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Kat's Podcast

Blood sugar, circadian rhythm, hormones: How to reduce inflammation and naturally heal with Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker

This the second episode of my series on women's health and it's here to finally help you understand blood sugar and its effects on your health, as well as the importance of tuning into your circadian rhythm and getting enough light exposure.

I'm chatting with the wonderful Dr. Stacy.

Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker is a Traditional Naturopath and has been in the health and wellness industry for over 10 years. She combines her love of Naturopathy, Ayurveda, Functional Medicine Testing, Holistic Nutrition and Fitness and has created a one of a kind bio-individualized approach to wellness. This includes looking at the body as one beautiful and synergistic system, which needs to be treated as such, and which is intrinsically linked to nature and our circadian rhythm.

I love her for her down-to-earth approach which focuses on lifestyle and simple, natural solutions, because that’s something that’s very close to my heart as well: the reconnection to nature. We have to turn to nature to be able to solve our health issues in a lasting way and to truly be well.

This is a super practical episode with so many tips that you can integrate into your life right away.

episode page with full show notes + links: https://kathrinhecht.com/ep-47

Duration:
55m
Broadcast on:
13 Sep 2024
Audio Format:
mp3
Women's Health Series This the second episode of my series on women's health and it's here to finally help you understand blood sugar and its effects on your health, as well as the importance of tuning into your circadian rhythm and getting enough light exposure. I'm chatting with the wonderful Dr. Stacy. Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker is a Traditional Naturopath and has been in the health and wellness industry for over 10 years. She combines her love of Naturopathy, Ayurveda, Functional Medicine Testing, Holistic Nutrition and Fitness and has created a one of a kind bio-individualized approach to wellness. This includes looking at the body as one beautiful and synergistic system, which needs to be treated as such, and which is intrinsically linked to nature and our circadian rhythm. I love her for her down-to-earth approach which focuses on lifestyle and simple, natural solutions, because that’s something that’s very close to my heart as well: the reconnection to nature. We have to turn to nature to be able to solve our health issues in a lasting way and to truly be well. This is a super practical episode with so many tips that you can integrate into your life right away. episode page with full show notes + links: https://kathrinhecht.com/ep-47
(soft music) - This is Kat's podcast, episode number 47. Welcome back to My Woman's Health's series. And this is the second episode, the second guest I have here on the series. And this episode is really here to help you understand blood sugar and its effects on your health, as well as the importance of tuning into your circadian rhythm and getting enough light exposure. I'm chatting with a wonderful Dr. Stacey. Dr. Stacey Barzak-Baker is a traditional naturopath and has been in the health and wellness industry for over 10 years. She combines her love of naturopathy, Ayovata, functional medicine testing, all the stigma, nutrition and fitness, and has created a one-of-a-kind bio-individualized approach to wellness. This includes looking at the body as one beautiful and synergistic system which needs to be treated as such and which is intrinsically linked to nature and to our circadian rhythm. I love her for her down-to-earth approach which focuses on lifestyle and really simple natural solutions because that's something that's very close to my heart as well. The reconnection to nature. We have to turn to nature to be able to solve our health issues in a lasting way and to truly be well. So this is a super practical episode with so many tips that you can integrate into your life right away. Now, before you jump in, pause for a second and please subscribe to this podcast. Just hit that subscribe button wherever you're listening. You've really helped me grow this show by doing so, thank you so much and now enjoy this episode. - All right, welcome to the podcast Dr. Stacy. Super happy to have you here. Good morning. - Good morning. Thanks so much for having me. - Perfect. So we're connecting Vienna, Austria and Florida here. So for you, it's morning. How did you start your morning? How do you have like a morning routine? I'm always curious about that. - I do, yeah, I always make sure that my first, the first thing I do is go into a meditation 'cause we're in a theta brainwave pattern. You can really make a lot of headway with some program changes if you go into meditation. So I always do that and then right after meditation, I go and make sure I sit outside until the sun comes up. So I view the sunrise and then I have breakfast and then by then my kids are kind of waking up and I'm getting them settled and situated for the day. So yeah, just meditation, gratitude, sunrise or my non-negotiables. - Perfect. That sounds really, really good. And I would love to touch on that breakfast aspect with you later because we are gonna talk about food and their hormonal impact and I'm really super curious about what's good to eat for breakfast, so it's good to have full lunch and dinner. And you also mentioned that, I mean, I know that from other experts and also Ayurveda says that having the last meal as the biggest is not a good idea. So having dinner as your biggest meal is not really healthy and wise, but we'll dive into that later, by the way, I love that you're also into Ayurveda. It's one of my passions as well. - Yes, I do love it. Ancient wisdom is what everything is reverting back to, thankfully, and everything's based off of. So yeah, it's, you know, I'm just kind of, as much as I understand of Ayurveda, there's so much more that I, you know what I mean? That has just been long with standing for such a long time that we'll never quite conceptualize, but it's amazing how tried and true it is thousands of years later. - Yes, it is, it is, it's really, really fascinating. Same with yoga, it's like, okay, like all these new scientific discoveries, it was discovered by the yogis and the Ayurveda people. - That was lots of years ago, and it's still valid. That's really fascinating. - Yes, it really is. And understanding like yoga actually isn't for a workout. It is actually to stay in meditation longer, right? That's why it was designed, and I think we add these things in, but if we don't understand why we're adding them in, we don't get as much benefit and value. - So true, and I love that you're mentioning that about yoga because it's completely what I'm standing for, and I guess it's part of my mission to educate people that yoga is not sports, and it's like an everyday mission. - Right, right, and if you use it appropriately and you're like, all I'm focused on right now is my breath, that is really hard to do. It is truly a practice. Some of us just go in and we feel good, we go through the motions of it, our body stretched out, but if you didn't focus on your breath the whole time, you actually weren't practicing yoga. - Yes, it's so true, it's so true. Thank you for that reminder, yeah. Perfect, so you're a naturopath and you're practicing functional medicine as well, and you're kind of an expert, I would say, on blood sugar. And what I would love to talk about with you today is inflammation and it's many fold faces of pain or chronic pain, and what blood sugar has to do with it, and also diving into some specific issues or most common issues. For example, migraines, weight gain or weight loss resistance, brain fog, fatigue, to make it a bit more, what do you say, graspable, like comfortable for the people out there. And I think a lot of women can identify themselves with one of these issues. So my first question would be, with which issues do women come to you? And what are some of the most common imbalances you see? Okay, so the functional medicine answer is gonna be a little bit different than the actual root cause. So I will go into the biochemical part of it, but I'll also go into the nature part of it too, because that is what I always try to lead people into. Blood sugar is one piece of it and it's an easily measurable piece of it, right, that people can see and have a visual, but we have to understand there's more things affecting our blood sugar than just food. And so we'll go into that. I will say most of the time people come to me with hormone issues, weight loss resistance is a very visible problem for people and it's getting harder and harder, and I'll go into some of the reasons why that is becoming more of an issue. But yeah, it's all derivative of the same thing as our metabolic health, right? And so when we have issues with our mitochondria, with our metabolism, our ability to make assimilate and utilize energy in the body, it will look like a plethora of issues. It can look like migraines, it can look like chronic inflammation, digestive issues even. And so until you are really addressing the foundation, the root of those things, you will be chasing protocol after protocol because there's something in the day to day. And for some people, it is this blood sugar roller coaster, which is what I, this is one reason why I like functional medicine, even though I try to distance myself from that term anymore, because I think it's becoming very allopathic in nature and very green medicine. Like, oh, instead of a prescription, take the supplement and I don't believe in that. But I also believe in having visuals for people so they can make change because if you can explain something to someone and you have the data to back it up, they're gonna be more likely to make a change because bringing awareness to somebody's daily eating patterns takes time, intention and focus and change because you have to eat several times a day, right? And so that is a hard thing for people to change unless they know they have to. And it seems too simple because we have all of these, oh, it's parasites, oh, it's mold, it's lime, it's this, it's that. But the reality is, is there something in your day to day that's causing a lot of inflammation and stress? And when you're dealing with blood sugar swings and hormonal swings that follow that with the cortisol and the insulin and all those other downstream hormones, you can't balance your body until you get that aspect balanced and that might even be your nervous system. That can be your energy in and of itself, right? If we don't have enough energy, we can't detox, we can't heal. So it truly is, that is one of visible things that I can show people so they can get their blood sugar balanced so that we can see what needs to be addressed after that. - Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. So let's say someone comes to you with frequent migraines or regular migraines, where would you start? - Yeah, that's, I mean, that is definitely one that I have seen, tried and true, connected to blood sugar lows. So blood sugar lows, a lot of people are misconstrued 'cause they're like, "Oh, well, I need to eat more often." But when you have lows, it's because insulin came in so hot and heavy, it dropped your blood sugar to that really low point. So you either had way too many carbohydrates, you were eating at a time of day when you're more insulin resistant, which we know that that starts kind of from solar noon on. We have less insulin sensitivity. So I, and we can talk about the meal timing aspect like in a little bit, but, or a combination of so many things, right? That create that situation of low lows for people and the conventional route is kind of saying, "Well, then eat more." But that's not gonna fix it 'cause insulin's gonna be even heavier dropping blood sugar even lower. So it doesn't fix the problem. So it truly is about teaching people how not just what to eat, but when to eat, eating along your body's circadian biology so that you get the most out of your food, but also have the most beneficial hormonal response. So when it comes to someone with severe migraines, I do have them wear a monitor and we nine times out of 10, probably even more often than that, we'll be able to synchronize, oh, I woke up with a headache because I had a tremendous spike in blood sugar the day before. - So interesting. It's definitely something that I will start tracking because my, I mean, my, so I've had migraines, but I wouldn't say on and off over the years, but frequent and less frequent. So there were years where I barely had one or two migraines and then there were years where I had them once a month or maybe even several times a month. So that's very interesting. When I have migraines, I always feel like I crave salty food. I need something salty and I always plant it to myself as, okay, I'm deprived of electrolytes. Has that something to do with blood sugar as well? - Well, it does because when blood sugar and insulin are low, so if we are referring to those lows, then we are dumping minerals essentially. So the need for electrolyte is higher when we are in those blood sugar lows. So when blood sugar is high and we are in this, maybe even insulin resistant stage, we are recirculating a lot of sodium. So that is what creates the blood pressure issues, the heart palpitations, the, you know, really just inflammation, even sometimes chronic pain, right? Because of this recirculation of minerals that our body needs to dump. So when we have a blood sugar low or insulin is, you know, dropping it low, we, as we correct those things, the needs for electrolytes and minerals does increase. So there is a lot of changes and that is one reason too, why when someone does a really dramatic diet change, let's say you go from eating whatever carbohydrate content you're eating right now to I'm going keto tomorrow, you're gonna feel like crap because that mineral displacement is gonna happen overnight and that's really stressful in the system. - Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. - Okay, so then if someone comes feed that migraines or some other pain issue, chronic pain issue, you would first look at the blood sugar and then assess via what to eat when, right? Is that the main? - Yeah, we would bring some awareness to, okay, what is causing these huge spikes for one and eliminating those foods to start 'cause we want a stable response. And then we would look at what is happening overnight when we're looking at blood sugar. So what's the overnight trend look like? It should be very flat line and stable. And if it's not, then that is telling you that energy is going into balancing blood sugar and insulin instead of deeper cellular reparative work that needs to happen. So I would look at those on a CGM to start. And then on another level, I would ask them about their light exposures throughout the day, artificial blue light, we would talk about non-native EMF exposure, all of those things that are keeping their cells dehydrated, even if they're drinking plenty of water, if their cells are dehydrated, then they will not, they'll just constantly be flushing that water, once again, adding to that electrolyte depletion. So it truly is about proper light exposure, blood sugar balance, all of those things that cause inflammation when they're out of check. And so connecting to your circadian biology, making sure that your cortisol and melatonin rhythm are in check and that comes along with the artificial blue light exposure. And so we talk about that, making sure we're blocking that, but also getting proper light exposure from the sun during the day. So lots of moving pieces, right? But you notice in any of those regards, I didn't say, oh, well, you're missing an Omega supplement or you're missing a Herculean or a turmeric, right? Like it's so much more than that. There's something in your environment. Yes, I love that you're pointing that out and I know it's a huge part of your approach that you're really looking at lifestyle on one hand. And then of course also on mindset. And I really love that because still, if it's not like a medication, taking a supplement is a bit, it's a bit the same, you know? It's like taking a pill or taking this powder into my drink. And then we hope that our issues are fixed, but actually it's those things that we do on a daily basis that will ultimately change ourselves for better, hopefully for the worst, and help us be more healthy and heal, right? So yeah, and we repeat. And even if you're thinking on a neurochemical level, the more we repeat something, the more it just becomes a part of our subconscious that we are doing, we're going through the motions of it 'cause we've repeated so much whether we are aware of that or not. And that means that our biochemistry is following along. And so we're like, that's one reason why it's so hard for people to change habits because their body's programmed. And so all the more reason why I use that theta brainwave state, right? That's when you create change, but it does come along with choosing differently, and that's the hardest thing for people when it comes to change. - Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. - Maybe we can dive deeper into that a little later. I just wanted to come back once to the blood sugar issue because I feel you hear about that, but you don't really get it. So I read that it's like this chain of, well, it's this cause and effect chain. You have these blood sugar ups and downs, and then this causes stress and that causes chronic inflammation. Can you explain that a little bit further, maybe even tie in hormones that are responsible or that are affected? - Yeah, absolutely. So there's a lot of hormones that are affected when it comes to balancing and managing your blood sugar. When it comes to chronic inflammation, once again, you've gotta be thinking about on a cellular level. A loss, the way I can best and easiest explain it is, we are electric, we are electric beings, and we run off of subatomic particles, electrons, protons, and neutrons, okay? So when we are experiencing inflammation, it's a sign to me that a couple things are happening. For one, we're losing electrons. We're losing our energy or a negative net charge to our environment in some way, okay? The other thing is that we're not getting into those deep cellular states of healing, which happen overnight. So autophagy apoptosis, where our cells are either rebuilding and recycling themselves, or they're killing off. It's like a suicide of the toxic cells that shouldn't be there. And so when you are inflamed, to me, it's a sign that you're losing your charge and that cell turnover and cell renewal is not happening. And then you could go even deeper to say that our cells are chronically dehydrated, which a lot of that is due to our environment. So that's usually the way I look at dysfunction when it comes to metabolism. So I do talk about hormones, but I think we talk about, we are thinking, okay, it's thyroid, it's estrogen, it's progesterone, we're on this very surface level when it comes to hormones. And that's why I think it's really important to make sure that we understand we are driven by this light and dark cycle. So our cortisol and melatonin pathways have to be considered first, because if we are shy on melatonin, we can't go into those deeper states of healing overnight, the autophagy and apoptosis. And if cortisol is in balance because our, let's just say, blood sugar is a piece of it, but our lighting, our disconnect from nature, from natural lighting, those are insulin, egenic in and of itself. Those affect our glucose metabolism in and of itself. And so when I'm helping someone build their foundation, we have to connect to their body's circadian biology, their circadian rhythm first. And a lot of times that seems too easy. Like it can't be, no, it's gotta be estrogen, right? And it's like, well, you have to consider a hierarchy of hormones because it's easy for us to think, well, I'm just gonna take this thyroid medication. The doctor said this is what's wrong, my thyroid's low, but it's like, why is your thyroid low? That has to do with your hypothalamus and your pituitary signal. That is restored and rebalanced at night and then viewing natural light in the morning. So you really have to connect back to those things and think of things in a hierarchical level. So I would say if you start anywhere, it's the cortisol, insulin and melatonin pathways. Those things have to be in balance for your body to get it. And that's why meal timing is so important and so crucial because if you are improperly timing your meals, even if it is healthy food for you, that is gonna throw that whole biological time clock and that's when we start to lose energy to our environment. - Okay, so let's dive into that meal timing a bit. I found this really interesting because you showed him in one of your Instagram posts, you showed this, I think it was this imbalance of blood sugar. So it was kind of all over the place in the night and the next day and you said, "Wow, this is what happened when I had my dinner after 5 p.m." And I found that really interesting. So fill us in, is it for anyone, is it 5 p.m? Or is it individually? Because we're talking about these circadian rhythms. I mean, they are the theories that deal with the, what is it, the lyrics and the owls and... But Ayurveda would say, there's the Ayurveda clock. We have these three phases of time repeating twice every 24 hours and within these windows of time you have certain things that are advisable to do and also have your meal not after 6 p.m. or before sunset. So how do you approach this circadian rhythm? - So, yeah, for me personally, it took me testing my blood sugar to see, at what point can I stop eating and have a stable blood sugar response overnight? 'Cause at least I know if blood sugar and insulin are stable, then I can go into some of those deeper metabolic detoxification, cellular healing things that need to happen. And so that is the power of having these tools. But I think it's really important to, we're all on different latitudes. And so the sun's gonna set at different times. I think making sure that you are getting a strong satiety signal first thing in the morning with the sunrise is one of the most powerful things you can do. And I think if you feed yourself, and even if you just think of it as a cortisol rhythm, which our cortisol rhythm is very much in line with the sun. And so if you think, okay, we ease into cortisol to start the day, and then it peaks out about, still learn noon for most people and then tapers off. So if you eat the majority of your calories while cortisol's at its highest, then you're not gonna be at the mercy of gluconeogenesis or the emergency survival processes that will happen if you don't eat it those times. And so if you are going to do any sort of fasting or anything like that, that you would do that in the later part of the day where cortisol's already low. You're not working against yourself in that regard. And so I teach people how to prioritize breakfast and lunch when our digestion's the strongest, cortisol's at its highest, making sure, because here's the thing, melatonin, remember, we're talking about cellular detoxification. A lot of people think it just means it helps us go to sleep. It is not just that. That's about 5% of what melatonin does. Most of it is doing the cleanup in our mitochondria. And so if we are eating too late, cortisol and insulin are going to shunt melatonin levels. And then we have the artificial light in our environment that's working against LED light suppresses melatonin by 80%. So our blue light, all of those things are working against melatonin anyway. And then we have cortisol and insulin being high, that is also suppressing melatonin. So there's not a chance that you're getting into any place of balance and healing at night if you're eating your biggest meal of the day at dinner. - Hmm. - Yeah. - So it completely goes against. - Yeah, and it's measurable, you know, it's very measurable. And people, we live in a state to believe in environment. And so that's one of the things, when I am assuming someone's having issues, I just have them wear the monitor so they can see it too. - Hmm. Yeah, that makes absolute sense. Is there, are there any apps that one could use? Or is it best really to have a consultation, get the tools that you recommend? Or is there something people could just start off with? Do you know? - As far as blood sugar or the sun? - Yeah, both. - Okay. So blood sugar, there's so many third party places now. So I use nutrition personally. And I just find it to be, you know, very consistent, very easy to work with, very easy to read and interpret. However, I will kind of put out there that the range that they allow is kind of like conventional medicine, right? Like they'll allow you to have a really broad range. And if you are spiking 90 points every single day, you're not getting to a place of balance. So just kind of take that into consideration. Dr. Stacey's ranges are way tighter than nutritionists or any other, because you want, if you're having spikes, but you are asymptomatic, that's one thing. But the thing is, most people who come to me are not asymptomatic. They need to get into a place of balance and healing. We all do at night, especially. So that's what I use for that. Now, if you are trying to learn about, all right, when do I need to plan on getting sunrise? Sunrise and sunset are like my non-negotiables for people, but I do need to get them out there multiple times a day so that they can connect back to that biological clock. So circadian app is a good one. So you can see, okay, in my area, when is the sunrise, when is the sunset, when does UVA start? All those things are really important so you can kind of plan your day around, okay, well, let's just say in the UVA UBB window, that should be when you're eating a good portion of your food and tapering down before you get to that sunset part. - Thank you. Yeah, it's interesting with the food. I mean, I've been through a pretty radical dietary change 12 years ago. So that really helped me. So it was set up by Menetra Path in Berlin back then. And I did this block test where they were testing food intolerances about 300 different foods. And it worked quite well for me. So I was put on this, well, radical diet. So I had to exclude, it was this, yeah, I guess kind of an elimination diet. So I excluded certain foods for a year, year and a half. Others just for half a year and the least are critical ones for three months or so. But in the end, I mean, it really helped me. I really got healthier. My skin immediately got enormously better. So I was dealing with acne, getting rid of the pill a couple of years before or so, or maybe even more years. But I never really got rid of that acne that then came up. So with that, I actually changed. I finally got good skin, lots of weight. So and other health issues as well got better. But what I wanted to say is during the time I experienced how emotional food is, right? How much emotion is in there? And even later on when I was on my, okay, I don't eat gluten, I stay away from most of the cow dairy things. And sometimes just talking to people or explaining what I'm eating, they feel offended, although I didn't tell them what they should eat, but just telling them what I eat or I don't. And I feel there's so much emotion in it. So how do you feel people are dealing with, you know, changing their, even if it's just the timing of their meals? That is, it is the challenge for sure. It really is. And that's one reason why the monitor comes in handy because it's like, I could tell you all day long you're not recovering from your dinner spike, right? But when they see it, they're like, okay, this is, I see it now, Dr. Stacy sees it. I can't escape this. Like it's there, you know? And that will bring some awareness for sure. That's why I'm like, we live in a seat to believe it. But yeah, when you, but here's the thing too. It's like, yes, there's this environmental cue component to it. But as you correct your circadian rhythm, you collect, you also correct your satiety and your hunger hormones. And so an appetite correction does happen in that process and it does help with those societal, the cravings, because here's the thing, another reason why you're having the cravings and those cues is because your blood sugar is probably imbalanced. And so when you go into a low after a spike, you're going to crave quick energy foods because your body, your cells didn't receive that glucose because your insulin's too high. So there is a physiological effect and that's what I try to teach to people. I'm like, this is not a willpower thing. You know what I mean? Like, yes, you have to want to change, but there's also a physiological response that's happening when your blood sugar is kind of on this roller coaster. So give yourself a little grace. Let's fix the foundation and then you'll see the appetite correct itself and you won't even want to have dinner. You're going to feed yourself so much for breakfast and lunch. Dinner is like optional, you know? And you'll preserve that energy, stability and that sleep and you won't want to wreck it. And so that's why I kind of, I meet them incrementally where they're at, but I know for me, it's always so fun because you know like, should they work on this, they're going to be a different person the next time I see them. And it's so beautiful when it happens. - Hmm, yes, I can imagine. But that brings a lot of hope, you know, having these assurance that there will be a biophysical adaptation eventually. - Yeah. - Because I'm, so I'm really working on it, but I've been a huge snacking person and I know that too much snacking really makes me unhappy. It makes me discontent, not feel good. So I know like having proper meal times is really crucial for your wellbeing all over. But also, you know, big dinners was one of my thing. I'm trying to get off of that. And I sometimes really have the feeling that if I eat early and lightly for dinner, I sleep way better, I get out of bed with more energy. - Mm-hmm. - Yeah. - So. - It makes a huge difference. And when people actually make it, 'cause a lot of people are like, oh, I'm not hungry for breakfast. 'Cause I think breakfast with sunrise is one of the best things you can do for your body. 'Cause you're talking about resetting biological clocks. So whether you're talking about the Ayurvedic clock, the Chinese medicine clock, they're all derivative of the same thing. Remember, we get those signals from light. And so when you get that light signal and then you eat the food, which is another light signal, right? We turn that food and which has been created from photosynthesis, hopefully you're eating real food, right? That has that light signature to it. Then our body knows those signals match, right? And then the body knows, okay, this is serving me. I can turn this into energy. So local seasonal foods are gonna have an appropriate timestamp for you. And that's one reason too, where I see a lot of metabolic dysfunction is 'cause people are eating foods that are not local and seasonal and it's very confusing to your mitochondria. And so the more, like if you are, I think a lot of people are like, oh, I have to go chronically keto or whatever it is, it's like you would actually probably be able to tolerate a lot more carbohydrates if you only ate what was seasonal in your environment. That's actually pretty amazing 'cause the body knows. - Interesting, interesting. So regarding breakfast, do you have any suggestions? I mean, you just said eat local and seasonal, but is there anything else, you know, as a general rule for breakfast? - I think a strong protein signal is really important for breakfast. The stronger the protein, I usually prioritize, I'm not a person who overdays protein. I used to be when I was a trainer, but I think the highest protein meal needs to be for breakfast because it's gonna keep blood sugar stable and you're not, I even go very minimal in carbohydrates if any for breakfast. If you're gonna add carbohydrates, have 'em for lunch, your cortisol's higher, you're going to break them down a lot easier. So I usually say fat protein is a good signal for breakfast and it's a very stabilizing signal for that, your body clock and your hormonal clock. And that will transmute into the day so much better. And imagine, I'm sure, you know, how many people are like, they're grabbing coffee for breakfast, they're like, I'm not hungry 'cause they had dinner at like eight o'clock at night, you know, and we, and those are things that are keeping us away from this biological clock, right? It's keeping us off. So the more we think of food as light signals and the more you can actually eat food that is created under real light, you're gonna get a way better response, you know? So think of a food as like a timestamp and it changes everything when you think of things in that way. Okay, light signal, actual light signal from the sun, light signal from our food, then our body knows what to do with that energy. - Hmm, I love that image of food being this light signal and it makes so much sense, but I never, I never really, at least not consciously thought of food that way. Although I know, I think I've heard it in connection with plants, of course, they make photosynthesis. They are fueled by the sun, they're fueled by light. They have this light within themselves, so. - Yeah, and we take that and we uncouple the energy from the plants and we create our own energy from that. It's a beautiful, a beautiful representation of like symbiotic, you know, a relationship that we have with food. They capture light and turn into water and split it and turn it, you know, and we do the same thing with the gift that the plants give us. So it is pretty amazing and we don't think of things that way and we live in a world where you can get bananas in the winter, you know, and that's a very confusing signal to the body, right? Because it's like, wait a minute, where are we? Our gut changes seasonally, so our gut's not gonna be able to break that down like it should. So our body knows and the more we can connect in those ways, which we hear oh, eat seasonally and locally but we don't understand really why 'cause we're not looking at food as a light signal. - Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. - Perfect, yes, thank you for explaining that. - What's your stance on coffee? (laughing) Speaking of, right, I have coffee, I do, it is organic, mycotoxin free, as clean as it can be, okay? But I do not, I used to have it before, I would step outside, I used to have it before I would eat and that kept my cortisol on this roller coaster that I just could not find balance with. So coffee after you see the sunrise, after you put your feet on the earth and ground and after you have breakfast, that's the only way I allow coffee and it's important to remember too that coffee, while it does have some amazing polyphenols, right, it also is draining our minerals and electrolytes more, so it is a diuretic, so making sure that you are drinking extra minerals if you include coffee in your day-to-day lifestyle. So I am making sure that I, you know, do more of the minerals in my water, I do more things to build up my cellular hydration because I know that I'm putting my body at a risk of a little bit of a disadvantage in the hydration sphere if I include caffeine. - Okay, yeah, interesting, makes sense. I mean, it's quite commonly known actually that coffee dehydrates, so well, here in Vienna, you always get like a little glass of water, I mean, getting coffee in Vienna is very in style, get it on the little silver tablet and you always get your water with it, so. - Yes, yeah, that's why, right? We're like, why is, this is so fancy, it's like, well, actually, it's kind of like traditional because they know it's dehydrating, you know? How do you, just out of curiosity, how do you take your coffee, do you put any milk in it or? - Yeah, I do, I just do coconut milk, I have an espresso maker, so I just do some warm coconut milk and, you know, make the espresso, I do some cinnamon in there sometimes, but the coconut milk in and of itself is just, it's just enough, 'cause coffee is very acidic, so I have to combine it with a thicker milk situation or I feel my acid-based balance off, so I like it that way, I feel like it kind of pads the blood sugar response too, when you combine it with some healthy fat. - Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, yeah, I feel the same, I can't really drink it black. - Mm-hmm, it's too acidic. - It's too acidic. - I do, but it's too much, it, I can feel it like literally going straight to my system if I have it black, so. - Yeah, agree, yeah. - So that's super interesting, let me have a look at my notes here. So we've talked about the simple shifts we can make in our day to day regarding meal times, I found your suggestions on breakfast, and I'm going to have coffee, super, super helpful, and I'm sure a lot of the listeners will definitely benefit from that. Maybe let's have a look at some more of these most common issues, maybe typical women issues. So we've touched on migraines, you said, okay, a lot of women come actually with hormone issues, but hormone issues, it's such a broad term, right? So can you pinpoint a little bit further? - Yeah, you know, a lot of the hormone issues, I kind of come across our low progesterone issues, which either could look like low progesterone where you're having like a shortened cycle, or maybe spotting in between your cycle, or your cycle length is all over the place, you have these more estrogen dominant situations which sometimes estrogen can be high, but also sometimes it can just be higher than progesterone, and still have some of those, so we have like fibrotic tissue, horrible clotting, and breast tenderness, and you know, more of those estrogen dominant situations, which we, so when I analyze this and I take a step back, I'm like, okay, nothing tanks progesterone quite like cortisol does. So that is kind of the antithesis of, you know, or what is going to, antagonist of progesterone is cortisol. So when you're helping somebody, and remember the cortisol's coming from our light exposure, like we talked about, blue light keeps, blue light signals to the hypothalamus, to signal to the adrenals, to make cortisol. So I'm always assessing that light environment, what is keeping your cortisol too high? And remember that our light situation is impacting our blood sugar and our insulin too. So it's not always just the food, it is often our environment as well. So we have our environment that is creating this inability, 'cause sometimes I'll come across people who are like, I'm doing everything right, I'm doing the meal timing, I'm doing low carb, and sometimes we cycle carbs in around their cycle and things like that, and they're like, I still can't get my numbers balanced, I still can't get them lower than the hundreds, what is happening, and that truly is a call to look at your environment, because there is something that is impairing that cortisol rhythm, you know, and it usually is related to their light. So progesterone, I think of cortisol, so cortisol from both blood sugar dips, because every time you dip, your cortisol's gonna be responding and raising your blood sugar unnaturally in that way. So I think of that, and then the estrogen dominance, a lot of women are not, it's a low progesterone issue, but it's also a lot of women don't eat enough fiber. And fiber is our-- - Right, interesting. - Phase three, yeah, it's how we remove estrogen from the body, so we might be methylating it, we might be neutralizing it properly, but if we're not removing it from our body enough, that in and of itself creates a situation of estrogen dominance, and it just recirculates until we remove it. - Okay, okay. Yeah, very interesting, and I think even just chatting about it a couple of minutes will give women out there listening, so many hints, or hopefully will give them so many hints, where to look, because yeah, I don't know, hormones, hormonal imbalances, it's always such a vast, vast topic, so starting very practical, looking at the cortisol, looking at the blood sugar, the light exposure, the meal times connected to that, to the blood sugar, yeah, that can be really, really helpful, I find. - And just like we mentioned, the biological plaque, every hour, every spectrum of light is influencing a different hormonal response, or a biological response, or a neurotransmitter response, and so if you're low in hormones, and you are not getting those signals from the sun, especially if we're talking about hormone building, we're talking about that UVA windows, that's something you can look at on the circadian app that we talked about. If you have any sort of hormone imbalance, or neurotransmitter imbalance, thyroid issue, that's when our mitochondria synthesizes cholesterol into those things, it's kind of scanning the body and saying, okay, what do we need today? And if we're not getting that signal, we get lots of mixed messages, right? And then if our body's just preferring to make cortisol over all of our sex hormones, the imbalance is just going to further continue. So it's really important to look at all of the things that never start with the sex hormones. You have to start at the top, the sleep, wake cycle, the blood sugar, insulin part, and then see what's left over, not just starting to correct the thyroid or the sex hormones. - Mm-hmm, super valuable tip, thank you. You have a few group programs running, right? So what's coming up next? What can we learn? Can you talk us through them briefly? - Yeah, of course. So I do some practitioner groups. So that is kind of, I teach people how to help their clients with their metabolic health, looking at blood sugar or things like that. But I also run a regular type of group for that as well, a metabolism group. I am doing one that's more based on human behavior and creating change in your life, which I'm really excited about. I started in this, in college as a psych major, a psycho-neuroimmunology is one of my favorite things. How are thoughts actually influence our biological processes in the body? So kind of using that with some life coaching skills and things like that and creating a program where people can get unstuck and learn what's driving their behavior in their day-to-day life and help them work through those things. So that's one thing that I do. So yeah, everything from metabolic health to creating change. Those are the big ones that I am doing right now, but there is definitely some practitioner more in-depth things that I'm working on as well. - Amazing. So you have your website where people can probably find all the programs. - Mm-hmm, yes, yes. - Okay, amazing. And then there's your Instagram that I honestly can only recommend. I started following you maybe a couple of years ago and-- - Oh, thank you. - Yeah, I honestly always find your posts so good. - Thank you so much. - Yes, because you explain the things into such an easy way and it always makes so much sense. It's human sense behind it. You have to change when you want things to change. I mean, it's, yes, it's so obvious, but it's good to have someone actually tell you to do so. And-- - Yeah. - Just for those people listening, there's also lots of information on the blood sugar. There's an issue on eating correctly, if I can say so, regarding blood sugar and, yeah, metabolic health and so much more. So is there actually anything else you would love to you to touch on regarding chronic pain? You know, this inflammation issue that's often or always at the core. - Yeah, I think that it's always my intention to make sure that we are connecting people to nature is, our bodies are designed to heal themselves and we're designed to work synergistically with nature. And I think one of the best, when it comes to chronic pain and inflammation, I remember just from the metabolic or hormonal standpoint that we are losing our charge, ourselves, our energy is being compromised. But also remember, we are designed to work with the earth, right, and the earth has the opposite charge of what we need. So if we learn to connect more and we ground and we receive those electrons from the sun, from the earth, right, that helps us repair any deficit that we have in our body. And so that's why when people are talking about metabolic health, we're assuming that we're getting all of our energy from food, right? But we get energy from different environments, right? The sun, our connection with the earth, our connection with water. And so if we aren't thinking of those when we are building our foundation, no matter what the issue is, those are the things that are sustainable. Those are the things that will remember that we are symbiotic with nature. That we are designed. And so think about all of the chronic illnesses and things like that. Those really took place, the more we disconnected from nature, right? We're stuck in our homes. We block out all of the light signals either with our windows or with sunglasses. So we're blocking out the proper light signaling. And then we welcome in all of this artificial light signaling that's just keeping cortisol high, right? And then our cells are dehydrated because we are bombarded by non-native EMFs all day long in Bluetooth and all of these other things. So it seems too simple, but the more we can learn that nature is actually here to help build this void, right? That we are made to connect to the earth, to the water, to the sun. Then we can do some of this like, you know, damage control. And it's just being intentional with it and understanding, oh, if I actually hydrate my cells better, that will cause more flow in my body and that will help with localized inflammation. That is how we are designed to work. It's not an isolated piece. And so I think so often we try to isolate this chronic pain is just like, oh, it just must be something with my wrist. But really it's a stagnation that's happening. So how do we flow, right? Think of flow of electrons, flow of water, all of those things, our bodies are designed to flow. And the other thing is like, how sedentary are you? Because with that, we also generate electricity when we move our bodies. So we're recharging our battery when we move our bodies. So you know what I mean? There's so many different things. We think about just the food piece, but if there's so many other ways that we get energy transmitted throughout our whole body, so the more we can think of it on that level, then it becomes a little less fragmented and a little less, oh, it's just my wrist. It's like, no, I'm thinking about how, right wrist is just a red flag, that I don't have enough flow in my body. So how do I get that back? That's the way I think of it. - Perfect, yes. I love that image of moving your body or walking around, getting up from your seat and, I don't know, doing that phone call while you're walking, helping your body create that electricity. I've never thought about it that way. - We don't, and we have this mindset of like, oh, well, we move, we do our hour workout, but then we sit the rest of the day. It doesn't work, it's not enough. We have to actively be moving. We go outside, take light breaks, right? We're taking light breaks, we're charging our batteries, we're doing all these things. And that is how you keep that going because an hour of movement and sitting the rest of the day cause a lot of stagnation. - Oh, yeah, it does. I've just gone through a period of low back pain and just moving my body helps so much. So I think even before I started, really taking my phone outside, going for walks while I'm chatting and it's just so good. - It is, it really is. - Yeah, like I said, we are the only species that is like trying to get as far away from nature and control our environment just as much as possible, but we see where that gets us. It's getting us lots of crime. We can't all go back to being cavemen, but we can learn how to be intentional with our connection to nature, even in a modern world. And that's what I think I like to bring awareness to. - I absolutely love that. I'm a big fan of, you know, going more natural, doing things very simple. And oftentimes I found that it's really the simple things that are the best. - Yeah. They make the biggest, and that's why I said like, a lot of people want their health to be more complicated than just balancing blood sugar or just getting their sleep in check or just moving dinner up. But it honestly, those are the things that make the biggest change. And so I know it seems too simple, but I'm telling you on a biochemical standpoint, those are what make the biggest change. - Mm, perfect. Thank you so much. So I will definitely link to your website and your Instagram and the show notes. And on your website, people can get a touch for one-on-one with you. And I'm not sure if we mentioned it, but you do all these sessions virtually. So no matter where you are in the world, you guys listening, you can definitely get an appointment with Dr. Stacy, you don't have to be in Florida. - Yes. (laughs) Absolutely, guys. I love it. I love the connection to the rest of the world. It's beautiful. - Yeah, perfect. - All right, I guess that's it for today. - Yeah, thanks so much. - Thank you so much. - Thank you so much. That was very enlightening. And yeah, I really hope that you listening get lots out of it. Let us know how you like this episode. I'll be for sure sharing that on Instagram as well. So if you listen to it, you'll like it. Leave us a comment, please. Yes. (laughs) - Thank you. - All right. Thanks so much again. - Thank you. - Thanks so much for tuning in. I really hope that you liked this episode, that you got some good insights out of it. Let us know what helped you most. Send me an email or a comment over on Instagram. We'll be posting some snippets of this episode. And also don't forget to subscribe to this podcast. And if you're listening on Apple podcasts, please leave a five star rating. It's super easy to do, and it really helps me grow my show, all right. Thank you so much. Take care and see you soon. 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