Bex: If you're having PMS, you're definitely having an imbalance?
Alisa: Yes, 100,000%.
It increases the likelihood post-menopausally that you'll develop the big four disease of
inflammation: heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer's, or cancer.
Bex: Hey, everyone.
It is Bex here.
I am in the lovely New York City apartment of Alisa Vitti, who is the author of Woman
Code, founder of FLOLiving.com, and is also a functional nutritionist.
I just learned that word.
What does that mean?
Alisa: It means that we look at how the endocrine system functions so that we can get it to
work better using food.
Bex: My audience is going to love that, because we love food.
Alisa: Why not eat your way to wellness?
Bex: I'm here on another emergency visit, another selfish visit.
They all know that when I have a problem, I call in all the best experts to fix me under
the guise that I'm helping you, too.
We're going to work on me for a minute.
My periods are out of control -- completely out of my control.
A little birdy told me that you can help me because you know all about lady stuff.
Alisa: It's true.
I do magic with the ovaries, I like to think.
Tell me what's going on with your period.
Bex: I have four children, which you know.
After the fourth baby, my periods changed.
Up until this point in my life (32-years-old), they were always three to five days, totally
regular, totally on time, and easy to manage.
Now it's one day of heavy flow and pure hell.
My moods are out of control, and my poor husband is ready to move out in to the barn -- no
joke.
It is bad.
There's no pain.
Alisa: Right, but it's just this emotional drama for you.
Bex: Drama that I can't even get a grasp on.
I can't even say, "This is PMS.
I'll just work through it."
It's just utter despair.
Alisa: And you don't even realize that it's connected to your hormones.
You feel like it's real.
Bex: Right.
I can look on the calendar and say, "My period is coming up," but I think, "No, this is way
too bad.
I need to quit my business and crawl into a hole," every month.
Alisa: When I hear that there's this massive mood swing happening and there's a big change
in the actual flow -- you went from several days of a good healthy flow to one day of
very intense bleeding -- to me that's just really easy, obvious estrogen overload.
Bex: Easy?
I like that word.
Alisa: It's a straight shot to figuring out why this is happening to you.
We want to take a look at what you're eating that might be inadvertently raising your estrogen
levels.
For example, you might be consuming some soy products.
Bex: No.
Alisa: Good.
We'd want to investigate all the different things you might be doing.
You might be dousing yourself with lavender oil to such a degree that you're raising phytoestrogenic
concentration in the body.
There are lots of things that we use that we don't realize are estrogenic.
Many essential oils, for example, are estrogenic.
A lot of chemicals in certain skincare products are actually estrogenic.
Some of them are good because they're phtyoestrogenic.
Some of them are not good and they're xenoestrogenic.
Then we have that going on.
But also, you're going through obviously a hormonal fluctuation where your cycle has
completely shifted, and that could be the result of you having had four children, and
now you're 35 technically and don't be alarmed...
Bex: I wasn't alarmed until you brought it up.
Alisa: Everyone when they hear perimenopause, they say, "Ah!"
But usually at 35, every woman starts the perimenopausal journey.
Just like puberty takes from 9-22 to complete, perimenopause takes 35-50 to complete.
It really varies.
It's a long process.
You could just be having a little bit of shifting going on as well with that.
We would just want to look at all the different factors.
What endocrine-disruptive things you might be doing in lifestyle and diet?
Then we want to look at what micronutrients that might be missing for you that are not
supporting the other hormones that would balance that estrogen out.
Bex: What's really exciting to me is that I hear you saying that this is something that
can be in my control, and you keep bringing up diet.
We'll shift away from me for a little bit because I will just ring you on the phone
and ask you for some more free advice.
What are some things to look at for women out there who see a change?
Not necessarily my change.
What are things they can address and look at right away when they feel like something
hormonal is shifting?
Alisa: Let's talk about the kinds of changes you might see with your cycle.
You might see a change like Bex who has a shift of a long period to a really short period.
You might see the opposite, where you have a short period that becomes very long, or
you're bleeding for three weeks out of the month, or you're bleeding twice a month.
You might see changes in color and consistenicy -- my Dr. Oz simulated menstrual blood on
national television.
I loved that we did that.
If you haven't seen the segment where I break down the four different colors and textures
of what your flow could look like and what that means, go to Dr. Oz and search for that.
Bex: I have to see that immediately after we're done here.
Alisa: It's really important information.
You should be looking every month to gauge, before you flush, what color it is and what
consistency it is because it will tell you exactly what your hormones are doing.
For example, let's say you see a change where your cycle has become really heavy, dark,
and clotty, and that's new information for you.
Maybe it's always been that way and now you're paying attention to it because we're talking
about it right now.
If that's the case, chances are really good that you have a situation where estrogen is
not breaking down efficiently in your body, and it's causing all that clotting and the
heavy flow.
Let's say you have a different kind of color or a different change in your cycle where
you get a lot of brown staining.
A lot of women call or e-mail us and ask, "What does it mean if there's a brown stain
at the beginning or at the end?"
That's a progesterone issue.
You might not have enough progesterone to help your cycle do what it's supposed to do
-- start and finish bright red with a happy, healthy flow.
So there are all these changes that can take place.
You have to be looking at color, consistency and timing, and then of course, mood.
Look at mood.
Look at bloating.
If you're having PMS, we know you're having a hormonal balance.
Don't just joke about it and say, "Ha-ha, I'm crazy."
Bex: So if you're having PMS, you're definitely having an imbalance?
Alisa: Yes, 100,000%.
And the National Institute of Health came out in 2009 with the most extraordinary study
that every woman should know about.
I want to make T-shirts for everyone: "I read the BioCycle study."
The BioCycle study unequivocally showed that if you have something as harmless as PMS in
your 20s and 30s and you don't address it, it increases the likelihood post-menopausally
that you'll develop the big four diseases of inflammation: heart disease, diabetes,
Alzheimer's, or cancer.
Bex: This I think is the biggest takeaway of this video because everybody who suffers
from PMS I just chalking it up as something they have to get through.
Alisa: Exactly, and it's not.
It's totally fixable.
You can eat your way out of your bad mood.
You can eat your way out of your bloating.
You can eat your way out of all these things that make you feel like, "I'm supposed to
be crazy for this week."
No.
I don't have PMS.
In fact, my husband was with a bunch of his guy friends, and one of them was bringing
up the fact that he was really concerned because his girlfriend or wife was talking about how
she just was not feeling like herself for a full half of the month.
She would be a normal girlfriend for 14 days, and then a different person for the second
half of the month.
All the other guys said, "Oh yeah, totally.
I know the feeling well."
Vic said, "My wife doesn't have PMS."
They all looked at him thinking, "Where did you find her?"
But of course, it's what I eat and how I take care of myself.
I'm so into empowering my cycle each week of the month to make sure I'm eating in a
way that makes enough of the right hormones and breaks them down quickly enough so by
the time I get to the luteal phase, which is the PMS phase, I feel great.
I have energy and I feel good.
Bex: So this is the Woman Code.
Alisa: Shall we show it?
Bex: Yeah, we should show this book.
This is the Woman Code, which you absolutely have to pick up because we can talk about
this for five or ten minutes, but to really get into it, they should get this book.
They should definitely go to FLOLiving.com and check out all the amazing work that you're
doing.
Alisa: Thank you.
Bex: Thank you very much.
You're actually sticking around, and we're going to have another video that's coming
up that you'll be able to see next week, which is going to be all about birth control -- or
the lack thereof.
Thank you.
Alisa: My pleasure.
Bex: I love your message that we're in control and that we're meant to feel pleasure.
Thank goodness.
Alisa: Hormones are easy to play with, as long as you're playing with them with your
food.
Bex: We love easy.
Thank you so much.
Alisa: My pleasure.
Bex: Let me see your book really quick.
"Woman Code" -- go pick this up.
Visit Alisa at FLOLiving.com.
I know I'm going to go there right now.
Alisa: Yay!