166: Hormone Health, The Truth about Semaglutide with Cody Sanders

CODY SANDERS [00:00]

One of the easiest ways that we can help to reduce the negative effects of stress on our bodies is to actually make sure that we're getting the nutrients that our body needs.

[MUSIC]

CAMILLE WALKER [00:17]

So, you want to make an impact. You're thinking about starting a business sharing your voice. How do women do it that handle motherhood, family, and still chase after those dreams? We'll listen each week as we dive into the stories of women who know. This is Call Me CEO.

[MUSIC]

Welcome back everyone to Call Me CEO. This is Camille Walker, your host. And today, we are doing part two of our co-founder, co-owner of Mixhers, Cody Sanders. If you missed episode one, make sure you go back and listen to that one because it's all about the creation and the beautiful product that is Mixhers that helps women's hormone health and health in general, so many different products. We can't even name them all. But we will list them below.

So, if you have had the chance or you haven't had the chance, thank you for being here for episode two. We are diving into hormone health for women specifically and also semaglutide because it is a big, big thing going on. And Cody Sanders knows all about hormones. So, Cody, thank you so much for being on this episode.

CODY [01:26]

Hi, Camille. Thank you so much for having me. So fun.

CAMILLE [01:29]

Yeah, we were at a retreat together just a few weeks ago. And I actually asked her this question because everyone I see is talking, at my age, I'm almost 40 and the conversations I'm hearing are, I'm bleeding so much. I'm having migraines, I am not able to sleep at night. Should I be taking a hormone? Should I be taking a blood test? What is going on?

And it's really interesting because A) I love that this is a discussion that's happening more openly, so we can educate and learn from each other. And B) I love that there are products like Mixhers and also doctors and blood tests that are finally embracing women's health in a way that is way far behind where it should be. So, that's a lot to dig into. But I'm excited to talk about that. So, let's get started with that. What are your thoughts?

CODY [02:20]

Yeah, my background is I'm a holistic health practitioner and functional nutritionist. And I've worked with women and their hormonal health for over 25 years. And you're right. It has been an under discussed topic. There's been a lot of confusion out there. And yet, there's been a lot of women who have just been suffering every single month or suffering through different phases of their life and not understanding why, feeling like they're crazy, feeling like they're debilitated, that they need to be bedridden. There's all these things, and they'll go and they'll talk to their trusted health provider. And they will describe the symptoms that they're feeling.

And if it's a really great health provider, hopefully they're listening to you. And they're saying, "Let's dive in, let's find out why you're having these symptoms." But unfortunately, what happens a lot is that a lot of these doctors that are out there don't have a lot of training when it comes to women's health. And so, they focus on a symptom-based approach, which is great, because we do. We just want to have pain relief, we just want a little Band-Aid every once in a while.

But if we want to address actual healing of the body and helping to support hormonal health for the long-term, we really have to dig in deeper. We really have to look for why we're having the symptoms in the first place. And that's called taking a root cause approach. And that's where my training and specialty is. And so, that's what I always recommend.

So, I am a big advocate of, first of all, you girls being your own best health advocate and trusting that if you are feeling symptoms, if something feels off, go and seek help and find solutions. And if you feel at all you're being dismissed, which sadly, a lot of the women that I worked with and talk to on a daily basis tell me that story all the time that they just feel dismissed, told that this is what it's like to be a woman, or that they're being overdramatic, or that this is just normal, whatever. Don't take that. Go and find a different practitioner.

Luckily, there are more and more of these health care providers who are getting the proper training. I know everybody's intentions are so great. It's just that there was a lack of education. And so, these other practitioners are doing the work, they're getting the training that they need so that they can better provide the care that you actually need. So, yeah, I love suggesting women to go and find somebody' that's willing to do the test. Let's find out what's happening. You really won't know unless you do the testing. Otherwise, you're just guessing.

And so, it's important to try to get that view of what things are, how things are working in the body or not working. And then also, it's important that women do have these conversations with each other and that they do the work to try to educate themselves as well through listening to podcasts like this or other podcasts like It's Hertime podcast to learn a little bit more about what's going on their body so that they can feel armed and ready to be their own best health advocates.

CAMILLE [05:23]

Yeah. Really, this is scratching the surface. So, if this is a topic that you're wanting to really deep dive into, because so many scenarios are so different. Women are so different, and we're all dealing with a lot of things. So, It's Hertime podcast, make sure that you check that out.

So, just a few years ago, I thought I've heard that this is a thing, I'm getting closer to that age where I need to figure this out. So, I did a blood test and a saliva test. But I really had to push for that blood test beyond the regular primary physician, "Everything looks normal. You're in healthy range." But the range is huge where I'm thinking, do I need to take testosterone? Should I be on progesterone? I feel pretty good. I don't know.

Can you talk to me about what are symptoms that we should be looking for? When do you think people should start getting those tests done? Blood versus saliva? There's a lot to unpack. So, what would you suggest?

CODY [06:23]

Yeah. Okay. So, let's just start with when should you start getting tested. Honestly, to understand what's going on with your hormones, you're never too soon to start learning about what's happening with your hormones. But a very common time of life that a lot of women start testing is around your age, like around that 40-year-old age. That's when most women and everybody's a little different, so it's not going to be the same for all of us. But most women start transitioning into a new phase of their woman life called perimenopause, which just means the time before menopause.

Now, perimenopause can start as young as the age of 35. The average age used to be right around 47, 48 years old. And it would only last for a couple of years. And now, what we're seeing is a lot of women who are starting perimenopause and showing symptoms of perimenopause much younger. And so, they start noticing little things like maybe it is insomnia, maybe it is fatigue in the afternoon, maybe they start having a little heavier bleeding. Maybe they're noticing some clotting. There's so many symptoms. There's over 100 symptoms that are associated with just PMS alone. And that's not the only hormonal problem that we have. That's just one that we are aware of, that gets talked about more.

But perimenopause is one of those times where people, they really start suffering needlessly because they could understand what it is that's happening with their body, they could really be proactive and take the measures needed in order to help support their body as their body is transitioning.

So, if you are starting to feel symptoms that just feel like they're a little different, don't chalk that up to just like, I'm getting older or I'm just a woman. Go and get the right testing. Now, as far as the what kinds of tests, it really just depends. Blood work is great. And it's something that you can do. There's a myriad of things that we can learn through bloodwork. Saliva is something that is very helpful if we're trying to look at your stress hormones and your cortisol levels and things like that.

Personally, my favorite test to get an overall view of what's happening hormonally is called a DUTCH test. And it's a dried urine test. And it is very, very comprehensive. It shows us so much about what's happening with our hormone balance, but it's also helping us to see what's happening with how our body is processing and also detoxifying from our hormones. So, all of that's very important to understand if we are going to be able to take care of ourselves in the very best way during this phase of life.

CAMILLE [09:07]

Wow, where do people find the DUTCH test? I have never heard of that.

CODY [09:10]

Yeah, so you can actually order one online. It used to be that you had to have a doctor or a holistic health practitioner like me order one for you. And I can share the link for you. And you could put it in the show notes, but you can actually order it yourself. And you can go through this company. And they can send you the kit. And then, you can submit it in. And they do have practitioners that are able to help you through telehealth and give you that reading.

I'm a person that loves meeting one-on-one, face-to-face with other practitioners. I like making sure I've got somebody on my team. You can look up in state of Utah or whatever state that you live in, look up DUTCH and it's all capital letters, DUTCH. Look up to see who are DUTCH providers. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of providers. And when I was in private practice, I was one of the only ones in Utah. Now, there are a few more. But it is there if you go and you just go straight through the company now. It is more available. So, that's good news for all of us.

CAMILLE [10:12]

Yeah, that's really interesting. So, when you are having those hormones tested, I'm curious about the effect of the stress hormone in regard to progesterone because what I have found most common and was for me as well is that my progesterone level was low. My estrogen was fine. And testosterone was okay, not great. What are your thoughts about testosterone pellets and the shots?

CODY [10:44]

Okay, let's go.

CAMILLE [10:46]

I have a lot of questions.

CODY [10:47]

Yeah, there's not going to be a one size fits all.

CAMILLE [10:49]

Sure. Because everyone's so different again, so talk with your own physicians.

CODY [10:54]

Absolutely. So, let's talk about how cortisol affects our other sex hormones, because you brought that question up first. Okay. So, cortisol is our main stress hormone. And it has a direct effect on our body's ability to be able to produce enough progesterone, which is our pro gestation hormone, as well as testosterone because we have these little glands that sit on the top of our kidneys called our adrenal glands. And I know we think of our ovaries. And that's where all of our progesterone, our sex hormones come from, but these little glands that sit on top of our kidneys have a big job.

And these glands produce testosterone, progesterone, cortisol, and others. And what happens, especially for females, is the way that we are designed is that our body is always trying to read the landscape of what's happening. And if there's any sense at all that there's stress, now stress could be anything, it could be poor nutrition, it could be an overabundance of toxins in your body, it could be traffic, it could be stress at work or in family situations and things like that. Anytime there's any sense of stress, even over exercising, even exercising too much, what it will do is it will bump up our cortisol, our stress hormone production.

And anytime cortisol is high, our sex hormone production goes low. Because the body especially as women, the body's always trying to figure out, is this a good time to bring a baby into the world? Truly, that's what's happening every single month. Is this the best time or not the best time? And if the body feels like it's under stress, then it'll do everything it can to keep that from happening. And that's going to look like progesterone going low.

And so, a lot of us don't recognize how much stress we're under. We think we're handling it really well. But if you just think of all the stimulus that we are exposed to 24/7 and the artificial light that we're exposed to and just all of these things we don't think of as stress, it is. Our primitive body is recognizing it as a threat. And so, you can only do so much.

I get it, we're never going to be able to alleviate all the stress in our lives. But if you can do certain things to do to lower the amount of stress that's in your life or to support your adrenal glands, your stress system so that it can better handle the stress, then you're going to see better overall hormone balance. Okay.

CAMILLE [13:27]

Okay. I'm just listening to this and going, yes, nodding my head. So, how do you do that? Our lives are so demanding and stressful. And how do we support? Is that through supplementation? Obviously, meditation, and there are things to work with that you can lower that, but what are some of the best things that are tangible that we could start today?

CODY [13:48]

Yeah, so there's three things that I love to help women or just people in general to be paying attention to. You don't want to over stress about having to do all the things to help your stress levels, because you're counterproductive that way.

But the first thing is one of the easiest ways that we can help to reduce the negative effects of stress on our bodies is to actually make sure that we're getting the nutrients that our body needs. And it's really hard. I know we all know we're supposed to be eating healthy, and I am always a food first advocate. I'm always like, yes, that's where we want to get our nutrients. But unfortunately, because of depleted soils, the nutrients that are in our soil where our food is grown and just the way that we have convenience foods or the way we have to pick our foods so early to get them to the grocery stores, there's a lot of depletion in the nutrients that are available in the food that we're eating.

And so, we do our best, but it is really important to and very helpful to supplement to make sure that we are getting the adequate amounts of nutrients to support our body's ability to be able to produce the right amount of hormones. That is the number one root cause of hormone imbalance is nutrient deficiency. And so, that's what Mixhers is all about. We're trying to help provide an easy way to get those key nutrients that can really provide the benefits that your body is looking for those building blocks.

The other thing is, is that because we talked about a little bit of the chronic stress, that's something we have to obviously address. And so, I love that you mentioned meditation. I love meditation, it's like the time of my day, that I look forward to as much as possible. But even beyond that and simpler than that is just literally focusing on your breathing. And I know that sounds very simplistic, but so many of us are breathing very shallow. We're just not even recognizing it, but we're breathing from our chest. And we should be breathing through our diaphragm.

If you look at a little baby and you just watch them when they're just relaxed and they're laying on their back and you watch their breathing, you see their bellies expanding and contracting. And that is how we are designed to breathe well. Not only is that just great for, us getting the oxygen that we need, but that type of breathing pattern actually is very connected to our nervous system, our stress system.

And so, it will send a signal to the body, if it's feeling like there's shallow breathing going on, that we are in danger, that there's high stress. And it will put us into what's known as a parasympathetic nervous state. And that is when cortisol is going to be pumping through us. And then, again, like I just explained, the sex hormones will then go down. So, just easy as that, checking in with your breath as consistently as you possibly can.

If you're noticing that you're anxiously breathing, try to slow down your breathing and try to use that diaphragmatic breathing technique. And it makes a big difference. There's lots of different techniques, box breathing is one of my favorite that basically you're just inhaling for five counts, holding for five counts, exhaling for five counts. And if you do that five times, you can put yourself into that parasympathetic nervous system state. That's what I meant to say earlier. And when we're stressed, we're in a sympathetic nervous system state. So, we want to make sure that we're in that relaxed restorative state instead of that fight or flight state as often as we possibly can be.

And then, the third thing is that we want to look at our exposure to toxins and how our body is able to eliminate those toxins from our bodies. Our bodies are just built to detoxify. The world is a dirty place. And we're going to be exposed to viruses and pollutants. And we're going to be exposed to all kinds of things like that. And our body knows what to do with it.

But the problem is, is that we're bombarded. We're making the job bigger than it needs to be. And so, by making really good mindful decisions about the products that we're using, the containers maybe we're eating out of, the clothing even that we're wearing, those Lululemon sometimes are hormone disruptive, but not taking in what's known as these xenoestrogens or these harmful chemicals that mimic our bodies. They mimic our estrogen and our body doesn't recognize what it is and anyway that can create a whole other common hormone disruption where there's what's known as estrogen dominance.

Just changing things like that, what we're eating out of, what we're wearing, the water bottles that we're drinking from. These kinds of things can make a big difference. The cosmetics that we're using, try to limit that as well. And then, support your body's natural detoxification pathways, your liver, your gut, your kidneys.

And Mixhers does address all three of these root causes. It has ingredients that give us the nutrients that we need, it helps to support our stress system to reduce the negative effects of stress on our body. It also has nutrients that help to support our proper detoxification pathways.

CAMILLE [18:52]

Who else is like I need a list of all those things?

CODY [18:56]

You had a big question. I hope I answered it. Yeah.

CAMILLE [18:59]

Yeah. It's big. There's a lot there. And this is also helpful. So, again, It's Hertime podcast. If people are just starting out and wanting to get a good baseline for their hormones, Hertime, I know drinking it daily for the next month’s effects, is that your best prescription for how to do that?

CODY [19:21]

Yeah. I'm so glad that you brought that up, because, yeah, absolutely. So, Hertime is our formula that was specifically designed to help support a woman's hormonal health. It provides the nutrients that support, like I said, the proper production of balanced hormones and then helps with detoxification, it helps to reduce stress. It has all of those things that our bodies are lacking.

And if you have symptoms that are often associated with having a period or are associated with going through perimenopause or even into menopause, then that is your body telling you that you need a little extra support and most likely, it's nutritional support. And so. I always tell women that's the best place to start.

We have two different types of Hertime. We have Hertime Daily. And then, we have Hertime Extra Strength. They both have the same main active ingredients. Hertime Extra Strength though is formulated for women who have severe hormone imbalance issues like PCOS, endometriosis, PMDD, infertility, things like that.

And so, whichever one you decide that you need to start with, what you want to do is you want to start with that, and then take it consistently. So, like what you just said, Camille, is that what we do today is actually what's going to affect next month's period. I know that we're used to like, I have cramps, I'm going to pop a pill. And it's like the next day. But that's not how it ever works when we're taking a root cause approach.

Nothing in nature happens overnight or just fast. There's always a process and a buildup. And so, consistency is key when it comes to helping our body feel nourished and to help it feel like it's in a safe state so that it can produce the optimal levels of hormones. And so, taking it consistently is key. And women, they feel great results within that first month. But the more they stay consistent, month two, month three, and so on, they're going to see the symptoms that they've been suffering with diminish more and more and more. They'll have greater benefit from it.

And so, that's with any nutritional therapy, but especially because as girls have this monthly cycle that shows up every month, we really need to be mindful of it and be doing all that we can to support the body as best we can so that we don't have to suffer.

CAMILLE [21:29]

Yeah, okay. I know a big lean-on that we go to is caffeine, whether it's coffee, or soda. And I went years and years without drinking soda. And in recent years, I started drinking again. And then I talked to you and you're like, "Nope, you need to stop drinking caffeine right now."

And this is a touchy one because I know so many of us are like, but I'm tired or it's fun. It's like something to go do with your girlfriends. Talk to us about caffeine, even though some of us might be plugging our ears like don't tell me that, but tell us about that. Does that affect cortisol levels? And how does that play a role in your hormones?

CODY [22:07]

Yes, it absolutely has an effect on our hormones. So, I know. I don't love being the bearer of bad news, because I get it. I've been there too, looking for a little bit of energy, but education, knowledge, it's power. So, we're going to dive into it, you make an educated decision for yourself.

So, when it comes to caffeine, it is very hormone disruptive. And so, any amount of caffeine. The problem is, though, is that so many of us are consuming so much caffeine. There's just so much. And even just one little cup, like eight-ounce cup of coffee, what that can do to your body hormonally is that we've just talked about cortisol. So. hopefully. you've got a little understanding that that's our stress hormone. Cortisol is a good hormone. We want cortisol to come into play when we need to get out of danger. But then, we want it to go down when we don't need it anymore.

Because if cortisol is high, like I said, that makes sex hormones go low. We also go into this fat-storing state, our body's going into survival mode basically. What happens when you drink just like an eight-ounce cup of coffee or a soda or you just whatever, fill in the blank, whatever your caffeine source of choice is, you are elevating your cortisol levels at a high level, for 14 hours or more, depending on your body, everybody's a little different on fast they metabolize caffeine.

And you can find that out. A lot of these little DNA tests that are out there can tell you whether you are somebody that's able to metabolize caffeine. I will tell you majority of women especially are not good at metabolizing caffeine. And so, it is something that you definitely want to pay attention to, especially if you are feeling all of these debilitating symptoms. That's something right there, then and there, and I know it sounds easy for me to say to get rid of the caffeine out of your diet, and you'll feel this big difference.

But what that will do for you and your symptoms and how you feel and how your body functions is going to be just so worth it. So, I will just tell you that. Caffeine is a hormone disruptor. But if you're one of those people, that's like I cannot function because your cortisol is dysregulated, that's something very common, which means our cortisol production and when our bodies naturally release cortisol during certain times of the day is dysregulated. Our body's supposed to release and have higher levels of cortisol in the morning, and then it's supposed to go down at night. But it's sometimes flip flopped.

And so, a lot of women will wake up and they'll feel like they haven't had any sleep at all. They're just exhausted, they're dragging. So, what do they turn to? They go to caffeine to try to boost that cortisol up. So then, that stays elevated. And then at night, all of a sudden, they're tired. They're exhausted, they've had big days, they've been turning the world over. But they're wired, they cannot fall asleep. And I call that wired but tired.

And I know that so many of us have felt like that. And it's so frustrating because you know you need sleep, but you can't get sleep. And that's called cortisol dysregulation. And there's a couple of main contributors to that. Caffeine is a big one.

The other one is our electronic devices. And our exposure to too much blue light is really dysregulating this hormone for us. And so, that's something to consider for sure. But if you are somebody that's like I need to have a little tiny bit of caffeine to get me through, be very conscious of what source of caffeine that you are utilizing. A lot of the caffeine that's found in sodas or in energy drinks and things like that are synthetic forms, our body doesn't really know what to do with it. It's very inflammatory, it's very damaging to our gut, so many things negative about it.

So, if you do need something, the better sources would be coffee, although that is very acidic. But my favorite is actually green tea. Green tea does have naturally occurring caffeine in it. But what is so amazing nature just designed to this beautifully is that green tea provides the caffeine but it also provides what's known as L-theanine, which is an amino acid. And the two of those nutrients, they play very well together.

Caffeine gives you a little bit of energy, the L-theanine helps to calm the body down at the same time. And it helps to reduce the negative effects that the caffeine could have on your body. And so, it gives you more of a natural amount of energy and a more euphoric type of energy rather than that crazy, jittery, caffeine energy that is terrible. It's basically your body in fight or flight.

CAMILLE [26:45]

Yeah. And if you're listening to this now and thinking you want to try a cleaner source of a boost, we actually can plug Mixhers Herboost and use our affiliate link below with a discount to go ahead and try that because that is what you use. You use green tea in that.

CODY [27:02]

We use green tea extract in that. So, yes, there is caffeine in it. And I will never say that caffeine is a good thing for us. But if you are turning to some of these other alternatives that are out there, I want to at least provide something that's going to be a little more natural that your body is going to be able to handle that's going to be more nourishing. Plus, a lot of is very high in antioxidants, very cancer fighting. There's so many benefits that come with caffeine that's found in green tea.

CAMILLE [27:27]

Yeah, perfect. Okay. We're going to dive into the last big elephant in the room, which is semaglutide or there's a lot of other names for it. But essentially, it is the medication that is being used through injection for helping with weight loss. It was developed for diabetic patients and is now being used for general public for weight loss. It started as what they called the celebrity weight loss drug. But now it's becoming more of it, they have generics and different formulas.

And this is a topic that again, I saw Cody, and I was like, "Okay, tell me what you think about this," because I have family and friends who have done it and are having massive success, weight loss wise, but Cody had very strong opinions about it. So, I would love to hear your perspective on it with your professional background and everything that you know about hormone health and everything else. So, let's dive into that.

CODY [28:24]

Okay. Again, ladies, whoever's listening, I am just about sharing information and you make the decisions for what's best for you. So, with semaglutide, I know that it is something that is so effective for people that actually have diabetes. It's been a miracle drug for them to help them to increase the sensitivity to insulin and things like that. Very, very effective.

The problem is, is that it now has become something that is being used by people who do not have the A1C levels of a diabetic, they're much lower, and so they don't have the need for this type of a medication. And it's being used as a weight loss drug. And it can be effective in helping your body to lose weight. And so, I can see the pros and cons sometimes. I'm not going to be a Debbie downer on this because if somebody is extremely overweight, there's so many other health complications that can come along with that. And so, if this can help them to be able to drop some weight, then it might be the best thing, but I am all about weighing the pros and cons and making an educated decision when it comes to this.

And what I have found is that there's not a lot of education that's coming when people are seeking this out and being prescribed. It's now being prescribed from doctors who are med spas. It's being handed out like candy a little bit. And I'm with you. I have talked to people about this over the last year a lot. And then, even the year before, that was really I think when it first came to market as something that could be used as a weight loss tool.

CAMILLE [30:11]

And it's FDA-approved. So, people are being told this is FDA-approved, it's healthy, it's fine. But then, it's very tempting. So, it's like, if this is FDA-approved. So, why is that a danger for people to feel that way or to have that and think that it's fine? What are the negative effects?

CODY [30:31]

There's a lot actually. So, whenever you see something that's FDA-approved, it doesn't always mean that that doesn't come with negative side effects. If you've ever seen a drug commercial or anything like that, it's like they have the thing at the end, where it's like all of these things that they list off that maybe it's helping to address the one problem that we're experiencing, but then it comes with a whole host of other problems.

And so, what I have been seeing with people is that first of all, just the drug itself, what it can do is it causes a hypoglycemic state. So, it's basically lowering your blood sugars. When we have chronically high blood sugar, then that's something that can be very helpful. But for these people who do not have chronically high blood sugar levels, then what it's doing is it's putting them into a very low blood sugar state, which can cause a lot of things like dizziness and fatigue. People, they're feeling like they're passing out and they're not really sure their blood pressure is dropping really low. So, just even driving a car and things like that, that's been a problem.

It can cause a lot of gastrointestinal kind of issues. People are dealing with a lot of diarrhea. They're throwing up, it affects your appetite. It affects at the rate at which your body's actually going to digest and then assimilate the nutrients that come from the food that you're eating. And so, that is what is helping people to lose weight because it's causing people to feel full for longer. But they're not looking at is that actually good for us, and what are going to be the long-term repercussions from this?

So. there are a lot of studies that are coming out. And this is where I think it's just really important for you all to do your own research on this as well. But there are studies that are showing that it is very damaging for the kidneys and very damaging for your thyroid specifically, but as well as the liver.

I personally know three people in the last year that have been diagnosed with thyroid cancer after using semaglutide for only three to four months. And that's very alarming to me, because I only know a teeny tiny percentage of the population that's using this. I know a lot of women who are strictly doing it for vanity reasons, and I don't think they're being told about what could happen down the road for them if they're not careful. And I think if they were armed with this information, I think that they would definitely maybe make a different decision about whether it was worth it to go down this road or not.

The other thing that they're finding is that there's a lot of studies that are showing that there's a harmful effect on bones and muscle mass. Okay. So, bones as women, we're already prone to have anemia or osteoporosis because that's very connected to our estrogen. So, as our estrogen starts to go low, that's something that's very dangerous for us. And so, it's setting people up for that as well as their higher likelihood of bone fractures, things like that.

And then, muscle, let's talk about muscle. Muscle is so important. We want to do everything we possibly can to maintain muscle. Muscle is metabolism basically. The more muscle mass that you have, the better your body's able to maintain healthy blood sugar levels, the better your body is able to just metabolize anything in the first place. It really is our longevity organ.

And so, when we are putting in a drug into our system that's wasting away our muscle, as well as now reducing the amount of nutrients that our body is taking in because we're eating less, then we're muscle wasting even more, we're really setting ourselves up for just all kinds of metabolic problems down the road.

So personally, I don't recommend it. I think that there are other options that are out there. I'm currently working on something that will be available, hopefully in the spring. I know. That's a huge hint for your audience. I've not even talked about it with anybody. But I've been in the research phase of this, and it's showing to have the same benefit of semaglutide, but without the negative consequences.

So with that being said, yeah, which is huge, right? It's huge. Yeah. With that being said, though, I just want us girls to look at long-term health. Like we talked about what we do today affects us next month. What we do today affects us a lot longer than that. It's going to take us through the rest of our lives. And I know it's very tempting because losing weight is hard. It's really hard, but it's not impossible if you can give your body what it needs.

Weight, excess weight is a symptom of hormone imbalance. And so, it could be connected to the caffeine intake that you have, it could be connected to not getting in enough sleep, it could be connected to not having optimal levels of estrogen and progesterone and testosterone. There's a lot of things that we can look into to help support the body to find that balance so that the body doesn't feel like it has to hold on to excess weight.

CAMILLE [35:36]

And I meant to ask you this before, but what is your opinion about testosterone pill, the pellet, the thing you have to put in their hips? I've had friends that have had really great success with finally losing the weight once they've done that, where I've also heard that you shouldn't mess with your testosterone too much, or it can be damaging. What are your thoughts on that?

CODY [36:00]

Testosterone is beautiful. It's a wonderful sex hormone that we women need. It's very connected to our metabolism, it's connected to our sex drive, it's connected to all kinds of things, but it's our overall long-term health as well, like our brain, and our bone, and our heart health, and all of that as well. So, it's a great thing. If you go and get tested and you are showing that you are very low in testosterone.

CAMILLE [36:22]

I'm curious, what would you consider very low?

CODY [36:26]

Okay, I know. That's where it comes down to. So, there is that huge range that we talked about before. So, for instance, you might get told that you're in the normal range, but you're at the very bottom end of that normal range. Is that what happened to you?

Yeah. And so, that's where dependent on the practitioner that you're working with and where they are at, for me is functional nutrition, I want to see a woman's testosterone around that 19, 20, which I know is a little higher, because it's still within the normal, but I don't want you at the bottom end of where the normal range is. I want you at the optimum end, and that's when you're going to be feeling your very best.

CAMILLE [36:50]

Yeah, I think I was like a nine or something, which I'm like it's still within normal, but it's not great.

CODY [36:53]

But that being said, though, you talk to your practitioner. I'm not going to put anything out there, because it's going to be different. And you need to pay attention to how you're feeling as well, because I'm going to be different than you, Camille, and you're different than me. But with that being said, I am all about utilizing hormone replacement therapy.

Now, I do have some strong opinions on that. I do think that what's best for us is to use bio identical hormone replacement therapy as basically gives us the same, what our body produces on its own, it's the same makeup. And so, our body recognizes it and knows what to do with it. We're not putting any other synthetic chemicals into our body that can cause other long-term health issues.

And so, I know that the pellet exists. And I know I've actually tried it. And the things that were tempting to me to try it was I didn't have to think about it. I could just put that little pellet in there and not have to think about it. But the problem is, is that our testosterone is going to change day to day depending on where we are in our monthly cycle, especially if you're in your fertile years. And so, when it's in a pellet form and it's just inserted in your body, you have no control basically of how much is going into your body.

So, for me personally, all of a sudden, I started getting acne, which I've never really had an issue with. I started growing chin hairs, things like that. And I had to wait five months for it to dissolve and be gone. So, for me personally, I prefer a cream. I feel like that's the best bet for me. Again, you need to consider and just ask lots of questions. Ask the questions and determine for yourself what you think is going to be best for you.

CAMILLE [38:51]

Because we are cyclical, do you think that that's something where you put the cream on but not every day? It's like also in play with where you are in your cycle or is it something you think is good to do every day?

CODY [39:04]

Again, that's going to be dependent on where the testing came in. So, if you are somebody that is chronically low, we're going to be consistent with giving you testosterone, but there are some methods out there where we do actually cycle progesterone and testosterone and things like that to mimic our body's natural ebbs and flows.

And I think that if you can do that, that's the best. That's what I would definitely be trying to push for. And so, yeah, you could do that. But we're not going to be testing. Most likely, you'll be testing maybe every three or four months. And that's pretty regular. Most people are getting tested once a year. So, it's really hard for us to know how much day to day that you should be taking.

So, that's where it's going to be determined by your health care practitioner to know where you're at, where we're trying to get to. I would advocate though for getting tested more regularly because you want to make sure that it's actually working, but you're seeing benefit that the testosterone is coming up, your body's responding to it. And then, you can make adjustments from there.

CAMILLE [40:07]

Okay, last question with this, as we're talking about testing the hormone, I'm under the understanding that you can supplement with, let's say progesterone for a time. And it can kickstart your body into making it again naturally. Is that something that you see happening where you can take it for three months, and then be able to wean off of it, and the body can kickstart to do it on its own or what's your opinion on that?

CODY [40:33]

Yeah, absolutely. The goal is to always support your body's own natural production of sex hormones. So, depending on so many things, this is a complicated question. It is because it's going to be dependent on so many things like how old you are, what your levels are, what is your lifestyle?

These things are all going to come into play when it comes to this, but let's say that you are somebody that is experiencing very low progesterone, and that's causing, in turn, maybe estrogen is not necessarily high, but compared to progesterone, it's higher, so your estrogen dominant. And so, there's a lot of symptoms that are associated with that, that we're all familiar with. So, cramping and headaches and acne and all of the things, that's very common.

So, I do think it is very effective to do some progesterone hormone replacement therapy to help give your body what it needs to even that out. But especially if you're young like you, I'm going to say, let's do what we can at the same time, not just depend only on the hormone replacement therapy, but let's see what we can do to actually address why your progesterone is low in the first place. So, let's also give you the nutritional therapy. Let's also work on your body's ability to reduce stress, because a lot of that progesterone that's low, we talked about it, it's because of stress.

And so, let's do the things that we can do to help support your body to do it on its own. And when the body feels like it has what it needs, it knows what to do. It knows how to function optimally. We just have to do what we can to support it.

CAMILLE [42:10]

This has been so educational. So fantastic. I feel like we're just scratching the surface. So, again, it's Hertime podcast, if you're wanting to know more, absolutely check that out. And we also in episode one talked a lot about the benefits of Mixhers, which is that nutritional support that all of us needs.

CAMILLE [42:30]

So, kudos to you, Cody. Again, thank you so much for coming on to the show, teaching us so much. I've learned so much. I feel like as we go through different stages of womanhood, there is always something new. So, thank you. Thank you for creating all those products and for supporting women and their health. And you're just amazing.

CODY [42:52]

Thank you, Camille. I appreciate it.

CAMILLE [42:54]

Yeah. Please tell everyone where they can find you online and also learn more about Mixhers.

CODY [42:58]

I'd love that. Yes, come join me over on the It's Hertime podcast, it comes out every single week. We're on all podcast platforms. We're also on YouTube, on the Mixhers page. You can find me personally @codyjeansanders on Instagram or just come join us over @mixhers where we love to have a lot of fun, but also be educational about talking about women's health and hormones and happiness and all those things that matter most to us. So, find me in all of those places. I would love to have you be part of this community that I love so much.

CAMILLE [43:34]

Fantastic. Thank you again.

CODY [43:36]

Thank you.

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CAMILLE [43:38]

Make sure that you go back and check out part one and part two of Mixhers with Cody Sanders. We're talking about hormone health. We're talking about how to optimize your health as a woman through all the stages of your life. And thank you for being here. Make sure you hit that subscribe button and leave any comments or reviews. We appreciate it. And I hope you have a fantastic week.

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CAMILLE [44:01]

Hey, CEOs. Thank you so much for spending your time with me. If you found this episode inspiring or helpful, please let me know in a comment in a 5-star review. You could have the chance of being a featured review on an upcoming episode. Continue the conversation on Instagram @callmeceopodcast. And remember, you are the boss!

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