341-SYNCPodcast_NathalieBeauchamp

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Jenny Swisher: [00:01:00] Welcome friends to this episode of The Sink Your Life podcast. Today I’m joined by my new friend, Natalie Amp. I’m super excited for this. We had the chance to connect in advance, and this is a topic that is. Very near and dear to my heart. You guys know I’m all about biohacking. We’re gonna be talking today about seven longevity hacks for women over 40 ways that we can sort of biohack our health to really feel optimal.

Natalie is a biohacking expert, author and speaker dedicated to helping high achieving women in their forties and beyond, reclaim their energy, balance hormones, and optimize their health naturally. With a background in chiropractic and a certification from the Institute of Functional Medicine, she spent nearly three decades empowering others through integrative wellness strategies that fit real life.

Her 90 day reboot and optimize program helps women cut through health confusion and take practical science backed steps toward lasting vitality. A former natural bodybuilder and longtime wellness advocate. She shares her insights through keynotes, media appearances, and bestselling books like Hack Your Health Habits and Smart Cuts.

Biohack your health span. We’re gonna be diving more into that today, so [00:02:00] we’ll point to her at the very end. We’ll make sure we link up her, uh, information in the show notes as well so you guys can find her even after the podcast airs. But Natalie, welcome to the show. If you would just share with my audience more about you.

Nathalie Beauchamp: Yeah. Well, thank you for having me. And I, you know, when you, we, uh, hear our bio being read and it’s expert and I, I kind of don’t like that word to be honest, because I feel like I’m a constant student always learning about health and wellbeing for myself and, you know, always researching the latest of the latest.

So, uh, yeah, I’m just. Passionate about health and wellness. I’ve been practiced for 30 years and as a chiropractor, um, we are fortunate to see our patients on a maintenance wellness kind of basis. So it’s nice, nice to be part of their lives in term of, you know, uh. All pillars of, of health. I feel like I’m dispensing advice or making them think of certain things in all rams of their health and wellbeing.

So as a chiropractor, I might be adjusting [00:03:00] their spine and, and helping their nervous system, but you know, through my books and so forth, I always want to help people, uh, discover. You know, what is the most efficient ways to do things? Because let’s face it, we’re all busy. And I mean, if we all had a perfect day and you were sharing before we got on that, your day was, uh, maybe sidetracked by life events, right?

So if we had our perfect day that we had the perfect breakfast, the perfect workout, the perfect, perfect, we wouldn’t be able to to live really. So I think it’s important that. We, we stack our habits so they’re easier to integrate in our lives. And that’s kind of why I thought, okay, well let’s do seven, you know, uh, categories if you want of biohacking that I think are, are really pertinent, uh, for US women over 40.

So first one, which as you mentioned I do have a background in bodybuilding, is train training. So many women are shying away, uh, from it. And one quote that I like here, it [00:04:00] says, muscle is your health span currency. I’ll say that again. Muscle is your health span currency. And it’s so true because as we age, we lose muscle mass, we lose bone density.

So it is so crucial for us, and I’ll talk about, uh, metabolism and so forth, but I think we forget. How important it is to keep our muscle mass and, you know, typically, I mean, it is getting better, especially with the younger crowds, uh, of girls that, you know, you used to go to the gym and the guys would be in the weight room and the ladies would be on the cardio equipment.

And it’s just like we do need cardio. But, uh, we also do need strength training and. One of the things that, uh, we talk about in our book is Grip strength and how it is a longevity marker. So this could be, you know, using a d dynamometer to measure your strength. And for women, we’re looking at about 45, uh, kilogram.

Uh, and maybe, you know, a 10% different from left to [00:05:00] right. Um, and also being able to hang, you know, the hang test. So, you know, go to the gym, go to the park with your kids, and just hang and calculate how many, uh, how long you can, you can last. So we’re looking at that least 62nd to be able to do that. So you can specifically train with this, but it could be incorporating things in the gym with kettlebells, with, uh, farmer Carry, you know, just to work on that grip strength.

I think it’s. Uh, it’s so, so important. That’s something that is, uh, being missed for women, uh, to really integrate strength training and not being shy about lifting. A lot of time throughout the years, women will tell me, oh, I just want a tone. Well, there’s no such thing, you know, it’s, it’s called resistance training for reason.

And yes, you need to change your workout and that sometime you might be doing more superset, but you do need to have a cycle where you know you are lifting heavier. There’s no greater feeling than to be able to bench a certain amount. There’s no [00:06:00] greater feeling than to be able to lift your body weight, right?

So. Those are, you know, especially lifting ourselves, they’re, they’re life skills. Like there are things that could happen to us that you should be able to lift your, your yourself. Right. And then on the same kind of vein is protein intake. And I’m sure you see that, uh, also, um, as a, you know, nutritionist, trainer, uh, that women are at the end of the day not consuming enough protein.

Um, I’m a big fan of if you’re active and you are working out on a regular basis. To have at least one gram per, uh, per pound. So, and an of lean muscle mass. So if your ideal weight is one 20, even if you may weigh one 40, you aim for that. And I personally hate counting calories. I don’t know if it’s just something that I just hated from the get go, but I do count my protein.

So like, okay, all right, it’s noon. How much protein have I had? How can I get more into it? Into me? Uh, you know, [00:07:00] what’s for dinner? Uh, you know, with replacing or sub substitution with, uh, with protein shake. So I think those two things, when women want to lose weight, amazing results happen. Just focusing on their, those two things.

And in term of counting protein, you know, scoop of protein is 20 gram. I always say the size of a fist is pretty much, you know, 20 gram of, you know, beef or chicken or, or what have you. So those. Two things are, uh, I think super, super, uh, crucial.

Jenny Swisher: Yeah, for sure, for sure. Well, I’m excited to dive into to all of these hacks that you, that you’ve, um, put together for us here.

But let me just say this, like my audience knows that sometimes we have to kind of. Remind the, the women listening that our goal ultimately when it comes to our health is longevity. Right? And as Dr. Gabrielle Lyon says, like, muscle is the key to longevity. And so strength training does of course, come, come at the top of the list because if we’re not doing those things then, you know, things [00:08:00] like gravity and age work against us, right?

And so we start to, um, be unable to do the basic things and the basic functional movements. I see that even with my parents in their seventies. You know, the inability to get up and down off the floor or, um, the inability to want to climb the stairs right. To, to chase after a grandchild. Like, those are basic things that we should be able to do.

Yeah. And how we get to the point where we can’t do them anymore is because we stopped doing them in the first place. Mm-hmm. So being able to do them, um, to being able to just go for a walk every day, being able to do functional movements like squatting, lunging, pushing, pulling. I see so many women who fall victim to what I call diet culture.

Mentality of, like you said, the elliptical or the treadmill or running the half marathons or, um, and then, and then you partner that with usually a, a cutback on calories, right? Like, oh, I’m low carb, or I’m trying not to eat as much carbohydrate or low fat, or whatever. And it’s like all of a sudden we have this disaster that happens metabolically.

And that’s when women land on my podcast. ’cause they’re like, well, I need to learn more about my hormone [00:09:00] health because now all of a sudden my menstrual cycle is crazy. Or I’m in perimenopause or. Um, you know, my stress is through the roof and I need to learn more about this, and so. Lifestyle. Lifestyle.

Lifestyle. Right. And so I love that you’ve started with strength training. I love that you mentioned protein. Um, the two go hand in hand, right? If we’re, we, we’ve gotta be doing both. And I don’t want people to be scared either. ’cause sometimes, I know I mentioned that you have a bodybuilding background.

You know, our trainer as part of our sync program, she also has a bodybuilding background. Um, and I think a lot of women think like, oh, well I don’t wanna look bulky. I don’t wanna look like super buff. Right. Or whatever the case is. And it’s like, I don’t think women really understand the amount of work that goes mm-hmm.

For bodybuilders, especially females to, to look a certain way. Yeah. And if you want to really, I’ll say tone up ’cause that’s the phrase you used. Mm-hmm. Then being able to lift weights and being able to get stronger through progressive overload is the way. Exactly. And anything else is just marketing. So it’s not, I mean.

I hate this whole calories in, calories out conversation. I feel like I’m having it every day. But [00:10:00] women, I, I see women every day who feel like they have to add a HIIT component to every workout. Mm-hmm. So if they do legs or they do upper body, then well, I’m g but I’m gonna add that 20 minute bike ride, or I’m gonna add that 20 minute HIIT class on top of it.

Mm-hmm. We don’t have to do that. Yeah. Like we don’t have to burn the candle at both ends. Yeah. That’s when we start to get into that metabolic damage. Yeah. So then what, what people will do is they hear me say that and they think that now, oh, I must, I must just have to do yoga then. Right? And so then we go to the other end of the spectrum where it’s like, okay, well you know, this woman said that I shouldn’t be pushing it.

No, I didn’t say Don’t push it. I said polarized training, progressive overload. Yeah. Giving your body a chance to recover well, making sure it’s fueled well. Making sure you’re eating enough protein and focusing on the strength training. Yeah, so I just kinda wanted to recap that and I wanted to make sure that as we keep going through these hacks that my women listeners understand that we’re.

We’re framing this in the narrative of longevity. Yeah. And not in the narrative necessarily. Yeah. And, and I’ll add to

Nathalie Beauchamp: that, the definition or the difference between health span and lifespan. So there’s a year difference, [00:11:00] right? Lifespan is how long you’re gonna live. But if you start feeling really unwell, you know, at 70 until you’re 90.

Not, not a great way to live, but Healthspan is being vibrant and energized, and I’m sure you’re familiar with Dr. Uh, Peter Attia and his, uh, um, you know, mentality or, or the premise that we should train. To live to a hundred and be able to do everything functionally calls it the, uh, the centenarian decathlon, right?

Like to make sure that we’re able to do everything and you’re so right that even like VO two Max, it’s another marker of, uh, longevity as well, but mobility because we stop. And as a chiropractor, I see it all the time and even myself, like I caught myself the other day sitting down to put my socks. And I’m like, no, I don’t need to sit down to put my socks.

I’m gonna practice my balance because, you know, I’m getting, I’m getting older and I want my nervous system to be [00:12:00] triggered. And that kind of brings me to the next point and is optimization of the nervous system, but. Kind of tying it in with strength training. Like when I have the bar, uh, and I don’t squat like I used to squat in my twenties.

I don’t want to get injured. You know, there are stages in life then we do things differently, but it’s no license to stop doing it. But my point is. When I have a heavy bar, when I’m doing my squats, I’m triggering my nervous system to adapt in different ways, right? So that load on my frame and on my nervous system is stimulating my nervous system, and that’s another key component that strength training really does.

So let’s talk about nervous system optimization. So again, as a chiropractor, that’s a conversation I have every day. You know, we’ve got that. Sympathetic nervous system. That’s that fight or flight. Go, go, go. And in the clinic I have a tool to measure HRV, and it’s really cool because it plots [00:13:00] people in kind of four quadrants.

So when they go to the left, it’s the synthetic fight or flight, and that’s usually the first kind of sign, you know, you’re. You got two kids, they’re in sports, you’re busy with your career, go, go, go. We have a tendency to shift to that sympathetic, uh, dominance that we call it. Then we’ve got the parasympathetic nervous system, which is that rest and digest, and neither of them are right or wrong.

It’s just a matter, you don’t wanna be too much in one or too little than the other. For instance, if I had, you know, breakfast, my body right now is digesting the food. It’s more a parasympathetic activity. It’s nothing wrong with it. It needs to happen. So. It’s having that balance between the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous system.

So, um, big fan of the vagus nerve. I’ve done entire presentation just on the vagus nerve and for your audience. If you are familiar with it, great. If you’re not, the vagus nerve is one of the longest, it is the longest, uh, nerve in the body, and there’s two actually come out here. [00:14:00] And it goes to the gut and it’s responsible for a lot of digestive and those, uh, rest and digest functions.

And you know, when we say, uh, you know, I had a gut feeling this was coming, well, we’re literally talking about the vagus nerve. And a lot has been written on that nerve in, you know, recent year. And HRV is one of those markers. And I see that you have an Apple Watch or a Fitbit. HRV is being tracked, so HRV is a great marker.

To know if we’re over tired, if we’re over training. So I myself have, uh, the ing So in the morning I’ll look at my readiness score. I’m like, okay, yeah, I pushed hard on my workout or I had a stressful day at the clinic. It was physical. So it’s a great tool to measure how. Efficient or resilient, your nervous system is.

And then from a, you know, spine point of view, me as a chiropractor working on people’s, um, spine, [00:15:00] I can help balance that nervous system. But things like. Cold exposure, which, you know, again, it’s, I’m not for extreme on anything. And sometime for women when they’re stressed out, cold exposure is the last thing that you wanna do.

But, you know, light therapy or breath work, uh, gargling singing, all those things can be exercised for, uh, the vagus. Or so, uh, and when I say light therapy, it could be going outside in the morning, getting sure that you’re getting that 10 minutes of light in your eyes to stimulate your melanopsin receptor.

It could be doing, uh, red light therapy and for breath work. The cool thing about breathwork is you can use it to ramp yourself up if you need to go, or you can use it to calm yourself down. Like it’s, I find it such a beautiful thing that you can reset your physiology pretty quickly just with, uh, with breathwork.

So to me. Healthy spine, healthy nervous system, and then being cognition of all [00:16:00] those stressors in your life. And, you know, the, uh, I think we have to talk about the adrenal glands as well, because very typical for women to go, go, go push. And even with workouts running marathon, which I’ve done, been there, done that, got the t-shirt and you know, just say, okay, I, I don’t think I need to do another one.

Uh, because it’s kind of our society now that we need to push and have goals and all of this, which is good to a certain extent. So I always say to my female patient, you wanna make sure you’re nurturing your adrenals in your twenties and thirties, so when you hit pre-menopause and menopause, they’re not.

You know, I hate to use the word adrenal fatigue, but, uh, because there’s, you know, it’s more about balance than anything. But as our, um, reproductive organs stop or decrease the production of estrogen and progesterone, the adrenals have to kick in. So this is something that is so typical. So again, that, you know, go, go, go, and.

That busyness, [00:17:00] that seems to be sometime a badge of honor when you meet another one. Oh, how have you been? You know, I’ve been busy, like it’s a badge of honor. So I think the awareness of our nervous system from a, it’s time to go and produce, but it’s time to, you know, get in that parasympathetic state and really making sure that we’re nurturing our adrenals, our, our vagus nerve.

So it creates that balance.

Jenny Swisher: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I think, um, I think about all of my friends and probably a lot of these listeners who are very into exercise. You like exercise, you embrace healthy lifestyle, right? But they’re, it can come to a fault, and I’ve seen it hundreds and hundreds of times just through consults of women who they are exercising and they’re doing the things and they’re also meal prepping.

And, and it gets to the point where it’s no longer healthy because now all of a sudden we’ve involved the nervous system and the nervous system is very uptight. I mean, I’ve experienced that myself, whether. Whether it’s through disordered eating or just feeling like restricted. I remember having a moment in my life where I was like, should [00:18:00] I have more than half a banana?

And I was like, wait a minute. Did I just ask myself that question? Like mm-hmm. There, there can be become like obsessive tendencies, but also. Like you said, if the nervous system isn’t in check, all those other things you’re doing, ultimately, you know, you’re doing it in a stressed out state. Mm-hmm. So the body isn’t going to respond and adapt in the way that maybe you’re wanting it to.

Right? Yeah. And so we see this often as well, where women will say, you know, I feel like I’m doing everything. Like you, you know, I’m, I’m sleeping six or seven hours a night, and I’m, I’m, I’ve, I’ve removed dairy and gluten or whatever, you know, and I’m exercising every day, and I, I still can’t lose this, this belly fat or whatever.

And then you, you start talking to them and you realize. They’re in a really unhappy marriage. Mm-hmm. And they’re on all the time and they’re, they’ve got kids that are moving to college and they’re, you know, there’s all this stress and that we haven’t taken the time to, I don’t wanna say slow down ’cause it’s not always about slowing down.

Yeah. But we haven’t taken the time to, to really just calibrate ourselves. And so, um, I get really hung up to on. I kind of got sick of myself of hearing people say like, go for a walk or [00:19:00] lay down and do meditation, and, you know, five minutes of breath work. And that is all amazing stuff. But for if, if you’re like me and you’re wired and you’re wired to be type A, you’re wired to be driven with purpose.

Like if you’re the girl in the, in the, in the mall, that’s like, why are people walking so slowly? Right? Then you are my person. Um, I’m always like the person on a mission, like I know where I’m going and what I wanna do, but what I’ve learned is there are some instances and transitions in my day. That I can.

For lack of better word, slow myself down. Mm-hmm. Really just center myself, I guess is a better way of saying it. Right. Yeah. So I found last year that I was standing up to eat my lunch every day. Like I was just like, how can I eat this lunch as fast as possible so that I can get more stuff done? Mm-hmm.

And get my daughter’s school in time. Right. That’s, that’s one commitment I’m making this year is that for lunch, even by myself, I’m by myself for lunch every day. I’m gonna sit down, I’m gonna sit down at my desk, or I’m gonna sit down at, I’m gonna sit down and eat my meal. Another thing that I’ve noticed is how much calmer I feel with music.

Mm-hmm. So instead of feeling like I have to listen to all the podcasts, or I [00:20:00] have to get caught up on calls, or I have to call somebody, right? Mm-hmm. Like I’m in the car, it’s okay to just ride to school, to the pickup line with music. Right? Yeah. Like there are small things that we can do. Yeah. That really just help reassure our bodies that we’re safe.

And as my good friend, Dr. Paige likes to say. Whatever that subconscious voice is in our head. If it’s, if it’s repeating, you have to do more. Do more. Yeah, do, do more. Then that’s this unconscious signal of like, it is not okay. Like your body’s not okay. That we’ve gotta keep pushing. And so that as a cortisol response, that is then going to just.

To your detriment, right? So you could be eating all the protein and exercising and Yeah. And now you’re body. Yeah. Well, even the

Nathalie Beauchamp: example that you’re giving six hours may not be enough. Maybe this person needs a more seven to nine hours and with you eating is a. Uh, parasympathetic rest and digest, you know, state that we should be in.

And you’re right, like it’s, it’s, it’s kind of like mini sprints as opposed to, okay, I get up and I go until I drop at nine [00:21:00] o’clock, as opposed to just taking, and I think it does happen as we get older, we do become more wise, I think, in lesson to the body. So. Uh, oftentimes I’m being asked what would be the advice you would give to your younger self?

And it would be just that actually, just to take certain moment, and it could be five minutes, right? For me, meditation is a walk in nature. That’s my movement. ’cause I need to move. I, I, I have a hard time staying still and, and, uh, movement. Gives me that, you know, with the, the optics of it all too is, is, is just gives me that, that sense of progression and, and, and movement and then being in nature.

So I think I, I don’t like to be rigid about anything because we’re all different and what we need.

Jenny Swisher: Right?

Nathalie Beauchamp: Yeah.

Jenny Swisher: Yeah. For sure. And I think for women too, like to follow your intuition, most of the time I find that women are just not following their intuition, so they’re following sort of like the patriarchy of what we’re supposed to do.

Yeah. And um, and, and when I really tap in, like I’ll have women ask me like, you know, I’m feeling really exhausted. My [00:22:00] period’s coming soon. Like, do you think it’s okay to take a rest day? And I’m like, if you have to ask me that question, like, yeah, you’ve said it out loud now say it out loud yourself. And so we have to trust the intuition that we already have.

And I find that most women are not, we’re not listening to ourselves. We’re doing what we think we should do, whether that’s checking a box on a fitness calendar or, um, going to the class we signed up for, even when we feel exhausted. Right? So those are the things that we can control. So, okay, let’s keep going.

We’ve talked strength training, protein. Yeah. And then,

Nathalie Beauchamp: um, you know, nutrition and, and I, I always say if we would put all the nutritionists at the, uh, I’m from Canada, so we’ll say the, uh. Olympic stadium in Montreal. I, I think I used to say they would all agree maybe just on one thing and, and it would be, greens are good for you.

But now I don’t even think they would agree on anything. Right. So I’m, I’m not a big fan of one size fits all, so I’m a big fan of a. Balanced diet diversity because our gut needs that diversity of food. But I’m a big fan of [00:23:00] figuring out what works for you. And I know that what worked for me in my twenties and thirties is different.

So I think it’s really important that we put in the time to figure out what gives us energy. You know, I’m been trained a lot by Dr. Doti. I mean, he always say. You know, when you finish eating, you should feel the same that you know, uh, than before. So if you were famish and you were, you know, it gives you energy, then your blood sugar dipped too low and vice versa, that, you know, you should not be, feel like you’re gonna want to fall asleep.

So fuel is just that fuel. So nutrition is probably like, sounds funny to say, but my least favorite, uh, topic to be honest, because. I, I have all the stick nutritionist working with me, and it’s just not my, my favorite thing to, to do because to me, I see, uh, food as fuel, uh, and then I’m eating to nourish myself.

And it took me a while to figure out, uh, what worked for me. But [00:24:00] again, just focusing on that amount of protein and good fat. But what I’m a big fan about now are the nutrition test. Um. Uh, that are out there, like the Omega quant tests, uh, tests that help us kind of measure our progress. That it is the hba one C, which is the marker of three months of our, uh, glucose to see if there’s glycation and so forth.

So, ’cause I hear patients say, oh, I went to my doctor, oh, starting to be pre-diabetic. He said, watch what you eat and see you in a year. Like, what, what are you gonna do with this? Right? Like, so to me. The nutrition-based testing is so crucial because you can really monitor and manage someone, and especially for inflammation.

’cause as we know, a lot of people that are inflamed, chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease and cancer are inflammatory diseases. So having a A marker, this is something that I use a lot in my office, is that Omega index that will give you your ratio of omega [00:25:00] six. Versus Omega-3, and then you can see, you know, if you have inflammation in your body.

So I’m a big fan of those tests and for some people it can be, you know, a little bit more advanced with, uh, genetic testing with the SNPs, the single nucleotide urm, a little error that we have, but. I never start with that. You need to have the basic nailed first. So that’s your sleep, that’s your exercise, that’s your movement, that’s your food.

And then you can kind of top it up with other things. But the, the, um, nutrition testing, I think is, is key. I do have my favorite supplement that I suggest to patient, the magnesium. Obviously most of us are deficient just because of the nature of our soil. Omega threes for inflammation, as I mentioned, for brain health and all vitamin D wherever you live in, you know in the world.

And that’s another thing too, like I’m in the Canadian system and they don’t even test for vitamin D anymore with their regular blood [00:26:00] work. So people are supplementing with perhaps one international human and then they’re so depleted that it’s not even touching it. And vitamin D is. So important for so many, uh, function.

And another one, uh, that I really love is creatine. Not just from a bodybuilding point of view, but also actually more recent, uh, research is showing that up to 10 milligram exactly is, is, um, really good for the brain as well. So I know that. I put my cine in my coffee in the morning and then I don’t have to think about it.

So those I would say are my favorite one. But knowing, uh, there’s many others, but knowing that it’s food first, try to get your nutrition. And it’s called supplementation for a reason because it is supplementing, and some days we’re on the go, our diet’s not so good. So having a green drink may be your kind of option to get your greens into you that day.

And again, you have to. You know, test, how’s your gut? Do you need probiotics? So that’s why I [00:27:00] hate to give a broad, uh, stroke to suggest, uh, supplementation, but food first and then try to have tests done so you can measure and monitor your progress. So, vitamin D oh, omega God index, hba one CI mean B12. Uh, obviously those are good, uh, markers to test so you can monitor yourself so you feel like you, you know where you’re going kind of thing.

Jenny Swisher: I’ll just chime in on that and say health as individual as my listeners hear me say all the time. And so a lot of times I’ll say, okay, what, what do you guys wanna hear on the podcast? And people will say they wanna hear more about food, right? Like, Jenny, what do you eat in a day? Right? And they wanna mimic what I’m eating.

And it’s funny because you mentioned that about genetics testing so much about what I eat has evolved over time. Like especially if I look back at the last 10, 12 years, I’ve done it all from vegan to pescatarian to like high heme iron diets to like. All the things right? And as I go, I’m learning more about what my body requires.

Hmm. And so for me personally, like [00:28:00] I love a good seven cups of veggies salad for lunch every day. Um, but I’ve had to tweak it because when I did some genetics testing, I found that because of some snips, I’m very sensitive to oxalate. I’m also a myu, so I have to be very careful. So I’ve shifted it, right, and I’ve learned actually that my body thrives more with a little bit more starch, carbo carbohydrate than maybe the average woman.

Right? My body requires a little bit more. So I’m just learning as I go. And when people ask me that, it’s almost, it’s like becoming a pet peeve of like, what do you today? Because I’m like, I don’t want you to turn around and go eat the same thing. Yeah. Right. And, and it’s, it’s, everyone is different. Um, I have a friend of mine who’s very into.

Like chakras and all these like, you know, fancy things and Chinese medicine and, and all this stuff. And she’s always talking about. The different personalities, even in our different body types and what we crave. Like I am somebody who is always hot and I crave colder foods and she’s somebody who’s the opposite.

She’s always cold and craving hotter foods. Yeah. And it’s, everybody is so different. Um, and it’s, it’s until you take that, that deeper dive, and [00:29:00] like you said, genetics testing doesn’t have to be the first step. Yeah. I’ve learned a lot about myself just through trial and error of saying, okay, well how do I feel off of dairy and how do I feel off of these things?

What foods make me feel good and what foods make me tired, and if you pay attention again to that intuition, you’ll know.

Nathalie Beauchamp: Yeah. And it’s probably Ayurvedic medicine that you’re talking about. And I did interview someone that, uh, is a practitioner for one of my podcasts, and it was, I learned a lot. Right?

Yeah. Like different personalities and so forth. So there again, there are just so many ways to look at things, but like I said, at the end of the day, we do need to put the time and effort into it, you know? Yeah. To figure it out. And then it’s a matter of, of tweaking. Yeah. My, uh, fourth one is peptides. So I think a lot of people are probably, um, aware, uh, and peptides are basically small signaling molecule, the smaller part of the, the protein.

Um, and they’ve gained popularities, but they’re already into our lives, you know, through collagen and meat and [00:30:00] so forth. So I think one probably of the most popular one is the collagen, which I’m a big fan of. Uh, I also put that in the, in my coffee in the morning. Just wanna make sure that it’s. It’s good quality, obviously.

And another one that I’ve been using myself is the BPC 1 57 for either recovery, for injury, or even for patients that have, uh, gut issues. And I’m a bigger fan of the, um, the capsule, the, uh, the ingestible. I’m not a huge fan of injecting anything in my body. Again, not judging, you know, if people. Go that route or anything.

So I just a preference for me at this point. And then the third one is the GHK, uh, copper peptides for skin and hair, uh, rejuvenation. And again, it’s. In the beauty products and and so forth. So those are kind of the three that I use, we talk about more in the book, and again, it all depends too, where you live, the states versus Mexico versus Canada of what’s available in term [00:31:00] of peptides.

But I think it’s really encouraging, um, with the science that’s coming out and how it can, and I think it will improve people’s health. I think we haven’t, we’ve barely touched the, the surface when it comes to, to that.

Jenny Swisher: Agreed. Agreed. I think it’s, it’s a topic we need to explore more here on the podcast for sure.

Um, but it’s something that I’ve, I’ve not personally done, um, at this time, but I have a lot of testimonials of women who are saying that it’s been game changing for them. And like you said, the science and the research that’s coming out is hard to deny. So, um, I’m excited for where it’s heading. Yeah. But it, it is interesting because I think in some ways, and I don’t wanna rabbit hole us too much, but I think sort of like the, um.

Semaglutide and that type type of thing that’s out there that people are talking about, I think have, have turned off people from, from embracing even just like microdosing, um mm-hmm. You know, options. Yeah. Yeah. And so I think sometimes we see these like extreme variant. Exactly. Exactly. And we’re like, oh my gosh, I look at all these symptoms and side [00:32:00] effects and yeah.

We don’t know what this is gonna do long term, but we do have some research on sort of like the, the microdosing version and, and the benefits that can be there as well. So when people ask me for my opinion, I’m like, it’s kind of complicated. Yeah. I have an opinion right now, but it’s like we don’t, we can’t just lump everything into the same bucket.

Um, and also

Nathalie Beauchamp: too, like me as a doctor, like, uh, and a chiropractor, we have a more. You know, uh, a holistic view. So you don’t want to have supplements or peptides. You have symptoms. Let’s give you that supplement and that peptide. No, no. Let’s sit back. What lifestyle changes do you need to make? Right? Like sometime we, we do need them and they can enhance and you know, they can be cycled and so forth, but it’s just like, we don’t wanna follow the allopathic model, a pill for, for an ill.

You know, and not look at the cause of the problem. And it’s easy, you know, we’re busy and people wanna fix something quickly, but, uh, you know, uh, naturopath chiropractors we’re often referred to as the doctor of of cause because we [00:33:00] want to look at what is causing, you know, the, the, the health concern that you have.

Excellent. And that brings me to, uh, the, the next point is metabolic, uh, and hormone optimization. Another quote that I like is, you can’t out exercise a broken metabolism. And it’s so true, right? And this is where a lot of women get so frustrated and discouraged and, you know, we just talked about the adrenal glands.

Then tossing the thyroid gland in there and you know, again, if the hormones are not, uh, balanced. Tos in, uh, PCOS in there with, uh, we see a lot more of it toss in poor detoxification pathway, then boom, you’ve got a big mess of, of hormone. So, uh, in one of my book I talk a lot about our toxic load. So it’s one thing to detoxify and again, juicing versus fasting, and we can talk about that a bit more.

I always look at my [00:34:00] day at as reducing my toxic load. So it’s, it’s the beauty product, it’s the makeup, it’s the air, it’s the water that I drink and so forth. So everything that we can do to decrease our toxic load daily is, is, is really, really important because hormone wise. Our detox pathways, the lymphatic system, and so forth, and enhance movement and why movement is so key to get the lymphatic nervous system going.

If we miss out on those things, it will truly affect our hormones and right back to inflammation there. You know, I usually have a. A, a drawing of a cell and if the cell membrane is inflamed, nutrition or nutrients can’t get in, toxin can get out. And same thing with hormone. So to me, you know, the cell is, is the base of it all.

And if our cell membrane is inflamed because maybe our omega six ratio is distorted and the membrane is not fluid and flexible to let the nutrition. Or the [00:35:00] nutrients in. So again, like it’s not as simple as say, okay, I need to go on this type of thing. So we need to again, sit back, look at the markers, look at the inflammation, look at what system may need more attention and be nurtured.

Jenny Swisher: Yeah, I, all, I would say there and just chiming in is, um, I just had a conversation yesterday with a good friend of mine who’s 51, and she was asking me, you know, she’s like, well, I, I just assumed because of a decrease in libido and just some symptoms that I’m having, that I needed some estrogen and or DHEA.

So she’s like, I started on DHEA and she said, I started having like really sore breasts, like all these weird symptoms started happening. It felt like maybe I was more estrogen dominant. So I came off and she’s like, so now I’m thinking about Maca. What do you think about Maca? And I said, well. I said, have you done any testing?

Mm-hmm. Like, do you know, do you, do you know where you are? And, and I see this every day where, and, and I know it’s costly. Like I know that something like a Dutch test is costly, but, and even doing basic blood lab work is costly. Um, but I see women skip over that part. Mm-hmm. And they [00:36:00] wanna just know like, well, what supplement should I take?

Or, you know, if these are my symptoms and don’t I just need this? And it’s like, well. We have to test not guess. Yeah. And so first of all, I love that. That’s my

Nathalie Beauchamp: my last point.

Jenny Swisher: Yeah. Perfect. Well, I love though about, what I love about your list here is that we didn’t start here, we didn’t start with like optimizing hormones and, and metabolic, you know, systems.

We, we started with basic lifestyle and so we, we started talking about what are the things that we can master that are within our control, like regulating our nervous system, lifting weights, eating enough protein, eating enough in general, like that’s where we started. And then it’s like once you, once you get into a rhythm of that being your lifestyle, then it’s like, let’s, let’s look at optimizing hormones.

And you can, I just, I hate to say it, but you just can’t do it unless you, unless you do the testing. Right. Um, and so I see so many women, I’m like, you’re, you know, I just wanted to say to my friend yesterday, like, how much money have you thrown down the drain trying two different forms of DHEA and now you’re trying this supplement, right?

And you’re doing all these things where you could have just had the basic. But basic testing [00:37:00] done and you could have had a really good idea of where you are now. I will say, especially with females, um, and how complex our hormones are, that testing is, you know, everything’s with a grain of salt. Like you have to understand where you are in your cycle.

You have to understand where you are in life. Like when women say to me like, well, I’ve never done testing and I’m 45. I’m like, that’s sort of problematic. Like, it, it would be nice to do the test, the testing in your twenties and thirties. Yeah. To have a

Nathalie Beauchamp: baseline.

Jenny Swisher: Same with testosterone. Yeah. So people will say, well, I don’t think I need to test.

I feel fine. And I’m like, you should test while you feel fine because then you’ll know what you’re comparing to. So there’s always a caveat, but I just think I just wanted to throw that out there. Um, because we wanna start with lifestyle. And then we can zero in on optimizing hormones. But a lot of times, because I’m a Hormone Health podcast, people land on me and it wants, they want that to be their first step.

Like, how do I get in the hands of your doctor and get on HRT? I’m like, well, let’s scale it back a little bit and let’s talk, you know, talk first about you and what you’re dealing with right now in your life. So, yeah,

Nathalie Beauchamp: and even with bioidentical hormones, like you’ll say, okay, well let’s give you a hundred of progesterone and [00:38:00] capsule.

Let’s give you this amount in estrogen and testosterone. And then we’ll retest you. Right? Like it’s, it’s hormones are complex and it’s not like, Hey, we nailed it. Let’s go. No, it’s, yeah. And,

Jenny Swisher: and also you and I are different, right? Like, so I mean, I mean every woman is different. And so what might be optimal for you and your testosterone might be different for me, right?

So understanding that it’s more of balance than it is. Um. And, and it’s individual to you as opposed to just these parameters, right? Yeah. So I’m so sick and tired of women saying like, oh, well my labs came back normal, or My doctor said they’re normal. Yes, yes. Did you happen to notice that the range for that was like zero to 400?

Yeah. So that’s not an optimal range. That’s just the, the range of people having to test done.

Nathalie Beauchamp: Yeah. Or it barely test anything. So the typical thyroid, not functioning grade. Patient goes in, she’s being tested, your, your labs are normal. And then she’s like, okay, well, something’s wrong. And then she on antidepressant, right?

You must be depressed. Let’s give you some antidepressant. So I think it’s important, I [00:39:00] mean you’re in the states, but I think it’s important that people realize the limitation of a basic blood work and then the limitation of the range, functional range versus lab range, very different. And then you need a trained practitioner to be able to interpret those results.

Properly and then adding, okay. Wow, okay. Maybe your, um, your COMT, uh, snip is not working or your, uh, M-T-H-F-R, uh, you know, so, you know, having someone to help you navigate this, you know, if you do a gut, a GI map or a a, any other type of gut test, it’s gonna tell you to not eat this. And then on another test you’re gonna do, it’s gonna tell you to eat that.

So it, it can be a bit overwhelming and we don’t want it to be overwhelming like we want it to be. Uh, the basic stuff at first and then you layer up. Uh, but it’s, I think, very important to have someone, part of your, your wellness team, I call it, that can help you and, and guide you. And I don’t think you need just one person, [00:40:00] unfortunately.

I think it’s, it’s, uh, multifactorial the, the practitioners that, uh, that you need to help you.

Jenny Swisher: Absolutely. Absolutely. We can’t do it alone, but at the same time, we have to advocate for ourselves. Yes. You need somebody that will listen to you that aligns with your health values. Yeah. That can say like, okay, I, I believe you, that you’re not feeling yourself, so let’s do some digging without breaking the bank.

’cause there are also even functional doctors out there that are like, Hey, let’s do 5,000. Let’s run all the tests. Right. Right. And so understanding like, what do I really need? How do I find somebody that will listen to me? And then how do I learn more? Yeah. I’m just gonna share this, like this past week, I got a bunch of my own labs back.

I just did, it was called a women’s health panel. It was the mo, the most extensive blood work I’ve ever had done. I’ve also done a Dutch, I’m waiting on my Dutch to come back, but when the results came back, I, I put it into chat, DPTI put all of my results into chat. DPT. Yeah. And then put my symptoms in there.

And I was like, I’m not saying that I trust chat GPT more than a doctor, but I just wanted to see what it said. Yeah. And a couple of things that it came back with, I was like, this is interesting. I’m gonna go back to [00:41:00] my doctor now and I’m gonna ask these questions. So the, the tools are being more readily, becoming more readily available to us to advocate for ourselves.

Oh, totally. I’m sure that, you know, my doctor used to say, oh no, not Dr. Google again. Yeah, I know. I now it’s Dr. Chad dpt. Oh. But you know, like at the same time, I’m, you know, I’ve, I’ve interview, interviewed people here recently on the podcast that are creating. Similar to the Ora Ring or the Apple Watch, they’re creating devices for the vagal nerve.

They’re creating devices for women’s health. And so there’s, there’s becoming more at our fingertips, right? Yeah. Like it used to be like the doctor’s gonna send you a kit to test your saliva for 24 hours to check your cortisol, and you have to do it x, y, Z way and mail it off. And I, at one point, I did one that had to be frozen and then mailed off, and it was so complicated for $500.

And now there’s a device out there that you can. You can purchase, you can slide it under your tongue and test your, your cortisol in the morning. Right. So things are becoming easier. Yes, yes. But if you don’t understand what you’re doing Yeah. And if you’re leaving your health into the hands of your doctor to just know what to do, yeah.

That’s where you’re gonna be stuck. And you’re gonna be spending yourself in [00:42:00] circles and you’re gonna be ultimately wasting a lot of money and time.

Nathalie Beauchamp: Yeah, and I think there, there is a bit of a shift and I was talking to a colleague, uh, that, you know, people are, have become a bit distrustful of doctors in the, let’s say the last five years.

Um, and I like the fact that patients come in and they’re questioning to me it’s like, it’s your health. You should have done some research and so forth. So I. I never get offended if somebody did some research on Google or chat gpt. It’s like, wow, good. This person is thinking about their health and what they could be doing.

So like you said, those tools are, are there for us. So as I mentioned, you know, the, um, the Fitbit, the, the Oring or, or the Whoop, the Glucose monitor. Why do we wait until we are diagnosed with diabetes to start? Wearing a a, a, I know a blood sugar monitor, right? I’ve done it myself for 30 days and guess what it was?

I learned a lot. You know, I learned. What’s my blood sugar when I go into sauna or, you know, what’s my blood sugar when [00:43:00] I do this and that. So I did it for 30 days and I think I’m gonna do it again because I didn’t chart it enough. You know, I, I, I could have done a better job. Um, and then also the epi epigenetic, uh, testing as well with dose SNPs just to maximize, especially for the detox pathways.

I find that. Knowing a certain things can go, um, a long way. So, uh, and again, like you talked about, vagus nerve tools, like it’s, I I do have some biohacking tools, but I always start with the basic. And then, you know, I love testing new, new tools and technology like the, the, the true Vega for the vagus nerve, the sensate.

And you know, I’m always paying attention to those things. You know, I, I’ll use them for a while and then I’m like, you know what? My walk in the forest is giving me as much return, uh, as, right. You know, those tools. So it’s just good. It’s fun. I do integrate them, uh, the apple loaf for vibration. Uh, I’m a big fan of, of red light in [00:44:00] multiple forms, uh, of healing.

Uh, so to me, all those things are add on, uh, to, you know, my regular days and I think. Uh, to go back to biohacking and what it means to me is to be able to leverage all these things. And stack them together. So it’s was me before our podcast. Uh, I have an accountability call every, uh, every week. I’ve been part of this group for 15 years and I was wearing my weighted vest in nature walking, uh, for an hour and hour and a half.

So that was my morning. So I was. Stacking being outside, stacking, being in the forest, stacking my weighted vest and my exercise. So not that we need to multitask all the time. Sometimes it’s, it’s better to say, you know what, I’m just gonna sit there and do nothing and just be with my thoughts. There’s value into that, and it’s also.

I think realizing that it doesn’t have to be complicated. And I think if you go [00:45:00] on TikTok or any of the, the, the busy social media, you’re, you’re, you have that fomo, that fear of missing out, oh, I’m not doing this, I’m not doing this. Sometime less is more. It’s the sleep. It’s the four, three or four strength training, uh, a week.

It’s working on your mobility. It’s working on balancing that nervous system, uh, that. That sympathetic dominance we were talking about, it’s nurturing your adrenal. So I think sometime we, we can make it more complicated because of the amount of information, but I think we need to step back and, you know, uh, keep it simple.

And one of the, one of the book that I wrote, uh, hack Your Health Habits. I’ve laid out the book in term of habits because let’s face it, I might want to change something, but if it doesn’t become a habit in three weeks, you’re gonna ask me. I’m gonna say, yeah, I stopped doing it. So I kind of came up with three levels of.

Hacking your habit. The first one’s really [00:46:00] easy. You figure out your deodorant is toxic. Next time you go to the groceries, you swap it. You don’t have to think about it ’cause you’re using it right? On a regular basis. Level two could be something with your food. You want to integrate more protein. So there’s more thought process that needs to be done.

And a level three is something that’s a huge overall, uh, of a habit. So you’re not treating a level three like you’re treating a level one. And you also don’t want to start changing too many things at the same time. So it’s just a matter of making that list and saying, okay, this is gonna be easy. This is gonna be hard.

So I don’t have the bandwidth right now to integrate, but I’m gonna put it. Into my next quarter or, or next month. Because I always say, if you change one habit a month, quite doable, right? At the end of the year, you’ll have change 12 habits. And that’s starting to, to compound just like interest, right? So it’s, it’s sometime taking smaller chunk looking at our behavior and [00:47:00] saying, okay, how am I gonna make this stick?

And I gave the example of the creatine in my coffee. Well, the darn creatine jar is right beside my morning. Coffee cup, so I know I’m not, it, it’s a habit now, but just the other day I used to do, and I started again, uh, hydrogen water, putting a tablet in my water. I somehow just completely stopped. Just don’t know why.

If you ask me why did you stop? I don’t know. I literally just got out of the habit. So in our book we talk about non-negotiables that are daily, some are weekly, some are monthly, some are quarterly, and looking at things that way. It’s kind of a. Oh, a relief to say I don’t have to do everything one day.

Right? Like you can, you know, stagger things, but you can also spread it over, uh, because you’re not gonna have that perfect day with the perfect workout and the perfect meals and the perfect everything. Right? So having those. Cut or separated into daily, weekly, monthly. I know for me, when I started looking at that way, I’m like, [00:48:00] huh.

I didn’t feel like I, I needed to do as much and just still got the benefit of, of doing them.

Jenny Swisher: Yeah. Yeah. So good. I mean, we’ve covered so much ground in this podcast is, I’m glad you wrapped it up that way because I think. For people to understand that it really is about taking these things and turning them into habits.

I love that your book helps them do that. That’s a perfect ending. I think, you know, one thing that resonates for me is, you know, as you’re listening to this, maybe you’re driving your car, maybe you’re in the shower, like me, I like to listen to podcasts in the shower. Um, you know, what is something that stood out to you today?

Like what, what were you like? Ah, I, that’s the thing for me that I really not. Whether, whether it’s eating enough protein, right, or, um, maybe it’s scheduling those moments in your day to unwind or to take a walk in nature or slow down and sit down and eat your lunch. Like what is that, what is the one small thing that, that resonates with you today that you feel like if I started doing that, I think it might actually help me feel better in, in a small way.

Right. And take that one thing. Create [00:49:00] a habit stack around it. Just like you said, putting the, the creatine next to your coffee, right? Or you wanna start listening to more personal development. You know, listen to the podcast while you brush your teeth in the morning, right? So diff different things that you can combine, um, you know, to habit stack stuff can really help you make those changes.

And I think as women, I see this all the time, myself included. We are just, a lot of us are perfectionists by nature, and we can fall into what John Maxwell calls the perfection gap, where it’s like, well, if I can’t do this all perfectly, then I’m just not gonna do it at all. Right? Mm-hmm. And I’ve seen all these little reels recently on Instagram where it’s like a woman wearing a red light mask.

Trying to exercise at the same time that she’s making protein meal prep, right? Like, so she’s doing all these things and it’s, we are bombarded with like all these things that we should be doing, but when we should all over ourselves, right? That’s when we can really get into trouble. Yeah. So I think it’s one at a time.

Like it’s one thing at a time. It’s going back and listening to this podcast again after you master that one and saying, okay, what’s the next one? What’s the next thing that I can do from here? So. Uh, another thing I wanna mention here is we’ve mentioned, I mean, Natalie [00:50:00] mentioned so many things today. I feel like you’re like my twin.

Um, so you talked about red light therapy, cold plunging, sauna. You mentioned my favorite supplements, which is, you know, magnesium, omega threes, vitamin D, um, endocrine disruption. We talked, we didn’t even get to go into that, but like limiting your chemical exposure. These are all things that I have 350 podcast episodes about.

So I would invite you back to the podcast to listen to any of those episodes in the future as well. So. Natalie, did we miss anything? Is there anything else that you’d like to wrap up with? I

Nathalie Beauchamp: don’t think so. Okay. And really enjoyed the conversation. And it, it’s always good to, uh, talk to like-minded people as well, because we always learn something from, from each other, right.

Like, oh, I’ve tried this. Oh, I’ve never even thought of that. So,

Jenny Swisher: oh, I took pages of notes for myself included. So, yeah. So we will make sure that we link up Natalie’s book in the show notes and as well as her contact information, her website, all those things. Is there any final words that you’d like to say or anywhere you’d like to point people?

Nathalie Beauchamp: Well, I just go back to something that I said is don’t make it too complicated, right? Like keep it simple, [00:51:00] you know? Uh, just sit back, look at your life, do an inventory of what you’re doing, and then review your good habits. Look at your non-negotiable. Are they daily, weekly, monthly? That’s a really good exercise to do.

And on our, uh, website, which is Smart Cuts, um, our book, uh, we do give templates for people to download to do that exercise and Smart cuts, biohacker health span. Uh, you’ll find it on Amazon and we should find, uh, our website as well. My website is Dr. Nat Life, my last name being a little bit complicated to spell.

I went, uh, shorter way and also if they go to the website, they can download my playbook with kind of 10, uh, top biohacking, uh, you know, tools or strategies. Uh, as well. I write a weekly blog. I’m just, I just love learning. I love sharing. I love. Testing. I love trying, so I wanna share with others and hopefully save them some time.

Jenny Swisher: Awesome. Awesome. Well, we’ll [00:52:00] make sure to link it that up for everybody so you can just simply swipe up to get all the details. Natalie, thank you so much for talking to my audience. I feel like we just left them so much value in today’s episode. It’s gonna be one that I refer out often, so we may have to have you back for a part two.

We may have to go even deeper into some of this stuff in the future. So I will invite you back, um, down the road. But you, you guys, thanks so much for tuning into this. This has been a good. Really chockfull of information episode. I hope you would take it with you. I hope you listen to it again. Until next time, we’ll talk soon.

[00:53:00]

Jenny Swisher: