The Liz Moody Podcast - The Health Effects of Alcohol: Hormones & Brain Health with Dr. Aviva Romm & Louisa Nicola

Episode Date: January 11, 2023

Today’s episode is the second in our new sober curious series. This week we brought on Yale-trained, board-certified family physician Dr. Aviva Romm to talk about the impact of alcohol on our hormones and neurophysiology researcher and director of Neuro Athletics, Louisa Nicola to speak to the impact on the brain. On this episode, we talk about:  how alcohol impacts your hormones, including irregular periods & fertility  the shocking link between alcohol and breast cancer in women  what people with PCOS & endometriosis need to know about drinking alcohol  alcohol’s effect on your circadian rhythm & cortisol levels  exactly why and how alcohol impacts mental health, including dopamine, serotonin, and more why alcohol feels energizing even though it’s a sedative (plus, how to get that effect without drinking) a lifestyle habit that can literally reverse negative impacts of alcohol  the best type of workout for repairing brain health  what you can do to support your brain before or after a night out  a neuroscience-backed way to feel calm without reaching for a drink  and so much more!  We would LOVE to hear from you any thoughts, reactions, or takeaways you have as you’re listening, so definitely screenshot and tag me @lizmoody, Dr. Romm @dr.avivaromm, and Louisa @louisanicola_ on Instagram.   Check out my previous episodes with Dr. Romm—Ask The Doctor: Hormone Edition—Everything You Need To Know About Balancing Hormones Naturally and Hormone Q&A—Solutions for Belly Fat, Acne, Hair Loss, Migraines, PMS, Insomnia, Low Energy, and More. To join the Healthier Together Podcast Club Facebook group, go to https://www.facebook.com/groups/healthiertogetherpodcast. This episode is sponsored by Seed. You can get 15% off your first month's supply of Seed's DS-01™ Daily Synbiotic by going to seed.com/daily-synbiotic and using the code LIZMOODY.  This episode is sponsored by AG1 by Athletic Greens. Visit athleticgreens.com/healthiertogether and get your FREE year supply of Vitamin D and 5 free travel packs today.  This episode is sponsored by Paleovalley. Head over to paleovalley.com and use the code LIZM for 15% off. This episode is sponsored by Cymbiotika. Get 15% off using code LIZ at cymbiotika.com.  Healthier Together cover art by Zack. Healthier Together music by Alex Ruimy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, friends, and welcome back to the Healthier Together 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 learning how to set better boundaries, uncovering the root of chronic pain and ways to address it, or getting herbalist secrets for having amazing hair. And yes, those are all real episodes, so if any of those topics sound good to you, screw along back in the archives. Today we are back with the second episode of a series that I am very proud of, all

about exploring our relationship with alcohol. We started out last week by covering all of the ways that alcohol impacts our gut health and risk of diseases like cancer. You don't need to have listened to that episode to listen to this one, but it is fascinating. So I highly recommend that you do if you are interested in this topic. I can't stop telling people about the alcohol and saliva part and then the stem cell connection with having great hair and skin. It is mind blowing. Today, though, we are getting into the impacts of alcohol on our hormones and our brains and how we can mitigate and manage the negative effects. First, I'm interviewing hormone and women's health expert, Dr. Aviva Rahm.

Dr. Rom is a Yale-trained, board-certified family physician with a specialty in integrative women's health and obstetrics. She was a founding member of the Yale Integrative Medicine Program, and she is the author of numerous best-selling books, including most recently, hormone intelligence. She is a regular podcast guest over here, so if you're looking to dive deeper into your hormones, I highly recommend that you check out episodes 53. 72 as well as her amazing books. We also have Louise and Nicola on this episode to talk about alcohol's impact on the brain.

Louisa is a neurophysiologist and human performance coach who serves as the director at her brain performance company, neuroathletics, where she and her team work with some of the world's top professional athletes in the NBA, MLB, and NFL to provide scientific strategies for achieving peak performance. She also sits on the advisory board of health tech companies, tonal, clora, and momentous, And she hosts the podcast, the neuro experience with Louise and Nicola, where she discusses topics in neuroscience, longevity, and athletics. Today we are going to get into how alcohol impacts your hormones, including irregular periods, fertility, and more. The shocking link between any amount of alcohol and breast cancer in women, what people with PCOS and endometriosis need to know about drinking alcohol. Alcohol's effect on your circadian rhythm and cortisol levels.

exactly why and how alcohol impacts mental health, including dopamine, serotonin, and more, why alcohol feels energizing even though it's a sedative, plus how to get that effect without drinking, a lifestyle habit that can literally reverse negative impacts of alcohol, the best type of workout for repairing brain health, what you can do to support your brain before or after a night out, a neuroscience-backed way to feel calm without reaching for a drink, and so much more. We would all love to hear your thoughts and biggest takeaways as you're listening to the episode. So definitely screenshot and tag us all on Instagram.

I am at Liz Moody. Dr. Ram is at doctor. Aviva rom with two M's. And then Louisa is at Louisa Nicola with an underscore at the end. My goal with this series is to deliver actionable science-backed information about the effects of alcohol so you can use it as you make choices in real life. That being said, this episode is not medical advice. And if you or someone you love is struggling with alcohol.

abuse, please contact a health care professional. I also want to be clear that I would never tell anyone what to do with their drinking or their life. These episodes are meant to arm you with all of the knowledge that you need to make informed decisions for your body. My biggest frustration is how long I spent not knowing all of this stuff, which I just think is wildly unfair and unfortunate. We are not a fear-mongery wellness podcast. We are sharing science to help people live their healthiest, happiest lives, and I think that that distinction is so important. Next week, I'll be joined by author and therapist Amanda E. White to tackle all of your questions about drinking less, including how to avoid judgment, how to end a workday without it,

how to deal with that awkward friend dynamic that can sometimes happen and more. So make sure that you're following the podcast so you get that episode delivered straight to your feed. If you go to the main podcast page on Apple Podcast or Spotify, the one that says healthier together and it lists all of the episodes, there should be a little plus sign in the top right corner or a button that says follows. So just give that a tap so you do not miss out on any future episodes. And if you know anyone who you think would benefit from this information, who's exploring drinking less or doesn't know how alcohol is actually impacting their body or is having hormonal issues but doesn't know why or just want some of the amazing tools that my

guest share for mitigating the effects of alcohol, please, please, please send them a link to the episode. The first episode of the series has been trending on Spotify since it came out. that's all because all of you are spreading the word, which is so appreciated. This is such important and under-talked-about information. And also, it is hands-down the best way to support the podcast. And I love you for it. So let's get right into it, starting with Dr. Aviva Rom. Dr. Rom, thank you so much for making time in your schedule to join me here today. I could think of no one better to talk about the impact of alcohol on our hormones than you. Oh, thank you, Liz. can we start off with just talking about what's happening in the short term when we're drinking

alcohol to our hormones? Like what's happening from a mechanism of action perspective when we take a sip of alcohol to our hormones? First of all, I'm really glad we're talking about this topic because what's really interesting about women and alcohol is that it's nuanced. It depends on how much we drink at what phase of our life we're in. Are we in puberty? Are we in are reproductive menstrual cycling years, are we in menopause? It also is really important because surprisingly, the rates of alcohol consumption for women were actually going up even before COVID compared to men, the rates of alcohol consumption for men were going down. So women were drinking more days per month and more alcohol at a time, and COVID actually increased that.

and the impact of alcohol consumption on women is more significant, actually, some of the negative consequences on men. So short term, I think it would be helpful if we kind of start with a little bit of a 101 on what is going on. So importantly, as females, we have this thing called the HPG, or sometimes called HPO axis, meaning that we have these three hormonal producing glands that are connected. And this is really important because alcohol affects at different levels. So the hypothalamus, when we hit puberty, or actually slightly before, it's what kicks puberty in, starts pulsatially releasing in this pulsed wave prehormone that actually stimulates the pituitary gland, which is kind of where the third eye is in mysticism, to produce two hormones.

One's called follicle stimulating hormone, and one is called luteanizing hormone. And follicle stimulating hormone triggers the ovaries to let ovum, the immature follicles, to mature into eggs, and one of those will release mid-cycle at ovulation. Luteanizing hormone is something that creates that burst that allows that egg to pop out of the ovary, and that's what ovulation is. So we have these two halves of our menstrual cycle. We have the follicular phase and the luteal phase. So follicle-stimulating hormone is getting those follicles ready.

That's the first half of the menstrual cycle. So we have this follicular phase, and that's when estrogen is going up, and this FSH and LAT. go up. Then we hit mid-cycle, we ovulate, and then this luteal body, this corpus luteum, that's why it's luteinizing hormone, gets created when we ovulate, and that releases progesterone. So what happens when we drink partly depends on where we are in our age and life cycle and where we are in our cycle itself. So if we drink a lot, and this is shocking, actually, but 22% of middle schoolers who are surveyed report having drank or binge drank in the last 30 days. 22% of middle schoolers, females, and 50% of female 12th graders.

I drink in high school. The idea of drinking in middle school is crazy to me. Right? I was a little shocked at that data too. And when we drink, and especially drink in a larger amount. We should talk about that, too. Because alcohol affects females different than males, there are different standard amounts that are considered moderate or heavy drinking. Moderate drinking is no more than one drink a day or up to seven drinks a week. Heavy drinking is more than seven drinks a week or drinking three drinks in any one day. That's actually considered heavy drinking. and then binge drinking is considered equal to or more than four drinks at any one time. So the studies that are done and how they impact us look at no drinking, moderate drinking,

or heavy and binge drinking, and there's various combinations. If we drink moderately or heavily with any binge drinking in our puberty or teenage years, that can have a really significant impact. And again, we might think, well, who's doing that? But like the data shows that a lot of our daughters or younger sisters are actually doing it. And that can impact a number of things. So when we start menstruating, our cycles are irregular. When we drink moderately or more during those formative years,

it can actually create menstrual irregularity that sets a much longer pattern. where your cycle just doesn't find a regular pattern. So that's one thing. You can end up with persistent irregular cycles. Other really important things are that our bone development is actually dependent on the hormones that we're producing during those years. And so regular drinking may impact our bone development, our growth spurt, our height. Is this why I'm short?

No, it's probably not, but it could be theoretically. And so it can really set off some serious long-term problems. And then binge drinking in and of itself. So moderate drinking, like a drink a night or a day, or remember, three drinks on a weekend, which is pretty typical for high school and college students. Like when in my patients, my college was like, I don't drink that much. I don't drink it all during the week. but then on Friday night and Saturday I have like three or four drinks each time,

and I'm like, oh, that's actually by definition heavy drinking. At any time in our life, that can cause some of the same menstrual irregularity. It may suppress progesterone, it may increase testosterone, and it may elevate estrogen levels. So that can be problematic for certain conditions because those can be a setup, for example, for PCOS. And even though it hasn't been shown to cause PCOS, it may, for some women, exaggerate it. And a lot of times we don't know we have those conditions until we're in our late 20s or 30s. So it can be adding fuel to a fire that is simmering. We don't even know is going on.

The other thing, and this is really kind of shocking and important, a little scary too, that moderate drinking when we start young, moderate drinking in our 20s and 30s accompanied by occasional binge drinking, and moderate drinking or binge drinking in menopause, all dramatically increase the risk of breast cancer. In fact, alcohol is the only known substance food-wise or that we ingest, that's actually been proven to be associated with an up to 5% increased risk. And that's even with low drinking. So like a drink or two a week, anywhere from one to three drinks a week can increase risk. And that seems to be a higher risk for some women, but it's unclear who.

There may be some nutritional deficiencies like low folate or folic acid associated with that or higher risk in general. So if your sister or mother has breast cancer and you drink, that increases your risk, not just the mother or sister, but the increased alcohol. So that's some of the risk in our younger years. And I think a lot of women are struggling to have healthy estrogen levels, healthy progesterone levels. We've been doing medical studies for centuries now. And given how many women actually do drink on a regular basis, just even casually,

there's really sparse data on the impact of alcohol on our hormones. It's really shocking how little there is and how little is known and how much of it is conflicting. And then you asked about short-term effects. We also know that it can affect our gut microbiome. So our gut microbiome can actually kind of get drunk also. They can get very disrupted. That can have a huge impact on our hormones. short term and longer term. It affects our ability to eliminate estrogen. If alcohol is increasing

it and then we're having trouble eliminating it, that might create a little more heavy estrogen symptoms. What would heavy estrogen symptoms look like? Heavier periods, more mood swings, more premenstrual headaches, cyclic breast tenderness, more menstrual cramps because when you have heavier periods, you're more crampy. It may have a negative impact on endometriosis because that can be fed by higher estrogen levels. One of the things that's also really interesting short-term impact is circadian rhythm. And I think a lot of us have experienced this, especially as we get older, you know, drinking tolerance goes down the older we get. We have less body fluid and we have less muscle and the combination of that actually increases our blood

alcohol concentration. So if you have less water and you drink, you have more concentrated alcohol and your actual body fluid amount. So as we get into our mid-40s and our late 40s and menopause, we actually can get short-term much more drunk feeling on a much smaller amount of alcohol, have more hangover feelings, more headaches. But also our alcohol consumption can at any phase, but especially in that phase, deeply affect our circadian rhythm. And a lot of us feel that. Like if you drink, it may feel good in the moment, but then you just find yourself waking up in the middle of the night and you're unable to get sleep or you just don't feel great

the next day. You feel that hangovery feeling. That's because of circadian rhythm disruption and that can affect our hormones too. So there's so many different ways that can be impacting us. How does our circadian rhythm interact with our hormones? I've never heard that broken down. Every cell in our body, except our red blood cells, is attuned to that circadian rhythm. So your liver function, your bowel function, it's like why we don't have to wake up and poop in the

middle of the night, but we usually have to poop in the morning if our bowels are working well. That has to do with circadian rhythm. Our ovaries, our thyroid, our gut microbiome, our liver function is all deeply tied to that circadian rhythm. If you think about the hypothalamus and pituitary as the orchestra conduct, the instruments that the musicians in the orchestra are all paying attention to the cues of when they're supposed to play. And if the cues are off, the instruments are all playing at the wrong time, you don't have musical harmony anymore. And that's what happens with our menstrual cycles

and our hormones. 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 or good nutrition and yes, of course that matters. But there is a biological foundation underneath all of that that most people are completely overlooking. I have been diving deep into this lately with the team at timeline and what I've learned has genuinely shifted how I think about my own health. Every single movement that your body makes every step, every workout, every muscle contraction depends on energy produced at the cellular level. And at the center of that is your mitochondria. Here is the thing. Here's the thing.

that nobody tells you, certainly nobody told me, starting around age 30, our mitochondria naturally become less efficient. More get damaged, more become sluggish, and over time that impacts your energy, your strength, your recovery, and your resilience. Most of us respond by pushing more. We're like noticing these things and we're adding in more protein. We're trying to fix it with more supplements. We're trying to do harder workouts. And those things do help. But timelines research suggests that we also need to be supporting the cellular machinery underneath. And that is exactly what their supplement, Mitopure does. It contains Eurolithin A, which helps your body clear out damage mitochondria and support healthier ones so that your cells can produce energy more efficiently.

Because this is happening to your cells, it's going to impact your entire body, your immune system, your muscles. One study found that taking Mitopure increased muscle strength by 12% in four months with no change in exercise routine, it's going to impact your energy, your sleep, your skin, your cell health impacts all of this, and urolithine A keeps your cells healthy. Timeline has done over 15 years of research and testing on this one product, urolithin A, which, by the way, most of us lack the gut bacteria to synthesize naturally. That's why many of us need to supplement it to get the benefits. This has become a staple supplement for me.

It is my top way to support how I want to look and feel as I age. support yourselves in how you age with mitopure gummies from Timeline. Visit Timeline.com slash Liz and save up to 39% on your mitopier gummies. That is timeline.com slash Liz. When it comes to wellness, you're going to get the best results by focusing on the big needle movers. A lot of us spend a lot of time trying to optimize that last 1%, which creates a ton of stress and it actually doesn't help our help that much. At the top of the needle mover list, sleep.

And one of the best ways to optimize your sleep is to optimize your mattress, which is why I love avocado green mattress so much. First of all, this mattress is so comfortable. I have the one with the pillow top, which is medium firm, and it's just a dream. I miss it when I travel. It's better than even the fanciest hotel beds. Having a mattress that supports your joints and your body and feels good is going to help you get more sleep and better quality sleep.

But then, on top of that, avocado mattresses are made with certified organic cotton wool and lay and they are made safe and Greenguard Gold certified. They're also Okotech certified, which is the gold standard. I look for it in any mattresses, sheets, or towels that I buy, which means the materials have been rigorously tested for harmful substances. You can actually look for the Okotech standard 100 label right on the product, and I love this part. It includes a traceable certificate number and the name of the testing lab so you know exactly

what you're getting. There are no toxic chemicals. There's no harmful off-gassing. It does not smell like it's going to kill you when you unbox it. This is what I mean. I'm not going to swap out all of my clothing, which is that top 1% of optimization. But by making sure that my mattress and my bedding are as good for me as possible, I literally reduce my exposure during a third of my life, which is a huge needle mover for a one-time swap. I will also note, and this is a me thing, but I sleep super hot and avocado's

materials are really breathable and it makes me sweat the least of any mattress that I have slept on. And avocado is a certified B Corp and a 1% for the planet member because caring for yourself and caring for the planet do not have to be separate things. You can get up to 20% off organic mattresses and more by shopping Avocados Presidents Day Sale right now at Avocadogreenmatress.com. That is avocadogreenmatress.com. No code needed. And does alcohol like ethanol in itself have a direct impact on your circadian rhythm? Or is it more the side consequences of like you're staying up later, you're eating at weird times, you're not sleeping, all of that. It's both, but it has a direct impact. So the alcohol itself directly affects

the hypothalamus and the pituitary and changes the way that clock is reading time, essentially. Similarly, most alcohol itself has some sugar in it, wine or mixed drinks more. So we're not just getting the alcohol, we're getting the added sugar. And all of that has an effect on our blood sugar and our microbiome, but alcohol itself disrupts the microbiome. So it has definite direct impact. Part of what's happening with alcohol is that as it's also affecting the circadian rhythm in the brain, it's also affecting the release of the hormone in the hypothalamus that then leads to the pituitary to release follicle stimulating and ludianizing hormone. So when those go off kilter, you're not getting that rhythmic pulse anymore. Also, it affects something called growth hormone, which is metabolized

in the liver. And when that gets affected, that also gives a weird feedback message back to the brain that also tells it to not produce your stimulating hormones as well. So there are all these different pathways that affect how the ovaries are stimulated and affect how much estrogen and progesterone we're producing, alcohol consumption also seems to increase testosterone production. So for women with PCOS, that may also be a factor in their symptoms. You mentioned that how we process alcohol from a hormonal perspective is going to differ based on different points in our cycle. Is there a better or worse time from your perspective if we are going to drink to do so? there's no data that says there's a better time to drink. There's one study that came out looking

at fertility and alcohol, and it showed that women who drink alcohol after ovulation, and it's moderate to heavy alcohol consumption, those women may have some inhibition of their fertility short term in that cycle. And there are some other studies that show that drinking throughout the cycle or any time basically may inhibit ovulation. Like one study looked at women who drank moderately for three months and then not three months and then women who didn't drink at all during that time. And the women who drank moderately during that time had reduced ovulation or more irregular cycles. It does seem like some of this reverts if you stop drinking.

All the data is really around this moderate or, heavy drinking. The exception to that is the breast cancer studies, which do show that even light drinking, like one to three drinks a week, does increase risk. If one of your patients were trying to conceive, how would you recommend that they think about the role of alcohol in their life? I look at the studies and the data, and there's kind of a couple of camps. One is we've been fed this idea that red wine is good for us and alcohol in moderation is good for us. And actually, that was a completely targeted campaign by the wine industry. There is no healthy amount to drink.

And yes, people who live in many countries around the world drink wine with dinner or lunch every day. But they're also walking and social and diets. There are a lot of factors. So I really encourage people if you're not inclined to drink and you're just doing it for social reasons or pressure, like, just don't do it. It's totally cool to be sober or sober curious or abstain. If you like to have a drink now and then, keep it to one to two drinks a week, not more than that, because again, we do have that breast cancer risk, which is very well proven.

So why go there? Really make sure a pour is a pour. So it's five ounces-ish of wine or one and half ounces of the liquor or one beer. And interestingly, when you look at alcohol in general, for whatever reason, red wine or wine in general seems to be the biggest culprit in symptoms, but also if there is hormone disruption, it seems to be worse with wine, next with beer, least with the hard alcohol, like vodka, tequila, for whatever reason. Do you think, it's the sugar, or what would you speculate? It might be the sugar. In my practice, I always say to women, keep it to one or two a week, preferably if you're going to have a drink, lean into one of the clear white liquors, have it with sparkling water, and divide it over two drinks. So take that one

and a half and make it into two drinks with sparkling water, so you're going slower with it. Always eat and be well hydrated before you drink, because one, we drink less and we metabolize. it better. We don't metabolize it as well when we have low blood sugar and when we're dehydrated and don't have mixed drinks with sugar. If one of your patients had something like PCOS, endometriosis, a thyroid disorder, a diagnosed hormone disorder of some sort, would you say it's not worth it? You should avoid it because of the cascading hormonal effects or would you give them any advice differently than somebody who didn't have that? I love how you said it's not worth it. And that, to me, is the pivotal way of talking about it.

I would never say to one of my patients, don't do that. I really just encourage women really pay attention to how you feel after you've had a drink, not immediately, but that night the next morning. How did you sleep? Do you feel puffy? Do you feel good? And with any woman who has a diagnosed hormone condition, but especially PCOS or endometriosis, and also menopausal women, I absolutely encourage them to say, is it worth it?

We know that women with PCOS and endometriosis have a much higher risk of depression. Those conditions themselves can cause people to feel depressed because they're challenging to deal with and live with. Some of the underlying hormone and inflammatory balances increase risk of depression, and alcohol is a known depressant. So sometimes when we have these conditions, we're self-medicating for relaxation, but it actually makes us feel worse and it adds to the problem. If you're going to do it, save it for the times that are special, that you really know you want to

celebrate with a drink and other times find other ways to celebrate and enjoy it. And women with PCOS have twice the risk of developing non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. And so adding alcohol to the mix just increases their risk. Is there a reason for that? Why is that risk higher? It has to do with how fat metabolism happens with PCOS and fat storage, and it's more likely to get stored in the liver. And alcohol increases risk of liver disease. So it's just not a great combination.

Again, do you have to be abstinent? I don't think you have to be. It's a great choice if you're willing to be and want to be. I do think that the goal for me of this entire series is to bring some of that intention out. into our drinking. I'm not saying do it. I'm not saying don't do it. I'm saying, here's some information so that we're no longer reaching for drinks mindlessly or defaulting to that as our go-to form of socialization. I do think that bringing more intentionality into the practice and being armed with the information to prioritize that intentionality is literally

the whole goal of what I'm doing here. I think this is such an important conversation. I feel that that is the heart of intentionality, is knowing how we want to feel. Do I want to feel how I feel when I have a drink? Do I want to feel how I feel the next day or in the middle of the night? Do I want to feel like I actually have control over my choice? And this is a really important point when it comes to alcohol that I think most women don't know, which is that the gateway to even having an alcohol problem is much smaller than it is for men. So we're much more likely to drink more heavily and have it become a problem for us because of our own physiologic mechanisms. And interestingly, that goes up in menopause. So women who have never had an alcohol problem,

when we hit menopause, which half of all women in the country are now entering into or are in, Our alcohol tolerance goes down significantly. The problems that can come from drinking and drinking heavily go up. So heavy drinking is associated with greater heart disease, greater bone disease, and other medical problems. And for women, that amount that we drink is smaller, but the risk of developing liver disease also is greater. But we have a higher risk of actually becoming heavy or problems.

drinkers in those perimenopausal years and menopausal years because of some mechanistic changes that happen in the way our brain and hormones work. So not just the social element, like actually something happening in your brain? It's actually physiologic, yeah. So developing that intentionality and that awareness of the choice, I think, becomes even more important because it's easier for that to become dysregulated. Can you explain in the simplest terms what is happening mechanistically that's making us turn into heavier drinkers? It's not fully clearly understood yet, but there's something to do with the plummet in estrogen that happens at that time that makes us more susceptible to the immediate gratification of

alcohol, even though we feel worse from it, even in the short term. That's so interesting. If somebody had an irregular cycle, like they felt that it was long or short or they were missing periods, would you think that experimenting with eliminating alcohol would potentially be something that could help with that? Definitely. In my practice, the first thing I do is if somebody is drinking even semi-regularly, like a few drinks a week, I do really encourage them to eliminate it for six weeks. see how it goes. Menstrual cycles are funny because it can take three months to really see a big shift because the hormones of one cycle kind of set the foundation for the hormone levels of the next cycle. So I would start with six-week increms. If I have to say two weeks, I'll say two

weeks and then they'll have another appointment. I'm like, okay, let's do two weeks more. Let's do two weeks more. That is definitely one of the biggest changes. And if they're not willing to or able to feel like they can just completely give it up, then I have the conversation. What is that you need? And can we find that another way? Honestly, if it's relaxation, cannabis or using CBD has less of an impact, probably on the menstrual cycle than even the alcohol. I wanted to ask you your thoughts on cannabis.

Is there any research yet on the impact of cannabis on our hormones? There is. There's actually a book that's no longer available in print, but I have it called Women and Cannabis by Ethan Rousseau. It's an older book. So we don't have a lot of contemporary research, but we do know that there's a tremendous impact between the endocannabinoid system and women and our uterus. Some of the most prolific endocannabinoid receptors are actually in our uterus.

It's really interesting. There hasn't been any impact determined at this point on reduced fertility or negative hormonal impact on our menstrual cycles, but there aren't robust studies at all and also, what kind of weed? Are they using CBD or how much? It's never been really quantified. If one of your patients came to you and they were like, I need to relax. And it's one of the two, you would say go for cannabis.

If they're having hormonal imbalances, sleep problems, then I would say very low dose, cannabis, low THC cannabis. If it's anxiety, you try CBD. If it's sleep, try CBD. But definitely 86 in the alcohol is one of the first interventions. all my menopausal patients or perimenopausal patients because one of the biggest symptoms that they come in with that's just distressing them is sleep problems. I'll say if there's just one thing you take away from this, give up the red wine and they'll come back like a month later if they've done

it. They're like, I can't believe it. And you can see the benefits in just a week or two. It's amazing. Even in a few nights, just stopping drinking, that red wine can make a huge difference on sleep. Alcohol in general. Is there any other research? that you found compelling or worth highlighting in this conversation about how alcohol impacts our hormones? We didn't really talk about impact on thyroid, and the mechanisms of action on thyroid aren't clear, but we know that it can also dysregulate thyroid function, which can affect ovarian function.

We do know that it can increase cortisol levels, which can be problematic for hormone function in general. So I want to pause on that for a second, because I do think that cortisol has become almost a buzzword in our overwork, stressed out society. So can you explain a little bit how alcohol is impacting our cortisol? And if we're experiencing stress or burnout, how alcohol might be impacting that? There are a lot of mechanisms that affect cortisol levels. Things that increase cortisol are stress.

So there may be some impact where the body is perceiving alcohol as a stressor. One thing we didn't talk about is the impact of alcohol. on inflammation. So there's one study that looks at alcohol and endometriosis. And it hasn't been proven at all that alcohol increases the risk of developing endometriosis, but it has been shown that it may actually increase the pain inflammation cycle that may actually worsen not only the perception of endometriosis, but actually increase the endometriosis lesions.

So in general, the inflammatory effects may be significant. With all of that said, how do you personally approach drinking in your own life? I'm kind of an exception. I didn't even have my first cup of coffee until I was almost 39. I didn't have my first alcoholic beverage until around that same age. I just didn't drink. Now, I'm a very low substance tolerance person. It sounds so romantic and nice and fun and social to have a drink, but then I feel like

crap pretty much after. So I have learned for me that red wine is the worst. I am just emotionally volcanic if I drink even like a quarter glass of red wine. I feel horrible. So I really don't ever drink red wine. If I'm going to drink, I'll have like the smallest amount of vodka or tequila or rum in sparkling water with a little bit of grapefruit juice or lime juice and I'll sip it really slowly and not on an empty stomach. And I try to have it earlier in the evening because if I have it later in the evening, it disrupts my sleep. That makes a lot of sense. Well, thank you so much, Dr. Aviva, for joining me today and sharing all of this information. I love your approach to everything in life.

I just think you're so good at hitting that measured stance and asking what is the science say and explaining stuff so beautifully. So I really appreciate you taking the time. Thanks for having me. I love that you're doing this. It's beautiful. Louisa, I am so excited to have you here. I'm so excited to get into all of the science behind how alcohol impacts our brains. Liz, I'm so excited to be here and to talk to you about that. Can you just kick us off by talking through what's actually happening in our brain when we take a sip of alcohol? Like, where in the brain is the impact based? What's happening? Why are we feeling the way that we do? So there's many reasons. But before we start, I'm going to give a brief one-minute

neuroanatomy course just so everyone understands what I'm talking about, right? So we've got a nervous system, you, myself, everybody listening. And the nervous system is split into two. So if you're imagine a tree. Now, on the left-hand side, we'll call it, we've got the central nervous system. And this is the brain and the spinal cord. This is like the hardware, right? Then we've got the peripheral nervous system on the other side. And this is, if you've seen a schematic view of the spinal cord. This is where all of the nerves come off of the spinal cord and they connect to the rest of our body. So all of this together combines our nervous system.

But this parasympathetic nervous system splits into the autonomic nervous system and then splits into the sympathetic, which we've all heard of the sympathetic nervous system. It's our fight or flight nervous system, excitatory. And then we've got the rest and digest nervous system. So this is the parasympathetic, the rest and digest. Now that's really important to know because alcohol, although it might make us feel good, it does a number of different things in both the parasympathetic side and also the central nervous system.

Not many people know this, but when we take a sip of alcohol, we're sipping a sedative. The active ingredient in alcohol is called ethanol. And ethanol is the sedative. What's a sedative? It sedates you. So pretty much the same as what happens when you go into surgery. you get sedated with propovol that binds to these different receptors in the brain. These are GABA receptors.

And these GABA receptors activate. GABA is our chief inhibitory neurotransmitter. So when you take a sip of alcohol, you're going to feel more relaxed. You're going to see a decompression of that sympathetic nervous system. This is why our inhibitions are lowered. You know, so many people say, Louisa, why can I tell this guy that I like him, I'm drinking alcohol, but when I'm not, I can't. And it's pretty much because you are in such a relaxed state when you drink the alcohol. Now, what happens over time is we overconsume, and therefore,

we are just pumping out a lot of this gabber, which is a chemical messenger that tells the brain just to keep relaxing. Now, it's like if you take exogenous melatonin, if you keep pumping that system, It goes into overdrive and it means you need to keep having more and more and you become dependent on it. Okay, I have so many questions. But to start off with the GABA and that dependency, is that something that can lead us to feel more anxious or have an inability to relax when we're not drinking because we've sort of messed up our GABA levels? Yeah, at all times, your brain is circulating with these chemical messengers. we always need a balance. So if you can imagine a seesaw, if we are too anxious and we're tipping this side on the seesaw, there's going to be a natural physiological response somewhere for you to calm yourself down.

And we usually do that with inhaling. We get a bit anxious and we're breathing really fast. And this is just a physiological way for us to calm ourselves down. But this is what's happening in the brain as well. On a given day when we're not drinking and everything is great, if we've got too much serotonin or dopamine or other that neurotransmitters happening. We're going to have a bit of a balance. The brain says, okay, we're getting a bit too excited, guys. Let's shoot out some gabber and let's calm ourselves down and bring us back into homeostasis or equilibrium. So you can imagine this on a C-sor. So if we're just dosing up, dosing up, dosing up on this GABA, we do over time get this influx. It's much harder to balance that on a normal day. So yes, you're right. So it's going to impact you even on days

that you're not actually imbibing in the substance. Yeah, and you're also going to change the way your brain is functioning because now you're telling your brain, hey, guys, I don't need to distribute gabber for you guys when you're over-excited, when you're over-anxious, because I know that this person's going to give me alcohol to do that. That's so interesting. It becomes reliant on it. So then that's why you feel, oh, I need to have a drink to calm myself down. That's how it starts. I just need to have a drink to calm myself down. I'll be fine. And then what happens, and you've probably experienced this, it then takes, oh, that drink didn't really work to I'll have another drink because you need to medicate with more doses to get that release of GABA. How long would it take your body to start producing GABA in a way that it's not reliant on the alcohol again if you stop drinking?

How long would it take to re-regulate, rebalance the seesaw? So this is really interesting. This taps into the dopamine system. It's doing a dopamine fast. This is like to really reset and starting your habit, you'd really have to go cold turkey for 30 days, an alcohol fast 30 days. And I know that that's hard because our brain experience a withdrawal. And it says, hang on, I'm anxious, but she's not giving me any alcohol.

So I have to really strive hard to push this gabber out to calm myself down. But it's upsetting to me. This is the brain talking. It's upsetting to me. And I don't want to do it. And that's the withdrawal. I'm genuinely confused how master class gets literally the absolute top people in every single field to teach every single one of their classes.

I use it when I want to learn things directly like the cooking class from Thomas Keller has all of the wisdom that you would normally have to go to culinary school for. But also, I'm being honest, this is like a use case. I don't hear a lot of people talking about. I'll just watch it for entertainment when I want to do something that's far more interesting than scrolling. Christina Aguilera taught me to sing.

Shan Boudrum's Art of Mastering Confidence and Sex Appeal class is 10 out of 10. There's menopause classes with leading doctors. There's script writing with Mindy Kaling. Literally, you name it, they're on master class and it is such a good way to get off your phone but have something that's like not quite as long or hard to get into as a TV show or a movie

and that it just keeps you entertained and interested, and you are learning. There are over 200 classes from the world's best, all for just $10 a month when billed annually, and you get unlimited access to every class on the platform so you can learn at your own pace whenever you want on your phone, your computer, or even in audio mode like a podcast. If you're looking to stop scrolling and start consuming entertaining content that makes you feel excited and helps you learn, masterclass is it. And the best part, every membership comes with, a 30-day money-back guarantee so you can start learning risk-free.

Right now our listeners get an additional 15% off any annual membership at Masterclass.com slash Liz Moody. That's 15% off at masterclass.com slash Liz Moody, Masterclass.com slash Liz Moody. If you have headaches, allergies, brain fog, skin irritation, or you've been dealing with hormone issues, you are especially going to want to listen to this ad. Every single thing that I just listed has been linked to chemicals and household cleaners. One study found that regular use of cleaning sprays was associated with a lung function decline comparable to smoking 10 to 20 cigarettes per day.

Synthetic fragrances are a well-documented migraine trigger and a number of studies have linked ingredients in common household cleaners to fertility issues, thyroid dysfunction, mood changes, and more because of their impact on our endocrine systems. Luckily, you can just make one simple swap and you can eliminate all of those risk factors that you get from common household cleaners. Branch basics makes cleaning products that are plant and mineral based, completely fragrance-free, and made safe certified, meaning they are screened against thousands of known and suspected harmful chemicals. And best of all, you literally use one product, but you mix it with different amounts of water to make your kitchen spray, your bathroom cleaner, your laundry detergent,

your produce wash, your glass cleaner, literally everything. It does not smell. It does not give me headaches. It does not give me rashes or itchiness from clothes because you are. Remember, we're using this for laundry. We're using this for literally everything. And it works so well. Everything gets so clean. And I know that I'm protecting myself from all of those long-term issues too. And I'm protecting my kittens who are much tinier than me. So anything they're exposed to has a much greater impact on their little tiny systems. And they're running around on the their little paws and then they're licking them. So I'm protecting them too.

Branch basics is now available at Target, Target.com, Amazon, and branchbasics.com. So it's easier than ever to make the switch. And if you want to grab their premium starter kit, you can use code Liz Moody for 15% off at branchbasics.com. That's code Liz Moody for 15% off the premium starter kit at branchbasics.com. And when they ask you where you heard about us, please make sure to mention the show. That is branchbasics.com and use code Liz Moody. And then after that 30 days, if we have a glass of wine when we're anxious, have we completely

ruined those balancing effects? Or what is the limit where you then tip over again? It's all dosage dependent. Everything in medicine is dose dependent. So you could go on that 30 day strike and you could have a sip and be like, okay, I'm fine. Or you could be somebody who's just naturally prone to addictions and be like, oh, that one sip, I need more. You said that alcohol is a sedative. Why do I feel so energized when I drink it? Like, why do I want to go dancing and stay out all night? Well, that's inhibition. We have something called impulse control. And there's a little part in the brain. It's in the basal ganglia. It's responsible for impulse control to tell you to not slap somebody in the face or not jump off the cliff or not do crazy things. And we've got these impulsions. We've got these

impulses and sometimes they are suppressed when you have alcohol. So it lowers your inhibitions. This is why maybe it's not the energy you're feeling. It's you're relaxed finally. You can let loose and you can go out and you can go and dance and get excited. I'm not actually feeling energized. It's just that my inhibition might be the thing that's making me not want to party and I'm getting rid of that. This is correct. Now, there's something also crucial. The brain, it is the most vascular rich organ in the entire body, meaning that we have blood vessels that infiltrate the brain on the outside, on the inside. But then we've got these tiny little capillaries, these tiny little blood vessels, and these capillaries are one cell thick, Liz. So trauma to these

in any way, whether it's through alcohol, whether it's through stress, can damage that. And over time, Once you damage these little capillaries first, then there's no capillaries to die off. So then it moves on to the blood vessels. And over time, this leads to depression. This leads to neurodegenerative diseases. So we have to keep in mind that there's large cohort studies to show the effects of even moderate drinking, which is one to two drinks a day. Or you could say 14 drinks a week.

seven to 14 drinks a week, doesn't matter how you have them. If you have them in one day or if you have them spread over an entire week, can damage the brain. It can change the structure of the brain. You can shrink areas of the brain just from having 14 drinks a week. How permanent is that shrinkage? Again, if we stop drinking, are there things that we can do that can essentially regrow our brain or help with that damaged vascular structure?

The only way to really do this is it has to be. to be very vigorous, A, if you're going to go on a plan to, say, grow new neurons in the brain, which we can do in a specific area called the hippocampus, it has to be a deliberate effort, it has to be a daily ongoing effort. So, yes, we can. And we can actually mitigate some of these effects of the brain aging process and brain damage through three mechanisms. We can exercise because we know that exercise, especially resistance training, can have major implications on your brain in a healthy way. So we can grow new neurons in the hippocampus, and that's a little structure in the temporal lobe.

There's two of them on each side, and that's responsible for memory formation and consolidation, and we can grow new cells in that. And that we can do this through resistance training and through aerobic physical activity. But then we've also got this other side. This is where alcohol is really important to know. So sleep is a repair process, a repair process for your brain and your body. When we go to sleep at night, we go through many different stages. We go through four stages.

But the two that are the most important is REM sleep and deep sleep or slow wave sleep. But here's the interesting thing. We can't tap into these stages if we have had a sip of alcohol because alcohol, dramatically plummets your REM sleep and plummets your deep sleep. So people who think that, oh, but Louise, when I have a drink of alcohol, I feel so sleepy and I feel tired. And that's because you are sedating yourself. You're not going into sleep. There's a difference. There's sleep. There's sedation. You're kicking yourself out of sleep and you're putting yourself into a sedative state. So you're knocking yourself out. You're becoming a low level unconscious. That's not sleep.

So you're also adding to the brain damaging effects. You're not only adding to the brain damaging effects of when you sip alcohol, but also you're not getting sleep. And then when you wake up, who on earth feels like exercising when they're hung over? It's like a stacked effect. It's like this thing influences this thing, influences this thing. And then another component, which is the third tier of the three domains for brain health is nutrition.

Now, you can't tell me that after a day of drinking, and let me tell you, I'm in my 30s now, I'm not in my 20s anymore. It's a different story now. If I have a glass of wine now, a very different story to when I had a glass of wine at 21. I feel the effects. And so when I wake up, I'm not going to feel like having a brain healthy breakfast. I'm not feeling like running. I want to eat a burger, really. Yeah, I don't think I've ever seen anybody with a hangover they give me the broccoli. That's exactly right. If you had to be. drink in the night before? Would you take a nap? Would you try to replenish that sleep? What would you do the next day? I would probably just stick to the sauna the following day, but probably the one most

crucial thing I'll do is I will hydrate. I will hydrate with both water and electrolytes. So electrolytes are what we need in order for our brains to function. We have this pump in our brain called the sodium potassium pump. And in order for our electrical signals to occur from one brain cell to the next, we get an influx of calcium, we get an influx of sodium and potassium, these are all electrolytes. So we should be replenishing these on a daily basis even when we're not drinking. But for me, I'll have one of those liquid IVs. I'll have some of that.

I will overhydrate because we also experience a dehydration process when we're drinking as well. That's another thing that's happening when we wake up with headaches and brain fog. That's the hangover effect. Are there any neuroscience approved ways that you like to have some of the same impacts of alcohol, like to have that calming effect or to get you in the mood to go dancing? It's doing anything you can to calm down your nervous system. The way I like to do it is breathing. Breathing is such an important process for the brain and we need oxygen obviously.

but if we are inhaling, we've got this thing called a psychological sigh, which babies go through, you know, when babies are hyperventilating and they're like, that's like a physiological mechanism to calm their body down. So if you're in this state of hyper arousal, you're at the top of that bell curve and you want to come back down off it, it would be to do breathing exercises like this and focusing on that exhale and making sure that that exhale is longer than the inhale. Can you talk me through the psychological sigh a little bit? Is it it little tiny gaspy inhales and then a long exhale? So basically what it is is we've got these little sacks,

these olveola sacks in our millions of them in our lungs, and that's what makes up our lungs. And when we inhale, these sacks fill with air. But then you've got these tiny little ones that really, rarely get touched. So they're just sitting there as little sacks. In order to really get them filled up, what you want to do is you want to take a huge inhale and then you want to take a little inhale again.

So it's this double inhale. And then you want to hold it there for maybe one or two seconds and then you want to release all of that. And this is a real phenomenon. We see this in kids to calm themselves down. It's Mother Nature gifted us with this to basically say, okay, you're hyperventilating, you're letting too much carbon dioxide into your lungs. So we need to bring in all of this air and fill up every little sack that we can

and then get rid of all the carbon dioxide and keep pushing out. The long exhale is push out all of the carbon dioxide from all those tiny little sacks at the bottom of the lungs and then redo it. If you do this, I do this when I've got an overactive mind when I'm overthinking, which is a lot of the time. For me it only takes five or six times to do it. and I've just completely reset my nervous system. Are there any other studies that you've come across about alcohol that you found particularly interesting in terms of the brain?

The first one is the chemical process. So when we talk about the brain or when I talk about it from a structural perspective, which is the shape, the mass. And then we've got the functional perspective. And this is how well the brain is functioning with brain waves, et cetera. So when we are drinking heavily, we know that we're interfering with the functioning of our brain. The brain wave patterns change. And just remember that we have this thing called neuroplasticity. And that is basically our brain's ability to adapt to change. And let's just focus on

structure now. If you are drinking alcohol daily, even one glass, you're reshaping the functioning of your brain. If you are just depressing it constantly, maybe during the day you're going to change and your brain's going to be like, well, we're just kind of depressed. We just want to be depressed because that's how we're wired now. It's adult plasticity. That's the functioning of the brain. So we've seen that in studies, but the most prolifer one that I believe is the changing of the functioning. So over time, what happens is once you're drinking and you keep drinking, you change the structure of your brain, you end up getting neuronal death. So you can start to kill off neurons. through drinking. And these effects happen whether it's chronic or whether it's moderate. So most people

will now be thinking, well, does that mean if I drink more? I'm going to have more of a damaging, yes. So 14 drinks a week or seven drinks a week or 50 drinks a week. Obviously, you're going to have an accelerated process to that neuronal loss if you're drinking 50 drinks a week. I just want to touch on the habits because I know I mentioned earlier go cold turkey. And that's a a great way, that is the best way to do it. But it's so incredibly hard. So if you are itching and you feel as though I'm going to just go and just do something out of control to take my mind off alcohol, that may not be the best benefit. And sometimes in other forms, when I'm trying to break a habit with one of my clients, maybe I won't get them to go cold turkey. Maybe I'll get them

to decrease their alcohol intake by 75%. 75%. So that's different for everybody, maybe having a glass once a week instead of getting off cold turkey. I think that that's a smarter option. And like you said, the changes in your brain are dependent on the dose. They go up the more you have. So it's a great reason to sort of be intentional about every single glass and why one glass a week really is quite different than three or five or seven. And also remember that this has an effect on your body. not just your brain and your nervousism also has an effect on your skeletal system. We can see the breakdown of muscle tissue through excess alcohol. I think that there's just so many different avenues that we can go down.

But the bottom line is everyone really is looking for a funer way to have it. And I would like to know why. It'd be really great if we found out what is the reason. Is it the taste or is it the feeling? And if it is the feeling, what can we replace it with? And it's also culture and environment. When I was a triathlete, I was racing and I was pretty much living with my team for five, six years straight, no one drunk. So that's my environment.

So we had fun in other ways. Whereas if you go and put yourself in an environment where people are drinking, then you think to yourself, well, it's only fun to drink. So who are you hanging out with as well? Absolutely. You talked about how you approach alcohol, which is to have a few glasses, maybe every few, few weeks, correct? If anything. So if you were to tell somebody listening in your dream world, but maybe acknowledging the

real world, how you wished they would approach alcohol in their lives, what would be sort of your parting words for them? I wish that they would approach alcohol by finding out what is it about it that makes you feel whatever it is. if you feel great and relaxed and alive, find out what that is. Also know that one drink a month or two drinks a month or three drinks actually probably won't have this effect because it's in such a small dosage. But you have to know yourself, you have to know your limits.

You also have to find out what's important to you. My days, when the sun is up, that is so important to me. and if anything takes that away from me, and alcohol does, that's me. I just can't function at my peak if I've got any type of alcohol in my system. So that's what's important to me. And I've also been, like everyone listening, in environments where I've been pressured or where people are like, well, you're not drinking, but we're out for dinner. And it is, it's a lot of peer pressure.

So if you're able to knowing yourself, oh, I don't need it, because actually, maybe this Coke zero gives me the same benefits, or maybe this. the water or the sparkling water give me these benefits. Whatever that is, find out why you're having it, find out what the feeling is that you want and recreate that feeling, whether it's through the placebo effect, and feel as though that something non-alcoholic is going to give you the same effect. I think it's just the meaning that I place upon it. Yeah, I think that makes a ton of sense. Well, thank you so much for sharing all of this, Louise. I really appreciate it. Thanks, Liz. This series continues to blow my mind. I feel like as a person with anxiety,

I needed to know how alcohol impacted my brain chemicals way earlier in my life. And I have so many friends with irregular periods that I am immediately sending this episode to. I also love that they both offered realistic solutions and tips for living a life that includes alcohol, but doing it in a more mindful and healthier way. If you're new here, make sure that you're following the podcast so you don't miss out on any future episodes, including the next part of this series. It is the last part. We're going to be answering questions like,

Do I still have to split the tab if I don't drink? How can I have fun out with friends if I'm not tipsy or drunk? How do I talk to people I love about drinking less if I want them to be healthier? But I don't want them to think that I'm judging them. So hit that follow or plus button so you can get all of those answers and so many more. Okay, I love you and I will see you next week on the next episode of the Healthier Together podcast. I very rarely get genuinely excited about skincare, but this is one of the most innovative products that I have come across in years. and I'm so obsessed with it. I've been telling all of my friends to get it, so now I need to tell you guys.

Here's some science first. Your skin isn't just getting older. It's being actively broken down by something called senescent cells. These are cells that have stopped functioning but refused to die. They sit there releasing inflammatory signals, breaking down your collagen, degrading your skin barrier, and accelerating every visible sign of aging. Scientists call them zombie cells, and as they accumulate, they are one of the primary drivers of how old your, skin looks and feels. The team at one skin, a group of female longevity researchers and PhDs, spent five years testing over 900 peptides to figure out how to help reduce the accumulation of senescent cells. And they finally landed on it. OSO1, the first peptide scientifically studied

to reduce skin's biological age at the molecular level. OSO1 goes in and it clears out the senescent cells so it helps skin function like healthier, younger looking skin. It is not masking the signs of aging. It's not targeting one thing. It is actually rolling the clock back at a cellular level. I've been using the face moisturizer for almost six months now and I love it so much. It feels amazing. It goes on really smoothly. It's not tacky at all. And I actually see a difference, which I just feel like is never the case with skincare. You want to always like see a real difference. and you're kind of like, do I? Do I? And this, I genuinely do. Because it's clearing the senescent cells, it doesn't just target one thing. So my skin looks firmer. It looks glowier. The texture feels dramatically

smoother. And I feel like you can see that too. I also love the body moisturizer. It dries down really quickly, which is always a pet peeve of mine with moisturizers. I hate that like sticky feeling when you go to put your clothes on. This does not do that. But it does moisturize really, really well. and then again, I'm reducing my skin's biological age. I am not making it just look younger. I am making it actually younger. One Skin has four peer-reviewed clinical studies and over 10,000 five-star reviews. The data backs everything up.

For a limited time, get 15% off with code Liz at oneskin.c.c.o slash Liz. Again, that's 15% off at oneskin.co with code Liz. The number one rule of habits is to make the things that you want easier and the things that you don't want harder. Yet so many of us want to eat healthier, but so few of us actually take the steps to make eating healthier easier. That's where Marley Spoon comes in. What I love about this company and what's different than all of the other companies out there that are doing like stuff in the same arena, is that you can customize your choices based on the effort that you want to put in. So if you want them to send you ingredients so you can make your own 20-minute meal and like get into your chef energy,

they'll send it to you to all be in perfect portions so you'll eliminate waste. Great, that's sorted. But they also have meals that you can just heat up. They have ready-made breakfast, which is always such a tough time of day to get a healthy meal in. They have grab and go snacks. Everything is made from farm-fresh produce with high-quality proteins and you can select by dietary preferences, including Mediterranean diet, which is the top diet that doctors on this podcast recommend. Also things like gluten-free, dairy-free, low-sodium, anything that you need. The food is so good and it's so gourmet feeling like you feel like you're at a nice restaurant. We're talking like chicken Milanese with a crunchy cucumber arugula salad or everything bagel salmon

with truffle chive potatoes. My favorite recent meal was the creamy lemon chicken tray bake. I had one of those moments where I looked at my plate and I was like, wait, I made this. and so quickly, like so easily, it's just so little effort for so much reward. Marley Spoon just makes eating well feel easy instead of stressful, and honestly, that is everything. This new year, fast track your way to eating well with Marley Spoon. Head to Marley Spoon.com slash offer slash Liz Moody for up to 25 free meals.

That is right, up to 25 free meals with Marley Spoon. That is marleyspoon.com slash offer slash Liz Moody. So remember to get the offer in there. Marley Spoon.com slash offer slash Liz Moody for up to 25 free meals.