Empowering Women Through Nutrition: Dr. Olga Morton’s Holistic Approach to Menopause Health and Wellness Insights

Are you navigating the challenging waters of menopause and feeling overwhelmed by conflicting nutrition advice? Join host Heather Carey in a transformative episode of Real Food Stories as she sits down with Dr. Olga Morton, a lifestyle medicine physician dedicated to empowering women through holistic health approaches. In this enlightening conversation, Dr. Morton shares her inspiring journey from traditional medicine to a focus on nutrition and lifestyle changes, revealing how the right choices can significantly impact your well-being during this pivotal time.

Discover the six core areas that Dr. Morton emphasizes with her patients: a plant-based diet, regular physical activity, effective stress management, quality sleep, nurturing supportive relationships, and reducing harmful substances such as alcohol and caffeine. As they delve into the unique challenges women face during the menopause transition, you’ll gain invaluable insights into how nutrition can influence hormonal health and overall wellness.

Dr. Morton highlights the alarming lack of training many doctors receive regarding menopause, often leading to a reliance on medications rather than sustainable lifestyle modifications. This episode is a call to action for women to prioritize self-care, adopt a positive mindset, and embrace the power of community support. With a focus on healthy eating and the importance of personal food journeys, listeners will find encouragement to make informed choices that resonate with their individual needs.

Throughout the discussion, Heather and Dr. Morton explore vital topics such as midlife nutrition, the myths surrounding weight loss, and the significance of nurturing your body through mindful eating practices. Tune in for practical healthy eating tips, cooking techniques, and nutritionist insights that will equip you with the tools to navigate this stage of life with confidence and grace.

Whether you’re dealing with hormonal changes, seeking to understand the Mediterranean diet, or simply looking for ways to enhance your overall health, this episode of Real Food Stories is packed with wisdom and actionable advice. Empower yourself with the knowledge to embrace your midlife journey, nourish your body, and cultivate a lifestyle that celebrates your unique experiences. Don’t miss this opportunity to transform your relationship with food and health!

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Transcript:

Speaker #0
Well, hello, everybody, and welcome back. And if you are just tuning in with me for the very first time, it’s so nice to meet you. And I’m really glad you’re here with me today. I am your host, Heather Carey, nutritionist, chef, mom, and a woman who has been around the block with food. I want to open up about real food in relation to health, weight, and our bodies so you can make peace with what you eat. Hi there, and welcome back to the Real Food Stories podcast. I am your host, Heather Carey, and today’s episode is such an important one. I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Olga Morton, who is not only a practicing physician, but also has specialty training in something called lifestyle medicine. And if you’ve never heard of that before, you’re not alone, but you’re going to want to stick around for this conversation. In a world where so many women are told to jump straight to supplements or medications or hormone therapy, Dr. Morton offers a refreshing, evidence-based approach that starts with what we can actually control in our day-to-day lives. And we covered her six core areas that she focuses on with her patients. Eating a mostly plant- based healthy diet, moving your body regularly, managing stress in a realistic way, getting enough high quality sleep, building strong supportive relationships, and cutting back on the things that work against us like alcohol, tobacco, and yes, even caffeine for some people. I know that one is hard to hear. This is one of those grounding, empowering conversations that reminds us that the foundations really do matter and that health doesn’t have to feel so overwhelming when we start with what’s doable and what feels kind and compassionate for us. So let’s dive in with my conversation with Dr. Olga Morton.

Speaker #1
Olga Morton is a medical doctor with additional training as a lifestyle medicine physician.

Speaker #0
After years of helping chronic disease patients using conventional medicine, She realized that medication and surgery alone are not the whole solution. Through her continuing education in lifestyle medicine, she discovered that often small lifestyle changes could indeed be more powerful and longer lasting than pills. Today, she offers her patients a more holistic approach to wellness. And more recently, Olga has been using her expertise for the treatment of menopausal symptoms. Her mission is to empower women with effective lifestyle changes so they can thrive through menopause with or without medication. So hi, Olga. Welcome to Real Food Stories. It’s always so nice to get the perspective from the medical community on menopause and health. And I’m also intrigued with the fact that you help women with the other very important aspects of health through lifestyle changes. that are not part of conventional medicine, right? Just throwing pills or hormones at you. So let’s start with your own journey with midlife and menopause and your path to practicing more lifestyle-based medicine.

Speaker #1
Yes. Thank you so much for having me, Heather. It’s lovely to speak to you. Yes. I mean… About me, I guess. First of all, I’m a mum of three boys, so I’ve got teens and preteens, and so life is busy, lots of plates are spinning all at once. And early on in my career, I also did a PhD, a doctorate degree in autoimmunity and molecular cellular biology, and that was after my medical degree. And the thesis was focusing on finding novel treatments. that would be blocking inflammatory pathways that would essentially then be used for treatment of autoimmune conditions inflammatory conditions like rheumatoid arthritis and although the research was fascinating i quickly realized most of these drugs they could be effective but then they always had side effects and so even then i thought well there must be a different way to approach those illnesses or to treat those manage those better and when i went back to clinical practice Again, I was… working as a family physician in the States, I guess, or in North America, you would call it, general practitioner in Britain and Scotland. And very quickly, again, I realized that we are great at treating acute conditions. Let’s say somebody had a broken leg, we’re great at fixing that. But if you’ve got something like type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, autoimmune conditions, we are not good at managing those. And if we do, then we have really usually strong drugs that would help to manage the symptoms, but they will often have, again, significant side effects. And I was getting really frustrated because I found myself writing more and more prescriptions and signing them every single day, thinking there must be a different way to do this. And I think that natural curiosity also from the doctorate degree led me on the path of lifestyle medicine when I just realized, wow, this is… what we need because if you look at it there’s so much research on this that nutrition is important exercise is important stress management social connections reducing toxic load and those are essentially the six pillars of lifestyle medicine including sleep and so i signed the diploma and i’m board certified by the international board of lifestyle medicine in conjunction with BSLM, the British Society of Lifestyle Medicine. And I did that in 2019 and I’ve never looked back because that just opened new horizons for me and new approaches to manage these chronic illnesses. And then when I was seeing again women who would come to me, women in midlife, and I was going through midlife changes myself, again that’s you know the realization that we need to talk about lifestyle changes to women in midlife too. And You know, I have to admit that I’m very humbled by the fact that I had two doctorate degrees, one in autoimmunity or molecular cellular biology, and then one in medicine. And I knew nothing about nutrition. And how bizarre is that? I think this is changing now. But and I think most of at least Western universities had would have the same curriculum where nutrition maybe would get. get if you’re lucky a few hours and and that’s about it because mostly we are studying pharmacology and the effect of drugs and the mechanism of medication how it basically in my opinion it doesn’t always it doesn’t cure or doesn’t reverse the illness it often um maybe um alleviates the symptoms and i think we need to go deeper than that we need to look at those causes the issues and lifestyle medicine to me at least is the foundation of that.

Speaker #0
Yeah that’s such a good point I mean I think that I’m here in the United States I mean there’s no training I think just like you very very little training for medical doctors around nutrition and I you know I justify this sometimes that you can’t be good at everything right I mean so you’re expert at medications and acute illnesses And that’s what nutritionists like myself are for. But on the other hand, these things, all these lifestyle things matter so much when it comes to illness. So the fact that a lot of medical doctors don’t know a lot about it is really puzzling sometimes. Yeah. And then to transition into menopause, I know here just, you know, like a lot of the talk Is that most? gynecologists, most doctors do not get any training whatsoever in menopause education. Did you have that experience as well?

Speaker #1
I did have training and through my specialty training as well, we did definitely cover menopause. What we maybe didn’t cover again, what are the non-medical treatments for menopause? And mostly, at least in Britain, the first line would be your antidepressants or SSRIs that are licensed for depression, anxiety, but also for perimenopausal, menopausal symptoms linked to mood changes, even the vasomotor, you know, hot flashes, night sweats. And I remember that as a trainee thinking about it. Well, how? I mean, this woman is not depressed. Like, why are we giving her antidepressants? You know, and I quite rightly would. understand why some women would not want that because they would be saying, and I’m a woman myself going through this, and I sympathize with them. And so I think the training is definitely there. But what I do. find it’s very medication HRT nowadays again oriented so it’s focused mostly on hormone replacement therapy which we know can be life-changing for some women it could be very helpful but then what I’m seeing in my practice and that’s what led me again to rethink the menopause approach is when women would come to me and would say well Dr Olga I’ve tried HRT and I’ve tried the pills and the patches and the gel and the pill combination and the marina coil and my brain fog is still there or I still can’t sleep or I’m still tired and and so on and so on and so some of the symptoms like hot flashes night sweats might have improved but a lot of those what we call them the soft symptoms and the memory changes and they were still there and this is when I I realized and it was this aha moment because also I knew those women and I knew how stressed they were and I knew they didn’t have time to look after themselves and I knew that nutrition probably was the last thing on their list and then quite often in Britain this subject or topic of alcohol is always kind of avoided and we know that with regular alcohol intake your hot flushes, is night sweats will be more pronounced. All those things had to be covered. And I felt really frustrated because within the 10 to 15 minute consultation time that we have here, it was really difficult to do that. And I really wanted to tell all these women that this is what we need to focus on, too, you know. And that’s why I started this online program. I call it Menopause with Lifestyle because I felt this is the platform that I could talk about it. more in detail we can have a deeper dive into into all these aspects of lifestyle and and women found it so helpful because a they felt finally listened to because again 10-15 minutes to cover menopause it’s so difficult and then of course it allowed us to look more into every woman’s individual situation and try then to tailor the changes that would be a applicable to this woman, but also feasible because it’s something that needs to fit around our lifestyle. Women in midlife are busy.

Speaker #0
Yeah, very true. They are very busy, right? You got a lot of things going on. I mean, even just for yourself, right?

Speaker #1
Absolutely.

Speaker #0
You’re going into the menopause transition and you still have three boys at home, which I imagine keeps you extremely busy and you have your career and we have a lot. lot going on or maybe of aging parents. And there’s just a lot. I mean, it’s the busiest time, I think, of our entire lives. And then we have to deal with the menopause transition and all that goes along with that. But so going back to the SSRIs, which is antidepressant. So I know that for me, my doctor, when I went for the first time to talk about hormones or hormone replacement or just any menopause symptoms. The first thing that my doctor suggested was for me to go on an SSRI, which is an antidepressant, which I thought was kind of crazy. I’m not depressed. I didn’t want to make the commitment to such a strong medication. And there was no talk about hormones, but she was pushing the antidepressant and no talk about other lifestyle modifications. So the… Lack of, I think, education for some doctors, at least here in the United States, just seems it’s getting, I think, better now. We’re like getting into sort of mainstream, but it’s taken a long time. And I think you also mentioned, you know, that in your program, the individual component, because your menopause experience is very, very individual. No two women are going through the same exact. thing. And there’s, and so there’s all these aspects of lifestyle that I think are definitely needed, whether you’re on hormones or not. Right. So did you, yeah. And did you decide to focus on menopause because you were having a personal experience going through your own menopause transition?

Speaker #1
Yes. That obviously also kept me curious because I was entering menopause. I was 46 when I noticed my first symptoms. And my first symptoms were night sweats. And being a doctor, you really think of something, the worst, because you think, gosh, what does that mean? I’ve got some underlying blood disorder, cancer, night sweats. And then it dawned on me, oh, right, okay, this is what’s happening. And then again, I knew that there must be other things that we could do to help ourselves. And alcohol was the first thing. And not that I was drinking much at all, but even then I noticed. I would have, my night sights would be a lot worse if I had a glass of wine. And again, I think giving women this information is important because then a woman can make a choice. And it’s the same with nutrition. I think telling women that, guess what? Your nutrition, what you’re eating can either feed and nourish your hormones or it can deplete your hormones. And it’s as simple as that. And I think for a lot of women, it’s a huge revelation because nobody told them that.

Speaker #0
Yeah.

Speaker #1
And so on and so on.

Speaker #0
Yeah. I mean, food, my belief is that there’s no food, specific food that’s going to take away hot flashes or night sweats. I don’t know if you have a different opinion on that, but food definitely matters. I mean, for so many other things, because when we have the depletion of estrogen. our bones suffer, our heart, our brains, skin, right? I mean, there’s so many things that get compromised from this lack of estrogen. And the more we know how to nourish ourselves, the better, because food counts when it comes to bone health, to heart health, to diabetes, and on and on. Yeah.

Speaker #1
Exactly. And, you know, there was a study, it’s a small-ish study by Dr Neil Barnard based in the states uh where they looked at 38 women and it was an rct study um randomized control study where it’s um what they did was they literally just took these women who were on what i call it the standard american diet the sad the sad diet the processed food the pizza the sausage rolls um the processed yogurt etc etc chips and they literally just put them on what I would call it the whole food sorry whole food unprocessed diet yeah and it’s it was mostly plant-based and that means that there was a lot less of the processed stuff with more of the nuts and seeds and lentils and legumes and vegetables and just even that after 12 weeks led to reduction 86 reduction which is huge in hot flashes and night sweats so you might argue it’s a smaller study a smallish study and we need to expand on that. But that’s a good start, again, just to show that even that can help your symptoms. And the mechanisms, again, are probably many there, but even just looking at gut microbiome and knowing that the sub-fraction of that, the estrobilone that is responsible for helping the metabolism of your hormones is going to be much richer, much more diverse. with the unprocessed whole food diet.

Speaker #0
That’s interesting. I’ll look into that study because that’s interesting. I didn’t know of it. How big was the study? How many participants were in it?

Speaker #1
38.

Speaker #0
Okay. So that would be great if they could do a larger study.

Speaker #1
It’s worth paying attention to.

Speaker #0
Absolutely. I mean, there’s no excuse for eating a poor diet, right? I mean… We know that even alcohol use, smoking, these can all contribute to hot flashes, right? Poor processed foods, likely. So the more that you are eating a better plant-based, whole foods diet, the better. I mean, this is a no-brainer. What about here in the United States right now, protein is like the hot ticket item. Everyone is upping their protein and just going crazy for protein. And I’m all for protein. Of course, protein is an essential nutrient. It’s a macronutrient. We need it in our diets. And I am a big proponent of mixing up our proteins with a combination of plant-based because those are also so full of fiber and so many other nutrients. And having some animal protein because the… animals protein is a really good source of like quick you know protein yes but what what is your feeling on this protein craze and are you having it over there in scotland like we are yes i

Speaker #1
think it’s definitely catching up here as well i i hear about this a lot and i think the and i get this asked a lot as well from my women and my clients and my patients because i think the current kind of the the the guidelines sort of say it’s one gram of protein per pound of your ideal body weight which could be quite a lot I think for some of us if we’re not used to it so for me that would be about I’d say 90 gram of protein and per day and I just know that I don’t need that requirement but rather than focusing on the actual number i would suggest focusing on having a bit of protein in it in each meal so let’s say your first meal of the day uh rather than it being uh the cereal with milk which unfortunately is still the staple breakfast here in scotland very often you’re going to think okay how can i actually have my make my protein my first meal of the day be breakfast or later in the day be more around protein whether it’s plant-based or animal-based and the reason for that i think well of course it’s that it’s the muscle tissue we need to be aware of but also that will lead to less glucose and sugar spikes in your bloodstream which again is going to lead to less of the insulin resistance which we are more at risk anyway already in midlife just that’s just a given with hormones going down. And so I think if we’re going to avoid those sugar spikes with processed carbs that are easily converted into sugar in your bloodstream, having those constant up and downs, which makes us more tired, feeling less energy, I think that’s where I think the protein is important. And I think, again, being practical, rather than counting the grams, which I don’t. I don’t count my calories either. And I always tell my women, I don’t want them to be, again, obsessed about counting calories and exactly weighing their protein. But it’s more of a practical, realistic approach. With every meal that you’re having, you ask yourself, right, where is my protein? And then you’re right. I think I’m a proponent of more of a ketobiotic diet rather than keto diet. So we need the good amount of fiber. We need veg. we need greens gone again folic acid deficiency here is unfortunately big because we just don’t eat enough greens and i think the combination of those two as you mentioned already that fiber again is going to feed your microbiome and it’s going to give you the diversity and it will help again to metabolize your hormones whether you are on hrt or not hormone replacement therapy or not because even if you have your own hormones, It’s still going to get you, you’ll get more out of it. Basically.

Speaker #0
Protein has become the, here the star and, and I am kind of wondering like what happened to fiber? I mean, fiber is such a, that’s the nutrient that I think people here at least are very deficient in and really need to focus on. So if you eat plant-based proteins, right. And I tell, because everyone’s so focused on getting chicken and eggs and protein powder and protein bars and, and, but. plant-based proteins have the beautiful combination of both right they’re full of they’re full of fiber full of protein and a hundred percent a hundred percent yeah my favorite is hemp seed did you know that hemp seed is

Speaker #1
a it’s full of protein it’s 33 grams of protein per 100 gram of hemp seeds okay and called organic hemp seeds are fantastic um addition to any salad any morning you know if you’re eating porridge or cereal and just even on its own as a snack i love it because it’s full of fiber as well and then you’ve got your omega-3 i mean it’s it’s a win-win situation here so and i agree with you i think what i see the flip side of that protein craze especially if it’s animal-based protein is that we get constipated Yes. And the protein powders, because they’re mostly whey protein powders. And quite often you ask women, do you know what whey is? They don’t. They don’t realize it’s a byproduct of the dairy industry, etc., etc., quite often not of a great quality. And again, it’s all down to educating women, sitting down with them and saying, right, where else can we get more and better quality protein for you?

Speaker #0
Right. Yeah, I mean, protein powders are a processed food. You think about it. So, and they’re usually have sweeteners or other ingredients that I don’t personally love. I understand when people are just really can’t get enough protein. But I think, like you said, if we are focusing on our three meals and just making sure we have a good source of quality protein and maybe, and then a snack and have a protein.

Speaker #1
there too we should be just fine yes absolutely and then even broccoli has protein okay not much but there’s still protein in the broccoli right and so lentils are a fantastic source of protein i think it’s 18 gram of protein per 100 gram in lentils versus 22 gram in chicken so 18 versus 22 it’s not much of a difference to be honest so you can get great sources of protein from plants And yes, you’re right. I think we’re so obsessed about the protein but then in the waist fibre is the big issue. I think only about 3% of us in the West actually meet the fiber requirement per day, which is about 45, 50 grams. We don’t eat enough fiber.

Speaker #0
Yeah. My prediction is that after the protein craze settles down a little bit, it’s going to become the fiber craze. There’s always something, right? One thing at the moment. And then back to seeds. I love seeds so much. I always tell people, I mean, I usually make a… jar of just different mixed seeds, hemp seeds, chia seeds, flax seeds, pumpkin seeds. And then I just put a couple tablespoons in my oatmeal or just to add, you know, have some extra protein. And, but I mean, protein, fiber, healthy fats, right? It’s all in there. So those are just the best, I think one of the best sources of just whole foods that you can, that you can have.

Speaker #1
Agreed.

Speaker #0
Let’s shift for a second and talk about sleep because I know that this is just the number one complaint of so many women going through menopause. And I know for me, all the hormones in the world are not necessarily fixing my sleep. I mean, they can definitely, hormones can help with night sweats, right? Which then might keep you up and that’s a help, but sleep is complicated, right? And it is one of those lifestyle. components that’s so incredibly important for us. We cannot minimize our sleep and the importance of it to our health, right? What do you think about sleep and the importance?

Speaker #1
Yeah, 100%. I think sleep is tricky because in perimenopause, you’ve got your night sweats and hot flashes to deal with. That’s going to disrupt your sleep. And then equally, with reduced progesterone, and that’s a funny thing again, we… focus so much on estrogen we talk about menopause but progesterone um also is declining and i think the we feel the decline of progesterone probably a lot earlier because um it starts declining from a much higher kind of level compared to estrogen and so and those are the very subtle um symptoms like that hypervigilance and anxiety the irrational anxiety quite often you will say like They don’t know where this is coming from. And sleep problems. And that’s because progesterone does help regulate GABA. And GABA is a neurotransmitter that makes us feel kind of calmer and relaxed. So when that is gone, and that extra hypervigilance, and then we then add on that chronic stress, which we’re under, most of us, and that constant chronic cortisol that’s running high there. So added to that. It’s tricky, but then I think, yes, HRT might help to some extent, but then sleep hygiene and those, again, the basics are going to be super, super important because that will become non-negotiable because we can’t get away with a few hours of sleep when we’re in 20s and 30s. And I think prioritizing it is going to be super important because it’s the tricky one. I’m fully aware of it and it’s very hard to to fix it just with a pill because let’s face it again most sleeping tablets are simply sedatives they make us sleepy but they don’t give us that good quality of that cyclical sleep of deep sleep shallow sleep etc those cycles that we need and so and that’s why the sleeping tablets really don’t work but that’s why again focusing on how can we increase our natural melatonin production and that’s again in response to daylight and most of us are working indoors and we don’t see the daylight on a regular basis that will impact our sleep having late meals at night and insulin spike which is an enemy the enemy of melatonin is again going to impact on our sleep later on through the night and so on and so on and when you teach this little hack and we talk about

Speaker #0
little strategies we can implement. And it does start coming together.

Speaker #1
What do you recommend for people to get more daylight? And when they are working, you know, maybe they’re getting up and going straight to a job and then coming home and might be dark out. And it’s just sometimes impossible to implement some of these lifestyle changes.

Speaker #0
Yes. It’s tricky. And especially if you live in a climate like, I mean, I’m in Scotland. So right now we have a beautiful weather. And when we have summer, the days are really long. And so I’m lucky even if I’m working late, I can come home and I still catch the daylight. And going, for example, after dinner for a walk is amazing because you just take so many boxes, you get your daylight exposure, you start pushing all that glucose after your dinner back into your muscles you you get your red light exposure if it’s the dusk kind of sunlight again the red light if we think about it we are nature’s creatures so we need that circadian rhythm and so that light at dusk again signals our brain that’s okay you’re safe you know calm down so that helps again the the natural melatonin spike in the evening but then in the winter it’s tricky because yeah we’re indoors it’s dark And I would say trying to catch the daylight, even if it’s a cloudy day, whenever you can. For example, lunchtime walk. And even at my surgery, because, you know, it’s so busy and you always feel guilty. I go, I can’t really afford to go on the walk right now. But you literally need 10 minutes. And before you know it, your colleagues are joining you because they realize that 10 minutes actually gives them so much more energy for the rest of the day. And then if you’re really stuck. And again, that lack of daylight can also affect our mood. And again, so many people are very sensitive to that. And the seasonal affective disorder, SAD, can again kick in. And then there are day lamps that you could use as well that would help to mimic that daylight. And the SAD lamps or sad lamps could also be used as a tool.

Speaker #1
Yeah, I have one of those at home. I use it just in like the middle of deep. winter when I, but I, but I do try to get outside as much as possible, especially in the winter, because I know how important it is. And I, and I understand that feeling of, oh, I don’t, I don’t even have 10 minutes or I feel bad. I’m working, but I think we women have to look at it as a form of self-care and it’s necessary. I mean, it’s just necessary when you get outside for 10 minutes, get some sunshine on your face, get your vitamin D up.

Speaker #0
it’s just good for you and you yes feeling good is good for everybody else yes it’s one of those non-negotiables on my list i would say that’s the non-negotiable and obviously we all know about the blue light and the blue light blockers you know putting your devices away um before bedtime at least two hours before bedtime but the other one is the non-negotiable one i would say is the caffeine Again, we don’t want to talk about it quite often because, I mean, I love my coffee, but I don’t like what it does to me. Again, it depends on the quality of the coffee, and we can talk about it. It’s going to be a whole separate conversation. Let’s face it, you know, some of us don’t metabolize it quickly enough. And so for some of us, it might still be in our bloodstream 12 hours later. So if we are reaching out for the afternoon, pick me up coffee. at 3 p.m., 4 p.m., it might still be, half of it might be still in your bloodstream, because half-life could be 12 hours. And that is a stimulant.

Speaker #1
Yeah, I’m so sensitive to caffeine. It’s ridiculous how sensitive I am. And I just actually, I was only drinking one cup of tea in the morning, and I, for the last few weeks, have gone no caffeine at all.

Speaker #0
Wow.

Speaker #1
And yeah. It’s been hard, but it’s been good, though. I mean, overall, it’s good. I think for, you know, when I have even that one cup, caffeine just sets my bladder into a tailspin. I’m like in the bathroom 20 times. So I just wanted to experiment and see. And it’s made a huge difference, but I do miss it. I really do. But if I drink something, anything caffeine after 3 o’clock, I am. done. My sleep is done. I’m like, expect me to be up for two hours in the middle of the night, which is just so it’s funny how some women can not even notice it. And some are just super sensitive like myself. But yeah,

Speaker #0
the caffeine is a stimulus. All different. Yeah. And that’s why I listen to your body. And if you’re somebody who’s coming to me and saying, look, I have absolutely no issues with my sleep. And I drink two cups of coffee. I mean, look at Italy and Spain. I mean, they’re all drinking espressos. pretty much 24 7. but again it would be interesting to see what is their prevalence of sleep issues in those countries but again we need to remember we are all different but if you say to me look my sleep is disrupted i don’t know what’s going on and then if you then tell me my last cup of coffee is at 5 p.m and i’m having symptoms of what we would say an overactive bladder where we what do we do we suggest treatment medication I think this is where we have to really start kind of unpeeling the onion and discussing things like, well, coffee is going to be affecting your bladder. Coffee, even if it’s a decaf, because decaf is never 100% caffeine free. That’s about 30% of it’s still caffeine. So we need to remember that as well. And if you’re one of those women, then we need to have a conversation. And there’s ways around it. Maybe have your coffee decaf first thing in the morning. or at least before lunchtime and see how your body responds to that.

Speaker #1
Right. Yeah. And I, it just goes, I think, back to that conversation around alcohol and just like these vices that we have, you know, sometimes that I think as we get older, maybe we become more sensitive to them and we can’t really, and so you have to weigh out the consequences. I mean, what is it, is it worth having a couple of glasses of wine and like waking up with night sweats in the middle of the night is, I mean, or is it worth it to maybe back off of, of alcohol and see how that makes you feel? And same with coffee.

Speaker #0
Absolutely. And then again, all it comes down to what does alcohol serve you as? What does it mean for you to have a glass of wine? Is it, is it to have a good time with your friends, to enhance the taste of your meal at dinnertime? Or is it something that will help you fall asleep every night and you need that and use it as a crutch? So, you know, or this is the only de-stressor that you can think of. And I think that’s where the conversation then shifts completely from, you know, and I’m not saying like, don’t ever, ever drink alcohol. That’s that’s impossible. I would say some people make that choice consciously. Absolutely fine. But it’s more of having that conversation with yourself.

Speaker #1
and and then deciding what would be the best thing for you definitely yeah I mean it right some of these habits that we have can get very complicated because we link them to so many emotions right having a glass of wine in the evening or drinking your morning cup of coffee is very ritualistic right and and you have to unlink some of those or just or just cultivate the awareness that, oh, wow, I really, every time I’m stressed out, I want to have a glass of wine or every time I just feel a little tired, I’m making a cup of coffee. You know, we just have to, yeah, just have the awareness, I think, around that. So, yeah, it’s, I know, these are all the things that women in midlife and going through menopause have to grapple with, right?

Speaker #0
Yes, yes.

Speaker #1
Yeah. So I wanted to talk to you also about exercise because we were just talking about getting outside for a couple of minutes a day. And I mean, and again, I’m going to just kind of go back to like what’s happening here in the United States, because right now, weighted vests, strength training, lifting heavy. I mean, these are all very hot ticket items right now, like very, you know, hot topics. And what do you think about? physical activity and movement as far as life. So, I mean, I know I’m not even asking if you think it’s a good idea or not. We know, we know that it’s, it’s necessary and it’s great. And, but what do you think about the overemphasis or the big emphasis right now on strength training and lifting and weighted vests? And yeah,

Speaker #0
I think we’ve gone from having a lot of talk about cardio and that kind of staying slim kind of fitness for women when we were 20s and 20s and 30s and then now we’ve gone all about weights and lifting heavy. Again, like with anything else, I think the truth is somewhere in the middle. What I see is that either women don’t exercise enough, because let’s face it, as a society, again, we are sedentary, or they would do maybe menopause yoga or something very gentle, which is nice, but again, it’s probably not enough. Then the other extreme is where women will come and… say to me look I’m doing my weight lifting five days a week I’m doing HIIT training five days a week and I’m still feeling miserable I’m tired I’m not losing weight my joints are sore and this is what I want to say to them okay let’s sit down and have a conversation so the reason you’re not losing weight is because your body is in a constant state of stress stress in the kind of primal terms and farming usually you know in the olden days let’s say yes when you know before we had the industrial revolution meant that we probably will not get food for a few days and so what does the body think i’m gonna store up on that fat just in case and that is why you’re not losing your weight losing weight and so and i think we do definitely need weight training because let’s even talk about osteoporosis again you can have all the hrt all your estrogen in the world and the calcium supplements and the vitamin d supplements but if those bones are not put under a bit of pressure just even from your own body weight and i’m talking your own body weight squats because it’s very difficult to injure yourself with your own body weight because body is really clever you know the biomechanics will be absolutely fine and sorted and so and then push-ups for the upper body strength start small start with that because you need a little bit of you basically pressure on your bones it was this experiment um in a biosphere too in arizona i don’t know if you’re aware of it where they created this um covered area with perfect conditions for trees and the humidity and oxygen level etc etc and the trees were growing but then after a certain time they noticed scientists noticed they were falling down and they couldn’t understand what was going on and then they realized huh there’s no wind

Speaker #1
How interesting.

Speaker #0
And so, yeah, and the roots were really shallow, although the trees looked so healthy. But because we’re not put under that stress of the wind where the roots had to develop, and then also the trees are really good at kind of connecting the roots with each other. And so, and that’s the same thing with our bones. So if we’re going to be pumping all the nutrients, but not really exercising our bones, jumping is also really good for that, you know, kind of stomping. And so that’s basically, that’s what it is. And ideally, again, in the ideal world, you want to vary a little. You want to do maybe your weight training a couple of times a week. You want to do a bit of cardio, high intensity interval training, HIIT training, because that’s a really good aerobic exercise. And you do probably want a bit of yoga pilates to stretch those muscles that you’ve been working hard through your weight training. and and stretch the fascia and stretch the soft tissue again let’s see face it we are stiff we sit a lot we’re hunched forward most of the day and and i think that that usually gives really good results because it’s a much more balanced way of exercising and movement in general and then of course it depends on your work you know some people already are doing their cardio at work because they’re on their feet all day yeah and maybe all they needed was just to is just to add a bit of weight training and maybe stretching.

Speaker #1
Yeah. And I also want to emphasize that doing things that you enjoy, I always tell this to my clients. I mean, make sure that you like it and that it’s not something that you feel like is just another chore on your to-do list, but something that you enjoy. If you enjoy lifting weights and weight training, great, good. Or find something similar, but that you like to do.

Speaker #0
Yes.

Speaker #1
But also,

Speaker #0
I think also be open-minded. Because, for example, I mean, even personally myself, I tried to do weights, I think, when I was younger. And I think probably it was my fault. Potentially, the instructor didn’t explain how to do it safely. So I pulled my back. And at that time, I thought, that’s not for me, really. I don’t want to do it. And you get scared because you don’t want to get an injury. But thankfully, I revisited it. And thankfully, this time, the instructor was fantastic. And so, and that feeling of being able to lift weights, and I don’t lift heavy, I would say maximum, you know, eight to 10 kilograms in each hand. But even that gives me that feeling that, you know, I’m stronger, I can feel that I’m stronger. And also remember, your muscles are calorie burning machines. So we need to have a good, strong muscle. The muscle wasting, unfortunately, is happening as we get older. And that is why, again, the weight training needs to come in maybe not five times a week, but once or twice a week, usually. I think that’s a good start.

Speaker #1
Yeah. No, that’s actually a good point to remember is that the more muscle you have, the faster you’re better, more efficient your metabolism is, and the more you’re burning calories and so on. So it becomes really important as we get older because. we become less efficient at burning calories, unfortunately. So let’s talk about your last lifestyle change that you had mentioned, and that’s managing relationships, which I think is so important that knowing that we are, we’re social, I think, especially in this time of life, going through the menopause transition, women need community. Yes. to know that we’re not alone. I mean, I know when I first was going through perimenopause, I don’t know if you felt the same. I felt so alone in the experience because nobody was talking about it. My friends weren’t talking about it. It was a secret. No one got education on menopause. There was like no education. I was like, like just feeling my way in the dark kind of, and even my doctors were not educating me. So it was just. a really lonely experience for a while. And I think there’s so much confusion. And then out on the internet, social media, all that there’s just people preying on your vulnerabilities. Think of menopause. So I think it can be very lonely. So what do you feel about just this having community and building our emotional resilience and just having the importance of relationships at this time?

Speaker #0
Yes, I think the menopause conversation went from being hush-hush to now a complete opposite. It’s a bit of a jungle out there, I think. A jungle,

Speaker #1
that’s a good way to describe it.

Speaker #0
And I mean, I sometimes feel confused. And sometimes you listen to somebody and you follow that person. And some of the stuff they would say is true, is correct. You think, yeah, okay, okay. And then suddenly they’ll come up with something completely wild. And you think, hang on a minute, you know, is that… is that the case so i think yeah it’s good that we are talking about it a hundred percent that’s that’s huge um but yes we i guess we have to in terms of the finding information we have to be maybe slightly more careful and maybe you know looking at other aspects of speak to your doctor as well i mean doctors i think are getting more education on this um but also you find your tribe um find your circle of friends i think loneliness and feeling isolated again is huge i think it’s now likened to being as harmful as 15 cigarettes a day and of smoking and so and i think women can find it hard as you said you know we have so many responsibilities and we often put ourselves last because we are taking care of our family our children our elderly parents we have a career um and so and then also having that time for yourself you know i i say to women slot that in that that time in your calendar and that way either you do nothing or you’re meeting your friend for a cup of tea or coffee because it’s not luxury It’s your moment of self-care, almost like self-preservation, because you need it. Because you can’t run on empty. That running on adrenaline that was in 20s, 30s is not going to work anymore. And so, and I think that’s how it starts. And then, yes, have the open conversation. If you have friends who are going through the same, I mean, even better, have open conversations with them. Share your stories. sometimes a shared burden is half a burden and then you realize that oh i’m not alone so the women i work with um we run it as a small group so we have about five women in the group um and some women i think are a little bit apprehensive of working in the group because they think that one-to-one you know program is better it is good but then i think what they’ve all said to me wow I really enjoyed the community and they all became really good friends. Because they realized what they thought they were suffering with. the only person having this issue, they realize other women are going through the same.

Speaker #1
Right.

Speaker #0
Oh, wow, I’m not the odd one out here. And then, you know, before you know it, they’re sharing their stories, they are actually giving each other advice, because somebody might have found a solution, or they were worried that there was no solution, suddenly there is one. And so I think that’s very, very important for women.

Speaker #1
Yes, I agree. That’s a great point that I think women are used to just like kind of suffering and silence, right? And it’s not comfortable sometimes for women to be in groups and to have to be vulnerable and talk about your feelings or your symptoms. But once you can break past that, it can be an incredible experience. So I agree with that. Talked about healthy eating, our sleep, our stress, our physical activity, controlling. what you call excess, like alcohol and caffeine and managing our relationships and not being in isolation. And if you had to pick one of these to focus on now, like, you know, if a woman came to you and she wanted to, you know, just start, what one would be the most important to you as far as like working, you know, in the menopause realm?

Speaker #0
Yes. Well, all of those are important that’s why they’re no I know I know that I know

Speaker #1
I’m like I’m like I’m like saying the question out loud I’m like I obviously all of them are so important but you’re right if I were to pick one

Speaker #0
I think that would be your self-care and your mindset and I’ll tell you why because when women come to me um they are desperate you And they have been suffering in silence and they don’t know where to start. But they also feel that they can’t afford to do this or there’s no time to look after myself or this is just an indulgence. I should just have to get on with it. And I think giving that woman permission and saying, you deserve this. You know, you need to now to start looking after yourself. And it starts here in our head to… stop feeling guilty about it and suddenly when that mind shift that that mind that shift happens in your mind suddenly things start changing and women feel lighter and women feel right now I’m going to think more about what I’m eating every day what is nourishing me what is nourishing my soul what is it that I’ve always wanted to do I used to love doing for example and I haven’t had the time to do, be it painting. Joining the choir, one woman said to me she wanted to go back gardening because she felt like it was all in the back burner. And I think once they have that permission and with a bit of guidance, they’ll be off. And suddenly you can see it’s like the domino effect, the ripple effect of the changes that start happening. And it’s wonderful to see that.

Speaker #1
I agree with you 100%. I think that none of this can happen. until you make your self-care the number one priority. And that means being very kind to yourself, right? Knowing that this can be a hard journey, being very self-compassionate. If you are just going to beat yourself up and feel like you have to go on another kind of diet or regimen, or you have to go exercise, it’s never going to work. It doesn’t work. I’ve seen it too many times with clients. But if you come at it with compassion and self-kindness, then these things become important. Right. Eating well becomes very important because you know you’re nourishing yourself or exercising becomes important because it’s just helping you and on and on. So I agree with you.

Speaker #0
Yeah. And then start small. Don’t get overwhelmed. Don’t get overwhelmed with. all the things you have to change at once. No, you don’t. So pick one thing, pick that something that you’re comfortable with and then you will notice, aha, suddenly I have more energy. Now I can start doing something else. Now I can add on exercise to that. Or now I started leaving my phone outside in my bedroom because I realized that two hours of time before my bed is crucial for me to wind down. I’m doing something much calmer, something that doesn’t involve the devices and long to-do lists and so on and so on

Speaker #1
Right. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, right?

Speaker #0
Yeah.

Speaker #1
Olga, thank you so much for speaking to me today about this and love your different lifestyle changes and that women, all women can make. How do women get in touch with you?

Speaker #0
I’ve got loads of free resources as well. So check out my website. It’s drolgamorton.com. in very easy just my name and dr.alga morton.com i do have a weekly newsletter that comes out every friday where i would um promise you i’ll promise you keep it short and sweet and just really nobody has the time to read long emails but it’s something literally just to give you practical advice and tips and also to keep you motivated and give you a little nudge in the right direction from time to time and i do have a free ebook you could download you from our website again covers exactly what we’re just talking about but you could print it out and almost use it as a workbook where you can go through the questions yourself and see what you can change and so you can actually start making changes today um and yes i also do run free master classes which are online which you can join and if you can’t because of the different time zones and you can always register and watch the replay which a lot of my clients do So there’s lots of different ways of still connecting with me and working with me if you’re interested.

Speaker #1
Okay, fantastic. Well, I will put all those links in the show notes. And so people can find you that way. Thank you so much for talking today. I appreciate it. And you’re doing great things.

Speaker #0
And thank you for having me. It was a pleasure.

Speaker #1
And as always, if you loved this podcast. please consider gifting me with a five-star review. It is so helpful for me to get the word out on real eating, our real bodies, and real food stories. Thank you so much and have a great week. Bye for now.