Ep 160 – Menopause, Metabolism, Muscle and Weight Gain

Dani:

Hello, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of vegan proteins muscles by Brussels Radio. My name is and I’m Giacomo, and this is episode 160.

Giacomo:

Welcome back to another episode. Thanks so much for tuning in. You’re the reason why we do this.

Dani:

Thing, and I hope you’re watching it, because I am just progressively going to get sloppier and sloppier in these videos. I told you that if it was a video podcast, you would see me looking like a bridge troll. Am I delivering? Am I delivering? Let me know.

Giacomo:

And right around this time, I normally start to wear my pajamas. So depending on how late into the night we continue to record episodes in the future, we might as well start a pajama party for a future episode. You might see some weird things happen on videos. Stay tuned. Or, well, not tuned now. I mean, also, cameras are rolling, so.

Dani:

I think a huge part of it is just how freaking cold it is outside. It’s so cold, guys. I get cold so easily. I am in many pairs of socks right now. A hat, slippers, sweatpants, long sleeve shirt, and a hoodie.

Giacomo:

I got thermals underneath too. We’re both cutting and you have to get used to the changes in your core body temperature and how you normally regulate them. When you just drop a whole bunch of weight, you don’t have as much.

Dani:

And it’s 16 degrees outside and that as well. Our house is a balmy 67, which sounds like it should be warm enough, but something happens when it’s that cold outside and it’s not warm enough.

Giacomo:

It’s just not fun. Thankfully, we’ll be headed to warmer weather.

Dani:

And climate in a week. Yeah, yeah.

Giacomo:

And we will both be in the open water as deep down as 130ft once you get your scuba surface.

Dani:

Oh, man. So I am currently doing the written portion of the scuba certification. And it’s terrifying. It’s terrifying. Guys, I’m learning about how your lungs can explode, how you can get pulmonary embolisms. What is it called, ascension illness or something.

Giacomo:

I skipped through all that and just went down. It was fine. I’m still here. It’s good.

Dani:

I don’t know. We’ll see. We will see how this goes. I already have so many questions. I’m only halfway through the written, so we’ll see. But I am very excited to be going to a warmer climate.

Giacomo:

Well, also we get to do our fitness classes and be on a nutrition panel at the holistic holiday at sea cruise and see several of our friends and colleagues and just catch up with everyone that’s going to be nice, too.

Dani:

Yeah, it’s going to be awesome. I’m really looking forward to it.

Giacomo:

There’s got to be lots of you out there that haven’t heard of the cruise yet. Even though we’ve talked about it a lot in the past, it’s definitely worth going to. There’s a ton of education, lots of presenters, lecturers, classes, and it’s just all around a good time.

Dani:

It’s really super fun. I know that it’s like not cheap. I get that. I want to say it’s like 1500 to 2000 a person depending on like what kind of room you choose. But it’s all vegan. You get to see some beautiful tropical places and if you want to take like classes with some people that you maybe look up to, like, it’s pretty cool. It’s really awesome just to be around that many other mostly like minded people, you know.

But this is a big episode, so I don’t want to waste too much time chit chatting before we get into it. This is a major topic that is really important to a lot of people and has been asked about and more and more of my clients are getting to this stage of life. So I’m sure you’ve already seen the title of the episode. We’re going to be talking about menopause, which is a huge topic and neither one of us are hormone experts.

I think it’s really important to lead with that. But I have done a lot of research. I know you’ve done some research and we’re not going to be making hormonal suggestions here, but I do want to talk about how it affects woman’s fitness, metabolism, a lot of things. This has been quite the rabbit hole of me going down to learn more and more about this because I am not in menopause yet.

I haven’t dealt with any symptoms of menopause yet, but it’s like not that far away for me. And some clients that I’ve worked with for years that once were in my shoes, now they’re dealing with it. So we’re all like, kind of, I don’t know, kind of learning it together.

Giacomo:

Right? So although you obviously haven’t experienced perimenopause or menopause yet, that day will happen. And obviously a lot of our clients are, have been with us since before they went through that period of time in their life, and then they’re now going through it with you and some have already gone through it with you and I as they’ve been.

Dani:

And some people have come to us post menopause, dealing with a lot of the symptoms of being post menopausal. Looking for answers.

Giacomo:

Exactly.

Dani:

And it’s kind of messy. Like, the whole picture is kind of messy. Fun little anecdote. So, in conjunction with this podcast, I wanted to make a YouTube video called the pros of menopause because I figured, hey, like, there’s got to be some upsides to this thing. Not something. Can’t be all bad. And as it turns out, all of the physiological changes that happen to a woman’s body are not good. So there’s certainly positive things about being post menopausal, but physiologically,

like, it’s not. It’s nothing. Not necessarily, like a pretty picture. So that was kind of eye opening to me to learn, like, the upsides are super obvious. Like, you don’t have to deal with a period anymore. You don’t have to worry about getting pregnant. You’ll save money on tampons, like, end of list.

Giacomo:

Outside of that, your hormonal health challenges you into your older years, and it can come with a lot of consequences, especially if you don’t take care of yourself while you’re getting into those years where your body. How can I frame this in a positive way? I always try to. So you can grow gracefully into your age, or you can become old and age can work against you, which ones you choose.

Dani:

Menopause is inevitable, so what can we do to improve it? I mean, aging is inevitable, period. And if we all get to age, we are very lucky because not everybody does. So that’s one way that I like to think about it. But if we know that there are going to be these changes that happen to our body, what can we do about it? So first, I want to talk about the changes before we talk about what you can do about it.

Giacomo:

Like, let’s do it.

Dani:

What is actually happening?

Giacomo:

I have my little tiny book. My little book.

Dani:

He has one sheet of paper I.

Giacomo:

Was going to print that pulled out, but I’m like, you take the big notes over there, and I’ll take the small notes for this one. We can’t both have the big notes, can we now? So what I saw when I was doing some research is that you’re basically, you start off with perimenopause, right?

Dani:

Well, you’re pre menopause first, which is where I am. I have no symptoms of menopause. Then you go into perimenopause.

Giacomo:

Correct. And then once you go into perimenopause, you don’t know until it’s basically over, more or less. Like you can’t guarantee, you know it’s happening, but you’re not sure. You can’t prove it.

Dani:

No, I think, you know. So basically you reach an age where you start having some symptoms of menopause. Maybe some hot flashes, maybe you get wonky periods like they don’t come at their regular intervals. They’re really light or really heavy. Like you can’t bet on it at all. Might have some mood changes. Basically everything is just kind of going haywire for a period. And that can last several years.

Giacomo:

Yeah. And this happens in your late thirties, early forties, give or take, right?

Dani:

I would say more like mid forties for most people.

Giacomo:

Okay. And then late forties, early fifties.

Dani:

The average age of menopause in America is 51.

Giacomo:

There you go. And then menopause, it can be proven once you’ve gone for twelve months without your period. Now you know that you officially, technically.

Dani:

Although I have had clients that went twelve months without a period and then got one again. So, I mean, it’s a guess. It’s messy, right? You know, it’s complicated. It’s not perfect, right. But that is, those are the phases, right?

Giacomo:

Now, all the while you’re dealing with mood disturbances for the obvious reasons. So your mood can be disturbed because your sleep is disturbed. And when people don’t sleep well, obviously they’re not going to be in a great mood. For example, because a hot flash might wake you up in the middle of the night. There’s no proof of why it’s happening, but basically the part of your brain that regulates your body temperature, the hypothalamus, becomes more sensitive once your

estrogen levels decrease to regulating and keeping you warm or hot. So all of a sudden now you’re dealing with these giant flushes for your body, literally trying to like, adjust your body temperature.

Dani:

Yeah. So I think you’re getting a little ahead because we’re already talking about hot flashes, but we’re not talking about what’s happening. Why is this happening? What is going on?

Giacomo:

Estrogen is getting cut in half. Essentially.

Dani:

Yeah. You’re reaching the end of your fertile years. You’ve depleted most of your eggs. So it’s very interesting, actually. This is a super weird fact. You guys want to know a weird fact?

Giacomo:

That’s it.

Dani:

So obviously, men create their seed their entire lives from puberty on like daily, right? Women are born with all of the eggs they will ever have, which means that your grandmother had you as an egg inside of her the entire time when she was growing. Your mother so you actually were also in your grandmother’s womb at some point.

Giacomo:

Interesting stuff, huh?

Dani:

Isn’t that weird? Anyway, but women, we’re born with all the eggs we’re going to have. As we start to deplete that egg supply, we also start to deplete the amount of estrogen, which is the main female hormone. Also, our androgens, like testosterone, deplete. But I’m not gonna go there yet. So basically, it’s our, like, female hormones depleting, depleting, depleting, depleting.

Giacomo:

Your progesterone completely plummets at some point. Eventually, where your estrogen just gets cut.

Dani:

In half, your estrogen plummets quite a bit to almost zero.

Giacomo:

And during menopause, it’s all over the place. All these numbers are going haywire.

Dani:

Well, here’s the interesting thing about having this conversation with a guy. Women are used to their hormones kind of going all over every month. They’re used to a lot of symptoms, like mood disturbances, sleep disturbances, which is.

Giacomo:

Why it could be deceiving cramps.

Dani:

Like, all of we have symptoms our whole goddamn lives. Okay? So I think when women get into perimenopause, it’s just different symptoms that they’re not used to yet.

Giacomo:

Gotcha.

Dani:

So we can talk about what some of those symptoms are, the things that women actually experience while they are in perimenopause. So you already mentioned hot flashes, right? So, I mean, I don’t feel like we have to explain this one a lot. Although, interestingly enough, and I’m gonna talk about it more in my YouTube video, there are cultures that don’t experience hot flashes.

Giacomo:

Really?

Dani:

Yeah.

Giacomo:

Weird.

Dani:

Yeah. It happens so infrequently that it’s not even, like, a thing that they talk about. And if you want to learn more about those cultures, you should watch that YouTube video. But it exists. Like, so if that exists, I feel like it doesn’t have to happen. You know what I mean? But it does happen to most people also, like, night sweats, which I seem go right along with hot flashes and then, like, cold flashes. So you ever get, like, a fever and you’re sweating like crazy and then also

you’re cold? Cause you’re just sweating like crazy. It’s like that, but, like, all the time. On and off all the time. Difficulty sleeping, emotional changes, irritability, mood swings, mild depression, which, again,

women are already used to that from their regular cycles.

Vaginal dryness or pain during sex becomes really can. Can become very intense for a lot of people. And it’s actually from something called vaginal atrophy. If there is a scarier term than that, I’m shocked.

Giacomo:

Doesn’t sound like fun. Incontinence as well, right?

Dani:

Yeah. And I assume. Well, not incontinence. No, not incontinence. But, like, utis, which I assume those things go together. Like, I assume if somebody, if someone’s having intercourse and they’re dealing with dryness, they’re probably more likely to have a UTI after the fact. But Utis are a big killer of women. A lot of women die from utis because it gets backed up. It’s just happened to my mother not even that long ago.

Sorry. Sharing mom’s medical information publicly, but she had a UTI she didn’t know. Cause she didn’t have any pain. It backed up into her bladder, she didn’t know. It backed up into her kidneys, she didn’t know. And then it backed up into her blood. And she only found, like, figured it out because she happened to have a gynecologist appointment that day. huh. And she went to the ER and.

Giacomo:

She was like, that’s septic.

Dani:

She was like, septic from a UTI she didn’t even know she had. So crazy. Yeah. So those are, there’s actually, I don’t have the entire list in front of me, but they, they have, there’s a list of 70 symptoms that women can experience during perimenopause from worsening of mental health conditions. Like, if you already had depression and anxiety or ADHD or anything like that, it can get worse. You can start to have symptoms of dementia and lots of other stuff that’s just like the

symptoms you can feel. There’s a lot of stuff going on that you can’t feel. Let’s talk about some of that, because so far, menopause just sounds annoying, but, like, manageable. As a female who’s had a period for 40 years, this sounds annoying but manageable. Estrogen gets a really bad rap. Sorry, I feel like I’m just talking at you.

Giacomo:

It’s okay.

Dani:

Estrogen in general gets a really bad rap in the bodybuilding community. Estrogen’s the devil. Right, right. Estrogen makes you fat and makes it so you can’t build muscle. Blah, blah, blah, blah. First of all, that’s not true. As a woman, estrogen is an important part of muscle building. But forget about muscle building for a second. Estrogen is super protective against a lot of huge diseases.

Giacomo:

It also helps with your overall cellular health and helps promote bone growth. For example, a lot of things that you take for granted, even your skin. It helps with the health of your skin, your hair. So it’s kind of an important hormone to have.

Dani:

But the biggest ones that it protects you against are cardiovascular disease and diabetes. And you touched upon it briefly. Osteoporosis. Yes, that’s major. And I thought about it, and it’s like, it’s like the universe or Mother Nature or whatever protects women while they’re in their childbearing years by giving us this magical estrogen that keeps us healthy and then it drops off.

Giacomo:

Cause you don’t need it anymore.

Dani:

Thus. Except we do, right?

Giacomo:

Exactly.

Dani:

We do. But it raises the risk of cardiovascular disease, which is a huge killer. Diabetes. We know the problems with that. Osteoporosis is like kind of a silent thing that happens, and a large part of it is due to this decrease in estrogen.

Giacomo:

Right.

Dani:

Which there’s very little we can do.

Giacomo:

About that, thinking that less estrogen is going to help you because estrogen is a quote unquote devil when it comes to muscle building. Now, you’re looking at the fact that it’s actually going to work against you if your estrogen levels to get lower, meaning you’re going to have to pump out more volume during your lifts to

maintain and grow muscle during that time. And after the fact, as you continue to age because you went through menopause, you only have to work that much harder than you did.

Dani:

Yeah. We also talk about hormone balance. You hear people say, oh, I have a hormone imbalance. This is, first of all, most people don’t know if they have a hormone imbalance when they’re saying that. But the ratio of estrogen to testosterone and progesterone, like the ratio, is important. And although we do lose estrogen, we also lose testosterone. Women do make testosterone, just not nearly as much.

Giacomo:

Yep.

Dani:

So the testosterone decreases as well, but not as much as the estrogen. So now the ratio is really thrown off. And we see a lot of women that are post menopausal start to develop more like male pattern, fat storage, male pattern hair thinning, male pattern stuff that we generally don’t see much of when we’re younger. And again, I’m not a hormone expert. This is just my hypothesis is it’s the fact that that ratio is off more than it was before. So one of the symptoms that we didn’t touch

upon that I think is major for our audience is weight gain. A lot of women experience weight gain through menopause and past menopause. Now this, I think, is probably like, one of the more interesting ones from my perspective as a fitness coach, because this is what most of our clients will

say. Like, it’s become so much harder to lose weight. I’m gaining weight even though I’m not doing anything differently, et cetera, et cetera. So I want to talk about that a little bit.

Giacomo:

What are you toss? Well, aside from things being harder, because your body’s changing and working against you, thus making it harder for you to take care of yourself.

Dani:

So I kind of have two minds here, and I don’t want to sound condescending at all to anybody that’s experiencing this. So let me start with the physiological stuff that’s going on. One of the changes that happens I mentioned, it increases your risk of type two diabetes. And the way that it does that, or one of the mechanisms by which it does that, is it makes you less insulin sensitive, meaning your body becomes less efficient at, like, clearing glucose out.

So they tested pre menopausal women and postmenopausal women, and they basically fed them the same meal and measured their blood glucose before and after. And the postmenopausal women’s blood glucose was much higher than the premenopausal women, and it took longer for them to return back to baseline. So insulin resistance is something that absolutely does make weight loss harder and makes weight gain a lot easier.

Giacomo:

Right. You’re not metabolizing your carbohydrate, your energy that you’re taking in properly, so you’re not going to be able to use it as efficiently.

Dani:

So there is an actual metabolic change that takes place that does make it more challenging to lose weight and easier to gain it.

Giacomo:

Yeah.

Dani:

And to add insult to injury, we just talked about, you know, this fat that you’re gaining isn’t even going to like your hips and your butt anymore. Now it’s going to your stomach and your low back.

Giacomo:

Right.

Dani:

Which is, like, where men store their body fat. So that has to be really, really rough. But the reason I said I’m of two minds here is because even though that is a truth, there are other reasons that women going through menopause or of that age range have a harder time losing weight. And again, when they study certain other cultures, they don’t struggle the same way with weight gain or struggle to lose weight like we do.

And I think a lot of it does come come down to lifestyle factors. Again, this is where I want to be very careful. I am not trying to be condescending to anybody struggling to lose weight, because there is a real physiological reason that is making it harder. But there are also lifestyle things that we can do to improve it.

Giacomo:

Right. And this is where you have control over what you can do. Right. Knowing that this stage in your life is rapidly approaching or you’re in it or after the fact should hopefully light a fire under your butt to be like, okay, well, I can’t do anything about that. However, all the more reason to take that much more, to take the. Want to put on muscle and do everything possible to put it on that much more seriously.

Dani:

Right. So I also don’t want to make it sound like this insulin resistance. This increase in insulin resistance is, like, massive. It’s not. It’s not massive.

Giacomo:

Is it negligible, though?

Dani:

It’s enough that you might notice it.

Giacomo:

Exactly.

Dani:

You know, so, okay, what can we do about insulin resistance specifically? First, let’s start there. Watch the diet. Like, you have to really prioritize protein and fiber. Those two things are going to help your blood sugar not spike as high when you eat. So really prioritizing, making sure you’re eating plenty of protein, which is going to help

out in another thing we’re going to talk about and also making sure you’re getting lots of fiber that will slow down the digestion of your food, those two things together.

Giacomo:

So eating healthy food and eating a good balance of food as opposed to just getting into a whole bunch of simple carbs all day long.

Dani:

Correct. Yeah, that will help. And, you know, I don’t know if there’s studies on this, but I think it would help, like, a lot. Like, like a lot lot.

Giacomo:

I would think so, too.

Dani:

You know, we all talk about this, right? Like, oh, when I was 20 years old, I could eat a half a pizza and nothing would happen. And then as we get older, we just have to be a little bit more careful about what we’re eating. And that’s one of the reasons. But there are other reasons.

Giacomo:

Well, it’s kind of the same way we talk to people and they’re like, hey, my metabolism is slowing as I’m aging. And there’s like, well, yes, that’s because you are getting to that point in your life where you have a crippling amount of responsibilities and that stress has affected you and your ability to eat a certain way and also you and your ability to be someone who isn’t sedentary.

You were much more active when you were younger because technically, in metabolism really, truly change until you’re, like, 64. So it’s your responsibilities and how that affects your ability to do what you need to do to move more, to eat better.

Dani:

Interestingly, with menopause, historically, most women are hitting menopause right around when their children are moving out. So that maybe is going to change as our generation is having kids older and older, I have no idea. But historically, like, I remember my mother was in menopause as we were moved, like her kids were moving out.

And I think that actually means that a lot of women are in a position where they slow down significantly suddenly. They don’t have to be running around doing all of these things all of the time for their kids. It’s just a slower phase of life.

Giacomo:

Right.

Dani:

So a lot of people start to move less, not to mention like, we’re getting older anyway. We have more aches and pains than we had before. Sometimes that couch is just so embarrassing. Fighting. We just end up moving less in general. So that also is going to contribute to weight gain. Struggle with weight loss and lack of activity will also contribute to insulin resistance.

Movement is very important for insulin resistance or diabetes. The other thing. I have so much to say, guys, I am so. I actually feel a little bad for Giacomo that I’m just, like, yakking at him.

Giacomo:

I typically am more faded at night anyway. And this isn’t even recordings.

Dani:

Yeah, we don’t usually record at night. That’s just when I come alive.

Giacomo:

So, yeah, we’re. It’s funny. It’s true.

Dani:

So after the age of 40, which, again, most women are not even going to be experiencing, like,

perimenopausal stuff going on at 40, but after the age of 40, we do start to lose muscle mass. And by the time we’re 51, we’ve lost, like, a decent amount of muscle mass. And when we have less muscle, we burn fewer calories at rest.

So that is another reason why by the time you get to menopause, you might be having a harder time losing weight, or you might be gaining weight because you’re still eating the same amount that you were eating before, but you are burning less because you’re moving less and you have less muscle.

Giacomo:

Right.

Dani:

Which also brings me to the osteoporosis. If somebody were to weight train or strength train or do weight bearing exercises regularly, not only would they have more muscle mass, but they would also be helping to prevent osteoporosis. If we’re going to lose bone mineral anyway, we should be doing everything we can to minimize that as much as possible, because I think one of the number one killers of people over the age of, like, 70 is a broken hip.

Giacomo:

hmm.

Dani:

Because they fall, they break their hip, they end up in the hospital. They get complications or infections in the hospital, and then they don’t make it.

Giacomo:

God help me, this is something that I’m constantly up in arms about. And I, at times I haven’t played nice in terms of what the other vegan. What’s the word I want to use? Well respected people in the vegan community, top doctors, for example, people who know their stuff, are out there talking about longevity and reversing disease and eating really healthfully, but their message

is very one dimensional. And then I personally have yet to hear doctors like this talk about bone health and how important it is and getting in the right amount of protein.

Dani:

I have heard doctor Laurie Marbus talk about bone health, but not, I don’t know if she did the protein part, but definitely the weight bearing exercise.

Giacomo:

Right. But it’s like that. Okay. Was that an exception, though?

Dani:

Yes.

Giacomo:

Right. So it’s like, it just pisses me off and I wind up becoming combative and, and come out with the fists up advocating for what we do and the message that we put out there because I don’t care if you’re reversing disease and you’re trying to live well into your back 50 and try to, and you want to get into your like late eighties and nineties with a healthy body. How is your body healthy if it’s frail? And, yeah, you know, you, I mean.

Dani:

We’Ll all be kind of frail by the time we’re 80 something. But I, you know, for me, it’s like a mission to be able to move well for as long as I can. And if you’re not getting ahead of this menopause stuff, by the time it happens, you’re going to be starting behind.

Giacomo:

Right.

Dani:

You’re going to be past menopause going, oh, shit, what has happened to my body? I need to take care of this. But there’s a lot of stuff you can do before you even get there that’s going to help make this transition better.

Giacomo:

Absolutely.

Dani:

And just anecdotally, most of the vegans I know have gone through menopause kind of without incident. And what I mean by that is their estrogen is still gone. All of the stuff that is going to happen, like we just mentioned is going to happen, but they didn’t deal with all the side effects during it. You know, a couple of hot flashes here and there, but nothing like major.

Giacomo:

Right. And if we’re not playing the vegan card, which why wouldn’t we want to go there, since it’s anecdote and there’s nothing proven, might as well speculate and hypothesize and be a little biased here. But obviously, if you don’t want to play the vegan card, and most of the people that we associate with are people who generally take good care of themselves. So is there something to be said about taking good care of yourself? And obviously, a plant based diet is a phenomenal way

to take care of yourself. It’s not just that, though. It’s everything. It’s the lifestyle. It’s eating healthy, it’s training hard. It’s focused on building strong muscles that, you know, hypertrophy, growing muscles in size, not just being an endurance athlete, for example. Because I will tell you, speaking from experience working with endurance athletes, they’re not focused on growing their muscles and size. And that can come as a set of risks as you grow older.

Dani:

I’m kind of giving some of my YouTube video away here because I did want to mention just a little bit more about osteoporosis. On average, we lose 25% of our bone mass from menopause to age 60. 25% of our bone mass on average, we lose from menopause, which I just said the average was 51 to 60. That’s nine years. 25% of bone mass. If you don’t do anything about it.

Giacomo:

Yep.

Dani:

So do something about it. And a lot of people would say, well, that’s why I eat so much dairy. Cause it has so much calcium in it in Japan. The women in Japan going through menopause report significantly lower instances osteoporosis. And they eat, like, no dairy in Japan at all. So there are other ways to get calcium. Eat a lot of fruits and veggies, do weight bearing exercise.

Giacomo:

Right.

Dani:

Those things in conjunction will help with osteoporosis. Another big thing that I think is worth mentioning is hormone replacement therapy.

Giacomo:

It could also help with the symptoms. Yeah, yeah.

Dani:

So this is, again, we are not giving advice here, but I am going to explain my understanding based on all the research that I did in the nineties. There was a big study on female hormone replacement therapy that scared the shit out of people because it said that taking hormone replacement therapy for women in menopause increased your risk of breast cancer significantly. And something else, I can’t remember what else it was, but it was enough for people to, like, stop taking it.

So people were absolutely terrified, going to their doctors, feeling super betrayed. But the study was kind of not presented very well. The women that they were looking at in that study were well over 60, very post menopause. And that is not the demographic that I think could possibly benefit from hormone replacement therapy the most.

Giacomo:

As opposed to women going through it.

Dani:

Right. The ones dealing with the really intense symptoms, if they’re having them during menopause, there certainly are risks to taking any kind of hormones. And when it comes to any medication or lifestyle change or anything, do the benefits outweigh the risks?

And for some women, the answer is going to be yes, it will be worth it for them to go that route for a few years while they get through this phase, so that they can, like, continue to feel like themselves and get to the other side feeling pretty good.

Giacomo:

Right.

Dani:

So there are risks, like any medication or any treatment of hormone replacement therapy, slight increases in risks of cancer, which I wanted to clarify, because the original study said, like a 29% increase of risk of breast cancer. That does not mean you have a 29% chance of getting breast cancer. It means, and I don’t know the actual number, it means if on average, you had a 2% chance of getting breast cancer, it means now you would

have a 2.6% chance of getting breast cancer. So we always need to look at, like, really look at the numbers, because they can, you can make anything sound scary or not scary.

Giacomo:

Right, exactly.

Dani:

So to me personally, if I was in that situation, which I hope to not be when I get there, I hope that my lifestyle protects me from a lot of the things we’re talking about. But if I was dealing with some of these things, especially the mental health problems, that would absolutely be worth it for me. A woman is more likely to be prescribed an antidepressant for their menopause symptoms than they are to be prescribed hormone replacement therapy.

And that is messed up because it probably would have righted the ship quite a bit. Right, you know, yeah, I hear you. It’s very, very interesting stuff. And as just like a side anecdote, because I have endometriosis, which is an entirely different topic entirely. The treatment for me for the last 15 years, almost 20 years now, actually has been a form of hormone replacement therapy.

Actually a larger dose than you would need for menopause, significantly larger dose than you would need for menopause. But has it increased risks of certain things? Yes, it has. It has also absolutely saved my life. And that is a podcast that we have coming up is all about that. But I think that’s an avenue that people could explore if they’re really suffering with symptoms of menopause, is talking to their doctor about hormone replacement therapy.

I mean, sometimes it’s a pill, sometimes it’s a patch, sometimes it’s a cream. Sometimes there’s non hormonal ways of doing a. You should try all the non hormonal stuff first. And I feel that way about most things. Try all the lifestyle stuff before you even consider going a medication route. And that’s diet, exercise, your sleep, hygiene, managing your stress, all of the boring ass stuff that we talk about on this podcast every single week.

But it can make a difference. When it comes to menopause, the biggest thing that I would say is different than what we talk about every week is to specifically focus on protein and fiber to help mitigate physiological changes to the way that you metabolize glucose. So I am rapidly losing giacomo here. I hope everybody watching the video is seeing what happens to me every single night of my life while I’m talking to him, he literally nods off while we are talking.

It is a real treat. I wanna hear from you guys. I wanna hear how has menopause affected your life? How are you feeling going into it? Like, how are you feeling about having to approach that someday? Are you in the middle of it right now? Is it behind you? If it is behind you, how do you look back on it now? The YouTube video I’m making, which may or may not be out already, I don’t know. If it’s not out, then it’s coming out tomorrow.

I guess that it’s going to be how other cultures view menopause differently than we do and how that may very well make a huge difference. So, although most of the stuff that we talked about today is not positive, like, just factually it’s not positive, right. An increased risk of cardiovascular disease. There’s no way for me to spin that to you. Like, it’s good news.

Giacomo:

No, there’s not a single thing about any of this as positive, other than the fact that what you can do is get ahead of it as best as you can.

Dani:

It is an entire new chapter of life for women. And to live with a menstrual cycle for 40 years and then suddenly not have to deal with that anymore, that part of it sounds like ultimate freedom. I could imagine, again, as somebody with endometriosis, I no longer have a cycle because it was so brutal. But I’m not alone.

Like, there are a lot of women who. Their period ruins their life. It sucks up 25% of their life spent in bed, on the toilet, nauseous, fainting, not going to the gym, calling into work, not going to school. That’s 25% of your life, and then to suddenly be over that hill and have that time back.

Giacomo:

Major.

Dani:

And I imagine with all the hormone changes, there’s like psychological changes that happen, too. We see a lot of women reaching a certain age and just not giving a shit anymore and just saying exactly what they think. I think that’s pretty awesome.

They’re no longer interested in the male gaze. Nobody can ever say, oh, are you on your period ever again? So, you know, I think there are positives to it. And my whole life, I’ve always said I’m looking forward to menopause. You’ve heard me say it.

Giacomo:

Yeah.

Dani:

Because the thought of never having to worry about endometrial symptoms ever again sounds like heaven to me. I feel a little differently about it now after this research, but I still do think that there are some positives.

Giacomo:

Did you think it would be easier to build muscle after menopause before going through the research? I did, because I did as well, and I feel pretty foolish, which is why I was afraid to say it, but might as well.

Dani:

But I think I figured out why. So why did I think it would be easier to build muscle besides your estrogen going down? No. Yeah, besides that. Because when I see older women in the gym or on the bodybuilding stage, they are beasts. They are so muscular, they are so dense, they are so dry. Meaning like the skin is like tight to their body. Like, I’ve always been afraid of reaching master’s age in bodybuilding because those women are going to be tough to beat.

Giacomo:

Yes.

Dani:

So I just assumed it would be easier instead. Now, after this research, I believe that those women are living proof that life does not end at 51. That if you have those healthy habits and that healthy lifestyle, you can continue to thrive well into old age.

Giacomo:

Right.

Dani:

So I kind of have a newfound respect for those women. Because it didn’t just magically get easier for them.

Giacomo:

No, you continue to be an outlier. You continue to defy the odds, and the statistics do not apply to you the way they would most people because the statistics are pretty easy to compile. Because if most people don’t do things, take control of their health, obviously you’re going to see all these deleterious side effects and all these negatives and they will seem magnified.

Dani:

Ten point word.

Giacomo:

You’ll, I don’t know which one did.

Dani:

Deleterious.

Giacomo:

Thanks. You’ll feel like, fearful of all this stuff as well because it is pretty jarring and in your face like, wow, this is a battle that is going to be hard to fight. But if you continue to be an outlier and the person, as in the person who takes care of themselves, which, let’s face it, the norm, the normal person does not take care of themselves, you may very well be

able to get through this more than gracefully or like some of these athletes that we see on stage in their masters years, absolutely crushing the competition at all ages.

Dani:

I do want to talk about the flip side, though. What if you have not had a particularly healthy lifestyle, careful to diet, paying attention to your drinking, getting good sleep, and now you’re there and, like, you are starting behind? Like, I don’t want to discount the fact that if you’re in that position, it is an uphill battle. I don’t want to make it sound like we’re saying, oh, well, if you just do this, it’ll be easy, because I don’t think any of this stuff is easy.

Giacomo:

It’s still worth doing.

Dani:

Even just adopting a healthy lifestyle is not easy, is worth doing. But, you know, if you’re starting behind the eight ball, I do still think, and I’ve seen it with my eyes, you can make great progress after menopause, during menopause, with the right kind of plan, with the right kind of support, with the right kind of attitude, with the right knowledge, you can do it. It will be harder.

Giacomo:

Right.

Dani:

That’s. That’s just. That’s just the facts, but you can do it.

Giacomo:

Yeah.

Dani:

So, anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this episode. I apologize to Giacomo for absolutely dominating that conversation.

Giacomo:

Okay. It makes sense.

Dani:

It makes sense just for this particular time. I mean, honestly, when we talk about. I said to him before he recorded this, I was like, imagine if your testicles just straight up stopped working.

Giacomo:

Imagine if we did a conversation like this about menopause and the man in the conversation took over the entire conversation. Would you listen? Probably not.

Dani:

So that’s not stopping a lot of men from talking about a lot of things.

Giacomo:

Even if I sat here and I had all the knowledge in the world about this or I was just as. As well researched as was, I think it would be a really messed up move for me to be the one doing most of the talking.

Dani:

Well, even I feel a little bit strange because I have not experienced menopause yet, and here I am talking about it and saying how easy it’ll be to just adopt this healthy lifestyle. And that’s not the message I’m trying to get across.

Giacomo:

But this is something we’re going to get deeper and deeper into over here because it’s really important. And honestly, when you look at what is out there, there really is not a lot of support for women going through menopause, including on our side over here in the fitness world.

Not a lot of support, not a lot of knowledge. So you’re going to see us digging further and further into this body of research, and we’re going to put a lot of information out there on it in hopes of helping a lot of people. So do stay tuned because this is just the beginning.

Dani:

We do have a couple of other hormone episodes coming out this month. We are going to be doing an episode, I’ll give you a little teaser. We’re going to be doing an episode on birth control because I feel like that is another major thing that folks in our circle deal with and have a lot of questions about and also steroids.

There’s this, like, kind of argument out there that possibly enhanced bodybuilding is healthier than natural bodybuilding, and that is a conversation we want to have.

Giacomo:

All right, everybody, thanks so much for tuning into another episode of the vegan proteins, muscles by Brussels radio. Please stay in touch with us at veganproteins and muscles by Brussels on socials. Be sure to hit the contact button on vegan proteins and you will get a response from one of us real fast.

Dani:

Once again, my name is Giacomo and I’m Dani.

Giacomo:

Talk to you soon.