Well with Arielle Lorre - 26: DR. JOLENE BRIGHTEN - What They Didn't Tell You About Hormones & Birth Control

Episode Date: October 9, 2019

In this episode I talk to Dr. Jolene Brighten, one of the leading experts in women’s medicine, a pioneer in the exploration of the far-reaching impact of hormonal birth control and the little known side effects that impact health in a large way, and author of Beyond the Pill. She drops knowledge all episode long about how women's hormones and bodies function, how everything is interconnected, how birth control works (and it's ramifications) and how we can find harmony naturally.    Website: www.drbrighten.com Instagram: www.instagram.com/drjolenebrighten Book: https://drbrighten.com/beyond-the-pill/  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ4TEofVU5qOudhDW8QUfcQ     www.theblondefiles.com Podcast Instagram: www.instagram.com/theblondefilespodcast  Arielle's Instagram: www.instagram.com/ariellelorre   See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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I cannot wait to share this conversation with you guys. My guest today is Dr. Jolene Brighton. She is a doctor of naturopathic medicine. She's one of the leading experts in women's medicine, and she's a pioneer in her exploration of the far-reaching impact of hormonal birth control and the little-known side effects that impact health in a large way. So I want to tell you guys a little bit about how this episode came to be

and a little bit about my own journey with hormonal health. So I went on the birth control pill when I was maybe 15 or 16. I went on it for my skin. I didn't have terrible skin, but like any hormonal teenager, I had some breakouts. And that was pretty much what every doctor did for acne at that time. And it might still be, I'm not sure. All of my friends did it.

So I did it too, and it cleared my skin right up. And so I was on birth control until my early 20s, I believe. I don't really know why I stopped. I just did. At that time, also, I became heavily addicted to drugs and alcohol. And throughout my 20s, I was basically a trash can for substances, and it was a very hostile environment. I was never worried about getting pregnant. I was careless, but it never did happen. And I had really irregular periods, but basically a hormone imbalance was the least of my worries. It was not on my

radar. At some point in there, I did go to an OBGYN who diagnosed me with PCOS. My symptoms at the time were irregular periods. I think I was just going in for like a routine pap smear and I told them that my periods were sporadic and who knows if it was the drugs or alcohol or being underweight or just my poor lifestyle but they did an ultrasound. They found that I had cystic ovaries and given that and the irregular periods I was diagnosed with PCOS. I was told to go back on the I didn't do it. When I finally got sober, I became very aware of all of the functions of my body. And I became very sensitive. And my periods were irregular. And some of that I attributed to my lifestyle. And kind of coming back from so many years of living really hard and like I said, being really

underweight and not getting very good nourishment and so many drugs. alcohol. Did I mention the drugs and alcohol? Okay, good. So anyway, I was, I was a lot more attuned to my body. And of course, when I was getting healthy, I wanted to go see every kind of doctor and make sure that everything was working. And so I went back to an OBGYN. They said, yeah, you have your regular periods. You probably have PCOS, go back on the pill. I did go back on the pill for about a week. I was, for lack of a better word, a effing basket case. I was so emotional. I was so angry.

I hated myself. I hated my life. I hated everybody. It was actually really scary. I can laugh about it now. But at the time, I felt like I was out of control. And it was really frightening. So I stopped that abruptly after one week.

Around that same time, I also realized that I had some serious gut issues going on, and so I started working with practitioners who were all about finding root causes and promoting natural healing. And I learned about how, like, having gut dysbiosis, for example, affects your reproductive hormones and how high cortisol and adrenals and all of these things affect sex hormones. And I realized that maybe I do have PCOS, but maybe it's all of these other things that I have going on. What happened and where Dr. Brighton comes into this is that I was focused on healing these other systems of my body, and I could deal with the irregular periods. I just really wasn't getting them very often. And then this summer, something switched, and all of a sudden I had my period for like three months.

I had terrible acne out of nowhere, and I was at my wits end, and I think we all know that feeling where we just want the band-aid. And I knew that birth control wasn't going to fix whatever I was going through, but I also didn't not know. I kind of always just thought that birth control balances your hormones. I never learned any differently. And so I went back to the doctor. I was given birth control and that's when I shared on Instagram that I was going through this and I asked for my audience if they were willing to talk about their experience and just see what others had gone through with birth control. So I kind of got a mixed bag. Some people really love it. Some people have IUDs really love it. Some people take the pill. So some people were all for it. But then there were

a lot of people who said, hold up before you do anything. thing. Go get Dr. Jolene Brighton's book Beyond the Pill. It changed my life. And so I kept seeing this name, Dr. Jolene Brighton popping up in my DMs and in my comments. And I thought to myself, okay, yeah, I will get this book because I want to learn. And then the wheels started turning. And I thought, okay, and I'm also going to get her on my podcast because this is such an important topic. I can't be the only person who never learned about any of this. And, you know, it was crazy because when I actually read her book, I realized that I didn't even really know, like, what a menstrual cycle was. And I just had one revelation after another. I learned so much.

And the same thing happened when I was interviewing her. I really just let her roll on this podcast because she is so smart and so helpful and it all just makes so much sense. Imagine that. I do want to just let you guys know that when we were recording, I was in a studio in New York City and she was across the country in Portland on Skype and we had some technical difficulties where like the audio would cut out for a second. And so I had to do some editing and there are some kind of like random empty spaces. So I apologize for that. It was totally out of our control,

but it really doesn't disrupt it too much. I just want to let you guys know. Also, as always, please rate, review, and subscribe to the podcast if you're enjoying it. It really helps to get the podcast out there. And I'm really trying to get all of this useful, valuable information to as many people as possible. and, you know, I'm up against an algorithm, as always.

So it really helps to do all of that and iTunes notices and kind of kicks it up a little bit. Anyway, back to the interview. So I told you a little bit about Dr. Brighton. She is also a trained nutritional biochemist and, as I said, a naturopathic physician. She's the founder and clinic director at Rubis Health and Integrative Women's Medicine Clinic. She's a member of the Mind Body Green Collective and has been featured in prominent media outlets such as Forbes, Cosmopolitan, ABC News, and The New York Post. In her bestselling book, Beyond the Pill, she shares her clinical protocols aimed at supporting women struggling with symptoms of hormone imbalance, including post-birth control syndrome and birth control-related side effects. So without further ado, Dr. Jolene Brighton.

Okay. All right, so I'm here with Dr. Jolene Brighton. Welcome, Dr. Brighton. Hi there. Thanks so much for having me. Thank you so much for coming on. I won't get too much into my personal experience here, but I was informed about you and your book

when I shared about my personal experience with birth control and I was going to go on it as kind of a band-aid for all of these hormonal issues that I was. I've been dealing with for years, and I shared it on Instagram, and I got so many comments from people who follow me saying, wait, wait, read Dr. Jolene Brighton's book before you do anything. And so that was how you were kind of on my radar, and you sent me your book, which was so kind of you. And I haven't quite finished yet, but I've read most of it.

And it is so informative, so I can't wait to talk to you about everything and unpack it a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and, you know, the book wasn't actually designed to be exclusively read front-to-back. So no way. It's actually designed that you take the quiz, you get in, you get the information you need, you start to implement it. And then you come back and you read the rest once you start feeling better. There certainly are people who are reading it front-to-back, but no worries.

I designed it both ways because I'm like, look, when you have a hormone imbalance, you need answers quick. Nobody has time to read 200 pages of problems and then have to. to wait until like page 300 to get the solution. Right. Yeah, I love that. After going through so many doctors and I'm not vilifying doctors, I always say that on my podcast. I have doctors in the family, but I have been dealing, like I said, with hormone issues and a diagnosis of PCOS and all these different things for so many years. And I really never had an understanding of what hormonal birth control actually even does. So that was really eye-opening for me. So we'll definitely talk about that here, but just I like to give my listeners some context. And I was wondering

if you would just kind of share your own experience with birth control, because in your book, when you were talking about it, I mean, it was very dramatic. Yeah. It's so, I kind of laugh about it. That section of my book, I went back and forth so many times. And I'm like, do I really want to talk about my vagina in my book? Like, I'm just not sure. You know, it finally gained down to, I'm always saying to women share your stories because you never know who's going to heal or have hope for healing just by way of hearing your story. And so, you know, I spent 10 years on the pill. I am so grateful that we have options and we have these things available because, you know, that medication allowed me to not get pregnant until I was ready to have a baby to be able to go to college,

graduate as a first-generation college student, and be one of the first women in my family not to get pregnant, you know, before her 20s. So, you know, for me, hormonal birth control has been hugely instrumental in my life and my career, which is why I think people could sometimes get confused because they're like, well, obviously, you're anti-birth control. And I'm like, no. Hold on. Not anti-birth control. There's just a whole lot that I didn't know being on birth control. There was so much I didn't know about my own body until I got into naturopic medical school. And I remember sitting there thinking, you shouldn't have to go to medical school to understand the body you live in,

how your menstrual cycle works, and why in the heck did no one ever explain to me how this medication worked? It was like, you know, at 17, I got to ditch heavy periods, painful periods, you know, owned me for like a week or more out of my month. I would be vomiting, not going to school, bleeding through clothes.

So when I got offered birth control as a solution to that, and, p.S., he won't get pregnant. I was all about it. I thought that was excellent, except that I had a lot of issues with birth control, changing formulations sometimes help, but, you know, over the years, it's become more apparent. How many of my issues were directly related to using hormonal birth control. So as I talk about having chronic yeast infections to the point where I actually became allergic

to monostat, yes, that's a real thing that can happen. And it's horrific to have your vagina turn inside out. And not once. Did anyone say it might be your birth control? You know, I had pain with sex, actually just put out an article on Dr.brighton.com all about like 14 causes plus of what could be your cause of pain with sex. And as they talk about in the book, you know, it was, I had a male gynaecologist. And women, I think, so one, people like the vilified doctors.

And I get that we get frustrated that our doctors aren't giving us what we need. But doctors are not bad guys. you know, go to school for a decade and give up that much of your life and go that far in debt if you don't really truly care about serving people. And then the other thing I see is that, you know, women will often say, well, it's because they were a male gynecologist and it's the patriarchy. And I'm like, I actually had, you know, in my 20s when I was having pain with sex, an incredible male gynecologist.

And he went on vacation, as he should and doctors do. And I ended up being a female gynaecologist who's filling in for him. and she was the one that actually recommended I cut off the nerves to my pelvis so that I could, quote, lay there and take it as my husband, as I serviced to my husband at that time. Oh, my God. And it was astounding to me that, you know, when I got into the research, I'm like, hold up. Wait, birth control actually, like, is totally linked to pain with sex. And yes, these yeast infections that was actually birth control. And I just started uncovering so many things I was never told that women are never told.

that women are never told. And as I looked at the books that were out there, I'm like, wow, there's a lot of really great books on women's hormones, women's health. There are great books that talk, you know, about the problems with birth control, but none of them had really integrated women's health, women's hormones, and birth control as a whole and taking that full picture. And I was kind of baffled where I'm like, wait a minute,

how is it that birth control has been around for generations, and yet we've never had a book really providing that informed consent, giving women the information they need. So when they go to their doctor's office, they are more empowered, more educated to get what they need out of that doctor's visit and to really drop the shame and stigma that comes with women's health. And certainly, you know, there's shame and stigma and women's health, and then we add the sexual component to it, which that's birth control as part of that conversation. And it's this one more layer where women are told, you're not supposed to be. move to talk about that.

Yeah, and that's what your book does so beautifully. It really is just this cohesive picture of everything that you don't really hear from your doctors and you don't really learn about. Like, I never learned about any of that stuff. So there's so much to unpack there. I definitely want to get into the side effects and how the pill can affect our bodies and then how we can kind of recover from that. But can we just talk stats?

Like, how many, do you know, how many women are? are on the pill and of those women, how many are on it for pregnancy prevention? Yeah, so, you know, the most recent estimates we have shows that over 100 million women worldwide are using hormonal birth control. And we know that more than half of them are using it primarily for symptom management, which is a very important thing that gets left out of a lot of the conversations, which is that this is a medication that was developed for short-term use to delay or space pregnancy. This was never a medication that was first and foremost designed for symptom management and for women to be left on it for decades on end. Now, there are lots of people out there

who are saying there are no studies to show that it's dangerous and it's totally fine to stay on birth control long term. Except the problem is that there are no studies actually telling us what are the consequences when we leave a woman on hormonal birth control for decades on end. We don't know what it does to her brain. We don't know what actually happens when you don't ovulate for decades. We don't have that information. And so while people are saying it's safe, we have to be forthcoming. We actually don't know.

And when all they're looking at is the reproductive track, and if that's all we reduce women to, that's very problematic. Because as we come to understand, you may be using hormonal birth control for acne. However, that might be masking polycystic ovarian syndrome. Now, are you a bad person? If you're like, I don't want to have acne and I want to use birth control and it works? No, not at all. But you need to be given the information that your acne may actually be due to an inflammatory

metabolic condition that also comes with the increased risk of diabetes, of heart disease, of stroke, the things that birth control is known to put you at higher risk for. And so we see that the evolution of birth control, I call it the pill for every female ill, because you go to your doctor and you're like, I have a regular period, painful periods, heavy periods, acne, I have hormonal headaches. Like anything that's really seen as like, oh, that's a lady part problem or that's related to your hormones, also gets met with birth control. Now, birth control works by shutting down your entire reproductive system.

Brain stops communicating to your ovaries. I think it's very important for every woman to understand that birth control works at the brain level. So while there still are doctors out there saying first control has no impact on your brain, that's actually exactly how it works, is on your brain. And so we have to be able to have these conversations. I confuse people because I'm very gray. I'm not like, you know, either or this or that. Like it's not black and white. It's really a conversation where we need to have the conversation is why you have your symptoms.

you need to be having all the options laid out to you and be given all the information on individualized level so that you can make the best decision for yourself. Because if you're trading acne for increased risk of diabetes, you deserve to know that. Right. Yeah. And I think there's a common misconception that the birth control pill will balance your hormones if your hormones are imbalanced. That's at least what I thought. And I was, I read in your book that, in fact, that's not at all what it does. Totally. I thought they do. This is why, you know, whenever people, you know, start tight, they're like, oh, I wish I, I, I wish I knew you when I was 16 or I feel so ashamed and I'm like, I wish I knew me when I was 16. And also, I totally know what I'm doing.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I, I didn't really understand all the things that birth control was doing in my body. And I, the things that I, someone could slap my 20-something year old self for the laundry list. Oh, my God. But one of them was, oh, bragging about how, like, oh, I used to have these terrible periods and I fixed them and, like, I tell my body when it can bleed. And I thought that was, like, the most feminist. Right.

And yet, you know, I laugh and I look back and I'm like, you know, actually controlling your body and, you know, basically saying, like, you're a problem and they don't want to hear it. So how can I just, like, fix it? How can I suppress it? That's not, that's not a very empowering thing. Yet, you know, that was that was the story that I got as well. This will fix your hormones. Well, it can't fix your hormones because it's shutting down your hormones. And these hormones that you're taking, well, there's people who say, oh, within the pill is exactly what your body makes.

Like your body's used to, no, no, it's not. You can just look at the biochemical structure of progestin alone, and it's nothing like progesterone, which is what you make naturally. And so, you know, I often ask women when they say, like, well, hormone birth control, fix my acne, okay, what happens when you come off? Oh, my skin is so much worse. Well, if it truly fixed it, then you wouldn't have to stay on this medication. And that's a bit of a problem is what, you know, women reach out to me for patients who come see me is they're like, I feel like I'm held captive by this medication. Like if I come off of birth control, I have no idea what my periods are going to be like. If I come off of birth control, like I'm afraid that my migraines

are going to return or that, you know, the biggest one is like when your face explodes with acne and you're in your 30s and you're looking like, you know, that acne commercial kid who's like 13, that is like bad for our mental health for sure. And I say this after I came off of bird control and experiencedistic acne for the first time in my life. And, you know, until you actually experience these conditions that women are struggling with, I don't think you have a concept of just how much it impacts their entire life, but also their mental health. So, you know, it's something that I think a lot of us have been, you know, like basically told this story. And it is a story.

And we have to rewrite that story because it wasn't accurate. And it never has been to say hormonal birth control fixes your hormones, fixes your symptoms. It is really good at suppressing symptoms, at masking symptoms. This is actually something that the endocrine society, so for women who have hypolomatic ameneria, that is basically a diagnosis of exclusion. Your period's gone missing and we don't know why. And often doctors will pass women the pill and say, you have a period now.

Except it's not a period. It's a medication-induced withdrawal bleed. And the Endocrine Society actually issued a statement saying that they advise against giving hormonal birth control because it masks symptoms. It masks the entire condition. So it just makes it more convoluted. But in addition, a woman would never know. if any other intervention is actually working to restore her period.

So, you know, I bring that out because some people find the fact that I would even question birth control to be some kind of radical movement. I'm like, I don't think openly talking about women's bodies, women's experiences, honoring women's voices and the stories that they've told us, and then integrating that with the new research that we're finding and asking that we get more is a radical thing to do. Like when it comes to medical interventions, you know, it is really our duty. diligence as practitioners to always be viewing it through the lens of like is this the best thing for our patient and maybe it was when we initially prescribed it however now in the wake of new

information what she's presenting with is this still the best choice and that option for her that's really interesting about the endocrine did you say endocrine society or so i wonder why they recognize it and there's a discrepancy between that and maybe like traditional gynecology and the people who normally prescribe hormonal birth control. Yeah, you know, a bit of the issue is that there was a study that came out several years ago, and what it showed is that the science can come out. There can be really great studies, but it can still take more than a decade for your doctor to actually integrate that into their clinical practice.

In fact, years. So this is something I believe really sat with because when we're talking menstrual cycles, In 17 years, I likely won't have a period anymore, which makes me really sad for the decades that I suppressed it and thought I was waiting more with my body and my body was betraying me. So that's just what it deserved. But, you know, we as women, because of our life cycle, we don't have decades to wait for research to make its way into our practitioner's office. And so that's why, you know, like the endocrine society comes out with these statements. It's really important to understand that when it comes to science and medicine, there's really no place for our beliefs, you know, in terms of influencing our decision making. Now, we can be forthcoming on and honest and say, like, this is what I believe to be true right now as a bit of a hypothesis.

I'm not, you know, we need more research. We need to understand this. But, you know, this idea that, you know, I actually, you know, it goes back to this medical doctor I was speaking with and he said to me, you know, the problem. is that whatever we're taught in residency is basically indoctrinated into us. And so in that, even if research comes out or significant amounts of research come out, is very hard to get a doctor to change their mind. And, you know, I've heard people say, like, you can't teach an old dog new tricks. And I mean, well, I don't know that that's totally true. But I do think it's important that we recognize that, you know, sometimes our doctor is doing what they've always done and

haven't actually read the research or, you know, maybe they didn't read the statement by the Endocrine Society. Maybe they didn't make it to that particular conference where this was discussed. And so this is where there's a gap in women's medicine. And it's something, you know, that's a big reason why I put the book out. And, you know, what I saw is that women don't have time to wait for doctors to change their mind. There are doctors already out there who are very much, you know, on top of the research, who are advocating for women's health, who really want to help their patients, you know, by any means. And if that means being integrative and working with other practitioners, they're willing to do it. And so within the book, what I really aim to do is put the

medicine in women's hands. So, you know, they can start healing their body. The reality is that the majority of healing and what it takes to remain healthy and to move closer to health is not what happens in the doctor's office. It's actually what you do every day. And somewhere along the line, medicine decided that like, you know, that like the only way people heal is, you know, in the office. And, you know, I don't know that medicine decided that, but society as a whole decided that. And yes, we need doctors. Yes, when you hit chronic disease or acute disease, you need to go to the doctor and there are very much interventions there. But when it comes to your hormones in particular, there's so much that you can be doing. And, you know, in chapter four of the book,

I call it the period decoder chapter because basically it takes you through like if you have this period problem, this is what it might mean. Here's the conditions to discuss with your doctor. Here's the labs they should consider testing. And while you're waiting for that appointment and waiting for those labs, here's what you can do right now to start improving your health. Yeah, I love that. It's so clear and so concise. And something that you said in the book really resonated.

I think I can't remember exactly how you worded it, but you said that you can basically lifestyle your way. into hormone imbalance. And so therefore you can lifestyle your way out, right? Oh, totally. Like, you know, it's, look back at like everything your mama told you that you should be doing as a child. And that is like the secret sauce. Along Japanese right there. So, you know, absolutely. I think it's something that, you know, much of society is based on the non-cyclical creature, which is a man. Now, they cycle during the day, but they don't cycle over a month like us. And so, you know, in women's liberation and the women's movement, which 100% birth control

was a part of, we graduate college at higher rates, we're CEOs of big companies now, we make more money, we still have a long way to go. But, you know, it has played a role, absolutely, and we can honor that. However, we also have joined to be, we've tried to keep up with our male counterparts. Now, no sex is better than the other. No one's, you know, stronger in terms of overall or the better sense. In fact, we're meant to complement each other. Like, we really work good as a team. We work really well as a team. So we try to keep up with our male counterparts. And as we entered the workforce, a lot of us are still working at home, cleaning the house, taking care of the children. Like, I have a six-year-old. I'm those strangers of this. And so we push, push, push.

And we're trying to be that superwoman. I mean, I'm sure you've seen the things outside or the woman who gets everything done and oh you know and in that what are we doing we're increasing our stress we're decreasing our self-care we are you know skipping sleep sometimes skipping meals or you know piling food into our mouth that's not really food it's more like packaged stuff because that's what's available and we're starving you know there's a lot of these lifestyle practices that can be improved upon but i think it's always important to start from a place of like, how did we get here? Because I, you know, I certainly have had times where I'm like, oh my God, you're so stupid, you know better. Like, why didn't you do this? And, you know, if women weren't so good at like going through like everything we've ever done wrong

and how we could do better for everyone, this whole species called, you know, the human race, and we probably wouldn't exist. And so it's really important to recognize that like part of why we, you know, We have these, quote, poor lifestyle practices is a lot by way of messages we've received in society, how society's been set up. And so you can give yourself, you know, that great to say, like, sometimes I'm going to fail. And yet I also recognize that I have so much power in being able to improve my hormones by getting better sleep, moving my body, ditching toxic relationships. You know, we see right now there's a big movement.

on social media where people are like, you know, unfollow accounts that make you feel bad. And it's something that I definitely, you know, say to people, like if I think that if somebody's triggering you and following is a good idea, but we have to be cautious that if somebody's triggering you, we don't come onto their page and hate them. Hatred is not good for your hormones. That's toxic. It's important. You know, I'm sure you get this as well.

And I, you know, people will ask me like, you know, people will drop comments. on my page and they're really, they are meant, they are aimed to hurt me. And they say, terrible things I would never say to another human. And, you know, people ask, like, how do you, how do you handle that? I'm like, well, the thing I recognize is, this is them not dealing with their own stuff. Like, you can't scroll across somebody on Instagram and, you know, hate them when you've never met them and say all these things if you're not dealing with your own stuff. And so I think that's something that I think it is important to unfollow like you know people that make you feel bad if that works for you but also to you know

we all want to take action but also to recognize that like there's a place where this is coming for me to deal with this and I actually went through this with my book coming out and getting bullied by a bunch of a bunch of doctors actually I was like man wow you have a professional degree and you're acting like this but um and in all of that like whoa how triggered I got and And I cried and I was like really, oh, this is coming from that little girl who was bullied in school. And I thought I healed that and I thought I dealt with that. And guess what? It's back.

And so in that, I just had to thank them because it gave me an opportunity to see that I hadn't really done the work as thoroughly as I should have or could have. And that, you know, there's an opportunity there to do more healing. So, you know, these are the things that, I mean, they're not super. sexy, but they're super important when it comes to your hormones. And, you know, I think we can all like take from this that there's so many choices that we make of that hormone equilibrium. Yeah, like I know for myself, I went on the pill originally when I was maybe 15 or 16 for my skin. But then I started doing some rooting around, I guess, pun intended, for the root cause. and I found that I had like a gut in dysbiosis and I had really high cortisol and I had trauma

that I hadn't dealt with yet and I had environmental stressors and all these other things that were affecting my reproductive hormones. And you talk about some other things that might kind of mimic hormone imbalance or that might affect somebody's hormones? Yeah. So, you know, well, one thing I want to say is that the observation, that you had high cortisol. We're going to talk about why your adrenals matter so much.

It's so interesting, though, when you get into the research, how hormonal birth control actually impacts our stress response. And I talk about that a bit in Beyond the Pone. There's a new book that just came out called This Is Your Brain on Birth Control by Dr. Sarah Hill. She's a PhD researcher that really details how birth control is affecting us on the psychological level and how it messes with the hormones in our brain. And the elevated cortisol is one of those things.

And it can be linked into how the brain and the adrenal glands are speaking to each other. But we also have to recognize that hormonal birth control is inflammatory. So they've done studies where they take a woman's blood, they put her on birth control, and lo and behold, her C-reactic protein, which is a marker of inflammation, is elevated after starting birth control. Now, cortisol will come in to dampen that inflammation. We need inflammation. It's not all bad, but too much of it is a really bad thing, especially on the female brain.

So it's really important to, you know, that's why in the book there's an entire chapter about adrenal and thyroid health, and it's really important to recognize that sometimes birth control actually leads to greater issues so that when you come off of it, you're like, what happened to my body? Now, when it comes to, so like acne in particular, it's usually multifactorial. And when it comes to a lot of hormone imbalances, you know, they'll manifest with symptoms of like acne, headaches, irregular periods or heavy periods or really long periods. And so we see these hormonal manifestations that are related to estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. Now, I like to talk about this like a pyramid because it's a very tippy top are those sex hormones. And they drive us wild sometimes, like literally in our brain.

I've been there. And in that, though, that's often where women want to focus. However, there are other layers to meet that. So we've got the tippy tabs of pyramid right below. And so your thyroid function also has to be optimized because that will lend itself to a sex hormone imbalance. And at the very base of that pyramid is exactly what I started this with. It is adrenal, cortisol, DHA, epinephrine, norephenephrine, and insulin, blood sugar regulation.

So with that, you know, polysis to go. ovarian syndrome in particular PCOS, you know, that base of the pyramid, that insulin and that adrenal component is everything. So insulin and a woman with PCOS, when it goes high, will actually stimulate the ovaries to create more androgens or male sex hormones, if they get called, testosterone. As you read the book, women need that hormone too. It's really important for us. And then that manifests with oily skin, hair growth on the chin chest abdomen, acne, and obviously ovulatory spoh, so we're not ovulating. That's why those periods get wonky and we never know when they're coming.

And in addition to that, that's when we start to see the insulin resistance, blood sugar dysregulation, and you might start losing hair on your head. So, excuse me, if you're having all of these symptoms like acne, growing hair on your chin and losing it on your head, you get, yeah, of course you're going to want to jump on birth control. However, as I outline, and I say, of course, because you're like, this will solve all my problems, right? You may not. After you read the book, you might want to go another way. But in the book I outlined, get these labs first, test these labs, look at these

parameters, make sure you're keeping tabs on it. So if you do choose to use it, you stay safe on it. And then I also talk through the other issues that lend themselves to hormone imbalance. So we'll get into section two of the book. We jump right into, it's called the birth control hormone detox 101. It was called the Liver chapter. My publishers who are amazing, we're like, that's not sexy. wants to read a liver chapter.

And I was like, no, everybody does. It's like the most important thing. So I kind of regret naming the chapter that because I named it that because it's 101 of how does your liver detox out these hormones and how does your liver detox out your own natural hormones? Because when you understand that, you can understand how much the food you eat and the way you live can really influence hormones. And so often people are focused on solely estrogen and they forget about the estrogen metabolites.

That there's actually better and worse estrogen metabolites. And you can have normal estrogen levels, yet those metabolite levels can be off and those can be driving your symptoms. And it's those metabolites that put us at higher risk for, you know, estrogen-dependent cancers. And, you know, moot-space and tender breasts and quaddi periods, things that none of us want. So in that, your liver is so important in doing so many things. It's involved in blood sugar regulation, cholesterol metabolism, how we build our hormones, is from cholesterol, as I talk about in chapter two of the book. And it's also important for detoxifying birth control hormones and natural hormones

and all the environmental toxins that also like to mimic your own hormones. And so in that chapter, you take you through eating cruciferous vegetables, making, you know, there's certain foods and nutrients that are going to help support your liver in doing its job. Your liver is an organ of detoxification. Your body detoxifies really well. That's what your liver, your kidneys, your lungs, your skin, they all do this. However, they do require particular nutrients and, you know, different inputs, like really good sleep

and water and these kinds of things to do their job and to be optimized. So in that, if any of your detox pathway, are struggling, well, sometimes the skin becomes the default. And that's where we actually see, you know, acne manifesting from. So for women listening right now, if you find that you break out after being constipated, well that very well may be linked to the fact that you were not able to move the waste that your body was trying to get out of your body. So with that, you know, taking a look at your particular symptoms and then when do they

manifest and what's going on because it could be that your bowels are not moving. It could be that you ate a bunch of dairy and that's a trigger for you. So we know food sensitivities can be a trigger for hormonal issues, anything that messes with your gut, messes with your immune system, which then messes with your adrenal because they have to control that inflammation and they regulate that. And so as we move from the liver chapter, we go into the gut chapter because the liver and the gut are everything. They're like the least sexy things. Like everybody's like, tell me about my ovaries about my brain. But, you know, these organs are everything in, in all of health, but also hormonal health. So we can have, you know, overgrowth or the wrong kind of bacteria in our gut

nicking excess amounts of beta glucronidase. So it goes like this. Liver packages up estrogen, gets it ready for removal. It'll go through the kidneys, but it'll also go through the bowel. However, if you're not pooping every day, you're not getting that estrogen out. And as that estrogen goes through the bowels, if there is that beta-gluceronidase around, it will actually undo the work that your liver did and put estrogen back into circulation. Now we've got a state of estrogen excess or what's commonly called estrogen dominant. And that can drive acne, migraines, headaches, and then definitely PMS and periods are, they're not going to be fun at all because of that excess estrogen.

And let's all remember, estrogen's not a bad thing. There's no bad hormone in the body. there's just what do they do when they're kept unchecked. We have to keep them in check. And so, you know, the last thing I would say is nutrients, as we talked about before, birth control deplete nutrients. It's one of the biggest drug muggers is what it's called. It creates tremendous nutrient efficiencies.

And so we've got to get our diet dialed in and we've got to support our overall nutritional status, usually with a multivitamin or prenatal as well. This is, you know, this is pretty standard in terms of discussions among registered dietitians and people in the nutrition space. When I was getting my nutrition degree, I mean, I remember the slide being like, here's everything that birth control depletes. Make sure your patient is on a prenatal or multivitamin because the reality is that birth control is depleting folate and B12 and who's taking birth control, but a woman of reproductive age who's presumably sexually active. we're running a high risk of baby not being, you know, given the best shot at life because of these nutrient deficiencies. But in addition, you know, if you never want to have a baby, that's fine. Totally your prerogative.

But if you're struggling with stuff like acne, understand that birth control is depleting key nutrients that actually feed the skin, help the skin thrive and have been shown in studies to be treatments for acne. So things like zinc, for example. If you are struggling with migraines, understand that birth control is depleting B vitamins and magnesium, which are also associated with having migraines. And so when it comes to these hormone imbalance symptoms, you know, birth control may get you symptom relief, but that doesn't mean that's the end of the story. You may need to do additional work and support so that you don't feel that dependency on this medication. And that's really, you know, what I want women to have is freedom to choose whatever works best for them.

and to be supported in that decision. So my role as a doctor is not to tell women what to do with their bodies. It's to educate them, give them their options, and when they choose, I support them. That's my job. I had a lot of women ask me this question, and you talk a lot about it in the book, but how can a woman who has been on birth control for a while now safely come off and potentially deal with post-birth control syndrome? Yeah, well, there's an entire chapter for that.

So, you know, it all depends on why you've got on birth control to begin with. Now, I want to be really clear that there's no weaning when it comes to the pill. I've had women write me and saying, I know that you said, like, it's just an all or nothing medication, but I'm taking half the dose and then I was going to drop to a quarter, but now I'm having weird periods and my headaches, and they start listing off stuff. I'm like, it's because your body doesn't know what to do. And also, you're probably going to get pregnant. You are playing with fire here.

So it is an all or nothing medication. you can always choose to stop taking the pill, not place that patch, not insert the ring. If you have an IED or an implant, you're going to have to see your doctor to get that removed. The depot shot is going to take, you know, at least 90 days to clear out of your system. So there's different considerations with the different options of hormonal birth control. But what I always advise women is, number one, you need to have a backup method. Because even if you do want to get pregnant, you really want to spend at least six months, if not a year, preparing your body for conception because you're not only it's not just about the egg so much of

medicine is focused on the egg and can we get pregnant but it's also how healthy are you going to be through your pregnancy how healthy is your baby going to be what is postpartum going to work in that now the other thing is to recognize why you started birth control if it isn't just for pregnancy prevention then you're probably you know you're probably going to be fine just to stop it and go into the protocol within the book of course your doctor who knows you vet can help advise on that and the individual level. But if you start at birth control primarily for pain, maybe you have endometriosis, you had terrible cystic acne, you want to spend time preparing your body before you come off.

And that might be anywhere from three to six months of preparing your body before making that transition off. And that's just so that you don't end up with like, you know, side effects of coming off. Well, not really side effects. Really more like fallout of coming off. A resurgence of your body. body trying to operate, remember how everything functions again. And as you come off, you know, I see that acne is one of those top symptoms that will drive

women right back onto birth control. So we want to give you the best shot at this. And this is what I've seen clinically time and again is women who spend the time preparing their body. They make the dietary changes, the lifestyle changes. You know, the book is really designed to help you build your user manual to yourself. There is no one-size-fits-all of anything, okay? There is what works for you and know that what works for you right now might not work for you tomorrow, and that's okay.

You can always adjust that user manual. But what I've seen is that when women take those stats, they have a much easier time transitioning off. And with endometriosis in mind, I really want women to understand that if you're on birth control, it's helping your endometriosis, but maybe you're wanting to come off of it because you're wanting to have a baby or you're like, I've been doing all this work. I just want to try something different. making sure you have a health care team as part of that. It's not enough. I mean, in this day and age, with what we know about the human body, it's usually not enough to have one doctor overseeing everything.

But with endometriosis, because it is a chronic pain condition, you also should have a mental health support component, whether it's a counselor, psychologist, psychiatrist, somebody to really support you in that arena, having a great doctor who understands endo, maybe having a surgeon just in case you have to go, there, working with a qualified nutrition expert, these kinds of things can make it so that you're so much more successful. And what I want to bring this stop is because I think sometimes we feel ashamed

when we need more or, you know, people feel ashamed when they're really struggling with chronic health and they're like, you know, they see stuff online and they need stories and they're like, I just need to have a more positive mindset. But sometimes it's like you need to actually just fill the pain and be with it like in terms of the mental component and get support or around that because we often get this message that, like, you know, in modern society that we should just avoid pain at all costs. And we really have to recognize that, you know, when it comes to these emotional traumas, like you brought up and pain, you know, that is why there are people in the mental health arena to help support us in that. There are very few people who are

successful navigating that all on their own. The majority, I think everybody needs to have a mental health care provider as part of their go-to because you never know when life is going to drop something on your lap and you're like, wow, okay, I don't have any tools for this. What do I do with this now? And so that's why, you know, building that health care team can be so, so vital and so beneficial for women. Yeah, absolutely. I could listen to you talk all day. I know that you have a hard stop, but I wanted to ask you about the copper IUD because I had so many people write in when they knew that you were coming on the podcast and ask me to ask you about that. And I know that you've talked about it before, but for anybody who may not have heard, what are your thoughts on that?

Yeah. And, you know, I know that I said I had a hard stop, but if you want to hit some rapid fire questions from your audience, I'm happy to answer those because I know we've had banter on social media. I know your audience has a lot of questions. Yeah, they do. Yeah. So when it comes to birth control, there is no one method that works for every woman. And the copper ud is no exception. So if you have heavy periods, painful periods, any history of that. So say you're on the pill now, you're like, they're light-neasing. Don't expect that to be the same if you just come off and get a copper iodine.

And if you have endometriosis, this is not going to be the best option for you. Now, there is very little research about like does the copper go systemic? And it seems to be that it may. The uterus is not a vacuum container. So it may very well go systemic. I have, in my clinical experience, measured women's blood, they got the copper UD, we measure again, and sure enough, we're seeing changes, we're seeing copper, you know, proteins rise. So, you know, in that, we always want to do what is true for you.

So any medical intervention, please track your symptoms for at least 30 days and what your cycle looks like, if not three months, and get baseline lab testing. Then circle back, like continue to track what's true for you, what's normal for you, what's changed and then circle back and get labs six months a year later just depending on the different labs so you can evaluate how your body is responding to this um i will say with the copper iud it is the one that women love best they report uh so women who get the copper ud and it works for them they report the greatest satisfaction and when it comes to preventing pregnancy that is definitely the winner in terms of the best efficacy rate i love that you're a proponent of keeping track of everything

your book you mentioned that you're a fan of like menstrual apps and tracking all of that. And it's so it's such a simple thing that is so illuminating in so many ways. So I love that tip for people because it's something that everybody can do. Totally. And it's the thing that like when you understand how the menstrual cycle works and then you start tracking your symptoms, like I've had so many women write me and they're like, oh, guess what? I have acne right before I ovulate. That's like that's something I never realized. So it's probably my testosterone based on what I'm understanding or like, wow, I'm not sleeping like three days before my period. That might be my progesterone.

And so you can actually use, I have no idea why my smoke. Oh, no. But I'm like, hopefully there's not actually a fire. Oh, no. Are you cooking? You ask your next question while I investigate this. Are you cooking something? No, okay.

Oh, no. I have no idea what's going on. I'm just going to step outside. Okay. I'm actually at home right now, and I'm having my entire heating system. Oh, no. Today because it broke. Okay.

I'm just like, here's this stuff that you never get to hear on podcast. I love it. It's relatable. Okay. I'm outside. It's like 40 degrees. Oh, no. Oh, my gosh.

Okay. Well, let's see. No, it's totally fine. Okay, so I had a lot of people also ask, how do you lower testosterone and DHAs naturally? Ah, so DHA is coming from your adrenal glands. And so if DHA is elevated, we need to look at how your adrenals are functioning. Now, your drenals are very much influenced by, you know, all the diet lifestyle stuff that we've said. So, you know, eating regular meals, good blood sugar balance, making sure that your inflammation's low.

Sometimes we have to look for infections. And then in addition to that, hydration is huge. And this often gets overlooked, but the adrenal glands govern your blood pressure as well. So if you're dehydrated, then you certainly run the risk of stressing those adrenal, so to speak. And so D&A is a lovely anti-aging hormone. It's great. It declines as we age, which is a bummer. Some people hypothesize that's why we actually age and our cells begin to die.

So, B.HCA is not bad, but it can be converted to estrogen or testosterone. And so the same lifestyle therapy that I was talking about can definitely help with them. And the other thing is looking at zinc status as well. So zinc, white peony, which is a herb, licorice as well, these things can help support your testosterone metabolism, but we want to understand where it's coming from. Because if it's because you have insulin dysregulation, blood sugar issues, then we can work all day on the testosterone, but we're not addressing the root cause. So that means you'll continuously either be on medications or supplements to try to treat

the symptoms, which, you know, it's great to have these things to treat the symptoms, but we have to be forthcoming when we are using symptom management versus treating the root cause. And so, you know, so the testosterone, if it's elevated, we certainly want to look at polycystic ovarian syndrome. And, you know, when we're looking at that, we're working on blood sugar regulation, working on, you know, all these things. We may also use stuff like Sawpametto or Nettal root, which is, you know, those are two herbs that are fantastic with helping with testosterone metabolism. Now, the only thing I really want to caution people about because people tend to vilify

testosterone is that if your testosterone gets too low, it will affect your bones. It will affect your metabolism, your muscle mass, but it will also affect your mood. So if you are waking up and you're fatigued all day and you feel like anything can make you cry and you don't have that like, you know, so like around ovulation, we all are like, yeah, I got boundaries. I'm going to exert them. If you don't, I call it the, you know, wake up, kick-ass repeat hormones. If you're not feeling that, then you may have dropped your testosterone too low,

and that can be problematic as well. And then, of course, the obvious one, where'd your libido go? And that's what a lot of women, you know, they go to first. It's like, oh, well, my libido. And, yeah, sometimes it shows up with libido first, but, you know, it can also show up in other ways. And for women who are listening, if you're concerned that's your testosterone, I take you through in the book, like in Chapter 1, like, what does high testosterone look like?

If you're concerned at that, but your doctor says your labs are normal, I want to offer you this. One is they can't just look at total testosterone. They also need to look at free testosterone, and they need to look at it through the lens of you being a woman and your age. Because as we get older, our testosterone is lower. and what is like the upper range of normal. I'm doing quotes may be elevated for you. But in addition, if you're losing your hair or you're breaking out or you're growing hair on your chin, your doctor needs to test your DHT as well, which is how, that's the potent

form of testosterone that gets into trouble. And that your body will be converting testosterone to DHT. And that's where, you know, something like Saw Palmetto can really be beneficial. and, you know, some of the other therapies I discussed as well. So I have a question kind of related to that, but, and I think I probably know the answer, but what are your thoughts on like spironylactone? Is that just a band-aid as well? Yeah.

You know, cyronolactone is, it's really effective, but again, yeah, it's, I mean, it's treating a symptom. It's not really treating the root cause, and you cannot get pregnant while you're on it. Like that's a big time no. So odds are you're going to be right back on some form of hormonal birth control because your doctor's not going to want to prescribe you that medication without you having a try and true method to avoid pregnancy just because it can be so detrimental to baby. Okay, good to know.

I also got a lot of questions about skin and you definitely go there in the book, but people ask how do you combat hormonal acne, especially after getting off birth control and if you have specific foods that help. Yeah, you know, so I have to say there's been so many amazing stories coming out of women using Beyond the Pill where, you know, for a long time. And, you know, I feel like this is still pretty true. And you'll hear a lot of experts say, you know, acne and skin are going to be the last thing to heal. You know, nobody dies of acne. So your body prioritizes what's necessary for survival.

So like your liver and your kidneys and your lungs and your brain, like this is what your body is going to prioritize. Yet there are women sending me photos. And within two weeks of, I mean, we're talking inflamed cystic acne. And within two weeks of starting the protocol in the book, like their skin is like 50% better, some even more than that. And I'm floored. I'm like, wow, for as much time as I've spent being like, be patient with your body. acne can take, you know, three to six months to really start to see results and then to see these women out there where I'm like, oh, that's amazing. And I, you know, share that because it is possible.

But I also think that much of health and I think a lot of the criticism that, like, you know, the health influencer arena gets is that there are promises that are not totally accurate and that we really have to be cautious because I think, you know, people, we want those quick fixes. We're conditioned for that in society. But in addition, we feel really bad about ourselves when in two weeks everything's not better. And the reality is that you are probably on a 26 to 30-something day cycle. It's going to take at least that amount of time of interventions to evaluate what's going on. Now, with acne, absolutely trying to eliminate foods and understanding if that's a trigger. So dairy is one of the main triggers. That doesn't mean dairy's bad.

it just isn't working for you right now. So I'm really cautious that we don't call food bad. I'm a foodie. I'm like, I love food. But, you know, it's just not working right now. And it doesn't mean it won't work for you for you forever. I personally get triggered by dairy. I'll get acne.

But I know my threshold. I know how much cheese I can eat. And I'm like, okay. Like I know. So we can take out, you know, and I go through this in the book, taking out some of the foods and just testing. Like what's true for you and how did these work for you? foods that can absolutely help acne.

So vitamin A is great for immune system modulation, immune system health all together, and skin health. So that's why, like, your doctor might give you retin A for your skin. And you're going to find that in egg yolks. So, you know, a pastured egg yolk, a legit chicken. Not as you're chicken. If your chicken came in a big, huge, like, factory warehouse food, you're not going to have ample vitamin A. But, you know, we can get it.

from the yolk. Definitely animal fats are a source of that as well, so even like eating chicken skin. But we also get vitamin A from a lot of our vegetables and fruits as well, so it's beta carotene. And interestingly, so we know that increasing your vegetable intake, and I really advocate for people to try to get at least six servings a day, if you can hit nine, even better. that's going to give fiber to your microbiome so that those gut bugs are kept in check and healthy and happy and can do their job right. So much of what goes in the gut can be reflected in the skin. In addition, it's going to give your liver what it needs to run its detox pathway so that it can optimize your blood sugar, optimize your hormone metabolism, and those influence acne as well.

But in addition, there have been studies showing that the more vegetables, people eat, the more they're perceived as beautiful. And that's because those carotenoids, that beta carotene and the vitamin A family, those pigments actually will start to show up in our skin. So not only will your acne start to improve, but your actual complexion and the way you are perceived is people think you're more beautiful when you eat more vegetables. That's totally a win. Now, the other thing that can be really helpful, as I said before, is bringing in zinc.

You can definitely get that in animal proteins. you can get it in oysters and pumpkin seeds are a great source as well. And if you have acne, we definitely want you pooping every day. So making sure you're including fiber in your diet and, you know, getting some more around, you know, 20, 25 grams as a starting place. Some people are like, jump to 40 and I'm like, that can be like a bit of adjustment there. So, you know, I wouldn't necessarily advocate for that. And, you know, using something like a practice of seed cycling, that's a way to be intentional. eating with your cycle.

It's not something, you know, that I want anyone to think you have to be super dogmatic about. But in the first half of your cycle, when you're including things like fresh ground flax seeds, those absolutely can help with estrogen metabolism. The lignins in there can help you, you know, overall have optimal levels while also moving it out. And then you'll be having pumpkin seeds in that first half of the cycle, which are rich in zinc, which can help with that testosterone metabolism. And so, you know, with that, you won't find a study in PubMed that uses the word seed cycling. And I have a whole article on this at Dr.brayton.com.

And I go through, like, hey, here's what we don't have in science. And then here's what we know about the seeds based on science and what we understand to be true. And these seeds are, seeds are some of the cheapest yet most nutrient-dense foods that you can incorporate into your diet to get healthy omega-3 fatty acids. It's also really important for acne because those omega-3 fatty acids are anti-inflammatory. The oils you eat can influence your skin, so making sure that you're eating the healthiest, best version of oils. In fact, you know, recently I was reading through canola oil has been recommended in the past for its omega-3, because it does have some of the omega-3 in it. But there's also a percent, like I was reading as high as 4 percent of the canola oil can actually be high.

hydrogenated fats. We don't want to, we don't want to eat hydrogenate fats. We don't want to eat trans fats. Those aren't real. That's not food. That's something that a chemist made. And your body has not evolved to know. Like, what did that chemists do and what do I do with it? Yeah. I don't even know what a rape seat is. That's where canola comes from, right? So I stay away from it. Yeah. And it's the thing that I want women to recognize, you know, because there's like, it's just so interesting to watch. like the food conversations. I've been in the health and wellness arena for over 20 years. And just to see how it's like vilify butter, vilify eggs, right, by grain, vilify this. And it's like, you know, it's like at the end of the day, it's about what's true for you, what works for you. I actually shared last night, we've had a very, very stressful last couple of weeks. My kitchen is being remodeled. I just shared my, my smoke detectors just went off. My whole heating system broke. Like, and I was like, I'm really stressed. And I really want some

comfort food and I really just want to bowl a mac and cheese and I got Daya's mac and cheese it's gluten-free dairy-free soy-free I mixed it with chitaki mushrooms tomatoes kale like there's tons of veggies in there with it and I showed it on instagram and I was like I know someone's going to hate me and be like that's not real food it's coming out of the box and you know what yeah sometimes this is how people eat and it's okay and like so you know with the canola oil thing um you know I want people to understand that like you try to eat at home. It's possible to do the best that you can. And when you go out to a restaurant, like, you know, if you know gluten is a trigger for you,

dairy is a trigger for you. Like if you know you have a food allergy, definitely stay away from that. You know, avoid those things, but also know that you don't. I live in Portland, Oregon. People do ask where the chicken came from and if it had friends. You don't have to be that neurotic about food. Like we don't have to obsess over it. And so, well, say, like we want to avoid hydrogenated fats, canola oil.

Like, you know, I'll go to a restaurant and rather than being like, okay, like, I know I can't have gluten. I'm like, that's a deal work. I can't have that. But with other things, I'm like, I'm just going to enjoy the meal. And you know what? When we're happy, when we have community, when we are really being present with our food, like, that has tremendous benefits to our health as well. And so I don't, I know with whenever you're facing like a health issue that we want to get really, really strict about everything we can control. but sometimes that can backfire on you.

And the best thing you can do is be gentle with yourself and recognize that, like, you are a human navigating and in a rapidly artificial world. Like, I mean, just in the time that I've been on this planet, I'm like, we now walk around with computers in our hands that we look at all the time. And now there's research saying it's ruining our posture and we know that light disrupts our melatonin,

it disrupts our hormones. And I just had an esthetician. I have to vet this, but I just had an esthetician tell me that there is, she was saying that there's some research coming out showing the blue light admitted from our computers and our phones may actually contribute to hyperpigmentation and adverse changes in our skin. Wow. Which then like, freaks me out. I was like, oh, God. Yeah. How long do I stay in front of a computer?

I know. But also, you know, women who are on birth control, they develop malasma in some cases, which is hyperpigmentation like we see with pregnancy. and to think like, and then you have to go to work and be in front of a computer. And so, you know, a lot of this is that, okay, this is the way we live. All right. So this statistician told me this. What am I, okay, now I'm looking at putting night shift on my computer. It's not enough just to wear my amber glasses.

I'm going to put night shift on. Like, there's a way to navigate this world that needs to be more of a discussion of harm reduction rather than the all or nothing stance. Yeah, I love that. And kind of going back to like what you were saying about food, it's something that I talk about all the time because I've been on both ends of the spectrum. and I went through being really rigid. And, you know, I found that what I'm telling myself before I eat or while I eat is going to have

more of an effect on my body than probably what I'm putting in my body as long as I'm like you, like I can't have gluten. But if I'm sitting there and I'm eating a piece of sushi and I'm like, oh, my God, this has soy. This soy is going to make me so bloated and I'm going to feel like crap. And that whole, you know, that whole storyline is going to make me feel really awful. Whereas if I just eat it and enjoy it, like you're saying, I likely won't really have too much of a reaction. So that's so important. And yeah, I love what you're saying.

Now I'm trying to find where night shift is on my computer. Oh, yeah. It's in the upper right if you have a Mac and there's a shift there. But, yeah, it's funny. I was actually just sharing with someone because I was in an interview and they were talking about orthorexia. and they were like, you know, orthorexia, the health industry causes orthorexia, the wellness industry. And I laughed and I'm like, you know what? I actually had orthorexia when I was getting my nutrition degree.

And it was the food pyramid that caused that for me, is that I was so, like, I had to get my six serving of grains a day to feed this good woman. And I wouldn't eat the yolks and I wouldn't have any fat. And I was so, I was this like grain and vegetable base vegetarian with no fat. And I was sick and I didn't feel well and I had a lot of issues and I ignore my body and I ignored what I was feeling all to stick to a rigid regimen, which then, you know, it came out that that was never based on science. Right. The food pyramid was at this time was never actually based on science. It was based on lobbyists. Right.

And that I'm like, girl, you like developed orthorexia, you were neurotic about your food, you didn't enjoy eating, all of these things. And it wasn't even based on science. Like, what were you doing to yourself? Right. But to recognize that, like, is it that the wellness industry causes orthoraxia, or is it that, you know, the food pyramid causes orthoraxia? No, I think it's not we're really, we're not educated enough about this. And so we're not able to navigate our own body to make educated decisions.

And then we feel like we have to follow this, you know, rigid, rigid plan. So it really can show up, I mean, for a multitude of reasons. And so it's something that having experienced that in my 20s, I'm very cautious about, which is why my message is always, what's true for you? Like, I don't even care what the science says about, you know, X, Y, and Z. If you know that for you, that's not true because that study was based on a cherry-picked population that was perfect for going into that research group. And then the inferences were made from that.

but there will always be outliers to these scientific studies. And the outliers are not always accounted for in the media and in other places they're not even spoken to. And so if you're an outlier, no big deal. Just honor yourself and honor your truth. Yeah, I love that. And we know our body's best, right, at the end of the day, if we stop and listen. Absolutely. I mean, you live in it.

No one else lives in it. So you definitely know it best. your book is just so packed full of information and actionable things that we can all do to improve our lifestyle and it's been it's such a gift so i just want to thank you so much and for coming on here to share with everybody so can you tell everybody where they can find you yeah so when we talked about instagram you can find me and dr joelene brighton on instagram i also run dr brayton dot com which If you've got a hormone or woman-centered question, I've probably answered it there. We've got tons of articles, videos, all kinds of stuff to help women heal.

And then, of course, you can find Beyond the Pill anywhere they sell books. And if you grab it, I want to offer you some gratitude gifts to say thank you for to put your hand up and being part of the change we need in women's medicine. And you can find that. We've got a ton of bonuses to support you on your journey. Yeah, and I'll put links to everything in the show notes. and yeah, I can't thank you enough. Thank you so much for coming on.

I love talking to you. Yeah, thanks so much for having me. I'm so glad after chatting on Instagram, we were able to connect. And, you know, I think it's really funny today. We had, like, your tech failing, my smoke detectors going off. It's like, from hell or high water. We are making this conversation to happen. I know.