Epic Mini: The Big Three Health Concerns During Menopause

In this episode host Mary breaks down the misconception that menopause is merely about hot flashes and mood swings and emphasizes the importance of bone, brain, and heart health during this life phase. The role of estrogen goes beyond reprdocutive health, and its decline can have serious physiological impacts if left uncheck. 

Drawing up insights from prominent researchers and authors like Dr. Lisa Mosconi, Dr. Avrum Blooming, and Dr. Stacy Sims, this episode looks at strategies such as heavy resistance training, sprint interval training, and a Mediterranean-style diet to manage hormonal shifts effectively. 

Mary also introduces her Menopause Intelligence - an online learning experience aimed at empowering women through education and self-advocacy - and a free workbook offering practical tips on fitness, nutrition, and stress management.

Resources:

• Maximize Heart Health Through Nutrition with Michelle Routhenstein, Episode 43
• The Hidden Impact of Modern Wheat and Microbiome on Women's Health with Dr. William Davis, Episode 77
• Estrogen Matters by Dr. Avrum Bluming and Carol Tavris 
• The Menopause Brain by Dr. Lisa Monsconi 
• Next Level by Dr. Stacy Sims

Sign up for a free resource: The Midlife Belly Fat Reset: A 7-Day Gut–Hormone–Workout Plan. 

In this plan, you will get gut-friendly, hormone-balancing nutrition secrets, a powerful heavy resistance training strategy, and simple stress-reset rituals you can do in under 10 minutes a day to nurture the gut-brain axis. Start shifting belly fat at the root cause and by working with your body, not against it. Sign up today https://subscribepage.io/bellyfatreset.

Transcript

Welcome back to the Menopause Disruptor Podcast. If you are new here, this is the space where we dismantle outdated menopause narratives and replace them with science agency and a little healthy rebellion too. Today's episode is something I believe deeply. Menopause isn't just about the hot flashes or mood swings.

It is a whole body health transition, and there are three systems in our body that deserves our full attention during this phase of life bone. Brain, heart, the big three. And in this episode, I am going to draw upon the research of Dr. Lisa Mosconi of the menopause brain, and Dr. Avrum Blooming and Carol Tavris, authors of Estrogen Matters, as well as one of my favorites, Dr. Stacy Sims, whose work has completely changed how women approach exercise and performance in midlife.

I'm your host Mary, a former corporate PR practitioner, turned menopause doula and women's coaching specialist, as well as the edgy voice behind the Menopause Disruptor Podcast. After leaving a high pressure corporate career, I turned my 30 year side hustle of fitness and health into a full-time.

Purpose, empowering women with real education, strength-based tools, and unapologetic self-advocacy through menopause. My work is rooted in lived experience, navigating my own hormonal upheaval in a system that offered little knowledge, inconsistent care, and far too much dismissal, and I am here to change that.

So I see menopause as that turning point, and it's not a decline. 'cause we know menopause is often framed as a loss. Loss of hormones. Our youthfulness resiliency. But the latest research is telling us a different story, and I'm here to spread that story . See, what's really happening is a rapid hormonal shift, particularly in estrogen, and estrogen, has been quietly protecting women's bodies and brains all of our lives.

So when it declines, vulnerabilities appear. Not because we're broken, but because the rules have changed really. So let's talk about that. and first up, bone health. I see this as the silent wake up call. See, bone loss accelerates rapidly during perimenopause and the early postmenopausal years, and many women don't realize that until they have a DEXA scan

that their bone health has really shifted. Bone mineral density has. Dropping steadily on average, women are losing three to 8% per decade from age 30 onward. Estrogen plays such a critical role in bone remodelling, and so without it, bone breakdown can outpace our bone building. This is where muscle becomes our medicine.

Heavy resistance training. It's not optional anymore. It is absolutely essential and I promote that Teaching my strength classes and my one-on-one coaching muscle signals bone to stay strong. And this is where the research of estrogen matters. By Dr. M Blooming comes in his work reminds us that estrogen therapy, for many women, it's, it's not dangerous.

it can be protective, particularly for our bone health as well as brain and heart. And when appropriately prescribed, it can be another tool in the toolbox along with building muscle mass to support bone remodelling. we've spoken about resistance training on several episodes in the past, but bone health and resistance training combined is.

Highly recommended approach worth taking into consideration,

heavy lifting is one of the most powerful anti-aging tools available to women, and we've mentioned resistance training in several past episodes.

Let's look at number two in the big three. Heart health. This is the risk no one warned us about. Heart disease is still the number one killer in women and menopause poses a major risk of accelerating that again as estrogen declines.

Cholesterol pattern shift our HDL. The protective cholesterol, drops. And LDL, the more inflammatory cholesterol starts to rise. Abdominal fat becomes more metabolically active and more dangerous,

and you can learn more about belly fat in my episode

On gut health and the rising dangers of cortisol in our body. In past episodes, I've interviewed experts like Michelle Ruth and Stein, Who join me to explain how heart health for women requires a different lens, one that includes inflammation and eating an anti-inflammatory diet and about what to put on her plate rather than take away.

She spoke about insulin sensitivity and stress physiology. It's an episode worth listening to. and then this is where the work of Dr. Stacey Sins comes in, and it's a game changer. Long slow cardio known as zone two training and calorie restriction often backfires in midlife.

We think that combination of both will help tackle belly fat, when in fact it worsens the problem, the antidote. Heavy resistance training as well as sprint interval training. Both improve cholesterol profiles, address insulin sensitivity, and improve cardiovascular resilience. Heart health and menopause is built through fueling, not shrinking through strength, not restriction.

Then number three of the big three Brain health. This is the Missing Menopause conversation. This is where Dr. Lisa Mosconi work completely reframes menopause. Dr. Mosconi shows us that menopause isn't just a reproductive transition. It's actually a neurological one. And in fact, research is also telling us that menopause is more of a brain health phenomenon.

See, the female brain is deeply connected to ovarian hormones. Of course, estrogen. Estrogen supports serotonin, dopamine, and brain energy metabolism, as well as sleep regulation, and its neuroprotector when estrogen fluctuates and declines. The brain has to learn to adapt, 

and this adaption can look like brain fog. It can feel like mood swings, anxiety, and certainly manifests as disrupted sleep and memory lapses. But here's the key message I want you to hear. This is not degeneration. It's reorganization.

To paraphrase Dr. Mosconi, your brain is literally ,recalibrating. Supporting brain health during this phase means eating healthy fats and a Mediterranean style diet Protecting sleep like it is most sacred thing you'll ever own.

Managing stress proactively, and with some compassion moving your body regularly, and not just any movement. We mentioned it before, heavy resistance and sprint interval training, and challenging your brain where learning, creativity and connection come into play. 

 I've also explored this the Gut Brain Connection in a previous episode. I explained that the gut actually senses stress in the body before the brain does.

But by fuelling our microbes with a healthy diet, allowing good bacteria to thrive and bad bacteria to take a backseat, we are doing so much for that gut brain connection and fuelling our brains at the same time Through multiple channels of messengers, the superhighway of that connection of messengers being the vagus nerve.

 Albeit short and sweet, I wanna give you the big picture by connecting the dots, bones, heart and brain. We see something powerful. Menopause doesn't mean a decline. It's a remodelling. It's a recalibrating. and it's an adaption to the new hormonal structure in your body. It also means radical responsibility, but a golden opportunity. This is a phase where informed choices matter more than ever, but also where women can build extraordinary resilience and strength.

And gain clarity. And as a menopause doula and a woman's health coach, I don't believe in fear-based medicine or the one size fits all solution. I believe in education, self-trust and support so that you can take agency of your health and make those informed choices.

And I do that through my Menopause Intelligence Online course, which expands on everything that I've talked about to you today. and more.

 In this eight module course, I get into the science of the hormones and your nervous system, and then we explore lifestyle strategies. But most importantly, I teach you how to take agency over your health and confidently advocate for yourself with your healthcare team. I've intentionally priced this course at a rock bottom, $111 1-1-1.

Yes, this is a number of great meaning. We're moving out of a nine year cycle, the number of deep transformation, and into a one year cycle, the year of fierce independence, clarity, and natural leadership. And if you don't know how I figured out those numbers, just take all the digits of the year. So 2025, you add 'em up and whittle it down to a single number.

You have nine. So looking at 20, 26, what do we have? 10. You whittle it down, you have a one. The power of one isn't about pushing harder, it's about balance. And how perfect is that? Because menopause itself is anything but balanced In my menopause intelligence course.

It is about finding that sweet spot where strength meets wisdom, where science meets intuition. Where you stop outsourcing your power and start leading your own health decisions with confidence. So if you're ready to step into your fierce independence, and if you want to feel informed.

Grounded and unapologetically in charge of your menopause journey. This course is for you. It will show you how you can find the link in the show notes below. And If this conversation around bone, heart, and brain health lit something up in you and you're realizing that menopause isn't something to endure anymore, but something to understand I've created this space for you 

it's where we balance spirituality with science, the energetic body with the physical body.

And before you invest, if you wanna go deeper, I invite you to check out some past episodes, particularly the one I did with Michelle Ruthenstein, whom I mentioned, as well as Dr. William Davis.

the New York Times bestselling author of Wheat Belly Super Guts, and in the new year, his new book, super Body will be coming out and he really expands on this dialogue about our gut health and the microbiome. if you're ready to stop just surviving menopause and start working with your body instead of against it, Go check out the Menopause Intelligence Course link in the show notes.

Wait, my listeners, if you're feeling like, Hey, Mary, I don't know. I don't know if I wanna commit in your course. I don't really know you. I'm not sure if it's for me. I like to test the waters. Well, guess what? I created a free workbook designed just for women looking to reclaim their strength, energy, and balance.

Inside this 20 page workbook, you'll find practical tips for daily movement, nutrition, and mindfulness to help calm stress, support your hormones, and most importantly, tackle stubborn belly fat. It's for anyone, no matter where your fitness level is, It's a great way to test the waters of my approach.

Before diving into the full course of Menopause Intelligence Digital Course, in this workbook, we'll go step by step to incorporating. Strength training, nutrition, nervous system regulation into a sustainable plan that works for you and addresses rising cortisol levels that are leading to a lot of inflammation in your body, causing a lot of that stubborn belly fat, but worse impacting you.

Guessed it, bone, heart and brain health. Grab your free ebook today. And start feeling stronger, calmer, and more in control. The link is in the show notes.

It's a sweet sneak peek into my full course, the Menopause Intelligence Course, and it's free. My gift to you for the holidays, my gift To give you the most enriching menopause journey you deserve.

Until next time, my love, stay curious, stay strong, and keep disrupting the silence around menopause.