Empowering Women: A Holistic Approach to Menopause

Michael Herst00:00:00

Hey, one more thing before you go. Have you ever wondered why menopause remains a taboo topic despite affecting millions of women worldwide?Or how can we empower midlife women to thrive through holistic and integrative approaches, especially in today's society? In this episode, we're tackling these questions and uncovering the often overlooked challenges and the triumphs of midlife women.I'm your host, Michael Hurst. Welcome to One More Thing before you go. I'm honored to be joined by Amina Sharma.She's a passionate advocate for women's health and the co founder of a platform that is breaking the silence around menopause.Amina brings a unique perspective shaped by her personal struggles as a perimenopausal woman navigating corporate America as well as her commitment to guiding women into long term well being through self care and expert assisted solutions. Together we're going to explore how midlife can become a transformative stage filled with confidence and purpose.Getting ready for a conversation that promises to educate and empower women everywhere. My wife and my daughters are looking forward to this conversation as much as I am.

Amita Sharma00:01:21

Oh wow. That's the first question I was going to ask. What does your wife think about it?

Michael Herst00:01:28

Well, you know, it is, I'm excited for this question actually because my wife is going, she's actually postmenopausal, but she feels like she's still pre menopausal, even right in the middle of menopause.So it's kind of one of these dilemmas that the hot flashes, the cold flashes, the, the insomnia, the, I mean, just so many, so many ups and downs and everything. So yeah, we're kind of excited that you're.

Amita Sharma00:02:02

No, I'm really honored, Michael. You know, especially when guys interview me, it shows so much compassion and change of society that we are all moving into.How can we demystify this whole menopause. Right. It should not be a word that, oh my God, we are so scared to talk about.It's a normal phase of a woman's life and we are all living together, men, women, you know, so why should we not discuss something that's a natural phase every woman is going to go through?

Michael Herst00:02:32

I agree with that.I think an open conversation is the best way to go, especially when you're, you know, we all have mothers and we have sisters and we have daughters and I think that, you know, and girlfriends and, and I think we as men should have a better understanding of what transpires within that realm and how, how it affects somebody. I Mean, because it can affect somebody very deeply, both emotionally, physically as well as physically.And you have to be there, you have to be strong for them and you have to understand, not just, not just read about it, but you have to understand and have some empathy and compassion. So yeah, this is going to be great conversation.

Amita Sharma00:03:14

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And, and you know, the thing is, you know, like a decade back or nobody used to talk about menopause the way we're talking in today's day and age.But the reality is, like you said so beautifully, that it's not only the woman who's going to go through, but also people around her in the family. If she's suffering or she's suffering in silence like most of the women do, they suffer in silence.And that's going to impact her relationships, her emotional well being, you know, everything. And we'll talk about how the emotional well being is impacted when a woman is going through this stage of life.

Michael Herst00:03:50

Yeah, I think it's a great opportunity for us to be able to inspire, motivate and educate some people. So I say I'm good looking. I see. I'm so excited that my tongue is tied.

Amita Sharma00:04:05

To.

Michael Herst00:04:06

I think that it's going to be a great conversation and I'm looking forward to it, as I said earlier, so. But I do like to start at the beginning. So tell me a little bit about yourself. Where'd you grow up and do you have any siblings, family?

Amita Sharma00:04:19

Yeah, so I actually I grew up in India. I came here to United States when I was 23 years old to study, like a lot of. And I grew up in a subservient society.You know, culturally, women were just waking up to become financially independent. So I think I come from that generation of women, you know, who were just beginning to find their way towards financial independence. Economic.Of course, economic, financial and educational independence. So that's kind of a little bit of my story. And then I came here and I went to school at UC Berkeley. Actually I studied as an architect.I wanted to be a creative person, but life took me into the software world, the technology world, and, and, and all kind of things happened. Roller coaster ride. And then, as you know, I started having these symptoms which were completely unexplainable.And I suffered through silence because of my culture, the way I was brought up. And then I said, you know, something is wrong, something is not right. And that's when I started opening up about all this topic.Perimenopause, menopause. That's really, in a nutshell, my story that I personally have been suffering in silence.And I said, if I'm suffering in silence, an educated woman, what about the millions and billions of women out there who don't have education and who are living still in subservient societies? They do not speak up. Someone has to speak up on their behalf.That's essentially my story is to really trying to make a social impact, a positive impact to women's lives beyond the reproductive years, which we completely forget.

Michael Herst00:06:06

And I appreciate that, honestly, as a husband, as a father, as a brother, as a son. I appreciate that because I think that, you know, we all have to have a better understanding.I mean, and obviously I know that men, I guess men really kind of go through it with a midlife crisis. They go through their own changes. They don't really necessarily call it menopause, although it got men in the beginning, right?It kind of should, but it's different. So when. When a woman goes through what she goes through, it's like in two or three phases, isn't it?

Amita Sharma00:06:43

Yeah, so that's the thing. See, we don't understand it. So actually, before the woman goes through perimenopause, we don't even understand what perimenopause is.So perimenopause is really the transition to transition years before the woman hits menopause. So menopause is actually when your menstrual cycle is cessation of your menstrual cycle. A very simple definition, for 12 consecutive months.Now, the perimenopause of the years, 10 years, could be 10 years before. So women in.An average woman, if she's in her 40s, will start experiencing this hormonal roller coaster ride and also experiencing these symptoms that we were talking about. Hot flashes, mood swings, you know, anxiety, depression, all these things.Now, the third stage is after the woman hits menopause, that is post menopause. And then the woman is in post menopause the rest of her life until she dies.So these are three distinct stages in a woman's, you know, post reproductive year, so to speak. But all these three distinct stages have. Could have different symptoms, could have different kind of things that she's going through.So we can talk about it more in details. But overall, if women can understand these three distinct phases, that's good enough, as in beginning.

Michael Herst00:08:08

And I think we don't have enough of a conversation in regard to this. Why do you think the menopause remains a taboo subject? I mean, we talked about cultural aspects and a lot of subservient societies and so forth.Which I know that there's a lot more subservient societies across the world than what many people don't know. Why do you think it remains taboo when they know that it's a natural progression of life?

Amita Sharma00:08:34

So multiple things, right? This is so for a woman, end of a sort of like an aging process. Nobody wants to age. Right. And also we don't, we don't like to age.Men or women, it doesn't matter. So women have always been kind of programmed to look beautiful and, you know, be a certain kind of a size.The media wants you kind of stereotype in a, you know, or size this size that I have to fit into that. So all that is changing for majority of the women, right? Nope. They don't like it.That's, that's the kind of like a sort of like a superficial part of why we, why women don't like it.But the other part is the reality is even the medical fraternity, who's supposed to give you the overall like, hey, you, now you are in perimenopause. You're going to go through hormonal shifts and you're going to hit menopause.That also is not really part of the society because most of the medical fraternity, OB GYNs or some of the, your general practitioners are not actually taught about perimenopause when they're going through medical schools. That is also a problem in the community. And menopause is only talked about like for 7, 8 hours.Even in OB GYN, believe it or not, in their 15 years of medical school, that is another issue.So when now, as women in the 40s, you know, you're not going to school or college, you are actually depending on your GPS and your ob GYN to tell you that this is what's going to happen in your life. And if they are not really sharing this information, where do you go? And then you think like, oh, my looks are changing. My this is changing.That is changing. So they don't. It's just, you just keep quiet. I mean, I'm just sharing about my journey.And then the fear of discrimination, age discrimination at workplace also kicks in. You said, oh my God, if I go and say I'm having mood swings, I'm having hot flashes, I'm going through this.You know, my colleagues might judge me in a different way. So there's a whole, you know, notion of judgment, not feeling safe about it. Because as a community, as a society, we just don't talk about it.And, you know, that's my feedback or I love to get your. What do you think?

Michael Herst00:10:56

Well, I think that, you know, navigating perimenopause or any mention of menopause at all in a corporate America especially, I think is very difficult because again, you have a certain bias that's, that's already there.It's kind of built into the system in regard to whether or not, you know, women's health doesn't seem to, you know, probably going to get in trouble for making these statements. They don't seem to put it at the forefront.It doesn't seem to be something that really needs to be, that's not paid attention to, like it's supposed to be paid attention to.You know, I know that my, our youngest daughter, she has got severe case of endometriosis and it causes her to have days that she has to call in sick because of the pain and because of all the other issues that come with endometriosis.And even though she's been technically diagnosed with it, and even though there's a medical record of it, she still gets flack from work if she has to take time off for it.And I think that's something unfortunately, across all of at least corporate America that I'm familiar with, I'm not familiar with outside of corporate America.But I think that the society, the societal and cultural perceptions in regard to it, again, make it a taboo subject that really shouldn't be and that it should be discussed and it should be supported in a very positive way, knowing that it's a, it's a natural part of the aging process that you said, and they don't allow for that to be able to take place.There's things for men, when men have a problem, it's like they got commercials for it, you know, but they don't have as many commercials for women in regard to that. And I think that it needs, that perspective needs to change.And my own personal, my own personal statement, if it wasn't for my mother, I wouldn't be here. If it wasn't for my sister helping to raise me, I may be in a different position where I'm at.If it wasn't for my wife supporting me and loving me and taking care of me when I needed it, I return that favor. But I'd be in a whole mess. You know what I mean? Same thing with our daughters. We've raised our daughters to empower themselves as women.They're intelligent, they're beautiful, they're intelligent, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're Confident and we raised them to be this way. But corporate, corporate America kind of puts a kibosh on that in many perspectives.I know that was a long answer to really what should have been a short answer, but unfortunately it's a long answer.

Amita Sharma00:13:36

You're very true. The corporate America, it's like an invisible workforce. Right. Health equity is not part of their agenda sometimes. And you need scalable solutions.And the cost effective Solution to help 50% of your workforce is women now. And you know, and women over 45, 40 is a growing workforce, it's an intelligent workforce, it is an experienced workforce.And if you're not paying attention to their needs, what's that going to happen? And women also have to speak up. Right? So I think it goes both ways. I mean, I am guilty as shah. I'm sharing my story. I never spoke up, right.Because of the, because of the, you know, I didn't want to lose my job. And I was, I suffered and suffered and didn't call in sick.And I, even if I'm feeling miserable, I'll walk in and I'll kind of try to get through the day with anxiety and depression kicking in, with my libido going down, with my mental health going crazy. You know, that's what an average woman who's going through this experience is going to go through.Sleepless nights, hot flashes in the middle of meetings, could be embarrassing. Then mood swings, emotional upheaval of your hormones and loss of libido with, you know, relationships going down the tank.All these things kick in, can kick in for any woman who's going through menopause journey. And how do you deal with it? Right.

Michael Herst00:15:08

Well, I think that brings something up, if you don't mind, for those individuals that maybe not going or are experiencing this or are about to experience this.You know, what are some of the, I mean, you, you just mentioned some of them, some of the physical, emotional and, and like societal impacts of menopause for women. What can they, what can they expect to start feeling? Because I know that you said depression, anxiety and you know, it all plays, doesn't it?

Amita Sharma00:15:37

Yeah, yeah. So first of all, I'm not a medical doctor. I won't put a big disclaimer here.I've interviewed over 3,000 medical holistic experts from all over the world.But typically, like we were talking about earlier, you know, the first in the perimenopause, typically what happens is your mood swings, like your female sex hormones are going down. So as a result of the hormonal rollercoaster ride, women Start feeling. Most of the symptoms that are common are hot flashes, night sweats.As a result of that, women can't sleep at night properly. That happened to me as well. In the morning, you just wake up with a foggy brain, like you can't think straight.You're forgetting things, and then you're going through the mood swings. The anxiety kicks in, and the weight also kicks in. Sometimes, you know, right around your belly, your hair starts getting thin.You get sometimes sudden burst of anger. All these things can happen during the perimenopause. I'm not talking about the post menopause yet. I'm just only talking about perimenopause.And then around that same time frame, it could also be loss of libido. Your pelvic health has. Could have some issues because your vaginal wall becomes thin.So in addition to your physical attributes, what you're talking about, mental anxiety and your relationship with your partner can also get impacted. And there's a lot of data about this.What I'm talking about is 60% of the women who are going through divorce are in this phase of life, perimenopause, menopause, but they don't talk about it. Communication. Right. That. That gets kind of lost into just being silent.

Michael Herst00:17:17

Yeah, I think communication is the key to. The key to many problems, not just within this, like what we're talking about. Key to relationships, key to.You know, I worked domestic violence for so many years, and the lack of communication in that environment was just unbelievable. Watching the dysfunction that goes through that. And the majority of that was due to lack of communication, lack of conversation.So bringing a conversation to the table, I think, is one of the most important factors. Especially even in this particular instance, you know, we were just.And I have permission from Diane, so when anybody go, oh, he's talking about his wife. She told me I could. Realistically, you know, the night sweats and the.When she first started having the night sweats and the hot flashes and the mood swings and the up and down, we had conversations about them so that I was fully aware of them. And it allowed me to prepare as a partner, as her husband, as her friend, allowed me to be able to prepare for them as well. So we got like a cooler.And so when she started having hot flashes, she was able to turn the cooler on right in front of her. It was just a thing. We just plugged in and she could turn it on. It was a little, you know, help her with the hot flashes.Plus I had a better understanding of it, especially with the Mood swings.It allowed me to understand why she got snappy or why this took place, why that took place, as well as the depression and the anxiety, because she already deals with that or manages that on a regular basis. But this enhanced it and made it worse from that perspective. So.Yeah, so I think that communication, communication is really a positive thing about that. I know there's medications and so forth that women can get on in regard to each phase of this. Correct?

Amita Sharma00:19:09

Yeah, yeah. So the HRT is one of the common. If you go to organic colleges, most of the gynecologists will prescribe HRT hormone replacement therapy.Basically, they're kind of saying that the hormones that are depleting, you take the hormones. But I personally, you know, hrt, no hrt, you still need to incorporate or add, embrace a holistic lifestyle, meaning you have to change your.Your entire lifestyle and diet modifications, you know, as a woman, because so many things are changing. Your gut microbiome is changing. You know, as you're going through this perimenopause, menopause, your brain is changing, believe it or not.That's explains some of the moves. Not necessarily because of brain changes. There's a research about it. Dr. Lisa Marconi, she talks a lot about that. So. And, and every.It's not one size fit all. See, that's the other thing. It's not like, okay, let me take a Tylenol and my headache is going to go away. Most of us do that.But in this case, every woman is different based on her cultural, ethnic, the way she has kept herself all these years, up to 40 years. Right. Her maybe genes, you know, her mother. So many. It's complicated. It's not simple. And that's the other problem.We don't understand it very well as a society.

Michael Herst00:20:28

No, we don't. And I think it's very. It's frustrating. My wife, her frustration right now is the fact that, you know, she doesn't necessarily want to go on hrt.She wants to do more of a bioidentical hormonal treatment plan. But the insurance companies, and this is just a conversation, the insurance companies typically won't cover bioidentical.But see, I found that not just with this, I found that even with my own particular situation, I have an autoimmune disease myself. And you know, they put me on nine different drugs. Those nine different drugs literally about killed me.Took me from 170 pounds down to 100 pounds before they realized it was the drugs. That's what was doing it. So I got off of all of those drugs. And I went more of a holistic, naturopathic approach to my health.And as my audience knows or my community knows, that has sustained me and allowed me to get more healthy in regard to a well rounded health all the way around. Not just specific with those kind of drugs.But it's difficult for her to get the bioidentical hormones because it goes since it's not covered by insurance. You know, we're looking at 4, 5, $600 a month.And that 4 or 5, 600amonth is not in the average person's budget to be able to be able to accomplish that kind of a deal.So in, in a holistic and integrative approach, I know that you were talking about you have to incorporate other things, I'm assuming diet and more things like exercise and things like that. Can we talk about that for a second?

Amita Sharma00:22:03

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And you're right, it is so cost prohibitive for majority of the Women to start spending 506 indoors for rest of your life, right?Literally bioidentical hormones, if you go. And I never took hormone therapy, by the way, but I changed my entire diet, my entire exercise regimen.So things like, you know, we know that bone mass starts going down, so you need to start doing strength conditioning as an example, right? In the diet, we know that our sex, female sex hormones are going down. Estrogen, progesterone. So I'm sharing my experience of what I have done.And so please, you have to consult with your dietitian or whoever you want to. But I started taking natural plant based estrogen phytoestrogens, foods that already have natural estrogen in it.For example, cruciferous vegetables, you know, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, things like that. And then some of the other things like flaxseeds, you know, I upped my protein quite a bit so that, you know, I'm, I'm kind of not hungry.I needed to control my blood sugar a lot because I would get hunger pangs and my blood sugar is going up and down. So things like that. And also I personally take a lot of ayurvedic supplements and ayurvedic therapies. I also get sometimes acupuncture done.I also use hypnotherapy for. I have used hypnotherapy to help myself. Some simple meditation, one or two minutes meditation. I also learned how to do breathing, right?Pranayama, what they call it, right? Yoga.So all these things, if you start incorporating even aromatherapy, some of the Essential oils, and some actually massaging my head with medicated oils once a week, even my face with medicated oils and also my body with medicated oils. So I have kind of incorporated or embraced these eastern routes, the roots that are.That have, you know, evidence in it, some research behind it is what I'm saying.So that's all I have done to incorporate a holistic lifestyle, which is not only the diet, but also using some of the holistic therapies that are rooted in Ayurveda or in traditional Chinese medicine, yoga, breath work, stuff like that, and also some Western, you know, your regular exercise, like strength training. These are some of the things that I personally have done well, and I.

Michael Herst00:24:29

Appreciate that as well. I think that, you know, like Diana's, you know, she does yoga every morning now.She took up yoga, and that seems to help her get a little more balance to validate what you're saying. You know, she's. It gives her a little bit more balance and helps her to manage some of the.The ups and downs, the mood swings, the depression and anxiety. It helps her to manage that.She started doing a little bit of strength training in order to help her kind of build her strength back up again because she's realized that she's missing some of that.We have changed her diet, although I'm gonna have to sneak in cauliflower and Brussels sprouts, because those aren't her favorite, but I might be able to sneak them in. But is. It's interesting to know that. And, like, if for Diane, and I know this community embraces this.Okay, when I say this, I wholeheartedly believe in diet, that food is our medicine, and that what we eat is who we are. I've done it myself. I've put my own autoimmune disease in remission. When I go off of that and I deviate from that, I have backlash.And that backlash reminds me sometimes, really reminds me that I need to go back to what I was doing. So I think it's nice to know that there are some holistic approaches and. And some natural approaches that we can.I say we, as a family, that we can approach for individuals that are starting to experience this. And again, you know, obviously, as a disclaimer, we're not medical professionals.We're only giving you our opinions and what works for us and what we're being able to accomplish and what we know fits for us. And that you should always check with your doctor in embarking on any kind of.Any kind of change in your diet or change in Your exercise or change in anything that affects your health in regard. But coming from that, we also a firm believer in acupuncture and I hadn't thought about acupuncture for Diane.She does acupuncture on me, manage my rheumatoid arthritis. Actually. I've got, I don't believe in tattoos. I've got 36 little dots all over my body. That's where the needles go in.And she does acupuncture on me and it helps to manage that. But I hadn't thought about it for, for, for menopause. I think that's pretty cool. And you say Ayurveda.I've always had, I've always had a problem saying that word. So forgive me. We do support Ayurveda.She gets, she does get product from Ayurveda, but I didn't realize that they had stuff that she could do for like perimenopause or her menopause. We'll have to explore that. What uniques. I know that. What encouraged you? I'm assuming your own journey probably encouraged you to come to Nourish Doc.What is Nourish Doc?

Amita Sharma00:27:22

So, yeah, my journey, of course, as I shared earlier, you know, I was silent for so many years. I never spoke up, right.That bothered me inside my soul and I needed to do something and I wanted to give back to the society, make an impact, a social impact. So I did not. I, I was struggling with what should I do.And I didn't want to talk about menopause because again, the shame part, you know, a few years back and I talked to anyone and they'll start looking at me. So are you crazy? You couldn't start talking about menopause on LinkedIn and all the places. What are people. I'm like, you know what?So it was like epiphany, you know, it was like, I'm like, you know what if I don't talk about it now? I mean, what good is it that all this technology and all these education and I say myself and I can't even open up to help.Like I've suffered whatever I need to be able to not other women suffer. So this was not a one day kind of a thing. Suddenly, okay, Narish talk. Suddenly was born.So initially we started with the holistic part of chronic conditions. We never talked about the diabetes and this serious ones, the osteoporosis. And I realized, I said, no, no, no, that's too late.By the time you reach there, you know, you're older, right? So we need to come younger. And that's when this whole thing started. Like, no, we need to start actually helping young women empower them.Younger women, 35 plus, they need to understand what perimenopause is, whether they want it or not.

Michael Herst00:28:53

On.

Amita Sharma00:28:54

So that whole journey actually took into shape about a couple of years back.We decided, no, as a company, we are going to go deep into this topic of perimenopause menopause years beyond the reproductive years for a woman's life and go dig deeper into it and present an affordable solution. Like you were talking earlier, that it is so cost prohibitive.So we want to present a scalable as well as a cost effective solution for all the women in the world, for that matter.

Michael Herst00:29:24

And I admire you for that.I think it's an opportunity for individuals that need help to be able to get help without fear of whether or not something is not going to be covered or something is out of their range. Because some people feel help.I cannot tell you put into words the amount of frustration that my wife has gone through in regard to dealing with the health insurance company who, I'm not naming them, so we're okay.But it's, you know, it, it's, it's, it's frustrating and it's angry and it, you know, she gets upset and that makes me upset and then, you know, it hurts her feelings and it hurts my feelings and you know, and it hurts our kids feelings and you know, my daughters are going to have to go through this as well. So, you know, this is an experience.I think that I'm, I applaud you for bringing this to a, to a forefront where you are educating people, you're inspiring people, you are motivating people in order to take a, you know, that there are solutions. You know, the fact is, is that really, you're really not left hanging like, like you're presented with like, what am I going to do?I cannot believe that I can't get help, that there is help out there and that you do have an opportunity to maybe make a positive impact on your health and those around you. So, yeah, this is, this is good. So in Nourish Doc, I mean, how'd you come about the name by the way? Because I, I love Nourish.

Amita Sharma00:30:52

Of course. Yeah. No, it was just we always wanted to, wanted to do a company or on holistic nourishing, like food as medicine you talked about earlier.And you know, initially when Nourish Dog started, it was sort of like supposed to be a food company in the sense Recipes and what kind of food to put in your kind of body. So that is how this whole Nourish Dog started. Nourish dog is for Dr. So Nourish Dog.But so we kept the name because we, you know, I personally think it's so appropriate.But you know, the other thing your wife could also do, she should obviously consult with this naturopathic doctor who could help her with some supplements. You know, supplements really help. I personally take a lot of supplements. You know, it depends again on everyone's. Every woman's is different.But a lot of supplements, a lot of ayurvedic supplements help with anxiety, with the depression, with also some of the other issues. There are a lot of supplements out there that you can take in lieu of HRT is what I'm saying. I personally take a lot of supplements.I just wanted to mention it over there. And also anti inflammatory diet also helps like herbs and spices, incorporating that.So Nourish Dog was all about nourishing not only your body, but mind, body and soul. So that's kind of how we came up with this whole thing, nourishing your entire mind, body and soul. And that's how the name kind of came around.

Michael Herst00:32:21

That's the key. Mind, body, soul. We have to balance our mind, body and soul. So they work together to keep us living. You would never know. I'm 95. Right.

Amita Sharma00:32:30

Really? No joking?

Michael Herst00:32:33

No, no, no, no. I just figure if I tell people I'm like 80, they go, Damn, you look good. You go back to the, the vein thing we were talking about earlier.See, men go through the vein part too.

Amita Sharma00:32:47

Oh yeah, absolutely. I think men have their phase too. The testosterone goes down. Like I said, it does.

Michael Herst00:32:54

Interesting, because that's making reference earlier, you know, that men go through their own version of this in regard to that. And. But it is, it's extremely easy. You see, you see it all the time.And it's not as expensive as what, you know, Diane was looking at to fix this problem. You see the commercials on a consistent basis. It's like, you can get this Percy easy. Just call a sep, will do this, this, this, right?Write your prescription and will come right to your door in a package and, you know, plain brown wrapper. Nobody has to know. And there you go. Have a nice day.But for a woman trying to navigate this, it becomes a maze that they have to go through and it becomes something that I'm sure a lot of women just give up and just deal with it and, or unfortunately go down a dark path. And I don't think the dark path is the right solution to do.I think something like what you present with a more holistic, naturopathic approach to healing the mind, body, the soul and providing them the information, the tools necessary in order for them to be able to heal from within out is a better opportunity for them. So I think that this is, you know, I think we're doing something good. I think you're doing something good. How can a midlife woman.Can I say midlife woman?

Amita Sharma00:34:15

Oh, yeah, absolutely. But midlife woman or man, doesn't matter.

Michael Herst00:34:19

How midlife woman embrace this stage with like confidence and purpose because as we said earlier, you know, Diane gets frustrated, she gets stepped on. She feels.And I know we know other people, my sister went through it, I know when my mother went through it, but when my mother went through it, obviously I didn't understand it. I was a teenager at the time. So to us it was. It just what, way back when it wasn't really talked about at all kind of a situation. So.So how can they embrace this stage with confidence and purpose and really understand that there is help out there?

Amita Sharma00:34:55

Yeah, you know, women have to start embracing, start taking their personal wellness in control. That, that's what I would say.And you know, that's what we are trying to do at Nourish Talk, you know, we've created self care journey for all the women who are going through from perimenopause, menopause, post menopause, so that at least they get on this journey of self care and kept it scalable and super affordable. You know, like $5 per month.That's what we've tried to achieve so that every woman can at least understand what she's going to go through, how can she change her lifestyle, what kind of dietary modifications she can do, and if she wants to consult a naturopathic doctor or any other professional, she can do that at the second stage. Not start shelling out so much money at the beginning without understanding what the consequences are of this stage.I personally think that's very important as a woman to be empowered to understand what I'm going to go through when I'm going through perimenopause, menopause or post menopause.

Michael Herst00:35:57

I agree with that and I appreciate that as a husband, as a father and son, as I said, or in a brother. I appreciate that because I think that it lacks in so many ways that we don't empower women enough in regard to taking control of their own health.And I think that, yeah, so what you do it brings something to the world that's positive. With that regard, what role does self care and self self love play in preventing chronic conditions and fostering long term well being? Does that?I don't think. And this is just an offshoot from this, I don't think.I think when people reach a certain age, sometimes they get to taking care of somebody so much that they forget about taking care of themselves. I saw that a lot with caregivers. You know, it turned out it ends up happening, inevitably ends up happening.You know, even when we were taking care of Diana's father, for example, we had him here with Lewy Body Dementia. So Diana and I took care of him for 18 months before he passed. During that time period, it was David 24:7.And we forgot about taking care of ourselves. We forgot about our relationship. We forgot about so many things that we had to play catch up afterwards.So do you think self care and self love play a factor in helping us to prevent and to nurture ourselves into this phase of our life?

Amita Sharma00:37:29

It's. It's.You know, interestingly, I talked to a woman this morning and she's a caregiver and she was talking about the same thing, what you're talking about. She had to take care of her mom. She was. She actually passed away with cancer. And she says she did not. She couldn't take care of herself. Right.And it happens to all of us. You know, especially at this age when women are going through menopause, they probably have aging parents now.They are going through themselves this whole turbulent time. At the same time, they have to take care of.If they have to take care of an aging parent becomes very difficult because sooner or later you are going to. Now for lack of care, you don't have the time. You have to. So all I want to say is self care is not selfish. You need to do that to help yourself.Right. You know, it's not selfish at all. Even if you're a caregiver to your parent.

Michael Herst00:38:23

I agree with that. I think that's a message that needed to be said.So thank you for doing that for my audience, my community out here that do own a business or are corporate executives. How can workplaces better support women going through menopause? I think it's important that that needs to be addressed.And I realize, again, we're only making suggestions.I think as you going through it yourself, you know, can give insight as to what a corporate executive or a boss or a supervisor can do to maybe help understand.

Amita Sharma00:38:57

So I think it's just have to be open communication. There's not need to be such a hidden kind of under the rug communication.Like, you know, it should be part of some general well being wellness that, okay, we support our employees at every age group, at every stage. And this also is one of the wellness that we support, like mental health.Now when we talk about mental health, there's no shame associated with mental health. We openly talk about mental health. We say, oh, everybody has mental health issue and the same thing.I think we just need to normalize this topic at the workplace as well. That women 35 plus might go through this phase of life.And we at our workplace or our business, we support women at every stage, whether it's pregnancy or this phase of life. It should not be a big deal is what I'm trying to say.

Michael Herst00:39:48

I think it's great that you're able to bring it from that perspective.I think that we as individuals, whether we're men or women, in a position of, I won't say a position of power, but I'll say in a corporate position, a boss or in a supervisor, in a work environment with other individuals.We all need to learn to have compassion and understanding and humanity and understand that that could be any one of us going through the same thing and that, you know, take the time.

Amita Sharma00:40:17

And again, I just want to say, yeah, one thing, like in America and us, we spend trillions of dollars in trying to prevent chronic conditions, right? And we are not getting to the root cause of what is causing chronic condition.And in women especially, there's a lot of studies now being done to correlate the lack of care in the perimenopausal years to rise of chronic condition when the woman is over 55 plus. 80% of the women over 55 plus have chronic condition now. So we're spending trillions and trillions of dollars. Oh my God. Now how do I manage it?How, how do I prevent it? How do I reverse it? All those things. But you know, it becomes like you're 60 years old and you're trying to do that now.But I'm saying come here at age 35 and start educating and empowering women. Men, even men, need to take care of themselves. And it has to come from the workplace because we are not in college, we're not teenagers at this age.Unfortunately, we're not going to school. School and college where teachers would tell us we have to rely on our employers. And that's what most of us are going and spending all the time.So employers have to rise up right.

Michael Herst00:41:27

Yeah, I agree with that. It's that old adage that we start doing something even now, I have to admit, just a little humor. I have to admit it's like, dadgummit, I'm not.I keep trying to do this, but I did that when I was 25 and there's no way my wife goes, why are you even trying to do that? That's a long time ago.

Amita Sharma00:41:49

Yeah, exactly.

Michael Herst00:41:50

We all fall into that little gamut, I think.What can we do or what can somebody do if they're looking for a holistic and integrative approach to menopause or to taking care of ourself like that? Or from that perspective, especially at Nourish Dog.

Amita Sharma00:42:06

Well, you know, we just go to our website, www.nourishtaff.com Like I said earlier, we are coming up with an app that's going to be super affordable. That was one thing that was so personal to me that women should not be shelling out thousand, thousand dollars.And so just understanding what you're going to go through, that's really our intention to make a social impact and to change your life, to empower you as a woman. That's what we are trying to do at Nourish Dog.So I highly encourage you to go to our website or when the app comes available, download it and help yourself. That's really my intention here.

Michael Herst00:42:47

Yeah. Helping ourselves, I think is an important factor that we all need to remember. We have the ability to choose to help ourselves or choose not to.If somebody's starting to experience this in for those that are not 35 years old and they start experiencing symptoms and self worth, what is something that they can start taking notice that maybe this is the stage of life that I'm starting to enter. At least from your perspective.

Amita Sharma00:43:16

Yeah, from actually a lot of medical experts that I've interviewed, typically what they say is the first thing a woman should notice is the irregular periods or irregular menstrual cycle. Menstrual cycle is the pretty much a barometer of women's health, especially during these years.And if the menstrual cycle is not regular, especially if she's a younger woman, she could be having a PCOS or some other issues. If she is a 35 plus or you know, around that age group, she could start showing early signs of perimenopause.10% of women start showing perimenopausal signs in their mid-30s. Believe it or not. There is a lot of infertility that's, you know, issues that are happening. You're not going into that.So typically making sure your menstrual cycle is regular and if it is not regular, there is a concern that women should be concerned about. If they're younger, there's something else that's going on. If they're, you know, some medical condition like PCOS or some other issues are going on.So you need to consult your medical practitioner immediately. If the menstrual cycle is not regular, continuously. Right. Or if you're in that age group, you might be seeing early signs of perimenopause.And then again, it's a concern because it could be an infertility. Right. Because most of the women now are getting married later, having kids later, all that thing has shifted as opposed to it used to happen before.

Michael Herst00:44:46

It all plays a factor. Role plays a factor.I will make sure that all of what we just spoke about is available on the website and in the show notes so that they have an easy way to click and find you as well as some of the programs.I know that you do meditation and you have some holistic and naturopathic opportunities for people to kind of explore there as well as, like you said, the ability to connect with a naturopathic doctor, which I think I wholeheartedly. If I could cheer it, I would cheer it. I love naturopathic doctors. I think that they're an addition to our society and our well being.That is like, yes, profound. This is one more thing before you go. So before we go, do you have any words of wisdom?

Amita Sharma00:45:32

No, I, like I said, my only words of wisdom is, hey, invest in yourself. You know, believe in yourself. Listen to the voice right here, right there. And we, we ignore it.You know, as, as men and women both, we just need to listen to what our heart is telling us and listen to that and, and investing in ourselves. That's what I tell myself every single day. Investing in myself, by the way. And, and you know, I'm a big faith person. I believe in a lot.I think faith can help a lot of us. So I'm a big believer in faith as well. You know, I don't know, it depends on every person whether they believe in faith or not.But I think really prayer has an amazing, amazing healing power. A lot of these holistic therapies have a healing power. So embrace whatever works for you. You know, that's what I would say.

Michael Herst00:46:24

Those are brilliant words of wisdom. I think everybody should take those to heart. Heart, Pray, meditate, take care of yourself, pay attention to yourself, listen to yourself.That yeah, this works. Pray a lot. Exactly. I mean thank you very much for coming on the show. I really appreciate it. Look forward to another conversation with you.I think that we have the opportunity to maybe expand the conversation and and help some other people and hopefully inspire, educate and motivate them as well.

Amita Sharma00:46:57

Absolutely. Absolutely. We could go more in details next time whenever.

Michael Herst00:47:01

That would be fantastic for everyone else out there. Please like subscribe and share.Thank you for being a part of One more thing before you go community again everything in order to get a hold of nourish doc to get over me and find out what they have to offer. You will be in the show Notes and one more thing before you all go Have a great day day. Have a great week and thank you for being here.

Amita Sharma00:47:23

Thanks for listening to this episode of One More Thing before youe Go.Check out our website@beforeyougopodcast.com youm can find us as well as subscribe to the program and rate us on your favorite podcast listening platform.