Oct 30, 2023
Uterine fibroids may affect as many as 8 in 10 women by the time they reach menopause. This episode uncovers what uterine fibroids are, and what causes them, as well as discussing both symptoms and treatments.
podcast, umillennial, Gen X, podcasts for women, women over 40, women over 50, uterine fibroids
(transcript generated through AI; may contain spelling errors)
Regan Jones 0:00
Hey there podcast listeners. Before we jump into today's episode, I
want to mention something that I usually mention at the end of
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skin doesn't know whether to break out a wrinkle if you're caught
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CrossFit makes your 40 Something knees a you've come to the right
place. Welcome to This Unmillennial Life.
I'm your host Regan Jones and welcome to episode 129 of this unmillennial life. Now first of all, I want to give an apology for any of you over the last few episodes, who have experienced a technical glitch that is happening on not my end. But the end of the advertising company that I work with for this unmillennial life. Let me say up front, I know that ads can be annoying, I also appreciate your understanding that it costs money to host and produce a podcast. And as a self employed podcaster. And blogger, advertisements are one of the ways that I make my income. One of the main ways right now however, I never want advertisements to be something that are so annoying or disruptive that they reduce the quality of the show. And I know because I've experienced it myself, that what has happened in some of the recent episodes is that the spot in the episode that I have allocated for a commercial break has actually not been where the advertising company has dropped those in and I have let them know that that is a problem. They have assured me that they are working on it live for the time being I have turned off any automated ads that would roll in the middle of the podcast so as not to disrupt the flow. So if that happened to you, I'm so sorry. Just know that I am aware of the problem. It is something that's happening on there in not mine, but I want to be sensitive to that. And for the time being. I will turn that off until we can get those issues resolved. Okay, that all said let's jump into today's episode. You already know based on the title of this episode that today we're talking about uterine fibroids, and joining me to discuss uterine fibroids is Kristin Marlin Kristen's a board certified nurse midwife, she has over 20 years of experience in women's health. And she really is an expert in menopause and feminine longevity. She's going to tell you a little bit more about her company that she co founded fim jeberti. But mostly what we will be talking about today would be sort of the prevalence of Uterine Fibroids Symptoms that you want to be aware of traditional treatment, and then how in her practice, they actually treat with some non traditional, more integrated wellness methods. So that I'll just simply welcome Kristen, Kristen, and welcome to the show.
Kristin Mallon 3:55
Thank you so much for having me. I'm so happy to be here.
Regan Jones 3:58
I really appreciate that when I was looking for someone to address
this topic of uterine fibroids, that you were one of the people
that came across my desk, you have a fascinating story with the
company that you launched. And I think that we can really focus
today on helping women understand a little bit more about uterine
fibroids and then also maybe give them a different viewpoint on how
they can be treated. So before we jump into that topic, though, I
do want you to give listeners a little bit of background on your
company for longevity. Yeah, so
Kristin Mallon 4:32
I'm the co founder and CEO of a company called Femgevity Health
with is which is a concierge telemedicine platform for women
working with hormone balancing specifically during menopause and
perimenopause. And then we also focus in on feminine longevity,
Regan Jones 4:50
feminine longevity that's I would assume the way the name The name
came about is that right?
Kristin Mallon 4:56
Yeah. So a lot of longevity. The medicine that's kind of practice
now is really male focused and male dominant. A lot of the studies
that come out about longevity, and a lot of the molecules that are
used in longevity are really focused on how they affect men. And
the clinical trials are done on men. And so what we focus on is
really like, how does how did those studies apply to women? What
can we use? What can we not use, and then also the really important
component in a woman's life about how when a woman goes through
perimenopause, menopause and menopause and how she does that, and
how that sets her up for longevity going forward.
Regan Jones 5:31
And you said, it's a tele telehealth based practice, you have
nurses, medical doctors explained to me just a little bit more
about who is on your staff, if someone you know, down the line is
interested in becoming a part of this, this group or seeking out
your services, let's just know a little bit more about the company
and who they would be interacting with. Yeah, so
Kristin Mallon 5:53
our protocols are all medical based. It's all medical doctors and
nurse practitioners. And so we do some nutritionist nutritional
counseling, we do some medical counseling in terms of mental health
counseling, but the basis of what we do is really getting labs and
diagnostic data and then prescribing accordingly, whether it's
nutraceuticals, or supplements, or medications or hormones
themselves.
Regan Jones 6:18
Okay. All right. Well, thank you for walking that out for
everybody. Now, I want to just kind of go ahead and jump into the
topic on hand today, and that's really uterine fibroids. This is
something that came up as a topic really based on listener
interest. Most people who've been listening to the podcast for a
number of years know that things pop up, either, because there's
something that's going on in my own unmillennial life or in the
lives of those people who are my friends, family, or listeners of
the show, and uterine fibroids actually has been suggested a number
of different times. So let's first set the stage and talk to people
about what uterine fibroids actually are. And if you will give them
some sort of idea of what causes them.
Kristin Mallon 6:58
Yeah, so uterine fibroids really are non cancerous tumors. So
people don't really like that word tumor because they do associated
with cancer, but they are non cancerous growths that are coming
from the uterine cavities, either outside or around the uterine
cavity themselves.
Regan Jones 7:16
Okay. And then, in terms of causes, can you give us a little bit of
an idea of like, what causes uterine fibroids,
Kristin Mallon 7:23
fibroids are really kind of a black hole. And we don't really
understand fibroids as much as we'd like. But there's a lot of
different theories about what causes uterine fibroids. So from our
perspective, and this was a kind of a thought that was really made
popular by a doctor called Dr. John Lee, he actually has a website
called I think it's Dr. John Lee md.com. But the concept of
estrogen dominance, because estrogen is a hormone that feeds the
growth of, of fibroids. And so estrogen dominance is something
that's pretty commonly seen nowadays, it's not a medical term
that's really adopted, there's no ICD 10 code. If you go to like a
regular generic OB GYN, they're gonna be like, that doesn't really
exist, kind of the way that a lot of kind of traditional
conventional doctors don't think that Adrenal Fatigue is really
exists. That's where a lot of the thought is about where fibroids
come from. Although there are risk factors that are associated with
fibroids like having a period early like having your first period
before the age of 10. Having less pregnancies being on hormonal
birth conception, there are certain endocrine factors like being
exposed to D S, which isn't really used anymore isn't so common
anymore, but that was something that was more common in women that
were born in the 50s or 40s. Obesity is also associated with
fibroids diet, especially a diet high in red meats and dairy,
alcohol, smoking, and genetics are all risk factors for developing
fibroids.
Regan Jones 8:55
Okay, so if a woman is sitting and listening to this and is
thinking, gosh, I have some of these risk risk factors. clarify for
me, because this is a statistic that I've seen, and I just want to
understand it a little bit better. from your standpoint. Do all
women who have uterine fibroids do all of them? No. Are they all
symptomatic? And the next part of that question is what are some of
the symptoms that people would be looking for? Yeah, that's a
Kristin Mallon 9:21
really great question. So I think also, we can't really talk about
the incidence and prevalence of uterine fibroids without talking
about the significant disparity in the high incidence among black
females as well. And we can kind of get into that a little bit
later about the theories about why black females have a
significantly higher proportion of having uterine fibroids. There's
some studies that say, I've seen studies that say one in four women
will have fibroids by the time they reach the menopausal years and
I've seen studies as high as 80% of women will have uterine
fibroids by the time they reach the menopausal years. A lot of
times these fibroids especially in the early years of the fibroid
growth and development, they are asymptomatic. And so, you know, I
am a certified nurse midwife. And so I've done a lot of C sections
and been into a lot of uterine cavities and many, many times in
those C sections, probably about 30 or 40% of the time. And these
are women who are younger and their young reproductive years 20s
30s and 40s. And we'll find a fibroid in the C section. Totally.
Nobody had any idea about it and we didn't suspect about and even
this woman was having ultrasounds in her pregnancy because fibroids
can sometimes be difficult to see on ultrasound, especially when an
obstetric cinematographer or so nog refer that's really doing
pregnancy based ultrasounds and doesn't specialize in gynecologic
based ultrasounds is reading the ultrasounds or looking at the
ultrasounds and they're really looking at what's going on with the
pregnancy. They're not always thinking about, Okay, what's going on
with the fibroids? So, it's a little bit like I said fibroids is
kind of a black hole. In general, it's a little bit of an unknown,
but I would say more than half of women might exactly have
fibroids, and then not even know they have them. And then you did
ask about the symptoms of fibroids. So there's three, there's so
many symptoms of fibroids, but there's three main symptoms that
kind of really signify that fibroids are kind of at a later stage
or larger. So number one is is bleeding, heavy bleeding, irregular,
bleeding, painful bleeding. And this can sometimes be hard to
diagnose, because this can also be associated with things like
endometriosis, and so they can sometimes get confused. Does a woman
have fibroids or does a woman have endometriosis? Or does she have
both both are high estrogenic states they both kind of are result
of having high circulating estrogen, or more estrogen in relation
to the balance of the other hormones. There's also sometimes women
can actually feel them, they can actually feel the fiber, they'll
feel groco They'll feel like Oh, this isn't there's a hard ball
here like so the palpation of feeling them is very real. And then
pain can be the the number one symptom. So it's really those three
things. Although there are other symptoms that go along with it
urinary symptoms go along with it, pressure symptoms go along with
it kind of like a bloating or a bulky feeling. There's so many
things that happen with fibroids specifically. But I would say
those are the top three symptoms that women really feel along with
being totally asymptomatic and not feeling anything.
Regan Jones 12:22
Okay, good. Thank you for clarifying all that. Okay, so what I want
to do is I want to briefly talk about and you give listeners just
sort of an idea of kind of the current treatments that you see
within what I would call the traditional medical community, how
it's currently how have fibroids are treated currently. And then I
think the area that you specialize in, let's talk about the
alternatives, the non surgical or natural treatments that it sounds
like that you all are using in your practice. So cover both of
those for my listeners.
Kristin Mallon 12:54
Yeah, so I think a great way to kind of understand the there. So
there's three tiers of treatment that are kind of traditionally
used in conventional medical therapies. And I think to kind of
understand them, it's helpful to understand the different types of
fibroids. And this was something that you did allude to in the
beginning, and I can circle back to that now, but there's different
types of fibroids. So kind of from like the least severe to the
most severe. There's fibroids that are pedants related, so they're
attached by the stock, like a stock to the uterus, or to the
uterine cavity, sometimes, like on ultrasound, they can actually
look like ovaries, they usually can be palpated through the skin,
although not always depending on the size of them. And they're
usually pretty asymptomatic. They don't bother the uterine cavity,
because as a woman is having her menstrual cycle and the lining is
being shed, these are on the outside of the uterus, and a woman
doesn't necessarily notice them or feel them. The next kind of more
serious as we kind of moved down would be something called a sub
serosal fibroid or a sub serosal myoma. And these kind of originate
from the smooth muscle tissue layer of the uterus or the
myometrium. And they're on the cirrhosis surface of the uterus. And
so sometimes they also similarly like don't really have the same
effects of causing heavy bleeding, although sometimes they can
because they're really more like they're coming from the
myometrium. And they're not the same as a submucosal fibroid or
submucosal myometrium, which is when the when the fibroid is
actually like in the mucosal wall of the uterine cavity. And so
this is when you're going to have the fibroid getting in the way of
the period and the uterus is going to feel like it's kind of like
you know, when something's in your nose and you feel like
something's in your nose, well, that's what's going on in your
uterus, like your uterus is trying to expel every single month,
something that's along the inside lining of the wall. And so that's
why there's so many heavy periods and so much pain. I mean, some
women actually explain the pain of these periods as childbirth like
and they're not far off and they're not wrong. Because the uterus
is actually trying to expel something from the uterus when there's
a submucosal fibroid. There's also cervical fibroids to, which are
fibroids that can sometimes be found like within the the service
server itself, which is more of like the neck of the uterus. So I
think understanding kind of like, the different types helps to
understand the treatments too. So there's three tiers. So there's
usually the first tier which includes really kind of traditional
medical therapy. So this is when someone will get put on birth
control pills, or they'll get put on some sort of progestin
containing IUD like a Skyla or a Mirena IUD, and that's really just
meant to control the pain and the bleeding that's associated with
the fibroids. Every once in a while there's hysteroscopic resection
of the submucosal fibroids. So sometimes it's a very, very minor
minor surgery that's done it can sometimes even be done in office
or you know, in an outpatient setting, where a surgeon goes in and
just removes the fibroids that are irritating the wall of the
uterus. The second tear is, I think, starting to become much, much
more common and we've seen developments now in the this tear of
treating fibroids which are with gonadotropin antagonists are gonna
trigger an agonist and they kind of work the same way, even though
it's weird, like one is an antagonist and one is an agonist, but
they reduce the growth of the fibroid itself. And these are
medications like that you might have heard of like, or Alyssa and
Lupron and my friend Ray, they're taken either in injection or pill
form. And this basically is used to shrink the fiber. And they work
really well, especially for women who kind of have moderate
symptoms, not so much severe symptoms or debilitating bleeding or
pain every single month. But for the moderate symptoms, they do
sometimes work really well. Some women don't necessarily like the
side effects, because the bleeding can be irregular. And for some
women, it just doesn't work well, because they don't like oh, I
have to take an injection every single week, or every single month,
they might not like how it makes them feel. And so they like the
control of something like birth control, or they like the control
of something whether it's just a pill that they take every single
day. And then there is in that tier, that second tier something
called uterine artery embolization, which is when a surgeon will
kind of go in to the uterine arteries or the blood supply, like
whatever the blood supply that's feeding the fibroid itself, and
they'll put st kind of like almost like a sand into near and around
the stock or near and around the base of the fibroid and then
create a clot and then that decreases blood flow to the uterine
fibroid itself. And then the third tier would be more like focus
surgery where someone is going in and having a full myomectomy. You
know, this can sometimes be done vaginally or through the abdomen
and actually opening up the abdomen and removing the fibroids that
way, or endometrial ablation. Um, that's not usually done in women
who want to have children in the future, although sometimes it can
be and then, of course, hysterectomy is kind of like the ultimate,
you know, you've tried everything and you've exhausted all of your
options. And that's the only choice that we have left. So that's
kind of the way fibroids work and the different types of treatments
that are available.
Regan Jones 18:29
Okay, but you all have I, as I understand it, correct me if I'm
wrong, some different and more natural treatments. Is that
right?
Kristin Mallon 18:37
Well, a lot of what we do is kind of like what I talked about in
the beginning. And and I think that it also goes along with early
diagnosis and early intervention. You know, there's not really a
great standard within the OB GYN community of how often or how
early you should be using ultrasound GYN ultrasounds to screen for
certain things, like fibroids, and even things like ovarian cancer.
So in my practice, we've always been incredibly, incredibly
proactive. And we we offer ultrasounds pretty much to everyone
across the board that's in their 30s and up, and so we're able to
kind of pick up on these fibroids much earlier. fibroid doesn't
can't always be picked up on on ultrasound, and sometimes MRI needs
to be used. But if a fibroids big enough where it's going to be a
problem and needs treatment, especially whether it's natural
treatment or pharmacological treatment, an ultrasound is usually
enough to be able to give us the information that we need to kind
of understand where to go from there. And even in asymptomatic
women and I think this is like a huge opportunity for women's
health to get better is that we should be using GYN ultrasounds
more as a screening tool to help us pick up these are these
fibroids much much earlier so we're not waiting till a woman is
symptomatic and then working with the fibroid when a woman is
symptomatic because often a woman has had that fibroid for many
many years and she had No idea before she starts to have the
symptoms of the heavy bleeding and the pressure and the pain and
the urinary symptoms, etc. So yeah, so I'm happy to talk about how
we how we treat it. So because I mentioned that we really kind of
see it as this hyper estrogenic state or an estrogen dominant
state, what we really work on is controlling the estrogen
dominance. So it's not so much that the ovaries which you know,
produce the majority of the sex steroid hormones, when it comes to
progesterone and estrogen for women are producing more estrogen
than they should be, what's really happening is other hormones are
starting to decline. And then the ratio of estrogen to other
hormones like progesterone DHEA, and testosterone is off. And so
when we support and correct for those other hormones, and we bring
those other hormones back up to their normal levels, we find that
we're not creating the high estrogen or the hyper estrogenic states
that are very common for women in their late 30s, and 40s, which
lead to fibroid growth. So there's a lot of different ways that we
do that. So number one is testing. So we do a lot of diagnostic
testing to see, where's the woman's hormones, where's the woman's
hormones at different points in her cycle, because the the cycle is
really divided into two phases. It's divided into the follicular
phase, which is a phase that's dominated by estrogen, and then the
luteal phase. You know, there's the ovulate ovulation, which
happens right in the middle, but then the luteal phase, which is
dominated by progesterone. So checking, we like to check hormones
three times a month in the follicular phase at ovulation. And then
then luteal phase to see where the hormones are falling and what
ranges are normal. And this is actually believe it or not, I think
it's crazy. But it's a pretty big controversy out there, among
other people who do hormone balancing, or who do type GYN types of
services like this, because they're like, Oh, you don't need to
test like hormones vary too much like you're not going to get
information and you don't need to test, that's a very common thing
that we hear, yeah, I've heard that. But getting the getting the
hormone levels at the different times of the month, you're gonna
get a range. So for example, if you test someone in the beginning
of the month, and their extra dial level is 400, versus 50, or
versus five, you're going to know much, much more because maybe the
range of that person at 400, that range isn't going to be five to
400. If they're 400, in the beginning of the month, you know that
that that range is probably something more like 200 to 400 or 200
to 600. So even though you're not getting an exact number, you're
still getting a sense of the range of where that hormone is falling
at that specific time of the month, which is why I think it's so so
important. And as I think we develop more types of tools, there's a
lot of tools now we have mirror care, we have probe, we have mental
Pro, we have a lot of tools now where we can test urine metabolites
at home, and we can track the menstrual cycle at home and
understand not not as perfectly as serum and not a perfectly as
blood testing. We can track what's going on with the menstrual
cycle, to understand what hormones are high and low, and then
balancing them out with herbs with nutrients with gut microbiome
balancing, or with bioidenticals or even pharmacologic, if they're
necessary.
Regan Jones 23:16
That last part that you talked about, the testing with urine
metabolites was new to me. So I am very familiar with doing serum
testing of different hormone levels, and I will reinforce exactly
what you say. I mean, I've had multiple doctors, OBGYN, say over
the years. Oh, no, there's no point in doing that. Because you're
not ut doesn't tell you anything, because hormones fluctuate. But I
know that there's always been an alternative viewpoint. And
there's, you know, the opportunity to to have that testing done.
And I have had that done and looked at some of that information
over the years. But as you were initially talking about the
validity of checking hormones throughout the course of a woman's
cycle, in my mind, I was thinking, Well, yeah, but how many times
does somebody want to go in and have their blood drawn for serum
levels, but I love what you said about the fact that there are
these tests that do this on a urine metabolite level. So these are,
these are home based kits that someone would be able to get through
your practice. And that's how you all would assess the hormone
levels throughout that month.
Kristin Mallon 24:22
Is that right? Yes. So actually, these these hormone tests are
available over the counter. And they're becoming I mean, more and
more popular by the month, I feel almost every month, I find that a
new test is popping up that will test urine metabolites at home.
And in addition to that, there's a lot of new testing that's being
done now with saliva as well. So I think that this that, you know,
it's funny because my colleagues and I always talk about all the
time like the things that are kind of like outdated that like those
of us that are in practice every day hands on patients all the time
like reading lab reading lab. and working with women and
understanding their symptoms, know what's really going to come down
the pike, I think versus a lot of doctors that sometimes they lose
track with patients, and they get into research, which is
incredibly, incredibly valuable and serves its purpose. But we were
like this lab debate is going to end soon because we get so much
information and then we're able to pinpoint exactly rather than
guessing rather than overtreating and giving someone something that
they don't need, we're able to pinpoint exactly what a woman needs,
and then watch how it changes in her urine metabolites or serum. If
someone like you said, is willing to come in three times a month,
you know, sometimes a woman's like, oh, I live right by the office,
no big, I'll pop on over. But yeah, for someone who lives an hour,
45 minutes from a lab, that's not really realistic for someone to
do something like that.
Regan Jones 25:50
And especially for people who are a little bit needle phobic, I'm
not one of those people don't mind getting blood draws, but I know
plenty people who are so truly the the trade off and being able to
do something like this on a urine metabolite level is, is really a
benefit. And I will just reinforce what you have said, I'm not
someone who is working with patients day in and day out. But as an
avid observer in the health community, and as a registered
dietitian, it is fascinating to me, where we are today with all of
the different levels of testing down to a fingerstick a urine
metabolite, like you say, a saliva test, the things that we can do,
really home based that it really would have taken a major, you
know, act of God almost to get some sort of doctor's order to get a
test done, you know, say just 10 years ago.
Kristin Mallon 26:43
Yeah, absolutely. And I'm always so thrilled and pleased because I
think the more women, I've always thought that you know, as a
practitioner, and as a clinician, as a certified nurse midwife,
like we're really partners with the women we treat in their care.
And I'm an expert in, you know, obstetrics and really non
intervention based gynecology, that's, you know, I'm not a GYN
surgeon, but they're experts in themselves and them and them as
individuals. And so when we work together, we can use my expertise
in GYN and obstetrics and their expertise in themselves to come up
with the best, most perfect plan for them. And that's really, the
more power they have. And the more information they have in their
hands, the more we can work together to create a really perfect,
beautiful plan for them.
Regan Jones 27:27
Yeah, absolutely. I constantly advocate on this podcast for people
to be, you know, their biggest advocate for themselves. And it
sometimes takes a complex medical team to do that. But it really
sounds like what you all have, that you are doing in this sort of
concierge telehealth space, with women at midlife is very
fascinating. And like I said at the beginning, I'm so glad that you
and I were able to connect because I think that you have certainly
on this topic, shed some light in ways that I did not know and
hopefully have piqued people's interest to maybe understand a
little bit better their risk factors for uterine fibroids, and
explore whether or not that's something that they need to be taking
into consideration and potentially evaluating in the future for
themselves. So Kristen, is there anything else about this topic
that I haven't asked you that you think people need to know?
Kristin Mallon 28:17
There are some more natural ways to treat fibroids for sure. And
you know that, I'm sure also as a nutritionist, you know a lot that
dairy is a big culprit when it comes to fibroids and women who have
sensitivities to dairy can often benefit from going on dairy free
diets, and a lot of times gluten free diets. Certainly liver
detoxification helps women to metabolize estrogen much better. And
so also working with gut microbiome balancing and finding if
there's high enzymes in the gut microbiome, like beta
glucuronidation. And then you know, supplementing with calcium D
helps women to metabolize estrogen more efficiently, making sure
they're cleaning up dyes, and like tartrazine and, you know, any
type of preservatives in their diet so that their liver can process
all of their estrogen more efficiently are really great natural
ways to kind of help women with fibroids. The other thing that's
really big about fibroids too, is vitamin D deficiency. So that's a
that's like been proven time and time again in multiple studies
that women that have vitamin D deficiencies are at a higher risk
for developing fibroids and having worsening fibroids and morsing
fibroid symptoms so correcting that can also be a really helpful
thing for women to do.
Regan Jones 29:30
I I'm so glad that you mentioned that vitamin D deficiency is one
of those things that I'm actually super passionate about because I
think that people are walking around with really poor vitamin D
levels and don't necessarily know it. So I would love for you to
just briefly give people your recommendation in terms of like, go
have your vitamin D check. I mean, I want your recommendation not
mine, but is it go have your vitamin D checked and then you know
based on what the levels are, maybe you need a different you maybe
you need to be aiming for a higher level than what's published, you
know, just kind of walk out your thoughts on vitamin D treatment
for us.
Kristin Mallon 30:04
So vitamin D is kind of tricky because synthetic vitamin D can also
be harsh and toxic too. So you got to find the right forms of
vitamin D, obviously, Vitamin D from the sun is the best type of
vitamin D, but a lot of us wear protective sunscreen. So we're not
always getting the vitamin D that we need there. We really like to
see vitamin D levels over 50. And I know that there's some people
like 80, I think that there's kind of different ranges that
different people aim for and try to kind of achieve the there's,
sometimes people talk about insufficiency versus optimal. So we're
usually shooting for vitamin D, like at least over 35 minimum. And
then if a woman's willing to work with us on it, we'd like to get
it over 50 And then the sun is best. So one of the things is there
was a study out of Australia about the use of sunglasses. And so we
try to kind of work with women about not wearing sunglasses to help
their body actually produce more vitamin D, if they're open to
that, going into the sun without sunscreen, maybe for just five or
1510 minutes and then applying the sunscreen so that they're able
to absorb the sun as best as possible. And then when those methods
don't work, and we can't raise the vitamin D up enough, especially
if women live in, you know places where like not California where
there's sun all the time, then we do supplement usually with some
sort of liquid based vitamin D or hyper absorbable vitamin D, and
then watch the levels very closely because too much vitamin D can
also start to cause symptoms too, especially when it's from a
synthetic source.
Regan Jones 31:37
Okay, very good. Thank you for I just kind of added that at the end
because I was really felt like that was like a public public
service announcement that we needed to, to share with people. Well,
Kristen, you have just been a wealth of knowledge today if you will
do my listeners a favor and let them know how they can find you
online and on social media. All
Kristin Mallon 31:54
of our social media handles our FEM devotee, just ask them devotee
on Facebook Instagram Tik Tok. We do run a lot of lives on
Instagram on Monday nights at 9pm. Eastern so people can come and
ask us questions there.
Regan Jones 32:08
We try to make ourselves pretty available. And our website is
longevity health.com. And as I do with every episode, I will be
sure to place a link in the show notes to both the FIM devotee
website and the Instagram account. Kristen, thank you so much for
joining me today. It's really a pleasure.
Kristin Mallon 32:24
Thank you so much for having me. It was just so fun to talk to
you.
Regan Jones 32:27
That wraps up my interview with Kristin. And you probably noticed
that at some point, I mentioned that uterine fibroids had actually
been suggested as a topic to do on this unmillennial life, I
believe by a couple of different people. And if you've never taken
the opportunity to consider episodes that you're interested in,
that you would like for me to research a guest that I could
interview, now is the time to do that I am planning for the second
half of season seven, which will be coming up after the holidays.
And you can submit that information to me simply by sending me an
email Reagan at thisunmillenniallife.com. I'll be sure and place my
email address in the show notes. Or I have a guest form where you
can fill that information out topic suggestions. And that is one of
the ways that some of the topics over the years have come up is by
suggestions by people just like you so that guest form will also be
linked in the show notes. I'm gonna take a quick break but stick
around for the odds and ends ending where we're going to be talking
about one of my absolute new favorite beauty products that I love.
That's coming up next. Today's broadcast is brought to you buy your
color guru, your color guru.com is where I went this last year to
get my color consultation done. And there's a little bit of comedy
in thinking about having your colors done. I say that in air quotes
because many of us as Unmillennials remember back in the days of
the 80s of doing your color, but let me tell you what your color
Guru is doing is so far beyond that. And they're giving you so many
tools when you actually have your colors done. And the reason that
I say so far beyond that is because back in the day when we would
find out what our colors were I think it was like four seasons
winter, summer, fall and spring but your color Guru is much more
robust than that. For instance, I'm a moonlit summer which is
different than a sunlit summer. And one of the things that I love
the most about your color guru and the color consultation
consultation that I had done is that it comes with a color card. I
have both a printed card that I can throw in my purse so that when
I am out shopping I can pull that card out of my purse and hold it
up to anything that I'm looking at to determine Hey, is this one of
my best colors? I also have the JPEG on my phone so if I don't have
the card with me, I just simply look at my phone and it has been
invaluable. It makes shopping so much easier. So if you are
interested in having your colors gone or gifting it to someone
else, you can get 10% off off of your color guru consultation by
simply using the code Regan which is our E g a n at checkout at
your color guru.com There's a link in the show notes. Okay, you've
heard in the commercial break that I do with color guru that I
really feel like that color guru has been one of the best things
that I've done in the last few years from a beauty standpoint
simply because I can wear something that's one color not getting
compliments put something on it's in my color guru color palette
and I seem to get tons of compliments and I love that but the
product that I want to tell you about today is one that is easily
accessible to virtually all of us. And maybe many of you know about
this product. You've seen it at your local you know drugstore slash
pharmacy and that is the technologist tanning drops. So people
who've been around the podcast for a while know that I've talked
about different self tanners, I have a spray tan setup here at home
that I use. It's not nearly as expensive as you would think I
bought it years ago it's probably increased in price. But I'll
place a link in the show notes to that in case you're interested in
just kind of the overall full body tanning as we head into the
winter. I did an episode on skin cancer with a dermatologist and we
talked about self tan and how that really is probably a better
alternative than you know getting out and baking in the sun to get
that beautiful glow. And for us going into the winter that's not
even an option if you wanted it to be so setting all of that aside
the only thing about the full body self tanning setup is I don't
necessarily feel that it always gives me the best look on my face.
The color of it just is sometimes a little too dark and and I just
haven't felt like it was you know the best and I have tried
different facial tanning moisturizers over the years and I don't
know I just haven't found one that I was in love with have had
plenty that I thought we're okay. But recently, I on a whim
somewhat grabbed a tiny little tube of technologist tanning drops
they were near the checkout and a CVS in one of these you know
kiosks that has like the trial size travel size beauty products
very similar to what you see in Sephora or Ulta. But but like CVS
and Walgreens have started to incorporate those. So I grabbed those
little tanning drops and I put them in my sunscreen that I was
wearing for the day and so that was the first time I used it was on
a Saturday well by that Tuesday I went to the gym to a new class
that I attend immediately the instructor said oh my gosh did you
recently get a facial Your face is glowing and I I kind of thought
it was sort of funny because I have not gotten a facial as I said
to you and last week's episode when I was talking about the press
on nails my budget is really tight right now my beauty budget it it
is much tighter than it used to be so that's not really something
that I can pursue right now getting facials although I absolutely
love them. So I thought that was a little bit comical and I said no
it's probably these tanning drops. And it wasn't three minutes
later that a woman that I know with the gym that I workout with she
came in and said oh gosh did you just get back from the beach you
you're just simply glowing. So I thought gosh, you know these must
be pretty good. And then over the course of the next two days I had
someone that I was on FaceTime with say gosh your face looks great
today What did you do and then I was back at the gym two days
later. And another woman that I work out with said gosh your face
looks great. What what did you do so you know I gotta say four
people within the course of about two to three days. mentioning it
made me think you know what, this is a really good product and it's
affordable. I'm not sure exactly how much I paid at CVS or
Walgreens but I do know that on Amazon and I will place a link to
this product in the show. Show Notes. This is an Amazon affiliate
link as a reminder, that means if you purchase your prices the same
but I might receive a very very small commission. They are about
$20 on Amazon and you may look at the size of the bottle it's
pretty small and think oh my goodness $20 For that tiny little
bottle. But you only need about two drops for a little small POM of
moisturizer or like I said I am putting it in my my sunscreen. It's
highly effective. And it virtually has no odor that is another
thing that I like about it. If you've ever used any type of face
tanner on you know, obviously your face, then you know that
sometimes the smell of those self trainers can be very off putting
and having it really really close to your nose like that. It's just
something that you tend to smell all day long. So I'm very very
pleased with these. Again, the name of the brand are is
technologist and you can probably find them at your local
drugstore. Down here, we primarily have CVS and Walgreens, but you
can get them on Amazon. And there is a link in the show notes. So
that makes two weeks back to back with beauty budget buys. As a
reminder, in case you've never listened to the episode that I did
on cleaner beauty at the drugstore, I'll place a link in the show
notes so that you can go back and refresh yourselves on those. That
episode is a little bit old, in that I did it two or three years
ago, but I don't think that the products have changed tremendously.
And there is a handout that goes with ads that you can take with
you to the drugstore if you're looking for cleaner Beauty Buys
think things like beauty counter, which I love, but it's again, not
within my budget right now. So alternatives to beauty counter type
products. And with that we will wrap up today's episode have
already done at the beginning of this episode in my plea for five
star reviews on Apple podcasts. But honestly the best way that you
can help this podcast grow is simply by sharing it with a friend,
you can let your friends know that this umillennial life is
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have a great week.
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