Podcasts about aimed

We talk a lot about oestrogen on this show, and so today, I want to give you a complete low down on oestrogen – what it does, how it benefits you and how it can affect you when things go wrong.  Now, before we go ahead, I just want to share a trigger warning – I talk about reproduction and pregnancy in this episode. It's not a huge part of it, but it's there, so please feel free to skip this episode if you need to. Another trigger warning in this episode is that I talk about the connection between oestrogen dominance and obesity. If this feels triggering for you, please skip! It is the final point on the causes of excess oestrogen/oestrogen dominance, and comes after the point on endocrine disruptors. So, let's start with what oestrogen does in the body… Oestrogen is what fuels the growth of hips, breasts, the start of the menstrual cycle and in short, the onset of puberty. Oestrogen is responsible for fertile cervical fluid, thickening the uterine lining and kicking off ovulation, and it boosts serotonin production, which is not just crucial for cognitive function, but also helps us to feel more energised, sociable and positive. Oestrogen, alongside testosterone, increases libido - oestrogen actually increases blood flow to the pelvic area, and this heightens sensation and arousal.  Basically, this combination of feeling more energised, more positive, more lubricated, having heighten sensations, etc. – all of these changes, are ultimately an attempt to get us pregnant. This is why, if you have a partner, you may overlook certain issues or see your relationship in a really positive light, only to find them irritating or to have those issues resurfacing in your luteal phase. Now of course, you might want to get pregnant, but that's oestrogen's intention. Additionally, oestrogen is crucial for bone density, heart health and cognitive function, not to mention a huge list of other organs and roles in the body. Now, if the above doesn't sound like your experience of oestrogen, I get it. The phases of the cycle we're going to cover today, are normally when people who don't have endo, have more energy, feel more outgoing, more optimistic, etc. But for some of us with endo, we're worn out from our period in the first half of our follicular phase, and then as we reach ovulation, we get pain. I know clients whose worst endo flares are around ovulation, so I understand if this doesn't resonate with you – but I'm at this stage, just sharing the purpose of oestrogen.  In a little while, I'll briefly touch on why you may be struggling with oestrogen, but first, let's talk about what's happening with oestrogen in your cycle.   Oestrogen and the menstrual cycle Oestrogen is at its lowest point during menstruation and tends to stay low for the first 1-2 days but begins slowly rising around day 3.  This rise occurs because oestrogen is made from maturing follicles in the ovaries, think of follicles like water balloons with an egg in the middle. A couple of these are picked to begin maturing, and then by days 5 to 7, one of these follicles is picked and will eventually go on to release the one egg that bursts through the ovary during ovulation.  As these follicles develop, they begin to make testosterone, which is largely converted into oestrogen. You'll tend to feel a change in mood and energy around day 3 as that handful of follicles slowly begin to produce oestrogen, and then at about day 7-ish once the queen follicle has been chosen, you'll get a real surge of oestrogen and you'll move into the second half of your follicular phase. The oestrogen production really gets underway here and continues to climb right up until ovulation.  During this process, oestrogen is working on thickening the uterine lining, but it is also supporting lubrication and helping to create fertile cervical fluid. Initially, just after your period you'll likely still feel dry, but as oestrogen rises, you'll begin getting a pasty, lotion type fluid in your underwear, and you may feel a little lubricated from time to time, but not noticeably so.  Now, as I mentioned, oestrogen continues to rise in increasing levels, thanks to the queen follicle growing and maturing, and as we get closer to ovulation, we'll begin getting a sticky, almost clear, egg-white like fluid, and we'll feel very lubricated. This is fertile cervical fluid.  Once oestrogen reaches its peak, this peak triggers a cascade of hormonal shifts which trigger ovulation. Without this peak, ovulation cannot occur. After this peak, oestrogen drops, ovulation occurs and progesterone then dominates over oestrogen. Oestrogen is still present but it's lower than progesterone and continues to decrease.  However, shortly before your period begins, we get another brief surge in oestrogen. This occurs to support possible implantation of a fertilised egg, and you'll notice similar cervical fluid that you had before and around ovulation, it's no longer fertile cervical fluid, but it looks the same. Of course, if you are pregnant, then further changes will occur, if not, oestrogen drops down again to its lowest point in your cycle and menstruation begins. Now, a side note, which is really a whole episode in itself – if you're feeling depleted when oestrogen is rising, we need to look at why. It could be that you lost too much iron and magnesium due to heavy bleeding, so we need to work on lightening that (and actually we'll talk about why you may have heavy bleeding later on). It could be that you had horrendous endo pain on your period that wiped you out, so we need to look at lowering inflammation and using other tools and practices to lower that pain. It could be that you have low cortisol levels or HPA axis dysregulation, which is common in endo, and leaves you feeling constantly fatigued or fatigued in the mornings. If you're having pain towards ovulation, we need to consider whether you're sensitive to histamines, which rise with rising oestrogen or whether you have too high levels of inflammation, which is naturally part of the ovulatory process, but can cause pain in excess. Or perhaps you have an adhesion from surgery, tugging on your ovary, so that makes ovulation particularly painful. Or of course, you might have an endometrioma. So, these are some considerations to make and everything I've listed can be helped, addressed, reduced or even entirely resolved depending on your body and circumstance and what the issue is. Now of course, that's what my work is all about, so scroll through my episodes to see which ones might help you with your personal issues during this phase. Now, back to oestrogen specifically, a few things can go wrong. Let's look at the first part of the cycle. We know we want oestrogen to reach its peak, but one possible scenario is that it doesn't get there, because your oestrogen levels are low. Low levels of oestrogen can occur from: The pill or other forms of hormonal treatment or birth control designed to lower oestrogen or stop ovulation. Stress – stress can lower sex hormones because reproduction is not a priority to the body in times of stress, and if you look at it from an evolutionary standpoint, stress back in caveman days was literally famine, or wild animals, or exclusion from our tribe; real life or death situations, so the priority was survival not reproduction. In many cases, it wouldn't be safe to raise a baby in those kind of scenarios. Additionally, the stress response requires a lot of energy and resources from the body, the stress response literally diverts blood, glucose, etc. away from non-essential functions like reproduction and redirects them to the brain, heart and muscles. A one off acute bought of stress probably won't do much damage, because the body was designed to cope with acute moments of stress, but chronic or prolonged stress can end up delaying or stopping ovulation entirely. Low calorie or nutrient intake Over-exercising The follicles require energy and nutrients to mature and to reach the point where ovulation can occur, so depriving the body of these nutrients and calories can end up slowing their growth, preventing enough oestrogen from being made and ultimately, delaying ovulation or stopping it. Additionally, under eating and/or over exercising is a stressor on the body, so again, resources and energy are preserved for the stress response and directed away from the menstrual cycle process. Now here's the thing. You may be thinking that low oestrogen isn't a problem for you because you're having a period still. That's not true. You can STILL have a period if you haven't ovulated or if you have low oestrogen, this is because whether it got to the thickness it needed or not, you still have some uterine lining to shed and eventually, the oestrogen is going to drop, and that will kick off a shedding of the lining.  Symptoms of low oestrogen include: Dyspareunia or painful sex, of course we need to consider that painful sex may also be from endometriosis or a tight pelvic floor in our case. Night sweats Low levels of cervical mucus or vaginal dryness Low to non-existent libido Joint pain Low mood Brain fog and low energy Infrequent periods or no period at all, or a prolonged cycle Dry eyes Dry skin  Low oestrogen is linked with heart disease and a lack bone density, so it's important to get it addressed if this seems to be an issue for you. So now let's look at the other scenario. High oestrogen levels or oestrogen dominance. This can look like a few different scenarios – Low oestrogen but even lower levels of progesterone in the second half of the cycle, which means oestrogen is dominating over progesterone in this phase, when it should be the other way round. High oestrogen and normal progesterone, again, oestrogen is dominating over progesterone but is actually also high High oestrogen and low progesterone Normal oestrogen and low progesterone  A few things can create these scenarios: Low progesterone, in which case, we need to look at why that's low, and that tends to be lack of ovulation, caused by stress, dysregulated blood sugar, etc. An overburdened liver. Your liver processes and packages up used oestrogen, it then filters it into the gut, for removal in your daily bowel movements. When the liver is overwhelmed by environmental toxins, excess alcohol and sugar, caffeine, smoking, or even everyday chemicals from your beauty and body products, it will prioritise getting rid of those, because they're more harmful than oestrogen. As a result, your oestrogen levels stack up in the blood stream. Additionally, it's worth mentioning here that alcohol actually raises oestrogen levels.  Blood sugar dysregulation, which increases oestrogen levels in the body. Endocrine disruptors, which are chemicals and toxins which affect or mimic hormones, some of the most disruptive being xeno-oestrogens, which mimic oestrogen in the body and are now showing to be the reason young girls are getting their periods so early. Just as a side note – if you get your hormone levels tested, these won't show up in the test because the test is measuring oestrogen, which these toxins are not, they just mimic it. Excess fat cells – now I want to be really clear here, this isn't about being sizest or fat shaming, but I am just reporting on what we know from the research. Fat cells can also raise oestrogen and so the more we have, the higher the levels of oestrogen in the body. That doesn't mean we need to have no body fat at all, that would actually stop ovulation! But generally, the research is showing that obesity is linked to oestrogen dominance. You can do whatever you like with this information, and I do not recommend you start focusing on dramatic weight loss! But it's important to share all of the information and not just provide you with selective info, so you at least have it all and can decide what's relevant to you. Symptoms of oestrogen dominance or high oestrogen levels include: Worsening endometriosis symptoms Swollen and tender breasts, and maybe breast cysts Worsening PMS or PMDD symptoms Heavy periods  Clotty periods Painful periods Mood swings  Ovulation pain Brain fog  Bloating and water retention, especially in the second half of your cycle Now, this is where the connection to endometriosis comes in. Oestrogen thickens the uterine lining, largely through proliferation, which is the process of cells growing and dividing to make more cells. So, cells that have oestrogen receptors, can also grow too, which is how oestrogen forms breasts. But we know that many endometriosis cells contain oestrogen receptors (though not all of them, as we've come to learn), and so having high levels of excess oestrogen could potentially worsen the endometriosis.  However, this isn't a call to go straight on the pill to lower oestrogen. Why? Well, you've already heard the risks of low oestrogen, but the pill won't necessarily stop endometriosis growth because endometriosis doesn't just rely on oestrogen to grow. In fact, if some of your endo cells don't have oestrogen receptors, it won't be a contributing factor. Endo also uses histamines, prostaglandins, excess iron and other chemicals to grow. Additionally, endometriosis makes its own oestrogen supply, so cutting oestrogen production off at the ovaries, doesn't actually solve the oestrogen problem. Often, what doctors are doing with the pill, is suppressing symptoms, but they cannot guarantee growth suppression and the pill only works for a portion of endo patients. Now, everyone has to do what works for them, so please, please, please do what is right for you – if it's working for you, great, but I just wanted to briefly raise this.  A quick side note on this, curcumin in animal studies has been shown to reduce levels of oestrogen directly in the endometriosis cells, so whilst we don't have the same evidence in humans yet, it's a really exciting development.  Now of course, having oestrogen dominance or excess oestrogen not only creates a set of symptoms that look a lot like endo symptoms – like heavy bleeding, cramps, fatigue, ovulation pain, etc. but it also exacerbates endo symptoms too. So, what can you do if you suspect you have an oestrogen imbalance? Well, it of course depends on whether you have low oestrogen or excess oestrogen or oestrogen dominance.  Either way, working to support your overall hormone health will help with both scenarios – so everything we cover on the podcast, such as nutrition, blood sugar balance, stress management, sleep, supporting the liver, etc. These may all sound like the foundations of a general healthy lifestyle, and that's exactly right – you need a healthy lifestyle for your hormones to thrive.  If you want to test your levels, you can get a simple blood test on Day 3 of your period for oestrogen and day 21 of your cycle for progesterone. Now these are only going to give you a snapshot of what your cycle is doing during this time. Your oestrogen might look fine on Day 3, but by 21 it may be way higher than your progesterone or your body might be struggling to filter it out. So, if you do want to go a bit further, a DUTCH test will give you an in-depth look at your hormones, with the most comprehensive being a DUTCH Cycle Mapping Test. Often, testing is not necessary at first. I prefer to go through the foundational changes with my clients first, and then if they're still not responding, we test.  So where to get started? One of the most foundational changes you can make for your hormones is balancing your blood sugar, and this is almost where I start with nearly every client who shows signs of hormonal problems. I have several episodes and articles on balancing blood sugar, and I also of course cover it in my courses and masterclasses, so you can pick whatever suits you best!  So, I hope that this has given you a deeper insight into the wonders of oestrogen, and as you can see, the ideal is healthy levels of oestrogen, rather than demonizing it and wanting to get rid of it completely! Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. Sign up to my free Ease Endo Tea Challenge here. Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here. My new Nutrition for Endo Masterclasses are out now and are on special offer for Black Friday. Get one masterclass for £29.99 (full price £40) or both for £50. Find out more here. My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order. Show Notes Oestrogen and the menstrual cycle https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK279054/#female_the-normal-menstrual-cycle-and-the-control-of-ovulation.REF.1 Oestrogen and bone density https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8865143/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29962257/ Oestrogen and brain https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5743731/ https://jnnp.bmj.com/content/jnnp/74/7/837.full.pdf Oestrogen and heart https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5709037/ Causes of hormone dysregulation https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22115162/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK279054/#female_the-normal-menstrual-cycle-and-the-control-of-ovulation.REF.1 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40750-014-0004-2 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10397281/ https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jne.12179 https://academic.oup.com/endo/article/145/3/1314/2878187 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11511861/ Hormone testing https://nicolejardim.com/hormone-testing-cheat-sheet/ https://nicolejardim.com/the-best-way-to-test-hormones/ https://drbrighten.com/when-is-the-best-time-to-test-hormone-levels/ Oestrogen and endo https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7215544/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4077338/

So, following on from last week, where I shared the most effective strategies, I've tried from the past seven years of managing endo, today I want to share what I do on my period to avoid a pain flare. Essentially, what I do on my period that allows me to experience either low pain levels or no pain at all, and if for some reason my levels do start to creep up, how I get them back down quickly and prevent them from getting worse.  Go back to last week's episode if you haven't listened to it already, but for context, before I started managing my endometriosis, my periods were excruciating. I would take pain killers upon pain killers with little to no relief at all. I couldn't stand, sleep, walk, eat – pretty much anything.  Over the years, as I've come to train and to experiment, I have been able to pull together essentially a toolbox of strategies that I always go to on my period. To be clear, for me, managing endometriosis is something I do all cycle long, because if I don't, the tools I am going to share today just aren't as effective and my pain is worse, but a combination of month-long strategies like anti-inflammatory eating and physiotherapy for example, plus these tools on Day 1 of my cycle, really guarantee me the best results.  For years and years, I suffered with period pain that on a pain scale of 1-10, were a 12, now they're 0-3, and a bad period would be seeing them creep to say a 5, which usually only happens very temporarily and using the strategies listed, my levels return back to normal. Now, I want to be clear that we're all different. You may have to play around for a few cycles to work out what you respond to, it may take you a couple of months to lower your inflammation overall, you may need different tools and strategies. So, please don't give up if you don't have the relief, you want straight away! This episode is here to inspire and motivate you, but ultimately, it's my personal protocol, and you'll need to work out what yours looks like too.  So, now you have a bit of background and context, let's get started… So once I actually see fresh blood (as opposed to spotting or light pink or brown discharge), that's when I bring in my main go-tos. As you all may know, I usually take a handful of anti-inflammatory supplements each month, and normally I will stagger these throughout the day. When I am due on however, I wait until my period starts, and then take them all at once – at the moment, I'm taking quercetin, glutathione which is a potent antioxidant and omega 3 fish oil. But I vary them up depending on what I need and if I'm on a specific healing protocol for say SIBO and histamine.  Taking them, all together gives me a dose of anti-inflammatory antioxidants that can start lowering any inflammation which comes with menstruation, and in turn, can help lower pain.  Sometimes I don't take the whole dose in one go but instead split them into two. So, at the moment I take two glutathione a day and two omega 3 caps, and 6 quercetin, and so when I see the blood, I may take half of that, then a few hours later if I feel pain creeping in, I take them again. The reason why I do this is because I've noticed a pattern in my bleeding. If I'm going to get any pain, it's going to be when I first see fresh red blood, because that's when the inflammation and inflammatory chemicals are doing their job to cramp the uterus up and shed the uterine lining. Then things calm down and I would say about five hours later, I get another flow of fresh red blood and if I am going to get any pain, that would be when the second wave comes, and so I may save my other dose for then.  The other things I do when I start bleeding is that I immediately put on my BeYou patches, one on the front of my pelvis and one of the back. These release natural essential oils selected for their anti-spasmodic properties, essentially, they reduce cramps. Once that's in place, I pretty much soak my pelvis and sometimes my lower back if I'm a little achy there, with magnesium spray. Magnesium helps to reduce period pain, but also relaxes muscles and reduces cramping and inhibits the inflammatory chemical prostaglandin E2.  Now, a very quick science lesson, I talk about this in more depth in other podcast episodes and in my courses, etc. but essentially, inflammatory chemicals like histamines and prostaglandin E2 cause the smooth muscle of the uterus to contract, helping to shift the lining. That's normal. However, when we have too many of these chemicals, it causes too much inflammation and cramping, and therefore pain. Research has found that people with endo have high levels of histamines and high levels of prostaglandin E2 in their pelvic cavity and menstrual blood, research also shows that people with dysmenorrhea or painful periods have high levels of prostaglandin E2 in their menstrual blood as well. So, what I am doing here, is essentially trying to lower the levels of inflammation and cramping.  Now, I do this all month long by adopting an anti-inflammatory diet and lifestyle and by avoiding things that raise prostaglandin E2 levels like refined vegetables oils, processed foods and too much sugar, and adding in practices that lower their levels, like eating a diet rich in antioxidants and omega 3 fats and utilising supplements and tools like magnesium baths.  But back to what I do on my actual period, within minutes of using all of these tools, any cramping I may feel creeping in dissolves or reduces greatly, and if I have none at all, this usually keeps it that way. Once those bits have been done, I or my boyfriend make a ginger tea. Ginger root powder is naturally anti-inflammatory, is an effective pain reliever and has been shown to alleviate period pain when taken for the first three days of the cycle. The studies range between using 1000mg to 2000mg a day for period pain, and it's safe to go to 2000mg generally. I divide this dose across several teas if I'm not taking  it in supplement form. You shouldn't take too much ginger in one go, as it can cause diarrhoea, so you'll find most supplements and studies dose at 250mg to 400 or 500mg at any one time. I tend to go for 250mg of dried ginger root powder per tea. I used to do higher, but it was just too spicy for me! So, I now drink less of it, but drink it more frequently.  If I have them in the house, I will also add turmeric and cinnamon, which both have anti-inflammatory properties, and cinnamon helps to alleviate heavy menstrual bleeding. I have to be a bit cautious with cinnamon because of my histamine intolerance, but I tend to allow it on my period as I'm usually only having it for one day.  I'll link in the show notes to a latte recipe which includes ginger, turmeric, and cinnamon. So, I drink that, and at the same time as we're already boiling the kettle, I may also get a hot water bottle, which I'll use for about 30 minutes, as any longer can actually worsening cramping because the blood vessels begin to restrict. I don't love using hot water bottles, so I only really use them if I feel I need the comfort or if I feel like I need an extra tool to keep the cramping from increasing. As I mentioned earlier, usually I am pain free or very low pain, and there are numerous factors that allow me to live with endo in this way, and I know from experience, that if I didn't use these strategies, my pain would usually increase or will last longer.  Next up is movement and posture. I have noticed that if I am in that point where I'm bleeding freely, that point I mentioned earlier when if I'm going to be pain, it'll be then, if I'm lying down, then the cramps can sometimes worsen. I think this is very likely my body realising it has to work harder to move the blood out, and I start to cramp more. It could also be that by lying down, I don't have much else to focus on except for the sensation, and so I pay more attention to it, I get scared that it might get worse, my brain feels unsafe and sends danger signals, and then of course, the brain responds by increasing pain. If you want to learn more about how pain signals work, I've linked to an episode in the show notes.  So, it could be either of those or both. Either way, I find if I want to relax in bed, that sitting up or at least propped up, helps to reduce the chances of this happening and if it has already happened, it tends to reduce those cramps down again fairly quickly, which is why I think it's more to do with the body having to work harder to shift the blood out because lying down has slowed the flow. If I still don't feel very comfortable sitting up, say the cramping has continued, then I'll move around. I find that when I'm moving out of choice, rather than force, so I have chosen to get out of bed and move around vs. I have to get up and catch a train to a meeting, then the movement is very helpful and tends to support my menstrual flow and eases the cramping. A walk around the house, yoga for endometriosis and period pain or a walk outside if I'm up to it, tend to ease the cramps. The exception being is if I'm stuck out for some reason, I'm tired and I don't have any of my tools with me – that kind of scenario would increase my pain.  This leads me onto my next strategy. As much as I can, I love to rest on the first day of my period. If I can fit it into my schedule, Day 1 of my period will be the one day of the month that I allow myself to sit in bed all day and just watch romcoms and chick flicks. And I'm going to say something that might sound strange to you, and I hope it doesn't anger or upset you because please remember, I once suffered with horrific pain too – but I actually look forward to my period now. I know my period will (hopefully) involve a bath and a day in bed watching light-hearted films and series, all guilt free. I usually watch some of my favourites like period dramas, or a classic romcom like Notting Hill. In short, it's a very stereotypical ‘girly' day – and I love it. I don't often do these things, and it just feels very indulgent, comforting and like a returning to myself because I get to pause. I have found that if I don't do this, I end up dragging myself through my period and coming out the other end of it exhausted. Your period is when your hormones are at their lowest. Your hormones help with energy, neurotransmitter production and a heap of other functions in your body. You quite literally have less energy, less happy hormones and less of a drive to socialise on your period as a result. Not to mention, you're using up energy and nutrients in the process of bleeding, including losing iron and magnesium, two essential nutrients for energy production, so you're more likely to be tired. When we push through the lowest hormone days, 1 to three being the lowest, we are stressing are body and forcing it to function off cortisol and adrenaline to get us through, because it knows it needs to meet demands it doesn't have the physical resources to meet. It's no wonder then, that if I don't allow even a little bit of rest, that I feel burnt out that month, which is the inevitable result of getting by on cortisol and adrenaline. Now, clearly, I have the privilege of working for myself and I also don't have children to look after. So, I appreciate that most of you have to go to work and some of you have people depending on you. And I get that, for many years I was an employee working with vulnerable homeless young people, who I couldn't let down. I would drag myself to work in whatever state I was in. These days, it's a bit different, but I still have commitments. I see clients every week, so if my period falls on a day when I have one or two clients, I will see them and rest afterwards or beforehand, and I'll push everything else to the next day. If I know ahead that I have a really busy day of clients, I will move some around in advance – it's worth stating here that the only way I am able to do this is by tracking my period and ensuring I know which day I'm due on, or as close to. Back when I wasn't tracking my period, I'd be taken by surprise every single time. Anyway – back to the point, strangely, I don't have to do rearrange my days too often as the universe seems to organise it that my clients ask to swap a day, or my period falls on an admin day or a day when I don't have too many sessions. Like I said, if I do have a day with a few clients and I haven't moved them, I'll rest up as much as possible between calls or afterwards, and I'll also try to take some time out the next day, so I can squeeze in a full day's rest. If that fails and for some reason, I'm unable to take any time out, say when I'm in a course launch, then I'll take a weekend day out to rest.  For those of you who work for a company, perhaps you can talk to your managers about arranging it so you can work from home on Day 1 of your cycle, having endometriosis means you're legally entitled to reasonable adjustments at work, even though it's not classified as a disability. So, for example, when I worked at Centrepoint, I could work from home on Day 1 of my cycle and the other days of my period I could come in later and leave earlier, and I would make up the time at other points in my cycle – though honestly, they didn't even expect me to do that. If you're not sure what you're legally entitled to, have a listen to my episode with Clare from See Her Thrive, which is all about this topic. It's episode number xxx.  Now of course, if you have children, I understand this may be totally unrealistic and I'm not sharing this info about what I do for you guys to replicate it all. Instead, I hope it inspires you to carve out some kind of rest or time out that works for you and your lifestyle on Day 1. It could be having five minutes to yourself before the children wake up, or it could be that your partner takes the baby for half an hour whilst you lie down, or if you're a single parent, maybe this is a day when your friend or your own parent might be able to give you a helping hand, so you don't have to juggle everything alone.  I don't know what will work for you, but I'm sharing what works for me, and I hope that perhaps it'll help you discover what works for you! So, my next strategy is an Epsom salt bath! Yes, I rave about these and with good reason. Research shows that having a bath two to three times a week with 500 g to 600 g of Epsom salts, for 10 to 30 minutes, reverses magnesium deficiency. Now here's the thing, most of us are deficient in magnesium, especially people who menstruate or who experience frequent stress (which let's be honest, living with chronic illness can be stressful) as these both deplete magnesium. And as I mentioned earlier, Magnesium is not only anti-inflammatory, but reduces muscle cramping, has been shown to reduce period pain and PMS, is essential for healthy hormone balance, energy production and helps to stabilise blood sugar. All important for managing endo and for aiding in energy and pain relief on our period.  So, on my period, I try my best to make time for a bath, even if it's just 10 minutes, to soak up that magnesium, and help to relieve the tension from my muscles and uterus and restore my energy levels.  I also always have a couple of baths in the lead up to my period to help prevent my cramps being bad on my actual period.  If you don't have a bath, you can do this with a foot soak or you can actually get inflatable baths, fold out baths and plastic bathtubs online, that you can just store away! So, you could always try that. The benefit of soaking in bath on your period as well, is that the heat actually works as a pain therapy too.  Next is how I eat on my period. As you learned last week, once upon a time I used to fast on Day 1 of my period. I would now never do that, given how much energy we need for Day 1 of our cycle! Then when I started being able to eat on my period, I moved to more keto based meals on Day 1, to avoid a blood sugar spike, which would lead to a pain flare on my period. Now I seem to have better stability with my blood sugar, I can eat meals with a normal amount of carbs, but I ensure that meal is blood sugar balancing as much as possible – so fat, fibre, protein, and complex carbs. I do actually still ease up a bit of the fibre, so I tend to have more low FODMAP veggies on day 1, just because we are already prone to having loose stools or diarrhoea on our periods  because the prostaglandins also cause the colon to cramp and contract, and as I have SIBO, if I also aggravate that, the situation just gets worse and I can get intestinal inflammation and further cramping, causing me more pain and more IBS trouble.  I also add in a few extra blood sugar hacks now that I'm eating more carbs on my period, just to avoid any spikes. I have a tablespoon of vinegar in water before I eat, which has been shown to reduce blood sugar spikes and I eat my veggies first or try to have a side salad first, and eat my starches last in a meal, which again, has been shown to reduce blood sugar spikes because the fibre from the veggies delays the glucose release. And just to credit her, this info is from the incredible biochemist Glucose Goddess. I also walk around the house for 10 minutes after a meal, or just move gently on the spot, which helps to use up any excess glucose, preventing a spike. I have found that using these hacks on Day 1 of my period, really allow me to eat more comfort food like a pasta or something carby, without having a pain flare.  If you want to understand this process in more detail, have a listen to last week's episode and episode xx, and it's definitely worth checking out the Glucose Goddess!  So that's it! That's everything I do on my period to prevent a pain flare or to reduce pain if I have any. Usually, these practices keep me pain free or at a low level of pain, but if for some reason it creeps up, I double down on these and repeat some of the processes, like spraying magnesium, drinking tea, applying a new patch, or taking some more supplements, and if I really need to, I take a paracetamol. Usually, I just need one and that's enough to nip it in the bud.  Now of course, what works for me may not work for you because we're all different. This period protocol has been created after years of experimenting and training as an endo health coach, and I've adapted it over the years as my endo has changed. If you'd like to create your own protocol, I really recommend going over some previous podcasts and articles for further research and information, and of course, I have the masterclasses and my course Live and Thrive with Endo. Please do consult your doctor before taking any supplements or making any dietary changes!   Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. Sign up to my free Ease Endo Tea Challenge here. Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here. My new Nutrition for Endo Masterclasses are out now and are on special offer for Black Friday. Get one masterclass for £29.99 (full price £40) or both for £50. Find out more here. My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order.  Show Notes  Super Turmeric Latte Anti-inflammatory Living for Endometriosis (pain signals) Christie Uipi episode (pain signals) Curcumin https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4533742/ https://www.karger.com/Article/FullText/491886 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0753332217346838?via%3Dihub https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1756464615000092 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5407015/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24672232/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25277322/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3476912/ Quercetin https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19462895/ https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2014/781684/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4808895/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19297429/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6273625/ https://avivaromm.com/remedies-seasonal-allergies/ Omega 3 Fatty Acids https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16531187/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2832216/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3614254/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11687013/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17434511/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22261128/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3257651/ Magnesium https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/5/10/3910 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/dme.12250 https://drbrighten.com/boost-low-progesterone/ https://www.composednutrition.com/blog/increase-progesterone-naturally https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2675496/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25023192/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5112180/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30880352/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4847116/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17229895/ Ginger https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23865123/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26177393/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25912592/ https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ptr.6730 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7171779/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23657930/ Cinnamon https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4443385/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30396627/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5220230/ https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/89/3/815/4596714 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30396627/ https://examine.com/supplements/cinnamon/ https://jandonline.org/article/S2212-2672(16)30899-1/fulltext Essential oils https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4979258/ https://www.hindawi.com/journals/prt/2016/8158693/ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2221169115001033?via%3Dihub

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Okay so as it's the start of a new year I thought I'd do a reflective type episode.  I've been doing this podcast for a couple of years and many of you have been with me on this journey of transformation with my endometriosis, but I realised I've not really done an episode where I've shared my biggest needle movers in terms of endo strategies. I recently did a live on my key go-to daily strategies and this is a bit similar, but this is all about the things I am certain have made the biggest changes to my symptoms.  Now, they're not the only changes – supporting my liver, improving my gut health, adhesion work, physiotherapy and many more strategies have made a big difference too, but if for some crazy reason my life depended on it and I had to give just four strategies that I think made the biggest difference, it would be these. The reason why I'm sharing this is because I've seen many people and clients go down rabbit holes with very niche changes. They start researching alkaline water and focusing on only drinking that, or drinking celery juice every day, or drinking apple cider vinegar every day or doing a fast or a juice cleanse. And sure, I'm not saying there aren't benefits to some of these more nuanced additions (some of them however do more harm than good!), but if your diet is still full of processed foods or you're drinking alcohol every day, or you're not getting enough sleep or you have an underlying condition like SIBO, these smaller changes are only going to do so much. So, I'm trying to save you time by giving you an insight as to what really worked for me.  Now of course, this is my personal experience so you may respond differently, but I will say as an endo health coach, that a healthy anti-inflammatory diet and balanced blood sugar are essential to managing endometriosis. That's why I talk about them so much and why they are at the core of my work with endometriosis clients. How that fits into each client's life, if at all, is down to the individual, but all of us can benefit from a healthy diet and balanced blood sugar, even if we don't have endometriosis!  So again, before we get started, the following is my personal experience, not a protocol for you to follow, but I hope that my experience might inspire you with where to start or how to continue on your own journey of healing your endo symptoms. If you do want a more step-by-step protocol based on the science and research, then I have countless articles, podcasts and then of course my classes, courses and coaching that you can use to create your own plan for beating endo.  So let's get started… 1.      Number 1 is anti-inflammatory nutrition. This was the first thing I tried for endometriosis, way back in the beginning when I was waiting for my second operation, about seven years ago. At that time, my life was miserable. I lived in fear of my endometriosis flares, and my period was excruciating. I would have pain that would start before I was bleeding, sometimes a full 24 hours beforehand, at a level 10 on the pain scale – and then, I'd start bleeding and it would be even worse. The worst of the pain would be for about 48 hours to maybe three days, and by the third day it would start to clear and would be manageable again and would fade away.  Nothing seemed to help for the pain, I would take way too many painkillers and then spend the next couple of days recovering from the number of painkillers I had taken, feeling sick and experiencing migraines and drowsiness.   Feeling desperate, I went down a rabbit hole learning about nutrition for endo and inflammation, and I had so long to wait until my surgery that I decided to give it a go. Now, to caveat, how I did this is not how I would recommend my client's do it having now qualified as an endometriosis health coach. So, please don't take this initial bit as advice, I'm just sharing what I did for context… So, unfortunately, I didn't change my diet very strategically. I didn't do an elimination diet, where you remove certain common inflammatory foods and allergens and then add them back in one by one to see which ones you respond to. Instead, I just removed a handful and pretty much kept them out for the most part, which is not what I would recommend doing now, unless it was a food that you know, for health reasons it's generally best to keep to minimal amounts, like alcohol and added sugar. But for the most part, I wouldn't advise clients to just cut out a bunch of foods and never try them again or to stay strictly away from them forever. I guess the difference with me in this scenario is that I had just done a food intolerance test and it showed I was really intolerant to gluten and diary, and when I removed them I felt so much better, the difference in my IBS symptoms and period was so dramatic, that I think that test had been pretty accurate, though generally they're quite unreliable (an elimination diet is the most effective way to test if you have a food intolerance).  So anyway, I removed gluten, dairy, added sugar and caffeine specifically – I already wasn't drinking alcohol and so I continued with that, and I was already vegetarian so I went fully vegan at this point and decided to remove eggs too. Back then I wasn't a health coach and I was confused about the health verdict of eggs at the time (which has changed over the years), so as I wanted to go vegan anyway, I just removed them too. I don't think I was eating them much anyway, except in baked goods.  And just a side note, if you're happy to eat animal protein and it fits with your lifestyle and values (because we're all different and have to do what's right for us as individuals!), eggs are nutrient dense, great for hormones and healthy, providing that they're organic, free-range and from hens fed a diet mostly based on grass and foraging. Lean, unprocessed meat can have a role in a healthy anti-inflammatory diet for endometriosis, providing it is grass-fed, organic and free range or wild, to avoid the added hormones and inflammatory chemicals. That's a big topic for another discussion, but in short, most anti-inflammatory diets in the research show a greater intake of plant foods over meat. The link between red meat and endo is more complex and requires an entire episode itself, the bottom line is that if you do eat red meat, it's all about quality and quantity. If you want to learn more, I do cover it in my Nutrition for Endo Masterclasses and in the Live and Thrive with Endo course and this will be covered in another episode later in the year, it's just a guest episode and we haven't been able to pin a date down yet. But back to the main point, I did this elimination diet for one month, and had a pain free period. My first pain free period in years. This was the start of my managing endo naturally and holistically.  I then went onto experiment, unfortunately not very strategically as I already shared, and I would add things in here and there, and make changes, and sometimes I would have good periods and sometimes I would have bad, and because I wasn't being very strategic, I didn't always know what the cause was. But what I did know is that if I ate a diet low in inflammatory foods, and for me, what I worked out from my experiments is that my biggest inflammatory triggers were sugar, dairy, gluten, caffeine and alcohol, then I had dramatically better periods. I had some hiccups, as I'll come to explain later, but this change meant that I got my life back.  Now I didn't just swap these foods for a bunch of processed replacements like soy meat products and gluten free bread, because let's not forget, processed foods whether veggie, vegan or meat based, are still processed foods – and we know a diet high in processed food is generally inflammatory. Instead, I ensured my diet was rich in whole plant foods that were full of antioxidants, which fight inflammation. Since then, I've come to learn the science behind anti-inflammatory nutrition and a more sustainable approach to changing our diet as part of my training as an endo health coach.  In short, I focus on what we call ‘crowding out' the inflammatory or processed foods with more nutrient dense whole foods such as vegetables, fruits, healthy fats including olive oil, avocados, fatty fish if applicable, and nuts and seeds; lean protein like beans and legumes, fish and grass-fed organic meat in moderation, and whole grains, gluten free if necessary. These foods are the key foods that come up time and time again in the research as being the basis of an anti-inflammatory diet, the biggest difference is that some diets include a little meat, some not at all and some quite a bit, like the paleo diet – however, as I said before, the key takeaway is that plants outweigh meat and are the star players of an anti-inflammatory diet.  Now of course, every single body is different, so what is generally anti-inflammatory in the research may not be anti-inflammatory to you, so for example, tomatoes are very anti-inflammatory in general and according to the research, but for me, because I have histamine intolerance, they're inflammatory. So just keep that in mind, there's no one size fits all for anti-inflammatory nutrition and it also comes down to your personal lifestyle and values.  Then, if or when my client's feel ready, we go through a short 4-week elimination phase where we remove a small list of common inflammatory foods or allergens, and then we retest them one by one to see which ones are worsening inflammation and endo symptoms.  These days, I personally adopt the 80/20 rule. For the most part, I eat an anti-inflammatory diet, rich in those food groups I mentioned above. Then, occasionally, usually at the weekends, I allow myself to have some foods that aren't normally in my personal anti-inflammatory diet, like a takeaway (or take out for my American listeners) or added sugar or caffeine.  Now, this is a very short discussion on anti-inflammatory eating, and more so from my personal perspective, so please don't base any changes on what I've shared here. Instead, do further research and listen to my other episodes on anti-inflammatory nutrition for endo or read my articles, or if you want a step-by-step outline on how to make changes safely and realistically, there's of course my Nutrition for Endo Masterclasses, my course Live and Thrive with Endo or you can work with me one to one. As always, consult your doctor before making any dietary changes! And if you have a history of an eating disorder or currently have one, please work with a nutritionist or dietician and a mental health practitioner before making changes. But personally, for me, this was the first change I ever made to manage my endo and it will forever be the biggest game changer. This was the pillar that the following changes were built on.   2.   Number 2 was adding in anti-inflammatory supplements, specifically curcumin, ginger and magnesium. When I first started managing endo with nutrition, I would say that my endo was still unpredictable. I was still learning and as you'll come to see in strategy 3, I didn't really understand the science behind what my body was and wasn't responding to. To have a pain free period I felt like I had to eat “perfect” all the time, and that I could never eat any of the foods that I had cut out in the beginning - as soon as I strayed, I would end up having a really bad period that month. I felt like I was just too sensitive, and I had to work really hard to control it. It was incredible that I could even have a pain free period after years of suffering, but trying to maintain that every month was difficult. I was then offered a curcumin and ginger supplement to trial, both have been shown in studies to be effective pain relievers, and just as effective as NSAIDS, and curcumin has been shown in rat models to directly target endo and reduce lesion size and growth rate, whilst ginger has been shown time and time again to reduce period pain. I wasn't offered the supplement to test for endo, but actually for immunity, but that month was December and I had already been more relaxed with my eating so I was worried I would have a flare around my period. But then my period arrived and I felt absolutely fine, I still remember my shock and confusion trying to understand what I had done differently. For me, this was the start of consistently low pain or pain free periods. Adding supplements on top took the edge off and allowed me to be more flexible with my diet and lifestyle. This is when I really moved into the 80/20 rule I shared earlier, because I had more freedom to. Since that first encounter, I have experimented with lots of supplements and there are some great, incredibly effective ones out there which I share in episodes 130 and 131. For me, I like curcumin because there's promising research on its effects on endo, when taken consistently it's just as effective as ibuprofen so has pain relieving benefits daily, it helps to heal leaky gut which is important for keeping inflammation down, it's a powerful anti-inflammatory and we know inflammation drives pain and it can also help with brain fog. I haven't actually taken curcumin for a long time because I've had to focus on supplements for SIBO and there's only so many I can take or afford, but for several years this was my go-to and I believe played a huge role in my healing. I still take ginger to this day, just before and on my period. I would take it daily but unfortunately it burns my bladder because of my interstitial cystitis. However, I use ginger to prevent and reduce any mild cramping that may come with my period, just so I can be sure I can keep to the pain free or low pain levels that I'm used to.  What I love about ginger as well, is that if I find I have higher pain levels than usual, it really pretty much stops them in their tracks. So, for example, if there's been a birthday or event near my period and I've eaten lot of sugar or something I know flares me that I wouldn't normally eat, I find the ginger means I don't suffer severely for it, it gets the pain under control quickly. A handful of times I may add a single paracetamol in there if I find it's not strong enough, but that's rare! If you're interested in the dosing etc. of ginger, have a listen to my supplements episode, episode 131. Finally, a later addition was magnesium. Magnesium is not only anti-inflammatory, but reduces muscle cramping, has been shown to reduce period pain and PMS, is essential for healthy hormone balance, energy production and helps to stabilise blood sugar, which you'll learn about in my next strategy. The difference I experience in my energy, my hormones, my moods, my sleep and my period pain with magnesium is extraordinary.  I use both magnesium spray on my body daily and directly on my abdomen during my period, and I use magnesium baths throughout the month. If I feel any cramping during my period, I spray a couple of times on my pelvis, and the cramps literally melt away in minutes, so in that way, I use it for in the moment pain relief as and when needed. But when I use magnesium spray and baths consistently, the need for spray during my period is greatly reduced, I just find my body's tolerance and resilience is so much higher, I can be more flexible and have less consequences, and it takes a lot more to cause me pain. That doesn't mean I can eat junk food and sugar every day as long as I use magnesium, I want to be clear that you can't out supplement a bad diet and eating healthy isn't just about endo, but all of the other chronic diseases we are at greater risk of with an unhealthy diet, like heart disease, cancer and diabetes. So yes, I still focus on my 80/20 approach, but it means that I can eat out more and have some treats without such severe reactions as I used to.  You know I am all about foundations, so for me, it's about laying the foundations of good health and then adding in some extra endo support, because we tend to need a little more than the average person. And I feel like these supplements do that for me. They're the cherry on the top that have really enhanced my endo management and freed up my life.  3.  Number 3 is balancing my blood sugar, which came many years later when I started my training as a health coach. Something I had noticed was despite my endo pain being better, I was always exhausted. I had severe dips during the day which would leave me slumped in my chair and so tired I literally would hold my eyes open whilst staring at my computer. It's a wonder that no one on my management team pulled me up on it! I additionally had severe brain fog and low moods. I also felt hungry quickly after big meals, would have trouble sleeping, would wake up tired and starving, and would often feel faint, dizzy, shaky and irritable.   I put this all down to having endometriosis and the chronic fatigue and brain fog that can come with it. I now don't think it's as simple as endo causes brain fog and fatigue, I actually think -well, know - there are multiple factors that contribute to these symptoms, and I explore them in episode 119 for those of you who would like to learn more. I was really interested in understanding why I had managed to clear my endo pain, but not my fatigue and brain fog. The other issue was that I had noticed that I couldn't eat heavy carbs on my period without causing a pain flare. I could be pain free, had a great month, but if I ate some fruit, a bowl or oats, rice, grains, pasta or potato, I would be in agony within 30 minutes or so. I started noticing that I was better off sticking to fasting on Day 1 of my period, or eating a small amount of protein, fats and low starchy vegetables for the first 24 hours to two days. I was also depressed, anxious and had awful PMS and mood swings and spent a good portion of each month feeling suicidal. I do have my suspicions about whether I suffered with PMDD and that it's now largely under control, but I wasn't tracking my period and I didn't even know when my period would start, so I can't really say whether these feelings were cyclical, but I feel like they were. Regardless, all of that has gone away since balancing my hormones and learning about blood sugar. And when I finally did learn about blood sugar, it all made sense!  So, let's do a recap of what blood sugar is and means for the body.  Blood sugar is the measurement of glucose a.ka. sugar, in the blood stream. We get glucose from carbohydrates, after they break down in the gut through digestion. Glucose is the body's main source of fuel, but it needs to be in the right amount to benefit us. Too much and we'll have problems, too little and we'll have problems too.  Complex carbohydrates like vegetables, contain fibre and are broken down over time, so you get a steady drip of glucose to the blood stream over a sustained period, which creates even energy levels.  However, simple carbohydrates like processed carbs such as white bread, white pasta and simple sugars like honey, maple syrup and white sugar, contain very little fibre and are made up of only very short chains of glucose. It doesn't take the body much time at all to break down those chains into single glucose molecules that get absorbed into the blood stream. So, this creates a large spike in blood sugar, in a very short amount of time. Our body actually finds this spike a stressor, as we're not designed to have that much glucose in our blood at one time. The body wants to clean up all this glucose quickly, so it releases lots of insulin from our pancreas. Insulin is a hormone that delivers glucose to cells for fuel, but when we have too much glucose, it quickly shoves it away in storage in our fat cells and liver. Because the body has released so much insulin in a panic to sort our blood sugar levels out, our glucose levels end up dropping dramatically and our levels get too low. As a result, our brain and body are now starved of glucose, because all of it has been put into storage and none has been left for actual fuel. It's this dip that I was experiencing during my sleep, when I was waking in the morning, when I felt exhausted mid-morning and afternoon, it's why I would eat a huge meal and feel starving shortly after. It's why I felt dizzy, shaky, depressed, anxious. It's also why my moods fluctuated and it's also why I had severe PMS and oestrogen dominance symptoms, because blood sugar dysregulation drives up oestrogen levels and can lower progesterone levels, creating hormonal imbalances.  Now the other issue is that high blood sugar levels raise inflammatory chemicals called prostaglandins, and we know that inflammation is a driver of pain in endometriosis. This would explain why I would have surges in pain when eating a carb heavy meal during my period, especially when I hadn't created these meals to be blood sugar balancing. I can now eat a blood sugar balanced meal on my period and not experience any pain at all, which to me is still revolutionary. At the time, when I was experiencing all of these problems, I was eating a wonderful anti-inflammatory diet rich in an antioxidant rich foods, but I was mainly eating carbs, and wasn't paying enough attention to protein or healthy fats. I would pile my plate with hummus, potatoes, rice, falafel and vegetables. These aren't unhealthy foods. Carbs are not the enemy here – as I've already explained, the glucose from carbs is essential fuel for us. But it's about how we eat carbs. There are a few steps to balancing your blood sugar and I dive into those in more details in other episodes, articles, my course Live and Thrive with Endo and my nutrition masterclasses, but in short, the first step is having a balanced plate. That means having fat, fibre, protein and complex carbs with every meal.  Fat, fibre and protein are not only nutrient dense and provide essential nutrients for managing endo and balancing hormones, but they slow down the release of glucose from carbohydrates because they take longer to digest.  At the IWHI where I trained, we're taught to balance a plate with 50% of the plate being low starch vegetables like cruciferous veg, peppers, cucumbers, etc., 25% of your plate is protein, whether that's animal or plant based, and the final 25% is split between healthy fats and extra carbs, usually starchier ones or more veggies, depending on what your body needs. So, for example, it might look like having some root vegetables which are starchier and higher in carbs, or whole grains which again are starchier and higher in carbs, and tend to break down more quickly than low starch veg. For fat, we're looking at about two tablespoons or two golf ball sized portions.  Now this will need tweaking for each individual, as someone who is very active will probably need more starchy carbs than someone who has a desk job, but regardless, it's about focusing on those four pillars and their rough portion sizes, adjusting to what feels right to you. Once I made this change, I felt such a huge difference, I almost think about my health in the sense of before and after blood sugar balancing! My moods are much more stable, my energy is consistent in the sense that I don't often have those swings anymore or those crashes unless my blood sugar is unstable for some reason, I rarely ever have oestrogen dominance symptoms unless I haven't taken care of my blood sugar, I don't have PMS again unless I haven't taken care of my blood sugar, my brain fog is minimal and I'm much more focused, and I don't have these surges of pain when I eat on my period anymore. Of course, if you have an eating disorder or a history of an eating disorder and this feels triggering for you, I don't recommend you make any changes without the support of a dietician or nutritionist versed in eating disorders and a mental health practitioner. If you'd like to learn more about blood sugar in-depth, I listed earlier the resources where I provide more step-by-step actions. 4.     My last biggest needle mover has been surprising for me and that's clearing my SIBO, despite having relapsed shortly afterwards. I haven't spoken about this much because I wanted to be sure, but even though I am quite certain I have relapsed with my SIBO, since I got a negative test result, I've experienced yet again, a new level of resilience in my period, similar to how I felt with adding in those supplements.  Just after I got the all clear we spent six weeks in Greece, where my options for endo friendly foods were limited. I ended up incredibly sick with gut health issues, because I am intolerant to gluten and dairy and having to eat those a few times a week ended up causing a lot of IBS issues, but in the past I would have been in cripplingly agony on my period if I was eating these foods regularly, but instead, whilst I did have an increase in pain, it wasn't anywhere near how it was previously.  I will say, during treatment my period was up and down because there was a lot of inflammation going on in my body, so it was more coming out on the other side that I've seen the difference. And since treating, I've introduced gluten for a coeliac disease test, but again, despite it being worse than normal and I've needed to take some time out of work for it, the pain with my periods wasn't anywhere to the level it would have been in the past.  Secondly, my blood sugar levels have dramatically improved. Prior to treating my SIBO, I would have to work very hard to control my blood sugar levels and I was incredibly sensitive to any increases or dips, now they are much less sensitive and more stable. And even though I could eat more on my period learning how to balance my blood sugar, I still had to eat a low level of carbohydrates to prevent a blood sugar spike, which would normally lead to a pain flare. So, in terms of what I could eat on my period, I had gone from pretty much needing to fast or eating minimal amounts of fat and protein, to then being able to eat low carb meals once I learnt how to balance my blood sugar. However, now the difference is remarkable. My period was on New Year's Eve and I truly cannot believe what I ate. I had already noticed over the past months that I was becoming more and more resilient with what I could eat, so we decided to have noodles on New Year's Eve. Usually, I would stay away from anything with a high carb content on my period because it would just shoot my pain up, but because I had been dipping my toes in over the past few months and as it was New Year's Eve, I decided to try something I would never normally even consider eating on my period. I'm pretty sure I also ate some of my gluten free bread that day too and probably some other Christmassy carbs. And whilst I got slightly more pain than my usual low pain or pain free periods, with some extra ginger and magnesium, it went away quickly (as in, within half an hour). So again, just to be clear, I'm not about to fill my diet with foods I know make me sick, like dairy, gluten, caffeine and sugar, and I'm certainly not going to start swapping my veggies for more processed food. But it's nice to know I don't have to panic if I eat a slice of birthday cake near my period or if I want a bowl of pasta on my period.  Now you're probably wondering why treating the SIBO would make a difference. Without offering my body up for research, I can only hypothesize as to what's happened, but I think I can reasonably believe this is correct.  Firstly, SIBO, especially methane type SIBO, can cause blood sugar imbalances, as can other forms of bacterial imbalances in the gut. I believe that whatever bacteria I specifically had that was behind my SIBO, was driving some of my blood sugar issues. You've heard me talk about this for a long time, that even when I ate for blood sugar, I would still notice how sensitive I was to blood sugar changes or a meal that wasn't perfectly balanced. Now there are numerous bacteria responsible for SIBO, so for example, two people could have methane type SIBO, but the bacteria causing their methane SIBO could be different. I think that the bacteria causing my blood sugar issues has either been cleared entirely and it's a different bacteria that's causing my current relapse, or it's returned but is in low levels so I'm not so affected by it.  Secondly, bacteria from SIBO can release a toxin called endotoxins or lipopolysaccharides. These cause a huge inflammatory reaction in the body and have been found in the pelvic cavity of people with endo and have been shown to contribute to the inflammation and growth of endometriosis. Having cleared SIBO, it's possible that I may have reduced the level of endotoxins in my blood and pelvic cavity, reducing the inflammation in that area. And as a result, my body is more resilient to changes that can increase inflammation because it's not already being inflamed by SIBO. Clearly, I need to get back on top of my SIBO to keep reaping the benefits because I don't want the endo toxins or bacteria to build up to high levels again. It's not something I'm doing just yet because I'm working on my root causes, to prevent relapsing again, and as you know, I've been exploring candida overgrowth and mould too, which can cause relapse, but all of these things take time. If I notice any negative changes, I'll try to do the treatment quicker, but for now, I'm enjoying the benefits!  So that's it. Those are my top four changes that I feel made the biggest difference to my endo symptoms in the past seven years. I hope you've found this episode inspiring, motivating and hopeful!  See you next week. Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. Sign up to my free Ease Endo Tea Challenge here. Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here. My new Nutrition for Endo Masterclasses are out now and are on special offer for Black Friday. Get one masterclass for £29.99 (full price £40) or both for £50. Find out more here. My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order. Show Notes Anti-inflammatory nutrition https://www.integrativepainscienceinstitute.com/diet-works-best-pain/  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4684110/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4359818/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11093597/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11093597/ https://gut.bmj.com/content/65/11/1812.long https://gut.bmj.com/content/70/7/1287#article-bottom https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23419794/ https://academic.oup.com/endo/article/149/3/1190/2455150 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15051604/  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2693127/  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17434511/  https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/msystems.00031-18?permanently=true    Magnesium https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/5/10/3910 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/dme.12250  https://drbrighten.com/boost-low-progesterone/ https://www.composednutrition.com/blog/increase-progesterone-naturally https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2675496/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25023192/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5112180/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30880352/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4847116/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17229895/   Ginger https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23865123/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26177393/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25912592/ https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ptr.6730 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7171779/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23657930/    SIBO https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7375730/ 

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Today's episode is part of an end of year special series. I am resharing some of my most actionable episodes to help you reduce pain on your period and pain flares in general, and to balance your hormones for better periods, less PMS and healthier cycles. I am sharing these episodes because this time of year is often when some of our endo management strategies can go out of the window (and understandably so!). We might have more sugar, less sleep, more alcohol and more blood sugar dysregulation, and as a result, these can all raise inflammation and give our bodies a hard time when it comes to clearing old and excess hormones. So come January or maybe sooner, we tend to have more PMS, worse periods and more pain. So these episodes are designed to provide you with some tips you can quickly implement if you're worried about your upcoming period, or you're feeling rough and need some tips to improve your symptoms. Now of course, it's natural that we want to indulge a bit over Christmas, and so these episodes are not about telling you to be a saint. Instead, they're about practices you can throw in that can just help lessen some of the impact. I am releasing a couple so you can choose strategies you think will help you most and so you have options, but you certainly don't have to try them all! And whilst I'm here, if you find that you want to learn more about how to eat for endo and for hormone balance, or you get to the end of the festive period and you really just want to improve your systems, I now have my Nutrition for Endo Masterclasses, which are available to buy all year round, unlike my courses. Lucky for you, they're still discounted because I haven't had time to change the prices, so you can still get each masterclass for £29.99 or you can buy the bundle for £50. You could also ask for them as a Christmas present! Finally, thank you for listening to this podcast this year, and for sticking with me even with my sporadic release dates as I navigate all of these new courses and offerings with recording my free content. I am wishing you a wonderful festive break (if you celebrate) and a very happy New Year. So, without further ado, let's get to today's episode. I really hope it helps you manage some of your symptoms over this festive period. Seven Foods To Alleviate PMS with Endometriosis In episode 107 I took you through what oestrogen dominance is, the causes and the symptoms, alongside seven foods to help alleviate the hormonal imbalance. If you haven't listened to that episode yet, go ahead and check it out, then come back to this one! But why is oestrogen dominance even a problem? Oestrogen has been shown in multiple studies to play a pivotal role in the development and growth of endometriosis, it's why many doctors use progestin only hormonal birth control methods to possibly help lower symptoms (though not everyone responds well to this option). If we have too much oestrogen in our body, we may be further fuelling our endo and additionally, the symptoms of oestrogen dominance look a lot like endometriosis and we for sure don't want to be worsening those! So today, I'm taking you through five natural lifestyle and nutrition tips to reduce oestrogen dominance and balance hormones with endometriosis. Stress management - The body responds to stress by releasing cortisol and adrenaline. In acute moments of genuine threat and danger, this is helpful and normal but long-term chronic stress, whether it's a low lying level of stress or severe, can cause hormonal disruption, lowering progesterone and creating an oestrogen dominant scenario. Stressors don't just have to be emotional or mental (like 2020!), they can also be physiological, like over-exercising, heavy caffeine consumption, underlying infections or conditions like SIBO, chronic inflammation, lack of sleep, dysregulated blood sugar, etc. Strategies that have been shown to lower cortisol include meditation, mindfulness, breath work, yoga and walking in nature. Blood sugar balance - Blood sugar balance is absolutely key to healthy hormones and imbalanced blood sugar can lead to oestrogen dominance, as well as inflammation (worsening pain). There are numerous ways that dysregulated blood sugar causes imbalanced hormones, but for the purpose of today's conversation, I'll focus on two areas… High insulin levels (caused by a spike in blood sugar) raises aromatase, an enzyme that coverts testosterone into oestrogen, creating excess oestrogen in the body. Additionally, blood sugar imbalance can also cause sporadic ovulation or a lack of ovulation entirely, lowering progesterone and further exacerbating the oestrogen dominance scenario. Three key ways to balance blood sugar are making sure your meals include fat, fibre, protein and complex carbohydrates. Eating regularly and not allowing yourself to get really hungry, hangry, shaky or faint before meals and reducing refined carbohydrates like pastries and sugary snacks. Daily bowel movements - You should be having at least one bowel movement a day, as this not only allows waste to leave the body but any old oestrogen too. Constipation can lead to oestrogen dominance because oestrogen is reabsorbed if it's not eliminated quickly enough - and I see this often with my clients who suffer with constipation from SIBO! Ensure you're drinking enough water (at least half your body weight in lbs, in oz) and you're eating 8-10 servings of fruits and veggies a day for adequate fibre. Foods like chia seeds can also really help, but would be best avoided if you have SIBO as chia seeds can aggravate symptoms. If your bowel movements are fine, your gut may still need some attention. The gut microbiome contains a group of bacteria called the estrobolome which is responsible for eliminating oestrogen from the gut, if you have an imbalance and not enough of this bacteria, you may not be able to properly remove oestrogen. Additionally, an enzyme in the gut called beta-glucuronidase can actually take old and used up oestrogen and convert it back into the usable form, causing an excess of oestrogen in the body. You can test your gut microbiome using a test called the GI Map. If you think something is up with your gut microbiome, I encourage you to go back to my episodes on the endo belly and try some of the strategies listed there. Removing xenooestrogens - Xenooestrogens are chemicals that are in the environment, pesticides, beauty products, cleaning products and more, which mimic oestrogen and have been linked in numerous studies to hormonal disruption, endometriosis and fertility problems. They additionally over-burden the liver and so old oestrogen is put on the back burner whilst the liver works hard to clear out these toxins in our body. Both the xenooestrogens themselves plus our own waste oestrogen building up leads to oestrogen dominance. Strategies to reduce our exposure include drinking filtered water, going organic as much as possible, swapping our beauty, body and cleaning products for non-toxic versions and replacing our non-stick cookware and Tupperware with stainless steel, cast iron, ceramic, glass, silicone and non-toxic non-stick products. Yes, this is a lot to do, so start slowly! Even if it takes you a year to work through, that's fine! We can also support our liver further with lowering our exposure to drugs, alcohol, caffeine, sugar, drinking plenty of water and eating a nutritious diet. Good nutrition - You knew it was coming! 8-10 servings of fruits and vegetables a day fill us with fibre to help daily bowel movements, feed our gut bacteria and also provide essential nutrients for healthy hormones. Additionally, cruciferous veg play a key role in helping to clear out our waste oestrogen. Healthy fats, protein and complex carbohydrates also aid in keeping our blood sugar levels balanced and supporting our body to make healthy, happy hormones. For more tips on nutrition, head to episode 107. Listen and subscribe on your favourite player or listen directly/download MP3 here or just listen below! Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here. My new Nutrition for Endo Masterclasses are out now and are on special offer for Black Friday. Get one masterclass for £29.99 (full price £40) or both for £50. Find out more here. My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order. Show Notes Hormone balance with Nicole Jardim My blood sugar episode Understanding the Endo Belly Part 1 Understanding the Endo Belly Part 2  

Hey Friend!   In Today's Thursday Power Episode, I'm answering a question I often get - “Tiff, I have a feeling I'm made for more, but how do I take those first steps on this, how do I know what is right for me?”   I love this question and honestly, I can give you all the strategy for this but I'm not about teaching you strategies that will lead you down a path of burnout faster than you can see results. My focus is to teach you tips and give you the tools that build a foundation for sustainable success.    So I'm giving you 5 questions to ask yourself first to look at where you're at, so you can tap into ensuring your goals are authentic to YOU and then I'm giving you four things to think about to get you to dream a little. These will also help you come up with what your next best actions should be, so you can start to make big things happen for you while making sure you're setting visions and goals that truly matter to you.   I hope you enjoy this one and it helps support you in some way!   Xo, Tiffany   Receive weekly leadership, productivity and business inspiration + lessons here and be among the first to know about new resources that are released to help support you. Get on the list HERE: https://www.tiffanygwallace.com/contact   I have 3 remaining private mentor spots open for the first half of 2022. Email here for more details and to see if this would be a good fit for you and your goals → hello@tiffanygwallace.com   Snag Free Gifts and Find out More at: https://www.tiffanygwallace.com/   Come Connect with us in the Female Leadership, Productivity, Entrepreneur & Business FB Group, we'd love to see you in our Well Integrated Woman Community: https://bit.ly/integrationsupportgroup   Access your FREE Guide Here: Daily Self-Leadership Habits Made Easy → https://bit.ly/dailyselfleadershiphabits   Connect with Tiffany:   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tiffanygwallace/ Facebook: https://bit.ly/supportwithtiffany LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiffany-wallace-9123a2106/

Today's episode is part of an end of year special series. I am resharing some of my most actionable episodes to help you reduce pain on your period and pain flares in general, and to balance your hormones for better periods, less PMS and healthier cycles. I am sharing these episodes because this time of year is often when some of our endo management strategies can go out of the window (and understandably so!). We might have more sugar, less sleep, more alcohol and more blood sugar dysregulation, and as a result, these can all raise inflammation and give our bodies a hard time when it comes to clearing old and excess hormones. So come January or maybe sooner, we tend to have more PMS, worse periods and more pain. So these episodes are designed to provide you with some tips you can quickly implement if you're worried about your upcoming period, or you're feeling rough and need some tips to improve your symptoms. Now of course, it's natural that we want to indulge a bit over Christmas, and so these episodes are not about telling you to be a saint. Instead, they're about practices you can throw in that can just help lessen some of the impact. I am releasing a couple so you can choose strategies you think will help you most and so you have options, but you certainly don't have to try them all! And whilst I'm here, if you find that you want to learn more about how to eat for endo and for hormone balance, or you get to the end of the festive period and you really just want to improve your systems, I now have my Nutrition for Endo Masterclasses, which are available to buy all year round, unlike my courses. Lucky for you, they're still discounted because I haven't had time to change the prices, so you can still get each masterclass for £29.99 or you can buy the bundle for £50. You could also ask for them as a Christmas present! Finally, thank you for listening to this podcast this year, and for sticking with me even with my sporadic release dates as I navigate all of these new courses and offerings with recording my free content. I am wishing you a wonderful festive break (if you celebrate) and a very happy New Year. So, without further ado, let's get to today's episode. I really hope it helps you manage some of your symptoms over this festive period. Seven Foods To Alleviate PMS with Endometriosis Bloating? Anxiety? Tearfulness? Painful breasts? If you experience any of these symptoms, you likely experience PMS in the lead up to your period. Even though PMS is very common, it doesn't mean it's just something we have to live with - especially when we're dealing with endometriosis as well. In fact, PMS is caused by hormonal imbalances, often oestrogen dominance or excess oestrogen and sometimes low progesterone - and when we get these into balance, a lot of our endo symptoms ease too! So this week, I wanted to share with your seven foods that you can add in during your luteal phase (the phase after ovulation, before your period) that contain wonderful nutrients that have been shown to alleviate PMS and support healthy hormone balance… Leafy greens for magnesium, calcium and potassium. You guys must know by now how much I love magnesium! It helps to alleviate cramps, aids in oestrogen detoxification but also progesterone production and reduces bloating. Potassium additionally supports bloating, which is another bonus considering so many of you reach out to tell me this is one of your worse symptoms. Finally, in research calcium has been shown to help with PMS symptoms too! Add to smoothies, salads and whatever you're having for dinner - think leafy greens with each meal. Nuts and seeds, particularly sunflower seeds, sesame (tahini is best here as sesame seeds are often too small to chew and pass through undigested) and pumpkin seeds. Nuts and seeds and these three in particular are rich in magnesium, and zinc which supports healthy progesterone levels and good levels of vitamin E, which has been shown to help alleviate period pain and PMS. Add nut butter to your porridge, overnight oats and smoothies and drizzle tahini over your veggies. Protein for B6, including organic free range and pasture raised chicken and turkey, organic grass-fed beef, fish, lentils and chickpeas. B6 helps to keep blood sugar levels stable (in turn, keeping hormones balanced and anxiety and fatigue at bay) and has actually been shown to reduce PMS and depressive symptoms, and is truly a crucial vitamin for healthy hormonal balance! Try a chickpea curry for dinner and perhaps wild caught fish or another animal protein at lunch with lots of veggies and some healthy complex carbs and fat. Sweet potatoes, squash and beetroot (and all other root veggies) actually help to raise serotonin levels in our brain thanks to their complex carbohydrate content. Our feel-good neurotransmitter, serotonin works closely with oestrogen during the first half of our cycle, and when oestrogen lowers in our second half our mood can take a bit of a hit - especially if our progesterone levels aren't high enough. Eating root veggies with a good serving of protein and fat improve our mood, boost our energy and keep our blood sugar levels stable. Root vegetables also contain hormone loving B vitamins, calcium and magnesium - all great for balancing hormones and alleviating PMS. Try steaming and freezing root vegetables for smoothies or making up a lentil and beetroot salad. Peppers and other vitamin C rich foods like berries and broccoli can actually help to increase progesterone levels. Low progesterone levels can lead to PMS, anxiety, low moods, short cycles and pre-menstrual spotting. Try a salad of leafy greens, broccoli, peppers and lentils for a hit of vitamin C, magnesium and B6! Kidney beans, black beans, adzuki beans and other beans for B vitamins. B vitamins are some of the foundational nutrients behind healthy hormones - they ensure you're making healthy amounts, keep oestrogen in check, support progesterone if it's low and so much more that I'll have to do a whole podcast on them. In short, they can help alleviate PMS symptoms by making sure any excess or old oestrogen is cleared out and that you have a healthy level of progesterone in your luteal phase. Try an Italian bean salad with rocket, pumpkin seed pesto, adzuki beans, borlotti beans, olives, red onion, tomatoes, pepper, artichokes and olive oil! Broccoli sprouts, broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables for healthy oestrogen elimination. Broccoli and broccoli sprouts contain DIM and sulforaphane which support the liver to break down oestrogen in a healthy way and therefore lowers any chance of PMS symptoms. Throw a big handful or half a cup of broccoli sprouts in your smoothies or on salads, and try adding cauliflower rice to your chickpea curry. Even just adding one or two of these foods in on a daily basis could make a difference! Try making a meal plan or some meal ideas with any of the above suggestions and track how your PMS symptoms over a few cycles to see if things change. Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here. My new Nutrition for Endo Masterclasses are out now and are on special offer for Black Friday. Get one masterclass for £29.99 (full price £40) or both for £50. Find out more here. My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order. Show Notes Hormone balance with Nicole Jardim My blood sugar episode Lisa Hendrickson-Jack Fertility Awareness Method My FLO app Magnesium: Magnesium for oestrogen clearance The Association Between Serum Magnesium and Premenstrual Syndrome: a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies Magnesium--a new therapeutic alternative in primary dysmenorrhea Potassium: Potassium foods for bloating Calcium: A systematic review of the role of vitamin D and calcium in premenstrual syndrome Zinc: Zinc induced changes in the progesterone binding properties of the human endometrium Vitamin E: Evaluating the effects of vitamin D and vitamin E supplement on premenstrual syndrome: A randomized, double-blind, controlled trial B6: The Interactions between Vitamin B6 and Hormones Nutritional factors in the etiology of the premenstrual tension syndromes Dr Jolene Brighten B6 Vitamin C: Serum Antioxidants Are Associated with Serum Reproductive Hormones and Ovulation among Healthy Women Low progesterone B vitamins: Dr Joelene Brighten Broccoli sprouts:  Magdalena Wszelaki broccoli sprouts Changes in levels of urinary estrogen metabolites after oral indole-3-carbinol treatment in humans Indole-3-Carbinol (I3C) and its Major Derivatives: Their Pharmacokinetics and Important Roles in Hepatic Protection

Today's episode is part of an end of year special series. I am resharing some of my most actionable episodes to help you reduce pain on your period and pain flares in general, and to balance your hormones for better periods, less PMS and healthier cycles. I am sharing these episodes because this time of year is often when some of our endo management strategies can go out of the window (and understandably so!). We might have more sugar, less sleep, more alcohol and more blood sugar dysregulation, and as a result, these can all raise inflammation and give our bodies a hard time when it comes to clearing old and excess hormones. So come January or maybe sooner, we tend to have more PMS, worse periods and more pain. So these episodes are designed to provide you with some tips you can quickly implement if you're worried about your upcoming period, or you're feeling rough and need some tips to improve your symptoms. Now of course, it's natural that we want to indulge a bit over Christmas, and so these episodes are not about telling you to be a saint. Instead, they're about practices you can throw in that can just help lessen some of the impact. I am releasing a couple so you can choose strategies you think will help you most and so you have options, but you certainly don't have to try them all! And whilst I'm here, if you find that you want to learn more about how to eat for endo and for hormone balance, or you get to the end of the festive period and you really just want to improve your systems, I now have my Nutrition for Endo Masterclasses, which are available to buy all year round, unlike my courses. Lucky for you, they're still discounted because I haven't had time to change the prices, so you can still get each masterclass for £29.99 or you can buy the bundle for £50. You could also ask for them as a Christmas present! Finally, thank you for listening to this podcast this year, and for sticking with me even with my sporadic release dates as I navigate all of these new courses and offerings with recording my free content. I am wishing you a wonderful festive break (if you celebrate) and a very happy New Year. So, without further ado, let's get to today's episode. I really hope it helps you manage some of your symptoms over this festive period. Six Foods To Eat Before Your Period To Reduce Pain with Endometriosis Today I wanted to follow up on last week's episode Six Tips for Reducing Endometriosis Pain in The Week Before Your Period, with something a little more focused around nutrition. As most of you will know by now, I lean towards making healthy choices to support us with endo all month long, but that doesn't mean that focusing on foods to add in just before our period can't be useful. In fact, if you're struggling with where to get started with endometriosis management, I would start here and with my last episode. As always, these are just options - you don't have to do them all nor do you have to do them exactly as suggested, tweak and tailor to your lifestyle and preferences. If you're triggered by any of this, seek the support of a therapist and dietician/health coach/nutritionist before making further dietary changes. So, here are any foods to to eat before your period to reduce pain with endometriosis: Spinach and other leafy greens such as kale, boy chow, lettuce, rocket, chard and other greens. Add these in for anti-inflammatory nutrients, magnesium iron and fibre. Leafy greens can help to reduce period pain, fatigue, PMS symptoms like bloating and can aid reducing any excess oestrogen. You can throw some spinach in your morning smoothie and a big handful or two of lettuce to your lunch. Olive oil and other Vitamin E containing foods such as almonds, olives, avocados, greens and sunflower seeds. Vitamin E has been shown to reduce inflammation in numerous studies, as well as reduce pain with endometriosis and painful periods. Try drizzling two tablespoons of olive oil or sunflower seed butter over your lunch time salad, and snacking on almonds! Broccoli and other cruciferous veg like kale, cauliflower, asparagus, broccoli sprouts, sprouts and cabbage. These help to reduce oestrogen dominance by supporting the body to remove old oestrogen that needs clearing out and can cause symptoms like clots periods, heavy periods and period pain. You could try roasting wedges of red cabbage and mixing into a salad, grating red cabbage over a tex-mea meal or adding broccoli sprouts to salads and smoothies. Salmon and other sources of omega 3 fats such as mackerel, anchovies, sardines, herring, walnuts and chia seeds. Omega 3 fats help to lower inflammation and have been shown to reduce period pain and in studies on rats, reduce the size of endometriosis lesions. Add no more than two portions of fatty fish a week in addition to walnuts and chia seeds, and be cautious of large fatty fish as these can have a higher mercury content. If you don't eat fish, it's worth noting that most of us can't convert plant-based sources of omega. fats into the usable form, so you'll need to supplement with a vegan DHA and EPA supplement. One way to get in extra fish is to pair it with a Mediterranean salad and whole grains like quinoa for dinner, and try adding in some chia with a chia pot snack mixed with blueberries, walnuts and some almond milk. Tomatoes and other colourful vegetables such as berries, red cabbage, parsnips, peppers, squashed carrots. Studies have shown that people with endometriosis have higher levels of oxidation (which leads to higher levels of inflammation and therefore pain) and that when participants added in a high anti-oxidant diet in the form of extra fruits and vegetables, their oxidation levels lowered. When it comes to fruit and veggies, the more colour, the more anti-oxidants - so eat the rainbow! Try snacking on red and yellow peppers and cucumber dipped in hummus, and make a dinner that has a delicious roasted veg salad with it such as roasted carrots, beetroot and fennel - delicious with some puy lentils, fresh herbs and rocket! Turmeric and other herbs and spices like cinnamon and ginger. Many herbs and spices are anti-inflammatory, yet turmeric, ginger and cinnamon are particular stand-out stars, with curcumin (the active compound in turmeric) showing promise with endometriosis lesion suppression and ruction in mice, and ginger being an effective pain reliever in people with primary dysmenorrhea. How about making up a daily turmeric latte and a carrot and ginger soup to enjoy for the week? Bonus food! Raw cacao and sugar free dark chocolate. Rich in magnesium, iron and anti-oxidants, raw cacao can help lower inflammation and support energy production, whilst helping us with those sugar cravings! Just be mindful of how much you have as cacao does have a little caffeine. My superfood hot chocolate recipe is a lovely way to get this delicious food into your diet before your period. So which one are you going to start with? Dm me over on Instagram and let me know which food you try this cycle! Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here. My new Nutrition for Endo Masterclasses are out now and are on special offer for Black Friday. Get one masterclass for £29.99 (full price £40) or both for £50. Find out more here. My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order.   Show Notes My FLO How to track your period   Magnesium Study Magnesium baths for pain article Magnesium--a new therapeutic alternative in primary dysmenorrhea   Vitamin E Vitamin E, oxidative stress, and inflammation Antioxidant supplementation reduces endometriosis-related pelvic pain in humans Evaluation of the effect of vitamin E on pelvic pain reduction in women suffering from primary dysmenorrhea   Omega 3 Fatty Acids NHS fish guidance Dietary fish oil supplementation inhibits formation of endometriosis-associated adhesions in a chimeric mouse model Omega-3 fatty acids (fish oil) as an anti-inflammatory: an alternative to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for discogenic pain Effect of omega-3 fatty acids on intensity of primary dysmenorrhea Anti-inflammatory Effects Of Omega 3 Fatty Acid In Fish Oil Linked To Lowering Of Prostaglandin Outsmart Endometriosis by Dr Jessica Drummond   Eat the rainbow Foods That Fight Inflammation - Harvard Health Oxidative Stress and Endometriosis: A Systematic Review of the Literature Women with endometriosis improved their peripheral antioxidant markers after the application of a high antioxidant diet   Curcumin  Curcumin inhibits endometriosis endometrial cells by reducing estradiol production   Ginger Dr. Aviva Romm ginger recommendations The effect of ginger for relieving of primary dysmenorrhoea Comparison of Effects of Ginger, Mefenamic Acid, and Ibuprofen on Pain in Women with Primary Dysmenorrhea   Cacao 100% black sugar free peanut butter mini eggs Hazelnut truffles Absolute Black (can find the bar in Sainsburys) Hotel Chocolat buttons (these are AMAZING, but I don't love their other 100% chocolate products) So Free sweet dark chocolate Raw cacao (you can find this in Sainsburys, but generally you can get raw cacao everywhere and online) My brownie recipe

Today's episode is part of an end of year special series. I am resharing some of my most actionable episodes to help you reduce pain on your period and pain flares in general, and to balance your hormones for better periods, less PMS and healthier cycles. I am sharing these episodes because this time of year is often when some of our endo management strategies can go out of the window (and understandably so!). We might have more sugar, less sleep, more alcohol and more blood sugar dysregulation, and as a result, these can all raise inflammation and give our bodies a hard time when it comes to clearing old and excess hormones. So come January or maybe sooner, we tend to have more PMS, worse periods and more pain. So these episodes are designed to provide you with some tips you can quickly implement if you're worried about your upcoming period, or you're feeling rough and need some tips to improve your symptoms. Now of course, it's natural that we want to indulge a bit over Christmas, and so these episodes are not about telling you to be a saint. Instead, they're about practices you can throw in that can just help lessen some of the impact. I am releasing a couple so you can choose strategies you think will help you most and so you have options, but you certainly don't have to try them all! And whilst I'm here, if you find that you want to learn more about how to eat for endo and for hormone balance, or you get to the end of the festive period and you really just want to improve your systems, I now have my Nutrition for Endo Masterclasses, which are available to buy all year round, unlike my courses. Lucky for you, they're still discounted because I haven't had time to change the prices, so you can still get each masterclass for £29.99 or you can buy the bundle for £50. You could also ask for them as a Christmas present! Finally, thank you for listening to this podcast this year, and for sticking with me even with my sporadic release dates as I navigate all of these new courses and offerings with recording my free content. I am wishing you a wonderful festive break (if you celebrate) and a very happy New Year. So, without further ado, let's get to today's episode. I really hope it helps you manage some of your symptoms over this festive period. Seven Foods to Alleviate Oestrogen Dominance with Endometriosis If you've listened to my podcast recently, you've likely heard a lot about oestrogen dominance or excess oestrogen and the problems these two imbalances can bring. Oestrogen in itself isn't a ‘bad' hormone - it's a wonderful hormone that plays a crucial role in our menstrual cycle and our overall health. But too much or too high in relation to progesterone is where the problems arise, and these problems can make our experience of endo worse. So what is oestrogen dominance? Oestrogen dominance occurs when the ratio of oestrogen to progesterone is too high, this can happen when progesterone is low, oestrogen is high or both! Excess oestrogen is when there is too much oestrogen circulating the body, and this would be likely cause oestrogen dominance, providing of course that progesterone isn't also too high (which in my experience with clients at least, is generally less common). Why does oestrogen dominance occur? We deep dive into this topic in other interviews and episodes (so check the links below), but to give you an overview, here are some of the common causes: Stress Imbalanced blood sugar Gut health issues Deficiencies, such as zinc Heavy alcohol consumption Overburdened liver Xenoestrogens Whilst taking a holistic approach looking at all of these areas is advisable, eating certain foods can help your body to remove any old or excess oestrogen and adding these foods in can be a great way to get started with healing any imbalances. Here are seven of my favourite foods for alleviating oestrogen dominance with endometriosis: Dandelion root tea or coffee to help support the liver with clearing out old and excess oestrogen. Be careful that you're not buying a caffeinated dandelion and coffee blend - we're looking for dandelion alone. You can drink it as a herbal tea or buy it roasted, then grind and have as coffee! It makes a lovely black coffee or latte. Broccoli sprouts provide a big, concentrated dose of SGS (sulforaphane glucosinolate) , a plant compound that also helps the liver to detoxify oestrogen and break it down in a healthy way Cruciferous vegetables such as kale, broccoli, cabbage and Brussel sprouts aid oestrogen detoxification. The active compound in cruciferous veggies is a nutrient called I3C (indole-3-cabinol), which further breaks down into SGS (sulforaphane glucosinolate) and DIM (diindolymethane) and both play a big role in supporting the liver with oestrogen detoxification. In fact, these nutrients are so powerful that you may recognise them - they're often found in oestrogen clearance supplements! Probiotic foods such as kefir, sauerkraut, kimchi and yoghurt help create a healthy gut microbiome and ensure that the bacteria which helps to eliminate oestrogen, the estrobolome, is well supported and that beta-glucuronidase, the enzyme that reactivates oestrogen (causing it to be reabsorbed into the blood stream), is prevented from getting too high. A caveat here is that if you have SIBO you may find probiotic foods aggravating. I would start slowly with one tablespoon and increase to tolerance over time. B6 foods such turkey, fish, seeds, nuts like pistachios, lentils, eggs, and a moderate amount of organic pasture-raised red meat helps to detoxify old and excess oestrogen and raise progesterone levels. Lignans from nuts and seeds, particularly pumpkin, sunflower, sesame and potentially flax (if you respond well to it) help bind and remove oestrogen. Flax can have weak oestrogenic effects, and is often recommended to help lower oestrogen dominance symptoms . However, I recommend being mindful here as I am not the only practitioner to have witnessed endo symptoms and oestrogen dominance symptoms worsening from flax, so I would just see how you personally respond. Having said that, lots of doctors, nutritionists and health coaches see an improvement, but just have an awareness when you try and if you try flax. Hopefully it works well for you!   Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here. My new Nutrition for Endo Masterclasses are out now and are on special offer for Black Friday. Get one masterclass for £29.99 (full price £40) or both for £50. Find out more here. My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order. Show Notes SIBO episodes Ep 99 with Dr Allison Siebecker Ep 97 My SIBO treatment plan Oestrogen dominance episodes Ep 104 Blood Sugar episodes Ep 88 Ep 81 Ep 66 Ep 55 Broccoli sprouts and cruciferous veg  Magdalena Wszelaki broccoli sprouts Changes in levels of urinary estrogen metabolites after oral indole-3-carbinol treatment in humans Indole-3-Carbinol (I3C) and its Major Derivatives: Their Pharmacokinetics and Important Roles in Hepatic Protection Estrobolome Alisa Vitti Histamine The 4-Phase Histamine Reset Plan B6 The Interactions between Vitamin B6 and Hormones Nutritional factors in the etiology of the premenstrual tension syndromes Dr Jolene Brighten B6 Lignans Dr Joelene Brighten on seed cycling and flax Lara Briden explains phytoestrogens

Photo:  Chinese Peasant (in French Chinoiserie; rather fantastic). #StateThinking: PRC propaganda battalions aimed at abusing one undefended PRC citizen. @MaryKissel, Former Senior Adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Executive VP Stephens Inc.

The hackers created over 39,000 websites that mimicked the login pages in order to steal usernames and passwords. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's episode is part of an end of year special series. I am resharing some of my most actionable episodes to help you reduce pain on your period and pain flares in general, and to balance your hormones for better periods, less PMS and healthier cycles. I am sharing these episodes because this time of year is often when some of our endo management strategies can go out of the window (and understandably so!). We might have more sugar, less sleep, more alcohol and more blood sugar dysregulation, and as a result, these can all raise inflammation and give our bodies a hard time when it comes to clearing old and excess hormones. So come January or maybe sooner, we tend to have more PMS, worse periods and more pain. So these episodes are designed to provide you with some tips you can quickly implement if you're worried about your upcoming period, or you're feeling rough and need some tips to improve your symptoms. Now of course, it's natural that we want to indulge a bit over Christmas, and so these episodes are not about telling you to be a saint. Instead, they're about practices you can throw in that can just help lessen some of the impact. I am releasing a couple so you can choose strategies you think will help you most and so you have options, but you certainly don't have to try them all! And whilst I'm here, if you find that you want to learn more about how to eat for endo and for hormone balance, or you get to the end of the festive period and you really just want to improve your systems, I now have my Nutrition for Endo Masterclasses, which are available to buy all year round, unlike my courses. Lucky for you, they're still discounted because I haven't had time to change the prices, so you can still get each masterclass for £29.99 or you can buy the bundle for £50. You could also ask for them as a Christmas present! Finally, thank you for listening to this podcast this year, and for sticking with me even with my sporadic release dates as I navigate all of these new courses and offerings with recording my free content. I am wishing you a wonderful festive break (if you celebrate) and a very happy New Year. So, without further ado, let's get to today's episode. I really hope it helps you manage some of your symptoms over this festive period. Six Tips for Reducing Endometriosis Pain in The Week Before Your Period Most of us with endometriosis have experienced debilitating periods that stop us in our tracks and derail our day or week completely. Perhaps we get through with a mix of pain killers or maybe nothing helps at all - whatever is going on for you, today I want to offer you six simple pain relieving strategies that can help alleviate your endometriosis pain when your period arrives. These methods are best begun seven days before your period so the effects build up and compound and I do totally recommend continuing them into your period too, for extra benefits! As always, these are just options - you don't have to do them all nor do you have to do them exactly as suggested, tweak and tailor to your lifestyle and preferences. Consult your GP before adding in supplements. Here are my six tips for reducing your endometriosis pain for when your period starts: Magnesium rich baths, 2 - 3 times the week before your period, with 500g - 600g Epsom salt baths, soaking for at least 10 minutes each times. Two portions of low mercury, fatty fish (sardines, mackerel, anchovies salmon, herring) in addition to 1000mg - 3000mg good quality omega 3 fatty acid supplementation. Turmeric lattes with 1/2 teaspoon turmeric (1g) and 1/4-1/2 teaspoon ginger root powder (350mg-700mg) in addition to ginger tea (made with ginger root powder), raspberry leaf tea and dandelion tea. Always add some fat into your latte to aid absorption of the turmeric - coconut oil, coconut butter, cacao butter or nut butter all would work well. Daily yoga or stretches for endometriosis and pelvic pain. Reduce or eliminate sugar, utilising stevia, inulin root syrup, berries and 100% dark chocolate as alternatives. Eat the rainbow! Get in 5 to 10 servings of fruit and veg a day, focusing more on vegetables (think 80% vs 20%). I hope this episode helps you prepare for your period! Please do let me know if it changes your experience of your next period - I would love to hear from you! Scroll down to the show notes for links to studies, brand recommendations, recipes, etc. Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here. My new Nutrition for Endo Masterclasses are out now and are on special offer for Black Friday. Get one masterclass for £29.99 (full price £40) or both for £50. Find out more here. My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order. Show Notes Magnesium Study Magnesium baths for pain article Magnesium--a new therapeutic alternative in primary dysmenorrhea   Omega 3 Fatty Acids NHS fish guidance Dietary fish oil supplementation inhibits formation of endometriosis-associated adhesions in a chimeric mouse model Omega-3 fatty acids (fish oil) as an anti-inflammatory: an alternative to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for discogenic pain Effect of omega-3 fatty acids on intensity of primary dysmenorrhea Anti-inflammatory Effects Of Omega 3 Fatty Acid In Fish Oil Linked To Lowering Of Prostaglandin Outsmart Endometriosis by Dr Jessica Drummond Lion Heart Aqua Biome Fish Oil   Lattes and teas Super Turmeric Latte recipe  Curcumin inhibits endometriosis endometrial cells by reducing estradiol production Nicole Jardim Fix Your Period book Dr. Aviva Romm ginger recommendations The effect of ginger for relieving of primary dysmenorrhoea Comparison of Effects of Ginger, Mefenamic Acid, and Ibuprofen on Pain in Women with Primary Dysmenorrhea   Yoga and stretches for pelvic pain Yoga for endometriosis Stretches for endometriosis Pelvic floor and fascia release exercises by Dr. Nicole Cozean   Sugar Inflammatory cytokine concentrations are acutely increased by hyperglycemia in humans: role of oxidative stress Proinflammatory effects of glucose and anti-inflammatory effect of insulin: relevance to cardiovascular disease 100% black sugar free peanut butter mini eggs Hazelnut truffles Absolute Black (can find the bar in Sainsburys) Hotel Chocolat buttons (these are AMAZING, but I don't love their other 100% chocolate products) So Free sweet dark chocolate Raw cacao (you can find this in Sainsburys, but generally you can get raw cacao everywhere and online) Stevia drops  Troo syrup Stevia powder Perfect World ice cream My brownie recipe Sweet Laurel's Bakery blog Endometriosis and dairy episode Endometriosis and caffeine episode Endometriosis and sugar episode Endometriosis and gluten episode Molly Roberson interview   Eat the rainbow Oxidative Stress and Endometriosis: A Systematic Review of the Literature Women with endometriosis improved their peripheral antioxidant markers after the application of a high antioxidant diet

Kelly Cates is joined by Graeme Souness and Jermaine Beckford to analyse Arsenal's resounding win over an injury-hit Leeds which saw Gabriel Martinelli score in a second successive Premier League game.

Today's episode is part of an end of year special series. I am resharing some of my most actionable episodes to help you reduce pain on your period and pain flares in general, and to balance your hormones for better periods, less PMS and healthier cycles. I am sharing these episodes because this time of year is often when some of our endo management strategies can go out of the window (and understandably so!). We might have more sugar, less sleep, more alcohol and more blood sugar dysregulation, and as a result, these can all raise inflammation and give our bodies a hard time when it comes to clearing old and excess hormones. So come January or maybe sooner, we tend to have more PMS, worse periods and more pain. So these episodes are designed to provide you with some tips you can quickly implement if you're worried about your upcoming period, or you're feeling rough and need some tips to improve your symptoms. Now of course, it's natural that we want to indulge a bit over Christmas, and so these episodes are not about telling you to be a saint. Instead, they're about practices you can throw in that can just help lessen some of the impact. I am releasing a couple so you can choose strategies you think will help you most and so you have options, but you certainly don't have to try them all! And whilst I'm here, if you find that you want to learn more about how to eat for endo and for hormone balance, or you get to the end of the festive period and you really just want to improve your systems, I now have my Nutrition for Endo Masterclasses, which are available to buy all year round, unlike my courses. Lucky for you, they're still discounted because I haven't had time to change the prices, so you can still get each masterclass for £29.99 or you can buy the bundle for £50. You could also ask for them as a Christmas present! Finally, thank you for listening to this podcast this year, and for sticking with me even with my sporadic release dates as I navigate all of these new courses and offerings with recording my free content. I am wishing you a wonderful festive break (if you celebrate) and a very happy New Year. So, without further ado, let's get to today's episode. I really hope it helps you manage some of your symptoms over this festive period. Endo and PMS: The Key to Reducing Mood Swings, Anxiety and Low Moods in Your Luteal Phase Okay so a while ago I ran a poll about PMS and endo, and I wanted to know what symptoms you struggle with. Turns out, the majority of you get low moods during your luteal phase. In fact, out of the hundreds of you who entered the poll, 93% of you said you struggle with low moods and mood swings during your luteal phase. So today's episode is the first in a two part series. Today I'm going to take you through one of the key causes of PMS mood swings and I'm going to provide you with my go-to strategy for starting to tackle it, and then in the second episode, I'll be taking you through the secondary causes and strategies.   So number one, where we're starting, is to balance your blood sugar, and truly, this is one of the most important things you can do if you want to improve your moods during this time, lower inflammation and balance your hormones. This is really key and this is why I'm starting here. If you've got your blood sugar sorted, then clearly this isn't your main cause and the next two causes in the future episode will be more relevant, and they are low progesterone and low neurostransmitter levels. But we're starting with blood sugar because this is foundational to hormone health and plays a really big role in PMS, and could be the reason why you have low progesterone anyway! So let's look at what blood sugar has to do with moods specifically. Blood sugar is the measurement of glucose in our blood. Glucose comes from complex carbohydrates like fruit, vegetables, beans, whole grains, etc. and it is our body's and brain's primary fuel. For us to feel energised and have stable energy levels all day long, we need to have a steady drip of glucose filtering into our blood. When we're eating a diet that consists of complex carbohydrates, that also includes healthy fats, proteins and lots of fibre, this ensures good blood sugar levels.  But glucose also comes from refined carbohydrates, such as sugars like honey, maple syrup and standard white sugar, and baked processed products like bread, cake and pizza. These foods contain a lot of carbohydrate and little fibre, they are made of simple carbohydrates, meaning that they break down very, very quickly in the gut. Complex carbohydrates are called complex carbohydrates because their chemical structure is made of long chains of glucose linked together, which takes the body longer to break down. In contrast, simple carbs are made up of very short chains of glucose that are easy for the body to break down. This creates a huge surge of glucose that's pumped quickly into your blood stream. What then happens is that your body panics. It's a stressor to the body to have this much glucose in the blood at any one time, so it releases a hormone called insulin. Insulin usually delivers glucose to our cells for fuel, but when we have too much glucose, it's released in really high amounts and pushes it into the liver and fat cells for storage. This equally happens quickly, in fact, a little too quickly and the insulin accidentally takes too much glucose out of the blood in its rush to clean things up, and our blood sugar levels plummet. This leaves us hungry soon afterwards, and we end up on a blood sugar rollercoaster, needing more refined carbs and sugar to fuel us and get our blood sugar levels back up to a healthy level. Of course, eating more sugar or processed carbs won't take us to healthy levels, but will spike our blood sugar levels once more – so we'll temporarily feel good, only to crash again, so the cycle continues. The result is that we spend our days going through highs and lows, and this blood sugar rollercoaster feels like: ·      Hanger ·      Irritability ·      Anger ·      Moodiness ·      Tearfulness ·      Anxiety ·      Shakiness ·      Feeling sleepy after meals ·      Having mid-morning and mid-afternoon energy slumps ·      Cravings for caffeine, sugar or refined carbohydrates ·      Trouble falling asleep, waking up in the night or struggling to wake in the morning ·      Feeling thirsty a lot You don't have to have all of these symptoms, but if you have a few of them, it's likely your blood sugar levels need improving. So what's this got to do with PMS? Well, in the first half of our cycle, from menstruation to ovulation, as oestrogen rises, we're actually more insulin sensitive because oestrogen actually boosts the effectiveness of insulin. This means we respond well to insulin so we're getting in glucose and making energy effectively, we're satisfied more easily and we feel satiated for longer. Basically, we're more responsive to insulin and that in turns helps us to have balanced blood sugar levels and stops us from craving all the sugar. But in contrast, in the second half of our cycle, when progesterone rises, we actually become less insulin sensitive because progesterone can dampen the effectiveness of insulin. That means the same meal you ate the week before, may no longer satisfy you because your body is not taking in the glucose from insulin in the same way. It also means, as a result, you may be more susceptible to blood sugar highs and lows and you might end up eating more refined carbs, sugar, etc. because you still feel hungry or less energised, so your body is telling you to eat foods with a quick energy fix. This is likely why 84% of you say you get cravings during this time! This of course can create those blood sugar crashes that leave you feeling anxious, tearful, irritable, or moody. This is one of the key reasons we can feel low during the luteal phase, which is why we start here. In the follow up episode I'm going to take you through the other causes, but by working on your blood sugar levels, you'll actually be preventing the other causes from happening in the first place in many cases, so this is the foundation we really want to have in place. Once this is in place, we can clearly and accurately see whether there's any other issues left over affecting your moods in this part of your cycle. So there are a few key strategies for balancing blood sugar, but let's start with the main strategy to get you going. Ideally, we want to practice this all month long because it's going to lower inflammation and regulate your hormones so your PMS will be better and your pain will be better too, but at the minimum, it will be helpful to bring this strategy in from ovulation onwards until your period so we can manage those blood sugar levels.   So, the strategy is to eat healthy fats, fibre, complex carbohydrates, and protein with every single meal. And so this looks like: ·      50% of your plate (or half your plate) should be covered with low starchy veggies. This is where your complex carbs and fibre will come from. This is important because the carbs give you energy and the fibre slows down the release of glucose, because it takes longer to digest foods with fibre. So think asparagus, broccoli, kale, tomatoes, peppers, cucumber, aubergine, cauliflower, etc. ·      25% of your plate should be protein (or a quarter of your plate). And that should be equal to the size and thickness of your palm. We need about 20g of protein per meal on average, so that's not 20g of beans or chicken, but how much protein is actually in the food itself. Don't worry, you don't need to be weighing things up, just start with the ratios first, the portion sizes. If you're still getting hungry after meals, check how much protein you're actually eating and up it if need be. For meat, it works out at about 3-4 oz of animal protein. If you're eating beans or a protein rich grain like quinoa or brown rice, you're probably going to need to up your levels with say a dressing made of nut butter, or an egg, or maybe a tablespoon or two of seeds. Also, remember that beans and grains also count as complex carbs, so keep that in mind for when I get to the complex carbs bit!  ·      Next up, we want the final 25% to be split between more starchier complex carbs and healthy fats. For healthy fats, we're looking at a two golf ball sized serving, or two heaped tablespoons and that could be equal to half an avocado, two tablespoons of olive oil, two tablespoons of nut butter, etc. Fat helps to slow the blood sugar release down, and is actually essential for hormone production by the way!  The starchier carbs would consist of a small handful of something like root veggies such as sweet potato or parsnips, or maybe some quinoa or beans if you haven't had them already as your protein source. And so this is where it has to be very individual as if you already have beans or grains, you might not need that extra starch boost and instead, you could just add some extra veggies so your plate is around 60-65% veg. But if you have say beans on your plate for your protein source and you tend to burn a lot of energy during the day because you're a very active person, you might need a little sweet potato too or some grains. And if you've got meat as your protein source and you're very active, that serving of starchier carbs might need to be a bit bigger than someone who isn't very active. It has to be tailored to you and what your body needs.  For example, my blood sugar cannot tolerate beans and grains in the same meal, I crash and burn hard! But I have a job where for the most part, other than using a standing desk a few times throughout the day and my usual exercise routine, I don't have a physically demanding lifestyle. But if you're say a nurse in a busy hospital, a dance teacher or an athlete, you'll probably feel like you do better with that extra fuel. In fact, one of my clients who's a dance teacher always needs some kind of grain with her meals or her blood sugar would get too low, because she was always burning it off! Another thing I want to mention here is how our blood sugar responds to grains is very personal too. Some people find that grains give them a steady release of fuel, others find they spike their blood sugar levels quickly and then crash. That's me! Especially after oatmeal, I can have a big, filling bowl but find myself starving and shaky an hour later, if not sooner. So if you do respond like that to grains but you want to eat them regularly, you might need to up you fat and protein to really slow down that glucose release. So, this is where we get started. It might sound a little fiddly, but over time, you'll gradually grow accustomed to it and notice when one of these food groups is missing! In the show notes, I've linked to a great diagram of how this looks on a plate, so you can always print that off and have it on your fridge.  Now there other steps to balancing your blood sugar, but it can take some time to adjust to this one, so this is where I'd suggest for you to start and then you can revisit my past blood sugar episodes to learn more, or I think I'm probably going to release a standalone workshop on this in the future so you can always sign up to that if you'd like a deep dive and a step by step process.  But start here, give it at least one cycle and see how you're doing. Of course, if you're constantly spiking your levels with chocolate and sweets, then balancing your meals won't cancel that out, so just be mindful of that! And I just want to leave you with one last tip, to really get off on the right track, make sure your breakfast is fat and protein rich, don't skip these two! If you're just having oatmeal, you're going to need to add a lot of nut butter, some protein powder or have two eggs on the side to balance out the carb content. Keep that in mind when you start the day and you'll find balancing your blood sugar levels much easier as go through the rest of your day. Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here. My new Nutrition for Endo Masterclasses are out now and are on special offer for Black Friday. Get one masterclass for £29.99 (full price £40) or both for £50. Find out more here. My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order. Show Notes  How to Build a Healthy Plate Diagram by Amelia Freer

Megyn Kelly is joined by Janice Dean, Fox News meteorologist, Bethany Mandel, editor at Ricochet and board member of the new book series "Heroes of Liberty," and John Lott Jr., President of the Crime Prevention Research Center, to talk about Chris Cuomo's latest alleged comments about Dean, his exit from CNN, new gun laws being proposed after the Oxford school shooting, the one-sided media coverage of guns, the anti-science and heartbreaking COVID rules aimed at kids, the new book series pushing back against the woke drift in schools, and more.Follow The Megyn Kelly Show on all social platforms: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/MegynKellyTwitter: http://Twitter.com/MegynKellyShowInstagram: http://Instagram.com/MegynKellyShowFacebook: http://Facebook.com/MegynKellyShow Find out more information at: https://www.devilmaycaremedia.com/megynkellyshow

Do you get full body pain? Does it affect your muscles, nerves or joints? Do you find that you need to rest after walking or find you tired more easily than others? It might not just be endometriosis. Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome is a group of 13 conditions which all affect connective tissue (collagen) in the body. Most are rare, but one type called hypermobility EDS is common - and out of those with this type of EDS, 6-23% have endometriosis. But that's not where the connection ends… 32-77% of those with EDS have vulvodynia and or pain with sex. 33-75% have heavy menstrual bleeding.  73-93% have painful periods. Additionally, histamine intolerance caused by Mast Cell Activation Syndrome is a co-condition of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, and we also know that overactive mast cells play a role in endometriosis. Not only can this cause more painful periods, but it can also create problems like allergies and eczema to name a few. Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome is also a huge risk factor for SIBO, and as you may now know, at present SIBO is estimated as affecting 80% of the endo population. I could go on with the overlapping symptoms and connections, but instead, I'll let you hear it first hand from Natalia Kasnakidis who is not only an endometriosis warrior, but is also living with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, histamine intolerance and potentially postural tachycardia syndrome. In this episode we talk about: What the Ehlers-Danlos Syndromes are and how common they are. The signs and symptoms to look out for and Natalia's own experience with her symptoms. The journey she tool to diagnosis and her tips for getting diagnosed. The co-conditions of EDS and their symptoms. Her key strategies for living well with endometriosis and EDS. Get my free Christmas endo recipe ebook here. With five delicious endo-friendly recipes, This Endolife, At Christmas, is a mini cookbook to help you live and thrive with endometriosis at Christmas. These recipes are anti-inflammatory, plant-based, gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free and contain no added sugar! Featuring... Sausage, Pecan and Chestnut Stuffing Carrot Bacon Pigs in Blankets Salted Caramel Cheesecake This Isn't Just Custard, This Is Endo-Friendly Very Vanilla Custard Christmas Spiced Plum and Blackberry Crumble   Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here. My new Nutrition for Endo Masterclasses are out now and are on special offer for Black Friday. Get one masterclass for £29.99 (full price £40) or both for £50. Find out more here. My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk

Our sponsor Femallay! https://femallay.comBecome a patreon and support us for as little as $5 a month! Our New Merch! Check out all of our merch, and our Be a Biblical Woman collectionNicole Parker's Tales of Exodus book seriesThe Great Sex RescueOur Mental Load and Emotional Labor seriesHow Christian Resources teach women to be passive aggressive  Barbara Rainey's article on spiritual leadershipOur FREE Video Book Study for The Great Sex Rescue Dora on TikTok about raising orphans

Today's episode reports on an email scam tricking verified Twitter users, a ransomware warning from the FBI, and Apple warns nine US State Department officials their devices have been hacked

With key ESG reporting regulations such as the EU Taxonomy and the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) covering more than 75 percent of European companies, across the EU and the UK, the regulatory environment is evolving fast.

Do you suffer with the endo belly? Is it accompanied by bloating, diarrhea, constipation or abdominal cramping? Whilst I'm all about getting to the root cause and find out WHY you're suffering with the endo belly (not to mention, healing the root cause) I also understand the need for short-term symptom relief whilst we're on that journey. Today's podcast episode offers just that. I am sharing the most effective supplement options that help to relieve endo belly flares in the moment. These are the tools and strategies we use in our SIBO training with Dr. Siebecker, but are safe if you don't have SIBO but do suffer with IBS symptoms. You will find all the dose references in the show notes, but remember - as a health coach I cannot prescribe you a treatment protocol, this is education only and the aim is for you to take this information away to discuss your options with your doctor. Full credit to my tutor Dr. Allison Siebecker for teaching and providing us with these strategy relief tools!   Activated Charcoal So first up we're starting with activated charcoal, which is great for:  Diarrhea Abdominal pain (not pelvic pain)  Gas Acid reflux It works by absorbing gases, which reduces pressure in the gut that can lead to cramping and of course, reduces bloating. It's also absorbs fluid, so reduces diarrhea too.  The doses are: Up to 1000mg, every 1-3 hours for diarrhea. Up to 1000mg, every 2-6 hours for bloating/gas/abdominal pain.  Up to 1000mg 30 mins before a meal and one hour after for endo belly ‘trigger' foods. Now what I mean by this, is if you have to eat something that you know is probably going to make you bloat or gassy, or swell you up, but you're a bit stuck for choices, say you're at a family thing or wedding, or you're on holiday, then you could use charcoal. I don't advise you just use it for every meal so you can eat whatever you want, because you'll end up very constipated because it absorbs fluid, but I have found it very helpful on holiday and at weddings. Up to 500mg every 2-3 hours for acid reflux. So, some things to consider when taking charcoal: Do not consume more than 4000mg per day.  It can cause constipation, so reduce the dose if constipation occurs or use with magnesium citrate (which you'll learn about shortly) or stool softeners, and I've listed some natural stool softeners in the handout. If you do use magnesium citrate to avoid any constipation, take it an hour after the charcoal or before bed. Your bowel movements may look dark after charcoal - don't worry, it just stains everything!  Absorbs everything, so take it 30 minutes before meals/supplements/meds and/or one hour after. Some research has showed that in it can cause vomiting if accidentally inhaled, so if you struggle with small airways or swallowing, be cautious with this. I also personally prefer using capsules, as I have tried using the powder stirred in water and have accidentally inhaled it myself one or two times!   Ginger Next up is my absolute favourite, and that's ginger.  Ginger is effective for: Nausea/vomiting Gas Bloating Fullness/food won't go down Abdominal pain  Ginger is a prokinetic, which means it stimulates the MMC and gut motility, so it moves gas down and out of the small intestine. This therefore helps with gas, bloating, pressure, and abdominal pain, and it helps food to go down as well if you're feeling like you're not digesting your food properly. And I've mentioned, it's a great tool for nausea and vomiting.  The doses are: 1000mg an 1-2 hours after meals or at bedtime for nausea/bloating/gas/vomiting/ab. pain.  1000mg 30 mins before meals to aid with appetite if nauseas.   So, some things to consider when taking ginger are: Do not consume more than 2000 mg per day.  It can cause something called ginger burn, which feels like heat or acid reflux is the oesophagus or stomach. If that occurs, take less, stand up and move around so it starts to go down (as ginger burn often happens when lying down or reclining in many of my clients) and sip on lots of water. In people with interstitial cystitis, as it's a spice, it might cause some irritation, but this tends to vary from person to person. Finally, fresh ginger root is usually not as effective as dried ginger root powder, so we're going for a 1000 mg in the form of capsules.   Peppermint Peppermint can be used for: Abdominal pain Bloating General IBS symptoms (there's LOTS of research on peppermint for IBS) Indigestion Pain with bowel movements (which I know many of you suffer with)  Peppermint relaxes the smooth muscle of the intestines, so helps significantly with cramping and abdominal pain, and helps to ease the transition of gas. It's also been shown to be 67% effective for reducing severe IBS symptoms, pretty impressive stuff! So, the doses are: Use peppermint tea/or tincture (follow label dose) for pain or sensations higher up in the abdomen (this is because peppermint generally works locally, so if you feel symptoms around the stomach area, the peppermint tea or tincture will be able to affect that area because it's not sealed up in a pill, whereas the pills are coated and are designed to not be released until they exit the stomach). Label dose of triple coated tablets for mid to lower abdominal symptoms, as needed or daily. Research has shown that pain and symptoms improve significantly with long-term use with peppermint oil. Can also apply peppermint essential oil to abdomen. Follow label instructions as some oils require diluting in a base oil. A quick tip here, is you can use Be You patches, which I share on my podcast, over the abdomen, to ease spasms. You can keep those on for 12 hours and you can wear them daily. So, some things to consider when taking peppermint are: It can cause acid reflux in some people because it relaxes the muscles, it can open up the sphincter connecting the stomach and the oesophagus, so stomach acid can travel up. If this happens to you, try a pill that's triple coated and designed to bypass the stomach. For some people, peppermint can also cause nausea.   Magnesium Magnesium citrate or oxide can be used for:  Constipation These types of magnesium draw water into the colon, helping to create a bowel movement. The dose is:  Up to 2000 mg at bedtime (two hours after food), daily or as needed until you have a bowel movement. However, 1000 mg is normally effective for many, but see what works for you. So, some things to consider when taking magnesium citrate or oxide are: You need to start slowly, beginning at 500 mg and building up until you find the dose that works for you. Generally, increasing your dose slightly each night should be a good pace, but keep in mind it can take a few nights to get to work, so don't be too hasty.   Too much will cause abdominal cramping, bloating and diarrhea. If that occurs, reduce the dose back down until you get to a dose that creates a healthy bowel movement without watery stools or discomfort. Food will reduce the effects, so keep in mind you need to take it two hours away from food. And finally, you have to use either magnesium oxide or citrate, other forms of magnesium are not laxatives and will be absorbed in the body, rather than making their way down into the colon.   Partially Hydrolysed Guar Gum PHGG be used for: All IBS symptoms (multiple studies/reviews confirm this) Constipation Improving stool consistency Diarrhea Bloating/gas Increasing beneficial bacteria PHGG is a type of soluble, low FODMAP fibre, which is generally safe and well tolerated by even SIBO patients! It's a longer term symptom management tool, whereas the others bring relief same day, this tends to need about a month to build up to the benefits. It helps to bulk up stools, making it effective for both constipation and diarrhea. So, the dose is: 5-6 g daily, ideally dissolved in hot water on an empty stomach, for at least one month and likely ongoing for maintenance. Some people do put it with tea, coffee, smoothies or even porridge, but many of the labels suggest on an empty stomach.  Increase to full dose across one to two weeks, especially if SIBO positive, so start out lower, with say one gram, and then increase by a gram or half a gram a day.   So, some things to consider when taking partially hydrolysed guar gum are: Ironically, in some people, likely people who have SIBO or extensive gut issues, it might cause bloating. So, give yourself a month or so on it and see how you respond. If it's noticeably bad, reduce back down to a level you can tolerate or discontinue. Generally, it is thought to be SIBO safe, but we're all different and SIBO is so individual, that we can't guarantee it'll be well tolerated by everyone. And alongside that, it may cause some GI distress, so basically an irritation of your IBS symptoms and if you have SIBO and don't respond well to it, it could worsen those. However, as I've mentioned, on the whole, it's well tolerated.   Most Important Takeaway: So, that wraps up this module, and I wanted to also let you know, there are multiple other options to help with symptoms, including more supplements and some at home remedies. I've linked to a handout in this slide by my tutor Dr. Allison Siebecker, which provides all of them. You don't need to use them all, but I would recommend you have a read of it, so you know your options, and I also recommend trying some of the simple home remedies before buying expensive supplements!  But before we do any of that, remember, getting our foundations in place can make a huge difference to gut health - so start off with the first line therapies, before you start spot treating with lots of different supplements. Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here. My new Nutrition for Endo Masterclasses are out now and are on special offer for Black Friday. Get one masterclass for £29.99 (full price £40) or both for £50. Find out more here. My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order. Show Notes Charcoal https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3717809/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3521259/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7015846/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3717809/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7949514/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12516788 https://www.siboinfo.com/uploads/5/4/8/4/5484269/sibo_symptomatic_relief_suggestions_jan_2020.pdf   Ginger https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10442508/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16865831/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24390893/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17545109/ https://www.europeanreview.org/article/10145 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3958926/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18403946/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25912592/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23612703/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30423929/ https://www.siboinfo.com/uploads/5/4/8/4/5484269/sibo_symptomatic_relief_suggestions_jan_2020.pdf   Peppermint https://bmccomplementmedtherapies.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12906-018-2409-0 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11207510/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24100754/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26319955/ https://www.siboinfo.com/uploads/5/4/8/4/5484269/sibo_symptomatic_relief_suggestions_jan_2020.pdf   Magnesium https://www.siboinfo.com/uploads/5/4/8/4/5484269/sibo_symptomatic_relief_suggestions_jan_2020.pdf   PHGG https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25843197/ http://ecite.utas.edu.au/121479 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16413751 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25519526/ https://www.siboinfo.com/uploads/5/4/8/4/5484269/sibo_symptomatic_relief_suggestions_jan_2020.pdf

Is there such a thing as too much dessert?: Day recap where we discuss the age old question of how much food is just too much.

This episode is an IG live where I discuss the endo management habits that are a part of my everyday life and I pretty much couldn't live without! Now, it's definitely not as simple as ‘do these habits and your symptoms will be sorted', that's not what this live was about - this was just a little peak into some of my daily habits. When it comes to endo it's about understanding and treating/managing the root causes behind your symptoms and that will differ for every person. BUT these are habits that have profoundly changed my experience of endo, and I also see work wonders for clients. They are: Anti-inflammatory nutrition Blood sugar management Magnesium spray/baths Omega 3 fatty acid supplementation An extra good quality, evidence-backed anti-inflammatory supplement (quercetin, curcumin, glutathione, etc) Daylight in the mornings Underneath these it's also of course important to have the foundations of good health: Sleep Movement Stress management Good nutrition (but that's covered above) Stress management Hydration Connection/joy I also work on the liver, gut, HPA axis, pain signals, pelvic floor health, etc. with myself and clients, but those are longer term strategies for another day and another live! They are integral to the way I approach endo management, but today I just wanted to share some of my daily habits that are part of my standard everyday routine (I think I've added that disclaimer enough times now!). FINALLY I want to say that all of these methods must be tailored to you, and must fit into your life in a way that makes them feel manageable and enrich your life, rather than making you feel stressed and exhausted trying to keep up with them! If you're interested to learn more about eating for endo, I've just launched two new masterclasses: Nutrition for Endo: The Foundations Masterclass (anti-inflammatory nutrition) Nutrition for Endo Advanced Masterclass (blood sugar) They're currently on special offer for Black Friday until Tues 10pm GMT. Each class is £29.99 (full price £40) or you can get them both in a bundle for £50. Join here. Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here. My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order.

When it comes to reading for pleasure, there can be a sense that nothing beats a good, old-fashioned paper book. But does this assumption overlook the benefits that technology can bring to the process? In this episode, host Zofia Niemtus meets Rachel Revell, associate principal at Oasis Academy Wintringham and senior national curriculum lead at Oasis Community Learning, and Ian Turner, a reading development consultant. Both guests are big advocates of using smart technology that can track and report on students' progress, offering a wealth of “actionable data to inform what happens in other parts of the classroom”. This podcast is sponsored by Reading Solutions UK, the home of Reading Plus. Aimed at KS2 and above, Reading Plus is an evidence-based adaptive online reading programme that supports students by developing fluency, vocabulary, comprehension and metacognition - the skills they need to read well and confidently. Learn more by visiting https://protect-eu.mimecast.com/s/pSJrC3loZt2g0o6Fg-yzo?domain=readingsolutionsuk.co.uk (www.readingsolutionsuk.co.uk). 

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Lilly is wondering if some of the dating advice aimed at women is actually valid or just another dead end. She asks Julio to give his thumbs up (or thumbs down) on specific advice about how to effectively attract men (spoiler: some of it is solid, some of it is way off). 

Yes, our tax series is back...11 months later. Aimed to help you prepare for 2022 taxes and all the things you can be doing today to help! Watch YouTube version HERE Follow Frank at @Baseball Hall of Fame Autographs or email him here (frankr@schreiber.cpa) Watch 1st TAX VIDEO here: https://youtu.be/QYsMIwsfLSI Check out sponsor at: http://www.benchclear.us/cardhedge Bench Clear Media Production Check out Bench Clear at: http://www.benchclear.us

The firm touts this fund as “the largest institutional Texas-focused, early-stage venture fund in the past decade” at a time when funding to companies within the state is at an all-time high.

I first came across Dr. Ami Kapadia's work through some presentations she held for an online SIBO conference. Her lectures focused on small intestine fungal overgrowth, yeast disorders and mould - and what I heard resonated with not only my story, but so many of my clients' stories. And I'm not alone. Dr. Jessica Drummond often speaks on the connection she sees between chronic pelvic pain and yeast problems, and yeast/SIFO are prevalent issues within the SIBO community. In fact, left untreated, they can really hinder SIBO progress. The trouble is, they're not easy to diagnose and the symptoms are often identical to SIBO, and at least a quarter of SIBO patients, if not more, also have SIFO. So, given that research is currently estimating that up to 80% of endometriosis patients also have SIBO, I wanted to invite Dr. Ami onto the show to discuss how to identify and treat years disorders both alongside SIBO and alone. Dr Ami. Kapadia is a family medicine and integrative medicine physician, with a special interest in yeast and fungal disorders. She is the creator of practitioner course A Minimalist's Approach to SIFO And Mold Related Illness and patient course An Integrative Approach to SIFO: Small Intestinal Fungal Overgrowth And Related Conditions. In this episode we discuss: What are fungal/yeast related disorders and how do they affect the body. The connection between yeast/fungal disorders, endometriosis and SIBO. The signs and symptoms of fungal/yeast related disorders and how to test for them. Dr. Ami's unique treatment approach and her specific anti-fungal protocols. Dietary considerations (it's not what you think!) and what to do if you find food restriction triggering. How to work with Dr. Ami. This episode was fascinating and I completely geeked out (you' can probably tell!), I hope you enjoy it just as much as I did! Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here. My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order. Show Notes Website: www.amikapadia.com Teachable course for practitioners: https://drkapadia.teachable.com/p/a-minimalist-s-approach-to-mold-related-illness-and-small-intestinal-fungal-overgrowth-sifo Teachable course for patients: https://drkapadia.teachable.com/p/sifo-in-integrative-course-for-patient-education

A group of Insulate Britain campaigners have been jailed for breaching an injunction aimed at stopping them protesting on the M25. You may remember there was disruption on the motorway in Kent as they sat on the carriageway and even glued themselves to the tarmac. Now, nine of them have been locked up for between three and six months. Hear a letter that was read on their behalf outside court. Also in today's podcast, a documentary is going to be on TV tonight about the murder of a young woman in Medway. Molly McLaren was attacked by her stalker ex-boyfriend. Social Media Murders is on ITV2 from 9 or via the ITV Hub. Find out why your weekly food shop could be more expensive as figures reveal the rate of inflation has reached a near 10 year high. Almost 9 in 10 shop workers have been verbally abused in the past year according to the results of a survey seen by the KentOnline Podcast. Trade union Usdaw has released the details as they call for more to be done to protect staff. Canterbury's MP says she fears residents haven't been listened to and is sad the city will be losing its street market. Rosie Duffield has been chatting to our Local Democracy Reporter Jordan Ifield. And, there's reaction from the Gillingham manager following their defeat to Cheltenham Town in last night's FA Cup first round replay.

Hey lovelies, today we are talking next level relationships, friendship & emotional dumping. We talk about not bypassing the feelings and emotions and also tapping into the illogical. We also talk about facing reality and also believing in something we can't yet see. We also discuss boundaries and emotional expression or suppression and unconscious patterns. It's a loaded one.  All around allowing yourself to have the desires, life and relationships you wish. Enjoy xxMy services & offerings: kirstydee.comMy IG: @kirstydeesharesFacebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/woowisewomenAnything else, just contact me xTHE SELF-LOVE NO BS PODCAST WITH KIRSTY DEE An unpolished raw podcast about unearthing the crap that holds us back. Aimed at women who want it all and wanna feel damn good about themselves. We will talk openly about struggles, the highs and lows of life, sex, family, relationships, emotions, healing, mindset, dreams, spirituality, vulnerability, money, bisexuality and so much more - in fact, nothing is really off the table. If it's holding you back from the life you want we will talk about it. If you wanna feel damn good we need to talk about the real stuff so that's what we are doing here. I believe when we love ourselves our life really transforms in the most beautiful ways and when we don't love ourselves we don't feel enough or fulfilled. This is a podcast to bridge the gap. It's a podcast about feeling good about you, living life in your truth, on your terms.Support the show (https://kirstydee.com/product/the-more-membership-3-months/)

This episode is an IG Live I hopped on to answer your questions in endometriosis and navigating relationships with family and friends. In this Q&A I answer: How to have fun with friends again? Feels like endo always gets in the way. How to handle family not understanding how endo affects my life? How to explain it to those who don't get how impactful it is? What to say or do when a friend questions if you're really in pain when you say you can't go out? Also, a few of the resources I mentioned in the live: Endometriosis UK Endometriosis NewsEndometriosis News @vickiewilliams_ Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here. My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk

Is Your Firewall Actually Protecting You? What Should You Be Doing? New stats are out this week. So what's the number one vector of attack against us? Our Firewalls. And they're failing. So, what's going on. And what can you do about it? [Automated transcript follows] [00:00:16] And of course, I'm always talking about cyber security, because if you ask me that is one of the biggest problems we have in business. [00:00:27] Today. Well, yeah, you got to find employees. In fact, uh, it's almost impossible to find them in the cyber security space as well. And it's been hard for years. So I try to keep you up-to-date here. We've got boot camps that are coming up and you are really going to like them. We've been working on some supplemental materials for it. [00:00:47] And of course these boot camps are always free, so you can join it. You can have your friends come and learn the. Basics. It's not one of these high sell things. Right. I, I got a little letter in the mail this week saying, Hey, you can come and get a free steak dinner. And of course it's kind of like a timeshare, right? [00:01:09] Jay, you have to listen to the pitch. Yes. Stay over. On us. And you are going to be sitting there for four hours listening to this crazy pitch that's going on. That's not what my bootcamps are. Anybody that's been to. One of them will tell you we work on it. I explain it. You know what you have to do, how you have to do it, the wise, the winds, the wherefores. [00:01:35] So if you would like to learn more for yourself, Make sure you sign up Craig peterson.com sign up for my newsletter. And when a bootcamp is coming up, I will be sure to tell you about it in the newsletter so that you can attend. And it's important to, to understand that this is yeah. Aimed at business, the, these boot camps, but almost everything businesses have to do or shouldn't be doing the same thing applies to you in your. [00:02:08] So, if you are a small business person, if you're someone who has some it experience, and you've been assigned to worry about cyber security, this is for you. If you are a very small business and you're kind of the Jack of all trades, and you've got to worry about cybersecurity, this is for you. And I just got. [00:02:31] This week from someone on my email list who is retired and she was talking about her husband and her, they don't have any kids, no errors. They're trying to protect their financial investments. And of course I responded saying, Hey, I'm not a financial investment advisor, but I can certainly give you some cyber security input, which I did. [00:02:53] And you can ask your questions as well. I'm more than glad to hear them. And you probably, if you've sent them in, you know, I always answer them now. My big man, a few days might take me a week, but I will get around to it. And I try and respond to the emails. Sometimes I answered here on the radio show or on my podcast, but usually it's via email me. [00:03:17] At Craig peterson.com. And of course, that's also on my website, Craig peterson.com. And that's also my name Craig Peters on.com. So let's get into the firewall thing. When you have a network, you are connecting that network to your computers, maybe. To your security cameras, to your printers that you have, maybe there's a lock system. [00:03:44] Maybe there's more, all of this stuff is interconnected and it's all rather well and good. You can have a whole lot of fun with it, but it is not as particularly good if you can't get out to the internet. So what do we do? We hook our network, whether it's home or if it's business to the internet. Now, you know, all of this stuff so far, right? [00:04:06] You're following me. The internet is actually inter connected networks. In case you didn't know, there are now millions of networks that are connected on the internet. There are core networks out there. We were my company like number 10,000. I think it was, uh, a S an R a S number autonomous system. So we were fairly early on. [00:04:32] And of course, as you know, I've been on the internet in various forums since the early 1980s and helping to develop the protocols, but it is important to remember it is an interconnected network of networks. You might ask why? Well, the bottom line is you aren't connecting your network with other networks that have malicious software on them. [00:04:58] Maybe they're just poorly configured. Maybe they're causing a denial of service attack effectively because there's so badly configured. But whatever the case may be, you are still exposed. If you look at the traffic that's coming to your router. So your router is sitting at the edge of your network connected to your internet service provider. [00:05:19] So it might be Comcast or Verizon or a whole slew of others. But your network is connected via a router. Then the router knows how do I get my data from the input to the output or from the output to the input, if you will upstream and downstream data, that's what the router is for. And if you look at the data on your router and most of us can't, but if you were able to, what you will see is hundreds of thousands of internet packets coming to, and from your. [00:05:55] Router your endpoint every day. Usually these are bad guys doing what are called scans. They do port scans. They're primarily looking for services. So what do you, do you have a firewall now in many cases, you'll get a device from your Janette service provider that has a router built in and has a firewall built in, and it has wifi. [00:06:19] All of this stuff, all built in together makes life all nice and warm and fuzzy and Catalina, doesn't it. But in reality, it's not necessarily a good thing to have it all in one, because you're definitely not going to get the best of breed and router or firewall or wifi, but that's a different story. What is that firewall for that router? [00:06:41] Of course, it's getting all this internet traffic and anything that's on the internet that is. I'm trying to get to you is going to go through the. And anything that you are trying to send up to the internet, like for instance, to try and get a web page or something is also going to go up through that router. [00:07:02] So how do you protect yourself time? Was that there wasn't really much of a way to protect yourself. And frankly, there weren't a lot of reasons. To try and protect yourself. And the internet was just this wonderful open thing, lots of fun and played around a lot. Back in the early nineties, it was, it was just a joy in the late eighties to, to be connected up to the internet and then bad guys started doing bad things. [00:07:30] We took the concept of what you have in an automobile and applied it to the. If you're driving your car, your in the passenger compartment and that passenger compartment is hopefully warm in the winter and cool in the summertime. And you are protected from that big mean nasty engine that's in front of you, or if you're driving an electric car from those mean nasty batteries that are probably below you in that car and what's between you and the. [00:08:04] Of course a firewall. And the idea is to keep the nastiness of that engine, all of the heat, the oil, the grime, the wind, everything else is associated with that engine. Keep that away from you so that you can now drive that car just comfortably in that controlled climate of the passenger compartment, that concept was then applied to the inter. [00:08:30] And in fact, I designed and implemented one of the first firewalls ever made way back when and the firewall in the internet Partland is very similar to the car in the car. You have some protrusions through that fire. Don't you, you you've got a steering wheel. How does that get up to the front of the car? [00:08:53] Well, it goes through the firewall and around that steering wheel, of course there's some EBDM, some rubber type stuff that helps stop anything from coming through right next to that steering column. Same, thing's true with the brake pedal and the gas pedal. At least it used to be. Nowadays, it's so much of this as drive by wire, that the only thing going through the firewall is a wire and there's no mechanical linkage. [00:09:24] Unlike my car, which is a 1980 Mercedes-Benz diesel. Where yes, indeed. Direct linkages to everything. So the firewall in the cars protecting you from the nastiness in the engine compartment and the firewall, when it comes to your internet is doing something very similar. Think about your house for a minute, you have a house with doors and windows. [00:09:53] I would hope. And a chimney and maybe a couple of other protrusions that are going outside of the house. Well, you have some similar problems and when it comes to the internet and when it comes to the firewall, With your house, sir. Sure. You could post a guard out front, a whole series of them. You've got a dozen guards out front and they are all guarding that front door. [00:10:19] But if no, one's watching the back door, if no one's paying attention to the windows, there's still ways for the bad guys to get in. And that's what we're going to talk about. How does the internet firewall tie into this analogy of cars and the analogy of your home? Because it's a very important point when you get right down to it. [00:10:44] We need to understand this because the number one tactic reported this week by MITRE and Cisco is exploitation of public facing application. So I'm going to explain what that is. What's your firewall can do for you and what you should do for your firewall. A stick around. We've got a lot more coming up. [00:11:09] I want to invite you to go. Of course, right now, online to Craig peterson.com. Once you're there, just sign up for mind's newsletter. Simple Craig peterson.com. [00:11:25] This week, we found out what the top five tactics are that are most frequently being used by bad guys to attack us. This is done by MITRE and Cisco systems. Number one, public facing applications. What does that mean? [00:11:42] We've been talking about this report, but really what we've been delving into is how data flows on your network, whether it's a home network or maybe it's a business network, how does this whole mess work? [00:11:58] And when miters talks about the biggest problem here, 91% of the time being what's called an exploit of a public facing application, what does that mean? We went through the basics of a firewall and a router. So all of the data coming from the internet, coming into the router, then handed to the firewall. [00:12:24] Any data going out, goes into the firewall. And then the. So that's the pretty simplistic version. And of course the firewall on your network does a similar thing to the firewall in your car. It stops the bad stuff, at least it's supposed to, but your home and your car both have different ways of getting. [00:12:48] Past the firewall in the house. It's your doors and your windows in the car. Of course, it's where the steering column goes through where the brake pedal and the gas pedal go through the clutch, all of that stuff that perch, um, permeates, it goes through. That firewall. And of course, you've probably, if you're been around for awhile, you've had leaks coming through your firewall and, uh, you know, how poorest they can be sometimes. [00:13:18] Well, we have the same type of thing on our internet firewalls. Every home has doors and what we call the doors in on the internet is similar to what they call them. On the, in the Navy, on the water, the reports. So think about a porthole in a boat, or think about a, a door, a port, which is the French word for door. [00:13:45] What happens on the internet? For instance, if you're trying to connect to Craig peterson.com, you are going to connect to a specific port on my server. So the address typically, uh, is going to be resolved by DNS. And then once it gets to the server, you can connect to port 4 43. You might try and connect to port 80, but I'll do a redirect, but that's neither here nor there. [00:14:12] So you're going to connect to that port four 40. So my firewall has to say, Hey, if somebody is coming in and wants to get to port 4 43, which is called a well-known port, that's the port that all web server. Listen on. So if someone's trying to get to my port, my web server on port 4 43, let them in. But if someone's trying to get to another port, don't let them in. [00:14:48] Now there's multiple ways to respond or not respond. I can talk about that right now. That'd be for deep dive workshop, but the idea is. Each application that you are connecting to, or that your providing has. Part of the problem that we've been seen. And this is a very big problem is that people are not changing the administrative passwords on their machines. [00:15:20] So administrative passwords mean things like admin for the username and admin for the password on your firewall. So. Your firewall, if you have what's called when admin enabled, what that means is someone on the wide area network. In other words, The internet, someone on the internet or on the, when can connect to your firewall and control it. [00:15:51] This is, as you can imagine, a very big thing, and it is something that we cover in one of our workshops, explained it all and all of the details and what to do, but most businesses and most people have not properly configured their firewalls. When we're talking about number one, problem, 91% of the time being an exploit against public facing applications. [00:16:18] What that means is they could very well just be trying to connect to the administrative interface on your firewall. Unfortunately, they will often offer. Change the software on your firewall. So they won't just reconfigure. They'll just change it entirely. And they'll do all kinds of evil things. Again, we're not going to get into all of that and what to look for and what can happen. [00:16:44] But number one thing everybody's got to do, and I saw some stats this week as well, that made me want to bring the. Most people and most businesses about two thirds have not changed the default passwords on the hardware that they have. Now it can understand sometimes the kids confusing. No question about. [00:17:07] But if you don't change the password on something that's public facing, in other words, something that can be reached from the internet or again, the wide area network. I know there's a lot of terms for this, but something that someone else can get at from outside your network. And it's the default password like admin admin, you could be in a whole lot of. [00:17:35] So check that right now, please double check that triple check that because even if you have a router from a big internet service provider, again, like the Comcast Verizon's, et cetera of the world, they will almost always have it set up. So you can change that administrative password and Jewish. Now I, again, for clients, I have some different advice than I have for, for just regular users, but make sure you change that. [00:18:09] And here's the second part of the problem. What happens if you have a business and let's say you're not hosting your own website, like I've been doing for a couple of decades and how three 30 years, I guess now. Um, and so you've got your website hosted at some. Web height site, hosting place, you know, Gator or one eye and one eye and one or GoDaddy or whatever. [00:18:35] Okay. So, okay. That's fine. So let's not inside our network. Uh, w we don't worry about the security because that's the vendor's problem. Now we're talking about, okay, what happens. My users who need to work from home. This gets to be a very big problem for so many people, because work from home is important. [00:19:00] So what are you going to do? Well, basically in most cases, unfortunately, businesses are just exposing an application to the internet. So they might, they might. Terribly configured networks, where there is a direct connection that goes right to the files. So you connect to a port on their firewall and it immediately redirects it internally. [00:19:30] Remaps it to the file server. And some people are really, really clever. Alright. Or so they think, because what they'll do is they'll say, okay, well, you know, that, that normal port number. Okay. So I'm going to move. Port number. So you're going to connect to port 17, 17 on my firewall, and it's going to connect you to the file share on my file server so that people from home can just connect to port 17, 17, and ta-da, there are all the files and yeah, we're, we're using passwords, so it'll be okay. [00:20:06] It'll be fine. Um, but, uh, guess what it isn't for a few. Different reasons are we're going to be talking about those here in just a minute. Yeah, I want to encourage you right now. Take a minute. Go online. Craig peterson.com. You'll find lots of information there. I've got 3,500 articles, all searchable, Craig peterson.com. [00:20:32] But more importantly, make sure you sign up for my newsletter. Craig peterson.com/subscribe. So that you can keep up to date on everything that is important in all of our lives. [00:20:51] We're talking about firewalls at home at the office, what it means to have public facing services, really applications, people working from home. How can you make it easy for them and hard for the bad guy? [00:21:15] Many businesses had to quickly change the way their computers were set up because of course the lockdown and people working from home. [00:21:26] And, um, unfortunately. Many mistakes were made. And some of this, in fact, I'm going to talk a lot of this problem up to these managed services providers break, fix shops. My, my fellow information technology contractors, if you will, because they didn't know any. Most of these people have been computer people, their whole lives, right. [00:21:55] They played with PCs when they were young and they might've taken a course or two and wow. MCSC certified. Believe me, this is not something that a straight up MCSC or. And frankly, most of the it certifications can really understand or really handle the cybersecurity can be done, but there's so many things they overlook just like what I was just talking about, exposing a file server directly to the internet. [00:22:29] I mentioned, okay. While they thought it was going to be safe because there's a username and password, but there's a couple of huge problems here. Problem. Number one. When you're exposing a service to the internet, like for instance, the files server, you are exposing software that may have exploitable, but. [00:22:54] And again, going back to those stats from earlier this week, more than half of all of the systems that are out there are not patched to date. It's so bad that president Biden just ordered the federal government agencies to apply patches some as old as three years. So what happens now? Well, the bad guy scan, and guess what they found. [00:23:23] Port that you thought was just so clever because it wasn't the standard port number for that service. Maybe it's SMB or CIFS or something else. And, uh, they found it because they scan, they look, they see what the response is that tells them what type of a server sitting there. And then they try, well, let me see. [00:23:45] There's the zero day exploits, but why bother with those? Let's just start with the good old standard ones. And unfortunately, because so many machines are not patched up at all, let alone properly patched up. You, they end up getting into the machine. It's really that simple, just because it's not patched up. [00:24:08] How does that sound? Huh? Yeah, it's just plain, not patched up. It's not available for anyone to be able to use anybody to be able to access. Right. It there it's not restricted. So the passwords don't matter if you haven't patched your systems. And then the second problem is that. Are brute force attacks against so many servers out there. [00:24:36] And most of the time, what we're talking about is Microsoft, but, you know, there's the share of bugs kind of goes around, but Microsoft and really, they get nailed a lot more than most beet, mainly because they're probably the number one out there that's in use today, not in the server community, certainly, but certainly also in the. [00:24:59] It's been, you know, small businesses, that's all they know. So they just run a Microsoft server and more and more, you kind of have to run it because I, I get it. You know, there's so many apps that depend on the various functions that are provided by the active directory server at Microsoft and stuff. So we, we do that for our customers as well. [00:25:19] So are you starting to see why the brute force against a server will often get them in and the smarter guys figure out what the business is? And then they go to the dark web and they look up those business emails. Addresses that they have that have been stolen along with the passwords that were used. [00:25:43] That's why we keep saying, use a different password on every site because that stolen password now. Is going to be tried against your service, your, your file server. That might be there. You might be trying to have a VPN service that the people are VPN in from home. You might have remote desktop, which has been. [00:26:08] Abject failure when it comes to cybersecurity, it's just been absolutely terrible. So you might have any of those types of things. And if they've got your email address and they've got the passwords you've used on other sites, which they've stolen and they try them, are they going to work? Odds are yes, because most people, I got another set of stats this week. [00:26:36] Most people use the same password for every site out there or every type of site. So they might get a second, most common is they use one password for all of their social media sites. They use another one for all of their banking sites. So we cover this in some depth in our bootcamp so that you understand how to do the whole password thing. [00:27:03] And what I recommend is a piece of software called one password. I don't recommend that you just use one password for everything. I was misunderstood by someone the other day. You mean just w w I use one password for everything. Yeah, you do. And then I talked to them a little bit more because I thought that was an odd question. [00:27:24] And it turned out, he was thinking, you just have the one password, like, like, you know, P at sign SSW, zero RD. Right? You use that everywhere. No, there's a piece of software go to one password.com. That's what I recommend as a password manager. And I show you how to use that and how to use it effectively in my bootcamp. [00:27:48] Absolutely free. Just like the radio is free. I'm trying to get the information out to as many people as possible, but you gotta be on my list. Craig peterson.com. Make sure you go there. So I've explained the basics here of what happens. We have a door open or windows, open ports on our servers, on our firewalls at home. [00:28:15] And at work. So the thing to do, particularly if you're a business, but even if your home user is check that firewall configuration. And let me tell you something that probably won't come as a surprise. Most of these internet server. The providers are in the business to make as much money as possible. And cybersecurity is very much secondary. [00:28:40] They know they talk about it and they talk about software defined networks and things that sound really cool. But in reality, what they give you is. Configured very well and is going to expose you. So make sure you go in, they will set it up. For instance, if they're providing you with television services, they'll set it up so that they can just bypass your firewall and get into the cable box that they installed in your house. [00:29:09] Yeah. Obviously that's not something they should be doing because now they are opening you up to attack. What happens when there's a cybersecurity problem with the cable box? We've seen this problem too, with television vendors where they poke a hole out through your firewall so that they can then gather statistics and do firmer updates and everything else. [00:29:34] It's insane. It really is. These vendors are not thinking about you. They're not thinking about the consequences. It is a very, very sad situation, but now you know what to do and how to do it. Okay. I explained today, firewalls. I explained router. I explained ports, which should be open, which should not be open. [00:29:58] And the reasons why I even mentioned passwords, I get into that in a lot of detail in my bootcamp, Craig peterson.com to get on that waiting list. Craig peterson.com, just subscribe and you'll be kept up to date. [00:30:14] There has been a whole lot of discussion lately about Metta. You might've heard. In fact, you probably did that. Facebook changed its name to Metta and they're aiming for something called the metaverse. So what is it exactly and what's it going to do for or to you? [00:30:32] The metaverse oh my gosh. I had a great discussion this week about the metaverse this came out in, um, and originally anyways, in this novel called the what was it now? [00:30:47] A snow crash. That's what it was 1992, Neil. Stevenson or Steffenson. I'm not sure how he pronounces it, but in this book, which was a cyberpunk model and I've, I've always thought cyber punk was cool. Uh, is the metal versus an imaginary place that's made available to the public over the world wide fiber optics network. [00:31:13] And it's projected onto virtual reality goggles sound familiar yet. And in the. You can build a buildings park signs as well as things that do not exist. In reality, such as vast hovering overhead light show, special neighborhoods were three where the rules of three-dimensional spacetime are ignored and free combat zones where people can go hunt and kill each other. [00:31:42] Great article about this in ARS Technica this week. And, uh, that was a little quote from the book and from the article. Phenomenal idea. Well, if you have read or seen the movie ready player one, and I have seen the movie, but a friend of mine this week said the book is so much better. So I'm going to have to read that book, ready player one. [00:32:06] But in it, you have these people living in. Dystopian future where everything is badly worn down, the mega cities, people building on top of each other and they get their entertainment and relaxation and even make money in. Prison time by being inside this virtual world, they can go anywhere, do anything and play games, or just have fun. [00:32:39] One of the vendors that we work with at my company mainstream has this kind of a virtual reality thing for. I kind of a summit, so people can go and watch this presentation and I think it's stupid, but they, you walk in. And it's, uh, this is just on a screen. They're not using like those Oculus 3d graph glasses, but you walk into an auditorium. [00:33:13] So you've got to make your little avatar walked on. Dun dun, dun dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, and then go to an empty seat. And then you have to make your avatar sit down. Right? I, I have never played a game like this. I never played second life. Never any of that sort of thing. It was kind of crazy to me. And then I was doing a presentation, so I had to go Dundon then, then, then the, up onto the rostrum there and stand behind the podium and, and then put my slides up on this virtual screen. [00:33:49] It was ridiculous. I have a full television production studio here in my, in my lab. Right. And that's, this is where I do the radio show. This is where I do my television appearances. This is where I do pretty much everything. Right. And so what I can do is I can split screen with my face, with the desktop. [00:34:12] You can see my desktop, I can draw on it, circle things, highlight things or whatever I want to do. Right. But no, no, no, no. I was in their virtual reality. And so all I could do is. I have the slides come up. In fact, I had prepared beforehand, pre-taped it? A, the whole presentation, but I couldn't play that video. [00:34:37] No, no, no. I had to show a slide deck, you know, death by PowerPoint. I'm sure you've been there before. It's very, very frustrating in case you can tell for me, well, we've seen this type of thing. I mentioned some of the things like that. I'm in second life. I'm sure you've heard of that before. Sims is another one you've probably heard of before. [00:35:01] These types of semi metaverses have been around a very long time. And, and in fact, all the way on back to the nineties is Habbo hotel. G I don't know if you ever heard of that thing, but it was non-line gaming and social space. I helped to develop one for a client of mine back in the early nineties. [00:35:23] Didn't really go very far. I think it was ahead of its time. It's it's interesting right now, enter. Mark Zuckerberg. Do you remember a few years ago, mark Zuckerberg had a presentation. He was going to make this huge announcement, right? They bought Oculus. What was it? It was like crazy amount of money. And then he came in the back of the hall. [00:35:50] And nobody noticed he walked all the way up to the front and nobody even saw him because they were all wearing these 3d glasses. And of course, today they are huge. They are awkward and they don't look that great, the pictures inside, but the idea is you can move your head around and the figures move as your head moves, almost like you're in the real world. [00:36:13] And that's kind of cool and people thought it was kind of cool and they didn't see Zuckerberg because they all had these things on. And the inside was playing a little presentation about what Facebook was going to do with Oculus. Well, they just killed off the Oculus name anyways here a couple of weeks ago, over at Facebook about the same time that got rid of the Facebook name and went to meta. [00:36:39] The Facebook product is so-called Facebook and it appears what they are going to be doing is taking the concept of a metaverse much, much further than anyone has ever taken it before. They're planning on there's speculation here. Okay. So, you know, don't obviously I don't get invested. I don't give investment advice, investment advice. [00:37:10] Um, but I do talk about technology and, uh, I've been usually five to 10 years. I had so take that as well. They as the grain of salt, but I think what they're planning on doing is Facebook wants to become the foundation for Mehta versus think about things like world of Warcraft, where you've got the. Gain that people are playing. [00:37:39] And it's a virtual reality, basically, right? It might be two D, but some of it's moving into the three-dimensional world. Other games like Minecraft and roadblocks, they have some pretty simple building blocks that people can use network effects and play your creativity to make your little world and the ability. [00:38:04] To exchange and or sell your virtual property. That's where I think Mr. Zuckerberg is getting really interested now because if they can build the platform that everybody else the wants to have a virtual world builds their virtual world on top of. Man, do they have a moneymaker? Now? People like me, we're going to look at this and just poo poo it. [00:38:35] I I'm sure I'm absolutely sure, because it will be another 20 years before you really think it's. You know, some of these scifi shows have talked about it. You know, you can feel someone touching you, et cetera, et cetera. Yeah. That's going to be very crude for a very long time. And now CGI is pretty good. [00:38:57] Yeah. You watch the movies. CGI is great, but that takes weeks worth of rendering time on huge farms, clusters of servers. So it's going to take quite a while. Looking at the normal advancement of technology before this really becomes real. Now there have also been us court cases over who owns what in bad happened with Eve online. [00:39:28] Second life where disagreements over player ownership of the virtual land created by the publisher, which was Linden labs. When. And I've also mentioned in the past how our friends over at the IRS have tried to tax some of the land that you own inside these virtual worlds. So ownership, do you really own it? [00:39:55] Does it really exist? What would non fungible tokens maybe it does. And these non fungible tokens are. Basically just a check, some verification, I'm really oversimplifying of some sort of a digital something rather lately. And initially it was mostly pictures. And so you had a picture of something and you owned that and you could prove it because of the blockchain behind it. [00:40:27] But I think this is where he's really interested because if he can build the base platform. Let the developers come up with the rules of what's it called it a game and come up with what the properties look like and how people can trade them and sell them and what kind of upgrades they can get. Right. [00:40:48] So let's nothing Zuckerberg has to worry about. Uh, Metta or Zuckerberg then worries about, okay. So how do we collect money for these? How do we check with the transactions? Uh, somebody wants to buy those sort of Damocles. How does that transaction work and how do we Facebook Metta? How do we get a slice of the act? [00:41:16] You got to believe that that's where things are going. And if they have the ability to make this base platform and be able to take characters from one part of a developer to another part of the developer, you could have worlds where Gandalf might be fighting bugs bunny. Right? Interesting. Interesting and Warner brothers, all these movie companies would probably be coming out with complete virtual reality. [00:41:49] So when you're watching James Bond, you're not just watching James Bond, you can look around, you can see what's happening. People sneaking up behind. And ultimately you could be James Bond, but that's decades away. I think a good 20 years. All right, everybody. Thanks for sticking around here. Make sure you go online. [00:42:11] Craig peterson.com/subscribe. Get my weekly newsletter. Find out about these free boot camps and other things that I have. So we can keep you up to date and keep you safe. [00:42:25] We already talked about Metta and their name, change the metaverse, but there's something else. Facebook did this last week that surprised a lot of users, something they started in 2010, but has been controversial ever since. [00:42:41] We had a pretty big announcement, frankly, this last week from our friends over at Facebook, not the one where they change their name and the. [00:42:51] Basically trying to create a metaverse platform. That's going to be the one platform that rules the world. Although those are my words by the way. But Facebook has announced plans now to shut down a decade old. Facial recognition system this month. We'll see what they do with this. If they follow through entirely, but they're planning on deleting over 1 billion faces that they have already gone through and analyzed. [00:43:26] You might remember. In 2010, Facebook had a brand new feature. It started announcing, Hey, did you know that so-and-so just posted your picture? Is this you? Is this your friend, is this sewn? So do you remember all of those questions? If you're a Facebook user back in the day? Well, they were automatically identifying people who appeared in digital photos and suggested that users or users tagged them with a click we're going to get to and admitted here. [00:43:57] Uh, and of course that then linked the Facebook account for. The picture that you tagged to the images and let that person know. And of course Facebook's ultimate goal is to get you to stay on long, as long online, as long as possible. Because if you're online, you are going to be looking at ads that are aimed primarily at. [00:44:18] Well, facial recognition has been a problem. We've seen it a worldwide. I just read through a restatement from the electronic frontier foundation, talking about facial recognition and the problems with it, how some people have been arrested based on facial recognition and held for over a day. We'll have cases where the police use to kind of a crummy photograph of them from a surveillance video sometimes also from a police car, in some areas, the police cars are continually taking video and uploading it to the internet, looking for things like license plates, to see if a car. [00:45:00] Parking ticket that hasn't been paid or it hasn't paid us registration all the way through looking at faces, who is this person? And some in law enforcement have kind of thought it would be great to have kind of like Robocop. You remember Robocop, not the ed 2 0 9. There was also in that movie. That's also very scary, but when they look at someone who's on a street at autonomous. [00:45:24] Pops up in their glasses, who it is, any criminal record, if there any sort of a threat to et cetera. And I can understand that from the policemen standpoint. And I interviewed out at the consumer electronic show, a manufacturer of. That technology, it was kind of big and bulky at the time. This was probably about six or eight years ago, but nowadays you're talking about something that's kind of Google glass size, although that's kind of gone by the wayside too. [00:45:54] There are others that are out there that you. Facial recognition. Technology has really advanced in its ability to identify people, but you still get false positives and false negatives. And that's where part of the problem becomes from they have been taking and they been private companies primarily, but also some government agencies they've been taking pictures from. [00:46:21] They can find them. We've talked about Clearview AI before this is a company that literally stole pitchers, that it could get off the internet. They scan through Facebook, Instagram, everywhere. They could find faces and they tied it all back in. They did facial recognition. On all of those photos that they had taken and then sold the data to law enforcement agencies. [00:46:49] There's an app you can get from Clearview AI. That runs on your smartphone and you can take a picture of someone in the street, clear view. AI will run that face through their database and we'll tell you who it is, what their, what their background is, where their LinkedIn page is their Facebook page, wherever it found them online. [00:47:13] Basically what they've been doing. Now Clearview had a problem here this last couple of weeks because the Australian government ordered them to delete all facial recognition, data belonging, to anyone that lives. In Australia. Now that's going to be a bit of a problem for clear view, because it's hard to identify exactly where people live just based on a photograph. [00:47:40] And the United Kingdom is also considering doing this exact same thing. Now, clear views have been sued. They violated the terms of service from Facebook and some of these other sites that I mentioned, but they did it anyway. And clear view was. To destroy all the facial images and facial templates they had retrieved about any Australian. [00:48:08] I think that's probably a pretty good idea. I don't like the idea of this data being out there. Well, if your password is stolen and we're going to be talking about that in our bootcamp, coming up here in a couple of weeks about how to determine if your username or your password is stolen. But, uh, and of course, if you want to get that. [00:48:29] Bootcamp and go to that. There's no charge for it, but you have to know about it. And the only way is to sign up. You have to make sure you're on my email list@craigpeterson.com. But what happens when your email address is stolen or your password, or both are stolen from a web. Oh, typically they end up on the dark web. [00:48:50] They sell personal identification for very little money. In some cases it's only a few dollars per thousand people's identities. It is absolutely crazy. So the bad guys are looking for that information, but you can change your password. You can change your email address, but if your facial information is stolen, Can't change your face. [00:49:18] If your eye print is stolen, you can't change your eye. I have a friend who's pretty excited because he got to go right through the security at the airport ever so quickly. Cause all they had to do was scan his eyeball. Well, that data is valuable data because it cannot be changed. And it can, in some cases be replicated. [00:49:41] In fact, the department of Homeland security and the transportation safety administration had the database of face print stolen from them in 2019. To about 200,000 people's identities were stolen, the face sprints. It's just absolutely crazy. And this was some, a vendor of us customs and border protection. [00:50:05] And it, it, you can't write down to it. I read the detailed report on it just now. And the report that came out of the federal government said, well, it went to a contractor who. Took the data, all of the face prints off site over to their own site. And it wasn't encrypted when they took it over there. But it does mention that it was taken from an un-encrypted system at customs and border protection. [00:50:34] So wait a minute. Now you're blaming the contractor that you hired because it wasn't encrypted and yet you didn't encrypt it yourself either. I, you know, I guess that kind of goes around, but they want to. They want your biometric information just as much as they want anything else. Think about your phones. [00:50:53] Nowadays, apple has done a very good job with the biometrics and the fingerprints and making sure that that information is only ever stored on the phone. It never goes to apple, never leaves the phone it's in what apple calls, the secure long term. And if you mess with it at all, it destroys itself, which is part of the problem with replacing a cracked screen yourself on an iPhone, because you're going to disturb that secure enclave and the phone will no longer work. [00:51:24] That is not true when it comes to many other devices, including most of your Android phones that are out there. It is. So if the bad guys have. Your face print, they, and they can create 3d models that can and do in fact, go ahead and fool it into letting you in that that's information they want. So why are we allowing these companies to like clear view AI? [00:51:52] And others to buy our driver's license photos to the federal government, to also by the way, by our driver's license photos, by them from other sites and also our passport information. It's getting kind of scary, especially when you look into. China has a social credit system. And the Biden administration has made rumblings about the same here in the U S but in China, what they're doing is they have cameras all over the place and your faces. [00:52:27] And they can identify you. So if you jaywalk, they take so many points off of your social credit. If you don't do something that they want you to do or be somewhere, they want you to be, you lose credits again, and you can gain them as well by doing various things that the government wants you to do. And. [00:52:49] And ultimately, if you don't have enough social credit, you can't even get on a train to get to work. But the real bad part are the users. This is a minority in China and China's authorities are using. Us facial recognition, technology and artificial intelligence technology. Hey, thanks Google for moving your artificial intelligence lab to China in order to control and track the users. [00:53:19] Absolutely amazing in the United States law enforcement is using this type of software to aid policing, and we've already seen problems of overreach and mistaken IRS. So Facebook to you're leading a billion of these frameworks. If you will, of people's faces biometrics. Good for them. Hopefully this will continue a tread elsewhere. [00:53:46] Well, we've talked a little bit today about firewalls, what they do, how your network is set up. If you miss that, make sure you catch up online. My podcast@craigpeterson.com, but there's a whole new term out there that is changing security. [00:54:03] It's difficult to set up a secure network. [00:54:07] Let's just say mostly secure because if there's a power plug going into it, there's probably a security issue, but it's difficult to do that. And historically, what we've done is we've segmented the networks. So we have various devices that. Maybe be a little more harmful and on one network, other devices at a different level of security and many businesses that we've worked with, we have five different networks each with its own level of secure. [00:54:38] And in order to get from one part of the network, for instance, let's say you're an accounting and you want to get to the accounting file server. We make sure your machine is allowed access at the network level. And then obviously on top of that, you've got usernames and passwords. Maybe you've got multifactor authentication or something else. [00:54:59] I'll make sense, doesn't it? Well, the new move today is to kind of move away from that somewhat. And instead of having a machine or a network have firewall rules to get to a different network or different machine within an organization. There's something called zero trust. So again, think of it. You've, you've got a network that just has salespeople on it. [00:55:25] You have another network that might have just your accounting people. Another network has your administrative people and other network has your software developers, et cetera. So all of these networks are separate from each other and they're all firewalled from each other. So that only for instance, at county people can get to the accounting server. [00:55:44] Okay, et cetera. Right? The sales guys can enter the sales data and the programmers can get at their programs. And maybe the servers that are running their virtual machines are doing testing on what was zero trust. It is substantially different. What they're doing with zero trust is assuming that you always have to be authentic. [00:56:11] So instead of traditional security, where, where you're coming from helps to determine your level of access, you are assuming that basically no units of trust. So I don't care where you're coming from. If you are on a machine in the accounting department, We want to verify a lot of other information before we grant you access. [00:56:38] So that information probably does include what network you're on. Probably does include the machine you're on, but it's going to all. You as a user. So you're going to have a username. You're going to have an ID. You're going to have a multi-factor authentication. And then we're going to know specifically what your job is and what you need to have specific access. [00:57:04] Because this follows the overall principle of least privilege to get your job done. Now you might've thought in the past that, oh my gosh, these firewalls, they're just so annoying. It's just so difficult to be able to do anything right. Well, zero trust is really going to get your attention. If that's what you've been saying. [00:57:23] But here's an example of the traditional security approach. If you're in the office, you get access to the full network. Cause that's pretty common, right? That's not what we've been doing, but that's pretty common where we have been kind of working in the middle between zero trust and this traditional you're in the office. [00:57:41] So you can potentially get it. Everything that's on the off. And if you're at home while all you have to do is access a specific portal, or as I've explained before, well, you are just connecting to an IP address in a hidden port, which won't remain hidden for. So maybe in a traditional security approach, the bouncer checks your ID. [00:58:08] You can go anywhere inside this club and it's multi floor, right. But in a zero trust approach, getting into the club, having that bouncer look at your ID is only the first check, the bartender or the waiter. They also have to check your ID before you could be served. No matter where you are in the club and that's kind of how they do it right now, though, they'll make a mark on your hand or they'll stamp it. [00:58:35] And now they know, okay, this person cannot get a drink for instance. So think of it that way, where every resource that's available inside the business independently checks whether or not you should have access to. This is the next level of security. It's something that most businesses are starting to move towards. [00:58:57] I'm talking about the bigger guys, the guys that have had to deal with cybersecurity for awhile, not just the people who have a small business, most small businesses have that flat network that. Again about right. The traditional security approach of all you're in the office. So yeah, you can get at anything. [00:59:15] It doesn't matter. And then you, you have the sales guys walking out with your client list and who knows what else is going on? Think of Ferris, Bueller, where he was updating his grades and miss days at high school, from his home computer. And you've got an idea of why you might want to secure. You are network internally because of, again, those internal threats. [00:59:40] So keep an eye out for it. If you're looking to replace your network, obviously this is something that we've had a lot of experience with. Cisco is probably the best one out there for this, but there are a few other vendors that are pretty good. If you want to drop me an email, I'll put together a list of some of the top tier zero. [01:00:02] Providers so that you can look at those. I don't have one right now, but I'd be glad to just email me M e@craigpeterson.com. We can point you in the right direction, but if you have an it person or department, or whether you outsource it to an MSP, a managed services provider, make sure you have the discussion with them about zero. [01:00:28] Now, when I'm looking at security, I'm concerned about a bunch of things. So let me tell you something that Karen and I have been working on the last, oh man, few weeks. I mentioned the boot camp earlier in the show today. And one of the things that we're going to do for those people that attend the bootcamp is I think incredible. [01:00:49] This has taken Karen so much time to dig up. Once she's done is she's worked with me to figure out what are the things that you need to keep tabs on. Now, again, this is aimed primarily at businesses, but let me tell you, this is going to be great for home users as well. And we've put together this list of what you should be doing. [01:01:15] About cybersecurity every week. And in fact, a couple of things that are daily, but every week, every month, every quarter, every six months and every year, it's a full checklist. So you can take this and sit down with it and, you know, okay. So I have to do these things this week and this isn't. Response to anything in particular, it does meet most requirements, but frankly, it's something that every business should be doing when it comes to the cybersecurity. [01:01:53] It includes things like passwords. Are they being done? Right? Did you do some training with your employees on fishing or a few other topics all the way on down to make sure you got some canned air and blew out the fan? In your workstations, you'd be amazed at how dirty they get. And he is the enemy of computers that makes them just fail much, much faster than, than 82, same thing with server. [01:02:22] So it is everything. It is a lot of pages and it is just check she'd made it nice and big. Right. So even I can read it. But it's little check marks that you can mark on doing while you're going through it. So we're doing some more work on that. She's got the first couple of iterations done. We're going to do a couple more, make sure it is completely what you would need in order to help keep your cyber security in. [01:02:50] But the only way you're going to get it is if you are in the BR the bootcamp absolutely free. So it was this list, or of course you won't find out unless you are on my email list. Craig Peterson.com/subscribe. [01:03:06] One of the questions I get asked pretty frequently has to do with artificial intelligence and robots. Where are we going? What are we going to see first? What is the technology that's first going to get into our businesses and our homes. [01:03:22] Artificial intelligence is something that isn't even very well-defined there's machine learning and there's artificial intelligence. [01:03:33] Some people put machine learning as a subset of artificial intelligence. Other people kind of mess around with it and do it the other way. I tend to think that artificial intelligence is kind of the top of the heap, if you will. And that machine learning is a little bit further down because machines can be programmed to learn. [01:03:54] For instance, look at your robot, your eye robot cleans the floor, cleans the carpet. It moves around. It has sensors and it learned, Hey, I have to turn here. Now. I robot is actually pretty much randomly drew. But there are some other little vacuum robots that, that do learn the makeup of your house. The reason for the randomization is while chairs move people, move things, move. [01:04:22] So trying to count on the house, being exactly the same every time isn't isn't exactly right. Uh, by the way, a lot of those little vacuums that are running around are also sending data about your house, up to the manufacturer in the. So they often will know how big the house is. They know where it's located because you're using the app for their robot. [01:04:47] And that, of course it has access to GPS, et cetera, et cetera. Right. But where are we going? Obviously, the little by robot, the little vacuum does not need much intelligence to do what it's doing, but one of the pursuits that we've had for. Really since the late nineties for 20, 25 years are what are called follower robots. [01:05:13] And that's when I think we're going to start seeing much more frequently, it's going to be kind of the first, um, I called it machine learning. They call it artificial intelligence who you really could argue either one of them, but there's a little device called a Piaggio fast forward. And it is really kind of cool. [01:05:34] Think of it almost like R2D2 or BB eight from star wars following you around. It's frankly, a little hard to do. And I want to point out right now, a robot that came out, I think it was last year from Amazon is called the Astro robot. And you might remember Astro from the Jetsons and. This little robot was available in limited quantities. [01:06:01] I'm looking at a picture of it right now. It, frankly, Astro is quite cute. It's got two front wheels, one little toggle wheel in the back. It's got cameras. It has a display that kind of makes it look like kids are face, has got two eyeballs on them. And the main idea behind this robot is that it will. [01:06:23] Provide some protection for your home. So it has a telescoping camera and sensor that goes up out of its head up fairly high, probably about three or four feet up looking at this picture. And it walks around your one rolls around your home, scanning for things that are out of the normal listening for things like windows breaking there, there's all kinds of security. [01:06:50] That's rolled into some of these. But it is a robot and it is kind of cool, but it's not great. It's not absolutely fantastic. Amazon's dubbing the technology it's using for Astro intelligent motion. So it's using location and mapping data to make sure that Astro. Gets around without crashing into things. [01:07:18] Unlike that little vacuum cleaner that you have, because if someone loves something on the floor that wasn't there before, they don't want to run over it, they don't want to cause harm. They don't want to run into your cats and dogs. And oh my maybe lions and bears too. But, uh, they're also using this computer vision technology called visual ID and that is used. [01:07:41] With facial recognition, drum roll, please, to recognize specific members of the family. So it's kind of like the dog right in the house. It's sitting there barking until it recognizes who you are, but Astro, in this case, Recognizes you and then provide you with messages and reminders can even bring you the remote or something else and you just drop it in the bin and off it goes. [01:08:08] But what I am looking at now with this Piaggio fast forward, you might want to look it up online, cause it's really. Cool is it does the following, like we've talked about here following you around and doing things, but it is really designed to change how people and goods are moving around. So there's a couple of cool technologies along this line as well. [01:08:35] That it's not, aren't just these little small things. You might've seen. Robots delivery robots. The Domino's for instance, has been working on there's another real cool one out there called a bird. And this is an autonomous driving power. Basically. It's a kind of a four wheel ATV and it's designed to move between the rows of fruit orchards in California or other places. [01:09:01] So what you do to train this borough robot is you press a follow button on it. You start walking around the field or wherever you want it to go. It's using, uh, some basic technology to follow you, cameras and computer vision, and it's recording it with GPS and it memorizes the route at that point. Now it can ferry all of your goods. [01:09:29] Around that path and communicate the path by the way to other burrow robots. So if you're out doing harvesting or whether it's apples out in the east coast, or maybe as I said out in California, you've got it. Helping you with some of the fruit orchards. It's amazing. So this is going to be something that is going to save a lot of time and money, these things, by the way, way up to 500 pounds and it can carry as much as a half a ton. [01:09:58] You might've seen some of the devices also from a company down in Boston, and I have thought that they were kind of creepy when, when you look at it, but the company's called Boston dynamics and. They were just bought, I think it was Hondai the bought them trying to remember. And, uh, anyway, These are kind of, they have robots that kind of look like a dog and they have other robots that kind of look like a human and they can do a lot of different chores. [01:10:33] The military has used them as have others to haul stuff. This one, this is like the little dog, it has four legs. So unlike a lot of these other robots that are on wheels, this thing can go over very, very. Terrain it can self write, et cetera. And they're also using them for things like loading trucks and moving things around, um, kind of think of Ripley again, another science fiction tie, uh, where she's loading the cargo in the bay of that spaceship. [01:11:05] And she is inside a machine. That's actually doing all of that heavy lifting now. Today, the technology, we have a can do all of that for us. So it is cool. Uh, I get kind of concerned when I see some of these things. Military robots are my favorite, especially when we're talking about artificial intelligence, but expect the first thing for these to be doing is to be almost like a companion, helping us carry things around, go fetch things for us and in the business space. [01:11:40] Go ahead and load up those trucks and haul that heavy stuff. So people aren't hurting their backs. Pretty darn cool. Hey, I want to remind you if you would like to get some of the free training or you want some help with something the best place to start is Craig peterson.com. And if you want professional help, well, not the shrink type, but with cyber security. [01:12:06] email me M E at Craig peterson.com. [01:12:10] Just in time for the holidays, we have another scam out there and this one is really rather clever and is fooling a lot of people and is costing them, frankly, a whole lot of money. [01:12:26] This is a very big cyber problem because it has been very effective. And although there have been efforts in place to try and stop it, they've still been able to kind of get ahead of it. There's a great article on vice that's in this week's newsletter. In my show notes up on the website and it is talking about a call that came in to one of the writers, Lorenzo, B cherry, um, probably completely messy and that name up, but the call came in from. [01:13:03] Supposedly right. Paid pals, uh, fraud prevention system. Someone apparently had tried to use his PayPal account to spend $58 and 82 cents. According to the automated voice on the line, PayPal needed to verify my identity to block the transfer. And here's a quote from the call, uh, in order to secure your account, please enter the code we have sent to your mobile device. [01:13:32] Now the voice said PayPal, sometimes texts, users, a code in order to protect their account. You know, I've said many times don't use SMS, right? Text messages for multi-factor authentication. There are much better ways to do it. Uh, after entering a string of six digits, the voice said, thank you. Your account has been secured and this request has been blocked. [01:13:57] Quote, again, don't worry. If any payment has been charged your account, we will refund it within 24 to 48 hours. Your reference ID is 1 5 4 9 9 2 6. You may now hang up, but this call was actually. Hacker they're using a type of bot is what they're called. These are these automated robotic response systems that just dramatically streamlined the process for the hackers to gain access into your account. [01:14:31] Particularly when you have multi-factor authentication codes where you're using. An SMS messages, but it also works for other types of one-time passwords. For instance, I suggest to everybody and we use these with our clients that they should use something called one password.com. That's really you'll find them online. [01:14:54] And one password.com allows you to use and create one time password, same thing with Google authenticator, same thing with Microsoft authenticator, they all have one-time password. So if a bad guy has found your email address and has found your password online in one of these hacks, how can they possibly get into your PayPal account or Amazon or Coinbase or apple pay or. [01:15:26] Because you've got a one time password set up or SMS, right? Multifactor authentication of some sort. Well they're full and people and absolute victims. Here's what's happening. Th this bot by the way, is great for bad guys that don't have social engineering skills, social engineering skills, or when someone calls up and says, hi, I'm from it. [01:15:51] And there's a problem. And we're going to be doing an upgrade on your Microsoft word account this weekend because of a bug or a security vulnerability. So what, what I need from you is I need to know what username you're normally using so that I can upgrade the right. So we don't, it doesn't cost us a whole bunch by upgrading accounts that aren't being used. [01:16:15] So once the account name that you use on the computer and what's the password, so we can get in and test it afterwards, that's a social engineering type attack. That's where someone calls on the phone, those tend to be pretty effective. But how about if you don't speak English very well? At all frankly, or if you're not good at tricking people by talking to them, well, this one is really great. [01:16:44] Cause these bots only cost a few hundred bucks and anybody can get started using these bots to get around multi-factor authentication. See, here's how it works. In order to break into someone's account, they need your username, email address and password. Right? Well, I already said. Much many of those have been stolen. [01:17:07] And in our boot camp coming up in a few weeks, we're going to go through how you can find out if your username has been stolen and has been posted on the dark web and same thing for your password. Right? So that's going to be part of the. Coming up that I'll announce in the newsletter. Once we finished getting everything already for you guys, they also go ahead and buy what are called bank logs, which are login details from spammers who have already tricked you into giving away some of this information. [01:17:41] But what if you have multi-factor authentication enabled something I'm always talking about, always telling you to do. Well, these bots work with platforms like Twilio, for instance, uh, and they are using other things as well, like slack, et cetera. And all the bad guy has to do with that point is going. [01:18:07] And, uh, say, they're trying to break into your account right now. So they're going to, let's get really, really specific TD bank. That's where my daughter works. So let's say you have a TD bank account. And the hacker has a good idea that you have a TD bank account knows it because they entered in your username and password and TD bank was letting them in. [01:18:32] But TD bank sent you a text message with that six character code, right? It's usually digits. It's usually a number. So what happens then? So the bad guys says, okay, so it's asking me for this six digit SMS

Prior Lake grapples with fallout of racist video aimed at Black high school student, posted to social media earlier this week. Support is pouring in for the 14 year old from around the country. Also, Minnesota is getting its first real taste of winter. This is an evening news update from MPR News, hosted by Tim Nelson. Music by Gary Meister.

Host Simon Spungin is joined by human rights lawyer and LGBTQ+ activist Eitay Mack for a deep dive into the Israeli gay community's #metoo moment, conversion therapy and the price the LGBTQ+ community in Israel is paying for its alliance with companies that sell technology used to repress gays elsewhere. Support groups: The Aguda - The Association for LGBTQ Equality in Israel; Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hello lovelies, today we are talking emotions, abundance and the law of attraction. A lot of the way manifesting and the law of attraction is taught feels bypassing for many of us and often harmful where people end up suppressing how they are truly feeling. Then they just end up doubting and not believing that their desires will manifest. In this episode, we break that down and talk about trauma, people-pleasing and basically being fully human, working with your emotions so you can manifest what you truly want as an everyday norm. Things mentioned in this podcast episode:The More Membership: https://kirstydee.com/product/the-more-membership-3-months/My 1:1 Coaching - The Awakening Package: https://kirstydee.com/product/16178/My website with all my offerings: kirstydee.comInstagram @KirstydeesharesFacebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/woowisewomenTHE SELF-LOVE NO BS PODCAST WITH KIRSTY DEE An unpolished raw podcast about unearthing the crap that holds us back. Aimed at women who want it all and wanna feel damn good about themselves. We will talk openly about struggles, the highs and lows of life, sex, family, relationships, emotions, healing, mindset, dreams, spirituality, vulnerability, money, bisexuality and so much more - in fact, nothing is really off the table. If it's holding you back from the life you want we will talk about it. If you wanna feel damn good we need to talk about the real stuff so that's what we are doing here. I believe when we love ourselves our life really transforms in the most beautiful ways and when we don't love ourselves we don't feel enough or fulfilled. This is a podcast to bridge the gap. It's a podcast about feeling good about you, living life in your truth, on your terms.Support the show (https://kirstydee.com/product/the-more-membership-3-months/)

Pennsylvania State Representative Barb Gleim, representing the 199th Legislative District in the PA House of Representatives, rejoins the Dom Giordano Program to discuss a bill she has co-authored with Rep. Russ Diamond that would restrict the teaching of Critical Race Theory around the state of Pennsylvania. Gleim tells why she has proposed the bill, telling of parental complaints that she has received, and gives an update on the status of the bill. Also, Gleim tells whether the election in Virginia had any implications in reframing the narrative around the issue, and reveals who's helping her in advancing the bill. (Photo by Getty Images) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What do you have to do?  How does anyone get a chance to get in without being named Alabama?  Without being in the SEC?  Some college football talk as the rankings come in on a mid-week Sports Daily. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The UN conference aimed at preventing the most damaging effects of climate change has formally opened in Glasgow

This episode is another live Q&A from Instagram. I had a number of you ask me about the training I did to became an endo health coach and what training is generally required, so I decided to answer some of those questions live on Instagram. In this Q&A I talk about - What motivated me to become an endo health coach. The work experience I had to prepare me to coach. The certifications I took to qualify as a women's health coach. The certifications I took to qualify in endometriosis specifically. The certifications I then went onto take for SIBO. My business model (what working with clients looks like on a week to week basis). My plans for the future (naturopathic doctor)! My struggles with perfectionism and workaholism during my training and start-up period. Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here. My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk

Power & Politics for Thursday, October 28th with Ontario Long-Term Care Minister Rod Phillips, White Hot Hate Podcast Host Michelle Shephard, Daily Bread Food Bank CEO Neil Hetherington, Canadian Ambassador to the United States Kirsten Hillman, University of Toronto Professor and President Emeritus Dr. David Naylor, and the Power Panel.

Okay today I want to now talk about something a little more unusual, and that's Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and its possible connection to endometriosis.  Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome is a group of 13 conditions which all affect connective tissue (collagen) in the body. Most are rare, but one type called hypermobility EDS is common.  Because the intestines are made from soft tissue, EDS affects digestion and often causes IBS symptoms. It is a major risk factor for developing SIBO, because it slows down motility. If you have EDS and SIBO, you will be chronic - but you can still live well! And we'll get to that in the bonus lesson with Dr Allison Siebecker.  And just to hammer this point home about the connection between EDS and IBS, one study of 228 IBS patients found 48% also had EDS. Now the reason why I want to bring EDS to your attention is because I am seeing it more and more in my clients with both endometriosis and SIBO. Despite these statistics, to my knowledge, most experts do not consider EDS and endometriosis to be significantly connected. At present, it is thought that most of the period pain and menstrual problems of those with EDS is not caused by endometriosis, but EDS itself.  However, I have spoken to multiple health care practitioners who do see a connection and see the two conditions together in patients, and because EDS can cause gut problems and SIBO, I think it's worth raising here.   So, here's an overview of what we know so far…  Current estimation is 6-23% of patients with EDS also have endometriosis. More research is being done into the connection at present. 32-77% of those with EDS have vulvodynia and or pain with sex. 33-75% have heavy menstrual bleeding.  73-93% have painful periods. And here are some of the main symptoms of EDS, though there are many and they are often far reaching. You do` not have to have them all to have EDS: ·Joint pain/full body pain Hypermobility (can be very subtle) Stretchy skin Soft, velvety skin Bruise easily Dislocations of joints Chronic fatigue Dental crowding  And I wanted to include some signs or clues of EDS as well… Unusual symptoms that seem random, so people with EDS often feel like they have lots of symptoms and never really feel well. Family has hypermobility - again, this can be very subtle. They might have no idea. Tight muscles and stiffness - because your joints are unstable, the muscles overcompensate and are often stiff and tight to try and create some stability in the body. Allergies - and this is because MCAS is now being identified as a co-condition of EDS. MCAS is when the mast cells which release histamine are overly sensitive and easily triggered, resulting in a higher amount of histamine being released on a daily basis. Mast Cell Activation Syndrome still isn't widely acknowledged by conventional medicine, but many functional and naturopathic doctors are leading the way with this. MCAS is now showing up in the research as being a likely co-condition of EDS, as part of a trio with another condition call PoTS, which stands for Postural Tachycardia syndrome. Low blood pressure and/or dizziness - because EDS often comes with something called dysautonomia Racing heart or palpitations - due to a type of dysautonomia which I mentioned earlier, called PoTs IBS - because of how EDS affects the gut So, following on from that, I just wanted to provide a bit more education around dysautonomia in case you have the signs.  Dysautonomia is a group of conditions that affect the autonomic nervous system, which control involuntary functions of the body.  Postural Tachycardia syndrome or PoTs is one of these conditions and is part of a trio of EDS-MCAS-PoTs I mentioned earlier, and it affects blood flow and blood pressure in the body, so that too little blood is getting to the heart and the heart rate increases when going from sitting/lying down to standing. Some of the symptoms of dysautonomia are…  Blood sugar dysregulation Low blood pressure/fainting Chest pain/breathing issues/palpitations/racing heart Gut problems and bladder problems Dizziness/balance difficulties/vertigo Struggle to regulate temperature  I'll take you through some ways to get tested in the next lesson. Now I know this might sound scary, but if you do get a diagnosis, you can manage these symptoms long-term, and your quality of life will dramatically improve! And just because I found this personally quite helpful, because there's a lot of symptoms floating around with this, EDS specialist Dr Alena Guggenehim sees loose joints, joint pain and dysautonomia as the main signs/symptoms of hEDS. Diagnosis for EDS is best done through a rheumatologist, but reportedly this is more frequently being performed by GPs these days. If you can't get a referral on the NHS (if you're based in the UK), then I think the best route would be to buy health insurance and get referred to an EDS specialist. I think that would be safest, because not all GPs are fully versed in diagnosing EDS. For hypermobility EDS, diagnosis is based on a physical test called Beighton score, which looks at the range of mobility in your joints, as well as issues like teeth overcrowding. Family and patient history should also be taken into account, and signs of co-conditions, like allergies and dizziness. It's worth noting here that you can still have hEDS if you don't score highly on the Beighton score. There is a link to it in the slides, but it does have some confusing terminology and is not to be used as a tool for diagnosis without a doctor. Genetic testing will also be carried out to rule out the rarer forms of EDS. PoTs is tested for by testing heart rate and blood pressure when going from sitting to standing and lying down (on a tilted table) to upright. You'll need to speak to your GP to get a referral. If you test positive for EDS and you have signs of dysautonmia, even if it's just fatigue, it's worth looking into this.  Other tests may be run to look for other types of dysautonomia   Listen and subscribe on your favourite player or listen directly/download MP3 here or just listen below! Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here. My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk Show Notes Stats references https://www.rcgp.org.uk/clinical-and-research/resources/toolkits/ehlers-danlos-syndromes-toolkit.aspx https://www.siboinfo.com/associated-diseases.html https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29687534/ https://www.ehlers-danlos.com/pdf/2018-annual-conference/N-Blagowidow-2018Baltimore-OB-GYN-and-EDS-HSD-S.pdf Symptoms https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/ehlers-danlos-syndromes/ https://www.rcgp.org.uk/clinical-and-research/resources/toolkits/ehlers-danlos-syndromes-toolkit.aspx https://ehlers-danlos.com/wp-content/uploads/hEDS-Dx-Criteria-checklist-1.pdf https://www.rcgp.org.uk/clinical-and-research/resources/toolkits/ehlers-danlos-syndromes-toolkit.aspx Dysautonomia https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31267471/ https://drbeckycampbell.com/mast-cell-activation-syndrome-postural-orthostatic-tachycardia-syndrome-and-ehlers-danlos-syndrome-what-is-the-connection/ https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/postural-tachycardia-syndrome/ https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/6004-dysautonomia https://join.sibosos.com/page/94124 Testing references https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/ehlers-danlos-syndromes/ https://ehlers-danlos.com/wp-content/uploads/hEDS-Dx-Criteria-checklist-1.pdf https://www.rcgp.org.uk/clinical-and-research/resources/toolkits/ehlers-danlos-syndromes-toolkit.aspx https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/postural-tachycardia-syndrome/

This episode is from a mini IG Live answering your questions about painful sex with endo (which turned out not to be mini, more like 40 mins). Here's the three most common questions I answered: Is there anything that will make sex with endo eventually not painful/how do I fix it? I've tried everything but still get pain, is surgery the next option? How to navigate painful sex without killing the mood? In this IG Live I talk about inflammation, adhesions, having a hypertonic pelvic floor, pain science and share lots of tools, resources and books to help you on your way to having less pain (hopefully pain free) sex. I really hope you find this useful! Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here. My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk

This week's episode is a snippet from my upcoming course, The Endo Belly Course. I realised when creating this lesson, that this information is info everyone should know, not just my students! So today's episode is all about what's a ‘normal' and healthy gut vs. what is the endo belly? So first up, I wanted to actually talk about what the endo belly is. The ‘endo belly' is not actually a medical term, but instead is a name the community has coined in reference to the severe bloating we often experience. So, there isn't technically a set definition, but it is generally thought to be severe bloating/swelling that tends to be attributed to endometriosis and is sometimes accompanied by pain. Some experts, articles and endo patients also include gut problems within this term too, but not always. My definition, from my training and from seeing so many clients with these symptoms is that the endo belly is exaggerated/severe bloating, often accompanied by gut symptoms, pain or discomfort - but it is not always caused by endometriosis directly. So here are some of the common symptoms I see in my clients and that I tend to think of as fitting under the term ‘the endo belly': Flares up with stress/food/pain/cycle - but not always, this might just be a daily thing for you. Normally comes with IBS issues like diarrhea, constipation, abdominal pain, gas. These might not be flares, but more so just your daily bowel habits and gut issues. So, for example, you may tend to always lean towards constipation or loose stools, or you may have a lot of gas on a daily basis. It's often debilitating -  so it may disturb social life, diet, work, or confidence. You might worry about eating out because you're scared of a flare up, you might have to eat a restricted diet to control symptoms, you might have to sometimes take sick days, or you just struggle at work with your symptoms. It's not as simple as just feeling a bit bloated after lunch. Normally a dramatic increase in abdominal size - endo patients often report looking pregnant, requiring different sized clothing, having swelling that's so bad they're in pain.   And finally, I just want to note - some sources discuss the endo belly swelling being lower down in the abdomen and that IBS issues are higher up, but I think the problem with this is that it's not true for everyone and it might mean you dismiss any other possible causes because you think “Oh it's low down, it's just my endo”. I've seen lots of people with SIBO and endo, whose bloating is from their diaphragm all the way down or starts from their belly button and goes down to their pubic bone, so I really wouldn't pay a huge amount of attention to where the bloating is, unless of course you're just getting a tiny bit of bloat or a bump on say one side near your ovaries, which might indicate a cyst, for example. So, something I really think is important to discuss is what is normal vs. what is endo belly, because I don't want us to be trying to reach for an unattainable vision of a healthy gut. So here are some signs of the endo belly/something more is going on with your gut… Bloating and gut problems get worse and worse as day goes on. You get more uncomfortable, maybe your pain increases and by your last meal your stomach has swollen to triple its normal size. Symptoms can only be controlled through restriction - a ‘normal' diet can't be achieved, and you find yourself skipping meals or having to restrict to avoid flare ups. Often can no longer fit into clothes or need to change to be comfortable when your belly swells up because it's become so distended. In short, the bloating is severe and significant. May be accompanied by other health problems and nutrient deficiencies like achy joints, fatigue, low B12 or low iron. These are signs of inflammation and malabsorption of nutrients. You might get constipated before period. From a functional medicine point of view, which is what my training is based on, you should have at least one daily bowel movement, and this is actually really important for hormonal health, because old oestrogen is excreted through waste and that needs to occur daily. However, in contrast, dieticians and conventional doctors tend to take a different stance and say whatever is normal for you, is normal or at least three times a week. In terms of my training with Dr Allison Siebecker, Dr Jessica Drummond, etc. we would consider that as constipation, basically anything that is not once a day, is leaning towards a form of constipation. It might be considered normal, but we wouldn't class it as optimal for health. Diarrhea on period which causes abdominal discomfort, eating problems (maybe you have to avoid food or eat a restricted diet), affects daily life (you might not be able to have a normal workday because you're stuck in the toilet), sicks days, etc. Often affects daily life/confidence because you've been asked so many times whether you're pregnant, you get comments or you just feel fed up with not being able to wear the clothes you'd like. Additionally, your gut symptoms are affecting your daily life, so for example, I had a client who would get several bouts of loose stools every morning, to the point where she would sometimes be late for dropping her child off to nursery. Another client wouldn't be able to finish meals without needing to dash to the toilet. Wake up bloated already or with gut problems/sleep is disturbed due to discomfort. So, I had one client who had a distended belly all the time, and it was so bad she actually got to the point where it was too painful to sit or stand up, she had to lay down all the time. Another client wouldn't be able to sleep because by the evening, her belly was so bloated she couldn't get comfortable, and she'd be in agony from all the gas inside her.   So, in contrast, I wanted to talk about what is normal for a healthy gut, and some of this might surprise you -  Feel satisfied after eating, not overly full or like food isn't going down. Of course, if it's Christmas or Ramadan you might be feasting on more food than you normally would, so of course sometimes you're going to feel full to bursting, but generally, you should feel like you're able to digest your food and like it's going down. It's not just sitting there for hours afterwards. May be a bit bloated or gassy after meals (esp. high fibre. or large meals), but the bloating should subside a few hours later and it's not accompanied by GI distress. This is because our good gut bugs actually eat our food and ferment it, as part of the digestion process. We actually need this to happen to get all of our nutrients. But a result of this process is the creation of gas from the bacteria, and so naturally we will get a bit of expansion after a meal and of course, we're putting food into our stomach, you wouldn't expect to fill an empty bag with food shopping and for it not to expand or look bigger. So, there will be some extension of your abdomen after meals, but it shouldn't be painful, be accompanied by GI distress, be severe or worsen as the day goes on. It should naturally go down and not affect your life or comfort. Additionally, so you know, according to the NHS, a normal amount of passing gas is about 5 to 15 times a day. You should wake up with a relatively flatter stomach in contrast to after meals. This is because your digestion has been working overnight. Now note I don't say your stomach should be flat in the morning, it will be flatter in contrast to after meals, because you haven't eaten in something like 10 or 12 hours. And to follow on from that, a normal healthy gut doesn't mean your stomach is flat all the time. Your stomach shouldn't be flat all the time, it should naturally expand a bit with food! Bloating tends to increase towards period and in luteal phase, but it shouldn't be severe/painful/debilitating. This is because progesterone and oestrogen affect water retention, and so bloating and swelling can increase towards your period when progesterone is at its highest. Now if your hormones are imbalanced, this will be worse, so supporting your hormones (which this course will help with) should minimise the effects, but they won't eradicate them entirely. Additionally, those inflammatory chemicals, prostaglandins, naturally begin building in the uterus from ovulation to your period, and as we know, inflammation creates swelling, so there may be some level of normal swelling during this time, but again, it shouldn't be severe. If it is, this may be an indicator that your inflammation levels are too high, which is likely to be the case anyway, given that the endometriosis lesions release prostaglandins. Lastly, progesterone relaxes muscles, including the muscles of the intestines, so as a result, digestion slows down, meaning things become a bit sluggish and we get a bit more of a build-up of gas and waste, leading to a bit of bloating - again, it shouldn't be severe. Bowels might feel a bit sluggish towards period but shouldn't have full-blown constipation or if you do have any, it should at least short lived, so a day or so, for example. Or maybe your stools are a little harder or more cracked than normal. In contrast, it's normal to have bowel movements that are looser during your period. This is because those prostaglandin E2 causes the muscles to contract, and as your uterus is right next to your colon, this can create contractions in the colon, resulting in a bowel movement and looser stools. If your inflammation levels are high, you may get full blown diarrhea, and that's when we'll want to reduce those levels. Ideally, a normal scenario is maybe more bowel movements which are a bit looser on your period, but they shouldn't be causing you pain or affecting your day-to-day life during this time. Bloating after meals doesn't require a new dress size! Image from Integrative Women's Health Institute To show you what a healthy stool looks like, here is the Bristol Stool Chart. This is a diagnostic tool used to determine the health of stools, especially in IBS populations. In terms of functional medicine training, at IWHI we aim for a 4, so your stools should be snake like, smooth, easy to pass with a banana-like consistency. You should be having one to three bowel movements a day, one is the minimum because for optimal health and hormonal health, we want to removing waste on a daily basis, including old oestrogen, to prevent hormonal imbalances.  Now, dieticians and conventional medicine will likely say to aim for somewhere between a 3-5. In terms of my training, we see 3 as beginning to lean towards constipation and 5 beginning to lean towards diarrhea. This is something that we focus on heavily with SIBO, a lot of people think that they don't have constipation, or they don't have diarrhea - but these bowel movements actually exist on a spectrum. Stools that are like pellets, hard and round, or difficult to pass, is a form of constipation. In my training, anything before 4 is a form of constipation and above 4 is a form of diarrhea or loose stools. They don't show pudding like stools here, but I would consider that as form of diarrhea. However, opinions will vary as I have mentioned, so be guided by what feels best for you. The caveat here is that if you are vegan and eat a lot of plants (not processed vegan food), you may have softer stools, nearer to a 5, so I wouldn't worry too much about that. The other thing I would say is don't chase perfection, which I've been guilty of. When my IBS was the most managed it's ever been (at the time of recording it's not, because I've had a SIBO relapse), my stools were about a 5 but I was very caught up on getting them to a 4! So, if your endo belly dramatically improves, if you get an all clear for gut conditions, etc. but sometimes your stools are a little either side of type 4, this is probably not something to worry about. It might just be that you ate a little more or a little less fibre that week, or maybe that's just your normal. If you're concerned about it, certainly see a gut health practitioner, but I just wouldn't obsess about it that's the only issue left and there are no other signs that something is up with your gut.  Just to finish off this section, I want to hammer this home. A super flat stomach does not equal a happy gut - in fact, it sort of suggests that the gut microbiome is under fed or non-existent, because for them to thrive, they need to eat food and as a result, that creates gas. So, we're not aiming for washboard abs all the time, we're aiming for gut health that doesn't affect your daily life, cause you pain or physical/mental/emotional distress. Listen and subscribe on your favourite player or listen directly/download MP3 here or just listen below! Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here. My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk Show Notes https://www.siboinfo.com/symptoms.html https://www.endofound.org/endo-belly https://drseckin.com/endo-belly/ https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/irritable-bowel-syndrome-ibs/symptoms/ https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/remedies-for-bloating-and-wind/ https://nutritionstripped.com/is-bloating-normal/ https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/flatulence/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2849969/?fbclid=IwAR3kn0CVHyH4aZsIJ0hPq8__O7k4WfM_rk7EWKSLWj4RmQlVZsnCbnEu4Yg#R7 https://joe.bioscientifica.com/view/journals/joe/89/2/joe_89_2_011.xm https://nicolejardim.com/howyourperiodaffectsdigestivetract/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16992446/  

Today on the show I am talking about one of the possible root causes of your endo belly – coeliac disease. Now, before you turn this podcast off because you think you don't react to gluten, I am literally begging you to listen.  I have noticed a trend in my clients to dismiss coeliac disease as a possibility, because they don't have immediate reactions after gluten. But – here's the thing, the reactions from gluten are not always obvious and they don't always happen straight away.  So, if you're bloated all the time, tired all the time, maybe you have diarrhoea regularly or gas, or constipation, or maybe you don't have any gut symptoms at all – but you have brain fog, fatigue and achy joints, then it may be down to coeliac disease.  And these symptoms don't just have to occur after straight after gluten. In fact, according to the Food Allergy Research and Resource Program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, coeliac disease is a “delayed hypersensitivity reaction where symptoms develop 48-72 hours after ingestion” of gluten.(1) Now yes, some people with coeliac disease will experience symptoms soon after eating gluten, but for others, it's a couple of hours or even longer, as demonstrated here. So just because your symptoms do not show up straight after gluten, that doesn't mean you do not have coeliac disease and in fact, if you tend to eat gluten daily, and you tend to feel unwell daily – maybe you have chronic fatigue, for example - then this could be the result of that delayed reaction, just blurring into the next, because there's little time between each serving.  Additionally, the NHS states that symptoms can actually be mild and can come and go, so the signs of coeliac disease may be inconsistent(2). Your reactions to gluten do not have to be severe for you to have coeliac disease, for example, my brother was hospitalised with severe abdominal cramping and vomiting when he was diagnosed, whereas my sister literally said she was just “fed up of feeling nauseas”. And here's why it's important to get checked.  In the UK, only 30% of people with coeliac disease have been diagnosed(3), and it is estimated that 500,000 people are walking around with undiagnosed coeliac disease.(4)  In America, 83% of people with coeliac disease are undiagnosed.(5) And it's not rare either. In the UK, 1 in 100 people have coeliac disease (3) and in the USA, 1 in 133 people have coeliac disease.(5) And as you can see from these stats, the majority of them don't know they have it. And if you have endometriosis, the chances of having coeliac disease is higher. Research has identified a strong  association between endometriosis and coeliac disease. Coeliac disease patients were found to be almost twice as likely to develop endo in research(6) and studies have found that people with endometriosis are significantly more likely to develop coeliac disease.(7) To add to that, coeliac disease is a co-condition of small intestine bacterial overgrowth(8), which is a condition where normal bacteria which should be found in the large intestine, are growing in the small intestine. And SIBO is at present, estimated to affect up to 80% of people with endometriosis(9) and is a root cause of the endo belly, because the signature SIBO symptom is bloating. So, if you have endometriosis and SIBO, this is a really strong indicator that you should get tested. Additionally, in a study of over 200 women with endo, 75% experienced a reduction in symptoms after eliminating gluten for 12 months.(10) That doesn't mean you have to be as strict as someone with coeliac disease if you don't have it, as people with coeliac disease have to avoid cross-contamination, so literally they have to have separate food prep areas, chopping boards, etc. But not eating gluten containing foods may make a significant difference to life with endo.  Now, clearly, this isn't for everyone. For some people in this study, it didn't help, and we have to be careful when we talk about eliminating foods, as it can be triggering and cause issues with disordered eating, so I am not saying to just go and cut out gluten today. In fact, I actually advise against that – at least until you've been tested for coeliac disease! Then if you don't have it, I advise you work with someone to identify if gluten is a problem for your endo personally or take one of my courses where I teach you how to do that yourself, and as you guys know, The Endo Belly Course is currently open for enrolment now. So now you know the prevalence rates of coeliac disease, I thought I'd take you through some of the signs. Now, gut symptoms are often common symptoms, but  some people don't have these at all and in fact, they have other symptoms that may be seemingly random or connected to endometriosis, so they dismiss the possibility of it being coeliac disease. So today, I want to take you through some surprising signs of coeliac disease to look out for: 1) Rashes. Number one is rashes and specifically, a rash called dermatitis herpetiformis. My brother developed this, but my sister didn't, and the rash turned up probably a year or more before his gut issues arrived and it's actually common for people who have the rash, to not have the gut symptoms (though this isn't always the case). The rash looks like blisters on the skin, and is itchy, red, and tends to occur on the elbows (which is where my brother had it), knees and glutes. It is only a rash that appears in coeliac disease patients and is caused by gluten, it is not a rash anyone could get and is not caused by herpes, however, it does look like the herpes virus! Of course, if you have a rash like this and you have some of the other symptoms of coeliac disease, it's worth testing for it, but you can also get a biopsy to confirm whether this is dermatitis herpetiformis.(11) 2) Number two is dental problems. Now this tends to occur if the coeliac disease developed as a child (and just be mindful that coeliac disease can develop at any age!) due to the body being unable to absorb enough nutrients due to the damage in the intestines and from my understand, also as a result of the immune reactions. Dental problems can occur as issues with the enamel and can look like discolouration, patches on the teeth, translucent areas, grooves on the teeth and potentially increased cavities. Additionally, the growth of adult teeth can be delayed too.(12) 3) Number three is mouth ulcers(13), and these would be on the side of the mouth, on the cheeks and tongue, not on the lips – so we're not talking about cold sores. These won't occur in everyone, but if they do, they'll usually be recurring and you may have a few at one time. Again, this is thought to be a result of the nutrient deficiencies and immune response to the gluten.  4) Number four is anaemia, either b12 or iron deficiency induced anaemia or both(14). And this is tricky, because this is also a sign of SIBO!(15) So again, it's easy to dismiss coeliac disease here. B12 and iron deficiency anaemia will cause symptoms like tiredness, dizziness, shortness of breath, heart palpitations, numbness in the hands and feet, mouth ulcers, brain fog and irritability to name a few.(16,17) I've linked to the NHS page for symptoms in the show notes.  You can fairly easily get tested for these through your GP or online testing sites like Thriva in the UK, and I've linked to a few of them(18). If your levels are low but not deficient, it's still worth ruling out coeliac disease, because they have to get low to get deficient and if you've only just recently developed coeliac disease, it may take some time for your levels to drop. And on top of that, if you have the presence of gut problems, endo belly or any of the other symptoms I've listed, and you have low levels of iron and B12, it's safer just to rule it out. 5) Number five is infertility or reoccurring miscarriages, and I think this is an important one to raise because we often dismiss fertility problems as a symptom of endometriosis.  Now if coeliac disease is diagnosed and treated (as in, a person sticks to a strictly gluten free diet, which is the only form of treatment there is) then fertility rates return to normal and are equal to someone without coeliac disease. The problem is when it's left undiagnosed, and in fact, the guidance in the UK is that people who have recurring miscarriages or fertility struggles should be tested. I mean I think they should be tested as soon as the difficulty begins, to save people all that heartache, but I guess it costs the NHS less this way. There are numerous reasons why coeliac disease will affect fertility, from disrupting hormones, causing inflammation in the body, nutrient deficiencies and so on. But the bottom line is, the only way to treat it would be with a diagnosis and an adherence to a gluten free diet.(19)  6) Number six is brain fog(20). Coeliac disease patients often report brain fog and fatigue and research confirming these reports, with MRI scans showing brain changes and damage in people with coeliac disease. This brain fog may be accompanied by memory loss, headaches, and even balance or speech problems.  One small study found a significant improvement in patients with CD and cognitive impairment after a year on a strict gluten free diet(21), so there is definitely hope if this is a symptom you have and you're diagnosed!  And I thought I'd raise this one because so many of us report brain fog with endometriosis, and whilst there are many root causes behind this (in fact, I have a whole episode on them) often we just dismiss it as something we have to live with. So those are a few symptoms that you may not suspect would be behind coeliac disease – and these can all occur with or without gut problems and the endo belly. Some other signs to look out for include the development of autoimmune conditions like hashimoto's thyroiditis, type 1 diabetes (which my brother developed) and osteoporosis(22). So now let's move onto testing. To accurately test for coeliac disease, you must be eating gluten daily, at least twice a day, for six weeks(23). This is because the immune system will create antibodies against gluten and that's what's being measured. If you're not eating gluten at all or not regularly, you'll get a false negative test, even if you have the disease. So, if my brother tested today, he would come up as negative, because he hasn't eaten gluten for several years.  Once you've done the blood test, you'll then also be sent for a biopsy.  If you're still not sure whether it's worth getting tested, I've linked to an online assessment in the show notes, which will literally create a letter to take to the doctor, if it advises you to get tested, based on your symptoms.(24)  So that's it! If you have the endo belly, full stop, I advise you to get tested. And if any of these other symptoms sound familiar, I advise you to get tested too! Left undiagnosed, coeliac disease can cause serious health problems and increase your risk of multiple conditions and chronic diseases(24), and we've never lived in a better time to be gluten free, so even though it might be a hassle to get tested, it'll be worth it in the long run.  I've also linked to some gluten free courses and cookbooks in the show notes.(25) Listen and subscribe on your favourite player or listen directly/download MP3 here or just listen below! Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. Sign up to my free workshop: Creating a Roadmap to Endo Belly Healing Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here. My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk  Show Notes 1.      https://farrp.unl.edu/resources/gi-fas/celiac-disease 2.     https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coeliac-disease/symptoms/ 3.    https://www.coeliac.org.uk/information-and-support/coeliac-disease/coeliac-disease-faqs/ 4.      https://www.coeliac.org.uk/information-and-support/coeliac-disease/about-coeliac-disease/myths-about-coeliac-disease/?&&type=rfst&set=true#cookie-widget 5.      https://www.beyondceliac.org/fast-facts-about-celiac-disease-infographic/ 6.     https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21840904/ 7.     https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6601386/ 8.    https://www.siboinfo.com/associated-diseases.html 9.    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9660426/ 10.  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23334113/ 11.    https://celiac.org/about-celiac-disease/related-conditions/dermatitis-herpetiformis/ 12.   https://celiac.org/about-celiac-disease/related-conditions/oral-health/, https://jcda.ca/article/b39 13.  https://www.coeliac.org.uk/information-and-support/coeliac-disease/about-coeliac-disease/what-are-coeliac-disease-symptoms/ 14.   https://www.coeliac.org.uk/information-and-support/coeliac-disease/about-coeliac-disease/what-are-coeliac-disease-symptoms/ 15.   https://www.siboinfo.com/overview1.html 16.  https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vitamin-b12-or-folate-deficiency-anaemia/symptoms/ 17.   https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/iron-deficiency-anaemia/ 18.  https://thriva.co, https://valahealth.com, https://www.letsgetchecked.com 19.  https://www.coeliac.org.uk/information-and-support/coeliac-disease/conditions-linked-to-coeliac-disease/infertility-and-coeliac-disease/ 20. https://www.coeliac.org.uk/information-and-support/coeliac-disease/conditions-linked-to-coeliac-disease/neurological-conditions/ 21.   https://celiac.org/about-the-foundation/featured-news/2014/07/brainfog/ 22.  https://www.coeliac.org.uk/information-and-support/coeliac-disease/conditions-linked-to-coeliac-disease/ 23.  https://www.coeliac.org.uk/information-and-support/coeliac-disease/getting-diagnosed/#glutenthroughout 24.  https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coeliac-disease/complications/ 25.  https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/665647/cannelle-et-vanille-bakes-simple-by-aran-goyoaga/, https://www.arangoyoaga.com/on-demand-videos,https://www.learningwithexperts.com/foodanddrink/courses/river-cottage-gluten-free?ref=naomidevlin, https://gluten-free-baking-school.thinkific.com/courses/gluten-free-sourdough-bread, https://gluten-free-baking-school.thinkific.com/courses/enriched-dough, https://gluten-free-baking-school.thinkific.com/courses/everyday-gluten-free, https://gluten-free-baking-school.thinkific.com/courses/bao-noodles-and-dumplings, https://sweetlaurel.com

Happy Monday everyone! As I mentioned, today is another live Q&A style episode, with Friday's episode being one of my regular recorded episodes. This is a nice, short Q&A but I many of those who watched really appreciated the questions and found the answers useful! So hopefully, there's something in this episode for you too! In this episode I answered… How do you test for SIBO and what do you ask for? Advice on exercising with diaphragmatic endometriosis? Can you get rid of scar tissue/adhesions with other methods other than more surgery (short answer: YES!) I really hope this short Q&A was helpful and gives you guys some info/inspiration for your own healing journey. Listen and subscribe on your favourite player or listen directly/download MP3 here or just listen below! Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. Sign up to my free workshop: Creating a Roadmap to Endo Belly Healing Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here. My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk

Today is another live Q&A from back in June, as due to being unwell and the passing of our cat, I have been unable to complete the planned episode for this week. But, this Q&A is chock full of the foundations of eating for endo, so I hope you find it useful. In this Q&A on nutrition for endometriosis, I cover… The research behind the anti-inflammatory diets and the most researched diets for pain. The key components of an anti-inflammatory diet. Why personalisation is so important. Deficiencies, absorption of nutrients and how to ensure variation. How to eat for blood sugar balance. I also answer some specific SIBO, gut questions and foodie questions. I really hope you find this episode helpful and it gives you some starters to support you with your own tailored endometriosis diet.  Listen and subscribe on your favourite player or listen directly/download MP3 here or just listen below! Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. Sign up to my free workshop: Creating a Roadmap to Endo Belly Healing Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here. My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk

  This episode is another live Q&A and I managed to convince Chris (who hates public speaking, IG lives, etc.) to help me answer your questions about relationships and endo. I had so many questions submitted in the end that we answered the ones that were sort of directed to Chris and I/about romantic relationships and I'll answer the remaining in another live soon! So in this Q&A we answer... Advice to a partner on how to support you when they say they feel “helpless”. Is Chris into holistic/naturopathic health and does he find what I do interesting. Suggestions for helping a partner understand endo. How to have fun with your partner again when endo gets in the way. Just to give a little bit of context, Chris and I have been together almost 8 years, and have been friends for I think 11 or years! He was my friend when I was first diagnosed with endo and we were literally a month into our relationship when my endo symptoms returned. We have a joint column together on Endometriosis Net and Chris has also written for Endometriosis News and still writes monthly for Endometriosis Net! We really hope you found this live helpful.  Listen and subscribe on your favourite player or listen directly/download MP3 here or just listen below! Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. Sign up to my free workshop: Creating a Roadmap to Endo Belly Healing To become a The Endo Belly Course Founding Member, email me at hello@thisendolife.com with ‘Yes' in the subject line. Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here. My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk