In today’s episode, we’re diving deep into the intricate world of mineral balance and its pivotal role in women’s health. I explore how factors like diet, stress, and lifestyle impact our body’s crucial “spark plugs” (minerals) which in turn affect our digestion, hormones, and overall well-being. I also share simple, sustainable lifestyle changes that can make a significant difference in your health journey, including tips on managing stress, organizing daily activities, and eating intentionally to support mineral and hormone health.
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Amanda Montalvo [00:00:01]:
Welcome to the Are You Menstrual podcast, where we dive deep into all things women’s health to support you on your healing journey. I’m Amanda Montalvo, functional and integrative dietitian, also known as the Hormone healing Rd. If you enjoyed this podcast and you want to keep learning, check out the podcast Patreon, where I share a bonus episode with additional downloadable resources. Each week. You can go to patreon.com, hormonehealingrdez or check out the link in the show notes. All right, in this episode, I want to talk about how to get started supporting your minerals. I have so many episodes on minerals. I’ve done a lot of mineral deep dives, which are really fun.
Amanda Montalvo [00:00:43]:
I love nerding out. I know a lot of you do, too. I’ve done some cool case studies on hair testing in other labs, but I think that minerals have just gotten so popular now, and the more that I talk about them, the more that other people talk about them. I just think there’s, there’s so much being missed when it comes to like, how do you really support your minerals? The most common question I get is when I talk about how important minerals are, is, well, what supplement should I take? Like, what’s your favorite mineral supplement? It’s usually like adding something in which I don’t think is bad. I use supplements myself. We use them with our clients. I recommend them inside my masterminerals course. I and not again, supplementation.
Amanda Montalvo [00:01:25]:
I just think a lot of us are like running to, doing testing, taking supplements, sometimes not even testing, just taking supplements. And it’s not actually going to move the needle for your health in the long run. And so today, what I thought I would talk about is more of how do our minerals get out of balance, and then how can we support them on a foundational level. So, like, instead of continuing to deplete them, how can we stop that depletion and start replenishing before we even do any testing or supplementation? And the reason why I want to talk about this is because this is what helps set your foundation. I’m always talking about, you have to have a solid foundation when it comes to the healing journey, whether you’re going to work one on one, go through my course, go through someone else’s course, you’re going to get way more out of it if you have a good foundation when it comes to your daily habits, how you live, how you eat, how you are in the world. And so that’s really what I want to dig in today is how can we support our minerals long term. How do we get started supporting our minerals? And if you’re brand new and you’re like, what the heck are minerals, Amanda? They are, they’re like little spark plugs that help kick off reactions in the body. They’re helpers.
Amanda Montalvo [00:02:42]:
So all these big important systems and functions that occur require different minerals in order for them to happen properly. So a lot of the times, maybe we have a lot of stress. Maybe there’s, maybe it’s something with, like, our inherited health. We’re not eating enough, we’re not getting enough nutrient dense foods and things like that. And that is impacting our mineral status. That will then impact the different systems of the body, which I mean literally everything. Digestion, detoxification, hormone production, both sex hormones and stress hormones and things like insulin for blood sugar balance, so many different things, they’ll all be impacted by that decrease or imbalance in minerals. And then that’s when symptoms pop up.
Amanda Montalvo [00:03:25]:
So typically we’re going to see changes in minerals, like on a hair test. Way before we’d see changes in our blood work. So whenever symptoms are present, I’m like, okay, things have been out of bounds for a little bit, and that’s okay. Symptoms are the way that our bodies are communicating with us. That’s we want to have some symptoms. I think this whole, like, not wanting to have anything, I’m like, that’s just your body talking to you. Yes. Like, do we want to address them and pay attention? Absolutely.
Amanda Montalvo [00:03:51]:
But, you know, we don’t need to obsess and we don’t need to. The goal should never be like, I want no symptoms, ever. Cause then it’s like, you may not be connected to your body, but basically the minerals are what help kick off the different reactions. That’s why I feel they’re so foundational. But when it comes, it’s not just like, okay, I’m going to take minerals and then that’s going to give me a solid foundation. It’s more of how can I prevent the constant depletion of my minerals in order to actually replenish them. Taking supplements can be helpful, like, or increasing a certain food, for example, that is higher. Like, maybe you did some testing, or like, man, my calcium is really low.
Amanda Montalvo [00:04:26]:
So maybe you’re going to increase calcium rich foods, and then you’re also going to utilize something like eggshell powder. That’s great. But if you have not addressed your stress and the reasons why that depletion has happened in the first place, it’s really hard to truly replenish them. So let’s dig into how minerals get out of balance in the first place and then we’ll talk about like how can we support these long term, like where should we be getting started? So our minerals get out of balance from our inherited health, which, you know, we’re inheriting our nutrition health status at birth from our parents, especially our moms, but also our dads, which I feel like doesn’t get enough recognition. But dad’s health is also very important and that means that we’re going to inherit their nutrient deficiencies as well. So it’s not, you know, sometimes I feel like we’re so hard on ourselves and I’m like, I mean you can’t really control it. And then your mom was probably doing, your parents were doing the best they could do, you’re doing the best you can do for your children, but ultimately that is a part of it. Our inherited health has a big impact on our nutritional status, especially when we’re young.
Amanda Montalvo [00:05:33]:
And the other big piece is not having enough nutrient dense foods. So this could come from like a few different things. It could be a very common one that I see is like chronic dieting. And this could, it’s not, this is not just related to body image or wanting weight loss. I see a lot of people on restrictive diets for way too long when they have a long history of chronic health concerns. So that could be another big part of it. Obviously, under eating can have is a huge stressor and you’re not getting enough food in, but you’re also adding stress to the body. Be eating a lot of processed foods that aren’t as nutrient dense.
Amanda Montalvo [00:06:07]:
We also have pretty depleted soil now, unfortunately. So that changes the amount that we’re getting from our food and then not having access to those foods. Depending on where you live or what your income level is like, of course that could potentially lead to a lack of nutrient dense foods. So those are some of the big things when it comes to like, not getting those nutrients in through your diethyde. Another big one is stress. We live in a very fast paced world and a lot of people have been dealing with stress from a really young age and they’re just depleted, they don’t have the resources left. I know we have so many clients that have been in fight or flight basically since they were born. And that of course is going to deplete your mineral resources.
Amanda Montalvo [00:06:51]:
Supplements are another one. Again, I’m not against supplements, but minerals are synergistic and antagonistic, which means they can work together and they can also work against each other other and oppose each other. And supplementing with minerals alone can lead to depletions in other minerals. So, you know, like, if you are taking a lot of zinc, that could deplete copper, which could then deplete iron, because iron needs copper in order to be used properly in the body. If you’re say you’re taking a calcium supplement, I see this one a lot, especially in, like, my menopausal clients, wherever I, they’re taking a calcium supplement because they’re worried about their bone health, and that’s what their doctor told them to do. And then, but they’re not taking magnesium with it. And so then that ends up depleting their magnesium, which is probably already depleted, to be honest, because that obviously is going to get depleted over time from stress. So different things like that can lead to different imbalances and depletions of minerals.
Amanda Montalvo [00:07:47]:
So being mindful of any supplements you’re taking, hormonal birth control can lead to pretty big imbalances in copper, iron, and those can also impact calcium levels. So that’s another one. And then the other kind of last big one is inflammation and insulin resistance. Inflammation uses up important minerals like zinc. I think that’s why a lot of people have zinc deficiencies, because they are so inflamed and it can create a stress response in the body. And then insulin resistance actually reduces how many minerals we can absorb into our cells. So if we have insulin resistance, that can definitely play a huge role in your ability to replenish your minerals as well. But that’s how they’re getting out of balance, typically.
Amanda Montalvo [00:08:30]:
So what can we do? What can we focus on in our day to day life? What do, what would I say? Like, okay, if someone’s like, I want to get started with supporting my minerals, what’s the first thing I should do? I would assess how you’re living. I’d really start to look at how are you living on a day to day basis, because this is going to impact our mineral status, our digestion, our sex and stress hormones, our blood sugar, literally every aspect of our health. And one of the best ways to start supporting our minerals is to start slowing down how quickly you’re burning through them, which is a huge part of that is minimizing stress. There’s a lot of different stress management strategies out there. I think you have to find what works for you. But I think what we forget is like, yes, maybe meditation helps you, and maybe that resonates to with, like, the rest of your day. But a lot of the times I see that people, maybe they have this one short practice that they do, but then the rest of the day is, like, completely chaotic. So things that you want to think about, like, are you constantly in a rush and do you have signs that you’re likely addicted to cortisol? And those are things like always having a to do list that’s like a mile long and probably unrealistic feeling.
Amanda Montalvo [00:09:40]:
Like, you always want to do high intensity exercise, relying on coffee and especially, like in coffee, on an empty stomach, rushing through your meals, or just never sitting down and eating your meals. If you’re constantly multitasking, like you’re working, but you have to be listening to something or you’re doing chores around the house and you’re doing 80 things at once, you’re working, you’re on your phone, you’re never just doing one thing. Constantly checking your phone. And phones are like, I want to do a whole separate podcast on phones and putting boundaries on your phones and how to use your phone in a supportive way for your health and not a detrimental way. But, you know, just having that habit of constantly wanting to check your phone, that’s a dopamine thing for sure. But it is also a high stress state. Having resistance to rest and relaxation. Like, you’re like, I just can’t.
Amanda Montalvo [00:10:28]:
I can’t just sit still. And then being obsessed with your health and constantly researching. We see this a lot, and it tends to lead to people, like, spiraling, going down rabbit holes and jumping, like, from protocol to protocol. And it’s just so. It’s so stressful. They never get. It’s stressful in their bodies because they never get a chance to see how. To see, like, something through and how it’s going to affect their health.
Amanda Montalvo [00:10:50]:
And then it’s also stressful on their brains because they’re constantly looking for this next thing. And then the other big one that I see a lot is when people don’t give themselves enough time to get somewhere. Like, they’re always in a rush, or if they’re just always in a rush, even though they don’t need to be, it’s kind of like, why are you rushing? We’re not. We’re on time. Like, we don’t have to drive extremely fast to get to this location just a few minutes earlier. Like, it’s okay. Things like that. Those are all signs.
Amanda Montalvo [00:11:17]:
Like, okay. There’s probably some addiction to stress, addiction to cortisol, which, again, is very common because we live in this high stress world. It’s very fast paced and actively slowing down on those things, paying attention. Like, can you take a break from multitasking? Can you try to do one thing at a time? Can you make a more realistic to do list? Like, are you doing too much in a day? And this can be a hard conversation with some people because it’s kind of like, well, I have to do all these things. I don’t have an option, but how are you doing them? Do you plan ahead to give yourself enough time between things? Are you organized in a way that’s going to make them less stressful? Sometimes we can’t avoid, you know, we can’t take things off of our plate, and I totally understand that. But I think how we do it says a lot about, like the kind of, are we coming from a stress state or a not stressed state? And just actually looking at am I living in a very chaotic, high stress way? Am I always on my phone? Could I put boundaries up? And it just, it takes time. You don’t ever change all these at once, but just picking like one or two things and starting to think about how could I shift how I’m living a little bit and then paying attention to how you feel. How do you feel from like a foundational level? Do you feel more grounded and less stressed? Are you sleeping better? Are you reaching for your phone less? When we start to make changes in how we’re living, it’ll go off and impact all the different areas of our life, our relationships, our health, everything.
Amanda Montalvo [00:12:38]:
So daily life is a really important place to start because again, you could eat perfectly, you could take all the supplements. But if you are a complete stress case and you’re living in a way that’s not sustainable, you’re never going to improve your health. The other area I like to talk about is being intentional with nutrition. So there’s a few different ways this is going to impact our mineral status. Number one is, are you eating enough? If we’re under eating, of course we’re going to get less nutrient dense foods in, but we’re also going to be more stressed and that’s going to deplete our minerals more. I really. Are you eating breakfast? I mean, that’s a really great way to support not only your mineral status, but like sex and stress hormones. It supports your circadian rhythm.
Amanda Montalvo [00:13:20]:
It’s going to avoid making too much cortisol, which is going to deplete minerals and hormones. That’s like a really big one. Like, are you eating enough? Are you eating breakfast? Those are huge. And I have a podcast episode that I’ve done in the past that talks about like, hormone supportive nutrition that I’ll link to this one as well because I dig into all this stuff more. There are you eating nutrient dense foods? So trying to consume a variety of animals and plants, I think it’s very important to have both and making sure you are getting plenty of animal foods, having those at every meal and snack, basically it should be priority. And things like organ meats are great. The amount that someone’s going to need is going to vary. Some people might take an organ supplement daily, like a small amount.
Amanda Montalvo [00:14:03]:
Some people may eat organ meats once a week, once a month. It just kind of depends on the person and what they need. But even incorporating them just a small amount can be very helpful. But I think we get kind of lost in like, I get a lot of questions around, like how much calcium should I eat a day? How much potassium should I eat a day? And sometimes it can be helpful to focus on exactly how much you’re getting in so that you can improve certain minerals. But I would say like a lot of the times I’m like, are you eating enough food? And are you getting a mix of animals and plants in? You’re probably like, that matters as well. And like, are you digesting and absorbing those foods? That’s huge. And the stress piece, like, you could eat as much of that mineral as you want, but it’s not going to improve your potassium on your hair test if you’re super duper stressed. Same thing with calcium and things like that.
Amanda Montalvo [00:14:52]:
I hope that you’re enjoying this episode. I wanted to take a quick break to offer you a discount code for my replenishment. Your minerals course. So if you are listening to this and you’re like, I need to work on all these things. I want to start working on replenishing my minerals rather than depleting them. And you would like a step by step guide to teach you how to do that. That’s what I do inside my mini course called replenish your minerals. It’s six weeks of small changes that add up hugely over time.
Amanda Montalvo [00:15:21]:
And it’s very simple, but it goes through all the topics I’m talking about in this podcast episode, as well as circadian rhythm. And I dive deeper into things like digestion, blood sugar, all that sort of thing. So if you want a six week guide to take you through this process, you can use the code podcast at checkout when you go to the link in the show notes for the replenish your minerals course and the last big way is, are you eating in a way that supports blood sugar? And this is one that I feel like doesn’t really get enough attention when it comes to, like, people talking about like, oh, minerals are so important, like, how to support your minerals. When it comes to our blood sugar, it is a huge impact on our mineral status. Number one, when we have highs and lows in our blood sugar, it’s an added stressor on the body, especially low blood sugar. And when our blood sugar drops, our bodies release cortisol in order to break down the sugar from our liver and make sure that we’re having normal levels of sugar back in the blood. So we see this a lot in those that have high fasting blood sugar, especially in the, like, in the morning when they’re first waking up. How can someone’s blood sugar be high if they haven’t eaten anything? And it’s because it likely dropped too low overnight.
Amanda Montalvo [00:16:30]:
So then they released cortisol to get the sugar from the liver so that their body can stay alive, because that’s our body’s ultimate goal, is survival. And this raises their blood glucose levels and some that’s going to lead to elevated levels in their body if they’re excessively stressed and possibly insulin resistant. So low blood sugar is a stressor on the body. It’s gonna release cortisol, which is gonna use up mineral resources. And then high blood sugar is also a stressor on the body. So high blood sugar can lead to more inflammation, and that can eventually, and that will also eventually lead to a low blood sugar, especially if someone’s insulin resistant. What is insulin resistance? It’s a condition when the body cells become less responsive to the effects of insulin, which is a hormone that is really important for regulating our blood sugar levels, it helps get glucose inside the cell. So it’s made by our pancreas, and it helps take up that glucose from our bloodstream, get it inside the cell, use it for energy.
Amanda Montalvo [00:17:29]:
And when cells become resistant to insulin, then glucose is less effectively absorbed. It’s hanging out in the system where it shouldn’t be, and it leads to an increased release of insulin to try to get the glucose inside the cell. This is eventually going to lead to inflammation. So inflammation is going to use up zinc, like I mentioned before, it’s going to, which is also going to use up magnesium and sodium and potassium. Minerals are very synergistic in that way. And if we have a lot of inflammation and insulin resistance, we have a harder time getting minerals inside the cell. So not only does it use them up, but we have a hard time getting them in and actually using them. So when it comes to, okay, well, what can I do to support my blood sugar again? I have that episode that I’m going to link because I’ve talked about a lot of this stuff before, but I’m also going to go through it quickly.
Amanda Montalvo [00:18:21]:
If you’re someone that is new here and you’re just wanting some quick tips on, like, what are some simple ways that I can start supporting my blood sugar? One of them is trying to eat protein rich foods first. When we combine protein, fat and carbs in a meal, this automatically slows down how quickly we’re going to absorb those carbohydrates and raise our blood sugar. So it’s a, that alone is helpful. You can take it a step further and try eating that protein rich food first, rather than eating the carbohydrate rich food first. And that can lead to a smaller increase in our blood sugar overall, which means we’re not going to have a big dip after the meal. So this just helps take a load off the amount of insulin that your body needs for that meal. So it’s, it’s easy. It’s not, it doesn’t, you don’t have to, like, necessarily change what you’re eating.
Amanda Montalvo [00:19:07]:
It’s more just how you’re eating it. One thing I do want to note is when it comes to protein, certain proteins are more dense than others. Like, they’re going to fill us up more and, you know, they can contain more calories than others, so. And they’re all going to vary with the amount of fat they have. So, for example, I see some clients will have, like, milk and fruit for a snack, and they may do really well. Like, they have stable energy, mood, we’re not concerned. While others, they require a more dense protein source, like something like greek yogurt and fruit. Like, maybe that milk is not enough protein for them.
Amanda Montalvo [00:19:41]:
Similarly, like bone broth, I see a lot. Like, some people drink bone broth with a snack and that’s plenty of protein for them. But others are like, no, I need, like, a beef stick, or I notice a shift, like, I’m hungry soon after, or I don’t have as much energy, things like that. So if you’re eating protein rich foods first, but you’re still having signs of, like, blood sugar imbalance, then you might want to experiment with the type of protein you’re eating. And then, like I talked about eating a protein rich breakfast, eating breakfast soon after waking, and then making sure that has plenty of protein in it. This is a great way to support your blood sugar for the whole entire day. We have clients do this and they’re like, wow, I feel so much better. I do not have as strong of cravings.
Amanda Montalvo [00:20:24]:
My energy is so much better later in the day. I cannot believe it was just as simple as eating more protein at breakfast. So I like to have people at least eat at least 30 grams of protein in the morning. So this could be like three eggs and a third cup of cottage cheese. It could be two eggs and a couple ounces of leftover protein like from dinner. Or maybe like, like a chicken sausage or something. Or it could be something like breakfast hash. If you’re not an egg person or need to switch up the eggs using like at least 4oz of a protein source from something like ground beef.
Amanda Montalvo [00:20:57]:
If you don’t have an appetite in the morning, then that’s a sign that you are probably compensating and running on stress hormones. Don’t beat yourself up because it’s very common. We see it all the time. Start with something small and like slowly work your way up to a full breakfast. We see this a lot in our clients and typically they’ll start with like yogurt and fruit and that like a, like a small amount, and then eventually they’ll be like hungry for a full breakfast. It can just take like sometimes a couple months for people, but it can happen. We know that not everyone wakes up super hungry, but that’s actually not the best sign when it comes to your health and hormones. The other thing I like to recommend is to eat dense meals rather than snacky meals.
Amanda Montalvo [00:21:43]:
So for example, like the yogurt and fruit that we often recommend, if someone has a hard time eating first thing in the morning, that would be like a smaller, not as dense meal versus something like eggs and chicken, sausage and potatoes for breakfast, or like fruit. So our main meals need to be larger than snacks in order to keep our blood sugar stable throughout the day. Otherwise, you’re going to find yourself hungry every couple of hours, one or 2 hours, and that’s just like you’re on a blood sugar roller coaster. So try to aim for a good, dense animal protein at all your meals and snacks. You can have like kind of variant, figure out what works for you. But muscle meats remain meals for sure. So things like chicken, pork, beef, fish, things like that, that’s going to mean that meal is going to provide you with way more nutrients, break down a lot slower, and help maintain healthy blood sugar levels. All those foods are, animal foods are just so rich in minerals as well.
Amanda Montalvo [00:22:39]:
They’re a really great source of minerals. The other kind of last big thing I like to mention for blood sugar is trying to understand how your body responds to carbs. Every person’s different, and honestly, for women, it often varies throughout your cycle. When you start to really eat in a way, like, get to know yourself and understand, like, how to nourish your body and pay attention to how things shift for you throughout your cycle, you can start to see that. I don’t think we all need to start there. I think the biggest thing is trying to eat enough food and trying to understand, like, how much protein do I need at each meal to feel satiated, keep my blood sugar stable, maintain muscle mass, support thyroid, all those things. Protein is so important. And then how many carbs do I need to have energy, produce enough progesterone? Like, you want to have a healthy luteal phase.
Amanda Montalvo [00:23:30]:
Carbs also are important for your thyroid. So it’s like this balance where you don’t want, you want enough to support all the systems in your body, but you don’t want so much that you end up with blood sugar imbalances, needing more insulin released and potentially leading to a little bit of insulin resistance. So trying to reflect on your hunger, your energy, your digestion and your mood before and after meals is a really helpful way of determining, like, what’s a good amount for you. So, for example, like, if maybe, like, I like to have people start with breakfast. Obviously you want to have plenty of protein, like I talked about, but trying to experiment, like, okay, do you, what if you have, like, a specific portion of fruit? Like one piece of seasonal fruit? How do you feel when you do that? Are you hungry soon after? Do you make it all the way to lunch? Do you need a snack in between? Do you have any headaches or energy dips in between meals? Pay attention to that. If you’re eating plenty of protein, then, you know, okay, I’m going to adjust the carb amount. Same thing with, like, lunch and dinner. I like for people to have plenty of carbs with lunch.
Amanda Montalvo [00:24:32]:
I find that’s like a really important meal to get enough carbohydrates. It’s going to be important for avoiding that big energy dip and, like, all the cravings mid afternoon and making sure that you get, like, good sleep that night. So, you know, usually it’s like, moderate. What I tend to see in clients is not always like this. Moderate amounts of carbs in the morning. Some people do better with a little bit less in the morning, a little bit more. You have to experiment a decent amount at lunch. Like maybe that meal is more protein and carb, not as heavy and fat, and then a moderate amount or a low amount at dinner.
Amanda Montalvo [00:25:04]:
It just kind of depends on the person stage of life. Are they pregnant? Are they nursing? Are they perimenopausal or post menopausal? You know, how active are you? That’s another really big thing. Like, if you are more active, you’ll probably need more carbs in order to feel good, have healthy hormone levels, have good libido energy, good mood, all those things. If you are not as active, you’re likely going to need less carbohydrates. But again, it’s going to depend. We have a lot of histamine clients, mast cell clients, that they need plenty of carbs, whether they’re active or not. So this is where experimentation comes in. And I talk a little bit more about this in that podcast episode as well.
Amanda Montalvo [00:25:40]:
So that’s where. So we’ve talked about the stress piece, how you’re living. That’s huge. You’re going to be depleting minerals that way. We talked about eating nutrient dense foods, making sure you’re eating enough, eating breakfast, and then supporting blood sugar, so that again, you can, you’re getting those minerals from food, but you’re also using them well and not depleting them. The next big area is supporting digestion. So trying to slow down at meals so your body can actually digest your food. If you’re in fight or flight, digestion is not prioritized.
Amanda Montalvo [00:26:07]:
So like standing, eating up, eating while driving or doing other things, eating while working, that sort of thing. It is not great for digestion. It puts your nervous system in the stress state. So if you can, try to prioritize most meals sitting down. I like to look at meals as a break. This is a required break for myself every a few times a day that I have to take in order to nourish my body. And if you cannot sit down for three meals, I think that I would really focus on. The first thing is evaluating how you’re living, because that’s probably going to make the biggest difference for you.
Amanda Montalvo [00:26:43]:
If digestion and metabolism are compromised, maybe you feel like, maybe you have constipation, maybe you’re bloating, maybe you have a thyroid issue. You feel like you don’t really digest your food well, then that’s when using something like apple cider vinegar or digestive bitters could be very helpful. And I do talk about this more. I have an episode on how to have healthy digestion, so you can listen to that one if you want more info on that, like who they can be a good fit for, but I think it doesn’t hurt to experiment, so see what works for you. But I think if you are, if you’re not slowing down at your meals, I would say I wouldn’t try the digestive support first. I would try to fix that habit first, because then you’re going to get way more benefits from the digestive support. And I know I’ll get questions on enzymes. I’m not against digestive enzymes.
Amanda Montalvo [00:27:28]:
They just aren’t going to stimulate your own digestive juices. So I do use them with certain clients in the short term. But if you want to actually improve your own digestion, then using things like the vinegar and the digestive bitters is a little bit more helpful. The other big thing is being particular with supplement supplements. So trying to avoid like, generalized supplement recommendations for. Honestly, I would say everything. I think that with this, like, influencer culture online, and I’m like, I don’t think I’m an influencer. I don’t share a lot of products.
Amanda Montalvo [00:28:00]:
I’m just, I’m not good at affiliate codes. I feel like I’m like the worst. If I’m considered an influencer, I’m probably the worst influencer. I look at myself as more of like an educator, especially because not everyone needs every supplement or every product. So I’m like, I never want people to feel like, oh, you have to buy this, because I like it, because it’s like, it may not help you, and then you’re wasting your money. So I feel like people online, there’s this big influencer culture. We see supplements, we’re like, oh, this person took it for this. And it really helped them with XYZ health concern.
Amanda Montalvo [00:28:35]:
But we don’t know why it helped them. They may have this whole other part of their health history that we don’t know because they don’t have to share that with us online. I think they should share as much as they can if they’re recommending a product, but ultimately, it may not work for you, and it could be something that’s actually going to hinder your progress in your health more than anything, even. And it’s not just influencers. Doctors, unfortunately, make a lot of generalized, oh, you’re tired, take iron without even testing your levels. And I just think that’s incredibly irresponsible. Same thing with vitamin D. If your vitamin D low is low.
Amanda Montalvo [00:29:12]:
It’s a symptom. It’s a symptom of a bigger piece of inflammation in your body. It’s nothing. And it could even be nutrient deficiency. That’s not vitamin D. So I have an episode called supplements that can cause more harm than good. I’ll link that in the show notes, but that’s one to definitely consider. Listening to.
Amanda Montalvo [00:29:29]:
Focusing on foods first, your stress hydration. All those things are going to be way more important for supporting your minerals and nutrient status than taking a random supplement that you’re not sure is a good fit for you. Ideally, we’re testing and we’re not guessing so that we know that this supplement is necessary and appropriate. The last thing that I want to mention is to make changes slowly. So try taking on one new habit or lifestyle change at a time. It is incredibly undervalued in our society, which is really sad, but it’s truly the best way to avoid stressing out your body and to get quick wins. Like, we see people make way more progress when they change one thing at a time. Like they feel better, they get symptom relief versus them being like, okay, I implemented everything that you told me to do for the next three months in two weeks and I got this and this, this symptom popped up.
Amanda Montalvo [00:30:24]:
I don’t feel better and it’s typically because I did it all too fast. So doing one thing at a time and paying attention how you feel celebrating those little tiny wins and shifts is so important. Those quick wins, they help our brains with motivation and they make it so that it’s way easier to make more changes that are going to support your health in the future. So just never underestimate the power of working on one new habit, one mindset, shift, or lifestyle change at a time. I think it’s easily the most undervalued thing in our culture and something that can really help people move the needle and make you less stressed. You know, if you have like a million things you’re trying to do every day for your health and it’s stressing you out, none of it’s going to help. And the last thing I do want to answer, because I know I’ll get this question is, how do I know if I should test my minerals? If you’re not, say you’re making these changes, say, over the next like couple months, you’re like, you know, I’ve really worked on my, how I’m living in my stress, I’ve slowed down at meals, I’m getting a mix of animal and plant foods. And I’m eating in a way that supports my blood sugar and I am not seeing progress.
Amanda Montalvo [00:31:35]:
Or maybe you’ve seen some success, but you’re like hitting a wall and you’re, and deep down you’re like, I feel like something is missing. That’s when I would say it could definitely be beneficial to test your minerals. That way you can see exactly what’s going on. Is there any strategic supplementation that would be appropriate and supportive for you because you already have the foundations in place? And then I would encourage you, but I would encourage you to try to implement everything else first so that you can see if you truly have that solid foundation before, just like testing, adding supplements, doing a protocol. I do also think it’s really helpful to do hair testing before you try to conceive during pregnancy and postpartum because it’s going to let you see what your needs are supplement wise, food wise. And then it’s a great way to support mental and physical health in those seasons as well. So I do think in that season of life, perimenopause, post menopause, like that, obviously test if you’re wanting. Basically, if you’re like, I have the capacity to make changes, to add supplements in, to add lifestyle habits in or specific foods, and I’m going to be able to make a change based off the test results.
Amanda Montalvo [00:32:42]:
If you’re super stressed, not doing anything I talked about in this episode, then I would not add a test that you then have to like, take action on because it’s probably just going to add to your stress. And again, you can take supplements, you can eat perfectly, but if you’re living in a way where you’re constantly burning through your minerals, it’s really hard to see progress. So I hope this episode was helpful. I hope it gives you some insight, some encouragement that it can be really simple. When you first start supporting your minerals, it is hard to change how you live. It’s hard to change your habits, and it does take some experimentation from unlike a lifestyle, nutrition level, mindset level, all those things. But that is really where I find true healing begins. So I hope this encourages you.
Amanda Montalvo [00:33:29]:
Let me know what your favorite part of this episode was. Please reach out to me at hormone Healingrd on Instagram and I’ll see you in the next episode. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Are You Menstrual podcast. If you want to support my work, please leave a review and let me know how you like the episode. This lets me know, like, what you guys want more of, less of. I read every single one and I appreciate them more than you know. If you want to keep learning you, you can get access to the bonus episode and additional resources on patreon.com hormonehealingrd id love to have you in there. Thanks again and I will see you in the next episode.
