Women's Health: Menopause Holistic Healing & Natural Wellness

Today, we're diving into an often-overlooked topic—women’s health, specifically menopause and perimenopause. I'm joined by Amita Sharma, co-founder of NourishDoc, to discuss the struggles many women face with hormonal changes, irregular periods, and stress-induced health issues, while exploring the natural and holistic approaches that can help women manage symptoms without solely relying on medication.

Ms. Sharma shares valuable insights into how lifestyle modifications, dietary changes, and holistic therapies can aid in balancing hormones, improving gut health, and reducing anxiety. She also discusses how societal taboos and a lack of education have left many women unprepared for menopause, often suffering in silence. By raising awareness, NourishDoc aims to provide accessible, evidence-based solutions tailored to each woman’s unique journey.

This episode is a must-listen not just for women, but for the men who support them—whether as partners, fathers, brothers, or sons. Understanding the impact of menopause and how to navigate it with compassion is key to fostering a more supportive and educated society.

https://www.nourishdoc.com/

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Transcript

 Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of Couple of Nukes. As always, I'm your host, Mr. Whiskey, and I am known to be a romantic, a man who, uh, I, when I have a partner, I love my woman, and that includes, you know, those painful and sometimes difficult periods, uh, once a month, sometimes, sometimes irregular.

And, uh, I have bought a lot of chocolate, I bought a lot of flowers, but that doesn't fix everything always. But there are things you can do naturally without medication in a holistic way. Whether you're a young woman or a woman going through menopause, or what it may be, to improve your health overall and, you know, kind of, address some of those issues that can come, which include, you know, chronic conditions that most women aren't aware of.

It's important to take care of your health. And there's so much taboo around the subject that, you know, it's not getting the recognition and concerns that it should. And so a lot of women are suffering when they don't have to be. But we are here with a powerful woman today who doesn't want y'all to suffer, who didn't want to suffer herself.

And so she has co founded nourish stock to help provide resources to naturally and healthily improve your health as a woman and especially pinpoint on that menopause, both pre and post. So Ms. Amita, so great to have you here to address a topic. Like we said, isn't really in the mainstream, not being talked about.

So I appreciate you guesting on the show to address this subject.  Absolutely. And thank you so much. Um, you know, I, I want to, um, uh, reiterate the fact that a lot of younger women, right, when I meet the younger one, I don't mean 18 year olds. I mean, like, 35 plus here, um, are, are actually seeing the early, uh, so to speak, petty menopause, right?

A lot of,  People don't understand what that is and I'll, I'll explain a little bit, but I really appreciate a guy interviewing him for this, for that. I'm so thankful to you. Um, what kind of audience you have with the men or women, both of them go through it together, quite honestly, if you have a partner or spouse, your mom, your sister or whoever in your life. 

Yeah, for sure. You know, I think just like we as men want women to be in the loop about men's mental health and some of the issues we go through. You know, the same way we should be there to take care of you. I know a lot of guys, you know, are scared of maxi pads and tampons. And, you know, they don't like period blood.

I get it. A lot, and most guys, you know, don't like the whole birthing process. But it is something that we, I mean, those are the times that women especially need us to be there to support them. Especially once, you know, I remember as a, as a kid, my mom got really bad hot flashes, you know, and it would be, be chaos in the house with, it's too hot, it's too cold, it's too hot, you know, and, um, you know, the women in my life have always had, they seem to attract women with irregular periods, you know, and, um, I've, I've been with a lot of women who don't have them for months and then they have it and it's like a mega one.

I've had, you know, women who have their period twice a month and then, I know my youngest sister, she would get cramped so bad she would throw up and get taken out of school. So, you know, it's um,  and there's a lot of conspiracy behind that, what they put in the food and what we eat and the health around it.

And I definitely think there should be more. Health and education on it. So tell us a little bit about how you are contributing to that I know you're guesting on podcasts spreading the word and what exactly do you do to help support women?  Yeah, so my focus initially is mid age women when I use the word mid age.

I mean women over 35 plus right? Now the younger women before that, like your sister, you're talking about, you know, that's probably PMS or maybe PCOS. We covered that, but our focus is mainly a woman who is having irregular periods when she might be hitting a term called perimenopause. So what we trying to do is through our platform, What we've done is we've created a holistic wellness platform, um, using evidence based, uh, uh, fact, uh, you know, knowledge using holistic therapies from all over the world using holistic experts and presenting this information, empowering these women right to, to really make them understand what is going to come ahead of them when they hit 35, 35, it goes like this, right?

You hit 35 before you know it. But they don't know if they're going to hit perimenopause, to your point, with food supply, with so many things that we can keep going on and on, pesticides, all these things. A lot of women are hitting these irregular periods earlier than they're supposed to.  Right. And they're caught off guard.

And I was caught off guard and I started experiencing this in my forties, early forties. Suddenly the pedimenopause started hitting and I had no clue. And I suffered so much. So the intention of what I'm trying to do, what we are trying to do is really empower these women as early as possible, not to scare the teenagers, but 30 something they should know if, Okay.

These kind of things are happening in their body, they might be entering perimenopause and what to do, right, if that is not the right appropriate age to seek help  and to at least recognize the symptoms if they're going through perimenopause or menopause early and what to do about it.  I think like you said, even though you could be in your 30s or 40s, you might not know about everything that goes into it because I'll tell you some of the women I've dated and then even my own mother.

They never got taught by their mom what a period was. You know, I remember my mom shared a story, she thought she was dying. You know, blood just started coming out of her. And her, you know, stepmom had never explained that was gonna happen, what that was. You know, so, even some of the women I've dated had the same story, where their mom never told them.

And then, when their daughters freaked out, they were like, why are you freaking out, it's just your period. It's like, but, you don't, if you don't know it's gonna happen, you don't know.  You know, if you just start getting hot flashes, you're going to think I'm sick or, you know, something's wrong or, you know, so if you don't know, you don't know.

And we talked a bit about food and chemicals. Can you tell us about stress? We know stress levels are very high nowadays. Does that affect menopause and vice versa?  Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's one of the key actually reason and, um, why women are getting earlier menopause, right? Or  earlier perimenopause.

That is the key. One key is a stress and menopause. All that, everything is all interrelated. And by the way, I just want to do a big disclaimer here. I'm not a medical doctor. I'm not a medical expert. All my information, what I'm sharing is by me interviewing about 3, 000 of holistic experts, including MDs.

So, and you're doing a lot of research. So stress is directly linked to us, especially for a woman's body. We are not designed, our bodies are not designed to take on so much stress, right? We are already taking so much stress with our Monthly periods with giving birth, you know, with the taking care of the kids and the family and you name it, right, women are doing so much more than if you look at like your mom generation or my mom generation, you know, or a few decades before women are doing so much now we are, you know, working financial independence, all that is great, but at the same token, it's going, it's taking a toll on our bodies.

Like the, the, the, the greening part, right? The, the, and you can see the, in infertility on their eyes there, there's a lot of data to support what you and I are talking about.  Yeah. And I see so many women turning to birth control as just like this miracle fix for their periods, for their acne, acne, for their other hormonal health.

I mean, can you tell us about that? 'cause everything you do is, is naturally done. So, and, and a lot of people would prefer that. So what exactly do you do when you say natural and holistic? What does that entail for y'all?  So I'm not in birth control pill. I mean, I know that the birth control pill doctors are giving as a solution for a lot of hormonal issues that might not be the right solution.

So what we are advocating, what we are propagating is  using natural therapies to take care of your issues, right? Now, as far as natural birth control, I am not an expert to talk about that, but I know there is a lot of work that's going on is measuring basal temperature. You know, you know how the temperature of a woman's body changes basal temperature.

You understand that part and what, um, what basically the natural way a lot of experts talk about is measuring your basal temperature and using that. Not using birth control, but using that to, you know, if you're planning to have a baby or if you don't want to get pregnant, but using that, right, because your temperature, you know, when you're going to get periods, your temperature, basal temperature is going to change the same way like a woman's period, right? 

Three or four stages, right? Right. Yeah. It doesn't, and the period is four or five days. So the basal temperature would change and be before you get the period, the basal temperature changes according to the follicular and the luteal phase of a woman's period, the 28 days. So the naturally a lot of experts talk about is measuring your basal temperature and aligning your.

activities, intimacy activities, according to your basal temperature. Now that's, that's what I know. And, and what we are trying to do is that if a woman starts getting perimenopausal symptoms, that is perimenopausal symptoms, the first symptom is irregular periods, right? Now the irregular periods can also be confused with someone who's younger.

She might have a PCOS.  So that is a medical condition. Now, the  perimenopause irregular periods means that the hormones are going down. And  due to the irregular periods, like you were talking about your mom, she started getting heart flashes, right? Because of the hormonal fluctuations. So we are focusing on.

Due to the hormonal fluctuations that you are going to have due to the irregular periods. What is it that you can start doing to balance your hormones? So that you start feeling better and you don't get as many hot flashes. You know, you don't get like so many symptoms that could happen because of the irregular periods.

Hot flashes is one of them like you just talked about. Women can also start feeling bloated. You know, the digestion part goes down.  Right. Their gut health goes down and with the gut health, the mental health, the anxiety, it's all connected right to the vagus nerves. So the 50 percent of them will be more anxious even during the PMS when the younger women also like you were talking about your sister.

She had to be taken out of school because you know, she'll get all anxiety because of the periods, right? It's a similar thing is happening to a perimenopausal  woman. She's still getting periods, but Initially, the periods are closer, right? Instead of 28 days that they could be closer like 15 days and they could be very heavy.

So it causes a lot of anxiety and depression and all those issues and the bloating and you don't feel as good. So, so these are things we are, what we are trying to do is, okay, how can you, okay.  clean yourself out, right? In the sense, all this is happening because of the inflammation inside your body and your hormonal fluctuations, right?

And you're not probably eating and eating right or movement, all those things, right? The pillars of wellness. So our focus is to fix your habits by making these lifestyle modifications, dietary modifications, so that your hormone hormones can be balanced, even if you're, you are getting the fluctuations.

And, and so that's what we are trying to do is based on all the symptoms a woman can have during this whole, um, roller coaster, right? So to speak, what, what is it that she can start doing as far as cleaning up? Herself detoxification, you know, uh, getting the inflammation out, changing her diet, changing her exercise routine, making some kind of a daily routine using ancient wisdom of Ayurveda, acupressure  so that she can  navigate this journey, right?

You know, and so that is what we are trying to do and we are saying, try to do that as natural using natural therapies, holistic therapies as possible. I'm not saying don't do hormone therapy. You know, I'm not against medicine. Medicine has its own, you know, it has its place.  Absolutely. We are all alive using all kind of right immunization and all those things.

Right.  antibiotics, but I think we have gone a bit too far. You know, we always feel a pill, a one pill is the answer of everything. In this case, it might not be. It might be just you change all these things and you'll lead a healthier life as you go along. You're not so dependent on the pills, right? So that's what we are doing.

And if someone needs a hormonal replacement therapy, if it's happening, then of course you need to seek medical advice.  Yeah, so there's a few things I want to address about what you were talking about. So you've mentioned this perimenopause a couple of times, which is different from regular menopause.

Now, is this a abnormality or is this what always comes before menopause?  It's not an abnormal, uh, it's not abnormal. First of all, a lot of people think it's abnormal. It is a fact of a stage in every woman's life. That's going to happen. Okay. Okay. All right. So let's say a  a young woman, a teenager starts her periods, right?

We all know that. And then, and then during the periods, then there is a fertility sort of a window or whatever you want to call it. And then after that, uh, typically the perimenopause is the years, it could be 10 years before a woman Like your mom you were talking about, hits menopause, which is 51, 52. And these are the years, the perimenopause is a stage in every woman's life, probably could be four years, 10 years, when she's going through all these hormonal fluctuations until she gets menopause.

And menopause is switching off the period, right? So it doesn't happen one day that suddenly the period starts for a young girl like 13.  Suddenly, the period stops. It doesn't happen like that. There's a whole years, 4 to 10 years in a woman's life where the hormones are going up and down, up and down, and they're irregular periods.

And then slowly, slowly, as she hits. It's closer to menopause year, like 51, 52, but some could be younger. Then for one year, she won't have any periods. And then technically she is in menopause. Before that, from the start of the irregular period till the period stop, that is premenopause.  Okay. And that, that could start in the late thirties, early forties. 

Absolutely. Or it could be a little bit later. Now,  yeah, more advanced question is for women who are giving birth and being pregnant during those times like 30s and late 40s and, you know, I know that's a bit later for some for some people nowadays, but women still do have children at that time. Will that shift that perimenopause or change it?

Or do they play a role with one another? And does having kids later in life in your 40s push menopause back till you're like 60? How do they affect each other?  I'm not sure if there's any data that pushes, I mean, just because you're having a child and at age 40, that doesn't mean you're going to get menopause later.

You know what I mean? Yeah. Don't have kids to prevent menopause. I'm not, I'm not.  It's like, uh, typically, I mean, if you look at it, right, I'm just talking stats here. Of course, women are having kids. Oh, at a later age. But, um, that doesn't mean that she's not going to hit menopause at, you know, she's not going to hit menopause at age 60.

She still can hit menopause at age 51 or younger earlier as well. That has nothing to do with that. It's just that women choose to have kids at a later.  Age in their lives on today's day and age because we are all working and financially independent, right? But typically biological clock, you know, the how they say it by my biological clock is ticking.

I mean, you know,  if you look at the scientific way, you know, that's why they recommend having kids when they're, you know, in by your in your 30s and 40s, right? Because of the, uh, All these things that we are talking about, if the periods become irregular, you don't know when suddenly the window, right, you know, right.

So, so it becomes very complicated. The 28 day period cycle. There's a clockwork, you know, okay now. You know, the egg is going to be released before that X number of days and all that stuff. But now suddenly that becomes irregular. You don't know what what is happening and then you don't know your body.

That's the problem. So it gets very difficult to conceive, right? That's it's becomes. Yeah,  and then the only other thing I want to go back to was when we were talking about the younger women you mentioned PCOS. So what is that for those of us who are unfamiliar? So PCOS is actually a medical condition.

It's polycystic ovarian syndrome, so that that also can also have irregular periods, that there's a, you know, there's a whole, the women can also have some kind of a hair on their head. Okay. You know, on their face sometimes, and they put on a lot of weight. Uh, so that is a medic, and that's actually a lifestyle condition.

Um, there's PCOS and PCOD. One is you cannot do anything, and the other one you can, and do it. So, so you need to see a doctor. Uh, we can't fix, uh, PCOS using only wellness. I mean, some lifestyle modifications, yes, you can manage them, but most of the time, um, they need to see some kind of a Uh, you know, doctor, but it's, it, it can be, um, managed using natural therapies, specifically using naturopathy and, and, um, a lot of other things. 

Yeah. So you mentioned that you and NourishDoc, that y'all do holistic treatments in these different programs for a variety of lifestyle changes, dietary changes, and other things to help, you know, women going through all of this stuff. As well as educate them. So how, if I were a woman and I wanted to, you know, work with y'all on this to, to get, you know, education or go through these programs, how would I do that? 

So, so we have a tier structure. That is how we are designing the platform, right? Let's say, let's say a woman, 35 year old walks in, right? Some, you know, and she doesn't know what we are talking about. Most of the women don't know, actually. I had no clue, to be honest with you, that this whole thing, perimenopause, whatever.

So, what, initially, we ask her a few questions, you know, what stage she is in, what age group, because we want to share the right kind of content to her. Right. And then the first phase is That depending on the questions she answers, we will surface the same, the right relevant content. For instance, a 35 year old woman, a typical woman, she's starting having irregular periods.

And she starts getting hormonal fluctuations and she's feeling anxiety. Very common case. So now, this way, we say, okay, understand what perimenopause is. What kind of symptoms to expect out of that? And if she says, okay, I'm having, let's say, mental health issues, anxiety, then depending on what can she do to help with that anxiety, right?

It could be so many different ways that she could do that. Um, you know, I can give you a lot of examples on anxiety. She could do, uh, she could start practicing some breathing, uh, breath work in the mornings or a yoga or she can clean up her diet. She can use essential oils. These are the kind of things we're going to tell that woman.

She could relax herself with some massage therapy for anxiety. She can do a brain dump. She can do a journaling, right? She can do hypnotherapy.  So all that we're going to start telling her one by one, slowly, slowly. Hey, You do this, you do this, you do this. Diet, I told you earlier, right? Diet is fundamental for everything.

And so, uh, anxiety, there's so many different things. Meditation, sound healing, right? We, we know that. Um, all these things can help with, with, uh, with anxiety as an example. So our app, the, the, we're going to deliver it with, via an app. Our app will start telling this woman, Slowly, slowly. Okay, this is what you wanted to and we are making it super affordable, like 10 a month so that everyone can afford it.

Now, after this is self care. Okay, this is not guided care. Now, after this, let's say.  It doesn't help her. For example, she's still feeling, Oh, my God, like there must be something else wrong because if she's not able to control anxiety, she might have a gut health issue as an example, right? She might be because we know, um, gut health and mental health, they're all connected.

So there might be issues with her. I don't know, food sensitivities or, or some other issues that are happening in her gut. Then she might need to see some kind of a specialist. She might need to take some supplements or she might need to to get some cleansing down or detoxification. I'm just giving out a genetic case.

Right. Then at that point, uh, we have, uh, our, um, experts. It could be naturopathic experts. She can consult with that person and say, look, these are the symptoms I'm having, and I'm not able to resolve it by using myself, the self care and help me with that. So that might require testing, right? Blood testing, urine testing, and then that particular.

Uh, expert can help her, uh, do whatever needs to be do to put up sort of like a plan together, a naturopathic holistic plan together for her that might need changing her complete diet, giving her some supplements, giving her some detoxification, cleansing, all the food sensitivities, all that. So that's kind of how we have structured it.

So phase 1 is self care, 10 bucks a month. Phase 2 is something like, I don't know, approximately 100. And, uh, where you would have some kind of, uh, you know, guidance  from the expert and then it's concierge, like one on one, they would go through the entire, whatever you need. Uh, you know, you might need three months.

I don't know. I'm just, or you might need six months of a care. You just started, then they need to monitor you for three months because it's not like a one pill and next day you're going to be fine. It's going to take a long time.  So that's why we have step one.  Step two, and then step three.  Yeah, so what I'll say, ladies and gentlemen, is we're going to have the website for NourishDoc in the description below, which has all the social medias, all the programs, and all the information.

So, it's really going to be a case by case scenario, you know, wherever you are in your menopause or perimenopause journey, or, you know, just women's health in general. Y'all can go there and get connected with experts to figure out what plan is best for you. And then gentlemen, whether you're a father, husband, son, or brother, you know, this is a great resource to have in your back pocket.

Even if you yourself, you know, don't use it, you can have it there for your woman or the women in your life available to check out as well. So, Ms. Amita, I appreciate you coming on the show. Like I said, talking about this topic and bringing some healing and You know, some, some stress relief to the women who are working hard out there and on top of everything they're doing, their body starts fighting them and they don't know what's going on.

So to help aid them in that battle. I really appreciate what you do. And I thank you for coming on the show today.  Thank you. Thank you so much. I really appreciate guys, especially when guys interview me. So, um,  hats off to you. I love your hat. So it's great.