WHOOP Podcast - Science-Backed Nutrition Tips For Women with Dr. Hazel Wallace

Episode Date: March 4, 2026

Welcome back to the WHOOP Advanced Labs series! This week on the WHOOP Podcast, Dr. Hazel Wallace, medical doctor, registered nutritionist, and member of the WHOOP Medical Advisory Board, joins WHOOP SVP of Research Algorithms and Data Emily Capodilupo for a powerful conversation about women’s health, nutrition, and the hormonal milestones that shape our lives.From the reality that most medical research is based on male bodies to the overlooked nutritional needs of women across the menstrual cycle, perimenopause, and beyond, Dr. Wallace breaks down what women actually need to thrive. Emily and Dr. Wallace explore common symptoms of hormonal fluctuations, which supplements could be useful in your diet, postpartum nutrient depletion, and why many women are dismissed when addressing symptoms like fatigue, brain fog, and hair loss. Dr. Wallace shares her experience with PCOS, and the difficulties she faced trying to get a diagnosis despite being a medical doctor herself. Whether you struggle with underlying symptoms of hormone imbalance or are just looking to improve your nutrition, Dr. Wallace shares her top tips for feeling you best and advocating for your health.(00:56) Introduction to Dr. Hazel Wallace(03:24) How Nutrition Plays A Role in Women’s Health(05:16) How do Hormones Directly Influence A Woman’s Nutrition(07:23) Do Our Current Nutritional Recommendations Live Up To Our Needs?(09:12) Standard Nutritional Training In Med School: Is It Enough?(13:43) Symptoms Where Low Level Nutrients May Be Playing A Role (19:44) Finding Solutions: How To Facilitate A Conversation With Your Doctor(21:52) How Should People Be Implementing Supplements In Their Diet?(25:02) How Should Women Fuel Throughout Their Cycle?(31:50) Seeing Hormonal Fluctuations in WHOOP Data(39:57) Hormone Replacement Therapy: How Does This Change The Picture For Women?(41:48) Common Misconceptions In Diet: Nutrition Advice For Health By Decade (30s,40s,50s)(44:35) Where Are People Going Wrong?: Supplementation, Electrolytes, & Blood Pressure(55:07) Main Takeaways: Top 3 Considerations When Changing Your DietFollow Dr. Hazel WallaceInstagramLinkedInTikTokSupport the showFollow WHOOP: Sign up for WHOOP Advanced Labs Trial WHOOP for Free www.whoop.com Instagram TikTok YouTube X Facebook LinkedIn Follow Will Ahmed: Instagram X LinkedIn Follow Kristen Holmes: Instagram LinkedIn Follow Emily Capodilupo: LinkedIn

Nutrition plays a huge role across the lifespan. I studied medicine. I was really excited to learn about nutrition and lifestyle, but you don't learn very much about nutrition in medical school. I was diagnosed with PCS. It took me two years to get to that point, despite me being a medical doctor myself. And I see that often in clinic with women who come in,

be that endometriosis or PCS, and they've been told by a healthcare professional with a throwaway comment, oh, just could I have gluten, just could I have carbs, all these random non-evidence-backed things that they don't realize have a huge implication on women. Women are very unique and have unique nutritional requirements that change across the lifespan. You go through puberty, pregnancy and postpartum, perimenopause, and menopause. So there's all these, what I like to call, important hormonal milestones that influence women's needs across the cycle. So what are the most important things that you wish people understood about this space?

Hi everybody. I'm Emily Capitaluppo, Woop Senior Vice President of Research Algorithms and Data, and today I am joined by Dr. Hazel Wallace. Dr. Wallace is a medical doctor and a registered nutritionist, and I do not think people realize how little nutritional training medical doctors get as part of their medical training. And so it really is special to have somebody who's doubly certified and really thinking about the intersection of these two fields that are highly related. and not enough thought about. So I'm so, so grateful that you're here and very excited for this conversation. Yeah, me too. I'm really excited to be here. Thanks for having me. So just to give everybody a quick rundown of what to expect over the next hour. So Dr. Wallace is a member of the Woop Medical Advisory Board. We're so lucky to have her incredible expertise infused all over the product. And I think you're really going to love hearing what she has to say.

She specializes in women's health. She's written an incredible book called The Female Factor, which we will link in the show notes. And she's also the founder of a platform called The Food Medic. So why don't we start off there? What is the food medic? So I will try to give you the short story of a very long story. But as you mentioned in the introduction, I studied medicine, so did a conventional medical degree. And I was really excited to learn about nutrition and lifestyle within that degree.

because my backstory is I lost my father to a stroke when I was 14. And as it's a cardiovascular disease, even as a teenager, I knew that that was strongly related to our nutrition, our lifestyle, stress, activity. And so I guess somewhere deep down I went into medicine for that reason, but you don't learn very much about nutrition in medical school. And I started the food medic while I was there to help bridge that gap. It started as like this very small blog where I would share evidence-based advice on how nutrition might improve your health. And from there, like just boomed into a couple of books, a podcast, a bigger platform.

It's been going for more than a decade now. And throughout my time working as a doctor, I went back and retrained as a nutritionist, did my master's in clinical nutrition and public health because I wanted to really expand my skill set. and now that's my primary job working as a nutritionist with women primarily. So you focus on working with women. Why is nutrition for women different than nutrition for men? I'm so glad you asked that question. So I'm sure you know this.

I know that this conversation has happened on the podcast before, but most of the medical research that we have, or should I say most of the scientific research that we have is based on male bodies, male cells, male mice, and just extrapolated to women as if we're just small men, which isn't the case. And that's true of nutritional sciences as well. And while now there's a huge movement to gather more data on women and, you know, through who we're able to do that as well.

A lot of what we have when it comes to women or a lot of the advice is just kind of left up to guesswork. But women do have completely different requirements to men. And we have a different hormonal profile, which changes throughout our lifespan. so namely at puberty when we go through puberty we get our first period and we start our menstrual cycles and that is a monthly fluctuation of hormones namely estrogen and progesterine but a few others and they don't just fluctuate and influence you know when we bleed or when we ovulate they influence everything from our mood our metabolism our nutrient needs our gut health our strength

our energy and so we are starting to really piece together the the real real real research now and the data that we have on how we can help tailor nutrition and lifestyle advice for women. And then I guess beyond those reproductive years, we're thinking about the perimenopause and the menopause and then you have another hormonal shift. And if you get pregnant and you go through pregnancy and postpartum, then you have another hormonal shift. So there's all these, what I like to call important hormonal milestones that influence women's needs, especially when it comes to nutrition. So can we connect some of these dots? Like women are not small, men, I think our members and podcast listeners have heard me say that a few times.

Fully with you there. Women have fluctuating hormones related to various life events, including just like the typical monthly cycle. What does that have to do with nutrition? Why do hormones, which I think people do understand to be different between men and women, impact nutritional needs? Yeah. Good question.

There's a couple of ways that it might directly or indirectly. So indirectly, when you go through puberty, you're, You obviously are bleeding monthly for the first time, and so iron losses are high. So we need to think more about iron in the diet when it comes to girls and to women as well. But then for other reasons, so when you go through the menopause, the big significant change is that estrogen drops. And estrogen, we know it as a sex hormone, but it's so important for things like bone health, for cardiovascular health. And so that drop in estrogen means that we are more at risk of things like osteoporosis. So then calcium, vitamin D become even more important.

We're thinking about protein because muscle mass as well is impacted. But also from a cardiovascular point of view. And that's kind of another whole topic when it comes to women's health because we often say heart disease is a man's disease, but women also experience heart disease. After the menopause, we're more at risk because we have that drop in estrogen. Estrogen impacts everything from even how our vessels dilate and contract. So we get this sharp increase in things like blood pressure and cholesterol.

So then we're thinking about things like fiber and movement. So nutrition plays a huge role across the lifespan. And before we started this podcast, you were sharing with me about breastfeeding. During breastfeeding, we have higher nutritional requirements as well. And it makes sense because you're using so much energy to feed a baby. And even women who choose not to breastfeed or maybe they can't breastfeed for whatever reason, you're still going through a recovery period and maybe you've had a lot of nutrient losses during pregnancy. So we really need to create, I believe, nutritional guidelines to help support

women throughout these life stages. Yeah, so I want to dip out click on a couple of things that you said because you said a lot of interesting things just now. So the first thing you mentioned that, you know, most research is done on male cells, male mice, male humans. It wasn't even until 1993 that like clinical trials were required to include women and they still underrepresent women even though legally they're not supposed to. When we look at things like, like, you know, the back of any packaged food, you see a little nutritional breakdown and there's like percent DV, which is like daily value or recommended amount. All of that research that went into saying like this is 12 percent of the iron you need today or, you know, whatever percent of the

calcium, all of that's based on men. How much does that differ for women? You've talked a little bit about how it varies throughout various hormonal phases of life or phases of the month, but how far off are those male recommendations from what women should be? be targeting. It's really difficult to say, and you're right, in that we have like adult recommendations, but we only have specific female-based recommendations when it comes to key lifestones, so pregnancy, breastfeeding, post-menopausal, but not for every nutrient. So I think there's definitely a lot that we don't know in terms of like how we could maybe optimize a woman's diet. And it's really difficult to know unless you are doing a lot of lab testing because most people

don't have their bloods checked unless something goes wrong. As we know, a lot of people are, you know, vitamin D deficient, especially this time of the year, especially in the northern hemisphere, because we're just not getting enough from sunlight. And so it's hard to say how far off we are in terms of the recommendations. But when we really tease things apart and we talk about how our nutrient needs are changing across the menstrual cycle, across the different life stages, we do have different needs and they need to be accounted for. One thing I'd love is, if we could pivot to is we talked a little bit about how, you know, you were inspired to become a doctor in part by this understanding that nutrition was so important, realized you didn't actually

get that training as part of becoming a doctor and retrained. Can you talk a little bit about how much nutrition training doctors actually get? Because one thing that I found very maddening, and we'll tell anybody who will listen because I think it's important for people to understand is I was complaining about a lot of things after I had my daughter and my PCP like asked some really basic questions about diet, told me I was doing great and then told me all of my symptoms were explained by like having a little kid and was very dismissive. I fired him. But like and I turned out to be like very vitamin D and iron deficient in part because of like childbirth and then at nursing and all that kind of stuff. And I ignored those symptoms. I think people don't understand how little,

like this is not the right person to ask. And so get like false confidence or confused because of that. And so why was it important for you to retrain and what did you actually get as part of your medical doctor training? So I had a lecture, a single lecture. Yeah. And I can't speak for all medical schools because I know it's different across the world. Like some people get a full day. some people get 30 minutes, some people don't get anything at all. And within the UK, there's a huge drive that now within medical school training that they are including some nutritional teaching, but it varies. And what I learned through going through a medical degree and then a nutritional degree is they're very different sciences. And so I think it's very easy to assume that doctors should have

that knowledge. But should we expect them to be training? Or is that a completely different specialty for a dietitian or a nutritionist. And it's really difficult because I know how much you have to learn within medical school and how difficult it is to add anything else in there. So it's hard to say what the best way forward. I think doctors should have some nutritional knowledge. So when people like you come in in those core life moments, you're able to have that red flag, well, this woman's, you know, postpartum, she's breastfeeding, she's experiencing these symptoms. I should be thinking about X, Y, and Z. So it's incredible. incredibly important from that point of view. And it's not just about correcting things when they go

wrong, but helping people stay well as well. And that's what I'm really interested in. So, yeah, like even to share my own story, I went to a gynecologist a couple of years ago, 2018, and I was diagnosed with PCOS. It took me two years to get to that point because they were just, you know, ignoring me, despite me being a medical doctor myself. But that gynecologist turned around and said to me, well, you don't need medication, but just come back when you want to get pregnant. And, you don't have carbohydrates and then close the door and that was the end of the conversation. And I was doing my master's during that time so I knew not to really read into what he said. And I also knew that he didn't have any grounds to say that.

But it was that throwaway comment that for another woman could cause them to have complete fear of carbohydrates and not consume them because they think it's going to worsen their PCS. And I see that often in clinic with women who come in, be that endometriosis or PCS, and they've been told by a healthcare professional with a throwaway comment, oh, just cut out gluten, just got out carbs, like all these random non-evidence-backed things that they don't realize have a huge implication on women. That's why it's so important because I think, as we know, a little bit of knowledge can actually be quite detrimental in the wrong hands because sometimes people think they knew

more than they actually do. You know, I have a tremendous amount of respect for the training that people do get in medical school and understand that you can only fit in so many lectures in four years of training. But I do really want everybody listening to take away that, like, it's a totally different training. And so if you've been given really life-altering advice, like eliminate carbs from a medical doctor, it is probably worth trying to figure out how to have a conversation with a nutritionist because, to your point, it's very different training. And if you just cut out massive food groups, you do run the risk of becoming nutrient deficient

because you don't realize what you're throwing away with it. And so people should be really careful in just like wholesale cutting out big food groups, especially a lot of things all at once because you can create problems elsewhere. In addition to just like adding a lot of stress and fear that isn't ultimately productive. You touched on the difference between nutrient deficiencies making you sick versus nutrient optimization kind of making you well. Yeah. And I think that that's a space that people also don't maybe appreciate enough. We know that if you have, you know, really dangerously low levels of vitamin C, you get scurvy. And I think, like, doctors do understand scurvy and how to treat it, but not necessarily what, like, good versus great vitamin C is.

You know, we've introduced recently Woop Advanced Labs, which is our 65 panel blood biomarker test, and the majority of people have low vitamin D. What are just, like, some of these symptoms of not necessarily, like, clinically diagnosable, really dangerous low nutrient? status, but this unwell where nutrient deficiency or not optimal nutrient levels might be playing a role. Yeah, it's a really good question. And I think we have ranges, which is optimal, and then the lower end is deficient. But then there's a spectrum that exists in the middle. And that can be optimal, suboptimal, insufficient, deficient. And you can be somewhere along that spectrum. And sometimes you can be suboptimal and your doctor may not do anything about that or just advise you from a dietary perspective. But really we want to keep up in that sufficient area because yes, we have, you know,

severe vitamin D deficiency, but also suboptimal levels could be impacting things like your immune health, your bone health, even things like maybe impacting things like insulin resistance if you're at risk of that. So it's important that we stay topped up in these levels. In terms of what symptoms you might notice, because there's so many different nutrients that we could be deficient in, it's hard to pinpoint exact things. But there are probably going to be things that you could attribute to something else. So feeling more fatigued, finding it harder to recover from workouts, finding that you're picking up more illnesses like the common cold more frequently than you normally would, feeling quite lethargic with works or working out,

finding your energy dipping in the afternoon, to things like hair loss. hair loss, skin changes, joint aches and pains, brain fog, quite like vague symptoms, so it's hard to pinpoint. And again, might not be taken seriously by a doctor if it's not causing really significant symptoms that's stopping you from working or doing something like that. So I guess the takeaway for this is if you feel like something's not quite right or you're not performing at your optimal from what you feel good or you're waking up and you're not feeling rested and you're waking up and you're feeling groggy. or your workouts you've plateaued in your performance, it is worth checking in on blood biomarkers just to rule out that it's not iron deficiency. And maybe it isn't.

Maybe all your blood biomarkers are fine, but at least you know that that's one thing that you don't have to address and you can focus on things like sleep, topping up your nutrients through your diet and making sure that you're making time for stress management. So I think it's useful to pair both of those things together so that we can really tailor,

are healthy behaviors for kind of long-term health as opposed to just fixing things when they pop up. So if I can repeat back what you said because I think there's a lot of really good actionable tidbits in there. So people should really think about their doctors, their MDs, coming into play when they've reached this state of disease. And that's really what medical school is focusing on. But there's a whole bunch of this like not quite feeling awesome that doctors are not really trained to deal with. And so doctors, aren't necessarily going to help you with, but a nutritionist can. You mentioned a lot of symptoms that are vague but really annoying, right? Like nobody wants to deal with hair loss. Nobody wants to

deal with fatigue. Nobody wants to, like, get more colds this, you know, winter than they need to. If you're noticing any of those things, especially if a doctor's dismissed you, like, I think too many people, like they have these annoying things. Their doctor tells them they're fine. This totally happened to me. And then they just go like, well, I guess this is just my 30s or I guess this is parent. I guess this is 40s, right? It's like you just chalk it up to aging and like deal. It's a really good call out that there's this other specialty that most people don't really engage with of go find a good nutritionist, do this diet audit, like have that conversation. If you have access to it, consider blood work because I think people don't realize like if the answer truly is like your vitamin D

deficient, you're iron deficient, we're talking about like a $5 a month problem to solve, right? These supplements are incredibly accessible, relatively inexpensive. They don't really have side effects. Like, it's a very safe thing to do. So it is worth ruling out because you will feel good in a month of fixing these issues. So I think too many people like skip that step. They go from my doctor told me I'm fine to, I guess this is just my old age now. And then just like, you know, kind of deal with it for the rest of their life. And it's like heartbreaking that people don't even realize that nutritionists exist to help with exactly these issues. Yeah, and I think I would say like I always, when it comes to your health and you're experiencing symptoms that are not normal for you, always go medical professional first.

Even if you feel like you're not being listened to, I would go in prepared with the questions that you want to ask. And if you believe that there's something not quite right, if you believe that it could be vitamin D deficiency or iron deficiency, then tell them that. And it's okay to ask for things. It's okay to ask for blood work. if you feel like you're not getting anywhere, then you can go maybe do some private lab testing and then a nutritionist might help. What I will say is with nutritionists, they can help you with food and supplementation, but if it's something else, they may not be able to help you. So it's like, I would go medical first and then work backwards. Okay, I do like that advice. And I think you've

a really interesting perspective, given that you're both. Most people aren't going to have the knowledge, though, to say, oh, I suspect I'm vitamin D deficient. So let's say, you know, if somebody listening is feeling a little off, very vague, maybe they've been dismissing this for a few years. How do you make that annual PCP visit productive? Well, I love a symptom diary. I think if you can have a symptom log, that's really helpful. But also, if you are using a whoop and you've noticed that your trends have changed over time. So your heart rates gently increasing or your HRV, your recoveries are off. You know that your sleep's more disruptive, but everything else in your life is stable.

then you can give that data to your doctor. And so you can say, well, this is what's happening. I've logged this over how many months. But alongside this, I also feel like really fatigued. I can't keep my eyes open after 3pm. My hair is thinning. They're more likely to listen to that. And also if they have a backlog of data to put their hands to, it's really helpful.

And yes, I don't expect someone to go in, but I think I have this problem. But if you can really articulate what you're experiencing instead of I'm just feeling a bit off, that can be really helpful. And if they say, well, I think it's just you're in your 40s or it's perimenopause, you can ask, well, are there any tests that might help? And really like start to probe, what are my next steps? Or, okay, I'll go away. But if I don't feel better, what are my options then? And I think maybe because people really respect their doctor when it comes to health advice, they're afraid to ask for things. and I don't think you should be afraid to ask for things.

But if everything from a standard health check is fine and you've not done any blood work, it is worth getting annual blood tests to just check in on things like your nutrient status, just to make sure that you're staying on top of things. Because you mentioned, like, it is an easy fix, supplements an easy fix. But also I see people on the opposite end

who over supplement and do too much and you can take too much of a good thing. So it's good to just make sure you're taking the right amounts for your needs. I think that that's a hot topic right now, and there's so many supplements out there of all kinds of, you know, exciting promises. And we've been having a lot of really interesting conversations around advanced labs where people are like, well, I already take, you know, these 45 things and all this stuff. And, you know, they're buying the top of the line stuff. They're spending hundreds of dollars a month on supplements, not prescribed

by a doctor, nutritionist, or indicated by blood work. Are there any supplements that you would support people taking sort of just as being good? Or would you say you shouldn't be taking anything without doing this blood work first? How should people think about that whole space? I'm definitely like a food first nutritionist and then supplements where needed. The big caveat to that is vitamin D is really hard to get from food alone because we make most of it through exposure to sunlight. We don't get much sunlight this time of the year in where we are UK, North America, Ireland. And so supplementation is recommended for all people. And it's within our guidelines in the UK that we should be supplementing from October to March. And I obviously do one-to-one consultations.

And I would say probably one in ten people are supplementing from what I see. And these are self-selecting people who are interested in nutrition. So I think people are chronically insufficient anyway. That's the big supplement that I think is incredibly important to make sure that you're not deficient in. But then it depends on what your diet's like other than if you have a really balanced diet and you are including all food groups and it's omnivorous and you eat oily fish twice a week, then maybe you don't eat a supplement. But if you're someone who hates fish, then I might want to think about an omega-3 supplement for you. If you're someone who is a high-performing athlete and you're struggling to get all the nutrients that you need, then we might want to think

about additional supplementation there, like protein, for example. Or if you're someone who's going through a unique hormonal transition, paramenopause, menopause, breastfeeding, then there are nutrient gaps there as well. So it really depends on the individual. I would always start on trying to make your diet as optimal as possible. Sometimes people think that they are doing that already because maybe they're choosing health foods. So they get a salad at lunchtime, they pick up a protein bar before the gym. But actually, they're not really getting much whole foods,

much fiber, much high protein. And a lot of the food that they're having is maybe health food on the label, but actually isn't truly healthy for us. And so I think it is helpful to have a nutritional audit if that's something at your disposal or something that you can book in with someone. What's up, folks, if you are enjoying this podcast or if you care about health, performance, fitness,

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back to the guests. You talked a little bit about performance and athletes, and we've touched earlier on how your nutritional needs cycle with your menstrual cycle. And so for all the female athletes listening, starting with just like a food first, not supplements kind of approach, what are the things I should be thinking about eating more or less of during the follicular versus ludial phases of my menstrual cycle? So this area is so fascinating. You know what I'm going to say?

There's scant research when it comes to this particular space, but growing. And I've seen it integrated into some, you know, like sports nutrition and sports dietitians, what they're doing with female athletes. And it's really interesting. So I'm sure you guys have covered this a million times, but a typical menstrual cycle textbook is 28 days. And the first half of the cycle is your follicular phase. And the second half is the luteal phase with ovulation in between. And during that time in the first phase, estrogen and progesterone are low, and then estrogen rises just before ovulation and peaks.

And then in that second phase, estrogen progesterone both rise in peak mid-Luteal phase. Now, the reason I mention that is because estrogen and progesterone both drive different nutritional needs and requirements and also gut symptoms across the cycle. So typically we find in that kind of early follicular phase, so during the bleeding phase, when hormones are low, nutrient requirements aren't specific per se but you might find because of all the prostate glandins those inflammatory markers that actually your gut is a little bit off people find that they get really loose stools during that time and so paying special attention to things like maybe you're not having too much caffeine spicy food um even like sugar-free foods or chewing gums that can produce a lot of gas and can make those symptoms worse and if you are an athlete

thinking about hydrating more as well during that time. Because we're losing iron, we want to think about replenishing that iron, getting some vitamin C in there because it helps with iron absorption, so, you know, like bell peppers, citrus foods. Then as estrogen rises, we often find that appetite decreases. And so people will like naturally find that they're maybe eating less or their cravings are a little bit under control. Estergen really helps with insulin sensitivity. So it helps keep our energy levels stable. And would increased insulin sensitivity mean that you could handle carbs better? Yeah, absolutely.

Whereas the opposite's true in the luteal phase. And we have this change in kind of utilization of nutrients. So what we find is we become less insulin sensitive in that luteal phase when progesterone's high. So we find that cravings are higher, food intakes in higher. And also we have an increase in our metabolic rate. so how much energy we're burning at rest. And this will vary from woman to woman, but some studies estimate up to 300 calories extra per day.

Your body is going to tell you to consume less because cravings are lower, but your sort of resting metabolic rate is actually 300 calories higher. This is in the Luteal phase. So you actually will crave more and you'll eat more. Because your metabolic rate is high, your body is very intuitive, and it starts telling you we need to eat more food. So naturally we see an increase in food intake. So we see cravings increase, metabolic rate increases, and food intake increases.

So that's interesting. So you're saying that in the ludial phase, that second half of your cycle, I'm going to be hungrier, but my body needs more. So it's okay to give in to those cravings. Yes. The follow-up question I often get for this is, so I need to eat 300 calories extra per day in the luteal phase. And it's not that prescriptive.

Like I don't want women to go back and start like tracking that. But if you are finding that you're more hungry in that phase, which most women are, I want you to really double down on your nutrition. So if you find your cravings are out of control, we need to think about are you having regular meal times? Are you making time for snacks? Are those meals balanced to carbohydrates, fat and protein? And because you're less insulin sensitive, we need to be even more kind of careful about what carbohydrates we're having. Are they high in fiber? And if we pair them with a protein and a fat, so say you have, sourdough toast and you have avocado and then an egg that is a balanced meal and it means it stabilizes that glucose response. So you feel, you know, fuller for longer, but also your

energy is more stable. You're less likely to have cravings and you're less likely to be moody or cranky. So there's some benefits there from a PMS perspective. That's interesting. So the moody crankiness, which is a sign of often like low blood sugar because you're not smoothing it out well is actually a metabolic health symptom and therefore you could manage those kind of moody, cranky, PMS symptoms simply by increasing fat and protein and decreasing carbs. Probably a bit of both for most people. So I think for anyone who finds that their mood changes premenstrually, you get a bit more irritable or tearful, it's really important to think about your nutrition during that time. It's not a time to be skipping meals. It's not a time to be surviving off caffeine. None of that's going to make you feel good.

it's okay if you do want ice cream and chocolate to make you feel good. I think comfort eating isn't inherently bad. But if it becomes our tool or coping mechanism, then it can be problematic. But PMS is interesting because that exists on a spectrum and 90% of women report premenstrual symptoms and then a smaller group but still quite large 20 to 40% of women have diagnostic premenstrual syndrome where it impacts their day to day. And then a smaller group have something called PMDD or premenstrual dysphoric disorder, which is very severe PMS with more marked mood symptoms. You know, there's emerging research that certain nutrient deficiencies can exacerbate PMS and PMDD. And so by correcting these, we might be able to help mitigate some of those symptoms.

Not completely cure PMS or PMDD. I'm not suggesting that, but help with symptoms. And what are those nutrient? Calcium and vitamin D are two big nutrients. Magnesium is another important one. thinking about things like, as we mentioned, meal timing and having balanced meals so that we're stabilising our energy levels. We're basically trying to keep really balanced homeostasis in our body so that we feel at our best. Because around nutrition, if you are someone in one of those buckets, I want you to be thinking about doubling down on your sleep, moving your body, even if you don't feel like it, it's going to help with your symptoms. And thinking about giving yourself time for stress management and maybe creating more boundaries around things like social. occasions if you know that during that time your body just needs to rest more. And you'll

probably see it in your data. I know I do in mine. Like that week before, that premenstrual week for me, my HRV is always so low. My heart rate has creeped upwards. But because I have that knowledge now from tracking for so long, I don't panic. I know what my body needs. And I know it's going to recover the next week. It just pings back up come day one of my cycle. It's so funny because even in the morning when both my partner and I will look at our whoops scores. If mine's like progressively getting lower, he'll say, are you in your luteal phase? Like he knows now, like what it means for me. And I just know what my requirements are. So I guess like bringing that back together, I think when it comes to women, I don't want you to think that there's something wrong with you. If you're having

symptoms or you're having changes in your HIV or your heart rate or you've got different requirements to a male partner or a male friend, it's just different. and it's about learning those differences and seeing what works for you. And I think if more women had that knowledge or were given that knowledge, then they would find that their menstrual cycles wouldn't be as turbulent and they'd probably find that they can continue to train throughout their cycles and also feel really optimal and feel better than they do. But right now we just don't cater for women at any point of their lifespan.

Yeah, you said so many interesting things there. I think one to pick up on is, If people are experiencing disruptive premenstrual symptoms, it's potentially, at least partially alleviated by things like vitamin D and magnesium, calcium, things that are, again, really easy to supplement, but really helpful to understand if that's what's going on. I think just not suffering in silence and sort of resigning to, you know, this being reality until menopause makes it all go away or something. But, you know, it's worth checking in on those things. And then you also, I think, hinted at the importance of symptom tracking because some of these patterns like, oh, I get more irritable during my luteal phase, like are really easy to miss when you do track these things, whether it's with whoop or just good old fashioned pen and paper, you start to realize, oh, like, this actually might be a PMS symptom. I think what's really important to differentiate is with PMS and PMDD is their cyclical disorders. So their onset is in that luteal phase, and then they should disappear or get better once your

period arrives. So that's different to depression and anxiety. But I suspect that there's a lot of women who've been given the diagnosis of depression and anxiety because they have this, what's actually a cyclical PMS or PMDD. But I don't believe that there's enough awareness within the medical community around those specific disorders. Yes, it's growing. But a lot of clients that I've seen who have really struggled to get that diagnosis of PMDD because it's just not recognized. And what they've, you know, how they've gotten that diagnosis is because they've tracked their symptoms. And they've said like, look, it comes here, it disappears here, and then I have two good weeks. Yeah. Helpful for women listening to understand that this is something that does

tend to get missed. And so important. And I hate like making it their problem, but I do think like we need to be more active drivers of our own health and be an active partner. And I think there's so much in the culture about just being really deferential to medical providers that we almost like don't come prepared and don't do our homework. Unfortunately, it creates massively extended times to correct diagnosis. And I think may be helpful for people to understand if you are misdiagnosed. It's not like it's getting treated or addressed one way or the other. Like the diagnosis actually matters because what you would do about it if you were accurately diagnosed would be quite different. Absolutely, absolutely. It's important, especially what we just mentioned, they're depression,

anxiety, and they're very different to PMS, and so it matters to get the right diagnosis. So we've talked a lot about the menstrual cycle. I want to shift a little bit to perimenopause and menopause. And in some ways, it's some of the same conversation, because it's the decline of estrogen now happening over a larger scale versus within the cycle. But what are some of the nutritional needs that women might face in that phase of life? And how are they a little bit different? It's often really hard to know if you're going through the perimenopause because the symptoms can be quite vague as well. One of the most common symptoms women will notice is a change in their cycle length, so it will become more regular. And you can spend anywhere between four months to 10 years in that

perimenopausal space. And during that time, the hormones are declining, but they're fluctuating a lot. But once you go through the menopause, and that's technically one point in time where you've not had a period for 12 months, after that, eustach is very low. And we mentioned it earlier, but estrogen's incredibly important for bone health, cardiovascular health, brain health. And so what we need to think about in that perimenopausal transition and the menopause and postmenopause is what are we going to do to protect those areas? So thinking about it in that way and looking at bone health first, calcium intake is incredibly important. Calcium intakes have actually been declining because people are moving more away from kind of dairy and dairy products and more going towards dairy alternatives. If that's you, always make sure you're going for a fortified version. So calcium is incredibly important, but also vitamin D, vitamin K and magnesium for bone health.

Most of those you can just get through your diet. Vitamin D, as we mentioned earlier, I would supplement. especially during this time of your life. But protein as well is incredibly important for bone health. It's often not included in the bone health conversation, but it's important. Because we want to maintain that muscle mass in the perimenopause and the menopause so that we have independence and strength, protein's incredibly important then. So thinking about getting regular intakes of protein across your three meals a day plus and minus snacks

is a good place to start. Nutrition aside, when it comes to your bone health, you need to be doing weight-bearing exercises and some form of impact. And so we see a huge drop in physical activity in women during this time of their life. And not just because of maybe interest, but, you know, there's lots of stuff happening in your life. You might be dealing with sick parents. You might, you know, your kids might be going off to school, university, college, whatever

it might be. So there's lots happening. But it's so important to make that time for you to do, you know, even if it's twice a week, some form of impact or strength training to help strengthen those bones. Bone health aside, we're thinking about cardiovascular health. This is incredibly important because we see a sharp increase in cardiovascular disease in women after the menopause. But what you do now will help mitigate some of that risk. And so the big risks are high cholesterol, high blood pressure, dysregulated glucose.

This is something that you can check in on through Whoop Labs or other blood biomarkers to make sure during that kind of transitional phase, maybe in your 40s, that all of those markers are in check. They haven't increased because they can be corrected. They can be reversed. And that will reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease. And all of that can be managed through nutrition, in most cases. Sometimes people need medication and also movement.

So this is why I think it's really interesting to have biomarkers early so that you can detect things early and prevent them from getting worse in the future. You know, probably one of the worst things we ever did for women was label our reproductive hormones, reproductive hormones, because then we sort of fail to recognize the important role that, you know, especially estrogen plays in every major system of our body. And I think that's the point you've so beautifully made that as estrogen changes, it's not just that we've lost our ability to reproduce, which, you know, by 50 years old, a lot of women are sort of okay to say goodbye to. They've had their kids. But it's like all these other things change. And so all your nutritional needs and things that, you know, might have been adequate

with your diet as it stood in your 40s are no longer serving you. How would hormone replacement therapy change all of this story? If you're supplementing estrogen, does this not apply? I think you still need to think about all of these nutrients, you know. Again, we don't have enough research around HRT, hormone replacement therapy, and nutritional deficiencies or recommendations. You're still at risk and also hormones aside, we are at a different age than we were as well, you know, in our 30s and age does impact metabolic status as well and bone health and things like that. So I still want you to think in the same way as someone who wasn't on HRT. You will have the additional estrogen, so it will help protect your bones and things like that.

but we also really need to think about cardiovascular health even in that stage. But something I wanted to mention when you were talking about the menopause and the paramenopause as an area that doesn't have much conversation is we're likely to live a third of our life after the menopause. So I think it's really important that we are having these conversations early before we get to that stage so that we can help be best prepared to not just... live longer, but live longer healthier lives. So, you know, one of the things that we talk about at WOOP is not just lifespan, but health span. And so we want those years to be healthy years.

And for me, what that is is independence, being able to do the things I love, it's being able to be active, free of pain. What we do in our everyday now, in our 30s and our 20s, helps us have those longer, healthier years as well. I love everything you just said, fully agree. And I think that as lifespans are extending, and they have quite a lot in the last 50 years, without health span keeping up, there's this increased likelihood that, you know, you're going to live longer, but less healthy in that kind of final decade of life. What are the misconceptions or things you wish people understood about how their diet in their 30s, 40s, 50s are either, setting them up or not setting them up for health in, let's say, that marginal decade of life.

Definitely in our 20s and our 30s and maybe younger. We think about our diet just on a day-to-day basis, what I need to eat today. And sometimes it's just what I have in the fridge or what I have in the cupboard. And there's not much thinking beyond that. Some people who are more health-conscious might think about their food a bit more if it comes to performance. But not many people a young age are thinking about how their nutrition is going to impact them in their lifespan. But it's so incredibly important because while we can't say that, you know, certain diets are going to make you live longer, we know that certain diets impact things like inflammation and impact risk of cardiovascular disease.

And I'm thinking about the anti-inflammatory diets and there are multiple types of diets that fit into that category. Probably the most famous one will be a Mediterranean-style diet. And we know that because there's so many antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties within that diet, it can help, mitigate against things like cardiovascular disease. Now, eating that for a few years of your life and then not doing it again is you're going to undo those effects. So it's something that needs to be lifelong. And also in the same breath, if you follow that most of the time, but occasionally you have a processed snack. That's also not going to massively change things. It's what we do most of the time that impacts our health in the biggest way. So what's really important is thinking

about your health now and how that will impact you in the future. And there's no magic prescriptive way of doing this. Like there's no specific X amount of protein that's going to make you live longer or prevent you from getting heart disease or prevent you from having Alzheimer's. But just largely focusing on the principles that we all know that work. Largely a whole food diet, focusing mostly on plants, including healthy fats, oily fish, limiting processed foods and processed red meats, and alcohol and sugar. And that's largely the principles that we should live by. If that's what you focus on while trying to get enough sleep, moving your body regularly, having good social connection, which often isn't included in these conversations, that's what we know helps people

live longer, healthier lives. I imagine that most people who are listening to this podcast are more performance inclined, and so are probably already doing a lot of what you just said a lot of the time. And so I'm curious for that cohort who is already trying, what do you find are like the shocking things that like well-intentioned, sort of committed, motivated people are getting wrong? That is a really good question. I think sometimes if you are doing all of the things, all of the basics well, it's easy to feel like you need to add a lot of icing and cherry on top of the cake.

And what I mean by that is people who are very health conscious can sometimes over supplement and maybe try a lot of niche things when it comes to the health. And I don't think that that's necessarily a bad thing. But I think it's helpful to every so often audit what you're doing and see if you can reduce things. because too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. If you can limit how much additional supplements or extra recovery modalities that you need that are unnecessary, I think that's helpful. So. And helpful more than just saying like, hey, you're just making, you know, your pee expensive. I've heard a lot of times like Americans have the most expensive pee and sort of referring to just we over supplement.

If you have a really healthy diet and you are getting in your greens at meal times, you don't. you don't need a greens powder. It's unlikely to change anything. Instead, put your money into buying, you know, really good quality meat instead. The thing is, I understand that this message is not exciting, it's not sexy, and for some people it seems like that's quite boring because I'm doing that. It can't be that simple. It is that simple. So I think to answer your question, it's that we can search too long for the magic pill or the magic supplement that's going to make everything better. But it's really just doing the basics and doing them well and being consistent with them. If you do really want to squeeze out that extra 1%, so you are a high performing athlete,

it is helpful doing things like blood work and making sure that you're not deficient. It is helpful speaking with the nutritionist and a dietitian to see how we can optimize your diet for every day, but also for performance. Because nutrition for healthy living and long longevity is very different to nutrition for performance. And in some ways, it's counterintuitive. Because, you know, if you're performing, we're thinking about lots of sugar and we're thinking about, you know, fast acting carbohydrates so that you perform at your best. There are nuances to this, but I think try not to stray away from what we know works well, the fundamentals. How could somebody think about exploring, is this doing anything for me? You know, if it's even like

one or two percent better, it's worth it. Like, how would, how would you do you? How would, you think about that, especially in those high performance spaces where it's like, oh, this person I respect is taking this green power and this person I respect is using this creed. And then all of a sudden, it's like you're using everything that everybody you follow likes and you have, you know, a whole supplement. Yeah. I mean, if you're starting multiple different things at one time, it's hard to tease out what is actually helping you. So starting one thing at a time, trying it for eight weeks and seeing if it improves your symptoms. I usually say that in general with supplements, give it a go for eight weeks. But if you are, someone who has a healthy diet and you have a greens powder and you're finding it's helping you

in whatever way maybe gut symptoms, bloating, that kind of thing. It could be because of the prebiotic fibres. It could be more from the gut health aspect. And that might mean that you simply just don't have enough fiber in your diet anyway. Adding more things like different beans and pulses, whole grains, nuts and seeds, things like flaxseed and chia seed is likely to offer you the same benefit, if not additional benefits because they're whole foods from just having that supplement. So I think it's important to think what am I missing? Why am I taking the supplement? If it's because you're having gut issues, you should really be speaking to a doctor and or a dietitian to figure out like, what can we do to optimize it in that way and correct it? Because it could be

that you need a probiotic, as opposed to a prebiotic. It could be that there's something underlying happening. I'm not completely against taking supplements that even if they don't have a huge amount of backing behind them if it makes you feel good and it's not doing any harm and you can afford to do so. I like the very practical advice about one thing at a time and give it eight weeks. I think like a lot of times people, they get committed, they go on chat GPT, they get their 15 supplement stack, they go spend $1,000 and they take everything all at once and then they're like, I'm so healthy. It's like you don't actually know if any of that's working for you. Yeah, that's it. And supplements are the World Wild West.

They're not regulated in the way as medicines are, so they don't always have to prove efficacy or safety. And depending on where you're getting your supplements from, there can be a huge variation in terms of what they say on the label versus what's in there. Like some of the studies done on when they actually analyze the amount of nutrients that are in there. And it can be like 300 times of what it's said on the actual label

or like half or 30% of what they've said. So I think if you can limit how much supplements you're taking, I generally think that's a good thing. Obviously, there's a place for them, but just taking them for the sake of it because you've seen them online and help someone else, I'd really question, why am I taking this? You know, what am I missing? And what is this offering me? That's really, really good advice. And, you know, if you can't answer that question for every supplement you're taking or if the answer is just like, I hear this is good for strength training or something like that. It's worth that step back. You know, talk to a nutritionist, talk to a doctor. doctor, but we shouldn't be blindly taking something for the... Yeah, that's it. I think the one supplement that right now is really trending, and I think because of influencer culture is electrolytes.

I'm obsessed, so tell me more. So our body just regulates the amount of electrolytes in our body all the time. It happens in the background. If it gets too high or too low, you can actually become really unwell. And so electrolytes replace those salt losses, and we generally will lose them through every day just through our skin. But if you're sweating lots, you lose more. If you're exercising lots, you will lose more and you lose it as well just through like going to the bathroom every day. We get electrolytes in our food. And so if you're someone who is just like a recreational gym goer,

you don't do any high intensity exercise, you don't train in the heat, you don't do endurance training, it's likely that you don't need any electrolyte replacement unless say you've, you know, become sick for whatever reason. For someone who is an endurance athlete or they do lots of, hot, sweaty sessions, they're training for marathon, they do long runs, then yes, we would think about including electrolytes there. But it shouldn't be a daily supplement for everyone. And that's the only concerning thing that I would like flag that I'm seeing. It's become part of like people's daily supplement stack before that, you know, they wake up, they take their electrolytes straight away. But they may live in a cold country and they're just going to a Pilates class for 45 minutes.

Electronites are not necessary there. And then I guess. people who say, well, I like the taste of them. And I'm like, well, I hear that you like the taste of them, but you're adding so much sodium and salt. And, you know, there's other minerals in there that too much of that can be harmful to things like your kidneys. So we need to be really careful about taking too much supplements without having the need to take them. I'm curious. This is definitely probably the number one supplement that it feels really hyped right now. And everybody here at Woop, like it has the giant water bottle that they're carrying around everywhere, good hydrators and they're all fun colors from the electrolytes and whatnot. But what are the

things that people should look for that might tell them that they're overdoing it. And it sounds like also there's some recommendation here that you should be very open with your doctor that you're doing this and make sure they're okay with it. But signs that you could be overdoing it, it really depends on what is in your electrolyte because there's different formulas. And so it could be that you are finding that it's impacting, you're getting more dizzy or you find that you're Blood pressure has changed. Blood pressure is increased. Could be, you know, changes in passing urine. Symptoms can be quite vague, finding that it's impacting how you perform in terms of sport and exercise. It's hard to pinpoint depending on what is the actual electrolyte that has increased.

And for some healthy individuals, they will find that their body's just going to correct it. So constantly we have like this internal balance where you're going to breathe out more CO2 and your kidneys are going to filter out what you don't need. So for most people, even if they are taking on more, your body's going to take care of just getting rid of that. But if you are someone who's at risk of kidney disease, high blood pressure, it could come a point where actually your body isn't very good at clearing out all of that and increases in the end. Your body might be creating balance because that's its job, but you might be doing like subtle damage to your kidneys. It'll take a long time to show up is what you're saying. Yeah. So even if it's appearing harmless and it seems like you're getting away with it.

you might not be. Yeah, definitely. I mean, I think for someone like you, I would making sure that you are checking in on not just your bloods, but also checking in on your blood pressure annually. If I was to optimize things for you, I would just keep your electrolytes on training days. Well, I definitely appreciate that and also really appreciate the call out around blood pressure because I think a lot of people do not realize that it's a very odd vital sign in that it can get really, really, really high without any symptoms. As you know, Wu tracks blood pressure. And one of the things we found after we released that feature back in May was that when we surveyed people before they got access to the feature, we asked them what their blood pressure was. The vast majority of people who went on

to have high blood pressure self-reported it was normal. And we gave them an option to say that they didn't know. So they're not saying they don't know. They're saying it's normal and then it's not. And so that was a kind of scary eye-opening finding for us. But, you know, I think like overdoing the electrolytes can be creeping up your blood pressure. And I think important that people understand, like you will not feel that. There is no symptom of until it gets really, really high, then it can cause headaches and things like that. And then you've gone really far. But important to be tracking your blood pressure with a cuff or with your PCP.

And so look out for that. Before we wrap, I'd love for everybody listening, if we can just recap the big takeaways, So what are the most important things, either from this conversation or things that you didn't quite get to, that you wish people understood about this space? The biggest thing is that women are very unique and have unique nutritional requirements that change across the lifespan. And it's important to pay attention to that. Another big takeaway is that supplements have a place, but you can over supplement. So it's important to take stock on what you're taking and also check in maybe with annual labs. to just make sure that everything's in check.

I think finally a really important message is what you do today will impact your health span in the future. So strength training, optimizing your diet, plus or minus supplementation, getting enough sleep, all of that's so important for now and how you feel in your day to day, but also how you feel in 20 years' time. And so I think what I'm really excited about with the health span feature in WOOP is that that's really quantifying it for people in real time.

And it helps see what those little habits that you do every day that have maybe become a bit mundane, how that's really benefiting you and kind of improving things for your future you. I love all those takeaways and I think really important and probably new information for a lot of people, just the extent to which your nutritional needs are constantly changing as our bodies are changing. and so not to get too complacent with, you know, I felt really good when I did this 10 years ago, like, great, but figure out which pieces of from that are still working for you and what needs to evolve. You know, I'm really excited that we're seeing more and more people like you who are getting these tool degrees and thinking about the intersection of these spaces and thinking about how do we, you know, use food as medicine.

Thank you for the work that you do in general and for WOOP and for bringing this important message to our listeners. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Thank you so much. If you enjoyed this episode of the WooP podcast, please leave a rating or review. Check us out on social at Woop at Will Ahmed. If you have a question what's answered on the podcast, email us, podcast at Whoop.com. Call us 508-4434349.2. If you think about joining Whoop, you can visit Whoop.com. Sign up for a free 30-day trial membership. New members to use the code Will, W-I-L-L, to get a $60 credit on Whoop accessories when you enter the code at checkout. That's a wrap, folks. Thank you all for listening. We'll catch you next week on the Woof podcast. As always, stay healthy and stay in the green.