Supplements, HRT & Aging Well: Science-Backed Menopause Insights with Dr. Betty Murray

This transcript has been generated using AI technology. There may be errors or discrepancies in the text. The opinions expressed by the guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the show or its hosts. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered medical advice. Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional regarding your specific health needs.

Susan Sly: 00:00

Well, hey there, and welcome to The Menopause Health Podcast. Susan here, and I hope you're having an incredible day. If you are new to the show, I want to welcome you. We focus on bringing you no-nonsense, actionable insight into perimenopause and menopause. So, any woman 40-plus—or if you've had surgical menopause—this is your brand-new home.

Today, we are going to cut through the noise about supplementation. We're going to talk about genetic testing and what it's like to navigate having an aging parent. You might be wondering, How does that all tie together? Well, you are going to find out because my guest is absolutely amazing, and we have an incredible conversation ahead.

Before I get into the show, the question I have is—are you using thePause™ app? thePause™ is available right now for early subscribers, and we call them founding members. It will help you save time and money. And our AI agent, Harmoni™, will do everything from writing grocery lists for you to giving you workouts. She'll even help you with breathing exercises and managing stress throughout your day.

We also have other incredible features, including fun challenges like Dry 21, which encourages you to abstain from alcohol—not for 30 days, because life happens, business happens (I know it does for me)—but at least 21 days a month. We also have 30 in 30, inspired by CDC guidelines that recommend moving your body for 30 minutes a day. That could be shoveling snow, going for a walk, or taking a yoga class—it doesn't have to be high-intensity exercise all the time.

There are so many features being added to the app, and that’s why we have it available for the very low trial price of $3.99 USD for your first month or $29.99 for the year. We are receiving rave reviews, and we are just getting started. So, go to the App Store, look for thePause™ Menopause App, download it today, and get started—we would love your feedback.

Susan Sly: 02:02

My guest today has a Ph.D. focused on estrogen metabolism. She is an incredible founder with a virtual women's health clinic dedicated to helping women navigate menopause. She is also a sought-after leader and speaker, and, as a woman in her 50s, she has firsthand experience with this journey.

In this episode, we are talking about everything from what's been going on with black cohosh to whether you should get genetic testing, how to know if your supplements are actually working for you, and the actionable steps you can take today to start feeling better.

So with that, let’s get into this episode of The Menopause Health Podcast with my guest, Dr. Betty Murray.

Voiceover: 03:14

The opinions expressed by the guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the show or its hosts. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered medical advice. Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional regarding your specific health needs.

Voiceover: 03:40

Welcome to The Menopause Health Podcast, your go-to resource for practical advice, brought to you by credentialed health professionals and industry experts. Here is your host, Susan Sly.

Susan Sly: 03:51

So, Betty and I were having this discussion about aging parents, supplementation, and estrogen detox. And I was like, Oh, girl, we need a show! We have to actually hit record because we were just catching up as friends.

We’re going to jump into some personal stuff. Betty and I were talking about navigating aging parents—women in our 50s, professional women, entrepreneurs. And Betty, first of all, congratulations! Over the holidays, you sold your mom’s house. Can you jump in and talk about this journey with your own mom? Because most of the people listening have aging parents and are going through very similar situations.

Dr. Betty Murray: 04:44

Yeah, yeah, no. I lost my dad, like, over a decade ago, you know, and my mom, you know, thankfully, lived alone. So she had her own home. She was rocking and rolling, you know, out living completely, you know, on her own. And you.

Dr. Betty Murray: 05:00

Even checking her own taxes. So we're talking sharp, sharp, sharp. And oddly enough, my husband had had this leg injury, and on the day my husband's getting surgery for a crush injury on his leg—he's a firefighter paramedic for the City of Dallas—I get him home. He can't do anything. He can't stand up. My mom's best friend calls me and says, I can't get your mom on the phone. And lo and behold, I tell my husband, I'm like, prop yourself up against the wall. Don't know what wall. Don't know what's going on. Deal with it, right?

I go over to her house, she's having a heart attack. We get her to the hospital, and while she's in the hospital, I talked to the cardiologist, Like, she's likely going to throw a clot that's large enough that we aren't going to be able to do much about it, right? And so she did. So I sat in the ER and I watched her have a stroke. And, you know, she went from 100% functional to 100% full assist. She has long-term memory, so she remembers people like myself, where she is in space and time, and where, you know, all of that. She can't feed herself, can't transition, can't do anything.

And I think, you know, as women, we, we recognize, I think, sort of in an intellectual way that we're going to probably be responsible, but it's—it, to have to take care of a parent, wherever they are on that spectrum, is a full-time job, right? And I think it's not only the legal and the financial and all these other things that you have to take on, but it's the emotional toll of, you know, having to parent a parent, a parent, and also, you know, make decisions that are often really difficult as well, right?

Dr. Betty Murray: 06:01

You know, because it is—we all are going to pass away at some point, and end of life. And, you know, I choose to look at it as, you know, my mom made it to 88, going on 89, and living alone, and having never spent a night in the hospital until that night. And so I'm like, Well, rock on. That's what we really wanted.

You know, she didn't really want what she's experiencing right now, but it is. It takes a toll, and I think a lot of women get into this position, and they may have kids at home, or kids that have graduated and they're in college, or they're empty nested, but they now have this new burden, right? And it's, and it's—and you're often torn between wanting it to be over, in all honesty, and then also never wanting to lose that person, too. And I think nobody really talks about that.

Susan Sly: 07:13

Yeah, and well, first and foremost, my, you know, my heart goes out to you, having walked that similar path with my dad, as you know. And one of the things we bonded over early on—he was, up until he was 83, I mean, he had a YouTube channel, for goodness' sake, you know, driving, everything. He was a horrible eater, and I could not convince him otherwise, despite, you know, my background in holistic health. But, you know, at some point, I had to let go and be like, Okay, you do you. If you want to eat the whole pie, no, it's not good for you—okay.

And to be able to do that, and then going through suddenly this responsibility of him first transitioning into assisted living, and then him passing, and cleaning out his house, and all of those different things, and standing up a business. And then there’s our own health. And that's where I want to begin this journey with you on the show.

Because you are healthy—you live it, you walk it, you breathe it. And more than likely, as people are listening, if you don't have your health as these transitions happen, it is a new kind of stress. When you already are under stress, it's just this huge burden that feels so, so heavy.

And so, Betty, you—you see women in perimenopause, in menopause, you navigated it before. Let's jump in and talk about—I want to talk about the supplement myth. Because there’s, you know, a lot of physicians who are like, No supplements, no supplements. And you know me—I do probably 30 to 40 supplements a day. I cycle them through, but I’m educated, trained, and certified from many years ago.

Why is it that supplements get such a bad rap, especially in the allopathic community?

Dr. Betty Murray: 10:00

You know, there’s, there’s several reasons. I would say, first and foremost, we have to recognize that traditional allopathic, conventional medicine lacks nutrition training. You know, depending on the school, 20 to 30%—depending on the country—get any nutritional training at all. And I’m talking basic stuff like, This is a protein. This is a carb. This is a fat, right?

So the reality is, they have no context, because they don’t really have training in how to use nutrition therapeutically, and that includes nutritional supplementation. And then supplementation falls into a lot of categories.

So supplements are essentially something that’s not food but also not prescriptive. That could be things like vitamins, minerals, nutrients, phyto—you know, phytochemicals, polyphenols that you get...

Dr. Betty Murray: 10:00

...from fruits and vegetables, all the way to, you know, synthetically derived things, and also herbs, right? And, you know, the government in the United States passed DSHEA a long time ago. So it’s not that they’re completely unregulated.

A lot of times, people will say, Oh, they’re completely unregulated. That’s not true. DSHEA has requirements—like, generally recognized as safe, like as a food or an herb. It has to qualify for those things, and it requires companies to self-police.

So the reality is, because the doctors are untrained and they don’t have a good understanding, and because there is some onus on the company to manage it, to some degree, it’s perceived as buyer beware. So the doctors just say, Oh, they’re all bad. You can’t use them. They can’t help you.

Whereas the reality is, a good, high-quality—what I would call professional, medical-grade—supplement, used appropriately to supplement a good diet, can definitely give you a leg up and help with your unique nutritional needs to help your body operate better.

But I do think it’s important to work with somebody who knows what they’re doing, because there’s a lot of genetic variability in how we metabolize things—particularly in the liver. And you can get herbs that interact with each other, you can get herbs that interact with medications, and you don’t know what you don’t know.

And I think, particularly, just because it’s in a supplement store, or a Whole Foods, or Sprouts—not to pick on those companies—doesn’t mean it’s perfect for you, right? Natural doesn’t always mean safe. Belladonna is natural, but it’s also not safe to take.

So I think, I think there’s two sides to that. I don’t think we throw the baby out with the bathwater, but I think it’s also, you know, important—if you’re especially using herbs—to work with somebody who really knows what they’re doing.

Susan Sly: 11:50

And, and I think too—to that point, too—let’s, let’s talk about supplement quality. Because when people think about this little pill they’re taking, or whatever it is—a tincture of some sort—the sourcing for that...

I’ll use this example, Betty. It’s just coming to my head. It’s like building a house. Just because—we just bought a new house, and I’m about to orchestrate a renovation, so that’s what’s at the top of my mind.

But if I’m looking at building materials, I can look at pretty, right? Or I can look at high quality. So can you talk about the quality of ingredients and how they vary? Because even with the legislation—I know that there are, there are some changes coming—but I’ll just give an example, and then I’ll throw the football to you, girlfriend.

With whey protein—the way it’s legislated in the United States—it doesn’t have to be 100% whey protein to call it whey protein. They could have some soy protein, and pea protein, and a whole host of other things thrown in there. Even some protein powders have ash in them as a filler.

But they could still call it whey protein as long as it’s above a certain percentage. And people don’t realize—most people aren’t educated—that the supplement they’re buying could have those same issues.

So can you talk about the quality of the sourcing?

Dr. Betty Murray: 13:12

So it's, it's like I said, it's very much up to the onus of the company. And, and, and again, we can have varying degrees of ingredient requirements for something to be labeled as such, you know.

And if we look at what, you know, some of the attorneys general have shown, Amazon has been caught for counterfeit—like products that look like the brand but are not, or containing, containing things that shouldn't even be in them. And then you can look at big, big chain stores that have also had, you know, an attorney general go take stuff off the shelf, take it and test it, and show that it didn't have the active ingredient at all or had other contaminants.

So what that means is, it's important to, number one, know that the company you are working with sources the raw ingredients and tests the raw ingredients before actual blending or creating of a product, and that they also check it for contaminants—things like mycotoxins and heavy metals and other toxins that could be in it.

And that when they produce the actual lot and batch, they test it again for efficacy and content, right? So when we—like my practitioners that work with my telemedicine team or in my clinic—we, we recommend professional-grade, professional products that go through the same packaging requirements as a pharmaceutical.

Which means the batch, the raw material—everything—gets, gets tested, and you can actually look at those certifications online. If you're buying them over the counter from other places, they may or may not have anything that you think is in it, in it, right?

And, and, like I said, we've had enough instances where that has been into question, you know. But your professional brands are definitely—and I'd say it's also—you get what you pay for, you know. If you see a vast difference between one product's per, and you see this, like, bargain-basement product at your local store, there's a reason why it's a bargain-basement.

Because these products cost to make, right? High-quality ingredients, just like food, are high-quality ingredients.

Susan Sly: 15:12

Absolutely. I was smiling because I was thinking about my dad, because he was like a big, big-box store supplement guy—I won’t name the store.

And he had all of these supplements that were tablets, and that—you know, there’s a vinegar test that you can do. If it doesn’t dissolve in vinegar, it’s not dissolving in your body. And I’d be like, Daddy, none of these passed the vinegar test.

But he was just so convinced. And this is where supplements in the allopathic community—and to your earlier point, I used to, years and years ago, teach nutrition at a college. And also, many of my personal nutrition clients were physicians, and they just don’t get the training—most of them—unless they go off and do, like, an integrative—write their integrative boards or do something else.

And so what are some common things you can recommend, Betty, when people are looking for supplements? Because there are some, there are some different standards and things people can look for.

Dr. Betty Murray: 16:14

Yeah, there's definitely GMP. So that’s Good Manufacturing Practice, right? So that means that they've gone through certifications.

And then there are additional certifications different companies may go through, but GMP is the absolute kind of rock bottom, is what I would say. And like I said, I trust professional brands because, again, you know, I, matter of fact, was at one of these professional brands, walking through their production facility when the FDA came and visited.

Because they visit all the time—just like they would, you know, Abbott or any of the other pharmaceutical companies. And it’s comforting to know that there are those checks and balances that are really, really important.

Because, you know, people can put things in capsules. It's not that hard, right? And so you want to make sure that you're, you're getting something that’s manufactured in the way it’s supposed to be.

Susan Sly: 17:00

Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, people put drugs in capsules, right? They put a lot of things in capsules.

Let me ask you this—there has been some controversy around black cohosh lately. And for years, on the holistic nutrition side, it was like a gold standard of things that were recommended to women going through perimenopause and menopause.

And what has your research shown with black cohosh in particular? Are there any other ones you think are, you know, maybe ones we used to think were good, but now we're seeing something different?

Dr. Betty Murray: 17:38

Yeah, so there's, there's a bunch of herbs that are all in this class—black cohosh, red clover. There are several rhubarb plants that have similar sort of mechanisms. And then you can even look at the, like, the genisteins in soy, and they're basically phytoestrogens, so they have this estrogenic-like approach.

However, because they are herbs, they also process through the liver through a complex process—complex, sort of, I like to think of it as wrappers. Our body detoxifies—our body transforms—by wrapping different wrappers around that ingredient to sort of get rid of it. And as it transforms it, it makes it into intermediate, sort of, ingredients.

So think of it like, I've wrapped a pink wrapper around this toxin that I'm going to throw in the trash. When it has the pink wrapper around it, it needs to take the next step to, let’s say, a black wrapper—based on your genetics, right?

So one person may be great at wrapping a pink wrapper but not great at the black one. So that means that the, the, the ingredient—whether it's a black cohosh derivative or anything else, for that matter—can get stuck in between those two steps, right?

Same thing with drug metabolism. We know there's well over, you know, a couple of years ago, it was about 185 drugs—so it's probably well over 200 now—that have known gene interactions that can be potentially deadly, right? Meaning that you process it differently than someone else.

Well, herbs are the same way. The problem with nutritional herbs, again, is if you're not working with somebody that's looking a little deeply, and you're maybe using herbs to manage your perimenopause or menopause, if nobody's looking at how you process those, you could literally have something your body cannot process well, and it is toxic to the liver, right?

Which is some of the concern with black cohosh and some of these other ingredients. It's not, in my estimation, so much that it's modulating estrogen and reducing hot flashes or whatever it is—it’s how you, uniquely based on your genetics, process that ingredient. And can you process it properly?

You know, the other thing that I also see, too, is, you know, none of these studies have really controlled for the brand, the dose. You know, they're buying it off the shelf, and they’re like, It says it's, let's say, 150 milligrams. Do you know if it's 150? What if it's 1,000? You don't know, because they aren't testing it for that, too.

So I think there are so many things about the studies that we have to watch for. But I think the bigger thing is how you individually metabolize something and what your body's going to do with that particular thing. Because those same pathways are affected by your hormones and your environmental toxins.

Susan Sly: 20:10

Well, someone sent me—and I have a follow-up question—someone, someone sent me this email going, No, turmeric is so bad because, you know, the liver can't process it.

And I’m going, What about the, you know, women in India, where it’s part of their diet every single day? It’s like the soy study.

Me being half Asian—for people who don’t know—the, and I know you know, but the, the instances of breast cancer in Chinese women, in particular, were studied, and they were so low. It wasn’t until the North American diet was introduced—cow milk, gluten, and all sorts of things that were not in that diet.

But women were eating tofu, sometimes every single day. And then the study comes out, and it's like, Oh, tofu is bad. Tofu is bad.

Well, you have to look at who funded the study—that's one. Number two, you need some common flippin’ sense.

Like, you're not going to tell, you know, women whose diet daily is tofu—where there’s no breast cancer—that suddenly tofu is bad, and they need to stop.

And so when I was practicing as a nutritionist, I would always ask what their culture of origin was. Where was your mom born? Where was your dad born? Where were your grandparents born?

And let’s take a look. I had another girlfriend on the show who’s got a Ph.D. in nutrition, and she—we, we love culture as a place to start.

So, for people listening, you know, one is—they could go get genetically tested for a whole host of things.

What is something they could do today to look at and say, Okay, how do I bring some common sense into this? Because there’s so much competing information.

And one day this is good for you. One day it's not. You know, how do we sort through that?

Dr. Betty Murray: 22:00

Yeah? Yeah. So I think, yeah, like you said, the family of origin, your ethnic background, is really, really important.

Again, yeah, turmeric is a commonplace dietary intake throughout all of, all of basically India and half of Asia, right? Like, it’s every day.

So, okay, the other thing is, like, Northern Europeans did a lot more dairy and wheat-based foods than Asia, right? So, so depending on your population.

So one of the first things, obviously, is to look at your ancestry and understand that. Now, genetics give you the foundational assumption of what’s being built—like, if you're building a house, that gives you the dimensions. How wide is it? How deep is it? Maybe where the plumbing comes up.

But it doesn’t tell you what you put on top of it, which is your actual home. Is it a single-story ranch home, or is it a three-story condo complex with a pool on top? That’s your epigenetics, and I think that’s by far more valuable.

I love knowing the genetics because it informs where to look, but the epigenetics—how your body actually processes stuff—can actually be derived from urinary testing.

Mostly, you can get some from plasma, but the vast majority comes from urinary testing. We can see byproducts of those chemical reactions in your urine to tell you, you know, do you uniquely process this particular nutrient?

Whether it's, you know, methylation, for example, the MTHFR and folic folate and folic acid, which is the synthetic form—we can see that actually in action to tell you what avenue you want to take.

So if you want a precision experience, that’s the best way to understand your unique needs.

But I think just, just getting informed by where your ancestors came from definitely helps you narrow it down, right? It definitely helps give understanding to, you know, what foods your ancestors' genetics mutated to respond to in their environments, right?

Whatever our genes have done was to help our ancestors survive the hardships they experienced, right?

So somebody whose family came from the Fertile Crescent or, I like to say, from the Philippines—for example, the people from the Philippines had food, lots of different foods, compared to my ancestors, who were up in Ireland and Scotland and England with nothing half the year except for the rabbit they could chase down.

So those things can heavily inform what your body was designed to consume.

Susan Sly: 24:22

I love that you shared that. Because, you know, so often there’s this—everyone's looking for the magic bullet. Everyone’s looking for the one-size-fits-all.

You know, we’re seeing that with the GLP-1s. We’re seeing, you know, there’s always something. Back in the old days, it was like, you know, whatever—Fen-Phen. And, you know, all the different things.

It’s like, suddenly, and we’re seeing it even with HRT, you know, with things like pellets, which are not FDA-approved.

We always say that on this show—we’re not saying we’re against pellets, but they’re not FDA-approved. So, buyer beware.

And the way I liken it is when, when all of the fillers first sort of came online, and then suddenly Bob on the corner at Bob’s Clinic was doing fillers, right? And, and everyone started doing fillers.

You’d go to your OB-GYN, and it’s like, Would you like some Botox with your Pap smear today? Like—and, you know?

And now we’re seeing that sort of same thing with hormones, where women are getting prescribed hormones and not necessarily by people who are trained.

The same thing is happening with nutrition recommendations—they're given out by people who are not trained, and they’re not doing the genetic testing.

Do you have some tests that you recommend personally, or, like, within your practice that you like? So for someone listening, you know, is there somewhere you could point them?

Dr. Betty Murray: 25:49

Yeah, I mean, like, I mean, I agree with you completely. I think, you know, hormone replacement requires testing for efficacy, number one.

So, like, testing—like, our clinicians—we, at a minimum, check blood levels as we start titrating to make sure that they’re actually at a therapeutic dose.

Because just because you're not having hot flashes doesn’t mean you’re even close to therapeutic—or not too high either, right?

So, but, but when you get past that sort of basic Am I therapeutic?, then it becomes Am I optimized?

So if we’re looking at hormones and hormone replacement, I think there are several versions out there.

So, urinary hormone metabolism testing—this is where I spent my entire dissertation. So, how our body packages hormones and toxins and things that go into that estrogen pathway, and how it gets rid of them.

There are companies like Precision Analytical, which does the DUTCH test, HuMap, which is done by Doctor’s Data.

There are also several companies that do 24-hour testing, which has been considered the gold standard—24-hour urine hormone metabolism. It’s just a little less convenient because that’s going to show your genetics in action.

I think those are vitally important. That’s part of our standard of care for our telemedicine company and also our clinic.

And then, you know, when we’re looking nutritionally, also looking at organic acid testing, particularly—we use one called the NutrEval or Metabolomix by Genova Diagnostics.

No, no, no financial commitments there—I get nothing out of it. But there are a couple of other competitors. I just happen to think that they’re the best.

Those show your genes in action also.

So, if you’re supplementing—How much? What kind? How much do I need? In combination with these other ingredients? Do I actually need it or not? It helps narrow it down.

There are a lot of things that we might need genetically that are unique—like B vitamins.

There’s high variability between individuals in how much they need. But there’s also a lot of people taking stuff that’s really not helpful, right? Or it might be good but not necessarily necessary.

So, I think it’s important to sort of understand that and work with somebody. And those—we routinely do.

All of our nutrition clients go through those tests. Stool testing—super important also.

Susan Sly: 27:55

Yeah, not fun, but it is—it is important, especially the microbiome. And we're seeing, you know, so many—it’s, it's interesting because before we went into the show, Betty and I were talking about, like, all these different conferences, right?

And, you know, we're seeing now a lot of femtech startups that are in this particular space of testing—whether it's, you know, urine or, you know, swabbing and all the different stuff that's happening.

And even, you know, now skin biome in addition to vaginal biome, in addition to every single biome. And you could go, you know, crazy with testing.

And, you know, for some people, it's not a financial opportunity at the moment, right? For whatever they're going through.

So what advice would you give to someone listening to the show—maybe they're listening for the very first time, Betty, and they're like, I’m not feeling good. I’m on a budget. What is something I could do right now that is common sense?

Dr. Betty Murray: 28:59

Common sense for a particular area, like energy, sleep, or—

Susan Sly: 29:03

Like they’re going through—yeah, they’re going through menopause, perimenopause, and they’re, they’re having the top symptoms. Thank you for the clarifying question.

Dr. Betty Murray: 29:12

So, you know, I think people overlook the foundations, and nobody wants to hear this, right?

Nobody wants to hear—like, everybody’s like, Betty, what supplement can I take so I sleep like a, you know, a magician, and I lose 20 pounds, and all those things?

Believe me, if I had it, you would know, because I'd be selling it. It just doesn't exist.

So I think it's really important to understand that if you're going through perimenopause and menopause, your symptoms of that—like, every woman goes through that. We don’t get a pass.

100% will go through it. The severity and the degree of symptoms are often driven by how metabolically healthy you are, right?

So if you are, you know, eating right and getting plenty of protein and lots of fiber and fruits and vegetables in a wide variety of colors, that means you're getting the fiber that feeds your microbiome.

You're getting the polyphenols from your fruits and vegetables that also feed them and also help some of those detoxification pathways.

You get protein so you hold on to muscle, and it keeps your blood sugar stable so you're not on the roller coaster every day.

You get good sleep, and you do stress management and drink plenty of good water. And you get exercise, particularly weight-bearing exercise, to hold on to your muscle and your bone.

If you're doing those foundations—like, I don’t like, because everybody visualizes the food pyramid, but again, it is the bot—like, you have to have those.

There’s not a supplement on the planet that’s going to get past that.

If you have those, guess what? Your symptoms of perimenopause and menopause are often going to be slightly better.

And then, at that point, you can look into the more interesting things, like:

Do I do bioidentical hormone replacement?

Am I on that continuum where I need it?

You know, I would say my general stance from the literature and the science is most women should have that conversation and consider it as part of their treatment.

But I would also recommend—don’t run to try and get a pill, a patch, an injection, and think that that one thing is going to make you feel great if you haven’t done the baseline.

Believe me, I tried. I tried. I tried to—I tried to biochemically make supplements work.

It does not work. It does not work.

And I really get frustrated online as a nutritionist and somebody who's owned a clinic for 20 years—tens of thousands of women getting help for perimenopause and menopause.

And nothing frustrates me more than to see products that are natural, herbal products saying that they can make up for the loss of hormones.

And, you know, that this, this—this will rebalance your hormones.

Yeah, will—

Unidentified Speaker: 31:31

Not absolutely.

Susan Sly: 31:32

And that’s, you know, that’s what our focus is on, thePause™. It’s that front line before you see your practitioner. It’s like, Let’s dial in all of the common sense things that work—which are not fun. That’s why we are making it fun, because we know there’s an amelioration.

And then, then we get to the customization.

Because here’s the thing—if you are, let’s—I, you know, just to be raw and real. Like, let’s say someone is obese, and they are a smoker, and they’re eating Fritos. Yes, more than likely, that is going to ameliorate your menopause symptoms, right?

Which I know is not what anyone wants to hear, right?

But you have a wonderful way of delivering what no one wants to hear with—like, being really amazing about it.

I’ve been doing this for a long time. I know you, and—

Dr. Betty Murray: 32:26

Trying, you know, and—

Dr. Betty Murray: 32:28

Because nobody wants to do that. Believe me, I don’t get up and go, Gosh, I want to put on my weight vest today and go out while it's still dark out and, you know, hoof it.

You know, I don’t want to do that any more than anybody else. I’m not a morning person.

But, but the reality is—pay now or pay later, right?

Like, I think, If I don’t do the work now to stay healthy, I will end up— you know, I walk into a nursing home every day, right? And I can look at it and say, My mom didn’t end up there until 89, right? And that’s awesome, right?

Personally, she probably would have been better off had that been just the end, right?

But a lot of the nursing homes are filled with women. And they’re filled with women, and we have an average of four and a half years—compared to men—where we live longer but less healthy.

And so, if the onus is on us to take better care of ourselves, that means while we’re caregiving, right, we’re still caring for ourselves at the same time.

Because we don’t want a long lifespan with a poor health span. We want those to equal out.

And, and we have to do the work. It’s just—it’s just the reality.

Susan Sly: 33:26

Well, Betty, thank you so much for that.

And the visual of—if anyone has been in a care home—you know what? Here’s what I’m going to say.

If you want some aversion therapy—it’s very sad—go to a care home. See the women who didn’t do resistance training, and they’re all slumped over, sitting in a chair with no one there. Their head is down because they don’t have the back strength.

See the people who had a terrible diet, whose, you know, brain deteriorated.

And, you know, there are genetic factors. But there are things you can do, as Betty said.

See all the people who end up in that moment—an accumulation of lifestyle choices.

And I know I’m probably going to get some feedback on this episode. I mean, we talk about everything menopause on the show.

And, you know, to Betty’s point, I’ve done that, you know, with my dad.

And I think—for anything—I, like, You, like, I don’t mind doing my cardio, but I don’t feel like doing resistance training.

But what I do, Betty, is—I think about—there was this one woman in the care home for my in-laws, and she would just sit there in the chair.

They’d roll her out to the lobby in the morning, and she was there all day, you know, in a diaper, slumped over, could not lift her head.

And I’m like, I am not going to be that woman. Like, no freaking way.

Dr. Betty Murray: 34:47

No. I mean, it’s—it’s true. Like, the stats with osteoporosis, right? So these are, you know, post-Women’s Health Initiative, which is why we see such—so 50% of women right now, based on these stats, if we don’t do hormone replacement, will end up with a—will have a periodic break in our lifetime.

If you're over 65, 50% of those will never regain the level of mobility they had before that, right?

You do not want to fall and break something and end up in a wheelchair for the rest of your life.

Dr. Betty Murray: 35:12

Right? But that’s—that’s—that’s then. That’s what the stats show.

Dr. Betty Murray: 35:16

Like, I’m—I’m a scientist first and foremost, and—and I have to look at the data. And the data is—we have to preserve it rather than try and recover it.

There are not drugs out there strong enough, because that—like the osteoporosis example—the osteoporosis drugs do not build high-quality bone.

They look better on a DEXA. So all the doctors high-five each other, but they’re still fragile, right?

So we have to—we have to preserve it, which means that we have to put some time and attention to self-care now and keep it as part of it.

Because it doesn’t matter how wealthy you get—if you don’t have your health, you’ve got nothing.

Warren Buffett—if he was bedridden—would be like, I don’t care how much I have, I would rather be able to get up, right?

And so we just have to think about it that way.

And there’s a feeling that we get as women—like, I’ll take care of everybody else, and eventually, I’ll have the moment to myself and take care of me.

Or, I’m gonna martyr myself, and I’m just gonna—I’m gonna go ahead and attach myself—no offense, I’m just gonna do the visual for everybody—attach myself to the cross because I’m doing it for everybody else.

But you won’t be there to be able to do it for everybody else.

Like, if I wasn’t taking care of myself, I wouldn’t have been able to continue to take care of my husband and my mother at the same—

Susan Sly: 36:19

Time.

Yeah, and to your point—Betty and I will take this show on the road. It’ll be called, you know, Betty and Susan’s Tough Love Road Show.

There are a lot of girlfriends—and I know you have them too—in their 50s who are alone.

And it’s like, What are you doing to build resilience?

Because if you don’t end up in a relationship, and you fall one day, or, you know, are widowed, or whatever—like, who takes care of you?

Boo, at the end of the day—I laugh—like, the panic button.

I’m like, Are you gonna remember, Betty, as you’re falling down, to press the panic button?

That’s why, like, artificial intelligence—like computer vision monitoring—makes sense.

But you’ve got to build your resilience. You’ve got to do that.

And, you know, so I want to say—shoutout and kudos to you, girlfriend, for all of the lives you’re changing. What you’re building—it’s just amazing.

Follow Betty on social media—we’ll put links to all of her social media in the show notes.

And, Betty, I want to give you the opportunity to speak to the woman who is like, I’ve never taken a supplement. I don’t do weight training. I’m like—self-care seems so selfish.

Like, finish us off.

Dr. Betty Murray: 37:32

Yeah, you know, it's—it's not selfish, right?

You can't—you can't be there for the people you love and take care of the people you love if you are not well, right?

And, and, and you don’t—because you don’t—you don’t want to also be a burden on your family member, right? That’s the other thing.

I don’t have children, right? So I don’t—I, I’m in that position where, if I happen to be the last one standing, I don’t know—Who am I gonna pay to take care of me, right, at the end of the day?

But there’s no guarantee your parents will too. But the reality is—you don’t want to be a burden on your family.

So all you got to do is one thing, right?

You just have to be slightly better today from a health standpoint than you were before.

So if you’ve never worked out—get up and go walk down the street, right? Like, start somewhere, because each behavior feeds on each other.

You don’t have to become—you don’t have to become super fitness queen overnight.

You just have to take positive steps towards it, right?

Susan Sly: 38:25

That’s the real important part.

Yeah, if you’re the last one standing, and you look over your shoulder and no one’s there, you’re really the last one.

Dr. Betty Murray: 38:34

Okay, yeah, you know.

But yeah, you gotta—you gotta—because that’s the other thing.

Like, I—you know, as somebody without kids, people go, Well, no one’s gonna take care of you.

I’m like, There’s no guarantee they will anyway.

You just—you don’t make the assumption that they would, right?

So the reality is—you want to hold on to your health as long as possible and go.

Susan Sly: 38:53

Well said.

Well, Betty, thank you so much for being on the show. And again, you’re absolutely amazing.

And everyone listening—if the show has been helpful, Betty and I would love a five-star review.

Share it, tag us on social—we would absolutely love that. I read all the comments.

And Betty, thanks again for being here.

Dr. Betty Murray: 39:09

Yeah, thank you for having me. It’s been wonderful.

Susan Sly: 39:14

All right, everyone—well, this is another episode of The Menopause Health Podcast, and I will see you in the next episode.

Voiceover: 39:22

This Menopause Health Podcast is brought to you by thePause™ Technologies.

To find out more, visit thePause.ai and follow us on your favorite social media channels.

Don't forget to hit the subscribe button, share the show, and connect with us.

We will see you in the next episode.

This transcript has been generated using AI technology. There may be errors or discrepancies in the text. The opinions expressed by the guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the show or its hosts. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered medical advice. Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional regarding your specific health needs.