Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello and welcome to today's episode of the Intuitive Femme Network. Today we have special guest Hope Pedraza, and she's going to be teaching us all about minerals, hormones, and human design and the beautiful way they connect. So stay tuned.
All right.
All right, Hope, tell us about yourself.
[00:00:33] Speaker B: Hi. Thanks for having me, Nancy. I'm super excited to be able to have this conversation with your listeners. So I am a functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner, which I know is a mouthful, but essentially it means I use functional labs to help people get to the root cause of chronic symptoms. And the way that I do my work is very holistic. And I know holistic is somewhat of a fluffy buzzword that I honestly don't like using, but there's really no other way to describe what I do because, yes, I'm doing the labs and I'm getting like the phys physical pieces and what's actually going on your physical body. But then when I talk about root cause, I am of the belief that the root cause, there's always an energetic, emotional root cause of what's happening on the physical body. And so I'm getting deeper than, you know, what the labs are showing, and I'm doing the energetic emotional work. So I use modalities, I use human design. So helping people understand kind of their energetic blueprint, their energetic makeup and how their energy moves in their body. And then also use tools like NLP and clinical hypnosis to really get to those subconscious layers and kind of work on that deconditioning to help break through the patterns that are perpetuating these physical symptoms that are showing up.
[00:01:35] Speaker A: That sounds amazing. I too, utilize nlp, the work that I do, and it's such a powerful process. And it's honestly, like super simple when you break it all down. Yeah, it's a pretty simple concept, but it's super effective. Personally, I have been so interested in functional medicine because I do feel like as practitioners, a lot of times there's just not a lot of time that is available for medical professionals and medical practitioners to really get the opportunity to spend a lot of time with their patients. And therefore, things can get missed. Right. And I feel like functional doctors, forgive me if I'm incorrect on this, but I feel like functional practitioners are a lot more like detectives almost exactly it little clues and piecing everything together and trying to figure out, like, what is this complete picture look like. So, yeah, the holistic aspect definitely applies, I feel like, for functional practitioners. But also you're. It sounds like you're bringing a whole nother level into that process. So it's like holistic times too.
[00:02:47] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. It's, it's, yeah, double, double the fun. And yeah, you're right. I mean it is like health detectives. And I love a good puzzle. So just like putting the puzzle pieces together and for me it's like, okay, the physical body in the middle and it's all the, the different bodies and putting all of those pieces together.
[00:03:02] Speaker A: Yeah. So what is it that you find most when you start working with someone? Like how do you start. Let's go with that. How does that begin?
[00:03:10] Speaker B: So I start with the physical pieces. So the lab work is the thing that I always start with. And there's three foundational labs that I do with my clients that I recommend anyway. There's one lab that I'll do as a standalone lab and that's the hair tissue and mineral analysis or htma. And that's for mineral balancing. I have done hours and hours and hundreds of hours of training on mineral analysis. So I love to nerd out on the mineral. So that's the only one I offer as standalone. Otherwise it's that my three foundational labs. So I do the mineral balancing. The other one is the GI map, which is a poop test. It's not glamorous at all, but it gives a lot of really good data of what's going on in your gut. And then the third one I do is called a Dutch test and it's a dried urine test. You literally just pee on some paper. And it's a really comprehensive look at what's going on with your hormones, your sex hormones, your steroid hormones, your cortisol, cortisol pattern, how your body's toxifying. So all putting, getting, gathering all that data with those labs, then I can get a whole picture of what's going on in your physical body. Because you were talking about time earlier. And that's the thing that I love about the functional labs in, in having this physical piece is because also people listen to people. I work with high performing women. They're entrepreneurs or they're business owners or they're like, we don't want to waste time, I don't want to waste time guessing or wondering or trial and error. Like I'll try this thing, I'll try. So if you have the labs and you have now have empirical data, okay, this is exactly what's going on in my body. I don't to guess anymore. I can put a name to it and now I know what to address. So that's what we start with. So I start with the physical piece and then from there, once we identify what's going on in the physical body, then I can look at the energetic body. So I dive into someone's human design and we look at their body graph and seeing, you know, where defined versus undefined energy centers are and why these physical things are showing up. Let's look at your energy body and seeing where are the patterns, where's the conditioning that's causing these things in your adrenals or your gut or whatever it is. And then, and then it's just the deconditioning process. From there it's getting into the subconscious and understanding why those patterns are there and how we can kind of untangle and rewire things so that we can stop the pattern redirect. Right. And, and let the, but let that, that life force energy start to flow back into the body and heal the physical body. Yeah.
[00:05:19] Speaker A: Because I mean, let's be real, like the body naturally wants to be in a balanced state, like it naturally does. And so when it's not, there's something going on that is preventing that is, is what I feel and what I believe. Because anything, really, anything in universal law, right. It wants to find balance, it needs to find balance. It's like gravity or the law of attraction or any of those things. Like everything wants to just find its homeostasis. So I think that that's really amazing how you're able to look at all of those different aspects of things. Do you mind kind of going a little bit deeper into each one of them especially? I'm very interested in talking about the minerals and then also the hormones, because this is something I personally have been studying as a 38 year old woman who is in that beginning phase of perimenopause. Because it's starting as early as 35 now. Right. For some it's even earlier because of all the endocrine disruptors and all of the chemicals and all of this stuff that are severely impacting our homeostasis. Right. Our internal balance. And so I've been doing that research and I have been learning about how demineralized our soils have become. And so therefore, like the same apple that we eat has far less minerals than when our grandparents or great grandparents were eating these apples. And so can you tell us a little bit more about why that's a big deal and why that matters?
[00:06:51] Speaker B: Yeah, no, it's such a good question. The mineral piece, as I mentioned before, I can nerd out on minerals all day. I've done so many studies and certifications. This is the part that I'm really passionate about. And the reason being is because minerals are considered the spark plugs in the body. Literally everything happening in the body, every reaction has. Minerals are involved. Whether they're the catalyst for that reaction or they're a cofactor, they're involved somehow in every reaction in the body. So women come to me a lot of times and they're just like, fix my hormones, just fix my hormones. Well, that's fine. We can look at it. But. But the hormones aren't the problem. The hormones are just another side effect of something that's going on deeper under the surface. And if we really want to look at a foundational level, what's going on in your body, we start with the minerals. This is what's happened. This is what's going on at a cellular level is your minerals, these little reactions between minerals and relationships between minerals. So for me, that's the foundational piece. So I will never do any work with clients without doing that mineral mineral testing and mineral balancing first as a first step. And the mineral testing that I do, I love the test. It's for a lot of reasons. It's really inexpensive. A lot of functional labs can get a little pricey. So I know for people it's not always accessible, but for the HTML, the hair tissue mineral analysis, you can get it for less than 70 bucks. It's really inexpensive. And then you do want to find someone who knows how to analyze it because not everybody knows how to analyze it. But it's such, it's such a good, it provides such good data. And here's the difference you were mentioning before about conventional versus functional. When you can go to your doctor and get a blood lab, right? They can run blood labs and they can look at your minerals from a blood lab. But just like any blood lab, a blood lab is just, it's, it's a blip in time. It's what's going on right now. So I could do the same test tomorrow and it could say something different. And it's. Sometimes it's helpful, sometimes blood labs are helpful. But for a lot of things inter. If we're really talking about getting to the root cause, I honestly don't like a lot of blood labs. I want to, I want a better lab that's going to look at what's going on chronically and look kind of take a multi layer look at the body. So at the hair analysis that I run, you're literally sitting in some of your Hair. Hair as a tissue. And so it's going to look at what's going on chronically over time, how your minerals, what your minerals are doing in the body. So you're already getting a better look just because it's over this period of time. But then also it's going to be a little more accurate because we talk about minerals. Not to get too sciency here, but we're talking about minerals.
Some minerals are intracellular, meaning they're supposed to be in your cells. So if we're taking a blood lab, we're looking at the blood for those specific minerals. It's not really telling you what's in your cells. Clients come to me and they're like, oh yeah, my doctor said my potassium's really high. Like I need to cut back on. Well, no, potassium is intracellular. If it's high in a blood lab, that means it's bio unavailable. It means you can't use it. It means your body's deficient. We need to work it. So there's a lot of things that can be kind of be misinformation a little bit when we're looking at a blood lab versus tissue analysis of what's really going on with your minerals.
[00:09:39] Speaker A: Yeah. It honestly is making me think and I'm trying to make sure I remember the correct thing. But I think for a lot of us we might be more familiar with this idea of like testing like blood glucose in the moment. Like the A1C.
[00:09:52] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:09:53] Speaker A: Right. It's like the A1C is looking at like a long term because sometimes, yeah, we can check our blood glucose and it might be like pretty high or pretty low, but that's. It is in that moment and it's not really giving us an idea of like what the overall picture looks like. So that, that's kind of where my mind went with that. As someone who is not as educated as you are, but you know, I do like kind of dabble around and research certain things. So would you say that that's kind of a good.
[00:10:21] Speaker B: For sure? Yes, it's totally.
[00:10:26] Speaker A: That's so interesting. So all of those tests are going to be more about like tissue samples versus blood. Yeah.
[00:10:34] Speaker B: So the hair analysis is your hair, the GI map is your poop. So you're sitting in. It's a stool test. And then the Dutch test is a dried urine test. So you pee on some paper. And that's another one that, because I have a lot of my clients are like, oh, well, you know, can I just ask my doctor to run you Know, my hormone labs or, oh, I already did my labs with my doctor, you know, hormones, which is fine. Again, I'm happy to look at people's bloodlines and I can analyze people's blood labs and. But if I'm analyzing your blood labs, I'm also going to look through a different lens because the functional range for blood labs is going to be totally different than the conventional range for blood labs. And I think that's an important distinction because the conventional range, the way conventional ranges were made for conventional medicine, was based on average people that aren't necessarily healthy. But it's like. So when you're looking, it's like, well, you're not dead. Like that. That's what the range says. So it's like, yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. I don't want to just be not dead. I want to live optimally. So when you're looking at a functional range, this is the optimal range. Like, how do you, what do you want the numbers to be? To be optimal, to have optimal health? So there is a difference. So, yes, I'm happy to analyze blood labs, but with the, the Dutch test that I mentioned, the hormone test, it's going like 20 layers deeper than just the blood lab, because, yes, it'll measure your estrogen and your different metabolites of estrogen or different progesterones and androgens, testosterone, but it's, it's looking at how these things are interacting with each other. It's looking at how they're being metabolized in your body. So, like, it looks at your detox pathways. Like, how's your body detoxifying exercise, excess hormones? It's going to look at your cortisol and your cortisol pattern and how that's being converted. So it gives you a better look at overall functionality in the body and how the hormones are working versus just your hormone levels.
[00:12:17] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Because I, I do think with more conventional processes and practices, that too, is kind of like they're looking to diagnose something specifically. They're looking at, like a specific thing versus like, you just have a different goal. Right. I feel like everything has its place.
[00:12:37] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:12:37] Speaker A: And for certain things, like if someone's trying to diagnose a specific thing, then a conventional method very well might be more appropriate for them. But if someone's looking to try to figure out why do I feel imbalanced, why. Why do I keep having these chronic things going on, and we haven't been able to get that traditional diagnosis of something, then it's like, okay, we probably do need to look at the bigger picture and see how these different things are piecing together. Something I found interesting is I have been studying more with, like, the hormones and different stuff. Like that is sometimes we're actually producing enough hormones, but we're not using them. Like, there's something that's going on with the use of them just like other things in the body. And so I think that you have a really great point with pointing out that, like, maybe if we do test the blood, it's going to say, like, yeah, your hormone levels are fine, but I feel like you could probably get a better snapshot as to, like, how are they being utilized? Like, are they getting to where they need to go? Because when we're understanding that the cells are. Where a lot of the magic happen, when we have a lot of inflammation in our body, those cells kind of get armored, right? And, like, stuff is not able to get in or out as well. And so that's it. You might be making plenty of estrogen or progesterone or estradiol or whatever, right where it needs to go, then that's a whole different.
[00:14:06] Speaker B: That's it.
That's. Holy. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And I have that a lot. And like, I said that the Dutch test, the hormone test I run, it's looking at methylation, which is essentially how things are being broken down in the body. It's. It's your liver's job to break down right in hormones, and then your body has to excrete excess hormones. So that's an issue too, sometimes kind of the opposite of that, or maybe not the opposite, but on that same token is your production is fine, but you're recirculating that. Like, you're not excreting the excess. And so people can have, you know, imbalances because you're. You're not methylating, you're not getting rid of the excess hormones, or even like a, like thyroid hormone, for example, there's a lot of minerals that are required for thyroid production, thyroid hormone production and excretion and getting that into the cells. And like you said, there are instances where there are specific. That can happen where now your cells. You're. You're producing it. Okay, but your cells aren't able to uptake that. And so there's an issue with the thyroid hormone getting into your cell. So it's. Yeah, it is. It's just a much deeper conversation than. Than just the. The diagnosis. Right. It's like, if you really want to know why it's happening, that's I mean, that's. That's what I do.
[00:15:12] Speaker A: Sure. Yeah. It's like really big picture. I've studied more on the aspect of, like, insulin and the blood glucose and stuff. From an aspect of. Last year, I was starting to get, like, pre diabetic, and both my parents are diabetic. And I had to look at that because I was somebody who. I'm pescatarian. I eat a relatively healthy diet. I also exercise five to six days a week. And so with that glucose happening like that, I was like, something is off.
[00:15:42] Speaker B: Right. I'm doing everything.
[00:15:44] Speaker A: Yeah. It was like, this is not making sense. Okay. So looking at that, understanding kind of how those different things work, it was very eye opening to me because, you know, as women, I feel like a lot of us, we get a little nervous about building too much muscle and things like that because we think, oh, I'm gonna look too hulky or I'm gonna look like a man. I know for me, I definitely struggle with that because I used to be a gymnast, and so I still have, like, the broad shoulders and the bigger arms and, like, it's. It's just. It is what it is. It's there. And so I had really started shying away from lifting and was doing more cardio. And then I learned that it's actually muscle that is the first place that uptakes the insulin when we have that insulin injection. And so the more muscle you have, the more insulin sensitive you are. And I was like, my gosh, like, it's huge. Who knew, right?
[00:16:38] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:16:40] Speaker A: Losing muscle. I was actually causing another problem when I'm thinking, but I'm doing anything right. I'm losing weight.
[00:16:46] Speaker B: Right, right. But you're losing muscle. You're not holding a muscle.
[00:16:49] Speaker A: It's just so fascinating. It kind of took me down that rabbit hole because I'm like, this is. This is fascinating. And a lot of times if you go and ask a traditional practitioner, they're just not.
I don't want to say they're not educated in it, but it's just. That's just not what they look for.
[00:17:08] Speaker B: It's not what they do. Right, right.
[00:17:10] Speaker A: It's like, yeah, ask a, you know, I don't know, mechanic about an electrical issue in your house. Like, it's just. They're educated.
[00:17:18] Speaker B: They're.
[00:17:19] Speaker A: Yeah, like, confident and qualified, but that's just not what they do. That's just not what they look for. And so there's. Yes, I feel like, definitely a time and a place for different things. So people that Come to you.
What do they usually come to you about? Like, what are their complaints? What are they seeing? And. And that's where they're like, okay, I need to go see hope versus going a more traditional route.
[00:17:43] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. A variety of things. I think the. The. The biggest or not the biggest, the most common is always energy. Energy is always most common. Like, I'm tired. I sleep okay at night, but I still wake up when I'm. I'm not rested. My energy is kind of up and down throughout the day. I have energy crashes. I feel like I'm dragging myself to get through. The. The energy thing is always one of many. I would say 99 of the time. It's like, one of. One of many that every woman comes in with. So the energy thing is huge.
And there's so. And that's the thing where I think when people come to me, they. Most of them have gone traditional routes before. They've gone to conventional methods before, and it has either kind of failed them or they've kind of been brush aside. Like, the medical gaslighting thing is a real thing. So, like, that happens all the time or. Because, like you said, like, because doctors are trained in diagnoses and surgery. What. They're. That's what they. They're gonna try to be able to diagnose you. If they can't diagnose you, then they. Most of them, I want to say collectively, most of them will just kind of brush you off. Like, I can't. I can't diagnose you. I can't put a code in my computer that goes to your insurance to tell you this is what's wrong with you. So a lot of times they just kind of get brushed aside. And so the women who come to me a lot of times have these kind of mystery symptoms that could be related to a thousand different diagnoses, but they're too random to be this specific diagnosis. So it's usually, like, energy or it's overall inflammation. They have stubborn weight gain. And a lot of times, too, as women doctors will tell you, like, oh, it's just. You're just getting older.
Yeah. Yeah. Like, that's not a great answer. Okay.
[00:19:22] Speaker A: Okay. And awesome.
[00:19:24] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. What's my options? Right. It's just not helpful. So they come to me because they want an answer, and it's usually like, the energy inflammation. Yes. I have had plenty of clients who have had, like, they've been diagnosed with autoimmune disorders and different types of chronic disease, but a lot of times there, there is no diagnosis. There's just this combination of symptoms where they're like, I could be this or I could be this, but I just, I just want to heal my body. I also have women who come to me who don't necessarily have this laundry list of symptoms that they're dealing with, but they know they could feel better. Like I don't feel terrible, but again, like I said, I work with high performing women. Like I want to be able to perform, like I want to be able to be on my A game and I just feel like something's off where I'm not able to get there. So they just want that, that optimal, they want to get to that optimal level.
[00:20:14] Speaker A: Yeah, I love that because as high achieving women, like, who can't relate to that. Right. It's tough. It is tough when we find ourselves like struggling throughout the day or we're trying to put together trainings or something. I actually found myself doing that the other day. I had to re record a training because when I went back I was like, I sound so tired in this. I was like, that sucks.
[00:20:35] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:20:36] Speaker A: It just is like not inspiring.
[00:20:39] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:20:40] Speaker A: I think too, we get really hard on ourselves for that because we, we kind of have these expectations that we should be like men or that we can be like men. And it's like we're just not, you know, we're just not. And we have this 28 day cycle where our body has different needs, it's going to have different energy, it's going to need different types of foods, you know, for hormones and to help, you know, regulate things. Like it's just, it just is what it is. And so I think at learning to understand that especially is really, really important. And then understanding how to like, like cycle sync, you know, like how do I work with my body to help optimize it instead of feeling like I have to just push, push, push, go, go, go. Because that's, that's how our world is designed. Right? It is designed for men. And so there's this expectation that women should just fit into this. And I feel like this is a big part of why, you know, 80% of people that have autoimmune diseases are women. You know, it's like they're.
Our world is just not designed for how we operate. So do you feel like that mineral component because you're saying like this is, this is a big thing that I focus on. Is that really where you feel like most of us should start if we're even feeling some type of misalignment or anything like that, where it's like, if you do anything like get yourself the minerals, what would you recommend for them with that?
[00:22:21] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I, I do. And. And it's such a good point that you bring up. And it's funny because I, I do help my clients with cycle sneaking. That's a huge piece of the work that I do. Because. And I, I do feel like that's why the majority of women. And I just did a. I just recorded a podcast episode about this or my podcast talking about burnout and the majority of people who experience burn. And then it's why. Yeah, and because we are in this masculine structure of how to do things. And it's, it's, it's just we've been programmed that way. And so like, we're just running our bodies into the ground because we're not meant to have that same output 24, 7, 3, 6. We're just not. Yes, and. And I absolutely believe that minerals are. Where to start. Yes. And that's why the mineral. The mineral testing is the only testing I have as a standalone lab. Otherwise, it's like you have to do the combination of labs because you can gather so much. I can gather so much data. Data from the hair analysis.
Just. I mean, I've had so many women who just doing the mineral balancing alone has transformed everything. I mean, they've transformed their thyroid or their energy or, you know, whatever it is. So that piece, for sure. And because it's.
I've even had clients who have worked with other functional practitioners, and they've done. And they've spent a gajillion dollars on functional labs, but they've never done the mineral testing. And it really is the thing that kind of tips the scale that gets them to that extra little. Okay, now I'm headed in the right direction because I think it's. We don't. And you said this earlier, the other issue with minerals like a. There's a few reasons why we're all deficient a masculine structure we were just talking about and just go, go, going. Because the more you're stressed, the more you're depleting your minerals and those crucial ones that we need, those macro minerals like magnesium and potassium and sodium, like, those are just depleted on a daily basis, especially if we're not intentionally replenishing those. And then the other piece you mentioned earlier is the soil. And. Right. Our soil is mineral deficient. Right. It's just. I mean, there's have been studies on the nutrient. Nutrient density of foods now versus like the 1950s. And it's drastically different.
[00:24:19] Speaker A: Huge.
[00:24:20] Speaker B: Yes. Huge different. Yes. And so, so, yes. I mean, just the food we're eating is deficient as well. So now it's kind of this like double whammy of just western society. And then our. The way our food is grown, like, of course we're deficient. And. And so I think if we're not intentionally remineralizing ourselves and doing it in a really customized way versus just, oh, I'll just go take a multivitamin, which there's nothing wrong with that. But a lot of times, like, we just need a more curated approach of how your body is using your minerals. And that's really the thing that sets my clients in the right direction is having this exact, like, I have the data to know what's going on. And now I can take this more customated, curated approach versus I'll just go take a multivitamin and hope that that fills. Fills in, you know, the gaps.
[00:25:05] Speaker A: Yeah. Especially since so many multivitamins too are. They're not even bioavailable.
[00:25:09] Speaker B: Exactly. It's like the cheap version of them.
[00:25:12] Speaker A: Oh, so it's like awesome. Like, it's kind of a waste of money, unfortunately.
And we're not. This is why we're not really feeling better. And a lot of them don't even have minerals in them.
[00:25:24] Speaker B: Right. That's very true.
[00:25:25] Speaker A: Yeah. It's more just like the, you know, C, B, maybe D, not even like D is that most of us are deficient in as well. And that's an important vitamin for so many functions in the body as well. So it's like, okay, we're really living in.
[00:25:41] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:25:41] Speaker A: A time that I feel like is.
[00:25:44] Speaker B: It's sensitive.
[00:25:45] Speaker A: I. I don't want to position the feminine is like we're so oppressed and we're so. Etc. Because we're not from the aspect of. We do have so much power now that we can start to exercise over our experience.
It's breaking out of the paradigm and actually exercising that power. That is where I feel like the feminists. It's like, look, we can do it a different way. We can start to say no, like as business women, especially with our own companies, we can start like acknowledging where our employees are with their cycle and say, get it to me at this time. We can start honoring those things and start even having compassion for that and making space for the feminine as. As a whole and starting to allow for more balance. But I feel like even for myself, as a very Go Getter person. I. I will run myself into the ground sometimes. Like, I will. It'll get to the weekend and by Sunday when I can sleep in, like, I just crash. And I'm like, I have to stop doing this. And I personally, I don't even know how. I'm like, I have to figure this out. And it's been a. An interesting pivot for me because I did recently hire an executive assistant because I'm like, we can't do it alone. We have to have support. We have to allow ourselves time to rest and recalibrate and allow for things to balance.
[00:27:21] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:27:22] Speaker A: And it sounds like the minerals are a huge part of that happening.
[00:27:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:27:27] Speaker A: In our body. So how do you recommend that women start getting more of these essential minerals that they need?
[00:27:35] Speaker B: So, I mean, I'm always going to recommend the testing first. Like, instead of guessing, the testing is always going to be the best way. But if you're getting started on your own there. There are four macro minerals are the ones that we use the most of and the ones that we need the most of, and that's calcium, magnesium, potassium, and sodium. So if you're going to be intentional about any of them, like, if you're going at it on your own, I would start there with those four. Magnesium. And I know you know this because you are researcher of all the things. Magnesium is a big one.
This is. And this is kind of goes back to what we're saying before because our soil is really great source of. That's kind of where it comes from. And our soils are so deficient in magnesium. So our food sources are very deficient magnesium. I think the numbers are like 65 or 70% of us are deficient. I think it's much higher than. I would say the majority. Yeah, I would say the majority of us are deficient because we're not getting it from our food. And the other thing is when you're. We're in this kind of go, go, go society, our adrenals will run through magnesium like that. So we're just running through our stores magnesium on a daily basis. So if we're not replenishing that and being strategic about it. So magnesium is a big one. This is one of those. I am always a food first. Right. Food first and then supplements. But with magnesium is when I think everybody, everybody, everybody, everybody should be supplementing with magnesium. And so magnesium glycinate is the most bioavailable.
[00:28:56] Speaker A: I was going to ask.
There are lots of different magnesium.
[00:28:59] Speaker B: Yes, there are. Yes. And that's the Other problem, too, is, like you said a lot of times, multivitamins and kind of that. Like, I'm using air quotes here. Like, cheaper supplements will have the cheaper versions. And like, magnesium citrate is basically a laxative. Like, it's not. Your body is absorbing very little magnesium citrate. And magnesium citrate is really common one. So if you need to put poop, that's a great option. But yeah, if you want to absorb it, we want to look for glycinate or bis glycinate. Bis glycinate. Those are the most bioavailable. It's easiest on the gut, on your body.
And then you want to shoot for like, the ideal amount would be about five times your body weight. And this is the other problem.
Yes. A lot of them are like 100 milligrams, 150 milligrams. Your body is absorbing maybe 65% of.
[00:29:44] Speaker A: That figure under some math right now. Like, that's a lot.
[00:29:48] Speaker B: Yeah. So it's typically between like 507. I tell people. Shoot for at least 500 milligrams. That's what I tell people.
[00:29:54] Speaker A: How many times our body weight?
[00:29:56] Speaker B: Five times your body weight?
[00:29:57] Speaker A: Yeah, I weigh 160. I'm five, eight and athletic. So that means I need about 800.
[00:30:03] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:30:03] Speaker A: Per day.
[00:30:04] Speaker B: Per day, yeah. And you can spread that out. You can get it from food, too, or it doesn't have to just be from supplement. But for me, I tell people, like, find a supplement. Like, for me, the supplement itself should be close to 500. Like, that's. I would say minimum, ish, like around 500. And then you can get. So for food sources, leafy greens, nuts and seeds, dark chocolate, those are the most dense sources of magnesium. So you're incorporating some of those into your day, then you're getting some, but then you just want that extra insurance.
[00:30:33] Speaker A: It's interesting because how many of us crave chocolate?
[00:30:36] Speaker B: 400, 100? Not a coincidence.
[00:30:39] Speaker A: Because the magnesium. Are we depleting more or we need more for the.
[00:30:46] Speaker B: Your body needs. Right, Your body. Yes. Your body's asking for more. Yeah. It's crazy, right?
[00:30:51] Speaker A: It's.
[00:30:52] Speaker B: It's crazy. It is.
[00:30:54] Speaker A: When it comes to magnesium, is there such a thing as too much? Like, what if we were like, you know, I'm stressed. I'm an athlete. I do this. Like, yeah, I do a thousand. Could I get a supplement that's like a thousand milligrams? Would that be safe?
[00:31:08] Speaker B: It's so you kind of have to play around with it. With your own body. And the way you'll know it's too much is if. If. If you poop a lot. Like, if you start pooping a lot, then it's. So that's kind of what happens. And you'll find your happy spot. And for me, I usually play around with it throughout the month. So when it's getting closer to my period and I know I'm going to increase a little bit more because it also gets. It's. Magnesium is the relaxation mineral. So it can also help with, like, cramping and things like that. So I'll increase it a little bit, like around my period. Or if it's like you're in times of stress and you know your body is just. You're just getting depleted, increase it. But you can play with it, and you'll find out like, okay, well, that was not a normal poop, right? Then you just want to back up a little bit. But there have been many times where for, like, weeks at a time where I've gone a thousand milligrams every day, and I've been totally fine. But then there are days where I'm taking that same amount, and then I'm like, oh, well, that's okay. Something's happening. And then. So then I'm like, okay, I need to back off. So your body will tell you.
[00:32:02] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, feedback there.
[00:32:03] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly.
[00:32:04] Speaker A: That's good to know, because I know some. I don't know if it's minerals, but I know some vitamins. Like, you really want to be cautious not to take. Take too much. So it's like, you know, there can be too much of a good thing.
[00:32:15] Speaker B: There's a lot of them.
[00:32:18] Speaker A: What are some signs that someone might be able to, like, really start recognizing, like, okay, I need more magnesium. What might people be experiencing?
[00:32:28] Speaker B: So fatigue is a big one. And again, like I said, I know that's such a vague symptom, but fatigue is a big one. And really, for all those macro minerals I mentioned, fatigue is. So if you're feeling fatigued, you want to really optimize your potassium, magnesium, sodium. Like, those are the ones that are getting depleted the quickest. So fatigue, maybe you have muscle cramping, muscle ache. Sometimes people have like, like pain in their muscles. Like, again, like I said, magnesium is this relaxation mineral. So if things are feeling inflamed and kind of like constricted, contracted magnesium is going to be the. The remedy.
[00:33:00] Speaker A: Cramping. Get like Charlie Horse.
[00:33:02] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:33:03] Speaker A: Okay, what about, like, restless leg syndrome? Is that a magnesium thing?
[00:33:07] Speaker B: It could Be. Yeah, it could be. So that could be a couple of things. Magnesium, yes. Can help with that. It could also potassium is another one that can be involved in that because potassium and sodium, those are the hydrating minerals. Right. So every cell in your body has a sodium potassium pump. So sodium, potassium are going in and out of your, out of your cells all day. And so there, a lot of times there's hydration issues that can cause muscle cramping and stuff. So we want to make sure we're optimizing those hydration minerals too with this sodium and potassium. Potassium is really interesting. I worked with a ton of women who have had thyroid issues and potassium is really crucial for the thyroid hormone. It's actually what helps the thyroid in and out of the cells. So every, and I can say this, I don't usually speak in generalities, but I can say this as a fact. Every woman I have worked with that has thyroid issues, whether they've been diagnosed as hypothyroid or Hashimoto's or they just have a slow functioning thyroid, have had potassium issues. Low, low, low, low, low potassium. And so we want to optimize potassium for our thyroid, but it also does help with energy. It also. So if you're super irritable, potassium can also help with that. Potassium can be a mineral that can make or can affect how our mood is, how our mood is functioning. And it's also one that's very easily depleted with when our adrenals are working in overdrive. So our adrenals and our thyroid have a really close relationship. They talk to each other a lot. So for me, it's kind of a chicken or egg situation with that. Like, okay, did my over functioning adrenals cause the thyroid or the thyroid? You know, so optimizing the magnesium, the potassium is going to help with, with, with both of those. But to your, to your point about the restless leg. Yeah, it's, it's sometimes this magnesium thing, sometimes you want to look at a hydration thing and just focusing on those like potassium, sodium, the hydrate, hydrating minerals.
[00:34:45] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Because. And to add to that, most people think hydration is just, I just need to drink more water. But that's, that's not actually what like hydrates us. It is that replenishment of the minerals.
There's a aspect there that, you know, just the bottled water that's been like purified and stuff that might not be doing what we think.
[00:35:11] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:35:12] Speaker A: Be doing.
[00:35:13] Speaker B: Yeah. And it could be doing the opposite. I mean, I've had clients like you could drink. I mean, if you think about it, you're drinking. What happens when you drink water? You have to pee. What are you peeing? You're peeing out minerals. So if you're drinking just plain water all day, every day and never remineralizing, you're literally just, just peeing out all your minerals and you're not replenishing those. So you can also be diluting your body of those minerals that you need. So yeah, the, the remineralizing and whether it's taking like electrolytes in your water or whatever it is, like that really is crucial.
[00:35:42] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I love that. It's just all these little things that we don't really think a lot about, but they're so important. It's like, it seems like such a minute detail, but it has such an extraordinary ripple effect in our entire system. I'd love to ask you a little bit more about potassium, as I know that potassium is one of those ones that it's almost like you can have the same symptoms when you have too much or too little. From what I understand, like with like heart palpitations and cramping and different things like that. Where, where would you kind of recommend someone target their potassium?
[00:36:21] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a good point because yes, there is such a thing as too much potassium and there's such a thing as too little. So there's quite a few minerals that can fall into that category. So with potassium, the RDA, the recommended daily allowance is 4, 500 milligrams, which is a lot. Like, I don't know if anybody gets that much. Like you have to. I mean, it's a lot. That's a lot. So for my clients, especially those with thyroid issues, like, we really focus on the potassium. We want to do it supplement and food, just like I was talking about with the magnesium. So if you're focusing on potassium rich foods, the most dense foods of a test are going to be things like bananas, which I think we all know. Bananas, avocados, coconut water, celery, things like that. Now if you're supplementing, your body also kind of has a threshold of how much it's going to absorb with the supplement. Because I've had some clients. Well, I'll just, you know, increase a supplement. Well, it's not really gonna, it's not really going to do anything, but I think, I think it's 900. Around 900 between 8. 900 is kind of where the threshold is for supplementation. So I would say if you're taking More than that supplement wise, then you could be inching towards what you're saying. Kind of that taking too much, but you do want to include it. And then if you're focusing on the food, being intentional about the food sources and then you know, supplementing a little bit, I think you're in a good spot. But like supplementing any more than 900 milligrams is getting borderline too much.
[00:37:41] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah. Because that, it was like years ago. I remember my mom ended up in the hospital and it was because her potassium was too low. She thought she was having a heart attack and it was like she was having heart palpitations and something I've even been noticing for myself lately. It's been a weird thing. I'm, I'm actually curious. I'm like, maybe I'll just ask you. We can the listeners learn from this. But as I mentioned earlier, I've been more mindful about like my blood sugar eating certain things, also learning if we pair certain foods together, it will limit the blood sugar spike, et cetera. But let's be real. Every now and then I want to have a cookie or like have some ice cream.
[00:38:26] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:38:26] Speaker A: Or like a treat or something. And I have gotten to the point now where even if I have like one cookie, that sugar spike will send me into like. I feel like I might as well have taken a snort of something. Not that I have personal experience, but my. Yeah. Just goes crazy. And I'm like, this is, it's honestly scary because I'm like, I feel like I'm going to have a heart attack or something. Like it's, it is really nerve wracking. So now I'm like, I guess I can just never eat stuff like that anymore. And I'm wondering, as odd as it sounds, like like maybe I'm actually getting my body much more aligned and much more balanced that when I do have something like that come in, my body's.
[00:39:15] Speaker B: Like, it is just Right. Right.
[00:39:19] Speaker A: So much higher.
[00:39:20] Speaker B: It is possible. I do feel like let's. It's kind of like, you know, I work with people for who, you know, they, I wouldn't say they had a sugar addiction per se, but maybe close. And when you're, when you're right. Right. And then when your body starts to get used to eating healthier food, you don't really crave it anymore. Right. So I do think that there is a point where your body is more sensitive to things. I mean, I feel like that with my husband who says that it's like, oh, your Body is like a two year old. Because I'll react to things, my gut will react to things. But that's like, I've done so much work on my gut that things can set it off where my gut's like, what are you doing? So I do think. Yes, yes. So I do think that that's a thing. I think it's a thing not to say you can't ever have a cookie ever again. But. But I am a total believer of the food pairing. I have a whole lesson of that for my clients for the food pairing thing to help with blood sugar regulation for that reason. So it could also just be just pairing your cookie or your ice cream with the right thing, like making sure it's after you've eaten your meal, right? You've eaten some protein and just pairing it in the right way so that, that you don't have that drastic spike of your blood sugar when you're eating it. But I think you were talking earlier about your kind of genetic component of the blood sugar thing and the diabetes thing. And I think. And you being a healthy person, like, I eat healthy, I exercise all the things. I think that's also something to make note of because. And I've had tons of clients with things like that where it's like, I'm healthy. Like what? I don't know. The blood sugar thing is so interesting because sometimes it's not even about what you're eating because stressful situations also spike your blood sugar.
[00:40:50] Speaker A: Oh my gosh. So that has been a mind blowing thing for me to realize. Last year I wore a continuous glucose monitor as I was working on stuff. And I remember I was at the pool with my daughter. And like, I'm chilling out, I'm eating my snack. I've got. It's like cheese, blackberries and pecans. And I'm like, that should, that's pretty solid there with the blackberries. They've got fiber, nothing spike. So I was like, cool, I'm doing good with this. I'm snacking, I'm doing that. And about 10 minutes later, these two women get into like some type of drama fight over. I don't even know what it was. And it was like something from Jerry Springer. And I remember getting anxious, right? Like, I'm like, oh my God. Like, am I gonna have to try to like, like help calm this down? Yeah, old teenage lifeguards have no. You know what I mean? Like, it's like, so of course my, my juices start pumping and everything. And then all of a sudden my Glucose monitoring app starts alarming that my blood sugar was spiking. And I was like, wait, what?
[00:41:57] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:41:57] Speaker A: And then I looked and I'm like, my gosh, these biatches just spiked my.
[00:42:02] Speaker B: Blood sugar messed up my stable blood sugar.
[00:42:06] Speaker A: I've got goals here. And I just believe it.
[00:42:09] Speaker B: How much?
[00:42:10] Speaker A: I mean, it just was firing and I, I was blown.
[00:42:15] Speaker B: Yes. That's crazy. You're able to see that in real time. And I, I think people, I mean, we really don't, really don't know these things, really. And. But the thing is, insulin and your cortisol go together. When your cortisol spikes, your insulin spikes. Like, that's. And so, yeah, you could be doing all the things and eating the blood sugar, balancing diet and all the things, but if you're constantly stressed and you're, you're giving yourself this roller coaster of stress, your blood sugar is going to be all over the place. I think it's something that we just don't think about. How much that affects our blood sugar.
[00:42:47] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. Because I like, I mean, I think it makes sense when our blood sugar is higher. Like if it is a stimulant, if that sugar is running through our system, our heart is gonna. Yeah, we're not using the energy because, let's be real, the body is so smart. The reason when cortisol gets triggered and goes up, the insulin goes up. Because we need the energy in our muscles to run from the tiger.
[00:43:08] Speaker B: Exactly like that.
[00:43:09] Speaker A: The body is smart. So if we're not using that, then the heart is just like, what the hell am I doing?
[00:43:16] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:43:17] Speaker A: These like, hormones and all of this stuff surging through my body for no reason. And so it is a very interesting thing from an evolutionary standpoint. I feel like I'm like, why has that not shifted yet?
[00:43:29] Speaker B: We're not really like, right.
[00:43:31] Speaker A: Running from the tigers, but I get it. I mean, we're really one of the first generations where it wasn't all about survival. I mean, even in the, like our grandparents time, like with the depression, with the world wars going on, I mean, there was scarcity. It was a lot about like really trying to just survive. But I guess a lot of people still are living in that energy, but just for different reasons. It is because of stress or maybe even like unhealthy relationships. Relationships and like money and just different things. And so we are still living in this constant state of feeling, like, I just have to survive. Like, I'm getting through the day on just like gumption and survival. Like it is that is the only way to get through. And again to loop it back. I feel like that has a lot to do with just the way that our society is designed. It's just not designed for health and well being because these issues so much here in America but not so much in like Europe and like Mediterranean countries and things like that because they one, they have better food, let's be real. Their government doesn't allow their people with their food.
[00:44:50] Speaker B: Exactly, exactly.
[00:44:52] Speaker A: Maybe that will change for art, which is what has been promised. We'll see.
[00:44:57] Speaker B: We'll see. Yep.
[00:44:58] Speaker A: Well, you know, expecting any, any politicians to fall through with stuff is kind of like, okay, but you know, we can hope. Right? But there's also like the, the lifestyle is different in those countries. Right. It's like their work different. They take like, what is it like the siestas.
[00:45:18] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:45:18] Speaker A: Lower paced life that is just more chill.
[00:45:23] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think, you know, there's. There's a gal, I can't think of her name right now. There's this gala follow on Instagram and she, she's an attorney. She's like a, maybe a family attorney, but she's always posting about this kind of stuff about the quality of life. And we're talking about like, like yes. And I am with you. I'm all up like there is so much crap and poison in our food. Like I am, I'm in total agreement with that. But if you really want to get down to the reason our quality of life is so much different here and our standard of, of health and life. Our health span. Right. We're talking about lifespan versus health span. Our health span is so different. It's the quality of life. We look at these other countries where their health span is so much longer than ours.
Everything is different. Right. If you've ever read or watched the Blue Zones, they talk about this. There's this, there's this community sense of community that's different. It's. Their movement throughout the day is different. Their outlook on life is different. The way they support their citizens with like, you know, after the women have babies and the care they have and like there's so many other aspects of this quality of life that makes it that, that impacts our health in ways that we, I think we just under.
I don't know, maybe we just don't think about it at all. But it's. Yeah, it's. Yeah, it's so much more than just what's in our food. And yes, that's important. Don't get me wrong. It's really Important. But yeah, you're right. It's our outlook on life. Our outlook, our relationship with work and productivity and output, like, all of that. I'm doing a series of my podcast about that and how as women and we tie our worth to our productivity and how this impacts our health and how these patterns impact are like going through different parts of our body and how it affects our health. Well, we think like, oh, no, it's just, you know, my hormones are at a wagger. Like, we're saying I'm getting older, but we have all these reasons. Maybe it's happening, but it's this underlying wiring conditioning that we can't stop because our ambition is a trauma response. We don't feel safe stopping. We don't feel safe.
[00:47:18] Speaker A: And that is something that I have had to be very mindful of with myself as someone who also, you know, does the. The rewiring and takes that more holistic approach through my program. And so it's. I have to catch myself because I'm like, why can't I just stop for a moment, like, chasing. What am I running after? Like, what's going on here? And it's like, we have to be really, really mindful, especially when it comes to reconditioning ourselves, because that's really what's going to change our external reality. Our external reality is always a reflection of what's going on. Like you said, even from the energetics aspect, with how, like, the labs are coming out, like, it's all connected. And so if our external reality is not what we wish it to be, then energetically or in here, something is misaligned. And so we're going to change that. We have to be very intentional and deliberate about it. Like, we have to stay on top of those neuropathways, that wiring, all of that. We can't just be like, cool, I'm doing one session. It's like magic, right? It just doesn't happen like that. Like, neural pathways can absolutely be rewritten. I'm actually reading, meaning audible, listening to.
[00:48:39] Speaker B: A book about, I think it's called.
[00:48:40] Speaker A: You can change your brain. But, you know, for a long time, the plasticity of a brain was like, nope. After you're, you know, a certain age, it doesn't change at all. And. And recent science is showing that it absolutely can. We just need to learn how to do it for certain different injuries and different. Certain things. But it. It absolutely can. And so with that understanding, it's like, okay, cool. Like, I really can rewire my brain. I can really rewire How I respond to things and how I create into my reality. But if we're not catching ourselves and staying on top of it, it's like replenishing our minerals. Right? We have to make sure that we're replenishing our new programming.
[00:49:25] Speaker B: That's it. That's exactly it.
[00:49:26] Speaker A: Otherwise, it's gonna fall back into the default mode.
[00:49:30] Speaker B: Yep, that's it. Yep.
[00:49:32] Speaker A: I told. I've loved this conversation. I was just looking at the clock. I'm like, oh, my gosh.
Like, oh, we're getting there. It's such a fun conversation. I would actually love for you to tell the listeners where they can find you with your podcast, because what you're talking about, I'm like, oh, my gosh. I need to subscribe to your podcast and start listening, like, stuff I would nerd out over.
[00:49:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
Yeah. So my podcast is called Hopeful and wholesome, and it's all things health, wellness, spirituality, all my favorite things. So you can find, learn more about all the things we. I mean, really all things we talked about today. My website is the same hopefulandwholesome.com and then I am at the Hope Pajaza on Instagram where I'm most active.
[00:50:13] Speaker A: Awesome. Awesome. And I'll make sure to, like, include the actual clickable links in the description and show notes so people can find those easily. If someone feels like they would want to do more work with you, how could they do that?
[00:50:26] Speaker B: Yeah, just give me a ping. You can find me on Instagram. Like I said, I'm at thehope Draza. Or you can shoot me an email, check out my website and kind of see. You can kind of see other kind of the more details about what I do. And yeah, just. Just give me a shout and I can give you options and see what support would help you best.
[00:50:45] Speaker A: Yeah, I love that. As a functional practitioner, do you have the same regulations where you can only operate in your state or are you able to, like, take clients from all over?
[00:50:58] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I have clients from all over the world. I've had clients in Europe and Canada. Mexico. Yeah. So no, it's anywhere. Everywhere.
[00:51:05] Speaker A: Yeah. Last I had an amazing. She was.
I know she had her PhD, so she was a doctor, but it's in psychology and like, she could only work with people in her state because of those regulations.
[00:51:20] Speaker B: Makes sense.
[00:51:21] Speaker A: That's tough. So I was like, ah. Because she's also like, in that science aspect of psychology and blends in the spiritual, even like past lives and all that. This is what this podcast is about. Like Normalizing, like, this is what we need to pivot into because it is all connected.
[00:51:43] Speaker B: Really?
[00:51:43] Speaker A: Anybody?
[00:51:44] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:51:45] Speaker A: Is able to work with you? I'm assuming you can just, like, just tell them how to get the labs and then they just send you the results?
[00:51:52] Speaker B: Yep. That's amazing.
[00:51:54] Speaker A: Yes. That is so awesome. Okay, so I'll make sure to link everything so people can get in touch with you. And it has been such an amazing pleasure to get to talk to you. Before we hop off, I do like to ask one final question just for everyone, just because I like to see what the perspective is. So in your opinion and perspective, how would you define success for a woman?
[00:52:18] Speaker B: That's a good question. I think for me, six and I can't say I've always bought into this, but this is kind of on my own, like, personal and spiritual journey. This is what I would like success to be for me. Success for me is. Is enjoying the journey and it's building something where, yes, I have goals and there's, like, an outcome and a vision that I have. But for me, the success is just enjoying the process and enjoying the journey and enjoying the growth and enjoying myself through every stage. For me, that is true success.
[00:52:51] Speaker A: I love that. Yeah. And that that's been. Everyone has said almost like the same thing, but differently.
[00:52:57] Speaker B: Different way. Yeah.
[00:52:58] Speaker A: I love that because we're moving into more of that feminine energy of, like, success is not always this, like, quantifiable. I have the house, I have this car, and I have this amount of money in my bank account. It's more about the feeling like, am I fulfilled? And do I feel like I'm making the impact that I meant to make?
[00:53:19] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:53:19] Speaker A: And I'm having success within that realm. It's a beautiful, beautiful thing. I love it. Thank you so, so, so much for being here. And we will see everyone on the next episode.
