This is our second interview I have with an overwhelmed menopausal female (OMF)
CP: Good morning, how are you feeling?
OMF: Good morning, I actually feel good about starting that chocolate and Spanish wine regimen. My female friends are quite intrigued. I read you articles on HCL. I am surprised that so many people need it. Why?
CP: Most of it is due to increased amounts of stress. If you manage a hedge fund, live in NYC, and have four teenagers, you are more likely going to need HCL than if you are a tourist guide in Fiji, living on a native diet. Also, as we age, it is common to make less and less HCL.
OMF: How is it going to help me go through menopause?
CP: You are only as good as the nutrients you absorb. It is not about what you take in, but what you absorb.
OMF: I am more concerned with the distress associated with menopause.
CP: Like fatigue? You went out for Mexican food last night?
OMF: How did you know?
CP: You have Guacamole and salsa in your hair! Well, that will help with at least four of the seven of the dwarfs of menopause.
OMF: Which ones?
CP: Sleepy, Moody, Bitchy, and Bloaty.
OMF: Really. Why?
CP: Sleepy, Moody, and Bitchy are impacted on by neurotransmitter production. Roughly 2/3 of neurotransmitters are made in the gut. But for serotonin, 95% is made in the gut. So if your gut is dysfunctional, you cannot feel good, because your serotonin is sub par. Bloaty is influenced by how you digest and absorb.
OMF: So the fact that I fart constantly is impacting my brain? You would think I am hosting a trumpet concert every night.
CP: Yes, didn’t the EPA and the CDC issue a warning to your neighbors?
OMF: ???
CP: Your methane production created a hole in the ozone layer, which has now increased dramatically the risks of getting skin cancer for all your neighbours.
OMF: Stop it!
CP: In all seriousness, poor digestion of food, is impacting anything from how energetic you are when getting out of bed to how deeply you sleep.
OMF: How did I get there?
CP: Anything from using oral contraceptives in your youth, to the stress of divorcing, to just plain constraints of modern living impacts on a host of digestive functions. It never ceases to amaze me why women are so concerned on how they got there. Let’s just work on the solution.
OMF: That is so typical of males. “Work on the solution” (As she makes quotations marks gestures with her fingers)
CP: Let me remind you that you invest money in me helping you out, not on finding causes. I can bill you for detective work if you want, but I have many clients to help, and the World actually existed before you came in. Can we move on? You are the one who uses post-it notes on your kids because your memory is falling. What do you think is more important, cause or solution?
OMF: You don’t have to be so direct.
CP: Directness is for efficiency purposes. So let’s work on rebuilding your gut. Can you do me a favor?
OMF: Yes.
CP: Can you please complete the HCL test, and determine your optimal levels so you can digest food properly. Often, just fixing the stomach, helps a lot downstream.
CP: Can you do me another favor?
OMF: Yes of course, if they help like the chocolate and wine favors, I will do anything.
CP: Can you do me, your family, your neighbors, the favor of taking one
Pro Flora at the END of every meal, that will help with all neurotransmitters, and will eliminate the nightly trumpet concert. One of the reasons why I want you to take probiotics is that you will metabolize the entire b-complex family much better.
OMF: And what else?
CP: Since your food intolerances panel indicates you have no problem with dairy, a good idea would be to have Icelandic or Greek yoghourt once a day. Or to have a glass of kefir a day. That will rebuild your good gut bacteria levels faster.
OMF: I thought probiotics need to be taken on an empty stomach for best absorption.
CP: Research done in Wales showed that they are more likely to survive if taken at the end of a meal.