Create The Best Me

Transform Your Brain Health: Holistic Tips

August 08, 2024 • Dr. Anna Marie Frank • Episode 76

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Today, we're diving deep into brain health with the incredible Dr. Anna Marie Frank. Dr. Frank is a doctor of traditional naturopathy and the founder of Happy Whole You, a pioneering wellness center that focuses on optimizing brain health using a blend of high-tech equipment, Chinese medicine, and other holistic modalities. In this episode, Dr. Frank shares her personal journey of overcoming mental health struggles and how it fueled her passion for holistic health. We'll discuss the impact of brain fog during menopause, the importance of mindset, and practical natural remedies for enhancing brain function and overall health. Trust me, you don’t want to miss this enlightening conversation!

5 Key Lessons:

1. Understanding Brain Fog During Menopause:

Dr. Frank explains how hormonal shifts during menopause can impact neurotransmitters and executive brain function, leading to brain fog. By addressing these hormonal imbalances, we can alleviate symptoms like emotional instability and difficulty focusing.

2. The Power of Thoughts:

Dis-ease often begins in the brain. Dr. Frank emphasizes that changing our thoughts can lead to significant positive changes in our health. She discusses cognitive exercises and thought reprogramming as tools to combat brain fog and other issues.

3. Holistic Health Approaches:

Dr. Frank shares her expertise on using holistic practices to heal the brain and body. From the benefits of cooling foods in Chinese medicine to her specialized supplements like Calm You and Happy You, there's a wealth of natural remedies available.

4. Foundational Health:

Emphasizing the need to restore foundational health, Dr. Frank talks about the importance of mineral intake, hydration, and tailored dietary and exercise interventions, especially for women facing menopause and post-menopause challenges.

5. Quality Sleep in Managing Brain Fog:

Dr. Frank highlights the importance of quality sleep and shares tips for getting those vital 7 to 8 hours. Learn how to balance cortisol levels, improve your evening routine, and create the perfect sleep environment to combat brain fog.

Call to Action:

Want to learn more about optimizing your brain health and holistic wellness practices? Check out the links under resources.

Next Week’s Episode:

Remember, your brain is the control center for your entire body. Let's make sure it's operating at its best. Next week, we'll explore Balancing Work and Life Strategies for Success.

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https://happywholeyou.com/

https://www.instagram.com/dr.anna.marie/

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In terms of thoughts, what cognitive exercises or practice do you suggest women do to alleviate the brain fog? Well, first pay attention to your narrative as it is right now. And if it is constantly looking for what's wrong in the world, that is already going to fog your memory and fog your thinking. Because you are living in a stressful state. This was a huge lesson in my essentially reprogramming of my brain. I had to learn to let go of so many things. I had to learn to realize that what other people think about me, what other people say about me has nothing to do with me and everything to do with what they've been through. Because at the end of the day, nobody can change your character. Your character will always shine through. So if you're a person that has integrity, that does what they say they're going to do, this is a great way of being. And so really pay attention to what you're allowing to hit you inside and make you feel disrupted. Hello, and welcome back to another empowering episode of Create the Best Me, where we dive deep into the transformative journey of midlife. Today we are privileged to have Dr. Anna Marie Frank, a doctor of traditional neuropathic, and the visionary behind Happy Whole You. A wellness center dedicated to optimizing brain health. In today's episode, we'll explore practical strategies for women navigating the various stages of menopause, focusing on overcoming brain fog and revitalizing health through a profound reshaping of thoughts. So sit back, relax, and prepare to be inspired. Anna Marie, welcome to Create The Best Me. I am honored to have you on. Thank you so much for having me. I'm grateful to be here. And I'm just going to tell you a little something. I'm really excited to have you on. I really am. And this is why; one, because I love what you do, your specialty. And two, because I grew up in Kern County, which is where you have your business. Yes. It's a small world. It is. But you're a native to Kern County. Am I correct? No, I'm actually from Michigan. I didn't move out here until I was in my early twenties. So yeah, so I'm, I'm about half my, half my life now was in Michigan; half my life has been in Kern County. Yeah, great. So for some of the people that do not know you, can you please tell the viewers and listeners a little bit about yourself and Happy Whole You? Yeah, so thank you. I'm the owner of Happy Whole You. We're a holistic wellness center. We help increase people's brain function, decrease body inflammation, and build a strong foundation of health. And the way we do that is we do have some high tech piece of equipment here. Um, but we also combine that with Chinese medicine, energy medicine, and other holistic health modalities. We work with people in person and remotely. And so this has been my passion project and, um, I do have my PhD in natural medicine and I'm a doctor of traditional naturopathy. So I am an old school doctor and how I approach the body and the mind. And we really do focus on mental health, um, how we think about our life, how we speak about our life. And we believe that dis-ease begins in the brain um, in our thoughts. And so we can get into that a little bit more, but yeah, it's, it's Happy Whole You is a very special place and I love what I do. So tell me what inspired you to become a brain health professional? Well, um, I struggled with my mental health since I was in high school. Uh, back then I didn't really know what to call it. So, you know, today people are oh, I have anxiety, oh, I have depression, PTSD, you know, ADHD. Like we throw these labels around, like, like, whatever. Uh, but back then it was something that was a secret. It was, you know, I had checked all the boxes. I was an athlete. I got good grades. My parents were married. Um, I had friends, you know, it was, why would I be depressed? You know, that doesn't make any sense. So when I felt this emptiness and the sadness inside of me, it was like, I would try to hide it. And I got through a lot of it with playing sports. Um, but it progressively got worse. Uh, when I got into college, I thought, Oh, I'm going to college now. So now I can reinvent myself. Now I'll be happy. And then, you know, in the university, uh, struggled, more so with my mental health. And then, you know, add in the drinking and the stress of academics. Um, and then once I went to graduate from university, I, uh, grew up in Michigan and I am like, okay, I'm gonna move to California now that's gonna make me happy. That's gonna solve all my problems. I'm gonna have a career. I'm gonna have income. I'm gonna, you know, again, check all the boxes. And I found myself in my career um making a salary, having all these good benefits, you know, all these things, like, why aren't you happy? And, um, I went to a doctor and spent a very limited amount of time with this psychiatrist and he put me on three mind altering medications. And like a good girl, I went and I filled them up. I started taking them and I progressively got worse, more depressed, um, didn't want to be here anymore. And I, pretty much hit rock bottom. I was very grateful. I'm grateful now to this day, there was some little light inside of me that said, and reminded me, you are the only person that can make you happy. And I'm very, I'm simplifying this. And I thought, you know, if you could probably, reprogram a computer, you could probably reprogram your brain. So, I set forth on a journey to find ways to reprogram who I was and what was going on in the inside. And once I started to do that, everything around me started to change. And so that's essentially how I got into holistic health because I had to discover for myself, how am I going to heal my brain? How am I going to heal my body? Because pharmaceutical drugs are not the answer for me. And so I, that's exactly what I did. And I started to discover all of these ways to help the body heal itself. And I'm like, why is this? It felt like it was like some secret. I'm like, why is this not mainstream? This is crazy to me. And, you know, after 20 years of looking into all of this and researching and studying and, follow the money and then you'll know why. But, uh, so I took it upon myself to create a safe space for all people to come to. And I work in a capacity with people that is very unique to my own journey and unique to their journey. Um, and I know I hold this capacity to help people heal and I can't always put it into words, but I know I've been blessed with certain gifts and I'm grateful to share those with the world today. That's such a beautiful story. You know that you were able to fix yourself, but now you are sharing this gift with anybody who's willing to take those steps to heal their brain. Yeah, absolutely. And that's the thing is they have to be ready, you know? So I've learned in what I do, I witnessed miracles all the time. And it's not my job to convince anyone of anything. Um, but I know I'm here for a reason to provide the space and the information for people, cause a lot of it is information. So, one of the reasons I'm a lifetime learner is because once we have knowledge, nobody can ever take that from us. And so. Giving people some information and allowing them to make their own choices and their decisions, just from getting the information is really powerful. And I'm a firm believer we should never make decisions on our health based on fear. And so, because I made a lot of decisions of medicines to take and what to do in my child birthing experiences out of fear. And so I just encourage people, like we should always be asking questions. And when people are telling us not to ask questions, uh, to not question things, uh, that's when we need to look a little closer at that because we should always be asking questions and digging deeper just to find understanding. Um, and I think that that's important. Yeah, so the reason I asked you to come on the show is because; one, you are a brain health professional. And something that women in midlife or women who are in different stages of menopause suffer of what's called brain fog and how it affects women through different stages of menopause. Yeah. So brain fog and menopause is really just that shift in those hormones, which is going to impact neurotransmitters in the brain and how your brain is functioning. Uh, really big thing that can happen is when we start getting anxious or feeling a little depressed when our hormones are off, this creates, where, you're not using your prefrontal cortex, the executive function of your brain. So you're going from a more emotional state, a more limbic state in the brain. And when we go from that area of the brain and we're functioning in that capacity, things feel more stressful. Things feel just more intense and we're not able to focus and have the clarity for the things that actually matter. Um, you know, other things get in the way and then it's like, why did I react in that way right? These hormones that are shifting, do impact the brain. And so it's so important as we go through menopause and our hormones are shifting I believe that we get back to the basics. So, the basics to eliminate brain fog are: Are you outside putting your bare feet in the grass and earthing every day? Minimum 10 minutes. Are you getting at least 10 minutes of sunshine on your bare skin to help with vitamin D production, which we should just call vitamin D a hormone. Um, are you eating fruits and vegetables and enough protein? Ladies, we are not eating enough proteins. Proteins are made up of amino acids these are the building blocks of our lives, of our physical body. Ah, the number one abundant thing in the body is water. The second most abundant thing are amino acids, these building blocks. So we can't expect our bodies to function in a way when we don't have the raw materials, and then also minerals. We're also lacking minerals. That's where the fruits and the vegetables come in, um, that we're getting enough minerals in our body. So our body can actually be well hydrated and be able to function. One of the first things that our brain is only two percent of our body, yet it utilizes up to 20 to 25 percent of all the raw materials and oxygen that we take in. So, when we become dehydrated, even 1 percent it drastically impacts your brain function, and we forget that. So when it comes to hydration, we need to think fruits and vegetables. Yes, water intakes important, but I'll get women that come in all the time and there, they have their big old cups that they're drinking. They're like, I'm drinking water. I'm drinking water. I'm thirsty all the time. And you know, if they don't have a blood sugar issue with diabetes or anything, it's like, huh, this is interesting. You're thirsty all the time. So that's when we look at, we'll figure out their minerals, where are they deficient in macro micronutrients. And once we start increasing the minerals in the body, fluid starts to go into the cells. They start to be truly hydrated. Their skin looks better, their body functions better, their brain functions better. And that's the other thing with, our hormone shifting is our skin. That's really important to women, right? Our skin, um, that has a drastic impact. So when we get back to those basics of water intake, sun, feet in the grass, nutrients into the body, moving our body, not over exercising. By the way, ladies exercise should be an enjoyment, it is not a punishment. Um, working on our strength, strength training, is really good. Those are the things I think that we need to get back to when it comes to our, bodies and our hormones shifting. What role do you believe sleep quality plays in managing brain fog for women that are going through menopause? Because I know you covered some of the basics, but I think that's another one that's real important. Yes. So sleep is everything. We should be getting seven to eight hours of sleep every night. And here's the thing. If your hormones are out of whack, you tend to not sleep well. If we're anxious, we're having a hard time falling asleep at night. If we're having those hot flashes and things like that, we're waking up in the middle of the night and we're not sleeping through the night. So one of the main questions, I have a list of about 15 questions I ask every client and one of them is, do you have a hard time falling asleep? Do you have a hard time staying asleep both or neither? Do you wake up rested? And when we answer yes, to one of the two falling asleep or staying asleep, then we know that there's an imbalance there. And that's going to impact your energy levels. That's going to impact your day to day and then those cortisol levels. So cortisol is not a bad hormone. It gets a really bad rap, okay. So, our cortisol levels are going to be highest in the morning, this is the hormone that wakes us up. Thank you cortisol for waking us up for our beautiful day we're going to have, right. And then what happens is throughout the day, that cortisol is supposed to naturally start going down and then melatonin starts to rise in the evening. And this is a really simplified version of that. And if that's not happening, because say we were waking up at between one and three in the morning, which is usually a sign that your liver is actually detoxing or between, you know, three and five, that could be your processing more grief in your life. There's certain times we'll wake up that can indicate certain emotional blockages. This impacts, and this can cause our cortisol levels to go up. And then if the first thing you do in the morning, ladies, as you go and run ten miles, and I'm speaking from experience, maybe five miles, four miles, whatever, but you go and hit the pavement, your cortisol levels go up again. And then you're eating a high carbohydrate breakfast. Your cortisol levels go up again, and then you're scrambling to get the kids to school or the grandkids to school. Or get to work and like do all these things, cortisol levels just keep going up, up, up, up, up. And then we wonder why we can't fall asleep and we're exhausted. It's because that cortisol was so high that our melatonin couldn't get up high enough to get there to help us fall asleep and stay asleep. And so it becomes this vicious cycle. And I used to go through this, uh, for many years of my life. So if you're not getting seven to eight hours of sleep because you're waking up in the morning to go exercise, then you need to shift your movement routine. Um, really look at what you're eating for breakfast in the morning. Make sure that you don't have a lot of lights flashing in your bedroom. I think nobody should have a TV in their bedroom, that is my personal opinion. The TV should be out, a white noise, making sure that you have a cool room to sleep in, a dark room. And then for women going through menopause, this is a great little fun I don't know if you'll think it's fun, a trick you could do. Get a big bowl of ice-cold water and hold your breath, put your face in the water for 20 seconds. Do that three or four times before you go to bed. You have a lot of, temperature receptors on your face. This could actually start to lower the core body temperature, which will help you fall asleep and stay asleep. Not to mention it closes all your pores. So it's good for the skin. Um, but that's one way or taking a cold shower, right before you go to bed to lower that core body temperature as well. So, those are just a couple of little hacks that you can do. Make sure your bedding isn't really hot, have good sheets, have a good bed, have a good pillow. These all have a, play a role in the quality of sleep that we have; our sleep environment is very important. And I know that another thing that I always emphasize to people who tell me that they suffer with falling asleep. I can't, I have insomnia. I always tell them you're supposed to disconnect yourself from any type of electronic devices. I always say about three hours. Is that about right? Yeah, two to three hours is, is ideal. I say no eating three hours before bed. No drinking two hours before bed and starting to shut down all the electronics and all of that. And then 30 minutes before you're going to go to bed, read a book, meditate, pray, something to kind of wind things down. But yeah, three hours before bed is great. A lot of people like nope, not doing that. You talked about, putting your face in ice in a bowl of ice water or taking a cold shower. Does that also help with, possible night sweats? Yeah, it can. I mean, this is going to help just lower your core body temperature, which is going to be ideal. Uh, in Chinese medicine, when we carry excess heat, like if you stick out your tongue and you see a lot of red, bright red dots on your tongue, and Chinese medicine you have a lot of excess heat in the body, which is yang versus yin. And so eating cooling foods as well throughout the day, can be helpful for calming that excess heat in the body, as well, which can help to, you know, reduce those, those night sweats and things like that. We use a lot of, I use a plant stem cell that has been game changer for women in menopause. Uh, just women with hormone issues in general. And it is the most amazing product and it's like $49 for 60 servings of it. And they're just drops you put under your tongue. It blows my mind every time that this works for women and we do 90-day cycle with people, it's a phytembryotherapy. And then the other thing that we use a lot is a formula that I created called Calm You. Calm You doesn't make you tired. What it does is, well, for some women, we microdose it throughout the day. So maybe they take two pills in the morning, two pills at lunch, two pills at night. If they have like a high level of anxiousness, and we only do that for about two weeks, then we'll cut it back to just two pills in the morning and maybe two pills at night. Uh, and we start slowly cutting it back. So it starts to calm the nervous system, calm that amygdala in the brain. Um, so you're not always on. And what we find is once we calm that nervous system, women hormones and their symptoms of menopause are not as heightened as they were. You know, this is just subjective feedback from women that I've worked with and helped. But that combo of, of those two products, I mean, it's so simple, work really, really well, for hormones for women. And so this Calm, supplement that you were talking about, it's not like taking melatonin? No, it's not at all. Calm You is a blend of herbs, minerals, and vitamins that I created. And it literally is like microdosing specifically and how those raw materials impact the brain and the nervous system. That's why I formulated them together. And the reason I formulated them together is because literally I was meeting with people and I was sending them to the health food store to pick up five, six bottles of product. And I'm like, why hasn't anyone put these together in one product? Like, and so I was like searching to try to find it and I couldn't find it. And as a mom and a business owner, I'm like, we need a simplify life. And so then I set forth on a dream, like, okay, can I put these materials together? Will they have a good reaction together? Will they still work in the capacity that I know them to work in isolation of each other? And the answer was heck yes. And so that's why we formulated, the Calm You, that we sell because it, it is literally a game changer for women. It's, I mean, and men, men and women could take it. We even have teens that take it, that have a lot of anxiousness, it's helped so much. What about, um, I know that I have been taking this product for, I don't know, since, since Over 20 years, and I'm going to mess up the way you pronounce it. It's called phosphatidylerine, PS. Oh, okay. Yeah, that impacts the neurotransmitters in the brain. I think I know what you're talking about. Yes. Yeah. And it helps with focus as well. Yeah. I, when I started taking it, when I started going to law school, uh, there was a gentleman that had gone to law school, 20 or 30 years before me, and he says, all law school students need to take this because it'll help you retain the information. So I've kind of always have taken it because it almost just, I don't know, it just tells, I've always had a pretty good memory, but I almost feel like it helps me, it like boosts me into the next level. Yeah, well, and I know earlier you said that you were having some allergies. So here here's a little thing that most people don't know when you're taking like Benadryl and things for allergies for a long period of time, it blocks the neurotransmitter. Anacetylcholine, NAC, it blocks that neurotransmitter. And so that can impact memory and learning. Interesting, right. I mean, I live in Bakersfield, so it's, it's like, there's people that have allergies all the time. I don't struggle with that. There might be one time of the year where like for a week I like start sneezing. But not like regularly do I have issues with allergies. Um, but I mean, there, I have a client out there right now who we started working with her to naturally, support her and her allergy issues because, she had been taking for years taking Benadryl and Claritin and I mean, all of these things. So that's the other thing is, you know, when we're dealing with hormones and we're dealing with menopause, you know, as a naturopath, I look at people's overall foundations of health. I'll look at your tongue. I look at your eyes, I look at your ears, your face, your fingernails, and I see what is the body telling us, because it's taken years for the body to create those markers on the the body to express what's going on from a foundational standpoint. So, when I look at the foundations, I'm always looking at how do we restore the foundations. Every time we restore people's foundations there's symptoms of all these, you know diagnoses that they get from their doctors start to dissipate. And I find it very interesting. So I think we always need to go back to our foundations. And so yes, it's inevitable we go through menopause, like this is a natural cycle of life, but it doesn't have to be miserable all the time, day in and day out, right? You may have a bad day here and there. This is normal, but not bad all the time. And this is even on the other spectrum of young girls that I see that have horrendous periods and they're cramping. Like these, this is not normal. It's not normal to have super heavy periods for 10 days and to be cramping and to be so moody. So there's things we can do naturally to restore those foundations because I believe when there's cracks in our foundations, we have more symptoms and we have more issues. So that's what I like to do is get back to those, those foundations, which really help a lot of people. So do you think that, when women start approaching menopause or in menopause or post menopause, do you feel that there's so many cracks and that's why brain fog starts to become a big issue? Yeah, I mean, I think that's, that's a big element of it is that we do, when we, you know, it's like, when's the last time, any of us restored our mineral supplies after giving birth or after breastfeeding. It's not something we talk about. We think about it. I mean, I think of my mom who had five kids within 10 years. And I'm just, you know, looking at that, I'm like, oh my gosh, like, when did you ever restore your foundations of health? Well, never. I mean, you know, there's so many mothers out there who are burning the candle at both ends, because they're just in survival mode and, you know, never are they restoring their foundations of health. And so, yeah, so by the time we get into our fifties, late forties, fifties, sixties, things start showing up, you know, you have to restore, you don't, you gotta maintain this vessel. And we're just not taught to do that in this country, very well. And so, you know, if it's a lot of, there's a mindset too, that if, medical insurance, which should be called sick insurance, doesn't pay for it, then, oh, well then I'm not gonna, I can't do that because my insurance doesn't cover it. It's like, no, you can, you can choose, you could choose to work on your health. So, I mean, it's, it's multifaceted about why symptoms are more so for some people than others. But I do believe that it always comes back to those foundations of health and we have to restore that for sure or your symptoms will be worse. And I was just talking to my husband the other day about that, cause he works in the healthcare industry. And I just said, you know, I just think it's a shame that a lot of times, you know, we suffer of so many things that the insurance industry does not consider medically necessary. And so if it's important to you, you may have to sacrifice certain things in your household so that you can get the help that you need to become your own self again. Yeah, yeah, I agree. I mean, I mean, I love Western Medicine in terms of emergency surgeries. If there's an emergency, I mean, Western Medicine has come a long way in terms of saving lives, like hands down, they save lives. What they don't do a very good job at in my opinion, is maintaining vitality and healthy lives. And so, you know, if we follow the money, there's a reason why that holistic health has been dismantled in this country and dismantled in our universities, because it's not making much money. You know, it's not driven. I mean, the reason that our country has gotten to where it's gotten with the pharmaceutical industry started from the petrochemical industry and it goes back to the Rockefellers and the Carnegie's. And I mean, there's, there's a whole history lesson here I won't bore everyone with it. Um, but ultimately, this guy with last name of Flexner went around to all these colleges, which we call universities now, but they were called colleges back then. And essentially mainstreamed quote unquote medicine and donated money so they would be able to use synthetic, ingredients from the petrochemical industry to start studying and making pharmaceuticals. That's a very simplified version of the history there, but there's a reason for it. I've had, I have so many stories. I had a girl that came in, she was 20 sophomore in college, had been getting migraines since the fourth grade, fourth grade migraines. Has gone to UCLA, seen all the specialists that her parents could afford and find. They could never find out what was going on. This girl was deficient in a few basic minerals and vitamins. We also put her on a, she was on a, like a high dose of vitamin B6 and she went on the Calm You as well. And no problem. Not having migraines. So like, I mean, just like things like that, like blow my mind. And sometimes I have to like pinch myself, but then, I mean, I do get people that come in with other complicated things and I'll reach out to doctors I know in the community and say, hey, I'm going to send you this client, you know, this is what's going on. We're doing this holistic stuff. And then how can you support them as well? Right. So I don't believe it's all or nothing, but I do believe that pharmaceuticals don't need to be used I would say a very large percentage of the time. Especially when it comes to mental health, especially when it comes to mental health. Majority of people, I don't believe that they need to go on, pharmaceutical drugs and that shouldn't be the first line of defense when we're restoring our health. Yeah. And I was having a conversation with my mom the other day and I just told her, I said, you know, I don't believe that pharmaceutical is the thing you need to rely on. I said, the body is designed to heal itself naturally. And I said, so if you have an ailment, you know, you need to go outside, walk, breathe the air, get the sun, taking some sun. And, you know, like if you're taking an antidepressant or maybe you're having problems sleeping, I said, you know, go out and do those things. If you do those things, You're allowing the body to receive clean oxygen, receive the vitamin D, receive the endorphins that you're getting from, you know, increasing that heart rate. And then the body starts responding like it's meant to respond, heal. Yes, yes. You're so right. Because, I mean, the thing is, we were not born to be sick. And we have 7, 8, 9, 10-year-olds that are ill. They have diseases going on that are one hundred percent preventable. Because we are not outside because we are not moving our bodies because we are allowing all these food, not I use the word food loosely, but these chemicals to be, you know given in our schools, these packaged foods, it's like, I mean, this is a rabbit hole we could go down. But you know, we have totally normalized eating gross items. I don't want to call them food. We have completely normalized eating junk. And we are sitting here wondering why, and that's one element of it, but why we're so unwell. And then you layer on all the things you just said that we're not doing. And so, you know, it's just reminding people, no one's perfect. There's no perfect way of living or being, but let's be mindful of how our bodies were created and designed to be interactive with mother nature. Not to control mother nature and not to disassemble the vitamin C mother nature gave us or other things and create them into, you know, these synthetic drugs and these synthetic things that go into the body and our body doesn't recognize what to do with it. If a woman came to you complaining that my period is irregular. I think I'm going through menopause. And she's right about the right age to be within the perimenopause. And she says, I cannot remember where I leave my keys. You know, there's an imbalance there. What recommendation would you give her as far as food and exercise to try to find some balance? Yeah, so right away I would make sure that she's getting about a hundred grams of protein a day. Making sure that she's getting at least two to three fruits a day and vegetables. I would look at also her digestive system, her liver as well. And then I would find out what exercises is she already doing, if she's doing any. Is she presenting as someone who is anxious and she is doing HITT exercises? Cause if that's a combo, that's not a good combo for her brain. So there's also looking at what type of brain is the person in front of me what type of brain do they have? And then, okay, what exercises would be good? So for this person, if they're anxious, and they're having all the brain fog and they're just, you know, feeling like they're about to go through menopause and their energy's crashing. First thing I would say is, okay, we're not doing HIIT training anymore. Uh, let's do more Pilates, yoga, going for walks, trying swimming. So I'd start there as well and then obviously ramp up their nutrition, make sure they're getting enough minerals. So maybe a celtic salt or a redmond salt, some type of salt that has some balanced minerals in it. Or, we use that a lot here. I also use a liquid it's called Whole You. And it has a microdose of minerals, vitamins. Its food based. Your body's going to absorb it. Amino acids, fatty acids, you know, so really restoring. It's just goes back to restoring those foundations of health. And, and just recognizing like, I'll look at, okay, what's their toxicity level? What type of brain are they presenting to me? Or some people call this like personality or whatever, but I look at like brain type, that they have. And then what lifestyle are they currently living? And then I use what's called the added method. So how can I weave in different things that they can do every day? Maybe it's two to three things and keep adding into their life versus taking away. Because that's another element is when we. Cause I'll, I'll have women that come in and they're eating nothing. They're like, I keep gaining weight and I'm eating nothing. I'm going through menopause. I just feel like crap. I can't stop gaining weight. Well, it's the first thing is okay, you need to eat more and we need to be very specific about getting in fruits and vegetables, and protein, and healthy fats. You can't not eat, the body is going to back that's going to backfire on you, as well. So, you know, there's all these layers that we look at, cause I don't believe it's ever just one thing. And that's what I think you know as a society, it's like, what's the one pill? What's the one workout? What's the one perfect diet? Well, there's no perfect diet for everyone. There's no perfect workout for everyone. There's no perfect pill for everyone. So, this is where we have to listen to our bodies. But again, a lot of us are not at we don't know how to listen. So we're like, okay, every time after I eat, I'm, you know, my stomach gets bloated and I don't know why, right? Like we act like it's just happening to us. That's when we need to pay attention to maybe there's a food sensitivity going on. Maybe you're eating and you're looking at your phone and you're not fully focused on your food. So your food's not digesting. The brain and the gut aren't even connecting that food's going in until fifteen minutes later. And then all of a sudden your stomach is full and your body's like, oh, whoa, I have a lot to do right now because all this foods in me. Like we need to not be so distracted when we're eating as well. So it's just, there's so many little things that we can look at and tweak and add good things in, that's going to yield people great results. And I think that's really interesting that you brought up that, that not everyone needs, you know, just cause you have, let's say a 51 year old woman here and a 51 year old woman there, their bodies will not react the same to cardio. Oh no, they will not. That's a big misconception. They will not and the other thing is too, is paying attention to your cycle. So, women that are going through menopause, not going through menopause, have been through menopause, we all still have a cycle. And so listening to that ebb and flow of our cycle is very important. So for example, right before we start our period, this is when we start to go into, we should, by the way, go into a more receding, just kind of letting our bodies rest. We're about to have our period. We have our period. We shouldn't be going a hundred miles per hour during our menstrual cycle. Like when we are on our period, we should not be doing that. And yet we live in a society that says, oh, keep going. Show up like a man every day. Show up like a man every day. No we're not men. We've got to chill out. We've got to make our calendars so we don't have those big, intense, you know, events and decision making and client overhaul while we were on our period. But on the flip side, there's a beautiful space that after our period, we start to get very social. We start to get more energy. We start to be able to juggle a million things and multitask a million things because we are really good at that versus man, actually. It's true because of the brain, our brains versus theirs. But this is a beautiful time. So there's about two weeks where we are in, you know, creative mode where we are in collaboration mode, and that's when we should be scheduling our big meetings or going on vacation or doing things that, take that energy. But you know, it's like, well, I don't want to be inconvenienced by my cycle. Like for some women that this concept, and this was me, by the way, I was like, what, I got to change my schedule based on my cycle, that sounds crazy. Well, the moment I started doing that is the moment I started having more energy with the things I wanted to be intentional about. And then the other things that are just kind of like, eh, not that big a deal, those ones I schedule at a different time of the month. And so that has been very helpful as well. So what about women that don't have a cycle? Like I haven't had one in three, well, I don't know, maybe four or five years. So I guarantee you still have a cycle. So this is where you get to journal and track your body. Just writing, I mean, you could do something as simple as every day, like one through 10, asking yourself like three or four questions and where you fall and do that. It's like a science experiment. Do that for, you know, four to six months and then see, okay, oh my gosh, it looks like between like the 13th and the 18th of every month. I'm just like, kind of in a funk. What's that about? Well, that's probably because that's when your body's like, relax, Carmen, you get to just sleep in and you get to relax and just like take the day in. Or maybe this is the week that you do more stretching and you do more walking versus, you know, going for a jog or doing heavy weights. So this goes back to that, that feedback that our body is always giving us, but we're not listening. We don't listen to our body. We push through, and I'm guilty of this as well. The biggest thing I'm proud of myself this week, I am going to be on my period this week. And I volunteer for my daughter's volleyball team. They're on a travel team. So those of you out there that have kids, you know, what travel's about, like it's about them. You no longer have a life. And I, there was a lot, there's been a lot going on and so on Wednesday I arranged to not be at the practice and gave instructions on what to do because I need to step back because I don't want to burn out. And so make like, that's a choice. It is a choice. And I get to choose that and I get to choose it for whatever reason I want. And I'm going to be better for it. And I'm going to be better for the girls for that. But that's not a socially acceptable reason to change up a practice or to have someone come and go to my practice that I'm not going to be there. Like, that's like, wait a minute. What? Like that sounds very foreign for a lot of people. It's like, suck it up and just go. I will not, because that is at the expense of so many other things as well. The quality of time with my children and my husband. And you know it's just, it's a short period of time that you can make those adjustments during your month and it could be just for a day and it will make a huge difference for the rest of your month when you make that adjustment, even on just one day. It's good to know. Can you share a success story of someone who managed to reshape their thoughts and saw an improvement in their mental fog, the mental fog is, has cleared from working with you. Oh, yes. So I had this lady and anytime women come to me and they tell me they want weight loss, that's like the only thing they want. I tell them I'm not the person for you. Because I don't, I'm not just going to focus on weight loss. So this woman comes in and she's like, I just, I need to lose like 40 pounds. And I'm like, well, if it's just the weight you want to lose, like I'm not the person for you. And she was kind of like, but. You know, I'm like, I hear that that's important to you that you want to lose the weight, but are you open to trying something different? Because you've been trying to lose weight for how like years and nothing's working. And she had no energy. She was depressed. She just wasn't sleeping well. And so we, I go in like 30-day cycles with people. So we did a 30 day. She's local. So the cool thing was, is for 10 days, within 30 days, she came into the center and we did different therapies with her here. So she did some detoxing. So she did some sauna, she did some red light, she did cryotherapy, and theta therapy to help with the brain and some meditative stuff. And so she did that. Then we also had her on some of the products, which was the phytembryotherapy I talked about for hormones. We also had her doing the Calm You and the Whole You. And, so she goes through the first month and I would see her and I'm like, how you feeling? She's like, I'm not losing any weight. I'm not losing weight. I'm like, you cannot focus on that. Like I already told you, like, if you want to work with us, like I already told you, you can not focus on the scale. Like that is not happening. Anyways so she finished her first 30 days and she still was like, she had improvements. Cause I'll go through and I ask people the same exact questions in the same exact way every time we meet, because they don't realize the small changes they're making over time in the small improvements. So that subjective feedback is so important. So, it's like, okay, she comes back in, her anxiousness is down. She's sleeping better. She has more energy. You know, there's, there's these great things. She was still not having it. She only lost a couple pounds. I'm like, but wait a minute, you're actually sleeping better, but wait a minute. You're not as anxious. So anyway, so she stuck it out and then started doing some maintenance stuff. And literally I'm sharing this story because she came in the other day. And she's like, I got to tell you, she's like, you know, at first I was kind of like, what are we doing here? And I did all the things and I was getting frustrated. She goes, but you know what? She goes, I just went on a cruise with my girlfriends and we were up all hours of the night. And you know, you're on a cruise, you're doing all these things. She goes, I had more energy than all of them. She's like, I had the best time. She goes, I feel so good in my brain now like, I'm so happy. I may not look the way I thought I was supposed to look with my weight. She's like, but I am so happy. Like she was just exuding joy because she has her energy back because she's not feeling depressed. She's not anxious every day. She's comfortable in her body and she's lost a little bit of weight and she's, she's okay with it. Like, she's okay. Cause we get this idea oh, I need to lose 30 pounds, oh, I need to lose 40 pounds, 20 pounds, whatever it is. But it's like, is that really your goal? Or is that society's goal? Right, because women's bodies are all, they all look very different. And there is no perfect shape for a woman's body or a man's body. There's an ideal level of health and vitality that should be exuded from all of our beings. But it doesn't look a specific way for every person. And so now when I see her, I mean, I look at her and I'm like, I feel like she's lost like 20 pounds. Like the weight is just like her everything right. And, I don't know the exact number, but I know it's not 20 pounds, but she definitely looks like she's lost 20 pounds. And so like that, that, right there, those are the stories that we have here. You know, in terms of that mindset and, just feeling like so good, like we all deserve to feel so good every single day. In terms of thoughts, what cognitive exercises or practice do you suggest women do to alleviate the brain fog? Well, first pay attention to your narrative as it is right now. And if it is constantly looking for what's wrong in the world, that is already going to fog your memory and fog your thinking. Because you are living in a stressful state. So we also have to pay attention to all these little things going on in the background. So these are programs in the background that none of us chose to really have. There are things that were programmed in us when we were little, like, I'm not good enough. That's not available to me. People don't like me, or if you get to know me, then you won't like me. I mean, there's all these, this narrative going on in the background and this kind of plays into our current ways of thinking and current way of being. And so, when we start to pay attention to our thoughts, without judgment, okay, so for example, somebody says something to you and it's bothering you so bad. And in your mind, I can't believe that she said that. And you start to go on this real rant in your mind. And worse, if you share it with somebody else, like, you know. Check yourself and I'd be like, that's so interesting. Why does this bother me so much? Why am I holding onto this so much? Because you're choosing to allow that to disrupt what is going on in your body. We get to choose what we allow to bother us and what we allow to just let go. This was a huge lesson in my essentially reprogramming of my brain. I had to learn to let go of so many things. I had to learn to realize that what other people think about me, what other people say about me has nothing to do with me and everything to do with what they've been through. Because at the end of the day, nobody can change your character. Your character will always shine through. So if you're a person that has integrity, that does what they say they're going to do, this is a great way of being. And so really pay attention to what you're allowing to hit you inside and make you feel disrupted. And when it does happen, ask yourself, wow, why am I feeling this way? You know, for me, it's like, oh, that's because I didn't get the attention that I wanted from my dad, or that's because, you know, my mom would always do this. Or, and then you just realize it'd be like, oh, that's interesting I allowed that to affect me as an adult. And that same thing isn't happening anymore. And if it is, whatever, I could choose to let it go. But we, we literally don't pay attention to the thoughts that we have on a regular basis that loop, and we don't pay attention to why we allow things to bother us so much inside. So, Dr. Anna, I know that you're in Bakersfield, you have a storefront. People walk in, they receive help. You have a lot of high-tech equipment that people can use. What about the people that can't get to you? How do people work with you? Yeah. So we, I work with people remotely via zoom, and we do different, I do executive coaching with them. We I'll do biofeedback remotely with them. We'll do a nutraceutical therapy as well. We mail out you know, a bunch of different packages and things. I'll also look at where are you at. What do you have in your own backyard, that can support you that can help you? You know, so we try to get you the resources that are going to be, you know, helping you give you the best results for where you're at in your life. So yeah, so we work with a lot of people and, it doesn't matter if you're local or if you're far, far away, we find a way, to make sure that you're getting what you need. Great. And I always ask my guests this, what future projects are you currently working on and when can we expect to see those projects? Oh my gosh. I'm always working on so many things. So one project that I am working through right now is writing my second book, so I'm excited, uh, for that. And I'm hoping within the next nine months that my second book will be out, ready to get into your hands and support you. And then a dream, I'm going to share my dream because I speak my dreams out loud. And I've done a few things to take action towards this, is creating a retreat, space on the water for people to come and either spend a few days, a week, a month, to get services therapy, that will help them heal and change the trajectory of their life. So that is my big dream, uh, that I'm working on as well. That's amazing. Where can people learn more about you or even hear your messages? Oh, thank you. Yes. So obviously the website Happy Whole You. com. You can see all of our nutraceuticals that we've created. There's also blogs on there, a link to the podcast. We have a podcast as well. And, then on Instagram, it's doctor D R dot Anna dot Marie, or you can, our brick and mortar is at Happy Whole You on Instagram and then we're on, I'm on LinkedIn as well. Um, so you know, just to social media platforms, Great. And based on what we discussed here in this interview, what would you want people to hold close to their heart? Really pay attention to your thoughts, how you speak about your life, how you think about your life, is everything and that is literally one of the most important things. And once you can get a handle on your thoughts and choose differently, you're, I promise you, your life will change. I always say, when you change what's going on within you, things around you start to change. But that, I think if we can just every day, really just pay attention to that, you can have some big shifts in your life. Beautiful. Dr. Frank, thank you so much for coming on. I will include all of your links on our show notes and I recommend that people listen to your show. There's so gold nuggets. Or go to your blog. Go to your website because your blog posts are absolutely amazing. Thank you so much. All right. Thank you for being on Thank you, Dr. Anna Marie, for sharing such valuable insights with us today, particularly on how women can combat brain fog during menopause by reshaping their thoughts and enhancing their overall health. Whether you're grounding yourselves outdoor, optimizing your sleep or nourishing your body with the right nutrients. Dr. Anna Marie has underscored the foundational steps to revitalizing our brain health. For those who are not in the Bakersfield, California area, but are eager to work with Dr. Anna Marie, remember, she offers virtual consultations, making her expertise accessible no matter where you are. For more details on today's topic, the full transcript, or how to connect with Dr. Anna Marie, please visit our website at createthebestme.com/ep076. Don't forget to subscribe to the show to ensure you never miss an episode. Next week, we will explore balancing work and life strategies for success. So make sure to come back for more insightful discussions until then. Keep dreaming big, take care of yourself, and remember you are beautiful, strong, and capable of creating the best version of yourself. Thank you for watching. Catch you next week. Bye for now.