah. But how has it impacted your relationship with him? Because you hear these studies that are like the relationship declines when the kid is born and it gets better when the kid turns 18, which is another thing that I'm terrified about because I love my husband.

It's my favorite relationship in my life. I think, again, communication is so massive in communicating on a level that, like, I know, especially, again, right now, like, I'm triggered. If you put me in a corner, I'm going to become a savage. So, like, I will be like, you know what? I need a second. Or, like, I'll have a blow up and then immediately come back and be like, I'm really sorry. You don't deserve to be spoken to that way. This is what I'm feeling.

This is what I'm going through. And he's really wonderful at taking that understanding and seeing how he can better. help our relationship and how I can better help our relationship. And I think it really is ego out the door. We're both trying our best and like you look at your child and you go like this is what we're doing it for. And it doesn't matter anymore how I feel. I mean, it does to an extent. But I'm just like everything we do is like a very united front in front of her. And that was something that we established again, I think doing the work before you have a baby is so important in the same way that you should do the work before you get married. Did you guys do couples therapy?

or what did the work look like? We didn't do couples therapy. We're good at doing a lot of like workshops on our own. We'll find things and sit and like give each other homework and do things that way. And so I'll say, hey, I saw this really cool exercise. I think we should do it. I found this book. I think we should read it.

And that's how we've gone about it. I think before a second child, I may want us to go into couples therapy. Because Kingsley is amazing, but it's a lot. Right. And like we're doing great, but it's still really hard. and it's still like a constant work in progress. I think it just like amplifies things. But it's the same with anything.

I think if you have a good base, I think if you've established that and you go into having a child with realistic expectations that it is not going to make your life easier, the child is not going to make your husband love you more. Like it's not going to make you love your husband more except when you see him with her. But you just have to, I think, be realistic with your expectations and then go, okay, let's put in the work pre-baby. And then like get really good at apologizing for when. You're super short when you've only had like three hours of sleep and all that.

But we talked a little bit before this about how, like, it's easy to put into words and eloquently say how difficult it is and why. But the other thing that until you experience it, it's really hard to articulate is that, like, the insane joy that your child gives you and the way that your heart breaks open and, like, shatters you into a million pieces and puts you back together as a different human being is really incredible. and if you lean into that, it's the most beautiful experience of your life. If you lean into the fact that like this child is going to teach you so much about yourself and this child is deserving of everything you have to give, it gives you a new purpose. Ashley, what else did you do during that time that you mentioned? You said your body and your mind and all these things you were doing to kind of prepare for pregnancy. What did you do during that time?

Anything I could do, I came into it going, I should be as selfless as possible now to make sure that I can continue that as a mother. And so I said I obviously am getting off hormon of birth control for other reasons, but that I got off every prescription I'd ever been on. So I was prescribed Adderall and I was prescribed Xanax, which those two things are like an oxymoron, honestly. And were you taking both of those regularly or as needed? No, Zanx was actually a clonopin. In the height of Twilight started having panic attacks.

Who wouldn't? It was scary that like I would just breathe into like a paper penit. back. I thought I was going to die. Yeah. Your first one was before your first magazine cover sheet, right? Can you talk about that experience? Because I think a lot of people when they have panic attacks, they don't even know that's what's happening to them. I went to a hospital in Finland for a panic attack once. Yeah. And they gave me a paper bag. I was like, I'm having a heart attack. And they were like, breathe into this bag. You're like, what is this magical medicine in Finland?

I was like, this works so well. They're really up on their best. So I'm feeling. So I had my first panic attack at a hotel room in L.A. before my first cover shoot. And in my mind, it was like incredible because I came from doing nothing to doing this twilight. And all of a sudden we were doing talk shows and we were flown here and we were doing this and we weren't really sleeping. But it didn't matter because I was 20. And like, I was just like, this is all really exciting. Yes, I'll do everything. Everything that's thrown at me. This is so exciting. I'm so grateful. What I didn't realize is that what we were experiencing was unlike anything I am. had ever experienced in my life and was a lot for my brain and body to process. And I wasn't taking care of myself. Like we were eating and drinking whatever we wanted. I definitely wasn't focusing on my sleep had no idea really what meditation even was. I don't think I learned about meditation until I was like 25. I don't think I had a vegetable until I was in my 20. So you're good. So I was doing, you know, all the things that like when you're 20, 21, it doesn't catch up to you where you don't think that it is. And then all of a sudden, the night before, the friend was asleep

beside me, and I, like, woke up and was just like, oh, my God, and thought I was having a heart attack. And this is what's so messed up, right? I thought I was having a heart attack. In my mind was like, well, I can't go to the hospital because if I'm not, and this is something else, then it's going to be in the press and they're going to say I'm on drugs. Because this is the, you know, during that phase where, like, starlets were falling out of clubs. So what did you do? The idea of you laying there and being like, I'm just going to have a heart attack in this hotel room by myself. Yeah.

So it's not an us weekly. Yeah. I figured it went away eventually. Oh my God, Ashley. I found a bag. That just makes me so sad. And my public says what I finally told her. She's like, why didn't you wake me up sooner?

Like, are you insane? Like, what if you were having a heart attack? Like, what is your mind? What are you thinking? And then she became very protective over me. So were you like, I am experiencing anxiety now? When were you able to sort of put the pieces together? figured out that that was in fact a panic attack. And then, yeah, ended up going to the doctor to say, like, this is what I experienced. And they said, this would be good for you, which, in all fairness, was for those moments. Honestly, I probably used it like five times. Like, I didn't have a ton. But I could feel things start coming on. And I would take it adding in Adderall because I couldn't keep up with the schedule. And because they had an influx of scripts coming in, which, you know,

you're reading two hours every script, you're reading a couple scripts a day. And then, like, it was a lot. It was too much instead of recognizing that it was too much. And figuring out ways to say no to things, I was like, oh, I'll just take this pill. It's also so hard to say no, though, too. I think that people think of Hollywood as such a glamorous industry and stuff, but you really don't know when your next role is. And I think there is a scarcity mindset there that people aren't aware of that can be really hard when you're in it.

Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. There was a lot to learn. And unfortunately, there weren't a lot of people around me that could teach me. And like, we were just in hyper speed. We're from Jacksonville, Florida. We don't experience these things. Even my management, they'd never had a client like me. Like, it was such an crazy thing that happened that it was like not a lot of people understood how to handle it. Were you all able to support each other in the cast? Because you were all sort of

going through it together. You were all around the same age, I feel like. Yeah, definitely. I think it's interesting. I did a podcast almost two years ago now and went through all of the Twilight films, had a bunch of cast on, also directors, producers, to kind of go, what made this, what it was and what was our experience. Oh, did you figure out, like, why it was such an incredible phenomenon? No one knows that. I mean, if they, I was like, I nailed it. But it was interesting for us to talk about it then because I think in the midst of it, we were all going through the same thing. So there wasn't really like, here, let me fix this because we didn't necessarily know that anything was broken.

but we were there for each other in the sense that, like, no one had this experience. We bonded in that way. Yeah, I'm just picturing, like, would you say, hey, other cast members or people who were going through this? I had a panic attack the other night. I was really closed off in private. It took me a long time to be able to, like, me fully talking about these things, like, never.

No. The whole idea was, like, picture perfect. And I also think there was this thing where, like, I was playing Alice and she was so great and perky and perfect. and that I wanted to like portray that also publicly. I was wondering about this because your early 20s are such formative developmental years and you have this not only huge media moment but also you're enmeshed in this role. And I'm like, how would that impact your sense of self, your sense of identity, your mental health,

all of these different things during this time when your frontal lobe is quite literally forming. Yeah. Well, that's what all this stuff I think about now where I'm like, whoa, dude. And people are like, well, would you let your kid be? an actor. I'm like, no. Maybe when she's 25. Yeah, the frontal lobes done, you can go act. Great. Everything's formed. You can make great choices. I know all this stuff now, and it kind of makes sense. Because part of you, in the midst of it, too, you're like, I'm so grateful for what's going on. This is great. I'm on the cover of magazines, like national magazines. This is amazing.

Instead of looking at how is this affecting me mentally and physically. But I feel like that's also part of growing up. So, and anyways, long-wounded answer of saying, I got off those things. That was part of it. it. And then I stopped drinking. It didn't stop drinking. So we're curious, I would call it. And is that still to this day? Yeah. It's so fascinating. I figured out when I came off Adderall and came off Kalanapin, what was happening inside. It was very introspective. And I was like, why am I feeling these things? Similar to Hummingway. How do you look at the root cause of the problem? What is causing this to happen? And what do I need to change? I looked at alcohol the same way where I was like, why am I binge drinking or why do I drink? Why is this a habit? Like, why do I

reach for a glass of wine every night? Like, that's not good for you. And part of it, I think, is that, like, in the United States, the binge drinking is just a part of our culture. And having a glass of wine a night was at one point touted as being heart healthy, which is such bullshit. I'm like, no, it's not. Everyone make your own choices. But for me, it was just going, like, all of these things are not good for my overall health. I would never do them well. It was pregnant. and I want to be as clear as possible when I have my child. And I need to make sure that if there is something that I don't have control over, that I fix it. And so with alcohol, it's something that didn't need to go completely sober.

But certainly, like, once I started understanding it and what's that app called? Refram. Yeah, reframe. It's a really interesting app for that because it's not like you need to just be sober, but it's like, hey, this is what your body's feeling right now or this is what your mind's feeling right now and you are having a withdrawal from the alcohol. and it's or this is triggering you to want to drink. It became such a like interesting thing for me to understand why.

Why did you reach for alcohol in your life? Initially, which was very unhealthy, I think, to avoid when I feel stressed, right? Like a lot of people are like, oh, I'm so stressed, I need a glass of wine, which is also like really the time when you should not be drinking it. And so a lot of that I think was bad or just not wanting to like feel or deal with things that were coming up. And then the more that I kind of develop tools to be able to deal with my feelings or deal with parts of myself that I didn't love, the less I needed alcohol. We'll have a drink maybe like once a month. But like I didn't realize how blurry it makes you, even if you have two drinks for like the entire week. My mind is not as sharp as it was.

And so I don't know, gathering information about what it really does to me changed everything. But I think initially it was like, yeah, I've had a stressful day or I don't want to deal with it. that or oh my God, like this happened. Let's go drink tonight. And similar to the birth control is masking the things. It's like if my day to day is so stressful every day that I need alcohol, instead of adding the alcohol, can I look at my day and see if I can shape it within my power? Obviously, there's certain things out of our control, but to make it less stressful. Yeah. What I found was for me that like now it's like if I go out and I have a drink or two, usually two is our like max, but like it's really fun.

And like it's an experience. And my friend's 40th. I'm like, oh, I'm going to have a polo on the beach. And it's going to be like a whole experience, right? You have a great time versus when I used to drink and like go out and be like, all right. Oh, my God. My day was so stressful.

Like it's never really that great. Ooh, it almost tinges this ritual with negativity. That's a really interesting point. We did a whole series on drinking on the podcast, on the health impacts of it. And all of the doctors were like drinking has been a ritual throughout recorded history. And there's something really beautiful and interesting about that. But you kind of take that away when you're like, oh, I'm just going to like toss them back in front of TV because I'm not loving my life right now. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. That's interesting. Yeah. So I guess that's where I'm like definitely not sober, but definitely like drinking for an experience. I call myself an intentional drinker. Yeah. And I like I'm never going to have a drink just because it's a Tuesday night or just because I happen to be out.

It's been a huge realization for me that I can go out and have a blast and be completely. and be completely sober. And I'm a sparkling conversationalist, and I dance, and I have so much fun. And I feel like people talk about how hard it is to not drink. And I just want to talk about how fun it is. I'm like, oh, I get to also give myself credit for how cool I am and not just be like, oh, I need a drink to be social. I'm like, no, I'm lovable.

I'm great. We talk about this all the time. She was asking if we liked a podcast. And I said, you know, the lead up and do it, where I was like, ugh. And then we get done. We're like, oh, that was so fun. And I feel like it's similar to like when you go out. and you don't drink and you end up coming home and being like, oh, that was so fun.

Like, I could do that. But yeah, you're so right that we've been conditioned to be like, oh, you have to drink to have fun. Yeah. And there's like this guilt that comes from other people of being like, well, you're not drinking. And I'm like, don't make me feel bad just because you're indulging in something. Well, and I think that's why just having a few proof points of like we went out. I was a ton of fun and you didn't need me to drink for me to be that fun. People are just worried about their own social standing, their own experience,

will she be judging me? So I feel like if you just do it once or twice, then you're like, oh, okay, I'm cool, you know? And people are like, oh, Liz is fun regardless of what she's consuming. I practice what I'm going to say before I go out. Ooh, okay. Just, you know, oh, I'm not drinking right now. Oh, I'm sober. Oh, I'm like trying to figure out how I'm going to say no to the alcohol.

And then I get there and nobody gets. Nobody asks. Nobody gets. It's not life, though. It's so true, though. Yeah. Yeah. You can always just link it back. I mean, part of my realization was my menstrual cycle. Specifically the week before, caffeine and alcohol, I found that if I eliminated those that my periods were so much better. Yeah.

How did you guys start to know what to eliminate, what to add in? You said magnesium has been a game changer. You said eliminating these caffeine and alcohol these weeks was a game changer. How did you even know what factors to begin experimenting with? We did a lot of research. So much research. And then part of it is just mixed. experimenting with your own body. Like we for so long have just been told like this is something you deal with and we don't really know that much about our own anatomy, about our hormones, about our body, and there's not like a one size fits all with any of this. And so it's just going like what affects me, what is my sensitivity? But how do you get the first clue? You know what I mean? You're like you could eliminate all sorts of things or add in all sorts of things during all sorts of weeks and phases of your cycle. How do you even know where to start? Check in with your own body. We have a quiz on

humming my website called the cycle check in. And you put in, you know, did you drink coffee that day? Are you having symptoms like this? We don't want to make it super overwhelming. Like it's like cycle syncing can be so overwhelming if someone hears on the podcast or doing elimination diet sounds so overwhelming. And it's really just like journaling. Like I ate this.

Now I'm bloated. Okay. And then you just like look back at your journal for me. Like for example, like alcohol increases histamine. So if I have high histamine in my ludial phase and I think that's the reason for my PMDD, I'm not going to drink alcohol during that. It's just like, it's like we're detect. at all times trying to figure out what caused what and what can I not do during that time.

Like also for me, if I work out really intensely before my period, I'm going to start crying hysterically. If I go to like a boxing class two days before my period, all of a sudden I'm crying. I'm like, what's wrong? And it's like because I'm exerting so much energy that I don't physically have. So instead I should just go on a walk and I'll probably feel a lot better about myself. And it's little things like that. It's like an intent, like journaling check-in. Yeah.

It's just being aware of like everything that's happening, which we're so, I feel like we go so fast that a lot of times like everything just kind of slips over your head. But if you really sit with yourself and go like, oh, I did this and here's cause and effect. Right. It's so interesting. I had a registered dietitian on the podcast who specializes in root causes. And so much of her work is around that, like cutting through the noise, there's going to be people saying like, oh, try this, try this, try this, do this, do this. And instead, like, the best muscle we can work is, like, knowing what our bodies need and what our bodies want at any moment. And I love that you guys are saying that because there is so much noise.

And there also is such a lack of research. And so it's almost by necessity getting in touch with the little voice inside of you is the best thing you can do. And that's also a really cool thing. Like, once you can trust yourself and intuitively go, I do it all the time where I was like, I'm going to cut this out because I just feel like this is a really cool thing. this is what's happening or this is why. And sometimes you can be off. But I do think people ignore that way too much. And if you listen to your body, and this happened as I was breastfeeding, I started having episodes where like my blood sugar would dip. And I like woke up on a start one day. My arms were like numb. And I was like having cold sweats. I was freezing. My heart was like,

it was horrible. And I was like, what is happening to me right now? Like I think I might actually have to go to the hospital. I don't know what is happening. Something in my head said, honey. And I went to the kitchen and I chugged honey and it leveled things back out. But it was like such a, my husband was like, how did you know? It was a glucose thing. Yeah. That's so interesting. Our body knows what it needs. I don't want to understate how hard it is, though, to clear through the layers of the noise and to get in touch with what your body is telling you. I just did this whole week-long therapy retreat thing that I'm, like, obsessed with now. But like 90% of the work there is like clearing all of the fog out and listening to what your own voices telling you. So it's work to get there. Yeah, it is. And this is like one of the things I want to

do with Kingsley is I wonder if I was set up from the beginning to be aware of these things, to be self-aware, to meditate, to breathe, to check in with my body, to understand when I eat sugar, it makes me feel this way, like to put those building blocks in place from such a young age that then it will be so intuitive and it'll be a lot less daunting to have to cut through all of these these voices and all these layers because I think I started late in the game. And so it definitely like it's still a constant uphill battle and it's still something I have to really, you would think that because I meditate and I feel better that I would continue doing it. But then life came at me and all of a sudden I stopped and then I started meditating again and was like, this is so hard.

And like it was like I have to start again at like ground zero. And I'm going, why do I do that? Like I know this is so good for me, but it's, I didn't know what meditation was until I, 25. So I'm so curious. It's like an experiment I'm doing on Kingsley. Do you meditate with her, like sit down and like put hands on heart or anything? We do breathwork. And I just got her this little like yoga mat. It's like a unicorn doing like a couple of different yoga poses. So yeah. Downward unicorn. Downward unicorn. Yeah. It's really cute. So yeah, we're starting to do those. And my husband is again, I think testament to your mom, he has that kind of built into his system the way that he was raised. So he's really, really good about that with Kingsley,

making sure to pass that on to her. Can you guys each share a few practices that have been helpful for you on your journey? Like you said magnesium was one. You've mentioned breathwork. Maybe highlight a few things that have been especially helpful for you. Yeah. Magnesium is good for everyone. Myself included.

Yeah. Magnesium's been great. I think part breathwork meditation, I do breathwork when I'm really stuck. What do? I feel like it's such a powerful. There's an app called Open that I really love. And they're a sponsor. Oh, great.

We did a friend with them. They're amazing. I remember doing first movie back after baby. I was like really stuck in my head and would do breath work. And it's like an out-of-body experience. So that's really powerful sleep trying to prioritize sleep is another really big one because recovery is so important when you sleep. Very simple things like water intake, cutting out and figuring out alcohol and outside factors was really important to me. I feel like there's so many.

There's so many. Hiking, being outside of nature, grounding is something. Yeah. Stretching even. Like I think all of these little things that we don't do because we're so busy when you do do them, it just like re-centers your entire self and your entire being. It's important. Yeah.

I mean, for me, I think the biggest thing is cycle sinking. I know that, like I said, it sounds very overwhelming to people maybe who are just listening it to the first time. But for example, like with having PMDDD in your ludial phase, old me when I didn't know I had PMDD, when I didn't know where I was in my cycle, I would go out and I would binge drink. I'd fight with friends. I'd break up with my boyfriend.

I'd fight with my siblings. And I'd cry hysterically about all of it. And then I'd get my period and be like, oh, cool. I guess that's why I did that. Now it's like, oh, if these things are coming up, I can stop myself. I know that I'm ludio. I know that this is just temporary. And so I can get in front of it and just simply download Stardust.

We don't have a cycle-syncing app yet, but Stardust is a great app, especially for people with PMDD. Just put in when you have your period. It might not be super accurate, but I'm telling you, knowing why you have like, I told Ashley is like, oh, you look great today. She's like, I'm follicular. Like, once you just start bringing that, and I don't even really like using the word PMS. I like using the word, I'm ludial.

Like our little humming my bag says, I'm ludial. I know I may be bloated. I know I may be irritable. I do morning pages. Have you ever read Julia Cameron's artist's way? I do morning pages every morning because I'm the type of person that wakes up and I think of everything that has to be done. And as founders, the list never ends. I'm sure you know.

And so I like to just get all of the nonsense out on paper. I like to go out in the sun without sunscreen and sunglasses when I walk my dog because when you get that morning stunt, it helps your body start creating that melatonin from when you want to go to bed. I've been forcing myself. My boyfriend would watch anime until 4 o'clock in the morning if he could. And I'm just like, no, I'm going into bed and I'm shutting off the lights. And I think sleep is the number one thing.

And again, if you have breast pain with PMDDD, I had really gnarly breast pain and I started taking iodine. I tried to bring it more into my diet, but it wasn't really working. So I got iodine and kelp and my breast pain went completely away. And that's a huge symptom for people with PMDD. Also, a lot of people that are deficient in calcium have a really terrible PMS. So I take iodine, I take calcium, I take magnesium. B6 helps you produce progesterone as well. And the B6 and magnesium combo is great. I also, since I got off Lexapro, I microdose on psilocybin. And that's been life-changing. I honestly have noticed a huge difference. This week I don't have it, and I'm feeling all of the things.

What have you noticed? With the psilocybin. Oh, yeah. So I slow down. I notice everything more like I would like be looking at that green and be like, wow, that's so beautiful. And I'd be so much more present and I'm so much better at listening. And if somebody, you know, cuts me off in traffic, I'm like, oh, okay, well, I'm just going to slow down.

Whereas before I'm telling you, I'm like, what the fuck? I'm doing this in my life for enough. Honestly, psilocybin. There's obviously such little studies. And there's such little studies around CBD and all these amazing things that people are so scared of that actually do help. There's a really growing body of research, though, particularly around suicide. 100%. And I love it. I went to hang out with her and the baby while she was shooting in Vancouver. And I went to a dispensary and it was a mushroom dispensary.

Oh, yeah. Vancouver's amazing. Yeah, it was really cool. So I'm excited for the future of that. Yeah. I should try to just wake up every day and do it and be present and not try to think too much about the future. It's all overwhelming. me and we live in a crazy world. I'm just here. My dad is a therapist and he just did this program at UC Berkeley that was around psychedelics and he thinks that the future of therapy is, will go away to these retreat centers and have these guided psychedelic experiences and have these really big breakthroughs. And then therapy and the way we think of it now would be more of an

adjunct to that, which I think is really interesting to picture. I think it makes sense though. Yeah, me too. Yeah. As long as it's in a controlled environment and you know what you're getting into. I think it's going to be legal in California within a year. That's my guess. So many of these mushroom brands that we see in Air One, I think that they're just doing functional mushrooms and then they're waiting. And then there's the ones you can just buy on Instagram that are psilocybin. And they're waiting for it to be legal to ship them places. When you think about strength and resilience, like your ability to feel energized, to recover well, to stay strong as you get older, what do you think that actually comes from? Most people say working out are good nutrients.

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Ashley, how's your mental health now? Do you still have panic attacks? No, no panic attacks. I definitely have moments where I can like feel myself getting worked up. But I haven't gotten to the point of a panic attack in years and years and years. Again, husband's really great. Like if I'm getting super worked out, he's like, just take 10 deep breaths. And it's crazy to say, but that does wonders for you.

If you are, I think, just like stopping and realizing that this is a feeling and this is something that you can work through has been really beneficial to me. And I think everything else on top of it, too, right? Like getting the right nutrition, getting the right vitamins, getting water, getting sleep, like doing all that I can to balance myself as much as possible to arm myself to deal with all the outside factors that we have to deal with has been a game changer. Does it annoy you, though, that you're like, I have to do all of these things? Like, you can't just wake up and be like, I'll do whatever I want and I'll feel great, you know?

Yeah. Unfortunately. I mean, we talk about this all the time and we're like, do we move to Montana? Yeah, or somewhere. You know, and just like live on a farm. And I do go like, gosh, if we could go back to the basics a little bit, I think it would alleviate a lot of these symptoms and a lot of these things that we're dealing with. And then the other part of me is like, but I love my job and I love what I do. And so trying to like find a balance of that.

But that's why I want to as much as possible try and arm Kingsley with all of the good things that we have learned from the jump so that hopefully it's like an innate thing in her versus me having to try so hard and work so hard every day. But it's also part of life. Like we're constantly evolving. I always used to say people like I came to L.A. Saw someone, you know, five, ten years later and they were like, you've changed. I'm like, well, yes. Absolutely. You know, like I think the evolution of you is such a beautiful thing and it's sometimes painful. I think if you want to continue to evolve and move forward and grow, it's uncomfortable.

To the point of that evolution, what is your relationship with so many people knowing you for something that you did in your early 20s? Is that something that is like a positive in your life or do you feel like you are being pigeonholed as this thing or everybody keeps wanting to talk about this thing that happened, what, 15 years ago? What's your relationship with that? My relationship with it. The only thing I wish is that I was perhaps a little bit older and more established before it happened because I think that I would have had a different experience during it and be in a different place now where, like, I think I had been here for like two years. I had taken a minimal amount of acting classes. Like, it went really quickly. And I've had to work

since then to build and grow and hold my craft and feel like I belong here because it I'll always be grateful for it, but it was a thing to where, like, I had really intense, like, imposter syndrome. So, like, I think that's the only thing I wish was different. The fact that I'm known for it and the fact that people still have an affinity for it is something that I think it's beautiful. I think it's a wonderful thing. Like, we still, now, because of streaming, it's interesting. Like, it's reignited this fire and people who were original Twilight fans, they're watching it with their kids, which is so crazy. But you have this new wave of Twilight fans, too. And I'm like, that's such an incredible thing to be able to have been a part.

of. So no, I don't feel like any animosity for that part of it. I just kind of wish that I would have been mature enough to enjoy it a little bit more. I feel like that about so many things. Enjoying things in retrospect is so much easier than it is enjoying the moment. Are you still friends with people from that phase? Do you guys like talk about it? Yeah, we do. Especially we all reconnected for the podcast, which was really nice. And now, you know, we all have like babies and we're kind of spread out amongst the country. But some of us get together. Oh, yeah. New York has a beautiful. Company for Buy You with Love.

Oh, I love that. It's all made from recycled gold. It's beautiful. She and I, obviously, are still close. And all of the columns, like Peter. Oh, my God, the family. That's so cute. We really are.

We have something called, I think it's like the Collins chat or whatever. But Peter's son is like 10 days older than my daughter. So they play and they're buddies. That's cute. And then Nikki and I just like have so much in common now, so much more than when we are filming. And then, yeah, Callan and Jackson are out of state. but we do like comic cons and fan events and stuff and we all get to see each other.

And it's been great. I love that. Can you guys just leave us with some advice to somebody who is listening to this? And they're like, I'm recognizing that something might be off in me. I don't know where to begin this journey. Like this is resonating. Where should I start? I would say to make it digestible and not overwhelming is download it tracking app.

And you can look on Homingway's site to understand what the phases of your menstrual cycle are and then track your period so you know what your dates are. And then I would say and know when you're in that 19 to 21 mark and then go get your hormones tested. And when you say get your hormones tested, will a doctor know to test all of the hormones that you're talking about? Yeah, it's a simple blood draw. It's a hormonal blood draw. And it actually comes back a lot. Like I do my blood panels every year and it comes back really quickly versus having to wait like two weeks for it. But it will tell you it's like testosterone, progesterone and estrogen, I think the three that it tests for.

So that way you can have a baseline of understanding of where your hormones are, even if you're not experiencing symptoms, which good for you. But I think it's good just to have a baseline and to understand where your body is. So I would say start there. A lot of the apps have the ability, get a journal if not, but give you the ability to say, like, on this day, I felt this. or I eat this. So then you can just start developing and understanding. And I think create habits around that and then move to the next phase. The same way that you work on your physical health, the same way that you're not going to go into the gym and be able to bench press 100 pounds from the jump.

Start with 20. Do that for four weeks. Move to 25. This is the way you continuously build on this journey. Do not expect to jump into it and be able to have this vast understanding of yourself. I love that. Me too. Olivia, do you have anything to add?

Yeah, like Ashley said, go to our Hummingway. We have a great medical board. And what we do at Hummingway is we really want to just provide our community with, like, the tools and the information so they can go into their doctor's office and advocate for themselves. So again, like Ashley said, journaling. And then if you journal for three months and track your cycle for three months, and if you think you have PMDD, go to your doctor and be like, no, I'm not crazy. I have this, this, this and this shows up. And like, you just have to know, like we're even working on for PMDD Awareness Month, like questions. that you can ask your doctor so much. You kind of just have to flip it when you're in the doctor's

office and really like prepare, not just like go in and get a prescription. Be like, no, this is what's happening. I will say, because the same way I feel about hormonal birth control, same with doctors. We're like, doctors are not bad. Doctors do not have the training to be able to holistically approach and understand your body. So part of that lies on you is to go, this is my body. I've sat with it for these three months. I understand what's going on. I'm going to give you this information so that you can work with me versus us going like the doctor is bad. It's just like you know yourself better than anyone else.

So I think that's really important too, just to highlight that. I just want to say one other thing just because you have a huge audience and I feel like people should know about this, but there's this really cool company called Cuban. They created a menstrual path. So essentially the blood that you bleed out during your period has as much diagnostic information about your health and insights into your health. So your blood sugar levels, your hormone levels, your thyroid levels,

it can test test for HPV. All can be tested through your period blood. So it's $49. I just did it. Right now they just have blood sugar, but they're about to release the hormone ones. And you just bleed. And then you take out the little thing. You do it twice.

And then you send it in. And then they give you all of your information. As of right now, it's just going to show you what your labs are. You still have to bring that into your doctor. But that's a really, you know, accessible way. And we're excited to see how they grow. That's cool. It's called QVin.

Look them up. They're really awesome. They're first retailers, urban outfitters. So you can buy a period pad. I love that. And then do you guys just want to tell us a little bit in your own word? more about Hummingway? Yeah. So Hummingway is a company that is focused on providing non-toxic solutions for menstrual cycle symptoms because much of what is out there is going to cause some harm

to your body. And we wanted to create something that you know you're doing good for yourself at the same time that is, again, looking at the root cause of whatever the symptom is versus masking it. We're trying to rebalance your body. And on top of that, we have an educational platform. So we want to arm people, educate people so they can become their own health advocate on what's going on inside their body. And eventually, as we release products, we're going to release things that allow you to work within your menstrual cycle. So during your follicular phase, during ovulation, during your little phase, and during your period. So we can start rebalancing everything throughout the full course. So that right now we have the cycle soother, which is for period pain. But ideally,

you won't even need that. Yeah. Period pain is not normal. As much as everyone says. Yeah. So, yeah, we have the cycle soother patch, which has been honestly a game changer for so many people with period pain and especially endometriosis. It's in the same way that mydol stops the production of prostaglandins. So when our uterus is contract, it's because of the help of prostaglandins. And we need that. We're always going to feel like something's happening. Your uterus is going like this.

So we're going to feel that, but the cramps and the intense pain is not normal. And so that's oftentimes because we have too many prostaglandins. And that's because, again, drinking causes inflammation, our foods, processed foods, all of that. And so CBD is in our patch. and CBD also has been scientifically proven to reduce the number of prostaglanins, but without the gastronomical effects of what my doll does and upsetting your stomach and digesting it. So the patches you put directly on the source of pain. So if you're feeling your ovaries are in pain, we suggest putting one over each ovary.

You wear it for 24 hours. It's one of the most bioavailable ways to get ingredients into your body. You can sweat, shower, and sleep with them on. They've helped so many people. You can put them on your back. They've helped a lot of women with endometriosis. So we're really excited to just get the word out and continue to allow people to have accessibility to this product. I love it. I love how mission-driven you guys are. It's really

inspiring and lovely that you've taken your pain and you're using it to help so many other people. So thank you so much for joining me today. I love this conversation. Thank you for having us. The pain that PMDD and hormonal struggles cause makes me so, so sad and so angry. And the fact that we are just beginning to do this necessary research and have these conversations, It is a good start, but we need to do so, so much more. A huge thank you to Olivia and Ashley for being so open and vulnerable. If you have any friends or family members who you think might be experiencing PMDD, please send them a link to this episode.

It might be the first piece of information that they need to start getting conversations, going with their doctors, to start putting these pieces together themselves. And also, just anyone in general that you think would love the episode, someone interested in cycle sinking. Those Twilight fans that I know are still out there, and I know they would love to get to know Ashley on a way more personal level, send them the link. Sharing the podcast is hands down the best way to support the podcast.

It's how we can get incredible guests like Olivia and Ashley on the podcast, and it is so, so appreciated. If someone shared a link to this episode with you and you were new to the podcast, welcome. I'm so glad that you're here. If you are not following the podcast, all you have to do is go to the main podcast page on whatever platform you like to listen on. That is going to be the one that lists all of the Liz Moody podcast episodes, and you will see the word follow under the logo on Spotify.

And then there's a little follow with a plus sign button on the top right of that same page on Apple Podcasts. There was also a recent Apple update that changed things up a little bit. So if you follow the podcast there, even if you have been following it for a really, really, really, really long time, go to that little button in the top right of the page that lists all. of Liz Moody podcast episodes and click turn on automatic downloads so the pod keeps showing up in your feed. That way, you will not miss out on any new episodes. They will appear right in your feed every single Wednesday and every other Monday. And you definitely do not want to miss out. We've got some great ones coming up, including an episode all about cortisol that I am so excited to finally dive deep into. And another episode exploring the damaging impacts of growing up as a child

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