Fasting Was Wrecking My Hormones – The Shocking Truth About Burnout & Stress with Shana Hussin
In this episode of Hormones, Metabolism, and You, Dr. Cassie Smith sits down with registered dietitian Shana Hussin for a refreshingly honest conversation about what happens when health advice meets real life. Shana opens up about how her own experience with stress and burnout caused her to rethink her once-rigid approach to fasting.
Together, they explore why a one-size-fits-all health plan doesn’t work—especially when it comes to things like adrenal health, gut function, and hormone balance. You’ll hear about the role hormones like leptin and cortisol play in our daily rhythms, how stress can throw everything off, and why tuning into your body’s signals matters more than following the latest trend.
If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed trying to “do health right,” this episode will remind you that simple things—like getting outside, slowing down, and eating with intention—still go a long way. It’s all about flexibility, self-awareness, and creating habits that actually support your unique life.
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Guest info and links:
Shana Hussin is a registered dietitian with over 25 years experience in the nutrition industry. After developing insulin resistance and adrenal fatigue following questionable standard health guidelines given, she built a thriving online business where she helps those with no hope recover and heal. She is the host of the popular wellness podcast, Optimal Metabolism , where she helps listeners reverse stubborn metabolic, cortisol, and blood sugar issues by helping them fix their broken food and lighting environments. Shana uses hormone friendly nutrition and timed eating protocols, along with circadian rhythm biology, and proper lighting environment as key strategies to achieve optimal metabolic and adrenal health.
Blog/Transcription:
0:03 Welcome back to this week’s episode of Hormones, Metabolism, and You. I’m your host, Dr. Cassie Smith. I’m a functional
0:09 endocrinologist based out of Oklahoma City. This week, we are going to unpack fasting, adrenal issues, gut health, and
0:17 how sometimes our pro our perspective on life and our health switch and shift and
0:24 evolve, and how that’s actually okay. I have a very exciting guest this week. Her name is Shana Husten. She is a
0:31 registered dietician. Many of you may follow her on Instagram or possibly even listen to her podcast, Optimal
0:37 Metabolism. She also wrote a phenomenal book in 2020 called Fast to Heal. She is
0:42 a dietician who was very focused on fasting for a very long time. She got
0:48 pretty ill, and she’s going to tell you about this on the podcast. In 2023 and 2024, her parents died. and she was
0:54 under a lot of stress and she sort of had to pivot her entire stance. So, she was this fasting guru and she realized
1:01 that fasting was actually making her sicker. It was making her adrenal glands not work as well and it was just
1:08 creating a lot of gut issues as well. And so, she’s going to tell you today about how overfasting and somebody who
1:15 is metabolically healthy can actually be harmful and can affect your adrenal gland, but it can also affect your gut.
1:20 And so, I’m super excited for you guys to hear this. I think it’s very valuable and important. I think that you have to
1:26 remember when you are getting information about your health anywhere that you take it and you absorb it, but
1:31 that you realize that you are your own individual person and that there are going to be different seasons in your life where you need different things.
1:37 This is why it’s important to work with somebody one-on-one who understands you, understands your goals, understands
1:44 hormones, and and nutrition in general. And so, I think that this episode is so
1:49 enlightening. She was very vulnerable, but it’s a great episode. So, Shana
1:54 Husten is a registered dietician with over 25 years experience in the nutrition industry. After developing
2:00 insulin resistance and adrenal fatigue following questionable standard health guidelines given, she built a thriving
2:06 online business where she helps those with no hope recover and heal. She’s the host of the popular wellness podcast
2:12 Optimal Metabolism where she helps listeners reverse stubborn metabolic cortisol and blood sugar issues by
2:18 helping them fix their broken food and lighting environments. She uses hormone friendly nutrition and timed eating
2:25 protocols along with circadian rhythm biology and proper lighting environment as key strategies to improve optimal
2:32 metabolic and adrenal health. I think that you’re really going to love this episode and get a ton out of it. So,
2:37 here we go. Thank you so much for joining me on the podcast. Today I have Shana Husten and she is very well known
2:45 on social media. I’m sure that some of you guys follow her. I’ve followed her for a really long time. I’m super excited to have her today. I wanted to
2:52 talk to her about fasting, adrenal fatigue, and gut health. She actually
2:57 has a very personal journey that I’m going to let her share with you guys, but she wrote a book in 2020 called Heal
3:03 to Fast. Sorry, Fast to Heal. and it talked about how she got better through fasting. But then recently she’s been
3:10 very vocal about the fact that fasting caused some adrenal issues. And so I wanted to just bring this topic up, be
3:16 open about this and talk with her about this. And then we’re going to kind of tie in some gut health stuff as well. So thank you so much for being on my
3:23 podcast. Thank you for having me. We’re going to talk about all my favorite topics. So I’m really happy to be here.
3:30 Awesome. So will you start by just kind of telling the listeners like who you are, how you got here, maybe a little
3:36 bit about that journey of you healing yourself through fasting and then kind of what happened after that? Yes. So, I’m a registered dietician,
3:43 traditionally trained, and I’ve been in the field for about 25 years, aging myself, but it’s been that long. And um
3:51 throughout the years, I I did a little bit of everything in in my career. But throughout the years, I was finding it
3:57 really hard to maintain my weight despite exercising pretty profusely,
4:02 following all the standard recommendations, and you know, having three kids and just going all the time.
4:08 I’m like, it shouldn’t be this hard. And I found out later that I had insulin resistance following all the traditional
4:16 guidelines of eat a ton of grains and eat a lot of carbohydrates and you know
4:21 snack you know eat every couple of hours to keep your energy up. I was doing all those things. I was eating from the time
4:26 I got up until the time I went to bed. It was healthy whole food but it made me sick. And the thing that was interesting
4:32 about my story is that I always had normal fasting blood sugar, normal lipid
4:38 panels. All my labs look great, but I never knew to um test for fasting
4:43 insulin. That wasn’t ever talked about. It wasn’t taught to me. And I found out I had this after I had implemented
4:51 intermittent fasting and a low carb approach for a couple of years already. And then in 2016, going back a ways, one
4:58 of my children, my middle son was he had severe gut issues. all the the things
5:04 that you talk about here, but he was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and it just kind of came out of the blue. He
5:10 was only 11 years old. But it threw us into the conventional medical system where we’d never really been like we
5:16 were a healthy family and they couldn’t answer any of my why questions. Like
5:21 their biggest nightmare as a mom like me who’s like why? Like why is this happening? What? Like I don’t want to
5:26 just put him on these medications and infusions that are, you know, coded as chemotherapy. Like I’m not okay with
5:32 that. like why is this happening? And and there’s got to be a way to heal his body. And I just deep dived into a lot
5:39 of different things. And I left the conventional nutrition field because I couldn’t teach those guidelines anymore
5:45 knowing what I knew. And that’s about the time that I discovered I had insulin resistance and everything just kind of
5:51 came to a head. And then I wrote my book because I did implement intermittent fasting and I implemented it with a
5:58 subset of people I was working with at the time and they had very profound outcomes. So I wrote a book on how to
6:05 start intermittent fasting and how to tie in nutrition with it. And I fasted
6:10 every day almost every day through breakfast for almost five years. Way too
6:16 long. Like I lost a couple of pounds but I’ve never been, you know, overweight.
6:21 So for me my tipping point, my turning point was and I built like you know I built courses around fasting and I wrote
6:28 my book around it and I have an academy called Low Insulin Academy that that focuses around timed eating and
6:35 intermittent fasting. But then I had I went through a really stressful time 2024. Both my parents died. I had to
6:42 clean out their house. Like it was just very chaotic. And I noticed I started to have high morning blood sugars. And I
6:49 was like what is going on? I I don’t understand this or and they weren’t like 95. They were like 102, 112, 115. And I
6:58 had not eaten for 18 hours, 20 hours. I was following a low carb. I was never
7:04 like keto or or overly restrictive about it. But I was following a low carb approach. And all of a sudden, these
7:10 morning blood sugars are creeping up. And I didn’t want to admit it to myself. I didn’t, you know, I’m like, I’m not
7:16 going to wear a CGM anymore. I just I’m not going to tell, you know, I don’t want to tell my population that I’m
7:22 struggling with these things and my followers because I like something has to change. I can’t keep going like this.
7:29 And then I discovered and we can talk about this um as we go. What I discovered, I had a flatlined cortisol
7:36 pattern, meaning I was beyond adrenal fatigue into adrenal exhaustion from
7:41 everything just coming to a head. And I, you know, running myself ragged for a couple of decades and having a business
7:48 and having three children and a husband who works very long hours and just all the things like all the things that that
7:55 we see as women. And so I knew like I had I’m like, okay, at first I just kind
8:00 of ignored it. I’m like, this isn’t that big of a deal, right? And I started to
8:06 learn a ton about cortisol regulation. And it was about that time that I started to deep dive into more of the
8:13 circadian approaches to health and circadian rhythm and getting out of
8:18 circadian dysfunction, learning about quantum biology, those types of things.
8:23 And I taught myself of what is actually at the heart of adrenal fatigue and
8:29 what’s going on. And I will tell you it’s not a cortisol cocktail that will
8:34 get you well. It might help a little bit, but I implemented all these things and within three months my cortisol
8:42 pattern came back into balance. Started sleeping better. That was another thing that I was um having trouble with from
8:47 over fasting and overdoing it. I was waking up in the middle of the night, couldn’t go back to sleep. And so I
8:53 think a lot of women like in our our age group and who have implemented the same
8:59 things that you and I have talked about with our communities, we we can see
9:05 that, you know, if we overdo them and if we’re not doing them strategically, and believe me, I was telling my followers
9:12 like, don’t fast the same way every single day. you know, change these things up, but I wasn’t doing it myself
9:19 because my pattern that I had, you know, I was used to was working for me and it
9:24 was easy and it was socially acceptable and that was what I was teaching others. So, it was really hard to admit, but I
9:31 did overcome both insulin resistance and cortisol dysregulation. And I’m in a
9:37 much better place than I was a year ago where, you know, at the end of last year
9:42 I was ready to just toss the towel and throw it all in and just be done with with everything just like be a hermit or
9:50 something. Um, but there is there is a way to heal and you know go from I I I
9:56 don’t want to say it was extreme but you know feeling like you have to do a certain protocol for so long and you
10:03 know being okay with switching things up and you know admitting to yourself first and then maybe some of the people who
10:10 are following you or in your audience that you know like we don’t know everything. We’re you know n of one um
10:17 what works for me isn’t going to necessarily work for you. Uh but that’s kind of of how I got into this space and
10:23 why I focus on what I focus on now. So I think that’s that’s amazing and I
10:28 appreciate you sharing that. You know I know that social media can be difficult, right? And so you do grow this following
10:35 and people just like expect things from you. But to your point, I think you know with me it’s always like my whole goal
10:42 with social media was to educate people, right? I it’s not because I want a million followers. It’s not because I
10:47 have an ego. As a matter of fact, it’s a lot of work and it actually stresses you
10:52 out and it probably isn’t good for your cortisol. But I do want to be able to help educate people. And so to to be
11:00 able to stand back and say, “Hey, you know what? I’ve been educating you about this and it’s not working for me anymore
11:05 and and here’s another avenue.” I think that that just shows that, you know, you’re an incredible human and that
11:11 you’re doing it for the right reason. And if people don’t like that, then, you know, that’s their own prerogative. But I do think that in medicine, in social
11:18 media, in life in general, there’s never like a one-sizefits-all. You know, there are seasons in your life, you know, just
11:25 like people, like there are going to be people that come and go in your life, too. It’s a it’s a season. It’s like what you need at that point. So, in
11:33 2020, you probably needed some fasting. But when you had all this everything built up, you know, like I I love Dr.
11:40 Jill Carneahan talks about like, you know, as your toxic bucket fills up. Um, as your bucket started overflowing with
11:46 water, you didn’t need the fasting anymore. What you needed was the rest. And to be nice to your adrenal gland and
11:52 things like that. And so, I think it’s really powerful and important for people to hear that. Yes, there are tons of
11:57 people who go out there and say, “I intermittent fasted and it changed my life and I lost all this weight.” I see
12:03 a ton of those women and I’m like, “Yeah, and your cortisol is terrible.” like your your cortisol awakening
12:10 response is bad, your morning cortisol is bad, your fasting blood sugar is bad, your insulin is bad, and they’re like,
12:15 “But I eat great.” And I’m like, “Well, yeah, that’s not the problem. The problem is that your adrenal is pissed,
12:20 you know, like you’re not being nice.” And so I think it is really important to bring awareness to this and to let
12:27 people you know know about this and know what you know let’s talk about like what symptoms were you having besides the
12:34 high fasting blood sugar that made you think like man my adrenal you mentioned waking up in the middle of the night you
12:39 mentioned burning the candle at both ends your blood sugar being high like what other things would people be
12:45 experiencing if they feel like if they could be you know dealing with adrenal fatigue and then we’ll talk about like
12:51 some tests and labs you can doing like how to fix that. Yes. So, the main thing that tipped me off was the high morning blood sugars. I
12:57 could not figure that out. It made no sense. Um, and then I was having a lot
13:03 of bloating. I’ve struggled with bloating for a lot of my life, but a lot
13:09 of modification with nutrition, taking out processed food, not eating a lot of
13:14 grains that I don’t digest well, adding in some digestive enzymes that helped profusely. But during this time period,
13:21 I was getting a lot more bloating, which makes sense because I was in this fight or flight all the time and not dig not
13:28 digesting my food well and not able to get into that parasympathetic state that
13:33 digestion needs. So, that was another one was the the bloating. A really strange thing that that kept happening
13:40 to me and um this was mainly like my mom was in hospice for a month um was my eye
13:46 would twitch constantly. Like I would you know if I would get stressed it would just be this eye twitching. I’m
13:53 like what is going on? I cannot stop this. Um and I have like my eye hasn’t twitched in months now. So that was
13:59 another thing. The the wakeups in the middle of the night that was huge and that that’s horrible. I mean so many
14:05 women deal with that. But um sometimes I was able to go back to sleep, but a lot
14:10 of times I wasn’t. Um and so that just like exhausted me. And then just this
14:16 feeling like sometimes I felt like my heart was racing and I just like couldn’t calm myself down. And the only
14:23 thing that would really help and still helps me, the biggest thing that calms me down is to go outside and be in
14:29 nature and get my feet on the ground if at all possible. Like those are the best things for me. They’re not always possible. Um, but just this feeling that
14:36 I couldn’t calm down. Um, and then of course that that went into my sleep issues. Interestingly enough, like a lot
14:43 of people struggle with like puffiness and belly fat. I did not those were not
14:48 my symptoms, but I think I was beyond like I struggled with those things in college a lot. And I think my adrenal
14:55 fatigue kind of started like 20 years ago where I had the puffy face. I had
15:00 the skin like I had, you know, acne and just belly fat that I couldn’t
15:05 understand. I was very very active. It just got to the point where adrenal exhaustion like I think my symptoms and
15:11 this is just me and and my personal experience but it just got to the point where they were different at that point.
15:19 And one thing that was interesting about me also was I know a lot of times people
15:24 with adrenal fatigue and adrenal dysfunction can’t feel like they can’t get up in the morning. Like they’re just
15:30 so tired. And I just was just like more wired, couldn’t settle down that somehow
15:36 by the grace of God, I didn’t like hit that wall with my energy. Like I always
15:41 had decent energy and maybe my cortisol was just carrying me through that. But
15:48 those were the main symptoms that I was experiencing. Yeah. And I think sometimes with adrenal fatigue and people that are very, you
15:55 know, high-rung or, you know, have businesses or very type A like you and I, that’s where sometimes we miss it
16:01 because it’s like if you really stop and think, you probably are tired, but you just like do because you wake up with
16:07 this to-do list. You go to bed with a to-do list. You wake up with a million people needing you and wanting you. You go to bed with it. And so it’s like if
16:14 you ever actually can sit in nature, put your feet in the grass and not have a million things going through your head
16:19 or like do yoga, you are exhausted. But it’s just like that that cortisol just keeps you going. And I what I heard you
16:26 say, so the bloating, yes. You know, I talk to people and we’re going to talk about gut. When your cortisol is high
16:31 and your adrenal glands are angry, your gut is a train wreck. Um and so the bloating, I heard the 3:00 a.m.
16:37 awakenings. A lot of women are hearing that the wired, not tired. The other that’s the other thing like you know if
16:44 you’re go go go all day and then you get ready for bed and you’re like I should be exhausted but you’re laying there and everything is just spinning that’s a
16:51 problem too and I have a lot of patients who tell me and I’ve experienced this too where you lay down at night right
16:57 you’re in your calmst state ever and then you just like feel and hear your heart like you know all these
17:02 palpitations like that’s not normal because when you lay down at night and you’re calm your parasympathetic system
17:07 should be kicked in and that’s your calming relaxed digest and so like if you’re laying there and your heart
17:12 rate’s faster than it’s ever been, that’s a problem. Like, we have a we have an issue, right? And then the blood
17:17 sugar thing, you know, I I see that a lot, too. Like, I can just when these people walk in my office, I can see it.
17:23 And sometimes they’re the hardest people to treat, too. You know, the the people who own businesses who are high
17:28 functioning, high achieving, you know, and I and I have one I’m treating right now, and she swears like I don’t feel bad. I’m not tired. I don’t feel bad.
17:36 while she’s running five miles every morning too and her adrenal it’s just everything she could possibly doing to
17:42 not help herself she’s doing right she’s fasting she’s running five miles she’s working too hard she’s and so those
17:48 sometimes are the hardest people to really help them understand until they get really sick you know like in this
17:53 particular patient she actually got really sick and that’s why she came to me she’s young but she had some significant stomach issues you know she
18:00 got an ulcer things like that like sometimes it takes something like that to really like wake you up and it’s sad
18:05 ad because you are getting all these little signs that you’re talking about along the way, but we’re really good at
18:11 ignoring them, right? Like our brain is really good at like pushing them down because we a lot of times run on, you
18:17 know, fear, right? We run on fear. We run on all that adrenaline rush. And so
18:22 really stopping and like listening to yourself is is super important. Yes, absolutely. Yep. That’s that’s
18:28 exactly where I was at. And I think you’re absolutely right. It’s like I just would go and have my to-do list and
18:34 my color-coded calendar with my three children and you know I just I when I
18:40 sat down and had nothing to do which was really like never I didn’t know what to
18:47 do with myself. Like there would be a day on my calendar that was you know we didn’t have any family things scheduled.
18:53 I was like I don’t I don’t even know what to do. And my mom I remember when my mom was still alive she would come over and I would sit down and talk to
19:00 her and I’d like be up within like 30 seconds she’s like oh well that didn’t take long from the time that you thought
19:06 you had to get up and do something. So yeah I think people are just wired like this and uh you know certain people are
19:13 wired differently but are um like I’ve just really tried to get myself out of the hustle culture in the last six
19:20 months. I’ve, you know, kind of revamped a lot of my business model and my
19:27 expectations of myself and it’s helped profusely. But those are the things like
19:33 you’re saying as a business owner and as a mom of three like you don’t want to admit that those are even contributing
19:39 to your health issues. You like and I used to be a big runner like I for about 10 years I was a long-distance runner.
19:45 And another thing that um that I was doing that I changed was I was always like I I would be up early between 5 and
19:52 5:30 usually and now it’s like I let myself sleep till 6 which makes a huge
19:58 difference or 6:00 or 6:30 but I was going to a 5:30 a.m. strength class only
20:04 a couple times a week but it was phase shifting my wake up time. going under these awful fluorescent lights that I
20:12 was there at like, you know, 5:15 in the morning and telling my body it’s midday
20:17 when it’s not it’s not the sun hadn’t even been up yet. So, that was another thing that I had to admit to myself.
20:24 Well, maybe maybe this 5:30 a.m. strength class with fluorescent lights
20:29 that is completely abnormal to new human biology isn’t the best thing for me. And
20:34 and it does it it takes um a lot of maturity and just taking a hard look at
20:40 yourself and saying if I keep going in this direction like you said I’m going to be like your client like I’m I’m
20:46 going to find myself very ill. I can’t keep running this way. And so it’s hard to admit. Yeah. You make a couple of of
20:54 tweaks and changes and and so many things can change. Yeah. Yeah. And I and I heard you say recently, I think on a podcast or maybe
21:00 on your social media, that you kind of took a little break for a minute from podcasting and just kind of like stepped
21:05 back and kind of re-evaluated. And I’ve kind of found myself there recently, too. Like I love doing podcasts. I love
21:12 all the things that I do, but we’re having a lot of changing in my clinic right now, too. And so, just maybe like
21:17 taking a little break, like step back from doing some of these things. I haven’t been super active on social
21:23 media recently because I’ve just kind of been protecting my space and trying to
21:28 figure out like what is really important and what do I need to put my energy in right now. You know, in 2023 and 2024, a
21:36 lot of it was social media. Right now, I’m really focused on trying to figure out how to do courses and things like
21:41 that to help people. And so, just being okay with that. Sometimes it’s hard because I struggle like well if I don’t
21:47 do all this social media then are my followers going to be upset if I don’t do this content but really it comes back
21:53 to like that doesn’t matter like what you know if if I am not feeling well then I can’t show up for my family or my
22:00 patients or my followers or anyone. So just being okay with that like I’m going to take a step back and I’m going to do
22:05 what’s really important right now and I’m going to kind of recalibrate I think is really important. And to your point,
22:11 like I used to be a 5:00 a.m. wake out wake up person, like workout immediately. And just recently I’ve been
22:17 like this just doesn’t feel good with my body. So this morning I slept until 6:45 22:22 and then before we did this I took a walk and I watched the sun come up for 30 minutes, you know, talked to my
22:27 husband and like I feel great. If I would have woke up at 5:00 and went and did my exercise class, I would probably
22:33 be like, man, you know, and I have a lot of really fun, exciting things I’m going to do today. some podcasting, some
22:39 things like that, but I just wanted to be in a good headsp space and like I think that’s okay. You just have to get used to that, you know? So, I slept
22:45 until I woke up, which was 6:45. I felt great. Went for a walk and then if I have time, I’ll lift some weights later.
22:51 But like just being okay with like listening to your body, I think is really important, too, because if not,
22:56 then you end up with all these symptoms. And and like you were talking about, you know, I’ve struggled with gut issues a lot throughout my life. Depends on
23:03 what’s going on in my life. But I will tell you, when I’m not being nice to myself, when I’m super stressed, when
23:08 I’m not eating well, I look like I’m 5 months pregnant. And then when I’m nice to myself, and like this morning I slept
23:14 in till 6:45. I woke up, you know, I’m like in the bathroom brushing my teeth. I’m like, “Dang, my stomach looks really
23:19 flat. I didn’t even work out yesterday, you know? I just slept well and ate well yesterday.” But I’m like, “Yeah, this is
23:25 good.” You know, so it’s just very interesting. Yes. Yeah. I I started podcasting in
23:31 2020. So, for me to take a break and I’ve been telling myself just take a break for a while. Like, it’s okay. But
23:37 when you’ve been putting out an episode every single week for almost 5 years, you do you have those thoughts and it’s
23:44 just like, oh gosh, what if I don’t put out a podcast episode? And my husband would ask me that all the time when I’d be stressing about, oh, I didn’t get it
23:49 edited, you know, it’s not edited yet or whatever. He’s like, what’s going to happen if you don’t put out an episode?
23:55 I’m like, I don’t know, but I don’t want to find out, you know? And so I took a good month, it’s more like two months
24:01 from interviewing people. And I just kind of put a different I’m putting a little bit different spin on my podcast
24:07 and doing more solo episodes, shorter episodes that aren’t as invasive as the
24:13 guest interviews. I still have guest interviews, but yeah, and and those little tweaks and like you said, like I
24:19 used to feel like I had to start work at 8 and you know, even though I’m my own, you know, I’m my own boss, you have to
24:26 be very disciplined. I’m like I don’t I very rarely start work before 9ine now. I allow myself sleep. I take a walk in
24:33 the morning just like you did almost every morning. I see the sunrise. And I know not everybody has that luxury. But
24:40 there are things that you can do just to put yourself like if I start my days like that. I usually read my Bible while
24:47 I’m having my breakfast which is much earlier than it used to be. like I you are you’re just like your head space is
24:53 so much different than if you make yourself get up and just go and and you’re just like you know running on
24:59 cortisol right the moment you get up. Yeah. And and to your point the fasting I used to do some fasting too. You know
25:07 I have PCOS. I had insulin issues before. I don’t really fast anymore. What I do I call it intuitive eating
25:13 right? Like if I’m hungry I eat. So like this morning after my walk I was hungry so I ate. If I’m not going to exercise,
25:20 maybe I won’t eat till a little bit later. But I definitely don’t fast like I used to. And I always eat before I work out now. I used to go work out all
25:27 the time fasted. It’s not good for so many things. Like if you’re trying to build muscle, it’s just not good. I
25:33 don’t care what anyone tells you. And so that was part of the reason that like going at 5:30 in the morning was so hard because it’s like, well, you got to get
25:39 up at 4:45 so you can try to eat some eggs so you’re not throwing up while you’re lifting weights. It’s just like, you know, and I I know there are people
25:45 out there and influencers out there who are going to, you know, hate this and hate this comment and like that’s not true. But again, your influencer that
25:53 you’re following or whoever is not you. Like you’re an in of one. So, and and the other thing I will say too, and I’m
25:59 just going to be very honest about this, 95% of influencers out there that are in
26:04 the health and wellness space when it comes to like training, bodybuilding, things like that, they have body
26:10 dysmorphia and or eating disorders and or disordered eating issue. Like, they
26:15 have issues. Okay? So the the fact that you’re trying to compare yourself to
26:21 those people that have like the very chiseled looking muscles, things like that, not saying that you can’t be healthy, but just that’s some disordered
26:27 thinking and eating. And so I don’t know that that’s like the best place to be getting our information from either.
26:33 Yeah. And a lot of registered dietitians have eating disorders. And that population is very like when I look at
26:41 what the traditional registered dietician wants to focus on, it’s almost always like the health at every size,
26:48 the eating disorders. Um I myself never struggled with that, but a very high
26:54 percentage would. And I will say too, like with social media, like I’m very transparent about what I’m doing, what
27:00 I’m eating, but influencers aren’t showing you everything that they do. Like I eat dark chocolate every single
27:06 day and I’m I I don’t, you know, necessarily post that on my social media. And it’s you just Yeah, you have
27:14 to do what’s right for you. And I will say like somebody just emailed me the
27:19 other day and said um she was in my low insulin academy and she said, you know, I read your book and I was in your
27:25 academy and now you don’t support fasting and I’m having trouble with this. And I’m like, I do support
27:30 intermittent fasting. You and I were talking about this before we started recording, but I am very metabolically
27:36 healthy and metabolically flexible where I can burn carbs, I can burn fat, I can put whatever, you know, whatever fuel in
27:43 my body and my body knows what to do with it. The people who are coming into my academy are usually pre-diabetic,
27:49 type 2 diabetic, have metabolic syndrome, met severe metabolic issues where they intermittent fasting makes a
27:56 lot of sense for them. But I also say in my academy like this is not forever.
28:01 Like if you need to restrict your carbohydrates for a while because your body is carbon tolerant. That’s not
28:07 forever. That’s for a time period while we get your body metabolically more
28:12 healthy, flexible because the end goal in my academy is for you to be metabolically flexible and your body be
28:20 able to handle the fuels that you put into it. It’s not to be ketogenic forever or carnivore forever or vegan
28:26 forever. Um, like those things can all be very healing for a time period, just like intermittent fasting can be very
28:33 healing for a time period. And I will say like I still intermittent fast almost every day, but it’s not in the
28:40 same way that I used to. And I’m eating my breakfast. I’m eating a substantial breakfast, a substantial late lunch
28:46 usually, like late afternoon because my breakfast keeps me full for so long. And then, you know, a lot of times I like if
28:52 I’m hungry for dinner, I eat. If I’m not hungry for dinner, I don’t eat. And just kind of like you, like it’s more intuitive now because I’m working with
28:59 my hormones and my cortisol has balanced out. My melatonin has balanced out. And
29:05 we haven’t talked about leptin, but I think I was very low leptin. I never had that tested, but that’s kind of my guess
29:11 just with with what I was going through. Like that has now normalized. Um, you
29:17 know, it’s just you have to take a look at every client who comes through to work with me. I’m like, “Okay, we need
29:23 to look at where you’re at now, what your goals are, and what your health history is before we establish any sort
29:30 of protocol.” Like, and sometimes people come and they’re like, “Want a meal plan from me.” I’m like, “Nope. I I don’t
29:36 give like a a six week meal plan.” Like, I don’t have that because where you live is going to determine what you should be
29:42 eating, what you know, your schedule. There’s so many variables and like you
29:48 said, people just want this one-sizefits-all and they want this like give me a plan exactly what to eat and
29:54 you know exactly what to do every minute of the day and I get that like you need guidance that’s why we’re here but you
30:00 need to do you you know I guide you but you need to figure out how to implement these things and the strategies that
30:07 work well for you and if they’re not working well for you then you need to stop and and find something that feels
30:14 good and you’ll know what that is because you’ll feel good, you’ll sleep well. Um, you know, you you won’t be
30:20 inflamed and um but that that can be different for everybody and we’re all in
30:25 different spaces. Yeah, I think that’s a great point like the healing process. This is why it’s
30:30 really important to work with somebody who understands everything. This is why I went into endocrinology because I
30:35 understand how everything works together. But the point of healing yourself is to, like you said, be able
30:41 to eat intuitively or or whatever you kind of want to, not, you know, going
30:46 crazy. But fasting is good to a certain extent. And, you know, doing an a long fast every, you know, quarter or
30:52 something like great to reset your gut or whatever, but it’s not something that you want to do long term. Your goal with
30:58 fasting is to heal yourself so that your body can process the food that you eat appropriately and so that you know you
31:04 basically intuitively eat and you give your body the nutrition it needs to function. Our body is you know here to
31:10 function and do all these great things but we have to provide it the right ingredients. And so you know fasting is
31:15 just one of those things where sometimes we need to do it to heal our metabolism to heal our insulin to heal our gut but
31:22 then it’s not something that you have to do forever. So I completely agree with that. like people are just looking at it the wrong way. It’s not a like
31:28 one-sizefits-all forever. You’re just like chapters in a book. Your body’s going to change. It’s going to, you
31:34 know, morph. And so, you have to be willing to change. And I think a lot of the problem is people just don’t like change. And they do like very strict
31:40 guidelines. And that’s not health. Like that’s what we try to do with healthcare in this country. We try to make it very
31:45 strict and rigid and put everyone in a box. And that’s why traditional healthcare in this country sucks. We’re
31:50 the sickest country in when you look at industrialized nations, we’re the sickest, we’re the fattest, we spend the
31:56 most money because we try to push everyone into this box and not everyone fits in a box like everyone is different
32:02 and healing is very different. So I think that is a good point. You mentioned leptin. So tell people, you
32:10 know, what is leptin, why it’s important, and I want to kind of transition to uh also kind of talking
32:15 about some lab tests that people may see, you know, when they have adrenal fatigue and then how our gut plays into
32:21 that. Yes. I think leptin is largely ignored in both the metabolic community and the,
32:30 you know, those people who are trying to lose weight and become more metabolically healthy and just healthy
32:36 overall. And leptin is a um hormone that’s produced mostly in the fat cells.
32:43 And it’s funny because I I um graduated with my degree in 1999. And I remember
32:50 going to this conference and learning about this hormone. Obviously, it’s always been there, but it hadn’t been discovered. I think it was 1997. I’m
32:57 like, “What the heck is this?” You know, it’s like, and so people just don’t know a whole lot about leptin, but it’s a
33:02 very it’s like a master circadian hormone. And you know, a lot of people might think, oh, well, leptin helps with
33:08 fullness. It helps me with to stay full. And that is one of the things that that lep the leptin hormone does. But it’s
33:15 also really important for immunity. And one of the biggest things that people
33:20 don’t realize that leptin does is it basically like gives your brain a
33:25 download of all the stored energy that you have on your body so that it can regulate your appetite appropriately
33:33 depending on what your activity level is and what you have stored on your body.
33:38 So leptin will dock to the hypothalamus. It’s usually around midnight. Like
33:44 that’s when it when the main time I mean it’s working throughout the day, but its main download happens between like 12
33:50 and two. It peaks with melatonin. And so it’s docking to the brain and saying like Shana has this many extra pounds of
33:58 body fat and this much glycogen stored. You know, this this is what I want you
34:03 to do to her appetite tomorrow. So if your leptin is working well, you can
34:09 your body will know like oh there’s 50 pounds of extra body fat here like we can downregulate the appetite tomorrow
34:16 or you know if somebody’s underweight like we really like this this girl is in
34:21 starvation mode like there’s no glycogen stores here there’s no you know body fat
34:27 like we need to upregulate her appetite and so it’s super important hormone that
34:34 really has so much to do with your metabolic health and um you know what what your body is going to be programmed
34:41 to do as far as appetite regulation goes the next day. But what happens is when people have insulin resistance
34:48 especially or if you’re eating late at night to increase your insulin, insulin
34:54 and leptin compete with the receptor in your hypothalamus. So if your insulin
35:00 levels are high and you have insulin resistance, you almost always have
35:05 issues with leptin report, you know, making its report. So that’s why like
35:10 when people start working with me, like the first things we work on are like stopping night eating, stopping snacking
35:17 because that will help with your leptin regulation so that you can get that appropriate download at night because if
35:22 you’re eating at night and you’re highly insulin resistant, it’s not going to happen. And the other thing that um I
35:28 think you know my leptin was probably off most of my life and a lot of people who are snacking and eating a lot of
35:35 times during the day and you know I’m sure you would agree as well like one of the main things that I still teach along
35:42 with appropriately intermittent fasting is timed eating and not snacking and just you know eating square meals
35:49 because leptin will also kind of give its report in between meals but it won’t
35:54 do that until about 4 hours, 4 to 5 hours after you’ve last eaten. So, if you’re one of these people who are
36:01 constantly, you know, it’s healthy food, but you’re constantly grazing, you’re
36:06 wondering like, why don’t I feel great? Why can’t I lose weight? You know, my calories are only 1500 calories, but
36:12 you’re grazing. You’re not allowing that leptin to work efficiently in between
36:17 meals. So, it’s a very, very important hormone. And you know, hardly anybody like even the lab that I work with with
36:24 my students. It doesn’t even test leptin. It’s it’s hard to find it. Usually a lot of times you’ll have to go
36:31 to like own your labs or or get an online, you know, set it up online and
36:36 maybe your practitioner if they’re really savvy, they’ll they’ll check it for you. But leptin I like to see
36:41 between like seven and 10 just if somebody and that’s a pretty tight regul like if a lot of the the um conventional
36:48 system will say like much higher is okay much lower is okay but that if if it’s
36:54 between seven and 10 for women that is a very good regulated leptin and then um
36:59 as far as adrenal fatigue goes and adrenal dysfunction what I have my students do a lot of times they’re
37:05 getting metabolic labs done too because we’re working on metab abolic health. But the four-point cortisol saliva test
37:12 is what I have them do to check their cortisol levels throughout the day. And
37:18 I just I send home kits to them and then we check it again and with 3 to four months after we start implementing some
37:24 things. And the reason that is important is because like you said like you you
37:30 get your wake up the the wakening response of cortisol and then there’s a morning cortisol afternoon evening.
37:36 Those should all be different. Um, you don’t want like mine was flatlined and I had hardly any cortisol in the morning
37:42 and that’s not good. Like you want your cortisol higher in the morning, midm morning and as you wake up and you want
37:49 it low at night so that you’re able to bring let melatonin take over. And
37:54 people with high cortisol at night have a lot of sleep issues and a lot of that is having junk light and blue light.
38:02 Like blue light stimulates cortisol and it should do that naturally because when
38:08 we’re outside like blue light comes into our atmosphere at sunrise and it’s very there’s a very very high amounts of blue
38:15 light at midday. It’s really short wavelengths which is why it’s so bright in in the midday. But as sunset comes
38:23 and nightfall comes there is no blue light and so then our cortisol naturally
38:28 will start to decrease. But if we have our phones, our tablets, our computers, Netflix, whatever in front of our faces
38:35 until late at night, cortisol can become disregul. I mean, there’s many things that disregulate it, but having that
38:41 high pattern at night a lot of times goes back to to junk light, which is a whole whole another discussion, but um
38:47 there’s just so many lifestyle factors that um you know, like I said, I you can
38:52 probably tell one of my pet peeves is like somebody on Instagram who considers
38:58 themselves a cortisol or adrenal expert and they are just trying to sell cortisol cocktails. Like that’s one of
39:04 my biggest pet peeves. But there’s so much that goes into like re-eregulating
39:10 cortisol and it’s just it’s lifestyle and nature that that really have the biggest levers for that.
39:16 Yeah, I would completely agree. And so if you’re listening to this and you’re thinking like, well, how would I know from a lab perspective if I have some
39:23 adrenal fatigue, adrenal issues, like like you said, so the salivary cortisol,
39:29 those are good tests. I like to do baseline morning cortisol levels, too. I do blood tests. That tells you a lot. If
39:36 you’re really low, like less than seven or really high, more than 18, then we’ve
39:42 got a problem. Low, you know, a lot of times we’re adrenally fatigued. If you catch them really high, they’re in the process of being over, you know,
39:48 overproducing cortisol and then they can end up adrenally fatigued. Now, the caveat to that is, you know, I’m an
39:54 endocrinologist, so there are actual disease processes, Cushings, things like that that cause high cortisol. So we
40:00 will always test those people further to make sure they don’t have endogenous production of cortisol and it is
40:06 exogenous meaning it’s coming from your birth control your lifestyle etc. But so I do like blood cortisol. I like
40:13 salivary cortisol. We do a lot of Dutch testing. My nurse practitioner Summer is like the Dutch queen. She does a lot of
40:19 cortisol awakening responses and I love looking at those. I find a lot of people with adrenal issues have high insulin
40:25 like we talked about. They’ll have high fasting blood sugar. A lot of times they’ll have minimally high ALT and A
40:32 which are liver enzymes because they’ve developed fatty liver. They also have high CRPs, ESRs, like we do a lot of
40:38 inflammatory testing. And then they have a lot of gut issues like you talked about. They will have thyroid
40:45 dysfunction a lot of times. So very high reverse T3 levels, meaning their body is not making the active form of thyroid
40:51 hormone, which is free T3. They’re making reverse T3. They can have high TPO antibodies. I also see a lot of
40:57 times like their hormones, you can just tell they’re not making their hormones correctly. So, they’re not getting that
41:02 large estrogen spike in the follicular phase or maybe their progesterone is not coming up in the ludial phase. Our
41:09 cortisol and our progesterone are teeter totters. So, when we have really high cortisol, we have low progesterone. That
41:15 also causes issues with sleep and lots of things. So, there’s lots of signals you can see on a blood test I can see
41:21 when I look at them that just kind of take me back to, man, you’re adrenally stressed out. And then if they are
41:26 having gut, you know, we try, we talk to all of our patients about gut symptoms. So, are you having bloating? Are you having gas? Are you having, you know,
41:33 constipation, diarrhea? If the answer to that is yes, then you probably have a gut issue. And so, I kind of wanted to
41:39 segue into talking to you about that. When your adrenal gland is not working correctly and you have this chronic
41:45 stress, right, this high cortisol, then that affects your gut very negatively. You develop leaky gut. You develop small
41:52 intestinal bacterial overgrowth. you sometimes can develop yeast. And so tell me kind of walk me through what you talk
41:58 to people about or what you see from a gut perspective when people’s adrenal glands, their stress and all and all of
42:05 that is out of balance. Yeah. And I I love how you do all of that testing and that’s how we figured
42:10 out like my daughter had a Dutch test. Um she was like 19. She had severe acne
42:16 and her stopped getting her period and her cortisol just skyhigh in the morning and so many gut issues and um oh gosh
42:25 what was the I think the the T3 was high as like it was just classic of of what you just described. Um, so yeah, and
42:34 it’s it’s funny because a lot of times you’ll if somebody’s not putting all of the pieces together, put you on this gut
42:41 health protocol, but kind of ignore Oh, and she had very low progesterone as well. Um, but kind of ignore the
42:48 cortisol is all of the other female hormones. And so, um, you putting all
42:53 the pieces together is really important, but I try to keep it really simple for the people that I work with as far as
43:00 digestion goes. And how you know how I mentioned before when you have high
43:07 cortisol or you have adrenal fatigue or you’re just you’re not allowing that
43:13 parasympathetic system to activate you just like it all starts in the stomach
43:20 and just like so many everything downstream is then affected. So, um, a
43:25 lot of times people with cortisol dysregulation and adrenal fatigue, they’re like, you know, eating in an
43:31 environment that’s not that’s not I don’t want to say acceptable, but it’s not optimal. And so, they’re eating on
43:38 the run. They don’t sit down to eat. They’re, you know, hardly chewing their food because they’re in this rush rush
43:44 rush hust hustle culture. And um you know that in and of itself just sitting
43:49 down chewing your food because digestion starts in the mouth especially with carbohydrates and just h having that
43:57 ingrained like you need a calm peaceful environment like I try to eat outside whenever possible just because it’s more
44:02 peaceful and then also the sunlight helps with with blood sugar regulation and absorbing glucose. Um but that and
44:10 then just you know if you are in this fight or flight and high cortisol and
44:17 disregulated you’re just like you’re pulling all of the you know you’re not
44:22 going to produce as many enzymes. The blood flow isn’t going to be there. um you’re just setting yourself up for so
44:29 many digestive issues that start up high in the stomach and then like you said like then there’s yeast and there’s not
44:35 enough stomach acid to to kill the bacteria that um needs to be killed in
44:40 the stomach and you’re you’re not digesting protein because the stomach acid is too low. You’re not breaking
44:45 down your food because the enzymes aren’t there to help with with all of it. And so everything just downstream.
44:52 And then you know the bloating I think for me was that um you know I wasn’t
44:58 chewing my food enough but I also was just not taking the time and then like my it was just everything was so
45:04 compromised by the time my food got to my colon it wasn’t broken down correctly. I was getting bloating and so
45:11 I really just try to keep things really simple like eat in a calm peaceful environment and like I don’t do gut
45:18 testing like if if I need to you know ship somebody out for that and and work with somebody else like yourself then
45:24 that’s what I do but almost everybody I have found at least for a time period
45:30 when they are dealing with severe adrenal issues I mean number one um you
45:37 know just reestablishing the communication along the HPA axis, the hypothalamic, pituitary, adrenal access
45:44 is really, you know, very needed and that a lot of that starts with lighting environment. But I also find almost
45:51 everybody needs digestive support. So I don’t do a lot of supplementation just
45:56 because I don’t do that sort of testing. But almost everybody is helped with
46:02 digestive enzymes and a lot of times the beta HCL because of the low stomach and
46:07 there is a way to test for that to see if if you likely have low stomach acid
46:13 but just supporting those things as you’re overcoming adrenal fatigue. I did that myself. I still take some enzymes
46:19 and a little bit not as much. I used to take a lot more betane HCL when I first started overcoming my issues. But those
46:27 digestive supports can go a long way. And just like allowing yourself time to
46:33 eat and and being in a peaceful environment, not standing, you know, my my husband’s notorious for standing and
46:40 eating. I’m like, “You got to sit down.” He’s like, “I know, but I’ve been sitting all morning on my computer.” I’m
46:45 like, “I get it, but you need to sit down while you’re eating.” um and and just, you know, not scrolling your
46:51 phone, not watching the news, all those things that are just going to put you into a more heightened response and not
46:56 allow you to digest your food. So, I’m sure you have things to add, but that’s kind of I try to keep it that simple.
47:01 Yeah. No, I think those are all great things. I you know, we really pride oursel at Modern Endocrine on gut
47:07 health. And so, that’s I didn’t do this always, but within the last year, I’ve been very focused on the gut. And I tell
47:12 people like it’s very difficult to heal you unless your gut is healed. And I have yet to do a gut study on someone
47:19 where I’m like, “Oh, you got an A+. Congratulations.” Because we’re stressed. We don’t chew our food. We
47:25 stand when we eat. We don’t eat the right things. And so, we have really developed a good program where we do gut
47:33 studies. So, we do GI maps. And then I have an amazing health coach who has a ton of experience with this who really
47:39 dives in and goes over it with them for an hour. You know, we talk to them about their good bacteria, their bad bacteria,
47:45 how are we digesting our protein and our fat, what does the immune system look like in our gut, is our gut inflamed, do
47:52 we have leaky gut, do we have yeast overgrowth, all those things. And we actually put together a program where I
47:57 have an app that I made and it teaches you something every day about your gut. It’s in sections. One of the months,
48:03 it’s a four-month program. One month, the entire month is just focused on your nervous system and your gut. So, we
48:09 teach you how to rewire your nervous system. We teach you how to train your vag nerve, how to set down, how to chew
48:15 your food, because I really think like if you do those things, you’ll heal yourself so well. And like, you know, as
48:22 an endocrinologist, I could get anyone’s hormones where they needed to be, right? Like, I can get your thyroid hormone where it needs to be. I can get your sex
48:28 hormones, your insulin. I can make them look good on paper. But still, what I found was 20% of people didn’t feel
48:34 good. And it’s because they were inflamed and their hormones weren’t actually going into the cell. And a lot of all of the time it was because they
48:40 had a bad gut and their gut was leaky and it was causing inflammation. And when you’re inflamed, your cell membranes don’t work, right? So you’re
48:47 super inflamed. Your insulin’s trying to go into your cell, your thyroid hormone trying to go into your cell. Everything’s trying to get into cells,
48:53 but the doors are locked because you’re inflamed. And so when you calm down that inflammation from your gut, magical
48:58 things happen. And I have people tell me every day like once they finally fix their gut, which usually takes 3 to four
49:04 months. I didn’t realize how easy this was going to be when everything’s actually working, right? Like I saw
49:09 somebody yesterday who didn’t lose any weight for 3 months and was really mad at me, hated me, was crying, and then
49:14 from what 3 to four, she lost 12 lbs because guess what? Her gut finally fixed itself. All of her her levels
49:20 normalized, and she didn’t do anything different. And she’s like, “I’m not even doing anything different. Like, how did this happen?” And I’m like, “It’s magic.” when when your when your
49:27 hormones and your cells and everything actually work, you know, because her leaky gut went away, right? So, I I
49:32 redid her gut test and her yeast was gone, her immune system’s working. She’s digesting her food to your point. Like,
49:39 we had to use some digestive support, some enzymes, her leaky gut was better. I mean, everything looked great. And I’m
49:44 like, well, this is why it’s working because now everything you’re eating is actually being absorbed. Your adrenal gland is making the proper amount of
49:50 cortisol, not too much, because you don’t have all this leaky gut. your thyroid hormone is actually making free
49:56 T3 and going into the cell. I mean, it’s just it’s very foundational. And that’s why I wrote my book because I would get
50:02 so frustrated a year and a half ago because I’m like, I’m an endocrinologist. I did 14 years of school. Like, I understand this. Your
50:08 labs look perfect. I don’t understand why you don’t feel well. Like, it would make me mad, like upset for the patient, right? Like, I want them to feel well.
50:15 And then I realized this whole like leaky gut situation and we started doing this and like it has been life-changing
50:21 for so many people. And so I don’t want people to think like, oh, you know, a lot of people think, well, my gut
50:27 matters. Like, I’m just going to eat organic. That’s not what matters. Like, if you’re eating organic, but you have a
50:32 leaky gut, you might as well not eat organic. Like, it doesn’t matter. We’ve got to get some foundational things fixed. And to your point, like chewing
50:39 your food, setting when you eat, making sure you can digest your food, making sure you’re not stressed out, not eating
50:44 under like super bright lights. Just little things like that are so important and just make like such a big
50:51 difference. And it’s different than what we typically hear, right? It’s different than what they teach you in in school.
50:56 It’s different than what they teach me in school. But it’s so powerful and it sets people up for success in life. Like
51:02 I tell my patients, you come to me and you’re sick and you’re ill and you’re broken and you know, whatever words they
51:08 use, overwhelmed. But when you leave, I want you to be in a position where you’re well, but also you’re equipped to
51:15 like live your life and be well. So I have a little bit different business model, I guess you would say, when it
51:20 comes to medicine. Like a lot of my friends who practice traditional medicine want to get patients and they want them to never leave, right? I want
51:26 you to come to me and I want you to leave and come back maybe once a year and make sure your labs are great, but I don’t want you to like need me every 3
51:32 months like the system does, right? The system wants you to need them every 3 months to get a refill. That’s not what
51:38 I want. I want you to actually heal and be well. Yes. Yes. Our model has to change. I
51:43 mean, it’s just diagnose and treat with pharmaceutical basically in the conventional system. So, yeah, it’s hard
51:49 to get away with that. And I applaud you for I’m the same way. I’m like I don’t want you to be working with me 2 years
51:55 from now. Like I want you to get this and once those foundational they do they seem so like you just kind of rattle
52:02 them off and they I don’t even want to say they sound easy but they sound so simplified but really like a lot of what
52:09 I teach is going back to basic human health and human existence and how God
52:16 really designed us to be. And we are so far from that right now. Our daytoday I
52:21 think people spend about 7 to n minutes outside on average and most of it is
52:27 going in and out of work and kids too. I mean we could talk a whole another hour about kids but it just makes me so sad
52:35 like the um you know you just look at the health of children and you know like what we’re up against in the next
52:41 generation and hopefully the tides are starting to turn a little bit. Yeah. Well, I commend you for the work
52:46 that you do on adrenal education cuz I think that’s foundational with the gut
52:52 and in healing people and making them better. So, thank you for doing that. I want to wrap up by asking you three to
52:58 four questions, very brief questions. Don’t overthink them. But listeners love this. So, what is one food that’s most
53:06 beneficial and why? One food for me or for everybody? just
53:11 in general. It can be for you because I think people take good nuggets from it. Yeah. Yeah. I know for me I know um for
53:18 me honestly like red meat and beef is very beneficial for me. I’ve had like genetic testing done and some people
53:24 would disagree with that. But I always feel well and it does really great things for me. And just in general, like
53:31 I found when I eat like local produce and things like I h have a food share
53:37 that comes to me and when I teach people to eat what’s in their environment that that changes a lot of things for them,
53:44 too. Okay, I like that. So, red meat. The second question is, what is one thing that anyone can do for their health
53:50 that’s 100% free and beneficial? Oh my gosh, we talked about so many of these things already, but going outside,
53:57 getting sunlight into your eyes, getting sunlight on your skin. We’ve been conditioned to be so terrified of the
54:04 sunlight. And I’m not saying go get a burn. We’re not saying that. But sunlight is so beneficial like at all
54:11 different time periods of the day. And we just discount how how much it
54:16 regulates like it regulates a lot of hormones for us and systems. It can help regulate our cortisol. There’s just so
54:23 many different wavelengths and it’s so healing and absolutely free. And it
54:28 doesn’t have to be sunny. Like I live in Wisconsin. We have a lot of very cold days, but um it can be gray, it can be
54:35 raining, and you’re still getting the benefits of those sunlight frequencies. Perfect. And then the next question is,
54:41 what is one thing you wish you would have known about your health 20 years ago that you would have done differently?
54:47 Yeah, I would. 20 years ago, probably just not buying into food labeling and
54:57 um getting wrapped up with what the traditional system and what the
55:02 conventional system is saying is good about nutrition and just in your head thinking, okay, what what ancestrally
55:09 like makes sense about nutrition? Is it fat-ree cool whip? you know, just like
55:15 eating fat-free Cool Whip because it’s and this I’m going back like to when I started practicing. Um, and does it make
55:22 sense for me to eat this protein bar because there’s 30 grams of protein in
55:27 it, but there’s 50 ingredients in it. And so I definitely I I took me a long
55:33 time to learn that and to really just think about nutrition, how humans really are meant to eat and
55:41 thrive. Okay. And then I’ve been throwing this question in recently too because people like it. What is one book that changed
55:48 your life? Okay. I besides yours, of course. Besides past the heel.
55:54 No. And I was thinking I’m like, “Oh, what are all the books on my book shelf?” And so many of them like there’s
56:00 just little nuggets and you probably have a lot of the same books at your house. But I do have to say like in the
56:05 last couple of years, it is the Bible. like I’ve I’m a very strong Christian believer and it’s changed my life in
56:13 such profound ways and I was always very intimidated to read it and I’ve read almost all of it now and um I just I
56:21 love I love the stories in there and I love the scripture and how it really teaches us to treat other humans.
56:28 Okay. Well, thank you so much Shana for coming on this episode and for
56:33 everything that you do. We’ll link all your stuff in the show notes. Obviously,
56:38 tell everyone where they can find you, like how our community can serve you as far as like where can they obviously
56:45 where can they get their where can they get your book? Where are you on social media? Where can we find more about you?
56:50 Sure. My book Fast to Heal is on Amazon. If you want to learn about how to safely
56:56 implement intermittent fasting along with nutrition on my website is
57:02 shyahhudson.com. So, all my courses are there. I have a ton of freebies, lots of free guides and
57:08 ebooks there as well. And then I’m most active on Instagram and that’s just my
57:15 name, Shana Husten RDN. Um, and then my my podcast is called Optimal Metabolism.
57:21 There’s a lot hours and hours of information there as well. All right. Well, thank you so much for
57:26 your time. Thanks. Thanks for having me. It was a pleasure to be here. That episode was
57:31 packed full of very valuable information. I love how Shana was very open and honest with you about her
57:38 journey and fasting and how things changed over time. And I think that’s okay. Sometimes that happens with me as
57:43 well. I think that this is the way we should do things as a physician and then I learn something new and we pivot.
57:49 That’s just part of life. Change makes people uncomfortable sometimes, but if you’re growing, you’re going to be
57:55 changing. So, I really appreciated her being very open with us about her journey. And I hope that you found a lot
58:00 of that information insightful and that you’re inspired to take control of your health and to make sure that you
58:05 understand you’re an in of one and that not everything that you see on Facebook or Instagram may suit you at that point
58:11 in your life. So my job on this podcast is just to bring you really good insightful information and help you
58:16 determine what’s best for you yourself and any sort of provider that you’re working with. So I hope that you found
58:23 this valuable. Please share it with anyone that you think it would benefit. So, if you know someone who is
58:28 struggling with any of the things we talked about, overwhelm, fatigue, bloating, adrenal issues, if they’re
58:35 asking about fasting, please share this with them. That’s why I do this to make it educational. I would also ask that
58:41 you please make sure you’re following us wherever you get podcasts. Leave us a review. That’s how I know that I’m doing
58:46 a good job and you want me to keep making these podcasts. I’m very active on social media, most notably Instagram.
58:52 We are working on a private Facebook community for Modern Endocrine and so be on the lookout for that as well. Modern
58:59 Endocrine is licensed in 39 states now. We would love to help you with any of your needs if you would like that. Our
59:05 health coach Sarah is able to see you in any state. So no matter where you live in the United States, if you’re
59:11 struggling with gut issues, we have a phenomenal gut program to help you get back to foundational living and health.
59:17 And so look up on our website for more information about that. But we would love to help you on your healing
59:23 journey. Thank you so much for your time this week. I hope that you have a wonderful week and join us next week on
59:28 hormones metabolism and you the information presented including any
59:34 materials discussed, referenced or linked within this podcast are for general educational purposes only, not
59:41 the practice of medicine. No doctor patient relationship is formed from you listening to this podcast or utilizing
59:47 any of the information provided. I am a doctor, but I am not talking to you as your doctor. The information provided is
59:55 not intended to diagnose or treat health problems or take the place of the professional medical care provided by
1:00:02 your doctor. If you are experiencing any health problems, including problems you believe have been touched upon in any
1:00:08 respect within this podcast, you should consult your doctor about the problems without delay. You may ask your doctor
1:00:15 whether he or she believes the information I have provided would be helpful to you, but you should still
1:00:20 consult your doctor immediately and follow his or her medical advice as your treating physician. I’m just here to
1:00:27 provide you basic knowledge about the issues we discuss so you are more aware of them and can better discuss them with
1:00:33 your doctor. That’s why we call it back to the basics. Join me on the next episode as we continue our journey.
1:00:41 [Music]
Disclaimer:
The information presented including any materials discussed, referenced, or linked within this podcast are for general educational purposes only, not the practice of medicine.
No doctor-patient relationship is formed from you listening to this podcast or utilizing any of the information provided.
I am a doctor, but I am not talking to you as your doctor. The information provided is not intended to diagnose or treat health problems or take the place of the professional medical care provided by your doctor.
If you are experiencing any health problems, including problems you believe have been touched upon in any respect within this podcast, you should consult your doctor about the problems without delay. You may ask your doctor whether he or she believes the information I have provided would be helpful to you, but you should still consult your doctor immediately and follow his or her medical advice as your treating physician.
I’m just here to provide you with basic knowledge about the issues we discuss so you are more aware of them and can better discuss them with your doctor.
That’s why we call it Back to the Basics. Join me on the next episode as we continue our journey.