All Things Hormones with The Hormone Queen, Becca Chilczenkowski

Calvin and Brooke Masters: Thanks for tuning in to Master Your Metabolism. If you found value in today's episode, it would mean the world to us if you'd hit subscribe and share this episode with someone who could use a little guidance in their health journey. Ready to take the next step? Head over to www.mastersfitnesscoaching.com and you can book a free call right from the site. You've counted every calorie, tried every diet, spent hours in the gym, and still something's missing. You want more than just weight loss. You want your energy back. You want your confidence restored. You want a way of living that doesn't feel like punishment. Welcome to Master Your Metabolism, where we cut through the noise, ditch the fads, and give you a real plan to become the healthiest, strongest version of you. Brooke Masters: Hey there, everybody. Welcome, welcome to another episode of Master Your Metabolism. And I am here with, of course, my husband, Calvin. we have a very special guest today, Becca Chilsenkowski. I had ⁓ honor of meeting her recently in real life and real person ⁓ I have been following her for such a long time. Because after going through things yourself, right, and after going through an experience like perimenopause and having Calvin and Brooke Masters: so we can chat about your goals and how we can help support you. forget to join our Facebook group where we're sharing coaching tips, support, and tricks to help keep you on track and continue making progress. You don't have to do this alone. We're here to walk with you ⁓ step of the way. Until next time, stay consistent, stay kind to yourself, and keep mastering your metabolism. Brooke Masters: absolutely no idea of what was happening and learning all the things on my own and experiencing it and the fear and by doctors telling me everything was normal you know you find yourself in these rabbit holes and deep diving and finding information and Latching on to the people that you connect with that know that they have the knowledge and they make you feel Seen and heard and this is what she has been for me Calvin and Brooke Masters: hosted by our team of expert coaches with proven strategies, science-based tips, and real life encouragement, not just to help you lose fat, but actually create that lifestyle that you love. You've tried everything. Now, let's try what actually works. This is your turning point. Let's go. Brooke Masters: So it is such an honor to have her here. She is a board certified hormone specialist. She is the founder of a company called Fit Mom. it is one of the leading functional health practices dedicated to helping women that they are healing from chronic and complex health issues. So this is where conventional medicine is leaving behind. And we need to find someone that can understand what is happening. So Calvin and Brooke Masters: Let's do this together. Brooke Masters: Thank you for being here. appreciate it so much. Becca Chilczenkowski: I'm happy to be here. I love doing podcasts. I get to talk. Brooke Masters: Yeah. it's funny because like ⁓ story, I is very similar when you have other practitioners and the reason that they get into a space is because they've had their own journey. And once they are able to move through that journey and figure out what works, it's almost like you just want to be able to help everybody else. You want to be able to help the women that were in that spot where you were and feeling lost and feeling afraid and just hopeless because there was nothing out there. to be able to help. So I just wanted you to share a little bit, if you don't mind, about what you went through and what brought you to the place where you are today. Becca Chilczenkowski: Yeah, I don't know I've ever comprehensively shared this on my Instagram, but so ⁓ ⁓ up overweight. I was basically overweight my whole life and I was athletic. Like I played soccer growing up and basketball and I actually played two sports in college. I was an all-American college and I was still just chubby. I wasn't like overweight. I was always active obviously, but I just, could not lose weight and I did a lot of fad diets and you know. fat burners and all the things that are probably illegal now, but it was never something I could figure out. And so after college, I was actually running ⁓ you in the streets of Chicago where I lived. And I ran by an open garage and everyone knows CrossFit knows what an open garage usually indicates. And so I ⁓ looked in I saw these people like throwing barbells around and, you know, swing around on pull-up bars and so was intrigued. Very competitive person by nature. And so I went in and actually my tax return because it was very expensive for someone just out of college to do a CrossFit membership for you three months. So I used my tax return and joined and became obsessed and totally fell like the cult of CrossFit and I eating paleo and like chicken breasts and sweet potatoes cold after workouts and like all the things and ended up actually losing about 50 pounds in the course of a year and a half doing CrossFit and eating paleo, which was probably the first time, now that I look back on it in my life, that I was actually consistently lifting weights and eating healthy. And so no wonder I lost the weight. But in my competitive nature, I became obsessed and wanted to be the best. And so I quit my job at Allstate. I was an actuary at Allstate, and I was doing super boring insurance stuff. Sorry for any actuaries out there. But I was like, Brooke Masters: Yep. Hahaha Becca Chilczenkowski: could not focus at work. All I wanted to do was get back to the gym. And then I got super into the nutrition side of things. I took precision nutrition, that like original certification and started coaching full-time at the gym and coaching people on nutrition as kind of like in the gym. That was a little offer that we had. And so for the next few years, I did that full-time. I trained twice a day, five days a week. ⁓ on my off days would like run a 5K for my rest day. Calvin Masters: you Becca Chilczenkowski: I ended up getting down to about 9 % body fat. I lost my period for three years. And I was super lean, but looking back on it, I was moody, I was exhausted, I was constipated, I was dealing with a of injuries. And ended up in 2016 after the Open, which is kind of like that big, an original competition before going to the Games. I was ranked about 76 in the world. and I was training to go to the CrossFit Games and ruptured my Achilles. And so is an awful injury, I wish upon no one, but kind of ended my career. At that time, I was like mid-20s, getting kind of old for being like a really good CrossFitter. A lot of the new girls were coming up, like the Brooke Wells and all them, and super strong. And so ⁓ I to just kind of end it. And my husband and I went through IVF and we had our first kid. And because didn't have a period, obviously, luckily we had, you know, success with the first round. And so after I gained about 50 pounds in my pregnancy I was like, I'm going to go back to CrossFit because that's what helped me lose all the weight the first time, right? But on top of having a child and a nutrition business at the time in the gym and trying to train, I lost the initially. So it worked. Like I lost the weight in about a year. And then I started rapidly gaining weight and ⁓ I couldn't stop I was eating and like I knew nutrition, I knew exercise, I just worked out more and I ate less and I gained about 15 pounds in a month. And it just was devastating and I felt awful and I just didn't know where to go. I like, nothing is And so in the same token, was working these like six week nutrition challenges at different gyms in the area. And a lot of people would see really great results. It was kind of like an anti-inflammatory protocol, super healthy eating for six weeks, tracking macros, weekly email check-ins. But there was this like subset of women in their 40s, that just didn't respond to calorie deficits. And was are they not following the plans? Like, what did they feel worse? What is going on? And I hate not having answers. And so in timeframe, I like, I'm not getting answers from doctors. All of my blood work looks normal. tail as old as time, right? so I took it kind of upon myself to get the functional space. And it was a little bit newer at the time. ⁓ We learned from someone called Drek, his name was Travis Zipper. He sadly passed away, but he was my first exposure to functional medicine. And after that, I became kind of obsessed with it and was like, this has so many answers. And I didn't fully figure myself out all at once. It was kind of like, things got better, some inflammation came down. lost a little bit of weight, but I was still struggling. And I kept trying to go back to CrossFit because I was like, well, maybe if I just eat enough, maybe if I just take enough rest days. And every time I would go back, I would get bloated, like five months pregnant, bloated. I would get super watery. I would be super sore for days. And my body just couldn't handle it. And so I through FDN, which was like my kind of baseline of functional medicine understanding. And then I found Vince. Brooke Masters: more time. Yep. Becca Chilczenkowski: and Vince took it to another level in terms of my understanding of how the immune system affects our weight and hormones and all of these things that were just so eye opening to me at the time. and so I dove in with him and, understanding and taking him on as a mentor, and changed our were doing nutrition coaching kind of in the early stages, and now we are a fully functional medicine practice, all virtual online. have. nine practitioners, and we have kind of niched to handling very complex cases. So we with a lot of chronic autoimmune, SIBO, Lyme, ⁓ weight loss extreme perimenopause, MCAS, just people that have been everywhere and don't have answers, because that's kind how we were. ⁓ so, ⁓ yeah, I feeling the best I've felt. I feel like I've found the cheat code of my body. Brooke Masters: Yes. Becca Chilczenkowski: Knock on wood, I say that and that's not what happened. yeah, it's cool to kind of finally have answers and feel like you have answers to every situation because a lot of it comes out of the same things. Brooke Masters: Yes. Yes. Yeah. Calvin Masters: So Becca, was just going to ask you when that happened. that was when your weight started to go up and you, tried probably cutting and increasing and doing all the things. And I kept going because I've seen this before. And I think there's a lot of people that are going to relate to what you just said. So, and then you did blood work and so nothing showed on the blood work that anything was off. Becca Chilczenkowski: Yeah. And it's funny because, you know, I'm sure if I looked back on it with a lens that I have now, I probably would have seen some stuff, right? But there was nothing glaring. Like, was never someone that was like autoimmune and, you know, serious Like, that wasn't me. I really didn't have a whole lot of things wrong. I just had a lot of symptoms. Like, I just didn't feel great, you know? And I think a lot of people fall into that camp where there's no answers because there's no technical diagnosis. Calvin Masters: Right. Becca Chilczenkowski: And so they just feel stuck. Calvin Masters: And that would be the thing is that on those labs, so I think it's safe to say that if a doctor was looking over these labs, would pat you on the back and tell you, okay, you know, ⁓ see you next year. ⁓ Becca Chilczenkowski: Yeah, exactly. symptoms aren't that bad, right? We'll get back, come back when it gets worse, you know? So yeah, I was, I was kind of at a loss. Calvin Masters: Right. So that, where did you guys end up running to? Like, I know you started working with Vince, so how did you pursue it? Like ⁓ define the issues. Becca Chilczenkowski: Yeah, so I learned a lot around the gut and I definitely self-experimented and messed myself up more for a period of time. Like, I'm not gonna sit here and say that I was ⁓ at all from the beginning. I things that caused... I actually ended up with like full body rashes at times because I had Giardia that I didn't realize I had in super high levels. I was sick actually for a period of time when I kind of first got into all of this and I first started addressing it. which happens a lot of times, because what people don't realize is that even though you might not have crazy symptoms like extreme rashes or chronic extreme constipation or diarrhea or six months bloating type feelings, doesn't mean that there aren't serious things going on. For me, it was kind of subtle at first. The weight was what tipped me off, but I was kind of tired. I wasn't super energized every day. I had a lot of cravings. had, you know, kind of some on and off constipation. My mood was really unstable. I was very easily triggered, would at my poor husband all the time. Like ⁓ things bothered me. And then once I started working on my body in terms of, you know, supporting my liver and getting into gut health and understanding, like running a GI map on myself, things actually got worse for a period of time because I started kind of opening up these portals of hey, we're going to open up detox a little bit. And oh, there's actually a lot there, and it's not getting out very well. And so now I have more symptoms. And I have since learned how to kind of manage that from the beginning, knowing what a sensitive client looks like, knowing what someone looks like that may need to take things slower. I did not do that because I was like, I'm going to experiment on myself. I don't have that much going on. I did. And Brooke Masters: Yes. Becca Chilczenkowski: I ended up actually very sick for a few months, like to where I could barely eat. I was super nauseous. I was dealing with like floating stools and pale stools. So I thought there was something liver-wise going on, which makes sense because when I ran a GI map on myself, I had extremely high levels of GIrea. Actually ended up doing ivermectin. Things got better in like a week. But there was stuff, right? Like that doesn't just show up. That doesn't just happen in the cut. There's digestive capacity that breaks down. There's stomach acid that deteriorates. There's chronic stress that makes the body more susceptible to things, right? And so it was this drip for me that just kind of hit a tipping point that I started paying attention to because it my weight, which is what happens with most women. They'll deal with a lot of shit. Sorry if I can't swear. They'll deal with a lot of stuff until they're close to outfitting. And then they start acting on something. And so I the same way. And I get it. But... Brooke Masters: Yes. Yeah. Calvin Masters: you Becca Chilczenkowski: I started working kind of the process and slowly figuring things out and practicing on clients and from actual cases. And then I found Vince actually from a client of mine. She was like, hey, have you ever heard of this guy? And I looked into him and ended up going to his first summit and was like blown away by what he was explaining. I was like, it's like he's talking to me. And was talking about kind of the overactive immune disorder and how the immune system is kind of the base of everything and it's not easily tested. And so when you run labs, you don't always catch immune issues because the immune system is not really in the bloodstream all the time and active. And most doctors aren't running like IgG and IgE levels and all of these things that could maybe show something going on. So you have to go a lot off symptoms, you know, and you have to go off of like, do you rarely get sick, but you never feel great? Do you have autoimmune conditions? Do you deal with hormone imbalances? Do you deal with weight loss resistance, right? Like these signs what we consider OID. And in a lot of these cases, especially with weight loss resistance, it's the immune system driving inflammation. It's women are swollen. They are not overweight. They are swollen. It an immune problem. It's not a calories problem, which is why it's not responding to a calorie deficit. So that was the really eye-opening thing for me. And I got into... a lot of fasting and obviously prepared my body for it. But after a lot of gut work, a lot of fasting and metabolic resetting, because most people with my history of macros and training are also not utilizing their protein very well. And their body is essentially just turning protein to sugar. And so even low carb, your body is either breaking down your muscle or it's breaking down protein and keeping you in a sugar burning state because most of us have eaten high protein forever. And so I actually had to go low protein, low carb to get my body metabolically flexible again. So ⁓ was a whole process, right? ⁓ of just figuring things out and learning from people and experimenting on myself to where you kind of, after all that, like now I feel like I have it all together. I feel like ⁓ I know to look at things and approach things, right? Calvin Masters: Yeah. And this is where the value of what you do is just so huge. can tell you, learned about you from Brooke. She ⁓ you on Instagram and she starts flooding my inbox with your post. And I'm like, who is this? right, I've seen a million videos. looking and just got, I was a fan right away and I started collecting them and saving them. I'm probably the only guy that does this, but there's so much value even if somebody just went to your Instagram page. Brooke Masters: Thank you. Yeah. Calvin Masters: and just started going through the videos, they would get so much value from what you teach them in each video. It's just it's just really great. And what you're pointing out, I think is so important for them to understand, because I think the majority of women are going to the doctor and relying to them fix their health. But a doctor is not preventative. A doctor fixes you when you're broken. This not really their area. And so they try to take it onto themselves. And then ⁓ now have this new wave of just peptides, which I think peptides are great. But are used wrongly with a lot of people because they think that's the fix all to take a GLP and hey, problems are gone. But this how there's, it goes so many different layers to it. And it's very important when you have these issues, when you know something's wrong and you're hearing that nothing's wrong from other people, you have to be proactive. And that could require finding a coach that knows what they're doing and a functional coach that understands these things because of the value of that is going to turn your whole life around. So yeah, so it's great that you're saying what you're saying to them because I think they need to hear it from a different voice. Becca Chilczenkowski: Yeah, yeah. And then that's what you know, I've been fortunate, I think I because I come from the background of like coaching, and being in front of a class of people. And I developed that skill of being able to explain things and being able to take complex topics and complex, you know, concepts and bring it down to a level that people understand, which is why I do what I do. Like I want to educate I want that's whole reason I have my platform. Of course, yes, I run my business and We get leads and want to help people that I meet on social media, but a lot of it is to just help inform people. Because I think the more informed you can be, obviously the better choices you can make and then you don't feel so lost and stuck. So even if my videos reach a couple of people that it clicks and it makes sense and then they take action and it gets better, that's worth it. Brooke Masters: And I think that's also is just coming from where you were, right? I know when I was going through it and I had the same thing. It was like 15 pounds. I'm only five feet tall. Like you're taller. So that 15 pounds doesn't look the same as it did on a five foot girl, it's like, you are so broken. And it was, it was like now looking back like, yeah. And then my GI map all lit up and all the things, but it's like when you're going through all that and everyone's telling you that this is fine. And like, maybe you're just not attracted to your husband anymore. And like, that's why you don't have sex drive and all the things. It's like you really, wasn't true. Really. Calvin Masters: That's a true story. The doctor actually said that to her. Brooke Masters: but it's like you feel so lost and there are literally no answers. mean, this was, again, I'm in my 50s now. So this was back when I was going through it. It wasn't so, you know, available, the information. So at that time I was so scared. I literally was calling my friend that was a neurologist, please set me up with a CAT scan. I was calling my cardiologist. I need something done. Like I'm having heart palpitations. There's something not right. And you're just afraid and not having answers that it's like, Calvin Masters: Yeah. Brooke Masters: That's what want to be able to share for other people. And I'm sure you're the same, ⁓ that when you knew that you were in that spot and you just wanted answers, now you just want to give people that information so they understand. So they're not so scared. So they know that ⁓ is wrong, like you need to address it, but it's going to be okay. You just need to find somebody that understands and that can help you and guide you. And you do, that's where will find that part of that has been lost for so long that you've been trying so hard to find. And when you get it again, it's like, ⁓ my gosh, you will have to try this. Like, this is great coming back here. Becca Chilczenkowski: Exactly. What's the exciting thing you want to share with everyone? Brooke Masters: Absolutely, absolutely. know, some of the tools that you, I mean, I know you mentioned like the GI map and labs. ⁓ there are so many more and we met at the summit and new testing and the new tools that are available to be able to help identify things. ⁓ I you to just kind of touch on some of these tools and some of the things that maybe people aren't aware of that it's not just the basic labs that your doctor is running because they might not see anything in them because they. basically have nothing in them. So what are some of the tools that you find in your practice that are really helpful for being able to pinpoint things with some of these women? Becca Chilczenkowski: Yeah, I mean, if I had to pick two, and I might not be the same as everyone here, I would pick comprehensive labs, like not just basic labs, but we run, and by comprehensive, so we run obviously a metabolic panel, complete blood count with differential. running lipids, homocysteine, We're running with reverse T3 and antibodies and free levels. We're running iron ferritin. I'm running sex hormones, but also SHBG and DHEAS and... obviously testosterone, A1C insulin, I'm running sedimentation rate to see if there's any inflammation or autoimmune activity, ANA, vitamin D obviously. So we run a lot more LDH, GGT. So LDH lets us know a little bit, it's a lactate dehydrogenase enzyme, but essentially a lot of women, it's low on and it kind of shows like underpowered mitochondria. So it usually happens with chronic stress females that are underfed. And so we see that like, the body is just in an idling state in a lot of cases. There's deficiencies going on, whether it's underfeeding or poor absorption or both. GGT lets us know about like glutathione recycling happening and if the body's in high demand for it and detoxification is impaired. So like, I love running comprehensive labs, mainly because it's a little bit more affordable and it casts the biggest net. So like I can look at the most systems all at once and kind of get a picture painted for me of where are things breaking down and connect the dots a little bit easier, right? And then I'd like genetics. So I think if anyone in were to pick one test, genetics, and find someone that knows how to interpret it, because ⁓ so many I talk to have gotten genetics done, but they have no idea what to do with it. Like, they get this test, and maybe it's even a three by four, which gives a decent report, but like, that information is so overwhelming. Brooke Masters: I to start. Becca Chilczenkowski: And so if you don't know what to focus on and how to connect it to you as an individual right now and your predispositions and why you are where you are in life, it's kind of useless. And so we use genetics because it explains people. It validates people. And it also lets us know how better to approach a case because we know what they are wired to do, like what their body is wired to do and not do well. And yes, genetics are genetics. It is not destiny. But. There's a lot of influence that genetics has. And I have talked to many experts in this field about that. There are some people that say genetics don't matter. It's about your lifestyle. I would disagree. I really would. I time and time again how much genetics can matter for people and how we have to adjust things, what we maybe have to implement, what needs to be more chemically potent with that person. ⁓ I really like genetics because it also can show us how someone might handle HRT and what type and dose and all of those things. There's a lot of aspects to it that I really find valuable, especially in perimenovars. So yeah, we use the Phegron Pro 7 or the DOCSA, the tests, and then they're actually coming out with a new test that might even trump the DOCSA. And so three by four Like I can work with that, but I prefer clinically to see the other ones are a little bit easier to apply just from my standpoint. So yeah, those are like the two main tests. Yes, gut tests. If someone has a ton of digestive issues. I'm going to probably run a gut zoomer on them because actually the new gut zoomer has, so I love the GI map. The GI map's great for pathogen like detection. So if you think that someone has infections, SIBO, like high overgrowths, GI map's great and it's a little bit more affordable. The gut zoomer from Vibrant though just made updates to include a bunch of neurotransmitters. And so it has a ton of new information that's really helpful, especially if people have like high glutamate and high histamine and these things that are causing anxiety and insomnia and... a lot of symptoms that deal with in perimenopause. So I really do like the new Gutsammer. I think it's a great test and it also shows a lot of digestive capacity. So bile issues and inflammatory markers that the GMF just doesn't have. yeah, those I would say are my top tests. And then sure, if a total tox is needed, I suspect mold or mycotoxins. Dutch testing I find can be valuable in certain situations. But those are the main three that I like. Brooke Masters: Right. I it. Thank you. Calvin Masters: Yeah, I noticed at the event too, you really dived into the bile and that was, I'll be honest, that's the first time I really took that big of a look at it. It was just something because we typically use labs, Dutch test, you know, GI map. And when you started talking about, I'm Nigel and Brooke, I'm like, how do we not know this? How do we not know this? hoping to get the PowerPoint through this. ⁓ Becca Chilczenkowski: Yeah. I know. River gallbladder. We see a lot of chronic constipation and bile is so overlooked because a lot of people think like, know, fiber and magnesium and these things, but bile is one of the main drivers of constipation. And so we ⁓ are fans and perimenopause is a huge breaking point for bile because of estrogen and how estrogen can thicken bile. So I always try explain. the digestive system because I think it's important to understand how does your digestive system actually work? What are the order of sequencing that happens in it? When you eat food, what happens? Obviously, you chew food and the more you chew, the more you break it down unless your digestive system has to break it down. I always say chew your food. Do not eat like a wolf, but it goes into your esophagus and then into your stomach first. The stomach should be acidic because acidity Brooke Masters: Yes. Becca Chilczenkowski: protects you. It breaks down food more and turns it into like applesauce consistency, right? And it also kills things, kills pathogens and foodborne illnesses and bacteria and these things that you don't want getting into the other parts of the digestive system. And the digestive system is also this big mucous-y tunnel from basically your nose to your butt. it shouldn't, things shouldn't get in and out of it. And so after the stomach, the food then obviously goes and gets absorbed in the small intestine and large intestine, but the blood Brooke Masters: Yep. Becca Chilczenkowski: from the stomach carries things to the liver. So carries hormones, specifically estrogen and bacteria and lipopolysaccharides and inflammatory byproducts and all of these things to be processed out of the body. And it uses bile to do that. So bile it makes in the liver and then sends it to the gallbladder, right? And I think of bile as like this taxi cab. Like it carries things out of the body in your stool. Any fat soluble toxin or hormone that has to be eliminated goes out through bile. And so then it goes to the gallbladder right and is stored there and concentrated until it gets released into the small intestine. And it helps break down fats there, which is why a lot of people that have poor bile flow tend to struggle with high fat meals and tend to struggle with constipation. And estrogen in high levels will thicken your bile. And dehydration will thicken your bile. And stress will thicken your bile. And so then bile becomes more peanut butter-like instead of water-like. And instead of Brooke Masters: Yeah. Becca Chilczenkowski: moving smoothly through the small intestine, large intestine and out in your poop, it recirculates back into the liver and makes the liver process things all over again. And then the liver becomes burdened and stressed out, bile becomes slower, and then you become this toxic mess. And so in perimenopause, bile becomes thicker, which tends to cause poor detoxification, cause constipation, cause bloating. then after perimenopause, if you don't have estrogen levels, Brooke Masters: Yes. Becca Chilczenkowski: Bile does not flow properly because you need estrogen to create CCK, which is basically what stimulates and contracts the gallbladder to release the bile. And so you need estrogen either way, but you don't want too much, you don't want too little. And that's why perimenopause and menopause create this like huge issue of the gallbladder. So yeah, bile is one of our favorite topics to talk about. ⁓ Almost every client comes in, they like, we're given some type of bile support, some type of stomach acid support, because upstream... Brooke Masters: Yeah. next Becca Chilczenkowski: You need stomach acid to help bile flow properly without proper stomach acid. And people that have reflux, people that are bloating as soon as they eat, like those are signs of poor food breakdown, know, undigested food in stool, all of that. We usually see it affect bile downstream negatively. So we always think of digestive capacity first, like seal the leaky gut because you don't want things getting out of the digestive system, into the bloodstream. Then the immune system goes crazy. people's reason for why the immune system say wires. starting from the gut. Support the stomach acid, support bile, and that's kind of that digestive capacity start that we always think about for people. Calvin Masters: So with menopause, do you think it's the elevated cholesterol and the insulin that causes the sludge? Do you think? Becca Chilczenkowski: Well, yeah, because cholesterol also is supposed to be eliminated in bile. And so when bile doesn't move very well, cholesterol doesn't get eliminated. More LDL gets produced to help handle the lipoproteins. And then we end up with high LDL. We end up with high cholesterol. And we also know estrogen's role, obviously, a large role in breaking down and helping keep cholesterol at bay. But then also thyroid. You need adequate T3 levels to break down LDL. And most women in menopause, there's a very strong correlation in research of TSH rising in perimenopause and menopause and the thyroid function slowing down. But most people don't look at it. And so there's so many aspects can affect cholesterol in that timeframe. And then yes, insulin and higher levels of inflammation, because lipoproteins are good. ⁓ They're They need to be there. They're responding to something. I always tell people, when you have high LDL and high cholesterol, your body's responding to something. It's responding to some level of inflammation or problem. it's a problem. We don't want high LDL because it can oxidize and cause plaque buildup and all of that. But we also don't want to just suppress it without knowing why it's there. so LDL is always a clue, right? Brooke Masters: Yep. That was one of my first signs too. That was one of my first signs that I was like, what do you mean? Like my diet hasn't changed. And my doctor's like, well, you're getting older. So I'm like, doesn't even make sense. And you think about women, ⁓ mean, myself included, it was like, well, I was gaining weight, so I'm dieting. I running around like crazy. So I wasn't drinking by water. know, I'm to take care of a million things. So I was probably shoveling my food in because I had to do all the things. Calvin Masters: So then if somebody... Brooke Masters: Stress, I would say most women that have a job, a family, a spouse, and having to take care of everything, stress is what we do. We don't know how to rest. Then you're not sleeping. It's like the cascade and like, estrogen is low. Well, is it low or is it just, it's showing that in the labs, but it's actually recirculating and now I'm just stuck because I haven't gone to the bathroom in like four days. I mean, it's... It's crazy, but you you think about age demographic and it's like, well, duh, now I see it. But none the physicians that I was seeing were just like, well, it is what it is. I'm like, I never had these issues before. Something is right. And I'm having brain fog and all of these things. I started having the same thing that I'm getting bloated literally every meal. And my food's same. Becca Chilczenkowski: Yeah, it's like the fluctuation of hormones that puts so much stress on the liver because the liver is used to a very consistent level of hormone detoxification, right? Every month we have the same fluctuation of hormones as a female and then perimenopause hits and you go through these low lows and high highs and the liver, it's a lot more stress when it gets these super high highs. And then when estrogen is low at period of time, estrogen is also really important for the integrity of the stomach lining and the GI lining. And so when you lose estrogen, you lose that mucosal barrier protection of the GI system. So if you think about like every opening of your body has mucus for a reason, right? Your eyes, your nose, your mouth, your vagina, your like all of them are for protection, right? And it's the same reason why the GI system is a tunnel. shouldn't be to the rest of the body. And so estrogen is really important to keep that mucus layer nice and strong. And when you lose it, it's why so many women end up with digestive issues ⁓ in phase of life. then estrogen obviously affecting bile and that aspect as well. But there's so many things that estrogen does that keeps us stable. It's the most important hormone in the female body. And we just, we criminalize and we think it's horrible and then it's gone and we're like, why do I feel how I feel? ⁓ And it's needed. Calvin Masters: What? Yeah. I don't want to get you guys stuck on talking about bile the whole time, if somebody had a lab panel, but say it's a full lab panel and that's all they have ⁓ money get, is there something they can look at that would give you indications that there's a bile issue? Becca Chilczenkowski: Yeah, the main ones are typically bilirubin is a big one. a pigment of bile and red blood cell breakdown. so when bilirubin is under a five or above a one, we usually see when it's under a five, it's inadequate levels of bile. And when it's above a one, it's too much bile and too thick. And it's usually kind of the correlation we'll see. Sometimes when you have high bilirubin associated with Gilbert's syndrome, which is another liver related dysfunction that doctors say is benign, but it's absolutely not. And then alkaline phosphatase because it measures actually what's in the biliary trees. And so when alkaline phosphatase is elevated above like 9,100, we typically see levels of gallbladder dysfunction. And then obviously liver enzymes because the gallbladders backup system is the liver. it's, they are one essentially. And so whenever I see, you know, liver enzymes either too low, so I don't like them below like a 10 or a 12 because then I know liver is not processing very much. And typically we see that with underfed people. And then when it's too high, the liver is inflamed. And I always tell people liver enzymes are going to keep homeostasis for a very long time before they show in labs. People will reach like 60 % liver dysfunction before liver enzymes even become elevated. And so you know, it's not an end all be all, but is one that we'll see triglycerides. So when are actually low, under 50, poor fat breakdown. usually see and that bile is needed for that breakdown obviously low vitamin D chronically low vitamin D Because fat soluble vitamin. And so if you don't have great fat breakdown and absorption because of bile Then you're gonna have chronically low vitamin D And then globulin and albumin I sometimes will look at as well They aren't totally related to bile, but they are produced by the liver and so under low levels globulin like a 2.4 is usually immune deficiency Digestive inflammation, which I link back to bio a lot of times. If it's high, definitely bilary and liver dysfunction and inflammation. Same thing with albumin. it's low under a 4.5, we usually see deficiency there. And then above a five inflammation. So there's a number of markers if you know what you're looking for. It's just not many people flag the right and not many people know what to look for in terms of trends. They're looking for like a diagnosis, right? We look more for... the big picture. Brooke Masters: I think that's a difference also as a lot of people say, you know, their doctors told them this. I'm like, yes, but if you're looking at everything and looking at as what is the root of the issue, one thing is off. Like, okay, why is it off? And trying to put the pieces together. So everyone just thinks, well, look at my labs and it takes two seconds. It doesn't really take two seconds. It's like, you have to like really think about what led to this and which one came first. Because I think that's part of it also of there could be four things wrong. But what was the driver of it? What was the thing that started it all? And so where would you focus first? So I think that is part of it also. what I found. Like I had the SIBO, the SIBO wasn't the start of it. ⁓ The of it was my hormones went bonkers from my stress and it just nutty. So let me work on my stress and having to deal with that, which was fun. Becca Chilczenkowski: Yeah. Let's talk about stress because I think that that is a very relatable thing and most people's problem. So something that a lot of people don't realize is your sex hormones are kind of a backup system to your adrenals in terms of buffering stress. And so when you have adequate hormone levels, you handle stress better. When you lose hormone levels or when hormone levels go really high and low, your stress tolerance becomes a lot more minimal. so cortisol takes a big hit. in that time of life. what a lot of people also don't realize is that cortisol has to be processed by the liver. And kind of this long, not to get into process, essentially, when the body has a stress response, it directly impacts the RAS system, right? So we think of the RAS system as the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, which is what a lot of people know as like controlling blood pressure and fluid retention and electrolyte balance and all that stuff. But Basically, when there is cortisol and adrenaline release through a series of events, aldosterone gets stimulated. And aldosterone causes sodium retention. And where sodium goes, we know that water goes, right? And so a lot of women chronic stress chronically stimulate aldosterone and then struggle with bloating and swelling ⁓ puffiness and higher blood pressure. and often a faster heart rate. This is why when you look at an Oura ring or an Apple watch, they're like, why is my heart rate on average higher right now? Or I'm getting fluttering or things like that. Can a lot of times be because of electrolyte imbalances that start with all of this. over time, chronically elevated aldosterone also worsens insulin. And so it's why a lot of people find that they're waking up. And if you're tracking your blood sugars, you wake up and your fastest blood sugars are over 100. It's like, why? I'm eating healthy. I'm eating keto. I'm even eating low carbs. It's like, well, what about your stress? Right? And so stress stays high, the body becomes less efficient at clearing cortisol too, which then adds to more fluid retention and inflammation and blood sugar instability and excess exercise and poor sleep and under eating and nervous system dysregulation. Like you never calm down in your day, mold, gut issues, chronic immune activation. I always, we're actually about to do a podcast on this. The things that you don't think about when it comes to chronic stress, underlying gut imbalances, chronic immune activation, viral activation, long COVID, right? These things that people know that they're maybe dealing with, but don't realize that it's a chronic irritant to the immune system. And that's a chronic stressor to the body. And so that can all keep adrenaline elevated, pushing the cycle harder, which thyroid resistance, loss, lymphatic congestion, gallbladder sluggishness, right? elevated heart rate, heart palpitations. A lot of women end up with heart palpitations because blood sugar is not stable because they're inconsistently eating throughout the day and then blood sugar is going really high and really low and then it pumps out adrenaline. The body's like, hey, I need to keep blood sugar stable and it does that by releasing adrenaline and cortisol and then the liver releases glucose, but the adrenaline causes histamine issues for lot of women which causes heart palpitations. And so all of these things people are like, going to a cardiologist and it's like nothing's gonna show wrong because it's not a heart problem. It's it's an electrolyte and histamine and stress problem. So yeah, it's The stress piece is huge and I think a lot of people are like well I'm not that stressed and it's like well your body's telling a different story. So ⁓ Brooke Masters: Good. Thank Great. Calvin Masters: famous quote. Brooke Masters: And that's the thing. think it's like, you don't feel stressed. Like I went through the same thing. I had all of those it was like, but this is just how I've been. This is just how I've always just taken care of everything. I've always been, are the kids okay? Do have to take them to school? Do I have to get them ready for this? Do I have to do this? Do I have to do this? And when my kids, my youngest one is turning 20, like I don't have that anymore. So I just displaced what I have to take care of. into another vehicle. And the thought, I mean, you are probably very similar, like those of us that are like type A and like, let's go, go, go. And I want to do more, more, more. The thought of sitting down for 10 minutes and not doing anything was like, what are you talking about? I have a to-do list that's like 30, 30 things deep. Like I can't do that. So I think it's the part of it that women, we knew how to push. We knew. how to cut calories, we knew how to do the things, let me just get in the gym because that's my release. know, that's what I hear all the time from clients is I just, ⁓ to run because that's where I feel better. No, girl. Like I need you to chill. I need you to like literally just spend 10 minutes in the morning and just start your day quiet. ⁓ it is the hardest thing for women to do. It is the hardest thing for them to identify. It's almost like it's so foreign. when they try to do it, they're like, mm, I don't think this is right. I'm getting a little uneasy. Becca Chilczenkowski: me, that's why I take so many things because I'm like I can't slow down So I have to have things in my body that calm my inflammation down because I will not I will not slow down but I I have Been that way in terms of I have to have ⁓ that's I have a morning routine like I wake up before my kids are awake and I wake up at 515 But I'm in bed by 930 like I make sure I get seven plus hours of sleep every night Because that is a non-negotiable women need more sleep than men. It is truth and fact and research But I wake up and I do devotional and I read and I, yes, that reading is like self-development reading and whatever, but it's calm and it's quiet and no one needs me and it's just time for me. And I hear the workout piece, but what I am here to tell you is that working out drives inflammation as a response. And it should, because that's how you heal, right? That's how the body is built to heal. When you work out and you strain muscle tissue, The body creates inflammation so that blood flow goes there and nutrients go there and it can grow that muscle stronger and better. But if you never give the inflammation time to calm down, guess what? You're working out is just keeping you in a perpetual state of inflammation and lack of recovery. And so you look swollen. You don't know why you can't build any muscle. You don't know why you look like you don't work out. And it's because you aren't giving your body the ability to recover. And some people need longer of that than others. Like, I needed to take a good amount of time away from... hard training when I was in an acute healing phase. Now I can push it. can test the stress on my body. I can kind of push my limits a little bit. And I know them. I can't train more than three to four days a week. And if I do consistently, I get swollen again. Like it is a trigger for me. ⁓ But a lot of women think that they need the working out because initially after the workout, they feel better because they're dehydrated and they feel the pump that they get from the lifting. But then they're swollen next day. Brooke Masters: Yep. Yep. Becca Chilczenkowski: You're like, well, I just need to go work out again. And you're just keeping yourself stuck. Brooke Masters: and they keep sending me messages on my app saying, gain a pound every single time I work out. Really? ⁓ But it ⁓ is a challenge for them because again, I think that's the piece of it is just kind of being able to educate women and showing them how things work. ⁓ Because me, ⁓ once understood the systems, now it's like, okay, let me pay attention when I'm working out. If I start noticing this is happening, I listen my body and Yes, do I need to go to the gym? Sure. But if I'm starting to feel like I'm not fully recovered, I know now I'm not going to mess around with that anymore. Like I've been there. I saw what happened to me. I'm not going to let that happen again. So I pay closer attention. But I think a lot of women, unless you've experienced it and been down that road, it's like you just keep pushing and pushing until I'm going to tell you until I'm blue in the face, but eventually sometime and then they become so swollen and their cells and their body becomes so inflamed. Their immune system is so reactive. I had someone that literally started hormone and like I'm watching her weight graph and she was literally it was like a pound probably every other day. It was like half a pound. It was just skyrocketing. I'm like, my gosh, stop. I need you to stop. Like we need to settle down what's going on in your system. She's like, you think it's related to that? And I'm like, well, you started here and this is where this is going. not going to let this keep going. So I'm going to say that we're going to need to look into this a little bit deeper and we really need to just address what's happening. But women that don't have someone that's working with them and they just have a provider that says, here, here are some hormones. And they say, it's not working. Becca Chilczenkowski: It's so frustrating. And I talked to so many people that doctors aren't doing blood work before they go on hormones. They aren't asking them their symptoms. They aren't checking in with them every six to eight weeks after starting, and they're just blanketing doses onto them. makes so many situations worse. And I always say, like, hormones are messengers. They are not fixers. They will go in and they will work the environment that's there. If the environment is a mess, they will either not be felt at all. Calvin Masters: ⁓ God. Brooke Masters: They don't need to. It's very menopause. Becca Chilczenkowski: and you will not have any benefit from them that you should, or they will make things worse because hormones are also fluid influencing things. is very ⁓ retaining and progesterone can also influence aldosterone and cause water and sodium retention. And so I often, more so estrogen than with progesterone, but also sometimes with progesterone, especially when they come off on and off of it, because that alone will cause a lot of water fluctuation. that as soon as they go on it, they gain 10, 15 pounds and then they can't get it off. And so there's so many things that it can influence, which is why I am so careful with implementation of HRT. I have kind of like a little checklist that I really try to keep to before having women go on HRT if I can. Like I need the gut moving in a good place. I need digestion moving daily. I need you hydrated. I need you exercising and lifting and moving your body. able to without like massive swelling or soreness or things like that. I need you sleeping okay, like at least in bed, even if we're not sleeping great, that you know hormones can help with that, but I need you in bed and having a good routine. Ideally I want A1c around a 5.2 or lower. I would love to see triglycerides under 100. Like I need to make sure that the liver is in a place where it can handle the exogenous hormones coming its way, right? And I need to make sure that your body is not inflamed. so that these hormones can work how they're supposed to. The cells can hear them and your body can use them properly. And so it's not everyone's favorite thing that I have put out there on social media. I got a lot of hate actually from it of like, you're gatekeeping hormones from, I'm like, I am not even prescribing these hormones first of all, but it is, I have talked to so women at this point, because people tell me all the time, like I get DMs all the time from women of, I went on this and it got worse and this got worse and I awful. I solved this system, but now I have five other symptoms. Right. And it's like hormones are meant to optimize just like peptides and they are right. And they are earned in my opinion, in terms of like, they are not going to go in and fix everything. You still have to have the habits. You still have to have the terrain in a healthy place or as healthy as you can get it. And then hormones can come in and kind of make everything better. Brooke Masters: Yes. Yeah, because it is these peptides absolutely are a great tool. what seen and the impact it has, however, I see a lot of people that number one, see a lot of providers handing them out like tic tacs, a lot of desperate people that are going and doing this, ⁓ but not understanding each of the systems do and how they interact. It's almost like I always explain it. It's like having a power tool, like you're going to give somebody hedge clipper. Like, you better them how to use it and make sure that they are in a place that they have direction and they know how or they're going to get hurt. You know, it's just like everything else. So, ⁓ you know, see, my friend did this or my friend was able to do this with this or my friend used this. Everybody is so very different. Becca Chilczenkowski: So do. Brooke Masters: everybody's body. I'm like, there are not two clients. We've seen thousands of clients. I'm like, there's not two people that are exactly alike because it's not just what's going on in their body. It's not just perimenopause. Perimenopause itself presents itself so very different in every single woman that I speak to. then you add in the history and what you've been through. You add in what your daily stressors are, what your life looks like. It's like it creates this, this soup and you have to be able to look at that and say, okay, what would be best? Becca Chilczenkowski: Mm-mm. Brooke Masters: to put in this little recipe here. What's gonna help most? I think that's the part of, know, being like, I know I was there and I was desperate and if somebody told me like, here, take this and you'll lose 15 pounds, I probably would have tried it too. Becca Chilczenkowski: mean, absolutely. I think that the thing that a lot of people don't realize is hormones are actually going to be a lot more influential than peptides are in terms of what you feel and the impact that they can make on your body. Yes, GLPs are probably the most potent and powerful in terms of what you feel, but a lot of them, they're subtle. It's really subtle. if the body's optimized, it'll make it a little bit better, a fraction better. make you perform a little bit better. It'll help you keep leanness a little bit easier. It'll help with mental clarity a little bit, but like, peptides are not these things that I think a lot of people think they are. they need to be cycled. Your body will adapt. It will create antibodies to them. And the thing that I want people to understand that I think was very helpful for me when it was explained, we have learned from some really great, really smart people in the space and think of yourselves kind of like engines, right? Engines that have to make ATP and energy. And when you pump an engine, it creates fumes, right? That is what we consider kind of oxidative stress. It can also slip electrons and protons, and it can make inflammation and oxidative stress build faster, the stronger and harder you push the cell. Peptides the mitochondria, which can cause electrons slipping if you do it too much. It's overspinning. Right? So if you think of under spinning is like someone that never stresses their body. They never do exercise, cold therapy. You know, they're never exerting themselves. Like, you're not really asking your mitochondria and cells to work much. Right? And so they're going to kind of shut down function. They're like, I don't really need to be working very hard. I'm not going to create new mitochondria. I'm not going to, you know, repair cells very well. But then there's the opposite. There's people that are training seven days a week that are doing cold therapy, are calorie-deficiting, that are fasting, and that are doing peptides. And peptides are a major stimulant to the mitochondria. They require energy. They require substrate. They require a cell that can actually do the work that it's asking it to do. So you can overspin the and people can actually feel worse on these peptides. SS31 is probably one of the few ones that... doesn't do that. It's more of a repair peptide. It's cleaning the oxidative stress up. But all of these other ones, it's a stressor to the body. if you're just a layer, like this is where we're seeing a number of doctors I've talked to cardiac arrest. Like these people are on seven different peptides and are just with what they don't know what they're doing and are ending up in the hospital with ⁓ tachycardia they're on high doses of sloop and all of these things. so it... Brooke Masters: Bye. Becca Chilczenkowski: you have to understand the body that it's going into and you have to be careful with how you're using them. Because yes, they're great. They optimize. I love them. But they can also be very dangerous. ⁓ seen it personally too. I've tried Sleuth, which is kind of exercise in a bottle is what they call it. It's essentially speeds up your heart rate to an extent. It makes your body emulate, like think it's simulating exercise constantly. So you burn calories at a higher rate. I swell. tried it even at low doses and as soon as I started, I get more tired, I get more swollen and I actually put on weight. And it's because my body can't handle that much stress, right? And so I have to be very careful with the dose I'm using and the types and how I'm cycling them. So yeah, I again love them, but they are a privilege. are not just, they're not supplements. ⁓ Like not talking, we're taking some magnesium right now. Like these are very potent chemical things that can create a lot of issues. Brooke Masters: Yeah, and it does for different people because I know like, I when I do NAD, like literally, I don't sleep at night. Like, I'm ready to go and I'm like at night, I'm like, okay, let's go. Like I got everything I got energy for like two days. And I'm taking a very small dose. I'm like, okay, we can't do that. Like, yes. Becca Chilczenkowski: Thank you. That's why I NAD precursors. is interesting. So NAD in a very healthy body tends to go to the right pools in the body ⁓ be used properly. But there certain pathways, the CD38 pathway and the NMNT pathway that need to be stable for NAD to be used properly. Otherwise, NAD can fuel not so great things. Like you can make cancer cells grow faster. You can cause autoimmune flares in people. And it can act like an adrenaline surge because basically flooding the system with NAD versus giving the body precursors for it to make its own NAD. And so for some people that can't handle the flood of NAD to the system, they get an adrenaline surge and it's mistaken for energy, whereas it's more of a stress. And for you, you might have some breakdown and detoxification impairments that slow metabolization of these things. So it just keeps you wired. Brooke Masters: So. Becca Chilczenkowski: But yeah, I'm careful with NAD. I love NAD. I use NAD Regen. It's my biostack. It's got precursors in it. And I found that has been Because you do lose NAD as you age. You need it. But it's something I'm not a huge fan of taking injectable NAD. Brooke Masters: Yep. Yep. Calvin Masters: Hmm. Good to know. I'm going to be taking a lot of notes on this podcast after this. We're going to be rewinding this. So something like MitC, which is one of my favorite top three, but it doesn't work great for everybody because it has that same response sometimes. It can make them more tired. Now, I know before they were saying, you should take SS31 first and kind of rebuild the mitochondria from the inside and stabilize it, then use it. What's your thoughts on that? Becca Chilczenkowski: I actually think a little bit of the opposite sometimes. MOTC essentially retrain your mitochondria, how to create ATP and how to repair itself. And it's normal sometimes for people to feel more tired at first because the body's under like a major repair stage. And so if mitochondria is unhealthy, under functioning, MOTC again is helping the body kind of fig