459: Suzanne Somers on a New Way to Age (Focused on Cellular Health)

Child: Welcome to my Mommy’s podcast.

This episode is sponsored by Wellnesse… that’s Wellness with an “e” on the end… my all-natural personal care line. Our whitening toothpaste is a customer favorite. mineralizing blend of natural ingredients that supports oral health naturally. It’s based on the original recipe I developed over a decade ago and has been through almost a hundred iterations to create the best natural toothpaste available. Many types of toothpaste contain ingredients you might find in paint and that you certainly don’t want in your mouth, but ours is enamel friendly and oral biome friendly to keep your teeth and gums happy all day long and all night long! Check out the whitening toothpaste and all of our products, including our natural “hair food” haircare at Wellnesse.com

This podcast is sponsored by Olipop, a company reinventing the idea of soda! It’s no secret that most things we think of as soda aren’t great for your body with the massive amounts of sugar and added artificial ingredients. But Olipop is a new kind of soda that tastes just like the sodas we grew up with, but unlike other sodas, it is packed with natural ingredients that are good for you and that help keep your gut happy too! They have delicious nostalgic flavors like Vintage Cola, Classic Root Beer, Orange Squeeze, Cherry Vanilla and Strawberry Vanilla. Strawberry is my current favorite but I really enjoy all of their flavors. They use functional ingredients that combine the benefits of prebiotics, plant fiber and botanicals to support your microbiome and benefit digestive health. There is also a massive difference in their sugar content. Their Vintage Cola has just two grams of sugar as compared to a regular Coca-Cola which has 39g of sugar. Their Orange Squeeze has 5g of sugar compared to Orange Fanta which has 44g of sugar. All of their products are Non-GMO, Vegan, Paleo and Keto-friendly with less than 8g net carbs per can. They are so confident that you will LOVE their products that they offer a 100% money back guarantee for orders placed through their website. We’ve worked out a special deal for Wellness Mama listeners. Save 15% off your purchase. I recommend trying their variety pack as tis is a great way to try all of their delicious flavors. Go to drinkolipop.com/wellnessmama or use code WELLNESSMAMA at checkout to claim this deal. Olipop can also be found in over 5,000 stores across the country, including Kroger, Whole Foods, Sprouts, and Wegmans.

Katie: Hello, and welcome to the “Wellness Mama” podcast. I’m Katie from wellnessmama.com and wellnesse.com. That’s Wellnesse with an E on the end, my personal care line. This episode is all about aging or more specifically, a new way to age that makes it a lot more graceful and a lot more fun. I’m here with Suzanne Somers, who you might remember as one of America’s most popular and beloved TV personalities. She was Chrissy Snow in “Three’s Company,” and she from there launched into a multifaceted career that has spanned more than three decades. She’s authored 27 books, including her latest, “A New Way to Age” that we talk about a lot today in this episode, doing exclusive interviews with doctors and scientists who are discussing the most cutting-edge treatments and supplements to maintain health and age gracefully and slower, not just on a cosmetic level but on a cellular level.

She is the voice and face of alternative medicine in a lot of ways. She successfully beat cancer without using chemical treatments. And she has written a whole lot of books related to health and wellness, and specifically to the aging aspect of it. And we go deep on a lot of those topics today. I really enjoyed this interview, especially getting to talk to her about the mindset of aging, how certain hormonal treatments specifically really helped her through menopause and beyond, and the cellular aspect of it, and how this affects us and our children even far in advance of menopause. It was a joy to talk to her today. I know that you will learn a lot from this episode. So, without further ado, let’s join Suzanne. Suzanne, welcome. Thanks for being here.

Suzanne: My pleasure. Thank you so much.

Katie: Oh, I’m so excited to chat with you today. It’s unbelievable to me, you’ve written 27 books. I’ve only written four, so I’m super impressed. I’ll add links to all of your books in the show notes. But I was really excited to have you on. You came highly recommended from several people close to me in my life who really are excited about your newest book “A New Way to Age.” And I’m excited to delve into a lot more specifics here. I think it’s gonna take us in a lot of different directions. But to start off broad, can you just, kind of, give us an overview of your approach and what led to this book specifically?

Suzanne: Yes, but first, before we begin, I want to applaud you for writing four books, you said only. How many people have written four books? So congratulations. I know how much work each book is. So, good for you. And you have six children, which is crazy and great.

Katie: Well, thank you.

Suzanne: I was just watching the news yesterday where it said that this next generation population is going down because they’re not having babies. And I thought, that’s a shame. That’s really a shame.

Katie: Yeah, I think we’ve heard the, kind of, overpopulation narrative for so long. And now that has reversed and we’re not hearing nearly as much about it.

Suzanne: Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, to answer your question about my latest book, “A New Way to Age,” each book I’ve written is myself educating myself to keep moving further along. And it’s very clear to me, now that I’m 74, that life is about chapters. And I always thought when I hit my 70s, that it would be over. And here I am, with the way I’ve taken care of myself and put myself back together in terms of all the parts of me that have declined, that I like my 70s. I like the wisdom that has come. I like the way I look. I like my energy. I’m liking the whole deal. And so, I felt it was time to write that book. “A New Way to Age” essentially is saying that aging is about worn-out parts. And we wear out hormonally, we go into decline. That happens usually in what used to happen around 45, 50. But it’s happening early and earlier now because stress blunts hormone production.

And even with the millions of people that these books have educated, there’s still such a wide dearth of patient to doctor, the doctors that don’t really understand it. They only know what they learned in medical school. And medical school doesn’t teach about natural hormone replacement. So, I’ll get back to hormones in a minute. But the decline happens in hormones, it happens in nutrients, it happens in minerals, and then other things that I talk about. And what I do is I gathered the best and the brightest doctors, scientists, and professionals, and pick their brain. And each interview takes so long because doctors are not good at explaining their approach to medicine. It’s so lofty. And I have to go back over and over again to each doctor or scientist and say, “When you said this, did you mean that? Because I’m trying to make it understandable for me. And if I understand that, then my constituency will understand it.”

And so, what I realize is, if you pay attention to the language of your body, I call the menopause…the seven dwarves of menopause: itchy, bitchy, sleepy, sweaty, bloated, forgetful, and all dried up. That’s the language. So what? Itchy, if you’re itchy all the time, that’s your body talking to you saying there’s something out of bounds and the body wants balance. If you’re bitchy as in a bad mood, something’s out of balance unless you have a severe emotional thing happening in your life that it would be understandable. If you can’t sleep, that’s the language. All these things are language that I tried with my constituency to make them aware of their individual body language because that’s how you can get yourself to the qualify the right kind of doctor and also to get the proper lab work to determine your deficiencies.

I think the game-changer is hormones. When your hormones decline, you lose quality of life. And what’s interesting is that they have figured out now how to extend life to 80, 90. It’s very common to live well into your 90s now but nobody’s thought about quality of those extra years that our life has been extended. I do. That’s what I write about, how to put quality back in those extra years that we now get because what’s fun is living longer, if you feel awful all the time, and you’re getting all the diseases of aging. So, hormones say to the brain, when they’re imbalanced, all is well. When they’re out of balance, that’s when we get our first cancers. And, you know, in the animal world, when animals are no longer reproductive, they slow down and get eaten because life is about perpetuation of the species.

Well, a similar thing happens. We don’t get eaten, but we get eaten up from the inside out with cancer, and arthritis, and aching joints, and hair that no longer is shiny and lustrous, and all the things that made youth so enjoyable. So, my goal is not to remain youthful on the exterior, although it seems to be a byproduct. My goal is to keep my insides young. So I’m working internally at optimum that all my organs and glands are working properly. And hormones are the body’s communication system. Every hormone talks to every other hormone. All cells talk to one another. And we are about…I see it all…it’s all over the place, either 45 to 70 trillion cells, that’s what makes a human person.

And what kept coming up in the interviews that I did in this book, “A New Way to Age,” over and over and over again, it was so interesting to me because I didn’t start out with this theme, the theme emerged. It’s all about cellular health. And cellular health is the determining factor between how your aging will be accelerated or your aging will happen in the most beautiful way that you don’t fall apart. And isn’t that the goal? Let’s not fall apart. Let’s feel great all the time.

Katie: Well, I love so much that you have used your platform to, kind of, pull all these great minds together and to really, like, delve into their information and then compile it and make it accessible to all of your readers. I think that’s so important. And I definitely agree with you on the hormone side, I’ve only experienced that myself through the ups and downs of pregnancy, but also through having…I used to have Hashimoto’s. And I learned very much firsthand that if your hormones are out of balance, you will not win a battle against your hormones. You have to address the hormones. You’re not gonna win the battle with willpower or with supplements or…you’ve got to go in and actually address what’s going on with your hormones. And I think, you know, that can be a very multifaceted approach. And it can seem a little bit overwhelming, I think, to a lot of people. And I haven’t yet had to do this through anything like menopause or some of those phases. So, I really would love to hear more about your approach to this. I know you’ve done, from my research, some bioidentical hormones, and those have seemed to have been really profoundly impactful for you.

Suzanne: Profound. And also, in reference to your Hashimoto’s, you know, I’ve heard so often doctors telling patients, “Oh, your thyroid’s a little low,” or, “Your thyroid is a little high.” Almost like it’s no big deal. It’s a big deal. The thyroid, for lack of a better description, is the orchestra leader of the body. The thyroid gets the signals directly from the brain, the hypothalamus, the pineal, and the pituitary. And then the thymus gets the instructions, and then it is the gland that tells all the other glands, all the other hormones, and all the cells what to do. So it’d be like you’d go to the symphony, and all the players are professional players. They all know how to play. But if the conductor or the musical director or the orchestra leader doesn’t show up, none of these players know what to play. So they try to play but because there’s no one guiding them and making the harmony, it all sounds discordant. And that’s what happens in the human body. Without the thyroid being in perfect balance, you will not have harmony in your body. Once the thyroid is out of whack, then all the other hormones are out of whack.

Now for someone like you who’s had six children, that is an incredible thing to do for your body. And it’s also very taxing for your body because when you’re pregnant, you make hormones in a different way than you make when you’re not pregnant. And that is when you’re pregnant, you make estrogen every day of the month, and you make progesterone every day of the month. And that’s what’s supposed to happen so that your body, your baby, everybody gets, you know, a full blast all the time. But what has happened before I started writing about bioidentical hormones, women would feel all the symptoms. They’d go to their gynecologist, and the gynecologist would put them on synthetic hormones. The main one being Premarin. It stands for pregnant mare’s urine, Premarin. Now, a horse has 34 different estrogens, not one of which is compatible to the human female.

So, now you’re putting in hormones that the body’s going, huh, and you’re confusing the body. The one thing you don’t wanna do is confuse the body. And then because women want at this point to not have a period anymore, doctors put them on these synthetic hormones that trick the body into thinking it’s pregnant all the time. And so they were finding that women on synthetic hormones were getting fat. The symptoms were gone. They were sleeping a little better. They weren’t quite as moody. They didn’t have quite the body itches and rashes and things but they’re gaining weight and gaining weight. I can walk into any restaurant, I’ll tell you what women in that restaurant are on synthetic hormones. It has to do with the age, looking at these signs on the face that indicate low or high thyroid, and then if they’re on continuous combined, and what a terrible thing. That’s why I think there was such a prevalence of cancer, particularly breast cancer, in women my age who are going to the gynecologist and getting these fake hormones.

So, when I went into menopause, nobody knew anything about it. Nobody talked about it. In fact, when I was a kid, it was this shameful thing. We would hear my mother and my aunts talk about so and so who was going through, and then they’d whisper, “The change.” And as a kid, I’m thinking, what is this change thing they’re all talking about? Sure, sounds scary. It sounds awful. And it was. Something about it became very shameful. And so you never mentioned the word menopause. I think I’m the first person who started openly using the word menopause, talking about menopause, and writing about menopause and making it okay. It’s just another passage of life. But if you do it right and put, through lab work, like, you were just talking about, the exact individualized amounts that you need, as opposed to what I need, which is always going to be different. No woman is exactly the same. There’s no one pill fits all. It’s gotta be done.

And when I first started on bioidentical hormones, because I had gone to doctor after doctor after doctor, and I was offered sleeping pills, Valium for anxiety, cholesterol-lowering pills as in statin, diuretics, sleeping pills, etc. I looked at this one doctor, who was the last one on my list, I said, Really? “Are you joking? Is this the best you have to offer women?” And he patted me on the back and he said, “The drug companies know best, dear.” And I thought “Well, you old fool.” Now, I am not anti-pharmaceutical. When you need them, you need them, they’re a godsend. I needed them this year, I had a terrible accident where I broke my neck and my upper spine. I could not have gotten through this without the pain drugs that they gave me because it was so excruciating. So, they have their place. And I’m not arrogant enough to say they do not. But if you can do it naturally first, that’s where I wanna go.

So, I finally found a doctor who specialized in…At this time, this was 25, probably 27 years ago, specialized in bioidentical hormones. For the sake of your listening audience, bioidentical means biologically identical to the human body, an exact replica of what your body once made or maybe still makes a little have. A little of is not good. You want just right. It’s like Goldilocks, you know, you want exactly the right size chair. And when she looked at my lab work, she said, “You poor thing.” And I said, “What do you mean?” She said, “Well, you have virtually no progesterone left.” She said, “That’s your feel-good hormone. And your estrogen is so low, I don’t know how you get through the day. You must feel terrible.” I said, “I do.” I’m a happy person, happily married. I love my career. I love my kids. I love everything. And I’m depressed all the time and thinking the world would be better off without me.” She said, “It’s all hormonal.” She said, “What we’re gonna do is we’re going to start you on low dose. I can’t give you everything you need.” I said, “Why not?” She said, “Because it took a long time to lose these hormones, to drain out. You gotta build them back up slowly.” I said, “Or else what?”

She said, “Well, you literally can go crazy if I gave you everything you needed right now. So I’m gonna give you the first doses of estrogen and progesterone. And then you’ll call me with your symptoms.” And I said, “What are my symptoms?” She said, “You’ll now.” So I found myself two weeks later going, “I feel a little better, but I’m really itchy.” “Okay. What were your stresses this week?” And I go through it. So we tweaked and tweaked, and it only took a few months before I was going, “Wow, what a difference.” And I would have to say that it took a full year because I was so drained out to finally hit the sweet spot that I found 20-some-odd years ago that I have maintained ever since. And that is why I’m enjoying my 70s, I shout from the rooftops my age because I want women who are nearing my age, or my age or older, to realize it ain’t over. It’s just you have to know how to handle it at this stage of life so that you can get your life extension with quality.

Katie: I’m so glad you brought up that individualized aspect, and the testing, and how this truly is going to be different for each person, I think that often, you know, gets ignored or swept under the rug or just not considered, especially when we’re talking about so many things in medicine are tested on men who have very different hormones and very, like, your hormone fluctuations. And most even pharmaceutical drugs are tested in male cohorts because they’re easier because they don’t have hormone fluctuations. And so, this is like a new concept and a new emerging area of medicine to really consider the individualized aspect. And especially in women, it makes me really excited that we’re starting to really do that and be able to, like you said, dial that in. And then really have that level to maintain as you age. Do you think is there ever a time and ever reason not to consider bioidentical hormones for someone as they’re aging, especially when they’re hitting menopause?

Suzanne: This is my opinion, I absolutely think by not taking hormone replacement, you’re putting yourself in jeopardy for a lot of things. If you consider that we women get our breast cancers at the end of our reproductive years…that’s usually when it happens. It’s happening now earlier and earlier because as I said, stress blunts hormone production. And we’re draining out sooner now because of all the stress on the planet. So, when you drain out, it’s like sending a message to your brain and the brain goes, “Oh, whoa, wait a minute, this person can no longer perpetuate the species.” And that’s the whole reason we’re all here is perpetuation of the species. So, wow, I should get rid of this person. I’ll give her first breast cancer or maybe ovarian cancer or whatever. And, you know, I’m giving a personality to the brain but in essence, that’s what’s happening because the brain recognizes a hormonally balanced human as valuable and it does not recognize an imbalanced human as valuable. We who are hormonally balanced can perpetuate the species.

Now, you look at me, I have no more eggs left. That’s what menopause is. It should be called egglessness. But because science has gotten in and extended life, I can now trick my brain into believing I am valuable for as long as I want to stay alive. And I love my life. In fact, I love that I’ve raised my kids. I’ve educated them, married them off, and I’m having this incredible time with my husband who’s also been on hormone replacement for 25 years. And we’re both vibrant, and juicy, and upbeat, and we date. And I do three Facebook Live shows a week. You should come sometime, 5:00 California time. And I found that women and men don’t like to have a drink alone. So 5:000 at big Al’s bar at my house, we have a tequila and I talk about my organic products. I talk about my organic skincare, haircare, color cosmetics, household cleaning products because I think that we’re under the greatest environmental assault in the history of humanity, and it’s taking its toll.

Cancer is now an epidemic. They don’t wanna talk about it. The other thing that’s an epidemic is gut problems. Everybody. I just pick up from my constituency what’s going on out there. Everybody’s talking about bloating. Everybody’s talking about gas. Everybody’s talking about, this is their term, being dog-tired. I hear that phrase all the time. And I’m sure when you had Hashimoto’s, you were dog-tired. That’s hormonal imbalance. You just can hardly get through the day. That’s no way to live. And so we address all those things in the show. So, it becomes have a cocktail. Alan and I flirt with one another. He’s the bad boy. We don’t have a script. We don’t ever know what we’re gonna talk about. It’s just have a date with us. And so many people say, “I look forward to this three times a week. It’s like escape from the world that I am living in right now, ” whether it be a marriage that’s unhappy or a marriage that’s not all that it could or can be.

And, you know, whenever you can put back in the world, it’s a good thing. And I’m so passionate about health. I’m so passionate about hormones. And so I talk to them in my shows about hormones. I talk to them about the gut. We created this smoothie mix called gut Renew that has in it all the things that can help you clean up the sludge in your GI tract and in your intestines that are making you bloated and constipated. And we did a 30-day Gut Renew Challenge and it’s amazing. People were saying, “Oh my God in one week, I’ve lost 8 pounds.” And I said, “Well, it wasn’t designed to be a weight loss program but it makes sense. If you’re, kind of, cleaning up the barrier wall in the GI tract and the bad chemicals that have been residing inside you from this terrible onslaught and exposure that we’re all experiencing, yeah, that back up, that sludge, those chemicals that are making you dog-tired and, you know, chemicals, I look at them like little bad guys. They wanna go live in the fattiest organs and glands, the brain being number one. And doesn’t it make sense now that we have these new diseases, brain diseases, ADD, ADHD, OCD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, and then as you get older, dementia, Alzheimer’s? And you have six children, you’re hearing about these initials. I know you are, right?

Katie: Oh, yeah, absolutely. All the time.

Suzanne: Yeah. So what we wanna do is re-educate ourselves. We all figured that if we could buy it in a store online, it’s safe. But it’s very, very clear in the greatest environmental assault in the history of humanity that organic food is so important. I was watching a Netflix show the other night on Adderall. I don’t know if you’ve seen it. And that the millennials are all addicted to amphetamines, Adderall, Vyvanse, Concerta. The doctors are handing these things out like crazy because they’ve all been exposed to these chemicals through non-organic foods, through skincare, hair care, etc. that’s got chemicals in it that their mothers clean their houses with chemicals. Chemicals are in the air everywhere. And it just starts building up in the body. And the GI tract is the length of a tennis court. And there’s a mucus all around the barrier wall, the GI tract, this length of a tennis court. So think about if you stretch it out what it is. We’re a marvel, really. And that’s your immune system.

But if the chemicals are in your GI tract and they’re eating holes in that barrier wall through your immune system, now they’re downgrading your immune system, and they’re leaking out into your bloodstream. That’s that leaky gut you’re hearing about. And then they go on a rampage looking for the fattiest organs and glands. And, you know, with you, most likely ended up in your thyroid, other people, it gets to the thymus, which, you know, helps you to prevent disease and your immune system. But the worst is if it gets up into your brain, and it’s happening again and again. It’s in my own family. I’m watching it. And when I watched this special recently I went, “It’s worse than I thought.” And because the doctors are passing out these amphetamines like candy, kids who aren’t on them lose a competitive edge.

And all these kids we’re talking about, the fact that they didn’t want to take a test without being on one of these drugs because everybody else in the class is on these drugs and they’re gonna ace it because what these drugs do is make you super focused. That’s all you can think about is this test. And that’s how the grade points are so high these days, not that they’re not studying, it’s just that they are all on these…according to this special. I didn’t write the special so I just have to believe what they put on TV, on Netflix was the real deal, but it made sense to me because I’ve written so much about the gut and the GI tract that this can’t lead anywhere good. You know, really, do you want your kids to go down that road? No, if you have six kids, you’re an extremely compassionate and giving person to give so much of yourself to bring fine little human beings onto the planet and you don’t want them getting wrecked by chemicals and drugs that they don’t need.

Katie: That’s such an important point. And I’ve talked about the environmental assault that we’re seeing across the board right now in our food and in everything we’re exposed to and our lifestyle and definitely have also seen that research on gut problems being on the rise. And when people ask why…you know, it shouldn’t be this hard to be healthy, we shouldn’t need all these things, I understand where they’re coming from but I also remind them, like, we’re seeing a vastly higher number of negative inputs that any previous generation has had to deal with. So we are in a place where we must be proactive. And I think it sounds like that’s also where these bioidentical hormones come into play. Like, I’ve read statistics that men even a couple of generations ago had drastically different testosterone levels than men now at the same ages. Same thing with women’s hormones because of all these things that we’re exposed to constantly, which of course, we should also be minimizing. But we’re just having to deal…our bodies are having to deal with so much more, that it requires us being much more proactive than perhaps previous generations have had to be.

Suzanne: Yeah, this sperm count is down. In Sweden, the sperm count is down to such an alarmingly low rate, they’re worried about being able to reproduce at all, that there’s only, I don’t wanna say the percentage because I can’t remember right now, the exact percentage. For some reason, 10% are still able to procreate, but I could be wrong on that. I just know, it was alarmingly low, and I thought, “This is not good. And what have we done?” But it’s not irreparable By the information you’re putting out today, and hopefully the information I’m putting out today, people will listen and realize the choices we make every day are so important.

When I lecture, I always tell my audiences, “When you go to bed at night, in that moment in the darkness, when you’re just going to sleep, make a list, an imaginary list in your head. And on one side of the list, look at all the choices you made that took you towards good health and look at all the choices you made that took you away from good health, and you’ll be surprised how many bad choices you make all day long. It’s the food. The food is at the top of the list. Hormones being balanced and eating quality food. If you can pick it, pluck it, milk it, or shoot it, and it’s organic, you can eat it. But no fake food. And right now they’re trying to make all this meatless food, this fake meat. Well, fake meat is ultra super processed food. And we already know that processed foods are known carcinogens. So what are we doing? And they’re presenting it as though this is good for the planet and this is going to make everybody healthier. No, it’s not.

We were designed to consume protein. You know, animals eat animals, eat animals, eat animals. And I for one…from the genetic background that I come from, I require protein several times a week. And when I don’t get enough protein, I don’t feel good. And there are a lot of people like me. So, the fact that we’re talking about this gives me great hope, makes me know that there are enough curious people who are out there going, “Why don’t I feel 100%? Why has everybody in my family got some kind of terrible disease and, you know, heart disease and cancer and arthritis,” which may not sound to a young person, like, you know, a terrible thing, it is terrible. All these old people you see shuffling along and needing walkers and needing someone, a caretaker to, you know, take them down the steps and up the steps and everything, that’s no fun.

And if you see a person who eats quality food, who exercises regularly, you don’t have to be fanatic, but regularly and thinks positive thoughts…because the brain believes everything you tell it. So, if you tell the brain, you know, “I hate this, and I hate that, I hate this,” well, the brain’s without emotion, goes, “Oh, okay, all right. Well, all right, you’re full of hate, great.” But conversely, you say to yourself all the time, “I’m so grateful for my life, for the love in my life, for my husband, for the food I get to eat, that I get to live in America,” all these things, the brain goes, “Okay, all right, you’re grateful. Isn’t that great.” I’m gonna be in a much better space as a grateful person than a hateful person, for sure.

Katie: Yeah, oh, I’m gonna circle back to the mindset piece in just a second. But also just a follow-up point on the fertility side, I’ve seen those statistics as well. And there’s a couple of researchers predicting that it could be as serious as by 2034, it will be extremely difficult for anyone to reproduce if we don’t start addressing these things really in a big way right now. But I think the thing you just brought up is so important as well, the mindset of all of this, and especially when it comes to aging. And I loved what you said at the beginning when we first started talking as well about your mindset and loving being the age you are because I think society has painted such a negative picture of aging, especially for women. And there’s so much pressure related to that. And it’s portrayed as such a bad thing that should be avoided and it’s so shameful. And that mindset is just so sad to me because with every year of life comes so much wisdom.

And we hear all these quotes about how wouldn’t it be great if we had the wisdom of whatever age at any young person’s body? But I don’t think there has to be that false dichotomy. Like, you know, what you’re saying is if we can optimize these factors, and especially for people who can think of them earlier on in life and plan ahead so that these can all be graceful transitions, and we’re supporting the body in a big way through all of them, I don’t think that dichotomy has to be there at all. And I think it’s beautiful to see examples like you who are spreading the word and changing the mindset around aging because I think even that negative mindset, in general, is so bad for the body, even in a physical level.

Suzanne: Yeah, I remember, on my 60th birthday, having a profound thought of, I’m going to make my age the age people wanna be. So I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do so that it becomes aspirational. And I believe at 74, like when we started out, I always thought by the time I reached this age, I’d be old and it all be over. Well, it’s not over. It’s in many ways better than it’s ever, ever been. I said to my husband, we were having our tequila last night, one at 5:00, and it’s such a great date. And I said, “You know, I really like who I am.” Nobody says that. Everybody finds all the flaws with themselves. And I’m not this and I’m not that. And not to get, you know, corny or anything but we are made by God. And I just find a way in my conversations I have with the God of my understanding of thank you for making me. You did such a good job. I’m so pleased with your work. And it’s not arrogant and it’s not egotistical. It’s just, look at what you have, rather than what you don’t have.

And I’ll tell you something else. When you are hormonallly balanced, your skin doesn’t take the hit that most older people’s skin looks like. Recently, my granddaughter, my 25-year-old granddaughter was here and she…it was breakfast time, she comes walking down the stairs and I look her and I go, “Oh my god, we’re wearing exactly the same outfit,” because it’s hot here in the desert. And I had on cut-off jean shorts and a t-shirt. And so did she. So her mother took a picture of the two of us. And then she posted it and the picture went viral of, you know, me and my granddaughter. And I looked at it and I went, I can see why this went viral because you don’t look at who’s the old lady with the young girl. You don’t look at that at all. You just look at vibrancy in both of us.

And one’s not better than the other, one’s younger but it doesn’t matter because my vibrancy is aspirational, I think. And a lot of it was because our legs looked very similar because I’m on bioidentical hormones. I don’t have saggy, drapey, wrinkly legs, or thighs, or arms, or anything that I’m seeing in my contemporaries who aren’t approaching aging the way I am. For that reason alone, you know, there’s no surgery that can make your legs look good that I’m aware of. So it has to come from within. And as I said earlier, I am very concerned with keeping my insides young and that will keep me healthy and hopefully manifest on the outside. And I believe that’s what’s happened.

Katie: I love that. I have to find that picture. And I think, for a lot of people, they get stuck in the, kind of, skin and cosmetic side of aging. And I love that you address in your book so much the cellular side because it’s like then you get the side effect of the stuff that you’re actually trying to spend all this money and do all these crazy procedures to get. That becomes a side effect of just feeling better.

This episode is sponsored by Wellnesse… that’s Wellness with an “e” on the end… my all-natural personal care line. Our whitening toothpaste is a customer favorite. mineralizing blend of natural ingredients that supports oral health naturally. It’s based on the original recipe I developed over a decade ago and has been through almost a hundred iterations to create the best natural toothpaste available. Many types of toothpaste contain ingredients you might find in paint and that you certainly don’t want in your mouth, but ours is enamel friendly and oral biome friendly to keep your teeth and gums happy all day long and all night long! Check out the whitening toothpaste and all of our products, including our natural “hair food” haircare at Wellnesse.com

This podcast is sponsored by Olipop, a company reinventing the idea of soda! It’s no secret that most things we think of as soda aren’t great for your body with the massive amounts of sugar and added artificial ingredients. But Olipop is a new kind of soda that tastes just like the sodas we grew up with, but unlike other sodas, it is packed with natural ingredients that are good for you and that help keep your gut happy too! They have delicious nostalgic flavors like Vintage Cola, Classic Root Beer, Orange Squeeze, Cherry Vanilla and Strawberry Vanilla. Strawberry is my current favorite but I really enjoy all of their flavors. They use functional ingredients that combine the benefits of prebiotics, plant fiber and botanicals to support your microbiome and benefit digestive health. There is also a massive difference in their sugar content. Their Vintage Cola has just two grams of sugar as compared to a regular Coca-Cola which has 39g of sugar. Their Orange Squeeze has 5g of sugar compared to Orange Fanta which has 44g of sugar. All of their products are Non-GMO, Vegan, Paleo and Keto-friendly with less than 8g net carbs per can. They are so confident that you will LOVE their products that they offer a 100% money back guarantee for orders placed through their website. We’ve worked out a special deal for Wellness Mama listeners. Save 15% off your purchase. I recommend trying their variety pack as tis is a great way to try all of their delicious flavors. Go to drinkolipop.com/wellnessmama or use code WELLNESSMAMA at checkout to claim this deal. Olipop can also be found in over 5,000 stores across the country, including Kroger, Whole Foods, Sprouts, and Wegmans.

And I know a question I get from my audience relatively often, even in younger women now, it seems younger and younger, is related to libido. And I’m curious if this is something that you have addressed as you’ve gotten older. Anything that you found…I’m sure the bioidentical hormones come into play here as well. But do you feel like a decline in libido has to come along with getting older?

Suzanne: Well, a decline in hormones is a decline in your sex hormones. So without your sex hormones, we women can’t feel sex. It’s not that we wouldn’t like it. We can’t feel it. So when you get yourself balanced, your drive comes back. And because at this age, my kids are gone, if you’re in the mood, you’re in the mood. I talk about our sex life, not because I really wanna talk about my sex life, I just want people to know, again, in another way, it ain’t over. And when the female embraces hormone replacement, it doesn’t take long before the husband or the partner follows suit and wants what she has. And, you know, life is to be enjoyed. Life is a gift. When you get to be this age, you know that every day you’re alive is a gift and don’t waste it and use it well. And health is all there is. Love is all there is. All these things are so important to who we are as humans, I always call us humans being. We are humans who are being. And I’m looking forward to the next 20 years. And so what I’m saying is, I see myself around for at least another couple of decades, and then I’ll renegotiate.

Katie: I love that. I know for people listening who especially if bioidentical hormones are a new topic, there’s gonna be a lot of questions related to how do we learn about them more? How can we find them? How do we find a good doctor who knows about them and they don’t have to go through that, kind of, cascade of doctors it sounds like you went through to finally find the answers. And I know you address a lot of this in the books. You guys make sure you grab the book. But can you talk a little bit about that of how do we learn more and find out what those optimal ranges are and how to work with a practitioner to get there?

Suzanne: So a couple of decades ago, when I wrote my first book on hormones called “The Sexy Years,” I could only find 30 doctors in the entire United States that were even somewhat versed in natural hormone replacement because they didn’t learn it in school. When they went to school, the universities, 66% of all university chairs are funded by pharmaceutical companies. And I asked one doctor, “How did it get this way that we live with this allopathic world only?” And he said, “I’ll tell you exactly.” There was a guy by the name of Abraham Flexner, around the turn of the century. And he was hired by the two richest families in America, the Carnegies and the Rockefellers who owned pharmaceutical companies, and very incredible business people. They sent Abraham Flexner around to the institutes of higher learning, all our esteemed university and medical schools, and offered them funding in perpetuity if they would only teach allopathic medicine. That means here’s the problem and here’s the drug for that problem. And that is why all the pathics, the homeopathic, the chiropractic, all the pathics were pushed to the side as quackery. And that’s why it’s been so hard for alternative doctors to, kind of, get their heads up and above and say, “I’m over here and I’m doing it different.”

That’s where I come in. I have a louder voice than any of those doctors who spent all that time studying, I’m not a doctor. You do learn a lot after writing 27 books. I’ve got four more in my head. I just don’t know which one to do next. And I provide a great service, not only for these doctors but for the women and men who are looking for something different. I think the best is integrated. The best of both, you know, that you go natural first, but if that’s not working, that’s when you resort to…like I had to for pain from a broken neck and spine this year. Thank God that that existed.

And, you know, you never know in life what your purpose is. I feel like I have purpose, and that’s very satisfying. And one factor of that is that I’ve been able to push these doctors, scientists, and professionals to the forefront, and I don’t do that lightly. I’ve done interviews with doctors where after I get it all done, I think something doesn’t smell right here. And man, when I don’t put them in a book, they’re mad at me forever, but I only put people in my books that I have vetted and vetted and vetted, and then I talk to their patients and I vet them through their patients. So by the time they get in my book, the information is great.

So “A New Way to Age” is great for how to approach aging in this era and have the best quality of life. But for those who are listening who don’t know anything about bioidentical hormones, the most recent book I’ve written on hormones is called “I’m Too Young for This!” Because most women who are, you know, got itchy, bitchy, sleepy, sweaty, bloated, forgetful, and all dried up, they think they’re way too young to even consider hormone replacement. And this book explains to them, with the most cutting-edge, up-to-date information on natural hormone replacement, why. Even if you’re not declining in hormones, why you want to start having hormone panels done at your regular visit to your gynecologist. I would look in the back of my books to find a qualified doctor nearest you because going to a doctor who doesn’t know anything about hormones is like going to a plumber for a heart bypass.

And that book will really, really teach you what you need to do to get yourself in perfect balance. And when you do, you’ll never look back. And I believe there’s never been one reported case of cancer on bioidentical hormones. Women who have been on bioidentical hormones have gotten cancer. But in all the cases I’ve ever heard of is estrogen receptor-negative and progesterone receptor-negative, meaning it wasn’t a hormonal cancer. It was an environmental cancer that may have settled in the breast or settled in the uterus. But there’s never been one that’s pinpointed right when she took those bioidentical hormones.

So, it’s a lucky time for women your age. Women your age, right now, if you go to the doctor once a year and say, “I would like the lab work done to see where my hormones are,” and if your doctor goes, “You’re too young,” go, “I want it anyway.” And what that gives you is your baseline for when you’re perfect. So the next year when you go, again, say, “I wanna do it again.” “Why? You did it last year.” “I know. I wanna compare.” Just keep doing it. And one of those years, you both are gonna go, “Oh, we’re starting to decline.” And right then at that moment, if you’ve got the right kind of doctor, that doctor can say, “You know what we’re gonna do? You’re declining in progesterone here, so let’s give you a little bit of this, and you’re declining a little bit in estrogen, let’s give you a little bit of this.” And it will allow you to never ever, ever experience the suffering of menopause. And when you’re not hormonally balanced, it is suffering.

So, that’s kind of all I have to say today. I have to go do another show. But I hope I was able to shed some light on what I know. And what will happen to your audience through you is you’re already informed and your audience is going to be so beautifully informed that you’re gonna be able to pass this down to the generation coming up from you and so on and so on. And, you know, a hormonally balanced planet is not a bad place to be.

Katie: I agree completely. And I’ll respect your time. Last quick question is if other than your own, which I will link in the show notes, if there’s a book or a number of books that have had a profound impact on your life, and if so what they are and why?

Suzanne: Well, you know, I read mainly health books. And I can’t tell you how many books I’ve read on the thyroid and how many books I’ve read on hormone replacement. One outside of this arena at all is because I’m so disturbed by what I’m watching with antisemitism right now. I read a book a number of years ago called “The Chosen” by Chaim Potok. And it was really enlightening why antisemitism came on the rise. And so, that was just interesting to me. And if anybody is also interested in that subject…I’m not Jewish, I’m Irish. I just never understood it. It’s such an incredible culture. So, that was a profound read for me.

Katie: Thank you. That’s a new one. I’ll put a link to that one as well. And Suzanne, I know how busy you are. Thank you so much for your time and for all the work you do to help so many people.

Suzanne: And you too. Congratulations. And congratulations on having those six children. And I know you’re going to do right by them. So, thank you on behalf of all of us.

Katie: Thank you so much. And thanks as always to all of you guys for listening, and sharing your most valuable resources, your time, and your energy with both of us today. We’re so grateful that you did, and I hope that you will join me again on the next episode.

If you’re enjoying these interviews, would you please take two minutes to leave a rating or review on iTunes for me? Doing this helps more people to find the podcast, which means even more moms and families could benefit from the information. I really appreciate your time, and thanks as always for listening.