Real Food Stories: How Traditional Chinese Medicine Can Transform Menopause Health and Support Women’s Wellness

Are you navigating the challenges of menopause and feeling overwhelmed by the options available for support? You’re not alone! Join host Heather Carey in this enlightening episode of Real Food Stories as she welcomes Chloe Weber, a doctor of Chinese medicine and herbalist, to discuss the transformative power of chinese medicine in supporting women’s health during this pivotal stage of life. Together, they delve into the unique struggles women face in midlife, especially when hormone replacement therapy (HRT) isn’t a viable option for everyone.

Chloe sheds light on the fact that while HRT can be beneficial for some, it is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Instead, she offers insights into how traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) provides holistic support through personalized herbal formulations that not only promote hormonal balance but also enhance overall well-being. From better sleep to increased energy, TCM’s approach is about nurturing the body in a way that honors its natural cycles.

Throughout their conversation, Chloe introduces the five phases of Chinese medicine, emphasizing the significance of seasonal eating and aligning food choices with nature’s rhythms. By incorporating healthy eating tips and mindful eating practices, women can empower their menopause journey and embrace midlife body positivity. This episode serves as an invaluable resource for those seeking alternative methods to navigate the complexities of menopause health, offering practical nutrition advice and cooking techniques that resonate with personal food journeys.

As a culinary nutritionist, Heather is empathetic to the unique needs of women in this life stage, advocating for a proactive approach to wellness that encompasses not just diet, but also emotional resilience and self-care. With a focus on nutrition and health, the discussion touches on the importance of understanding food beliefs and culture, as well as debunking common weight loss myths and diet fads that can lead to food confusion.

This episode is perfect for anyone looking to explore the intersection of women’s health and nutrition during midlife. Whether you’re interested in the Mediterranean diet insights, vegan cooking techniques, or simply wish to nourish your body with real food, Chloe’s expertise in chinese medicine and Heather’s culinary wisdom will inspire you to make empowered lifestyle choices. Tune in to discover how to embrace your personal nutrition journey and cultivate a nourishing relationship with food as you navigate the beautiful complexities of midlife.

Don’t miss out on this opportunity to learn about the healing potential of TCM and how it can support your health during menopause. Join us for a conversation that celebrates the power of food, culture, and women’s 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. Hello, everybody, and welcome back to the Real Food Stories podcast. I am your host, Heather Carey. Today’s episode is a rich and eye-opening conversation that I have been so excited to share with you. I am joined by Chloe Weber, who is a doctor of Chinese medicine. She’s an herbalist and a passionate advocate for integrative holistic healing. If you’re in midlife and navigating the ups and downs of perimenopause or postmenopause, especially if hormone therapy is not an option for you, this episode is a must listen. Chloe and I dive deep into the world of traditional Chinese medicine and how customized herbal formulations can offer powerful support through menopause. We also talk about something really important. While hormone replacement therapy can be incredibly helpful for many women. It’s not. a magic bullet all of the time. It doesn’t fix everything. It can fix a lot of things, but it doesn’t always fix everything. And it doesn’t always agree with women as well. Or you might not be a candidate for hormones. So what I learned from Chloe is that whether you’re taking HRT or not, Chinese herbs can, in a roundabout way, fill in the gaps. Think better sleep. fewer hot flashes, more energy, and just overall support for your whole body, not just your hormones. It’s a whole science. And I could actually have Chloe back on again just to even talk more in depth about what Chinese medicine is. But it’s a lot to know. And that’s why it’s good to have an expert like Chloe. Now, Chloe also introduces us to the five phases of Chinese medicine. which is a framework that helps us understand not just our bodies, but also how we nourish ourselves through food. Eating seasonally and in alignment with nature is one of the core principles. And honestly, it’s something we could all benefit from embracing more. Because nourishing yourself with the rhythms of the seasons is absolutely a must right now. So let’s get into this beautiful grounding conversation I had with Chloe and hope to see you in the Recipe Club.

Speaker #1
A doctor of Chinese medicine,

Speaker #0
Chloe Weber is the founder of Noxy Herbs, a groundbreaking herbal line designed to meet women where they are in their hormonal journey. Noxy’s modular system draws from the deep wisdom of traditional Chinese medicine to offer personalized phase-specific formulas that evolve with a woman’s cycle, age, and needs, bringing ancient precision to modern hormonal chaos. Chloe’s mission is clear. to create a proactive model of medicine that empowers women with real solutions, not prescriptions. She’s also the host of the Radical Remedy podcast, where she educates and inspires a new wave of health-conscious women ready to reclaim their bodies and their power. Hi, Chloe. I am so happy to have you on the show because we are in what I think of as like a menopause revival right now. And what I mean by that is that menopause and hormones are just having a moment on social media with Oprah. Everyone’s talking about menopause right now. And therein lies, I think, so much confusion. We know that every woman on this planet goes through menopause and the menopause transition. And we know that most women experience a lot of disruption in their lives due to menopause. physically, emotionally. And using hormones as a solution has been so controversial in a way for years, right? And even though we know now that hormones are safe for most women, they’re not always the perfect answer, nor do women want to go on hormones. They want to try to do something more natural. And for this reason, I’m really excited to have you on. And… talk about alternative ways to help with hormones and the whole menopause transition. So welcome to the show. I’m so happy to have you here.

Speaker #1
Well, thank you so much. It’s an honor to be here. And I too am thrilled that Women’s Health is finally having a moment. As I like to say, it is fantastic that we are finally being acknowledged being as we have created every single person on this planet. So it is about time that people actually take our health seriously. And Chinese herbs, I’ve been really blown away with this conversation coming out. information’s coming out and how much focus is on women’s health right now, particularly menopause. And it shocks me that Chinese medicine is not at the forefront of this conversation because Chinese medicine, particularly Chinese herbal medicine, does such an incredible job at supporting women’s health and hormones. So I’m really excited to be here to chat with you about it.

Speaker #0
Great. So jump in and tell me your story about how you got into Chinese medicine, how you created your company. how it’s different, I think, than typical supplements. We see a lot of wacky supplements out on the internet, you know, to trying to cater to menopause symptoms and menopause health. And so let’s just jump in just for the sake of my audience who might not know a lot about traditional Chinese medicine. Give us a little background on that.

Speaker #1
Totally. So when I was younger, I really wanted to study public health. and look into the different ways that we could support building health in our society. When I was 15, I had a rare tropical disease called cutaneous leishmaniasis. I started learning about how what we were doing to our environment was spreading disease and evolving disease within our societies. And so it’s something that I’ve always been fascinated with. I started down the Western mythical route and then just saw that a lot of it was just putting Band-Aids on top of issues instead of actually addressing them. addressing the root causes of disharmony. And so that’s precisely what Chinese medicine does. So instead of just looking at the symptoms that are presenting, let’s say menopause, so like say you’re having hot flashes or headaches or weight gain, instead of just looking at these symptoms in isolation, we’re looking at the underlying patterns of disharmony within your body. So we’re trying to really restore the ecology of the body. so that your body is functioning better. So Western medicine is really reactive medicine. We’re looking at these singular pathways. So it’s like, okay, we’re missing estrogen. Great, but that estrogen is important, but it also ties into the body in many different ways. So with Chinese medicine, when we’re talking about menopause, we’re often talking about yin and yang. So many people have heard of yin and yang or yin and yang. So that’s not just like a cute little symbol in Chinese medicine. That’s a really foundational aspect of our medicine. So yin is the nourishing fluid aspects of the body, whereas yang is the fire active aspects of the body. So as we hit 35, our kidney yin, which the kidneys are in charge of our reproductive health and store our vital energy, our kidney yin starts to deplete at 35. This is where we start seeing these perimenopausal symptoms. That yin, again, the cooling, nourishing aspects of the body, as that’s depleting, we’re seeing signs of dryness, hot flashes, increased anxiety, heart palpitations. These things all come up because that yin starts to decline. So in Chinese medicine, what we do is we really nourish the kidneys, nourish the yin. And we do that through lifestyle, herbs, acupuncture. and acupressure and even just dietary therapy. So it’s a very different system than Western medicine and even Western herbology, which Western herbology typically will still give you sort of like a one-to-one correlation. Like you’re normally just taking one herb. In Chinese medicine, we have about 400 different herbs that we choose from and we create really dynamic formulas to address the symptoms and those root causes. Hopefully that was not too confusing and all over the place.

Speaker #0
Yeah, no. So it sounds like it’s just a more right. Taking just hormone replacement therapy. I mean, estrogen affects a lot from like our head to toes, right? Like, I mean, so we have the depletion of estrogen. It can create all sorts of chaos in our bodies. But the herbs in Chinese medicine seem to focus on like a more holistic. Am I am I correct in this? Yeah.

Speaker #1
so it’s a nourishing it’s also supporting the other aspects of the body so basically we look at so we talk about the five elements a lot in checks so we’ve got wood fire with metal and water and each of these elements corresponds with different organ system corresponds with different flavor, a different taste, a different emotion, right? And so the ones that are most deeply connected to hormone health in Chinese medicine are the liver, the kidneys, the heart, and the spleen. So the spleen is in charge of processing both foods and emotions, right? So we see the spleen out of alignment. We’ll see loose stools, overthinking, that monkey mind before bed. You might have food allergies. You might feel sort of fatigued in your muscles. heavy. So that we see go out of alignment in menopause often, right? So we see women start carrying that extra weight. We call that dampness in Chinese medicine. So we want to make sure that the spleen is functioning, but the spleen is on the same axis as the liver. The liver is in charge of the free flow of qi and blood throughout the body and is deeply connected to our cycle and really impacted by stress. So the liver, if you’re having PMS symptoms, you’re having irritability, frustration, you have day of rage, as I lovingly like to call it, that’s the liver chi stagnation. So Chinese medicine has honored the fact that digestion and stress are on the same axis for thousands of years. And so these two are always on the flip side. And that’s, that’s often sort of younger years of when you’re of hormone health. When it comes to menopause, the kidneys, as I said, are like the house of our reproduction and our original chi. And that sort of declines as we age our jing, as we call it. And then the heart is really where we store our spirit. And so that axis is really important when it comes to menopause. Because what happens is we’ve had all of this energy in our kidneys in terms of creating new life, in terms of sustaining that life that we’ve created, taking care of everybody else. And as we go through menopause, that energy flips to our heart. And so at that point, we’re able to really truly express ourselves. I think there’s a trend on TikTok, the we do not care club for women in menopause and perimenopause. And that is what is happening. We do not care because now finally, instead of taking care of everybody else’s needs and catering to everyone else in our communities, in our lives, in our homes, we are finally honoring our true selves and saying we’re we’re tired, we’re fed up, and I’m going to take care of myself for the first time. So in Chinese medicine, it’s just a completely different way of looking at it. So yes, we want to support the estrogen and make sure that we are getting that nourishment that we need for our mind and our body. But it’s just such a different system and different way of looking at the body and honoring, you know, these dynamic forces within our body and how they’re interacting with each other.

Speaker #0
Yeah. So it sounds like, I mean, it’s so much. I mean, it sounds like you can’t do this on your own, right? I mean, we would need you to maybe, is it very individual how you prescribe herbs and different herbs and everything? Because I know that you’ve got some formulas.

Speaker #1
Yeah.

Speaker #0
Right?

Speaker #1
Let’s do it. So the gold standard in Chinese medicine is always going to be getting a customizable formula from a practitioner. And if you have the means to go and get an acupuncturist, I highly recommend it. Acupuncture is amazing for hormone regulation and just overall support and well-being. So you can look up somebody in your area, search around. Not all doctors are the right fit for you, but search and find the right one for you. If you have that ability, highly recommend it. I cannot recommend it more. If you can’t, you know, my goal is really trying to use Chinese herbs for public health intervention. In China, Chinese herbs are the backbone of the medicine. And in the U.S., we’re not really using these herbs very much or not to their full efficacy. So as a practitioner, when I’m working with women, what I normally do is I’ll change formulas at least once throughout the course of the month. So after you’re done bleeding, you’re largely depleted. You’ve just bled for three to seven days. So you’re run down. So we need to nourish the kidneys, nourish the blood, and build chi back up. So chi is your energy. So I have a formula for that called Nourish. And then after that, for most women, what you want to do is you want to move the chi in blood. so In preparation for your cycle, you want to make sure that that gene blood is moving smoothly, that’ll alleviate those PMS symptoms, help with the irritability and frustration, make sure that you’re not having this. As you evolve and as you start going through menopause and coming to menopause, you may want to start focusing more on the nourish, so nourishing the kidneys. But you might want to change from that liver cheese stagnation, the regulate, over to our heart formula, calm. So calm is really nourishing the heart. So basically what I created was a system where it’s largely a spleen formula, so a digestion formula. that I often recommend for women going through perimenopause who are gaining weight, and also for women who are going through metabolically based hormonal disorders like PCOS. So that’s Resolve. Then we’ve got Regulate, which is a liver chi formula, which is often used for irritability, frustration, PMS symptoms. But you’re also getting those PMS symptoms in perimenopause, and sometimes significantly more intensely. And then we’ve got Calm, which is a heart tonic, which is really, I like to think of it as like a big hug from the heart. It’s just really helping calm your spirit. It’s great for sleep, insomnia, night sweats, and then nourishes the kidney formula that’s really deeply tonifying your body. So we have a quiz on the website that women can take, and it’ll tell you which formulas we recommend and for which times of the cycle if you’re in menopause clinically. Like if you’re already like at that phase of going through menopause, I normally recommend that you’re just taking nourish during the day and then calm at night. And that’s just a really deeply tonifying pair to help you sleep well, to help nourish your kidneys, help nourish the estrogen. And it is going to support, I know you’ve asked before, it is going to support with that HRT if you are taking HRT as well.

Speaker #0
Okay. Yeah. Because I was going to ask you that. Is this something that you can do? in conjunction because it sounds, I mean, I’m on hormones. So, and I know it like, it helps to like some specific things, but I, but I am the first person to say like, it is no magic bullet. It has helped me in a lot of ways. I mean, I’m not going off of it at any time soon if I don’t have to, but it sounds like the herbs sort of fill in like these gaps, like it, it like rounds out healing, you know, or, or, you know, just the, is that correct? to say that?

Speaker #1
Yeah, well, what I mean, what the research indicates, and what I’ve found clinically is that the herbs really potentiate the actions of the estrogen and helps you balance your body in a different way. So it’s like, you know, the estrogen is sort of one size fits all and does so many dynamic things within the body and brain, as you mentioned. really impacts every aspect of it. But we still have these underlying patterns of disharmony from a lifetime of overgiving, of, you know, not taking care of ourselves in the way that we need to, of just getting older. I mean, like, you know, everybody has some level of imbalance within their body. You know, I’m a doctor of Chinese medicine. I live this medicine. I eat. fairly immaculately and take very good care of myself. And yet I still have spleen-shee deficiency. I still get liver-shee stagnation. I’m still going to get frustrated. These imbalances just happen because we live in this world, which is innately incredibly stressful and challenging. And not to mention, we are also bombarded with environmental toxins everywhere, as well as emotional toxins everywhere. So it’s like, it’s helping. restore balance to those underlying patterns so that the estrogen can also be more effective in what it’s doing as well.

Speaker #0
Is there science behind these herbs and these formulations? Because I just always like science. I mean, it all sounds great and I want to experiment with all your herbs. I’m just curious, are there studies behind using herbs?

Speaker #1
I think that’s why I ended up gravitating to Chinese herbs instead of being more focused on acupuncture. So most people, when you graduate from, you know, I got a master’s in Chinese medicine, which I always like to point out is of course equivalent of two and a half law degrees for four and a half master’s degrees in three years. I then went on and got my doctorate. But so I, you know, most people focus on acupuncture because that’s something that, you know, it’s really tangible. You feel the difference. And it’s just like more known and understood in the West. For me, I always gravitated to Chinese herbs. And I think that that was because… I could understand the Eastern energetics through the lens of Chinese medicine, but I could also look at all the Western pharmacological actions of these herbs. So there’s so much research on these herbs. It’s pretty incredible. So, again, I tend to have, I want to say about 12 to 15 herbs in my formulas in each of them. So most of my formulas are completely customized and created by me. My formula regulate is sort of an offspin of a classical Chinese herbal formula called Shaoyao San, which has been used for hundreds of years to regulate women’s cycles. And there’s a ton of research on that base formula that we use for that. So I was sort of debating whether to use classical formulas because of the research on the full formula or whether to modify. And in the end, I wanted to modify to honor sort of the evolution of where we are in society. and how our bodies are changing. Like, I feel like our digestion is not as effective as it might have been back in the day when we weren’t eating, you know, glyphosate and all of these various different toxins daily, no matter how clean we are. So, you know, I put in a little bit more digestive support herbs in there, but there’s a lot of research on all of the single herbs, you know, ginseng, poshawu. uh reishi you know we use a lot of medicinal mushrooms in chinese medicine so it’s really fun going down that rabbit hole i highly recommend anybody nerd out on it and i’ll be coming out with a book on women’s health and chinese medicine chinese herbs in fall i’m just finishing it up but it has a bunch of research on specific herbs and how you can start integrating them into your diet and into teas that you can make at home for yourself as well oh that’s great

Speaker #0
That sounds like it’s very needed. And I’m glad you’re doing that.

Speaker #1
Just like, why isn’t this out there? Like, I feel like most of the projects I work on, like my first business was, well, my second business was Radical Roots, which is CBD and Chinese herbs. And I wanted to make that to stop my son, Remy, as a genetic disorder, because he was having seizures. And I just kept seeing these one-size-fits-all CBD products on the market. And I was like, this is great. But like… if we use different herbs together to potentiate the actions, it’s going to be so much more effective. And I tried to like pitch the idea to different CBD companies. I was like, I’m a single mom of a kiddo with special needs. I don’t want to be starting another business right now. I know how that goes. And nobody was interested. And it was one of those things where you sort of stomp your feet long enough, then you’re like, damn it, I’ll do it. And I feel that way with women’s health also. I’m like, there are practitioners out there who have you know, been so revolutionary in Chinese medicine and women’s health. I don’t know why they’re not putting this information out on a bigger scale. And so finally I was like, okay, well, if they’re not going to do it, then I’m going to do my damnedest to get this out to as many women as possible. Um, because I’ve watched how incredibly safe and effective it is over my last 15 years of clinical practice. Um, and I know it changes lives powerfully.

Speaker #0
Yeah, that’s so interesting. I mean, I’m so glad that you’re doing it. And I’m just wondering why. I mean, with like, I mean, just your example of the CBD that I mean, CBD, I don’t had its moment a couple of years ago. It seemed like it was there’s pop up shops in the town I live in. There’s I mean, everyone was taking CBD. And now it seems like nobody’s taking or maybe they are. I don’t know. You just don’t see it like that. You know, and so when you have a very specific.

Speaker #1
formula and i wonder why like you know or in the chinese herbs too that it’s not more top of mind i mean i think there is a lot there has been traditionally a lot of propaganda against china um in our country you know realistically like anytime i go off you know not but most of the time if i go on social media i’ll get some level of people telling me that i killed rhinos that it’s laden with pesticides and whatnot, which can be a concern. Every single herb that we get is tested for heavy metals, pesticides, and potency. So I’m very psychotic about that. We manufacture it all in the States here in Colorado through a crazy alchemical spagyric extraction. I’m a proper maniac when it comes to the quality of our products. But there is a lot of stigma against. things coming from China and then also you know I think a lot of people really have bought into the belief that the Western medical system is the most effective medical system that there is. Personally, I believe the research which states that the Western medicine is the third leading cause of death in our country, and that’s properly prescribed Western medicine. So to me, I would much prefer that people try and do natural medicine and traditional medicine. before you go to Western medicine, that’s not to say that Western medicine doesn’t have a place. I absolutely admire it. I love the research. I nerd out on all of it. I think it has its place, but to me, it’s like, okay, what can we do with lifestyle? You know, are you actually sleeping well? Are you actually moving every day? Are you eating real foods? Are you taking care of yourself in these basic ways that we really truly need to, in order to build foundational health? That is number one. And I can tell you that like 95% of people out there are not. doing that, you know, then it’s like, okay, so let’s, let’s look at tweaking your diet, then maybe herbs or acupuncture. And then for some instances, then you need the Western, you know, pharmacological interventions. But often, if you’re on herbs, and you’re doing the other things, and you need less of the Western medicines, which do tend to come with significant side effects, which what I see clinically, again, is sort of those side effects compound, and then you’re on more and more pharmaceuticals. which creates a snowball effect. So it’s not that I don’t like Western meds. It’s more just like, let’s go through the proper order to see if they’re necessary.

Speaker #0
Yeah, I think that’s such a good point. We, you know, these Chinese herbs sound so good, but we here in the United States live a Western lifestyle of like high stress, on the move, eating junk, you know, like we’re just like, and give us something, give me a quick fix, give me a pill. And so I imagine that these herbs have to be used in conjunction with improving other areas of your lifestyle. Right. And that they take it’s not like an immediate hit. Right. It’s like you probably take them for a while. And it right. Is that is that correct? Or is that my.

Speaker #1
Yeah. No, I mean, certain things, you know, like you can take calm and you’ll probably sleep better. You know, like, you know, you can definitely get an immediate bang, got a cold or flu. We can knock that out real quick. You know, like, so it depends on what you’re working with. You know, when it comes to hormones, hormones, it takes a couple of months. You know, a lot of women that I’ve seen are coming to me with endometriosis that they’ve had for 10 years, that they’ve been to 20 different doctors. And it’s like, yeah, this isn’t going to be fixed with two acupuncture treatments and a month’s worth of herbs that you’re taking half, you know, every other day. You know, so it’s like you do need to be consistent. You do need to take some of the lifestyle recommendations. You know, if you are surrounding yourself with environmental toxins and emotional toxins and just thinking that, you know, a Western pill or an herbal medicine is going to just solve that. But, you know, it’s… unfortunate, but it’s not. And it’s really important that we, especially as women, start taking proactive care of ourselves, you know, mind, body, and soul. And like, I also get very concerned about this because I think that it’s, you know, we also have to consider what are we showing our daughters and our children when we are sacrificing our health for them and for everybody else. And I know it’s a backwards way to manipulate women into to taking care of themselves. But it is how I had to get myself to take better care of myself. Being a single mom with a child with special needs, I burned myself out so hard those first couple of years. And then I really had to take a step back and say, what good is it for him to get that next inch stone of development if his mom is sick and depressed and exhausted all the time because she’s just pushing so hard? And I really had to put him. in the forefront in order to get myself to actually do that. So, you know, I just think it’s really important. You know, I think women are just astoundingly strong and powerful and inspirational. I’m so blown away. It’s so much fun stepping into the space of women’s health. I like bow down to all of the women and moms out there. Like truly, it’s such a humbling space to hear the stories of how much women have gone through. And like, I just, I so…

Speaker #0
believe that if we actually really start taking care of ourselves, we might be able to be the change we are hoping and desperately needing in this society.

Speaker #1
Yeah, taking care of ourselves is something that’s really foreign to so many women, especially moms who are just used to outputting, right, and burning themselves out. And I think that’s such a good point that we need to take care of ourselves first and be in our best health before we can. take care of other people and our children and to be a good role model. Yeah.

Speaker #0
Well, and it’s a lot more fun. I mean, I think we lose ourselves in the caretaking of others. And it’s like, you know, starting to reclaim those bits of joy and those bits of our independence, those bits of excitement, you know, especially as a mom is a radical act. And, and that radical act like brings more joy to us, which like, really shifts the energy in our homes, right? And like really shifts how we’re engaging with the world and each other. And like, you know, our society is not set up to support us the way that it needs to be. So it’s important for us to find the ways even the teeny tiny ways I always say something’s better than nothing. I don’t care what it is, whether it’s just taking your herbs. and going outside and breathing with a cup of coffee for a minute. I don’t care. Lock your kids out. Do whatever you got to do. But like every little step in the direction of help is an incredibly important one. And it really does not matter how small.

Speaker #1
Yeah, I totally agree. So last question I have for you. You mentioned the five phases before, right? So when I went to cooking school. many moons ago, my cooking school was very health supportive and we were following, we followed very closely these five phases to do meal planning and just, you know, we’re centered very much around the food part of it. And I still, I still have my chart like up in my kitchen that I, that I really follow about, you know, just eating seasonally. And what do you recommend as far as food for menopause? Is there are there are there some certain foods that we can be focusing on when we’re going through this menopause transition that are more beneficial at this time that you know, to add in?

Speaker #0
I love this question. I actually fell in love with Chinese herbs, primarily because so many of the herbs are spices and foods. And I’m such a foodie. And I was so deep into like nutritional healing at that point. And I was like, oh my god this is cardamom and cinnamon and you know um so i think really when it comes to menopause we want to look at those nourishing foods so higher quality fats like ghee coconut oil mct oil um you want to look at more so the kidneys correlate with like black and blue foods so think black sesames blueberries blackberries um even black chicken if you can find them in a Chinese store You know, goji berries, phenomenal. Throw that in everything. That’s a phenomenal, again, tonic. Chinese yams, which is interesting because that’s a Chinese herb that we use for menopause. And that’s also something that promotes progesterone and has become a big trend in terms of wild Chinese yam cream. We use that in our herbs. Use that in your diet. You know, rich, leafy greens. But again, mixing that with the nourishing, cooling fats. I’m trying to think of other good tea stuff. Mint is going to be nice and cooling if you want to add that to the tea. Rose petals, organic or just organic roses are great for building the blood, nourishing the blood. So doing those two with goji berries and making a nightly tea would be awesome. But yeah, people can just look up Chinese dietary therapy for menopause. But those are some of the staples that I would definitely be incorporating into day-to-day life for sure. Well, it’s a good point also just in terms of, you know, the more we can check in with our bodies and see the symptoms that our bodies are trying to tell us, the more we can intuitively look towards these things. If you’re having hot flashes, start thinking about like, what are cooling foods? You know, like it really is kind of that simple in a lot of ways. You know, if you’re… If you’re having difficulty sleeping, what’s going to help calm the mind? So it’s… you know, really starting to check in with our bodies instead of just trying to push through all the symptoms that our bodies are.

Speaker #1
Yeah. Great point. Yes. And to get right, have some intuition about it, but also to maybe do some research on it too. Yeah. Which we can definitely, and hopefully, yeah. And hopefully you’ll have it in your book, your upcoming book, you’ll talk about foods and everything. And.

Speaker #0
Oh yeah. Yeah, no, it’s more. It’s a bit of a manual. So it’s like an introduction to Chinese medicine, a little bit about environmental toxins, how they’re impacting our hormones because I’m kind of a maniac about all of that. It terrifies me. And then sort of the endometriosis through the lens of Chinese medicine, Western medicine, herbs, diet, and then all of the other sort of hormone-based disorders, if you will. So I’m excited about it. Yeah, it’s one of those things where I’m like, why isn’t this out here? Okay, I’ll do it then.

Speaker #1
Yeah, you were meant to create it. That’s great. Good, good for you. Well, Chloe, how can people get in touch with you and learn more about your herbs and your formulations?

Speaker #0
So they can go to noxierbs.com. So that’s N-O-X-I herbs.com. We probably will be renaming that soon because as it turns out, Noxie sometimes gets auto-corrected to Nazi. So that was a fun business lesson. but the site will redirect you as we do that. But so noxieherbs.com and my podcast is Radical Remedy and it is, we’re gearing up for season three, which will hopefully be coming out pretty soon. So I love doing that. So, and anybody can reach out through any of those websites.

Speaker #1
Okay, great. Well, I will put all those links in the show notes so people can reach out to you. Thank you so much. I’ve learned a lot today. And I’m looking forward to learning more on your website and experimenting with some herbs.

Speaker #0
Hell yeah. Well, thank you so much. It’s an honor to be here. I really appreciate the conversation.

Speaker #1
Great. Thanks. 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.