Today’s post features a few key takeaways from a recent Wellness Your Way podcast interview.  Find the full episode here, and be sure to subscribe to Wellness Your Way so you don’t miss future episodes!

Guest Bio: Dr. Erika Schwartz

For more than 20 years, Dr. Erika has been at the forefront of advanced patient care. She was one of the first doctors in the US to treat patients with bio-identical hormones, conduct biomarker testing, and to administer preventative IVs.

She continues to deliver cutting edge care to all of her patients in a warm, friendly office. For Dr. Erika, work is pure joy, her legacy is to improve health care for the individual and remove fear and arrogance from the system.

Dr. Erika is a graduate of NYU and received her MD from SUNY-Downstate College of Medicine Cum Laude. She is a member of the prestigious Alpha Omega Alpha honor society and has authored six best selling books for the public along with medical articles and numerous blogs, YouTube channel and bylined articles in the highest circulation publications of the world.

Top Insights from Dr. Erika Schwartz’s Interview

1. When we make the connection between what we eat and how we feel, choosing healthier options becomes much easier. As practitioners, Dr. Erika and I help people make those connections and help them discover what makes them feel best, rather than telling them which foods are “bad” or “off limits.”
2. “Treating ourselves” is a cultural thing. Truly, a candy is not a treat, because it doesn’t make you feel great. But our cultural upbringing makes us reluctant to give these things up, even if we know they’re not best for us.
3. Hormones are at the core of our health. They are molecules made by specific organs in our bodies that affect everything in our bodies, including the way we breath, the way we sleep, the way we gain and lose weight, the way we feel, our muscles, our bones, our skin … everything!
4. Keeping hormones balanced is crucial. We can keep hormones balanced through our diets and lifestyles (as well as medications if needed), but things change throughout our lives so we have to stay on top of it to make sure we stay
5. All hormones impact each other. It’s not just estrogen or progesterone (or testosterone or DHEA), but also cortisol (a stress hormone) and insulin (a metabolic hormone) and thyroid hormones … and SO much more.  They all impact each other, and work together as a symphony.  Cravings that come with PMS, for example, are often a result of ghrelin (a hunger hormone) increasing as a result of sex hormones shifting before and around the onset of a period.
6. If you’re not sleeping 7-8 hours per night, your hormones are impacted. Identify the common culprits – eating too late, blue lights / screens, stress, alcohol, caffeine, etc. and prioritize sleep, because it’s essential for hormones.
7. Acne, headaches, low energy, weight gain, moodiness, inability to detox, headaches, and more are all symptoms of hormonal imbalance. It’s easy to brush any of these things off as normal, but they are often a sign of underlying dysfunction!
8. Our liver is a key participant in flushing out excess hormones, and our liver is already overburdened by life in the 21^st We often wait until someone has acute liver problems to treat it, but we can preempt that by drinking tons of water, eating liver supporting foods like leafy green vegetables and other bitter produce, taking milk thistle, and more.
9. There’s always a tradeoff between health, convenience, cost, and taste when it comes to our food. The great news is that we can individually choose what tradeoff to make!  Want to hire a private chef and pay extra for healthy, convenient food?  Great!  Want to prioritize budget and taste and shop at Farmer’s Markets and cook your own food fresh each meal?  Great!  Want to prioritize convenience and make your food in advance so you have healthy food ready at all times?  Great!  It’s all about finding what works best for YOU!

Want to hear the full episode, including Dr. Erika’s opinion of birth control pills, why we should eat seasonally to support our hormones, and so much more?

Head over here to catch the full episode with Dr. Erika Schwartz!

Now it’s your turn!  What is one thing you learned from this interview?  What’s one thing you’re committed to changing after learning from Dr. Erika Schwartz?