A Shift Women Feel First

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At some point in their 40s or 50s, a woman might start feeling like something is shifting inside, not just physically, but her mood changes, her sleep patterns are different, words that maybe used to come easily before, now take a moment to find. And sometimes she wonders, is this just stress or is this aging? What if that something she's feeling is not a decline but a dove? And what if I tell you, her brain, far from her, is actually asking for a specific kind of support? This is exactly where we are starting today. Welcome back to Healthy Bind, Healthy Life, where we talk honestly about how to feel better, think clearly, and live with more ease every single day. I'm Iho Cyan, as some of you would know, and today I'm joined by someone whose work is genuinely changing the way women understand their bodies and minds, what they are going through. Meet Dr. Blake Myers. He's a licensed naturopathic physician, author, and assistant professor in integrative and functional nutrition at Cybrock University and the creator of the Bridge System, which is a naturopathic framework that helps women navigate perimenopause and menopause naturally through nutrition, lifestyle, herbal medicine, and a whole lot of honest conversations. So today I invite you to join me on this journey about what menopause really is, what it actually does to the brain and the overall mental well-being, and how can women support themselves for this journey. So, Dr. Blake, it's a pleasure to have you here and excited to see where this conversation really goes.

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Hey dear listeners, before we begin, a quick note from Heldiman Beyavek. This episode is created for educational and informational purposes only. The views shared by our guests are their own and may not reflect those of the host or network. Nothing in this conversation should be taken as medical, legal, financial, or professional advice. Please consult a qualified professional before making important decisions. We encourage you to listen with curiosity, think independently, and use this content as a starting point for reflection, not a substitute for professional guidance. Now, settle in and enjoy

The Surprise First Signs

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the conversation.

SPEAKER_00 2:20

Yeah, thanks for having me. I'm excited too.

SPEAKER_02 2:22

Yeah, likewise, Dr. Blake. So I mean, I want to ask you something that I think will um resonate with a lot of people listening to this right now because you work with a woman going through one of the most significant biological transitions of their life. So what has really surprised you the most in all your years of clinical practice about what a woman actually experienced during this time compared to what they were told to expect?

SPEAKER_00 2:47

Yeah, that's a great question. You know, there so perimenopause and menopause is one of those things that until kind of recently, it wasn't really talked about that much. I mean, most women now that I've, you know, worked with, talked with, who are going through it say their mothers and grandmothers never talked about it with them. And so, and but now, especially with social media, and there's a lot of there's a lot of conversations happening. And so there's a lot more support and understanding than there used to be, but there's still a lot of sort of surprise to women when they start going through perimenopause. They most women think of hot flashes, at least. Maybe they think of night sweats, something like that, but they don't think about that one of the first things that could show up could be they start to get anxiety or their hair starts to change, or maybe their hair starts to fall out a bit before their periods ever start to change. So most of the time, women will know they're in perimenopause by the time that their periods start to become irregular and maybe they start having hot flashes. But if you ask a lot of women when once they're a ways into perimenopause or they're in menopause postmenopause, and you say, What was the first sign now looking back that you knew you were going into perimenopause? They'll say things like, Well, actually, it was it wasn't hot flashes, it was anxiety, for example. So that's kind of a surprising thing that I've learned over time. But another one is really that this is this is more than a biological transition that's happening. It's of course a major biological, physiologic transition, but there's a lot more there.

SPEAKER_02 4:30

Wow. And and I mean, how would you explain it? You know, I mean, something which is uh, like you said, is definitely biological, but how else would you like to frame

Menopause As Identity Transformation

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it? I'm curious to know.

SPEAKER_00 4:43

Yeah, so many women experience what starts to happen during this transitional time as really a transformation, kind of metamorphosis, if you will. And what starts to happen is a real change in identity, which makes a lot of sense. You know, if you think about the things that any of us identify with, well, we identify with our physical bodies, of course, but we identify with our thoughts and our beliefs, and we identify with the way that, you know, our brain functions and how well we can show up at work and and we identify ourselves with our relationships and the health of those, right? And all of these aspects of our lives. And a lot of those things, not just the physical body, start to shift for a lot of women. So there's it's really a time of transformation of identity and self-definition for a lot of women. And depending on the person, that can be really difficult to handle and it can be it can be kind of a painful process, right? Depending on how much you're attached to and hold and holding on to a prior identity of sorts, versus an allowing and understanding that this is just a transformational time, a transitional time, and you you end up on the other side where physical symptoms start to calm down eventually, and you also start to recognize yourself in a new way. Women start to recognize, oh, this is like a new version of me in different ways.

SPEAKER_02 6:19

Yeah, I think you know what you're describing really helps make sense of something that so many women are told uh is just in their head, uh perhaps. And I mean, uh that distinction itself changes everything about how woman really relates to her own experience. So, Dr. Blake, if we have to go into

Beyond Hormones: Gut And Inflammation

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the uh nitty gritty of of this uh conversation, is there something specific about the way that uh you think hormones interact with brain function that you wish more maybe doctors or you know, the media understood? And when I say media, I I mean women and doctors.

SPEAKER_00 6:56

Yeah. Well, I think the first thing that I want to mention that is one of my main points that I try to make to anyone that I talk to about this topic is that you know, everyone thinks of the menopausal transition as being a hormonal a hormonal conversation. Everyone talks about hormones and absolutely that's going on, but there's a lot more than hormones going on. That there's there's try's there's shifts in the majority of body systems, but a few in particular that completely change is the gut microbiome. The gut microbiome does a complete shift in its makeup and diversity during during the menopausal transition. Another aspect that can become really imbalanced and cause a lot of problems that are characteristic of this time frame for women, like sleep issues and fatigue and things, is this dysfunctions in or imbalances in the adrenal system, the brain adrenal system, which is called the HPA axis, mitochondria, which are in almost every, well, they're in every cell of your body except for red blood cells. So every cell of your body, and they're what make energy and produce energy. So if your mitochondria are functioning low, the the metabolic rate is low, you're gonna have brain fog and fatigue and things. So that's a a non-hormone related thing. And there are more, and and the immune system, so that's another really important one to just mention is that the immune system starts to change because of the hormonal changes and starts to lean towards inflammation more. So inflammation has to be a primary consideration. And in terms of your question about hormones impacting the, I think you said the brain and these processes. So so definitely inflammation on its own impacts the brain and brain function. But hormones, the hormonal changes that are happening during perimenopause and then into menopause, there's actually a restructuring of the brain and the neurologic structure. And that that's really that's something that every doctor and I and every woman, well, really, and any partner of a woman who is going through this time. I think it's important to know that because a lot of things start to make sense when you start to view a woman's experience, whether it's physical symptoms or it's mental emotional symptoms or cognitive symptoms, it starts to make sense when you understand that the brain is clearing out, a woman's brain is clearing out old neurologic pathways, those pathways that perhaps evolutionarily would have been not as necessary as they would be during reproductive years. And in their place, it's not like you it's not like women lose neurons and then then they're just like at this place with like less brain function. No, it's that they're losing certain pathways and they're regaining new ones. And so it makes a lot of sense, right? If that's going on, of of course there's brain fog and like you're thinking differently and there's going to be mood changes. But before I just the last thing I want to say on that before you jump in is that that is a really good point of optimism, right? And that it's a transitional time, and then your brain comes back with new pathways and new ways of thinking and seeing the world.

SPEAKER_02 10:13

Yeah, I think this really makes so much sense. I mean, things like brain fog or anxiety or shifts in mood, you know, changes in how a woman really feels about herself. And like you said, uh, you know, it's it's the biology's own way of I mean, going towards that new direction. And I mean, you know, in in the everyday life of a woman who is in the middle of this transition, maybe listening to this right now, juggling with work, family, and there's like so much of that, right? Relationships on the other end, and you know, quite

Brain Rewiring And A Case For Optimism

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feeling like she's not quite herself or being herself in lately. So I just want to ask you, what is struggling mental health during many powers actually look like? So, what are the signs, maybe like early signs? Because you know, it's rather easy to uh find out uh that you're in this once, you know. I mean, there's some sort of burnout that's taken over you. But if you could share some of the early signs that uh, you know, listeners should look out for perhaps.

SPEAKER_00 11:16

Yeah, I would say some things would be from a mental and emotional perspective, would be just subtle shifts in subtle shifts in emotional resiliency. So now you're uh for example, you know, now your your spouse or partner, whoever whatever whoever it is, you know, or friends, etc. You know, they used to always do this thing, it was no big deal, and now it's starting to kind of it's just kind of getting to you in a different way. So you're like you're a little less resilient in terms of dealing with something that is annoying to you, let's say or irritating, or less resilient to stress, like stress at work. It's like I never used to be anxious at work, and now I'm kind of feeling that way in these different scenarios. Those can be, you know, little, little hints that, oh, there's something shifting in me. Now, of course, that doesn't mean you're in perimenopause. Um, those things can happen to anyone for, you know, if they're, you know, dealing with a lot of stress or overwhelmed. But that yeah, it's I would say it's like a little bit of a less of a resilience, and maybe you're starting to know, like, hey, my cognition's just not quite as sharp as it used to be. That along with it would maybe be a time to start considering if that might be perimenopause might be what's happening.

SPEAKER_02 12:35

Lovely. I think that's really helpful. And I think that picture of you know, somebody who is uh struggling or managing everything, and I mean, is the one a lot of people will recognize as well. And maybe the fact that it looks like coping from the outside makes it even harder for her to really give her self permission. But I think the way you reframed it now really puts a lot of attention back on uh maybe some of the things, some of the things that you may have been ignoring lately, which comes uh back to this, uh Dr. Blake. So I just want to touch base upon your framework, which is the bridge system, which takes uh natural pathic away, uh, working with things like uh nutrition, sleep, uh lifestyle, and quite interesting, uh quite interestingly botanical medicine as well. So for someone who is actually in the thick of this and does not know where or what is this, I mean, what is the first and most important thing that you think she can do to support both her brain

Early Mental Health Clues

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and her mental well-being during this time?

SPEAKER_00 13:37

Yeah, uh there's there's sort of two answers to that. I I think the first one is I ask, I always ask my patients, uh you know, if you could do one or two things right now that you know would help you feel better, that you know would make you healthier, what would they be? And I ask people to have an honest reflection on that because we all know, uh everyone knows their own inner knowing knows one or two things that that they could do that would that would help them feel healthier. So that's like one of the first things I would say is what do you already know that you could do? And maybe, I mean, it could be anything. It could be like, well, I know that I I could I could eat healthier in this way or that way, or eat less sugar, or it's like I know that I could focus on getting more sleep or whatever it might be. So that's the first thing I would say. It's hard to pick one thing out outside of that example to pick one thing because I really try to take a comprehensive approach, but I would say there's sort of two, maybe, and that would be getting the diet optimized into what would be called an anti-inflammatory diet, really plant forward kind of diet. So not necessarily vegetarian, but plants is the majority of what's going in into your body. That's important, and movement. Movement is really important, and in particular, bottom. Yeah, and and one of the most important things that a lot of women don't know is a lot of women start to think that, oh, I need to do cardio a lot, cardiovascular working out. And that's fine, but really there needs to be a lot of focus as well on building muscle, on resistance training. The the impacts of building lean, healthy muscle will increase longevity, decrease all kinds of health risks, and will make a woman feel better in her body. She'll just feel more grounded and solid in her body, and it will start to improve many of the symptoms of the menopausal transition. So movement, but building muscle is a really important one.

SPEAKER_02 15:41

Yeah, I think that's something that sounds maybe trivial, but is rather really not. I mean, it is, you know, one of those fundamental things that really keeps the nervous system active throughout. And I think the the uh the way that you framed this, you know, from starting small and uh building that trust with your own self, with your own body again is really drowning. And perhaps uh I think that's the best note for uh

The Bridge System: Food And Muscle

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me to wrap this up on as well. So uh just before we wrap this off, Blake, would quickly love to ask you for listeners who actually resonated with what we discussed and talked about today around botanical medicine or uh around you know, how can women in particular, you know, get back to their own bodies during this transition. So what's the best place for them to find you and where the where do you direct them to go and learn more about your work?

SPEAKER_00 16:34

Yeah, absolutely. I'm on most social media platforms. So if you go to TikTok or Instagram, Facebook or YouTube and you look for the bridge system, you'll you'll find me there. I I try to post a lot of educational content there. And if you go to the bridgesystemmethod.com, there is there's a free uh guide there that lays out the bridge system. I'm kind of revamping that a little bit right now, but it's uh it's a three-phase protocol that goes into more detail about the diet and movement and stress management and as well as supplementation. So I have a supplement that I formulated that's holistically targeted for a lot of the body systems that are changing during this time. So that's coming out in a couple of weeks. So that that will be there as well.

SPEAKER_02 17:21

Wow, that's I think that's a huge step forward. And I think a lot of us do really need that sort of framework as well, because you know, taking care of our bodies in this particular era has become really important. So, Dr. Blake, thanks for sharing that. I'll include the details in the show notes for the listeners who could easily reach out to learn more about the bridge system. And folks, with that, unfortunately, we hit today's minute mark on this. And what I'm really carrying from this conversation, and maybe I want you to sit with this thought as well, is that when you when you talk about menopause, is it's not the end of you know that peak of a woman's life, you know, her energy or sense of self-identity, most importantly, right? I think with the right support and right understanding of where you stand and

Where To Learn More And Closing

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how are you going to reclaim that energy back, I think it can actually be the beginning of a more clear and rounded chapter than anything that came before. So uh that's what that I'm really taking away from this conversation. And I also want you to ponder and sit with that thought for a few seconds and of course reach out to Dr. Blake should you need any help. So, folks, thank you so much once again. And Dr. Blake, thank you so much for uh being here. I think this was one of those conversations that I think a lot of women have been waiting for without without knowing or I mean, you know, wanting it. And I think this would be a moment of acknowledgement for them as well. So, for the listeners, if today did give you a new way to understand what you or someone you love is going through, maybe to hold onto that because I think understanding is where the whole story of care and growth begins. This has been Cyan on Healthy Mind, Healthy Life, which is part of the Healthy Mind Biovic Network, where we believe that your health, your mind, and your life all deserve honest attention. So this has been Cyan, and I'll see you in the next one.