Ep.89 - Original Recording
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Sheree Beaumont: [00:00:00] Understanding that there is something deeper driving that physiologically in your body. That the pill is only masking the pill is a bandaid for, so all of these byproducts that are happening that you may not notice right now, you may not notice till 10 years down the track.
You may not notice till you go to come off it and go, holy crap, why am I struggling to fall pregnant? Why is my weight not shifting? Why am I blow shit all the time? I'm gonna go back on the pill because that didn't happen when I was on it. You don't realize the impact that it's having while you are taking it.
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Sheree Beaumont: Welcome back to the Wild and Wild Collective. Today we are diving into a [00:01:00] brand new piece of research that really piqued my interest, especially if you guys have been listening for a while, you'll know where my stance and our stance typically sits around the birth control pill. Now, when we've been educated about the birth control pill before, we are very aware that it can cause gut issues.
Things like SIBO or Leaky Gut have been connected to being on birth control. You've got thyroid issues that can come from it. There are so many underlying things that we are not told when we are handed that packet, like it's a packet of candy across the counter that can really impact not only our general health and our hormones, but actually our metabolism and our metabolic function.
The ability for your body to even be losing weight. It's often one of the biggest concerns that we hear from our clients and our patients that why am I on this? And still, like I put more weight on with being on birth control, or I came off birth control and I lost weight, and this study is really, really powerful because.
It starts to give us some of those [00:02:00] answers as to what might have really been going on when you were either on it, or maybe you're listening to this now, going, okay, maybe this is my sign to come off. And so, Krista, could you share with us a little bit about this new study that we've now found and the connection of the insulin picture with our birth control pills?
Christa Elza: Yeah, this is really interesting and I do think, like you said, to echo what you said, how women are like, ah, I just gained weight on the pill, or I've lost weight coming off of it, but I'm still having period problems, so I feel like I need to be on the pill. This study was a crossover study, meaning the same women were studied in.
Both the active pill phase and the placebo pill phase. so the same individual was tested in different phases of the pill cycle. They studied how androgenic, oral contraceptives, and we'll go into what that means. Not all pills are created equal, and we'll get into that as well. But these particular pills had more of an androgenic.
Attachment with the [00:03:00] progestins and that made a big difference. These women were aged 18 to 40. They were all healthy in terms of, no other major issues going on in their health. And what this showed, what the study showed will get into the key findings, but it really did impact the different phases of this particular type of pill, really impacted insulin and blood sugar, which I thought was really, really interesting.
And the fact that they used a good amount of study patients a good, cross-section of ages. That's most of us, somewhere between 18 and our forties, and that's a big bulk of how many, what the ages of women that are typically on this pill. So this gives us some insights on why this particular type of pill could create problems with weight gain and developing other metabolic disorders.
Sheree Beaumont: Yeah, and I think to bring it home to the idea of like why blood sugar really matters, particularly in relation to not only your metabolism but your hormone health. [00:04:00] When it comes to, I always say to my clients like, you have no hope of balancing your hormones like your estrogen and your progesterone and your testosterone month to month if you can't balance your blood sugar levels.
Now, often when we're on the pill, we actually shut down our body's natural production of estrogen and progesterone. Anyway, we. Disconnect the axis, the HPA, your hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis to your ovaries. So the connection between your brain and your ovaries is actually shut down when you're on the pill, which is potentially why we are seeing a lot of this happen.
Right. We're just drawing a few conclusions here. But what they found in this particular study during the active phase, now, the active phase, meaning they're taking these synthetic hormones, there was a hundred percent. 100%. Lemme just let that land higher glucose levels after eating 50% higher insulin levels and 42% higher C peptide levels, which is a marker [00:05:00] of your insulin production.
Right? And these were not seen during those weeks that they were on the placebo pill. So this is showing the direct correlation by taking these androgen. Oral contraceptives and how this is impacting our blood sugar regulation. So if your blood sugar's going up, if your glucose is going up directly after eating, we are told to store more fat.
We are told that there is an extra stress on the body, so that's gonna drive your cortisol levels up. This can then lead to thyroid dysfunction. So you can see how this can become the catalyst for a whole host of other issues, especially other metabolic issues. That's one of the leading causes of disease nowadays is metabolic syndrome.
All can come back to and all can boil back to this pill. So you can be doing all the right things. You can be eating well, you can be exercising, but you're taking this medication every single day. That's completely derailing any attempt that you're trying to make to keep a healthy metabolism.
Christa Elza: Mm-hmm. Fascinating. So, [00:06:00] if you're struggling with fatigue weight, grant gain more sugar cravings. This is why, and the sad part about it is a lot of women who are struggling with. PCOS, even endometriosis because we know that there is an autoimmune component to endo which autoimmunity is gonna be flared up with inflammation.
High blood sugars create more inflammation, right? So if you're already struggling with high stress, you are already struggling with poor sleep. You already don't eat a fabulous diet and you don't exercise regularly, this pill is making. The me your metabolic health worse. And like you mentioned, metabolism is really just the way that we use energy.
Okay? And so if our metabolism is all wonky because our blood sugars are off, it does put you at higher risk for all the diseases that kill us. All the cancer, heart disease, brain disorders, all of those neurological problems. So all of it is [00:07:00] stems from.
Has a huge role. Metabolism has a huge role in those things. And so, the fact that some of these women can be on this pill for decades potentially is it really poses a health concern across the board. And so I think what's important in the purpose of us even talking about this, yes, we were fascinated by the study, but we wanted to share this on this podcast so that you can.
Take note of this, that you can be empowered in taking control over, Hey, this, I'm on this type of pill. Maybe this is the answer to some of those things. So where would you say it's a, I want you to share too, what are the different forms like. Different forms of birth controls and things like that.
And I know that, you have other options, Cherie, with your clients, like who, how you work with, in order to have other forms of birth control. 'cause let's say women are doing it literally for birth control. What do you recommend, and then we'll go into the types of pills that, that we're talking about here.
But what do you recommend for women who [00:08:00] are experiencing this, they might be on this type of pill for a reasonable birth control method.
Sheree Beaumont: So one of the key things that I just wanna reiterate here is that when it comes to our body and our ability to make an empowered health decision, that's right, what we believe here, right? Empowered health is your superpower. It just comes down to knowing all the facts. And like Krista mentioned, if you ask someone that has gone on birth control purely for birth control reason, then I'll get to that in a second.
If you are someone sitting here going. I'm on this because it's the easier quote unquote option. It's what I've been told to do to manage my symptoms. I have endo, I have pcos. Like I've just had painful periods, and I don't say that lightly in terms of just, I just mean you've been told this is your symptom.
Here's the solution, here's the medication. Understanding that there is something deeper driving that physiologically in your body. That the pill is only masking [00:09:00] the pill is a bandaid for, so all of these byproducts that are happening that you may not notice right now, you may not notice till 10 years down the track.
You may not notice till you go to come off it and go, holy crap, why am I struggling to fall pregnant? Why am I, why is my weight not shifting? Why am I blow shit all the time? I'm gonna go back on the pill because that didn't happen when I was on it. You don't realize the impact that it's having while you are taking it.
And so again, making empowered choices here to. Choose to understand if you are not on it from a purely hormonal contraceptive reason or contraceptive reason why you are getting those symptoms in the first place and know there is so much you can do to heal. Looking at your gut health, looking at your liver detoxification pathways, managing your blood sugar levels, all of that time after time, after time.
Again, we see it in clinic. We see it in practice. Women heal, all their period pain goes away. All of their period symptoms go away. Both of us function beautifully and optimally without having any [00:10:00] symptoms around our periods because we know how to nourish and support our bodies, and that's what we teach women how to do.
So I wanna give you that as a sense of empowerment to understand that through education you can really support your body, right? If you are sitting here going, Cherie, that's my only option. For religious reasons, for personal reasons for. You just feel like that's your only option. I totally hear you and we will dive into what pills may be a better, again, not medical advice, but it may be a better option for you to choose.
But understanding that, if you are on the contraceptive pill. There are gonna need, we're gonna need to manage your symptoms a lot better. It may even be worthwhile. One, shifting or two, getting a continued glucose monitor and actually seeing how your body is responding to the pill it may be doing.
Like I've had a lot of my clients go through, we do gut protocols and liver protocols that are still safe to do whilst you're on the pill, so that you are still optimizing your detoxification pathways and supporting the clearance of the synthetic [00:11:00] hormones that really we don't want to build up or accumulate and they just come in, they do their job and we get them out.
Right. So understanding that your body. Is only going to be as optimized and as healthy as what you put into it. And part of that is looking at the medication. I know personally for years I avoided even looking at medication. I didn't even look at the pill like medication. It was just something that helped clear my skin and kept me sexually safe.
So I think like, if we wanna dive into this a little bit deeper, I want you guys to understand that not all pills are really made equal. They are still gonna all load up your liver and have an effect on your gut health though.
Christa Elza: For sure. And I think most people don't know. They're on a pill and you're like, okay, great.
I either feel good on this or I don't. And most people don't understand what is in there. There's the monophasic and there's biphasic. So you've got some pills, just have one hormone, some have two. I think it's important to, to look at that androgenic progestins have more metabolic effects.[00:12:00]
Than non androgenic or anti androgenic ones. So there are pills out there if you do choose to be on a birth control pill. You want to definitely look at this element of it when we're looking at progesterone only because that can be sometimes prescribed. Whether, when you're breastfeeding, you can be on progesterone only, or sometimes in perimenopause you'll be, prescribed something that's progesterone only. Progestin is the synthetic form. So if you're not doing bioidentical, which by the way, I would always recommend in terms of perimenopause effects, but progestins oftentimes will be prescribed in place of those. Some of the ones there, there are many here listed, and I'm gonna read a couple of them off.
The two that were the most highly androgenic. One is Liano Gessel. We're gonna put these names in the show notes so that you can look at it, but you wanna pay attention to that one. Norges is also very high in androgenic activity, so if you have been prescribed one of those [00:13:00] two, those are pretty high.
We're gonna put the list of all of 'em 'cause there's some that are moderate, some that are less than that, but really if you're having any weight gain, any of those symptoms, I always recommend the CGMI love continuous glucose monitors. I think they can keep you honest periodically on what you should be eating what you shouldn't be eating, because everybody's body is a little bit different.
But certainly if you've been in one of these, I think it would really insightful. To pop one of those on, wear it for two weeks and really see your average blood sugars and what's spiking it and how often it's spiked. Because if you're taking one of these pills, you might have, you might struggle a little bit more with chronically high elevated blood sugar.
The other brand names that I wanted to mention, and these are I'm gonna list about half of 'em and then we'll put some of these in the show notes as well just to crosscheck on what you're taking. But Elise Seasonal. I dunno if it's Porsche or Portia. P-O-R-T-I-A. Overall Ocon ortho novo. So these are some that have been known to be higher in androgenic.
Properties in [00:14:00] the chemistry of them. So those are some that I would definitely take a peek at and make sure ones that are lower androgen, because of course we want some alternatives. And if you're on one, you wanna look at alternatives. If birth control pills are what you're choosing to do for your health Yas Yasmin, those tend to be lower.
Nata those are two that are in the US that tend to be lower anti androgenic or lower androgen in content. So, we just wanna keep you in the know of what's going on, what's out there. Why are some pills worse than others in terms of weight gain and food cravings and all of that?
Because it's really important, especially in your reproductive years, especially when you're younger, that you pay attention to your metabolic health and it's very interesting how most people don't realize that your metabolic health and your hormone health is so intertwined, your thyroid health, all of that, the hormones are they work in a symphony, right?
So when one of these hormones is off, whether we're. Shutting it down, like you mentioned, [00:15:00] how the pills shut off the signal from the brain to the ovary, whether you're shutting it down or you're manipulating it in some way, whether it's stress or lack of sleep, that throws all of the hormones off our insulin, cortisol, thyroid, as well as the sex hormones.
So it's important to understand that that that one, one skew, one change in that can have a domino effect on the rest of our hormones.
so we'll wrap this up. Thank you for being here. I hope you have found this conversation helpful. Again, we're gonna put the names of those in the show notes so that you can cross check and have a conversation with your own provider about what would be helpful for you. And again, also using a CGM continuous glucose monitor is really, really helpful to help you navigate that for yourself and personally, how you're doing.
In terms of your long term blood sugar as well. Until next time,
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