Dr. Jolene Brighten: Is this Normal? A Guide To Female Hormone Imbalances

Today, in the Scheer Madness Podcast, our wonderful guest Dr. Jolene Brighten speaks with Rachel about women’s hormones, periods and the pill, and so much more that can be found in her book “Is This Normal?” The topic of “common vs. normal” is addressed and media myths are busted when discussing hormones, sex, and testing.

For more information about working with our team at Rachel Scheer Nutrition, book a free 30-minute call at www.rachelscheer.com/application and learn more about functional wellness coaching at https://rachelscheer.com/functional-wellness-coaching/

To hear more from Dr. Jolene Brighten check out her Website: www.drbrighten.com

If you want to read to Dr. Brighten’s book ‘Is This Normal?’ head over to: https://drbrighten.com/is-this-normal/

Listen ON:

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/scheer-madness/id1490423541\

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5OLd9BtesW7Oe4nSH0QF9W

Chapters:

• 00:00 Intro
• 02:20 Common vs. normal
• 10:40 Hormone imbalances
• 19:56 Not-so-obvious symptoms
• 24:58 Testing
• 31:39 Lack of education
• 38:17 Libido
• 48:50 “The Orgasm Gap”
• 57:48 “Is This Normal?” book

Check Out Dr. Jolene Brighten:

• https://www.instagram.com/drjolenebrighten/
• https://www.facebook.com/drbrighten/
• https://drbrighten.com

Connect with Rachel:

Website | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube

 

PODCAST TRANSCRIPT:

[00:00:00] Dr. Jolene Brighten: I don’t know people’s individual circumstances and I like I would love everybody to root cause their stuff and but you know why? If you’re like ah, I just want to take the pill. And so we like Dr. Twist we should support you with

[00:00:14] Rachel Scheer: Everyone and welcome back to another episode of sheer madness. I am stoked about today’s guest. Dr. Jolene Brighton is joining us on the show today. She is a hormone expert, nutrition scientist and thought leader in women’s medicine. She is brought certified in neuropathic endocrinology and trained in clinical sexology. Dr. Brighton is the author of is this normal, a non judgmental Guide to Creating hormone balance, eliminating unwanted symptoms in a building the sexual desire, you created a fierce patient advocate in completely dedicated to uncovering the root cause of hormonal imbalances, Dr. Bryan empowers women worldwide to take control of their health and their hormones through her website and social media channels. Dr. Brian is an international speaker, clinical educator and the medical advisor within the tech community. And I have to say you guys, Dr. Brighten is someone I’ve had a serious woman crush on probably since I got into functional medicine and nutrition. So I am so honored to have her on the show today. Dr. Brian, thank you for joining us.

[00:01:31] Dr. Jolene Brighten: Thank you for having me, I just have to giggle because I feel like I am dislike doing this work. And it always blows my mind when I’m so excited to meet you. And I’m like me, really? Oh my god.

[00:01:45] Rachel Scheer: Yeah, I actually seriously recall way back when I was probably like 25 years old, just learning about hormones actually coming off of birth control myself that I was on for probably about half of my life, you know, put on it when I was 16 years old, diving into all of your content and being like, this is like groundbreaking information and things that very often aren’t talked about. So I’m honored to get to dive in and pick your brain a little bit today. And I know so many people are going to take so much out of today’s podcast. So one area I’d love to talk about first is really your philosophy on what’s common, versus what is normal. And it’s something that I actually talk about a little bit on my social media too, especially coming from, you know, gut issues, IBS. That’s really the core of what a lot of my practice focuses on. And I see so many people online trying to normalize like chronic bloating and things like that. And I think it’s important to distinguish, you know, what’s common that a lot of women deal with, versus what’s normal. So I’d love to get your take on that.

[00:02:56] Dr. Jolene Brighten: It is such a tricky line right now, to work with people wanting to normalize things that aren’t necessarily normal. But it’s not an attempt that they’re like, We don’t want to address this. We don’t want people to get help. It’s not they don’t want to be stigmatized, and the language is really charged right to say that’s not normal. That’s almost like saying there’s something wrong with you in no in a non medical way, right. So I think as practitioners, it’s really easy for us to say acne, for example. Acne is not normal. It’s very common for people to experience but it’s not a normal state of the skin, right? There’s immune system activation, there’s inflammation going on. There are infectious agents, so to speak, there’s these bacteria that are causing problems, or sometimes it can be fungus. Though when we understand it from an biomedical perspective, it’s not normal. Yet there are people out there saying we need to normalize this. And that’s a different conversation than saying, we need to not judge people. They’re the you know, the pretty privilege shouldn’t shouldn’t affect people. And people shouldn’t feel different, or like there’s something wrong with them. And I 100% agree with that. And so I think that’s in part like I’ve seen the bloating where people are like, it’s normal to bloat. You know, a little bit of bloating in the latter half of your cycle. That is the luteal phase heading into menstruation. That can be normal. But when you’re bloating and it’s uncomfortable, or you’re passing gas, or you can’t move, or you have to change your clothes, or people joke about how they’re going to put on their pregnancy jeans because they know they’re going to bloat so much. Those kinds of things are not normal. But does that mean that you have a moral level have something wrong with you? Absolutely not. And I think that in starting this conversation, we really need to dissect that and break that down so that people understand that just because I might say something’s not normal, doesn’t mean that you are inherently broken or flawed. It means you shouldn’t accept that as a normal state of being. And we can do something about it. And I think that’s a very empowering message. Because so much of women’s health, we’re told that things are normal. So the book is this normal is broken into several sections. And the first section is your sexual self. And I cover a lot about what is normal and what’s not. And spoiler, a lot of things that we have been told are, you know, the, the maybe not even told name we just saw in a movie, those things are on the normal spectrum. But if you aren’t those things, then that can be normal, too. And so I go through really, what’s normal when it comes to orgasms, libido, vagina, how your vulva looks like, all of these kinds of questions that like, should have been answered by our parents by sex ed by somebody else. But really, we arrived in adulthood not knowing anything about this. And then there’s, you know, the mess about like, is the vagina supposed to smell like a vagina? Or is it supposed to smell like a Clementine? Are we supposed to smelling fruit and the things that are normal around that. But I think when we talk about women’s health, and we talk about what’s normal, what’s not, the big things that come to people’s minds are period pain, pianos, mood swings, insomnia, hot flashes, all of these kinds of symptoms that we’re told for the most part, that’s normal part of being a woman. So grab your hot water bottle, grab your ibuprofen, we got mood altering medications, you know, for you, because like, the message, underpinning all of that is that you’re inherently broken, and you need to be fixed. But at the same time telling you that’s a normal state of being a woman, it’s very, very confusing. And so in the second half of the book, in terms of the educational portion, I really break down on your cyclical self and understanding your hormones, what’s normal, what’s not normal, what you can do about it. And as I just mentioned, medications, those are always an option that we have in medicine. But as you and I know, there are things we can do before medication, and those things can even make it so those medical interventions are even more effective. And so I want people to understand that a lot of the messaging that of what’s normal, what’s not normal, it’s been wrong in terms of society as a whole and the messages that we get. And some of the most influential places, and I talked about this in the book, are the TV shows, we watch the magazines, we read our friends at school, like, and all of this lends itself to confusion and feeling like something’s wrong with me or find the exception. And if you are somebody, if you’ve ever been on my Instagram, or my Tic Toc, you can see I’ve seen the comments of people saying, Oh, thank God, it’s not just me, oh, my God, I thought I was the only one. Oh my god, I’ve never heard anyone talk about this. I don’t want to talk about this, because they thought it was the only person and it’s a very isolating way to be.

[00:08:02] Rachel Scheer: Yeah, I love that you bring up the point about, you know, feeling like something’s broken in us too, when we’re dealing with a lot of these issues. Because I think a lot of the movement of like, let’s just, you know, talk about bloating, because that’s something that I see in approach quite a bit with my practice. But you know, when mostly like, normalize bloating in the thought, I think behind a lot of these movements are coming from a beautiful place, right? It’s a lot of self love except your body. But I think sometimes then we stop really identifying what are things that we just, you know, what are things that are actually often the body, and I think they don’t have to really overlap, right? We can have love for a body and accept our body, but still say, hey, there’s maybe some symptoms there that I want to take notice on especially if they’re bothersome, like I agree, like getting a little bit of bloating, you know, especially in different times of your cycle can be normal, your belly expanding as you eat more food normal. However, you know, looking six months pregnant every time you eat a food and having a ton of food sensitivities, you know, that’s not normal. And that’s a sign of an underlying imbalance. So I love the lovely.

[00:09:10] Dr. Jolene Brighten: Yeah, and I think to your point, you know, that like, normalizing Bloating is really a push back on like what we see in the media, which is the archetype that everybody’s belly should be flat washboard abs, you know, if you’re neon, or like, it should be a flat, no pooch, no sign that you have a uterus and you like it. No, it’s It’s unrealistic, and it’s photoshopped. And so I really believe that’s the place where it’s coming from, then the language gets confusing, right? Because they’re like, normalized, bloating, and it’s like, yeah, I mean, like, the way like you said, cyclically, those things can happen, but like, bloating, I think not. A lot of people recognize that bloating can be a symptom of inflammation. And it may start with a little bit of bloating and what you may notice over time is fatigue, brain fog, you might start having other symptoms in Your body because the body was getting the sign, which started as bloating and it evolved to something else. But because you’ve normalized that state of being in your mind, which I think a lot of us do, right? We just, I’m Mom, it’s just like, Oh, that hurts. Okay, just like keep going, I gotta get the toddler, I gotta do this thing. And then after a while, you’re like, I forgot what it was like to not feel like that.

[00:10:21] Rachel Scheer: Yeah, that’s a really powerful distinction there. And I think even with women in menstrual cycle to like diving into what’s actually normal, like, I think a lot of women do think it’s normal to have, you know, a ton a ton of pain around their psyche, where they sometimes can’t get out of bed. So I’d love to dive into, you know, hormone imbalances, you know, and symptoms that women may experience, what do you feel like is actually normal, but what is actually a sign of, hey, this may be something going on with your hormones that we need to get checked out?

[00:10;54] Dr. Jolene Brighten: Absolutely well, so if we start at the top with like your period, that’s where like most of us learn about our cycle, because it’s really obvious when you’re bleeding. That’s an easy one. I think that’s one of the first places that we can start to really look at what is going on. And if you aren’t someone who’s tracking your cycle, you should be tracking day one of your start of your period to the neck. So we know how long your cycle is, it really ideally, you know, should be past 21 days, for sure in to that 24 To even 34 day mark can be considered normal, when we’re passing 35 plus days, that’s getting to be a bit long. That’s not to say that couldn’t be your normal. But if that’s happening, we want to make sure that we’re checking for other symptoms that this couldn’t be a sign of PCOS, for example, or hypothyroidism. So there’s the cycle length, then there’s how many days you bleed. So most people are going to find a bleed three to five days. And if you’re leading up to seven, if you’re bleeding, so I’ll say if you bleed up to seven, that can be normal. We also want to check the flow because it might be too heavy. If your flow is too heavy, we start to think about estrogen access symptoms. Maybe we’re not getting enough progesterone up now your periods coming sooner, and it’s heavy. We can also be thinking about hypothyroidism again. And by the way, if everybody listening right now is like, oh my gosh, like this is like so many different hormones. It can be Yeah, it can be a lot. And there’s no one that’s ever said that it has to be just one. Well, people have said that. But that’s not really true. Because they all work together. And I’ve got a quiz actually take you through evaluating 10 separate hormones, you do the questions I asked my patients. So you can dial in which two or three odds are it’s going to be two or three hormones urge are making trouble for you now. So I definitely listen to this whole podcast episode. But I just want you to know that resource is there for you as well. So with that, we talked about the cycling, we talked about the days of the period, if your period is lasting two or less days, that could be a sign of low estrogen. And this can be common as we are approaching perimenopause. Or maybe we’re going to develop a med arena due to chronic stressors, which is outlined in the book, you know, it can be eating, it can be psychological, it could be related to how you exercise. So we want to be investigating these, these data points matter. Now here, we often hear that like period, pain is awful. I mean, I think about some of the the commercials that you’ll see on TV. And just like is like almost the imagery is just like there’s a bad rainy day like it’s just an awful rainy day. And then there’s like some solution that comes in and then it’s like, oh, the heavens are the sun is shining down. Okay, so your parents probably not going to feel like the heavens part in the sun shining down every single cycle all of your life. Okay, that’s normal to have some periods that aren’t awesome. But if you are having pain that is debilitating anyway. So this means missing school or work. This means vomiting, and not being able to get out of bed. If you’re having profuse diarrhea and cramps, we start thinking about prostaglandin. So this could be a sign there’s a prostaglandin inbalance, which are a hormone like chemicals. They’re not technically hormones, but they kind of are but it really doesn’t matter because we want to address them right. And they can be addressed with things as simple as dietary shifts to include more magnesium or omega threes. If somebody is experiencing this, in my clinic, I usually come in with any anywhere from three to 600 milligrams of magnesium daily, just depending on other symptoms going on. And we’ll include about 1500 to 2000 milligrams of omega three fatty acids every day trying to get a balance of EPA and DHA because I do want to take care of everybody’s brain, which is a whole nother conversation why women need to be taking care of their brain which is important for moms. But that I wouldn’t say the period of pain if it’s significant enough to disrupt your life. It could be a sign that you have fibroids that you have endometriosis and in this so in the book is this normal I give charts, there’s so many charts and checklists and graphics and all kinds of stuff to really help you dial it in. And so there’s like 100, could it be fibroids? Could it be, you know, whatever the checkbox is, what my hope is, is you go through it, and you’re educated enough to be empowered to go to your provider and say, for example, you have PCOS. Hey, okay, two out of the three criteria that it takes to get this diagnosis. Now, PCOS is a diagnosis of exclusion. Could this be PCOS? Or what else should I be thinking about? And I think that’s going to really help change your healthcare experience, by being able to take that data in. So we’ve only talked about the period, there’s the whole like the, you know, the whole event that happens before your period, which can be the PMS symptoms, but I want to just see if there’s like any questions about what I said about the period, or if anything needs to be clarified?

[00:15:52] Rachel Scheer: Yeah, I think the biggest point there to with women is like tracking your period, first and foremost, because I’m always blown away by it even you know, when I do testing on women, and trying to get it on that second half of their cycle when their progesterone is the highest. And I say, hey, we need to start tracking our cycle. You know, your your period is day one, a lot of women don’t even know that, you know, their first day. It is day one, and a lot of women really are tracking their cycle. So you know, for anyone listening, you know, with what Dr. Brighton has said, you know, I think first and foremost, if you’re wondering if you have hormonal imbalances, tracking your cycle, first and foremost, is going to be essential. I use a little app called clue. And ever since I came off a birth control in my mid 20s, I’ve been tracking my cycle ever since to try to identify one when I’m ovulating. So I don’t get pregnant, but to also to identify if there’s any kind of hormonal imbalances when I’m supposed to be getting my period, if there’s any shifts or changes that are taking place. So if you’re a woman who has a cycle right now, currently, you know, tracking your period using an app, those are awesome, I think they also have a ton of other different kinds of cool things like the aura rings, and I don’t even know what else I’m wearing right now.

[00:17:06] Dr. Jolene Brighten: So I use the aura ring integrated with natural cycles. And so I’ve got so I, I have enough experience that with my aura ring, I can see my temperature spike and understand what’s going on. But to really dial it in, because that’s not what aura is designed for I was like we’ll take your temperature and let you know what’s going on in terms of those metrics. But natural cycles actually takes that integrates, it turns it into a temperature instead of being like your plus point one degrees natural cycles, like your basal body temperature, which is the one you have to use for fertility awareness method for tracking ovulation. There’ll be like it’s 97. And you have that data, it plugs it into an algorithm. And you can actually predict when your periods coming based on your temperature and some of the input that you provide. And then you can also track ovulation as well, which I think is fantastic and lends itself to, you know, we’ve all been told cycles are 28 days, but there was actually a study done that showed us that like no less than 30% of women are having cycles that are 28 days, which means that if your cycle is not 28 days, that’s normal, okay to not have a 28 day cycle. But if it’s a 38 day cycle, that’s not normal. We’ve got to talk about that. And so there’s nuance in this whole conversation. As you were talking, most women don’t know day one is the first day of their period. We don’t teach enough about body literacy. I didn’t define that term, somebody else brilliant. And I think it’s very true. We don’t talk about body literacy enough. We don’t teach it. And we really need to because there’s also men. I mean, I’ve seen doctors and commentators to me on social media like correcting me saying, no people ovulate on day 14, excuse me, who emulates on day 14. No, that’s when people ovulating. Okay. That’s how we teach ovulation because it’s easy to understand. And we’re like split it in half. But I have patients not ovulate on day 10. I have patients who died, who ovulate on day 20. And they’re having like a 32 day cycle, that’s all normal. And I’ve had patients with these kinds of cycles get pregnant. So it’s normal. And you don’t have to feel abnormal. But oh, it’s so it’s dangerous to tell people like Oh, as long as it’s a 14 year cycle, that’s when you’ll be fertile.

[00:19:24] Rachel Scheer: Yeah, yeah. And I think it’s even safe to say there with what you talked about to, you know, paying attention to one year, your actual period length, you know, if it’s up to a week long, then that may be a sign of something that’s not normal. If it’s super short, maybe like one day that can be a sign of low estrogen. In looking at that, first and foremost, also seeing that there’s any kind of debilitating symptoms there that could really help you identify if there is any possible hormonal imbalances. But after we really look at the period, what would you say are some other signs of hey, something’s may be off here with you hormones, maybe some not so obvious symptoms that we think about like our period, Headaches.

[00:20:05] Dr. Jolene Brighten: So headaches at the onset of your period around ovulation, or maybe like just before your period, those can be signs that you’re having estrogen issues. And maybe that estrogen is too high, we’ve got estrogen clearance issues. So I talked about in the book metabolism, your body does a very good job of metabolizing estrogen through the liver and excreting it through the gut and the kidneys. But it does need support so that it can do that to the best of its ability, as you know, you very well know. But with that, headaches are something that can be assigned to estrogen is falling. So estrogen is dipping down, and now you’re having a headache. So estrogen interplays with serotonin. In fact, all of your hormones are in a plane with other neurotransmitters in your brain. And so sometimes people feel like it’s a stress headache, it’s a tension headache, when I get them tracking, if you have headaches or migraines, you definitely need to keep a journal so you can start to decode and does have, what are the triggers in that. But as we go through that, it will be like, Oh, this is cyclical in nature, one, let’s bring on magnesium ahead of time, like three to five days ahead of time, because we can predict when this is coming. And that’s going to help for the most currently to say you’re probably going to need a magnesium consistently, but then increasing dose before then. And then in addition to that, looking at how can we support estrogen clearance. And I actually, so if you go to Dr. brighton.com/is, this normal, I have a cookbook that accompany. So it’s a digital cookbook that accompanies the book. And it’s got well over 50 recipes, but they’re dialed in to be specific to each week of your cycle and really breaking that down of how to support your hormones through that. But one running theme, you will see is cruciferous vegetables, bringing in cruciferous vegetables, bringing in broccoli sprouts, bringing in these foods that will help you process your estrogen effectively. And that is super unnecessary. So that is one symptom. I think people don’t always associate with hormones, and it can be a sign that we’re having problems. Now. I will say two other things. If you wake with headaches, you’re consistently waking with headaches, we want to think about your adrenal health, and possibly even what’s going on with blood sugar. And then if you’re finding that you’re having brain fog, you’re kind of fill in like Italy, but it’s still a rain thaw you’re cold all the time, you’re losing hair, that could be a sign of thyroid health, and we want to be looking anytime. So if anyone comes in, they’re like, I’m having hormone imbalance, okay, well, there’s lots of hormone imbalances, right? Like I just described some hypothyroidism having low progesterone having excess insulin. We want to decode as practitioners like what does that actually mean high in this, you know, book, I am helping you do that same thing so that people can understand? What does that actually mean? Like I normally have a one on a mountain, which hormones is it? And how do we need to address it. And the reality is, is we really need to be looking at a drills and insulin as the foundation, thyroid at the top that the next year and at the very tippy top. So if we’re talking about the pyramid, that’s where the SEC tournaments are going to be. If any one of those hormones are off, unlikely the other systems are going to be also proven proves that and in with symptoms. Yeah, I think that’s an important point about how the body is an interconnected system there. And hormones don’t just randomly become off. Usually, they’re all for some other reason there. So you have insulin resistance, blood sugar issues, like Dr. Britton has mentioned, you could have a chronic inflammation, low thyroid, you could have adrenal related issues, for detoxification, and that’s really what’s going to cause our hormones to be off for most of the time.

[00:23:53] Rachel Scheer: With that being said, so that’s where I think the proper testing is really going to be essential. If you suspect a hormone imbalance working with a practitioner, like Dr. Brian, who’s going to not just look solely at, you know, your hormones, and what I mean by that is your sex hormones, they will be able to look a little bit further look at if there’s any hypothyroidism blood sugar issues, and really understand how that plays a role in your overall sex hormones. And in may be causing that to the opposite, like estrogen, low estrogen. And Dr. Brian, if I’m not correct, I feel like a lot of Western medicine really just looks like you’re making hormones or if you’re not making hormones, and if they suspect you have hormone related symptoms, let’s just say like acne or a heavy menstrual cycle, that’s when they really just say, hey, here’s birth control pills. And that’s where I was put on the pill when I was probably I don’t even know 14 years old for acne. And then, you know, 15 years later trying to come up with it in life. I had all of these post birth control rebound symptoms, which I know is something that you talk about quite a bit there. So when it comes to testing, let’s just say Someone says, Hey, I do think I have a hormone imbalance. You know, I don’t know if it’s estrogen. I don’t know if it’s my thyroid, but I just feel like I do have some things off. I think women are really great at just intuitively knowing like, hey, something is off in my body. I know that I know my body the most. And I think what’s so unfortunate is when women go to, you know, a doctor, and they say, No, here’s your lab, everything is normal, here’s a medical, right, and then they just get sent on.

[00:25:27] Dr. Jolene Brighten: And you’re like, normal, I don’t understand how good to be normal. And that’s because really the reference ranges they’re looking for, do you have disease or not? Right? That’s, and that’s important. Right? Okay, that’s really important that we want to know, is this a disease state? Do we need a, you know, big gun medical intervention? So we think about this, you know, there is the hierarchy of interventions with like, you know, surgery, being at the very top, like, that’s going to be like one of the biggest interventions that we can offer? Most invasive is what I should say. And at the very bottom is the foundation, which is diet, lifestyle. Everything you don’t do in a doctor’s office, really? I mean, that’s, and that’s the power people have, is that everything it takes to stay out of the doctor’s office. That is where you can be working on? Do we live in a society where all of this is 100%? In our control? Absolutely. Not in a perfect world? Yes. But like, No, we’ve got food deserts, we’ve got, we’ve had so many issues that like I could get into, like, that hurts people’s health that’s outside of their control. But in their, in their there’s something that we can do. And you’re right, a lot of the times when women go to their doctor, and they’re like, Oh, I you know, I have period problems, or it’s hormone related, their doctor just wants to know, like, are you having periods? Okay? Do you want to have a baby? No. Okay, let’s get you on the pill, or it’s a, are you having periods? No, you’re not? Do you want a baby? No, okay, let’s get you on the pill. Like, that’s kind of the algorithm that things follow. And the pill can do a lot of good. If you have incredibly painful periods. It can, it can make the pain less for some people, not everyone, it can definitely help some people with acne, other people, it makes things worse. So there are symptoms that it can address. But that’s all it can do, is really addressed those symptoms, it can’t get down to the root of what is actually going on. And there are people that will say, well, it’s hormones. So hormones are the problem, therefore, like we take care of their children, hormones, but like, are your ovaries like making hormones that are really the problem or like, what else is going on? Because as we were talking about, like, I will just say that, if you have hormone problems in your doctor doesn’t ask you about your gut health, like you’re, you’re gonna come up short there, right, you’re gonna come up short, because that’s absolutely crucial. As we know, from the research on the struggle on AI, if you if you can’t have a healthy gut, like if that’s not something that, you know, is existing right now, we can’t expect your estrogen to be optimized, we can’t expect your inflammatory markers, to not be problematic for your adrenal glands. Like there’s these kinds of issues. So I want him to keep in mind that those reference ranges are important. And there are medical inventor interventions that are important, and you deserve the right to have those options of those medical interventions. So the pill, I would never argue for that to be taken away from you. Because I don’t know people’s individual circumstances. And I like I would love everybody to root cause their stuff. And but you know why? If you’re like, Ah, I just want to take the pill, then. So be it like, that’s your choice, we should support you with that. So the labs, the reference rages will ever do these absence of the disease, but what’s been left side of the conversation is optimal health. It’s even something new to top nutrition. There’s a lot of conventionally minded doctors who are of of the mindset that like if you don’t have scurvy, then vitamin C isn’t something you have to worry about. If you don’t have rickets, then vitamin D Well, I would say maybe five years ago, there was a lot more people saying vitamin D isn’t something you have to worry about. I think now people are saying okay, well we noticed that vitamin D is now an issue but like as you know, functional medicine we were talking about vitamin D decades ago and just now we’re seeing that conventional medicine conversation come along the same is true with all this lifestyle a now seeing these conventional doctors say no we do lifestyle medicine, we’ve always done Lifestyle Medicine and I was like I remember your Instagram account three years ago where you were making fun of lifestyle medicine saying that it didn’t do anything and here’s these other like here’s these pharmaceutical visited that and I’ll see you in my office when you know you need to have a prescription and Now you’re claiming, you’re the lifestyle expert. And I’m like, I’m really glad that you’re catching up to the research. However, you do have to own the fact that you were wrong. As we all do at some point in our life, that’s called growth. And we need to address that

[00:30:17] Rachel Scheer: 95% of your body’s serotonin is produced by the bacteria that resides in your gut. And this explains why when my gut was a wreck, or when clients come to work with me at Rachel share nutrition, they don’t just suffer from things like bloating, constipation, diarrhea, but they also have symptoms of anxiety, depression, and brain fog, because our gut and our brain are highly interconnected. And as Hippocrates says, all disease begins and ends in the gut. And this is the exact reason why I am so passionate about taking a functional root cause based approach for any chronic health condition, gut issues, mental health, illness, autoimmune conditions, stubborn weight loss, you name it, me and my team do a comprehensive analysis, looking at all these different systems, so we can test instead of just guess, and then develop a customized nutrition plan and protocol to address these root causes and balances in the body and restore function. If you want to book a free 30 minute call with anyone from my team, click the link in the show notes or visit Rachel shear.com.

[00:31:39] Rachel Scheer: I think that’s just super essential for women to hear, you know, when it comes to them going to their primary care doctor, because it is really unfortunate where women will go in with all of these issues, and then really just given a band aid for what is their symptoms that are going on, and then sent on their way. And that’s exactly what happened. So often in my own life, whether it was with depression, it was with hormonal imbalances, and I was put on all of these medications. And that’s one of the big reasons why I’m so passionate about really getting to the root cause. Now, I’m never against taking the pill at all, you know, I think the pill is 100% necessary for anybody who’s listening to this. But I think there’s really a lack of education, right? Where it comes down to, hey, this is something that’s really just managing your symptoms, which is what birth control is doing. Now, if you need help with not getting pregnant, and you want something that’s going to be birth control. Of course, there’s a lot of advantages there. But I think they don’t really educate very often about, Hey, these are some side effects, right, that could come from birth control pills, you know, like that played a role in some of my gut imbalances I had later on in life, I felt like it actually massively affected my mood. And then coming off of birth control, like all my symptoms just came right back thereafter, you know, the acne actually was far worse than it ever was before. There was a period of time where I actually had zero menstrual cycle coming off. And I think those are just things that aren’t very often talked about, they’re not, we’re not talking about, hey, this is really just managing the symptoms. Again, nothing wrong with that nothing wrong with managing the symptoms. But if your goal, your sole goal is to, I want to get to the root cause and I want to heal. I think that’s where there needs to be that extra level of education overall.

[00:33:29] Dr. Jolene Brighten: Absolutely. And I think that it’s about letting women choose what they want to do and how they want to pursue things. And also that it doesn’t have to be an all or nothing conversation. So I mean, I talk to patients sometimes who feel like their doctor was basically like, I just got the pill, if you’re not gonna take it and come back and see me. I mean, there are doctors who have said this to patients. And it’s something that I think we can have a plan around it. Like if you have endometriosis, for example, your pain is just excruciating. And you’re not getting through like a week every month. Maybe you want to use the pill to help stop your period stop the cycle. And while we work on some of those other issues, keeping in mind that for some people, the pill can raise inflammatory markers, we can see that through C reactive protein, which is very problematic in endometriosis if that’s taken long term. We can also keep in mind that like there’s got symptoms that can come up and if somebody has endo lesions that are on the large bowel like we could be causing problems there if this was a long term approach for some people with endo the pill is everything Most people though, and they’re going to need a multi tiered approach in terms of approaching endo and that may look like excision surgery with birth control pill with lifestyle and nutritional therapy coming in using supplementation. And then maybe over time, they come up the pill and they’re able to live life the way that they want it to be. And I think that’s an important part is that it’s doctors, we also have to be mindful that it’s not about us. And it’s not about what we want, it’s about their goals and what they want to achieve.

[00:35:13] Rachel Scheer: And I also would add in there too, you know, not missing other areas that could be off, because you did talk about how it’s interconnected, you could have blood sugar imbalances, you could have a thyroid issue, you could have more detoxification, and those things aren’t fixed, when we’re just managing the symptoms. So yes, again, nothing wrong with taking the pill, or taking medication. But you just have to know that what caused that to be off in the first place is very likely still going to be there. And if we look at functional medicine as the whole, while we’re looking at the body as an interconnected system, ultimately, that’s going to be causing causing other imbalances in the body to, for example, you know, with my practice, we take a gut centric approach to healing, we work on the gut, first and foremost, because just like Dr. Brighton said, you know, if your gut is off, you’re going to have trouble detoxing estrogen, you’re going to probably have possibly other hormonal imbalances, your thyroid can be affected, your estrogen can be affected, we know there could be poor micronutrient absorption that’s happening there. So that’s why getting the gut first is really, really crucial for balancing our hormones and then really moving into these other other areas. adrenals blood sugar, so just because we haven’t hormonal imbalance, and we identify the what doesn’t always mean with Western medicine, that we’ve really healed the whole problem. And I’ve got to the root cause because very often, the root cause in itself isn’t the hormone imbalance itself. It’s what’s causing those hormones to be off in the first place, which requires a little bit of a deeper dive sometimes while I’m testing but also lifestyle and diet changes, that’s going to be the biggest thing there. And I think ultimately, that’s where you were speaking about Dr. Brian, like, a lot of the physicians are doing lifestyle medicine, because ultimately, that’s gonna play the biggest role. But if you’re eating real whole food, if you’re moving your body every single day, like getting to the core basics, and getting sunlight doing those types of things,

[00:37:20] Dr. Jolene Brighten: then you know, with your community, that’s also important. Yeah, those are going to be some of

[00:37:25] Rachel Scheer: The best things you can do with just starting to get your hormones in check getting adequate sleep every single night. And then maybe identifying Yeah, where there could be some other things that are off in the body, sometimes lifestyle related issues. Sometimes, maybe not. And I think that’s what’s so cool about this process. And we’re I love to nerd out, and really get to play a little bit of some detective work of identifying where those are. But it is a little bit of, you know, we could say a harder approach. Some people may give it that label, some people may not, but it is the approach that requires a bit more work. So it is kind of knowing that going and like hey, I’m gonna have to make some changes, I’m gonna have to change my diet, I’m gonna have to eat some more leafy greens, cruciferous vegetables up my protein a bit there, maybe, you know, not eat so much fast food, McDonald’s, things like that. So it does require, you know, a good amount of changes. Dr. Brenton. I know one thing you talk about in your book is about libido. libido being a big indicator for overall health. And I think that’s also another area that’s not talked about. We’re not talked about how sexual drive desire, having a good libido can actually be a good indicator of health, if anything, it’s kind of like, whatever if you don’t have a sex drive again, that’s normal.

[00:38:44] Dr. Jolene Brighten: Yeah, it’s so true. I mean, this is one of the things that when it comes to women, you go to your doctor, and you say, I have no interest in sex, and they’re like, that’s normal. Women don’t, you know, they don’t have the same kind of desire as men. Because medicine, science society hold the male body as the gold standard, and then think that men are supposed to always have this, like, higher desire for sex, which is also not true and not fair. So it really doesn’t matter what your gender is. We all get labeled and lumped into boxes that are just not true. There’s a spectrum of normal here, but what I say to my patients, and when I talk about in the book, is that the only normal that matters is yours. So if you’re someone who’s like, you know, I get turned on by like anything like I see my partner doing something that they’re really talented at and I am getting in the mood and you know, children be down like work emails be damned like it is all systems go kind of situation and that’s more of that spontaneous desire archetype where and other people may have a responsive desire which is, I’d say like, you know, you’ve got to get the car going before the car gets going, like you have to kind of start things up. And you might be more sensitive to stressors as well. And so there’s a lot of comparing of like, oh, you know, is my you know, is my sex drive normal is what people often say to me. By the way, it’s not a drive, it’s not hunger, it’s not it’s not thirst, you could be okay. That don’t want to know, like, and what they’re asking is like, is my desire for sex normal? And my question is always, okay, what’s been your normal? What does that look like? Has it changed? No, then yeah, that’s your normal, but when we get concerned is when suddenly it falls off a cliff. And you’re no longer interested. Now. Women in particular, and I explained this, I have a whole chapter on libido. And I explain that we’re very sensitive to many inputs, and we actually, we engage in sexual activity for different reasons. People are often just surprised to learn that the orgasm is not always the goal. Sometimes it’s about partner bonding and feeling connected. But what can really influence us in wanting to engage in that is how is our relationship? Okay, well, that seems like an obvious one, but not so obvious. One is, how is your body image issues like the and I say, they say that as if we all have them, because we all happen to some degree. And that is also normal. When you grow up and live in a society that basically markets on the premise that something is wrong with you that you need to I mean, I laugh right now we’re weird, we’ve gone from this, like, voluptuous is what we want to be curvaceous, you need to have a booty you need to like all of this. Now we’re swinging back to my youth, the Kate Moss body type. And I’m like, it’s always it’s always gonna be these strange. And it never could just be like, you’re just great the way you are, right? But those those issues can affect our desire. Another thing is, we were talking about birth control, threat of pregnancy is a big way to shut down your desire, any interest, any ability to get aroused all together. And so there’s many things that can impact it. And we really have to, you know, parse that out of like, what is true for you and what’s not, and I’ve got a quiz so that you can really understand, do tend to fall into that responsive desire, or that spontaneous desire. And then in the program in the book I take you through, so the program has a whole hormonal component to it. So if you are someone who’s like, I’m not interested in the sex stuff, don’t worry, I’ll be there for you later. It’ll be there for you later if you if and when you want it, that I take you through like cyclically, how are you feeling? Like how, how can I talk about this, it’s a science model, it’s basically talks that I break down and it’s like gas pedal, and brakes. And I talk about the things that make you go and the things that make you stop, and like us recognizing that certain kinds of your cycle, you’re gonna be more susceptible to those things. And it’s so that you can understand more about what’s normal for you. And also, you can communicate that if you’re in a partner relationship, because I find that it tends to be in heterosexual couples, because the male counterpart is not cycling, they don’t understand that these things change. And so they’re like, I’m confused. You were really into me. And now like, a week and a half later, you don’t want anything to do with me, Did I do something wrong, it’s not you, it’s my hormones. And if you know that, then you and I are going to have to work a little bit more towards getting that towards the goal of you know, of being intimate, because the shifts have happened. And so it’s all to say, all the factors that I just said, those play a role. But your hormones also play a role. And we need to be looking at all of these things. And ultimately, what I find is that the vast majority of my patients are normal on the spectrum. There are things that that that need to shift and need to change so that they can get more of the pleasure in their life. But I think the wrong messaging and what I see a lot of is people saying like, Oh, well, if you’re not in the mood all the time you’re broken, or you shouldn’t be in the mood as a woman, you’re broken, like, why are you why are you like a man? The number of times I see this Megan Fogg, she made a comment somewhere, some media where she was like, Oh, I’m like a teenage boy, and I’m hoarding all the time. And I’m like, or you have spontaneous desire, and you’re normal, and it has nothing to do with your gender. But it’s the idea that like she couldn’t possibly be a normal woman, right? Because women aren’t supposed to be as interested as she was in pleasure.

[00:44:43] Rachel Scheer: Interesting, and I want to highlight that part there where you said, you know, if it’s been a big shift for you, that may be a sign of something is off with your hormones, or some of the lifestyle factors there because that’s, I know I’ve thought about making a lot of women. We Compare, right? And we’re like, what is yours? Like, what is yours? Like what is you know, the media say is normal, you know what is happening with the movie stars and comparing it that way. And then look at all these different kinds of romance films and the magazines be read, like Cosmo, you’ve been for a lot of women. I think I remember reading that when I was like 16 years old there.

[00:45:18] Dr. Jolene Brighten: Oh, totally. And taking the quiz of like, Oh, would you be a good lover? And you’re like, 15, and you don’t know anything? It’s so funny. Because I see people all the time saying like, Oh, porn, ruin sex for everyone. And I’m like, okay, it can. All right. And it can also be true that all these damn magazines have ruined so much for all of us. Because these quizzes, these, like, I mean, that gets you to buy it. But like, I just think about my teenage self being like, Oh, I wonder because nobody’s talking to me about this stuff. Like, what would I be, and I just look back at like, and also, so much of the messaging is so much like our messaging that is in our like, the sex ed classes that we do have in the United States, which is a very male centered messaging, right? Like we learn our body through the lens. So it’s like, not everybody has this experience. But a lot of people learn the their body through the lens of you have a period, okay, there’s this thing that happens. But also, this is how babies are made. This is how vaginal sex happens. But as I talked about in the book, there’s a lot more types of sex. And that is also something important to recognize, because there are people for various reasons that cannot engage in vaginal penetration. They feel like they’re broken, and they’re not having sex. So they’re broken. And yet, again, orgasms and vaginal penetration, those are not the things that bring all couples pleasure and satisfaction. And there’s research and I cite the research in the book to back this up. But these are the goals we’re told to achieve. But that’s not that’s not necessarily what people report is what brings them the greatest amount of satisfaction. And as we go back to the magazines, it’s not nail centered of like, how to be a good lover for him how to be like, kiss him in a way that like, he’ll want you forever and like all of this stuff. And it’s like, people like obviously, we wanted to know that because like you’re I am saying, like, I bought that and read that. And yet, I’m like that was the wrong message. That’s not the messaging that I should have seen that you should receive that anyone should have received. Really, if you want to have great sex, and you want to be satisfied, you need to understand yourself, you need to understand not only the whole libido conversation, but you need to understand what brings you pleasure, and that’s what I’m trying to take you through the book is figure out your normal figure out what’s true for you, like forget all this messaging that we’ve had about the way things should be. And let’s really explore pleasure at a deeper level, so that you can feel more satisfied in your relationships are more satisfied and happy in life overall, because let’s face it, like orgasms and pleasure do lead to better hormones.

[00:48:01] Rachel Scheer: Yeah, 100%. And I even think I looked back at some of the magazines of like, the big Oh, that was always like the topic of the conversation of like how to help her reach the big O ultimately. Yeah, most of that sexual function.

[00:48:16] Dr. Jolene Brighten: Mind you, nobody was even talking about the clitoris. I know. You’re missing the main point. Topic is right there. But they didn’t say it. i By the way, if you are someone who’s like, I feel like I’ve been left out of the dark on the clitoris. I have got you covered in my book. We’ve got diagrams, I’ve got like instructions, and I go through what we know. And there’s a whole section about getting clitoris and really understanding that amazing organ of your body.

[00:48:47] Rachel Scheer: That’s beautiful. I’m excited to jump into that. And you talk about something called the orgasm gap, which I’m not sure what that is. But I’m very, very curious to find out.

[00:48:59] Dr. Jolene Brighten: Yeah, I really, when we say the orgasm gap, there should also be like, Dun dun dun. On what I’m saying. Most people are going to nod their head and understand if they are in a heterosexual relationship. And so the term describes what I call the Abyss in the frequency of orgasms between heterosexual men and women. And this is another place where there’s minutes and this book is full of a lot of myth busting. But there’s a myth that like it’s very hard to, for women to have an orgasm women are just like, not that intersex. And, you know, I even talked about like, how many women fake it. Which, by the way, faking it sometimes is about it’s an altruistic behavior of basically taking care of your partner’s ego even though it doesn’t do any favors. So, this statistics, what they say is that 95% of straight men are going to climax through have partnered sex? Well, only about 65% of straight women are going to climax. And then here comes the argument that I always get that which is usually from men online, usually to talk, if I’m being honest, where they come in, and they say, oh, that’s just because women, you know, women can’t have orgasms. Or it’s, it’s too much work like, sir, no, it’s not. Because like, women can do it within minutes when they’re all by themselves. So no, that is not like that is like a, you need an instruction manual. And it’s not fair that someone left you out of the conversation. But the research actually has shown as well, that 86% of lesbians climax during partnered sex, so the orgasm gap only exists between men and women. And as I get to, in the book, a big part of that. So as we’re talking about is like people don’t, they don’t know about the clitoris, they’re not talking about that. But also, that we’re taught that the ultimate goal is vaginal penetration. And that’s even for play. And I do use the word for playing in the book. But at one point, I do explain to you that I like we’re playing a second itself, and it can be enough. And it can be great. And it can be all that you need. And then you can also have vaginal intercourse, or you can choose not to, and you guys can do something else. But we really haven’t been having these conversations openly. And so a big portion of that orgasm gap is a communication issue, how we communicate with people about their bodies, how they communicate to each other, how, what their internal communication is like, and I just sit here and say, like, that’s an easy thing to rectify. But really, I mean, even the fact that you and I are sitting here talking about sex, some people have already tuned out because they’re like, I have to listen to this in the dark in one bedroom, I am uncomfortable, even if they’re standing public with earbuds. They’re like, Oh, my God, people might know. And that’s just how we have really treated the taboo in our society. This doesn’t exist in other cultures.

[00:52:02] Rachel Scheer: Yeah, I agree. 100%. And, you know, I think to like, unless we’re having a conversation with our partner, like, they’re not going to know, because men also learn about sex, like, from where, whether it’s like, from their friends, some men, it’s like watching porn magazines, that kind of stuff. And just like you said, yeah, a lot of the focus is around penetration. And that’s how they think they’re going to help women reach orgasm. I remember like, magazine again, going back to that, like, here’s how you find the g spot, you know, and oh, yes, yeah.

[00:52:37] Dr. Jolene Brighten: Okay, so, like, here’s the thing is that the G spot is like, super debated, and there’s not great research to back it up. But I kind of feel like it’s a little bit of a conspiracy to keep the keep the male member having access to the vagina, because otherwise, like, no penetration is actually needed for a lot of people to a lot of women to be able to orgasm. So I’m like, in some ways, and you’re right, I mean, the magazine was like, all about the juice bar. And I talk about that, who in Is this normal about, like, magazines are always looking for, like the next best way to like, achieve an orgasm or name an orgasm. And really, like, when you look at it, the majority come back to the clitoris. And it’s only recently that we understand that, well, actually, you anyone who reads the book will know there’s like, there is a legitimate conspiracy to keep the clitoris from us. And like outline all of that, because we knew about this, like so many hundreds of years ago. And here we are now just actually having access to it. Thank you internet and having information available for people. And I should also say, I said like, this doesn’t exist in other cultures. Talking about the taboo of sex, I misspoke. It doesn’t exist in all culture. And I especially people who’ve heard me lecture in the UK are gonna be like, no, like, definitely toned it down for us.

[00:53:56] Rachel Scheer: Yeah, and I think it’s just a conversation that a lot of people are afraid to approach overall. Like, they get uncomfortable and having to think about talking about your partner with sex about sex, you know, even for a lot of I think women you know, that’s where we end up faking an orgasm, right? Because just like you said, it’s about appeasing our partner’s ego. And I think part of it too, is we don’t want to make them feel bad. We also don’t want to think there’s something wrong with us to totally like, oh, yeah, I just have an orgasm. We can kind of get through this. I can accuse him and then I don’t have to deal with that shame factor of, hey, there’s something broken or wrong with me because I can’t have an orgasm. That question is you know, there’s you know, some things that their keys doing that’s not really working for your body and that’s where, you know, really getting to know yourself. Mindfulness, I think is so essential. They’re just really Oh, absolutely. I understand your body and in that communication piece, which is hard for so many women’s so so little to communicate, hey, you know, this actually I Enjoy better this is actually what feels better for me. And really being able to have that kind of dialogue. I know, for me and my person that’s brought nice, so much closer, I won’t dive into details, but it’s just brought us so much.

[00:55:27] Dr. Jolene Brighten: Um, you know, yeah, and to be able to have that type of dialogue, and then of course, the intimacy is that much better. Because, you know, he, of course, wants me to feel good. And then I want him to feel good. And, you know, ultimately, it comes down to like writing because it’s something that like, you have to ask yourself as a partner, if you’re only going into this just to achieve your own pleasure, then like, do you really need to be in a partner relationship for that? Like, is that because then it doesn’t really matter who it is, does it? And that’s problematic in itself. So, um, and I think you’re right, like, well, I know, you’re right, like we. So going back to the cons of the magazine, I think we just really have like, dated myself with this conversation. But going back to that magazine, how do I please my lover, how am I how to be a better lover, how to make him never want to leave the OIC. Where was the conversation about how to make sure that your pleasure, you’re satisfying your own pleasure, how to make sure that you are communicating to your partner about their wants and needs. And there was actually this, oh, I can’t remember the actresses that were in it. But it was just this funny little skit going around. And they were talking about like coming up with ways to please your partner. And they were just coming up with like, the most ridiculous thing to like do to men that would like downright hurt them, if you did some of these things. And at the end of this skit, it was like, yeah, and then this magazine got sued, they got sued, because of all these men who like got injured from their partners doing these things to them. And I think, rather than letting any type of media or external sources altogether, lead the conversation about your pleasure or your relationship, that really, that is something that also should stay in the bedroom between YouTube. That’s not to say that, like you couldn’t benefit from like, sex counseling or sex therapist, but that is to say, you need to start that conversation with your partner and and be able to have that dialogue without outside influences telling you this is you know, you’re not normal. That’s not normal. This is the way it should be. Now, that’s not to say don’t check in with your friends and be like, Hey, I’m just wondering, like, is this like, Is this okay, that I’m thinking this because I think it is important to have those kinds of dialogues and those sounding boards. But ultimately, that conversation needs to come back with your partner. And I think we’re just, you know, we’re not having enough of our patients are participating in that, which is making them film. Something is wrong with them.

[00:57:47] Rachel Scheer: Yeah, I think one of the coolest parts about your book is that it’s just able to answer so many of these questions. If you guys are wondering, Hey, is this normal when it comes to orgasms? Is this normal? When it comes to my sex drive? My libido, my, you know, period, my hormone imbalances that I think that I could possibly have, if you have all of those questions, you guys definitely need to check out Dr. Atkins book is this normal, which is just an incredible resource. It’s an interview guide, that you guys can really understand a lot of these different areas. And ladies, ladies, please, please, please get the book because you will be able to really learn so much more about your body. I know I’m going to be getting the book. I want to see all the beautiful diagrams that you were talking about in there too. And no, Dr. Brighton has done an incredible job because I’ve read her previous book Beyond the pill and dove into all her blogs, listen to her podcast she’s been on so she’s just a wealth of knowledge as you guys got to hear her today. And she’s going to have that much more in her book. So you guys definitely need to go get that. And Dr. Bryan where can people find your book learn more about you give you a follow on social media.

[00:59:03] Dr. Jolene Brighten: You can find the book anywhere books are sold and you can find me on main hub Dr. brighton.com Dr. brighten.com And like I said if you go there slash Is this normal. There’s a bunch of goodies to accompany the book so that you really get the most out of it and also so that you can really jumpstart right now while you wait for shipping right? Even in the days where it’s two days shipping I am one of those people that’s like no I’ve made a decision let’s go and you can also find me all over social media Dr. Jolene Brighton, and that’s gonna be Instagram, Tik Tok, and YouTube.

[00:59:41] Rachel Scheer: All right, you guys. We’ll put all of that in the show notes. And one thing we do whenever we do this podcast is we never asked for anything in return except for you to share this with a friend. If you got incredible value from today’s episode. Make sure you tag Dr. Brian we’ll put her link They’re in the show notes. I think it’s at Dr. Jolene Brighton, is what she said there. And then we’ll also put in the show notes a awesome free bonus that she has for her book. Is this normal. So Dr. Brian, it’s been an honor having you on the show today. I know I took a lot out of today’s conversation to everybody else will take so much you already will have information here.

[01:00:23] Dr. Jolene Brighten: Thank you so much for having me. It was so wonderful chatting with you today,

[01:00:27] Rachel Scheer: Guys, and this has been sheer madness.