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Child: Welcome to my Mommy’s podcast.
This podcast is brought to you by Ritual, and in particular, their women’s prenatal, which I wish I had found when I was pregnant, which I recommend all the time to my pregnant friends. Did you know that there are now updated recommendations for omega-3 DHA intake during pregnancy and that this is super critical because less than 5% of U.S. pregnant women consume the recommended amount. And there are a lot of data linking the proper amounts of this essential nutrient in pregnancy to really good outcomes for the baby, including brain health and so much more. And approximately 95% of Americans, including pregnant and lactating women, are not getting enough choline in their diet either. And Ritual sets out to solve this problem. Their prenatal is different from my perspective. It’s science backed formula, it’s third-party tested to be free of heavy metals, microbes, traceable ingredients, and it is meticulously researched to have the right levels of nutrients to specifically support a pregnant woman and her developing baby. They include, for instance, methylated folate and nature-identical choline to support the baby’s neural tube development, the right amount of omega-3 for brain and early vision development, and vitamin D support for fetal bone health.
What I also love about this is it’s designed with morning sickness in mind. So each capsule is a delayed release design to make it gentle on an empty stomach. And they have a mint or citrus essence, so you don’t get a weird taste in your mouth, which I know for me that supplements in general were so tough in early pregnancy. Like I said, they’re also rigorously tested, which I think is important because often there can be ingredients in our supplements that we don’t know are there and that we might want to avoid. So when it comes to prenatal multivitamins, you want a formula that’s backed by research and transparency. You want to make sure that you’re not wasting money and not getting what you think. And I love that mom-founded Ritual puts in the work, does the research, does the testing, and shows you the proof. Right now, you can get 25% off your first month for a limited time by visiting ritual.com/wellnessmama.
This episode is brought to you by LMNT. And you’ve probably heard me talk about my love of getting enough salt before and how this made a drastic difference in my energy levels. And LMNT is the easiest way that I have found to do this as well as the tastiest. We know that proper hydration leads to better sleep, sharper focus, better energy, and so much more. But hydration isn’t just about drinking water. In fact, only drinking water alone all the time can actually be counterproductive. Because being optimally hydrated, which is a state called urohydration, is about optimizing your body’s fluid ratios. And this depends on many factors, including the intake and excretion of things like salt and electrolytes. Now, electrolytes are charged minerals that conduct electricity to power your nervous system. They also regulate hydration status by balancing fluids inside and outside of our cells. LMNT was created with a science-backed electrolyte ratio of 1,000 milligrams of sodium, 200 milligrams of potassium, and 60 milligrams of magnesium with no sugar. So even though these taste incredible, they don’t have added sugar, and I love my kids consuming them as well.
Electrolytes are a key component of healthy hydration. And here’s what happens when your electrolyte levels are dialed in. You find you have steady, maintained energy, better cognitive function. I noticed this really helps me get rid of brain fog. I suffer fewer headaches now, experience fewer muscle cramps, even during severe workouts. I perform better and longer. And for people who follow any kind of fasting or low carb diet protocol, when you stop eating carbs or when you’re fasting, the absence of insulin allows the kidneys to release sodium, sodium, replacing that lost sodium with an electrolyte solution can help you continue to feel good. And since LMNT is zero sugar, it won’t break a fast. You might also find that getting your sodium levels in the right range can help improve or maintain healthy blood pressure, regulate digestion, this is a big one for a lot of people, and keep skin hydrated. We know that hydrated skin is happy skin and these minerals are a big key in that as well. You can check out and try LMNT at drinklmnt.com/wellnessmama. And by using that link, you’ll receive a free LMNT sample pack with any order. So you can try all of their amazing flavors. My favorites right now are watermelon and grapefruit, but I also love their chocolate flavors with hot water as a form of a hot cocoa. So again, drinklmnt.com/wellnessmama to receive a free sample pack.
Katie: Hello and welcome to the Wellness Mama podcast. I’m Katie Wells from wellnessmama.com. And I’m here today with an in real life friend, Cristina McKay, to talk about how hormonal imbalances can wreak havoc on your hair and what to do to fix it. And she has quite the incredible story related to this with experiencing sort of extreme hair loss and then reversing it and mitigating postpartum hair loss twice and now having phenomenal hair, but also realizing the hormonal connection here and how this really is about supporting the body in various ways. And she dives deep on this in today’s episode.
Cristina is the visionary behind Everbella, which is a renowned beauty supplement brand that has gained a lot of recognition for its innovative beauty supplements and exceptional results. Her dedication to wellness and relentless pursuit of excellence have helped her create a brand that is a favorite from many people around the world. And she also shares a little bit about how she and her husband live on a homestead and at a 24-acre farm in Maryland and grow much of their own food and how this was also part of her sort of return to health and so much more. She really gives a lot of actionable advice in this episode, talking about everything from the hormone equation to what hair is made of and what basic building blocks we have to have to even create healthy hair, as well as the way the five ways hormones affect our hair, the cycles of hair growth and how it’s possible to actually get stuck in the hair loss cycle and what to do if you are stuck in that. She talks about all the ways to support healthy hair and how this is also truly about supporting the body at a foundational level and supporting hormones and so much more. I definitely learned a lot in this episode. She gave some really actionable advice and some things I will be trying. Let’s join Cristina McKay. Cristina welcome. Thank you so much for being here.
Cristina: Thank you for having me. I’m so thrilled to talk with you today.
Katie: I’m very excited for us to jump into hair and hormone health and a lot of other things that are going to go underneath that umbrella. But first, I would also love to just hear a quick life update. I have a feeling there’s some relevance here actually to some of the things we’re going to be talking about. But you and I met years ago at a real-life event, and it seems like you’ve had quite the amazing journey since then. And I am a little jealous of your lifestyle now. You live on a homestead with your kids. I would love to just hear a little bit about your life update.
Cristina: Yeah, totally. Yeah. So basically pre-kids, you know, I was actually in my late twenties and I’m almost to my mid-thirties at this point. And my husband and I were living in the city and, you know, really enjoying that lifestyle. And all of a sudden, I started having a lot of unexplained health things go on. And the biggest one was that I was losing my hair in gobs and, you know, it wasn’t postpartum at that time. It wasn’t perimenopause at that time. I was, you know, in my late twenties and no doctor or Chinese medicine healer or dermatologist could really tell you what was going on. And so I felt like I was taking crazy pills. And I thought that, you know, having these changes with my hair and my body and my skin was just, you know, a part of getting older.
So long story short, I kind of just started doing a lot of my own research. I started to going to a lot more events with experts in the hormonal space, experts in, you know, the female anatomy space. And I ended up doing a blood panel on my own where I could really see my own lab results and realize that I had a lot of things wrong. I had some nutritional deficiencies. My estrogen levels were incredibly low and I really just took time to heal myself. And through that journey, my husband and I moved out of the city. We bought a 24-acre farm, started to live a lot more simply, started to eat organic, started to really prioritize self-care and nutrition. Nutrition is so imperative for the female body and for keeping your estrogen in check.
And then I further realized that supplementation, not just eating the right things, but supplementing and high dosing with certain nutrients was vital to really getting myself back. So that’s kind of how my life really shifted, and now I’m a mother of two children. I’ve had postpartum hair loss twice now, but I’ve recovered. You know, I have learned what it takes to really get my hormones back to where they need to be. And so, you know, having this thinning, you know, embarrassing bald spot. I mean, I had a bald spot on the top of my head the size of a baseball. I’m not kidding. Right in the front of my head. So it was very traumatizing, and kind of recovering from it in my 20s. And then now in my 30s, having two kids. I’m very confident that I know what it takes for a woman to feel like herself again. And, you know, what that looks like and how you get there.
Katie: Oh, I love that. And so much to delve into. I would guess some people listening, and I know I have had a similar experience of sort of being dismissed by your doctor or not being able to really get answers and then having to sort of become your own detective for your own health and all that goes into that. But I love that it seems like you came across sort of and discovered this like root-cause approach to a lot of areas of health. And then our hair being, of course, one place that that can show up. And it seems like as women, especially our hair can go through a lot with postpartum, with hormone changes, with products, with all the things. And I know right now I see a lot of things circulating on social media of all these supposed miracle treatments that you put on your hair, but I’ve always kind of had this idea, you know, with our skin, it’s an inside story. It’s not just what we put on our skin. That’s important too. But what we put in our body that really creates our skin health. And I know you know a lot more about this than I do, but I would assume there’s a similar aspect here with our hair, that it’s an inside story. So can you kind of walk us through, maybe, starting with the basics, what is hair made out of? And how do we, like from an inside perspective, support the body in growing healthy hair?
Cristina: Yeah, absolutely. And I completely agree with you. I was one of those people, right? I was trying every gizmo and gadget to grow my hair. I will say there are definitely things you can do topically, but if you’re experiencing a really intense amount of hair loss, really healing your body from the inside out is more effective, I guess, is the word I’m looking for.
So what is hair, right? So we all have hair, different colored hair, different textures of hair. So hair is really just keratin, and it’s just a fiber structural protein that forms the component of your hair. Keratin is also found in your nails, and it’s also found on the outer layer of your skin. So how do hormonal imbalances impact your hair, right? So again, a lot of us immediately think things like postpartum, perimenopause, menopause, but actually when I first lost my hair in my 20s, it was due to prolonged stress. So when you’re in a stressed state of mind, you know, it could be from work. It could be you’re going through a move. You could be having a bad breakup, right? There’s a lot of reasons women can have prolonged stress that’s giving you a lot of anxiety, and it releases cortisol.
And now cortisol will actually attack your body, and it will make your estrogen levels decrease. And when your estrogen levels decrease, for a variety of reasons that I already mentioned, it will impact your hair. So these hormonal changes impact your hair, and there’s really five different ways. So the first way is you’ll have thinning hair. So again, this occurs because your estrogen production has decreased, and your hair follicles will actually shrink, and then your hair strands will get very fine. So that’s the first sign that you might have some hormonal imbalance. It’ll impact your hair with thinning.
The second thing is just hair loss. So things like female pattern hair loss, alopecia, these are influenced by hormonal changes that affect your hair growth cycle, which I’ll touch on in a little bit here. And then your hair will just shed a lot. The number third or three way is changes in texture. So when you have hormonal fluctuation, your hair can become dry and brittle. You’ll feel it, you know, just kind of break off in a hairbrush a lot more easily. All of those things are due to an estrogen drop. The fourth thing is scalp sensitivity. I remember when I was going through it, I feel like my hair and my head just kind of felt itchy and dry. So that’s something that will happen. Your scalp will be very sensitive and dry and itchy, very tender. And then the last thing is just delayed hair growth. So you might notice that you got your hair cut and you’re like, man, it’s been like six months. I feel like my hair hasn’t grown. So those are the five different ways you will visually and physically see changes in your hair because of some sort of hormonal imbalances kind of like attacking your hair’s ability to grow.
Katie: That’s fascinating, especially because I feel like at least a few of those things are things that often get written off as just genetic. Like if you have fine hair, I know people have been told like, oh, that’s just genetic. Or if your hair is dry or brittle, like that’s your hair type and you’re kind of stuck with it. But as you were saying that, I realized I don’t think I’ve ever met a young child who had any of those things. Like all of my kids when they’re young have had like very silky, thick, strong hair. And so as you were explaining that, I was like, oh, wow, I bet there’s a lot more to this story than we’ve perhaps been told, even by potentially like hairstylists or people who seemingly know a lot in that industry.
And so interesting that you tied it to estrogen as well. I know like hormone replacement has become a big topic, but seemingly a common thread there is even for women who choose to go the hormone replacement route, there’s like a higher nutrient demand when you’re going through hormonal changes or life changes. And it seems like these are also impacting our hair. And perhaps most people don’t even realize there’s a connection there. So I would love to kind of go through some of these things that you just explained and maybe talk about ways we can support the body in giving it what it needs to help resolve that particular thing. So as an example, someone with really fine or breakable hair, like what’s happening internally and what can they do to support that?
Cristina: Yeah, absolutely. One thing I want to touch on first is kind of how does hair grow. Because I think understanding how your hair can get stuck is very important, right? So when it’s stuck, it’s falling out and you don’t see any growth. And of course the panic sets in, right? So your hair goes through what’s called four different growth cycles. There’s the antigen phase, which is the growing phase. So this is where your hair is constantly pushing out new hair follicles from your scalp. Then there’s the catagen phase. So this is a transitionary phase where your hair follicles will shrink and the strand of hair stops growing, but it’s just, it’s just at it’s, it’s standing still, right? Then you have the telogen phase, which is a resting phase. And in this phase, your hair isn’t growing, but it’s not falling out. It’s a continuation of that catagen phase. And then there’s the exogen phase. And this is where your hair will fall out 50 to a hundred hairs a day. So these are totally normal hair growth phases.
Now, what can happen when your estrogen drops is your hair can get stuck in this exogen phase, and it’s just constantly shedding. And so then it’s stuck and you got to get it out. So you’re like, oh man, how do I get it out? What do I do? And I’ll talk about that as well. But I think some women think. Are all these growth phases normal? And yes, it is. So, you know, if you go like this and pull on your hair right now, how much hair comes out? If a couple of hairs come out, totally normal, right?
And the interesting thing is every single hair on your head isn’t doing this at the exact same time. Each hair is on its own cycle. That makes any sense. So you’re not going through an exogen phase in theory where all the thousands of hair follicles are falling out. It’s normal that hair falls out, right? But it’s when it gets stuck and then you have hundreds of hairs continuously falling out that it becomes a problem.
So again, going back to the estrogen thing. So when estrogen levels decline, it impacts obviously your physical appearance because your hair is falling out. But when it gets stuck in this phase, here are some warning signs to think about before the hairs fall out. So if you’re concerned about your hair and the quality of your hair, look at some of these warning signs to help you know, oh, geez, maybe I should check on my estrogen and start supplementing with something to help.
So if your nails are frail or cracking and brittle, if your hair feels dull or dry, if your skin’s getting kind of scaly and dry, and if your scalp’s itchy. So if any of those four things are happening to you, you definitely have something going on hormonally. And it’s the tip of the iceberg and hair loss is soon to follow. These were things that I kind of was experiencing for months, frankly, a couple years that I just blew off. And then finally, I hit that rock bottom where all my hair started falling out.
So circling back to what you were asking is, you know, the different hair types and kind of where do you fall? You know, if you have thin hair, and yes, we’re talking about some people genetically have thin hair. And it’s hard for me to say because I do have thinner hair than I would say some of my other friends, for example. But I think it’s all relative, right? You know, going back to when you were a child, what was your hair like when you were a child? Was it a full head of hair and it was, you had very coarse hair or very thin hair? But at the end of the day, you weren’t having bald spots as a child unless you genuinely had some sort of condition, of course. But I always had a very thick head of hair. You know, I’m Italian. My mom’s German. We all have a great head of hair. So it was very alarming to me when my hair started coming out in gobs. But, you know, when it comes to how you can mitigate the hair loss, there are definitely things you can do. And I’ll talk about those as well if you want me to jump into that.
Katie: Yeah, let’s delve into that because I feel like that was new understanding for me, even about the different hair cycles and how your hair can get stuck in this sort of like falling out phase, which I would guess nobody wants to have happen to them. So what can we do about it? How do we signal the body to stop letting all of our hair fall out?
Cristina: Yes. So ultimately what you’re trying to do is you’re trying to get your body to begin producing estrogen again. So when your estrogen levels get back to a healthy level, your body will kind of start signaling all these things to go back to their active state. So this is, of course, for your hair, getting it out of that exogen phase and back to the antigen phase where it can grow again. But when your hormones are all in flux, your body’s putting all its energy into trying to prioritize, you know, keeping you alive and keeping you as the being you’re supposed to be. So all these other things just kind of go to the wayside as it’s trying to repair your estrogen balance. But if you’re not giving your body what it needs to do that, it physically can’t do it, you know.
Menopause going to kind of to that topic, my mom’s 65. And you know, she was coming to me a few years ago that she was self-conscious about her hair. And she’s like, well, you know, I’m 65. It’s expected, you know, this is what happens. And I like to think that, yes, it is a part of what happens, but there’s definitely ways to make the process smoother and not be as aggressive, if that makes any sense. So I don’t have a picture of my mom handy, but she looks fantastic for her age. And I’m not saying I’m the reason that she looks the way she does, but I’ve definitely helped her get a better understanding of like, hey, you know, yes, you’re going to go through menopause. It’s inevitable, but there are things you can do that can help keep your youthful appearance and help you still feel like you’re, you know, a vibrant version of yourself that I know that a lot of women as they age are afraid they’re going to lose that, you know.
So I basically gave her this advice and I’ve given all kinds of women this advice. It doesn’t matter your age, right? So the number one way that you can, one way, and in my opinion, the number one way is nutrition and supplementation. So obviously eating a balanced diet that’s rich in vitamins like biotin and vitamin D. Both of those things really help with hormonal balance and help with estrogen production. Also supplementing with minerals such as iron and zinc. These are very helpful as well. And then also eating a diet that’s rich in protein. All of these things really support your hair health and ultimately support estrogen production.
Another thing you can do to kind of help slow down and reverse hair loss when it comes to estrogen decrease is also scalp care. So I know we’re talking about the inside, working from the inside with supplementation and nutrition. There’s also things you can do externally, which I know actually one of my favorite hair serums is a recipe from you that I’ve used for quite a few years now. But anyway, generally speaking, using gentle hair care products. So I’ll be honest, I think many of us kind of just go to the local drugstore or, you know, a big box store like Walmart, Target, we just kind of grab what’s on the shelf. But I really encourage you to do your research and find a hair care product that is natural, paraben-free, organic because the truth is these harsh chemicals really do affect your hair. And so if you really want soft, shiny hair, a lot of these products have silicone in them that creates an artificial barrier on your hair. So it feels soft, but it’s not really your hair. It’s just a coating on your hair that then falls off and it’s just your hair underneath is damaged, right? So definitely use, you know, gentle hair care products.
I also do a lot of scalp massage and there really isn’t, you know, some special way to do it. And you might maybe think you feel silly, but multiple times a day, just taking your fingers and really rubbing them in your head. I always joke with my husband that I feel like a cat because I could have my head scratched all day and never get sick of it. But it creates blood flow. And to really encourage your hair follicles to be awake and to be growing, you definitely need to increase blood flow there as well.
And then going back to the hair serum idea, it’s not something you need to do every day. I feel like there’s a lot of companies out there with hair serums right now. For me personally, I felt like using hair serum every day actually made my hair feel greasy. That’s just me personally, but they are effective. So a couple of days a week before bed, you know, put it into your scalp, massage it in, you know, using things like coconut oil, rosemary oil, avocado oil, olive oil, and blending that together. And I’m sure there’s a lot of recipes out there, but it’s really helpful to your hair.
And then, of course, is stress management. So adopting a lifestyle that helps you reduce your stress. And I know we’re all busy and that’s really challenging at times, but if that means waking up a half hour earlier before your kids get up, or if you’ve got a very, very busy, you know, work-life balance, you know, maybe it’s at the end of the day, you find that extra 30 minutes, but really take time to just have quietness, be with your thoughts, decompress for the day. Stress is something that is just so crippling at times, and you really need to just let your mind rest because stress, of course, like I said, helps push out that cortisol, which is very bad and detrimental to your estrogen production. And then, of course, I can talk about also specific nutrients in more detail, which are the nutrients that I personally found helped me the most in my journey.
Katie: That was such a good explanation of sort of all the factors that come into it. I would love to now go deep on what are the key specific nutrients, because I would guess based on average diet in the US, especially a lot of us are probably like critically deficient in a lot of these things without even realizing it.
Cristina: 100% and that was me. I always love going into this because, you know, I think many of us think we are eating a healthy diet, but one of the most startling statistics I ever read that always sticks out in my mind is it’s pretty tragic because of farming practices and how they’ve been over several decades and the use of glyphosate, which is horrible, it’s a horrible pesticide. It strips nutrients from the soil. It devastates the ecosystem. And that’s what’s used primarily on fruits, vegetables, you name it, that are not organic. So because of this process there’s a, if you ate an orange from like the 1940s, the amount of vitamin C, for example, let’s say it was like a thousand milligrams. Today, you’d have to eat almost a dozen oranges to get the same amount of vitamin C. That’s crazy, right?
And so I always find my grandmother will make these comments to me of like, well, I used to eat this or I used to do that. And I always have to tell them, like, it’s not the same. There’s so many scientific studies now showing that the nutritional value of our food has been severely depleted because our soil is so bad from years and years of just terrible farming practices. So I know that sounds all doom and gloom and I don’t mean to be, but that’s why I’m trying to explain to you that supplementing with certain nutrients is so important because the foods we’re eating just aren’t nutrient dense like they once were.
So to continue talking about how you can boost your estrogen, get your hair growing, these are the nutrients that I found were most effective for me. And I’ll talk about those now. So biotin, I’m sure many women have heard of biotin. So believe it or not, one in three women who are experiencing hair loss are deficient in biotin. So without biotin, your body really can’t produce keratin. And as we know from earlier, keratin is the main structure of your hair. Another nutrient is vitamin D3. So again, whether it’s perimenopause, menopause, postpartum, extreme stress, all of those things cause your estrogen to drop. And D3 is actually scientifically proven to balance estrogen levels. And because of that, you’ll obviously have quick growth with your hair. And there’s hundreds of studies about this, whether it’s from Yale, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, that when you increase your levels of D3, it will result in faster hair growth.
Another nutrient is pumpkin seed oil. So now I might be start talking about things you don’t really talk about, think about, pumpkin seed oil, right? I’ve eaten pumpkin seeds, but I’ve never cooked with pumpkin seed oil, let alone drank it or something, right? So there was actually a recent study that brought pumpkin seed oil to kind of like the forefront of hair health and several participants were given a daily dose of pumpkin seed oil or a placebo. And the results were that those taking the pumpkin seed oil experienced a 40% more hair growth. Their hair growth increased by 40%, which I think is astounding. So it’s not only is it good for that, but it’s also shown to reduce symptoms of hormonal imbalance like postpartum and menopause and helps with stress management. So pumpkin seed oil is like a miracle little oil, little known, I would say that I don’t think many of us really use or eat.
Another one is black cumin seed oil. So black cumin seed has been used to restore healthy hair for hundreds of years. In fact, in a study that was published in the National Library of Medicine, researchers found a 76% reduction in hair loss when black cumin seed oil was added to a woman’s daily diet. Like that’s fascinating, right? And again, I have never really been using cumin seed oil in my life prior to learn this information. Selenium, so your hair needs selenium in order to grow. It helps support your thyroid, and it’s kind of like your body’s hormone balancer. So when your hormones shift and you supplement with selenium, it allows your body to maintain balance. It’s also a well-known antifungal. So I think a lot of us, when we have scalp sensitivity, we think about applying like, you know, shampoos or Selsun Blue, right? Something to help with scalp sensitivity. But when you actually ingest selenium, it has the same antifungal effects and in fact more potent because you’re doing it from the inside out.
And then the last one is my favorite. We all have heard of cinnamon, right? You put it on cinnamon rolls. You might put it on banana bread. It’s a delicious, tasty little spice, but it has actually a long record of supporting hair health. They actually show that it’s, some studies have shown it’s as effective as common hair growth drugs, which is crazy to me. And they also have shown that it can help reduce dander in a matter of days. Again, this is all ingesting cinnamon. I don’t know if you’ve ever watched years ago, it was trending, it was called the cinnamon challenge where you kind of put like a big tablespoon of cinnamon and try to eat it and you can’t do it. It’s like impossible. You’re like choked. So the truth is, is to get these effects, you need a lot of cinnamon. So, you know, you’re probably like, well, how the heck do I do that, right?
So that was really what set me on this journey to kind of create something that has all these ingredients in an easy-to-take format. So that’s kind of where Everbella, you know, my supplement, my beauty supplement brand was born was I worked with a manufacturer, and I said, look, I’ve done a lot of research. I think all these ingredients are really going to help me. I just don’t know how to get them in a high dose that I’m not spending a fortune on buying these ingredients individually. And, you know, trying to eat spoonfuls of cinnamon is not going to work for me. Like, how do we make this possible? So, again, of course, you can absolutely go buy these things. You can absolutely take them on your own. But my mission was to kind of solve this problem by putting all these things into one supplement that makes it really easy for women.
Katie: Oh, I was taking so many notes as you were talking because you highlighted so many little known but really important factors, I feel like, that go into this. And I will just say as an echo of what you said, I love that you put all of these in one thing because as someone who’s been through health challenges and recovered, you get the supplement fatigue of taking all the different things every single day and just being done with taking pills all the time. So I love that you figured out a cohesive solution to that that actually tastes good, which is a huge feat in and of itself.
But I feel like you highlighted such important things, even on the nutrient density of our food declining so drastically. I’ve had Chris Kresser on this podcast several times over the last decade, and he was always a huge proponent of getting as much from food as possible. And the last time I interviewed him, he even said, we’ve kind of reached a point where that’s no longer feasible or possible in a lot of cases, like supplementation in some form becomes almost necessary, especially if you’re working through any kind of health challenge or really trying to support the body.
You also highlighted, I feel like you just gave the perfect synthesis of so many experts in so many different areas and made it so relevant to hormones and hair because Dr. Izabella Wentz talks about selenium being so important for the thyroid and one that a lot of us are unknowingly just not getting enough of. But to your point, I feel like all these things you touched on, I’ve heard guests over the years highlight their importance, and then you combined them all into one thing.
I’d also love to, anytime I get a chance, I always love to talk about sunlight. I would guess you get a lot of natural light being outside on a homestead, but we know statistically, a lot of us are spending so much time indoors, getting a lot less actual natural light, which of course impacts our vitamin D production as well. But anytime we get to talk about the benefits of natural light in the right amount, I love to step onto that soapbox. So can you just talk a little bit more about the vitamin D equation and if it’s important to also get some of that from light? I would guess probably so, considering stress is such an important factor, and we know that light helps support hormone health. But how does that come into play from a hair health perspective?
Cristina: Yeah, absolutely. So I put vitamin D3 in here because like I said, my previous lifestyle, I was not on a homestead. I did not have any of these things. I had a typical office job. I was indoors a lot. I mean, I, you know, I thought I had a very like outdoorsy lifestyle, but I really didn’t like, yeah, I might go hiking on the weekend or go kayaking or do something, but primarily, you know, 24 hours in a day, I was mostly inside.
So yes, from what I know about vitamin D3, yes, you absolutely can get it from the sun and early morning sun is the best. It’s not the, UV rays aren’t as strong and harmful to your skin. So if you’re, and do not wear sunscreen. Don’t come for me for saying that, but if you really want to get quality vitamin D, early morning sun, no sunscreen, and that’s a really potent way to get it naturally. But like I said, most people are not getting that. So supplementing with it is incredibly helpful. And it does help balance your, your estrogen hormones and helps promote, you know, a healthy production within your body.
So, today, I mean, I do absolutely still supplement with the ingredients I mentioned in a product that I have but I don’t take that product everyday indefinitely. So I’m still 10 months postpartum from my little boy. And so I’m still taking that religiously. But when I feel like my hair is at a good place, I really don’t supplement with the product that I created because I feel like my hair’s at a good spot, if that makes any sense. But if you’re definitely going through a phase where your hair isn’t feeling its healthiest and you’re having some issues, this product, I swear by it. I mean, I went from a bald spot to a huge spot in less than 10 months. I think it was like six months. I completely restored my hair.
But today, yeah, every day in the morning, I’m outside. I spend time with my chickens. I spend time with my kids outside. I water my vegetable garden, kind of coming full circle on the nutrient deficit of the food that we get in stores. So that’s what really drove me to get a 24-acre farm. I have a 3,000-square-foot vegetable garden, and I grow as much as I can. We have a 3-acre orchard with berry bushes and different fruits and things we grow in there. And it is hard. I mean, it is hard to really sustain yourself and not kind of be a part of the system. But the truth is, the soil I have has never been farmed before. So no, have I ever like actually tested what I’m eating if it has more nutrient density compared to like a tomato in the grocery store? No, I haven’t.
But I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that it probably does because I’m not using harsh chemicals in my farming practices. I’m doing all organic and my soil’s never been farmed before. So, you know, I always like to encourage people to try to put in a garden. I’ll be honest, when I did live in the city, I had a little backyard and I did vertical gardening. And I really kind of found my love for gardening then. But it’s really not as hard as you might think. Like you can get literally go to Home Depot and get like a 10-gallon bucket, put a hole in it, put a tomato plant in there. You could grow dozens of tomatoes with one plant. It’s, I think a lot of people put this idea that being self-sufficient or growing your own food is really difficult. At scale it is, but you can start small and kind of get your feet wet and start to learn what it takes to really grow your own food. And it’s surprisingly attainable if you have a plan and you kind of scale it up as you can make time for it, if that makes any sense.
Katie: Yeah, I feel like you guys are like the goal level of that. And I love that you’re doing that. But I’ve heard so many people also talk about how we’re essentially suffering from like nature deficit disorder in the modern world. Like we were meant to live in alignment with nature. And most of our modern lifestyle isn’t really set up to help us do that. So it seems like you’ve kind of crafted this life where you actually are getting exposure to nature and all the benefits that we know that come from being in the dirt, touching the ground, getting the sunlight, breathing fresh air, and you’re getting food out of it, which is even more amazing.
But to your point, like we also live in the modern world and many of us don’t get to live on a homestead, although like I’m just going to come live with you one day cause that sounds amazing. But so we have like come to a point, I feel like the best answer for most of us is like, how do we figure out how to bring more elements of nature into our lifestyle when we can? How do we try to maximize the nutrient density in the food that we are eating? And then what do we do, how do we supplement and support when we’ve done that and we still aren’t able through modern lifestyle and diet to get all of the things that we need. And I feel like that’s the marriage where the beauty can happen, is like making use of the modern life and the access to these things that, you know, 300 years ago, we might not have been able to even get or source, but now are becoming sort of like vital in a modern lifestyle and letting the merging of that happen in a way that really supports the modern human life.
So yeah, I just think your absolute goals, and I would love for you to talk a little bit more about the product because I know we barely touched on that, but I absolutely love it. I love the taste of it. And I now know a lot more about it since you’ve just explained that, how beneficial it is. But I just think you’ve created something amazing. So I want to make sure we touch on it.
Cristina: Oh yeah, absolutely. Well I’m super embarrassed because I literally do not have a box next to me of the product, but I will hold up a different product that I have. That’s the same method of taking it, if that makes sense. So the product that I’ve been telling you about that has those key nutrients, right? The biotin, the selenium, the pumpkin seed oil, cumin seed oil, cinnamon. I feel like I’m missing, vitamin D3. So it’s called Complete Biotin Plus. And the reason I call it Complete Biotin Plus is because it’s more than just biotin. I kind of went the biotin route because I think most women, when they think about healthy hair, the biotin comes to mind first. There’s a hefty dose of biotin in that product but I blended all these other nutrients to really make what I’m calling like a supercharged hair growth product. This is a different product I have called Complete Collagen Plus. So my biotin product is actually a green box and when you open the box, the product comes in a little single serving pouch.
So my supplements are not pills and people love that. I think we’re also used to just taking pills and it’s not fun. They don’t taste good. You’re like choking them down every day. So I also really wanted a mechanism that was different. This isn’t just different in the fact that, oh, it’s liquid and yes, it is. It’s a liquid. So you tear off the top and squeeze it in your mouth. My products are also sugar-free, so they taste fantastic, and there’s absolutely no sugar. There’s no preservatives. They’re squeaky clean, non-GMO, like organic ingredients as often as I can.
And the best part about it is it’s not just any liquid. It’s called liposomal technology. So I don’t like to get too science-y, but this was mind-blowing when I learned it, is that when you take a supplement in a pill format or a powder format, you’re only getting 30% of the nutrients absorbed into your bloodstream. If you’re lucky, like 30% is the max. Some might only have like a 10% absorption rate. So you could be taking a biotin pill that’s, you know, let’s say 100 milligrams or 1,000 milligrams. And if you’re only absorbing 30%, you’re only getting 30 to 300 milligrams, right? That’s not a lot. So you might be taking something for months and months being like, man, I’m not seeing anything. What’s going on here? Well, it’s because it’s not penetrating into your bloodstream. When it gets to your gut, the acid in your gut will break it down. And that’s why that only little bit gets absorbed.
So with liposomal technology, which is what I use in my products, there’s a couple of things that happen. Number one is they’re wrapped in a vitamin E barrier. So vitamin E is like a super nutrient that your body recognizes and welcomes an absorption. So when you wrap nutrients in vitamin E, your body kind of gives it like a secret passage door, if that makes any sense, where it like welcomes it to be absorbed into your body. And not only that, but they’re also mycelized. So these nutrients are shrunk down. So picture like a piece of pepper next, tiny little grain of pepper next to like a piece of rice. Very different sizes. So think about most products are going to be like the rice size. My size is this tiny pepper size. So not only is your body recognizing it, but it’s super tiny. So your body is able to absorb it and kind of push the nutrients where they’re needed in your body.
So with the liposomal technology, you’re actually absorbing upwards of 90 to a 100 percent. So if you’re getting, if you’re taking a product, what you’re seeing on the box is really for the most part, what you will be absorbing and using in your body. So that’s why, like, you know, with my mission here for EverBella and helping women is they always write into me and say, oh my gosh, Cristina I cannot believe it’s been 15 days. It’s been 30 days and I can already feel different. I can already see, you know, these changes in my body, in my hair, et cetera. You see results faster because you are absorbing more of these nutrients versus in another format. And so I’m not here to bash pills and powders. You can definitely take them. I’m just saying if you’re feeling like you’re not getting results as quickly, it’s because you’re not absorbing as much as you could be. So it’s kind of prolonging your ability to really maximize those nutrients, if that makes sense.
Katie: It does. And I feel like you’re the only one I found that combines that, like the small size plus the easy to absorb and that still tastes really good. I don’t know why, but a lot of liposomal formula I’ve tried over the years for other things have a very, very strange taste. And I don’t know if it’s just like the magic combination of all the ingredients and the fact that like cinnamon is delicious as well, but I actually love the taste of yours and I don’t resist taking it. Like I’ve had other products over the years that I was like, I know I need to take this and I don’t want to. So I don’t know. I think you’ve created something incredible and the travel packs are awesome. Or they’re like the little size of them. Cause I can travel with them.
Cristina: Yeah. The little size is super convenient. Yeah. So when I first launched, we had bottles, like eight ounce bottles and they’re just, people like to travel, right? And like, you couldn’t, unless you checked your bag, you couldn’t take it with you and then, you know, a lot of us are busy. And if you’re on the go, like you can just throw these in your purse, you can leave them in your car. And so, the Complete Biotin Plus tastes like a cinnamon roll. So when you taste, when you take it every day, it’s a liquid, but the flavor, in your mouth is like a ooey, like you just took a bite of like a fresh ooey gooey cinnamon roll.
And what I love about these being liquid also is yes, you can certainly just eat it out of the pouch, but I also frequently have like these little fun things with a lot of the women that follow me to come up with fun recipes. You’d be mind-blown at the recipes these people come up with. Like something as simple as, hey, put Complete Biotin Plus in your coffee and you have like a cinnamon latte, right? Drizzle it on yogurt, I have people that have made muffins, pancakes, like all kinds of stuff with these products. So it’s not just like a supplement that you just take it and be done with it, which you can, but you can also add flavor and excitement to things you’re eating on a daily basis. I have women who say they like were sneaking it into like food for their husband cause they were like, my husband’s losing his hair. But, you know, it’s, it’s definitely a fun and different way to take a product that’s giving your body so much, so much benefit, and like I said, you’ll see results a lot faster with this type of formula.
Katie: Well, and I will, of course, put a link in the show notes so people can find it. I believe there’s also like a special thing going on for Wellness Mama listeners. So all of that will be in the show notes for you guys listening on the go at WellnessMama.com, along with a lot of notes I’ve taken while we were having this conversation because you explained things so well. And today we only really got to delve into hair and hormones. So I’m going to pester you to eventually come back because I know you have so much expertise in so many areas. And this has been such a fun conversation. Any last thoughts you want to leave with the listeners or anywhere they can continue to learn from you online?
Cristina: Yeah, absolutely. Yes. This has been so fun. I could talk to you for hours. So I know we are still working on some details, but Everbella, E-V-E-R-B-E-L-L-A.com is my website where you can look at my products. And then because I absolutely adore Katie, I want to extend a 40% off coupon for you lovely listeners. So you can just do wellnessmama40, and you can get 40% off if you go to my website, which makes it very easy. So please learn more there and you can just learn more about me, my journey, and lots of testimonies are there. And I really hope this was helpful. I mean, like I said, I was at my rock bottom once losing my hair and felt absolutely hopeless. And I really hope that from today you can learn that it is not kind of the end all be all. There’s a lot you can do to help get your hair growing again, get your estrogen balanced, and really have a more vibrant you and love your reflection again. Because like I said, losing your hair is such a just awful thing to go through. And you just don’t feel, you feel like a lesser version of yourself. And I want more women to feel empowered and not have to go through what I did. So I hope this was helpful.
Katie: I love it. And I’m so glad on a personal level that we got to catch up and chat and have this conversation and record and share it. I’m so grateful for your time. Like I said, I hope you will come on the podcast again soon. But for today, thank you so much for all that you’ve shared.
Cristina: Yes. Thank you so much. I hope to see you soon. Bye everybody.
Katie: And thanks as always to you for listening and sharing your most valuable resources, your time, your energy, and your attention with us today. We’re both so grateful that you did. And I hope that you will join me again on the next episode of the Wellness Mama podcast.
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.
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