Hormone Havoc: Cutting Through the Noise Around Women’s Health with Dr Amy Shah

If you subscribe to my Substack (I love you!) then you would have seen my column about how wellness messaging on products has, in my opinion, gone too far. We are all entitled to create a spa-like experience in our own home but it's my belief that brands latching the benefits of their products onto you taking a moment to yourself is really quite disingenuous. In this episode, I explain why it got me so riled and why we should expect better of brands.If you've been here a while then you'll know I am often vague when making a point about something contentious. I don't name names and I'm not interested in starting a fight with anyone. However, I break my own rule in this episode when it comes to the lack of reciprocity in podcasting. I was talking to a fellow OG podcaster (someone who also has 10 plus years of podcasts to their name) and we were saying how disappointing it is when you share your platform with someone and they seem indifferent and don't support you back...Plus. there's a short but sweet update on my fitness and nutrition strategy. Short and sweet because I'm wondering whether too much focus on it is as helpful as I think it is...Speaking of, this is the episode of Ready To Talk I mentioned in the show.Please do chat with me and your fellow listeners over on Substack. I'd love to hear your thoughts.EG xxHey! Why not share your thoughts and insights to make your listening experience even better. Complete this listener survey to tell me what you want to hear: http://bit.ly/theemmagunsshow-survey Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A little white ago I stepped away from conversations about hormones, perimenopause and menopause on this podcast.Not because women’s health stopped being important, for from it! It was because the conversation became louder, more crowded and, for many women, more confusing than helpful. Conflicting advice, competing experts and endless rules have left many of us wondering what actually matters, and what we should actually do day to day to feel better.In this episode, I’m joined by physician and bestselling author Dr. Amy Shah to discuss her new book, Hormone Havoc. Rather than another conversation focused solely on treatment or supplements, we talk about the practical, everyday habits that support women through perimenopause, menopause and beyond.We explore how hormones intersect with modern life, why midlife can feel uniquely overwhelming, and how small, consistent changes around nutrition, sleep, movement and recovery can make a meaningful difference.This is a calmer, clearer conversation about a stage of life that doesn’t need to be feared, it just needs to be understood.In This EpisodeWhy women feel more confused about hormones than everPerimenopause as a gradual hormonal transition rather than a sudden eventThe impact of modern stress and midlife responsibilitiesMoving from dieting culture to strength and longevityDr Shah’s 30–30–3 approach:30g protein in your first meal30g fibre per day3 servings of probiotic foodsGut health and hormone regulationUltra-processed foods and metabolic healthGLP-1 medications; benefits, realities and cautionsSleep, circadian rhythm and the importance of darknessAlcohol, ageing and brain healthWhy menopause can mark a powerful new phase of lifeAbout My GuestDr. Amy Shah is a double board-certified physician specialising in integrative medicine and nutrition. She is the bestselling author of I’m So Effing Tired, I’m So Effing Hungry, and Hormone Havoc, which explores how modern lifestyles influence women’s hormones and how evidence-based daily habits can support healthier ageing.If this episode resonated with you, follow the podcast so you never miss future conversations like this one. If you want to share your thoughts on this conversation with me and your fellow listeners, subscribe to my Substack.Hey! Why not share your thoughts and insights to make your listening experience even better. Complete this listener survey to tell me what you want to hear: http://bit.ly/theemmagunsshow-survey Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The question I think I'm asked most when it comes to beauty these days is, 'should I be taking collagen?' It sells a good story, doesn't it? Take this daily supplement and all that collagen and youthfulness we're told starts to deteriorate after we hit 30, will be topped up and wrinkles, jowls and sagging will have a much harder time showing up on your skin. It's all great but where's the proof? Just because we begin to lose our collagen stores as we age, doesn't mean eating or drinking collagen will do the job we think it will. In fact, whenever I have been asked whether collagen is something worth taking, my response has been 'it can't do any harm, but no derm I've spoken to says there's a direct and proven link so, for me, the jury's out'. Until now...In this episode, I chat with Maxine Laceby from Absolute Collagen who took a big risk by putting collagen through a gold standard double blind placebo clinical trial. A trial where neither the participants or the researchers know who is receiving the active treatment versus an inactive placebo. This kind of trial is accepted by medicine as objective scientific methodology that produces knowledge untainted by bias. Essentially, if the trial had said there was no proof of collagen's efficacy, Maxine would have completely torpedoed her brand. However, the results were compelling and she details them in this episode.We also discuss the newest collagen she has created, Pro Sculpt, designed specifically for people on a 'rapid weight loss journey' in the era of GLP-1s but, as you'll hear, it seems to me that this particular collagen is as relevant to someone on a strength training/body recomp journey as much as it is for people using weight loss jabs.Let me know what you think. Have you been taking collagen in the 'hope' it works and has this conversation convinced you that your money has been well spent, or are you now going to bite the bullet and try collagen to see if you can notice the difference?Absolute Collagen Sculpt Pro.Absolute Collagen Hair Pro.If you have thoughts, feelings or questions about this episode, please do share them over on Substack.Hey! Why not share your thoughts and insights to make your listening experience even better. Complete this listener survey to tell me what you want to hear: http://bit.ly/theemmagunsshow-survey Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sometimes you just have to be honest with yourself and, when it comes to my latest efforts regarding my diet and training, I have to accept the fact that a seven week plateau is probably a sign that I've found myself doing 'just enough' instead of 'what's required to make change'. That doesn't mean I'm defeated, far from it. I'd rather be realistic and adjust now than keep going for another six weeks and find myself in the same position. I've given it a fair crack but the science would say, I'm not doing enough (in the episode, I explain why this is actually really valuable data). Outside of that, I need your TV recommendations. I love my Bravo schedule and I never miss a vlog from Victoria but after enjoying The Night Manager 2 so much, I need a fix of something complicated and delicious to follow to watch.Please do let me know your suggestions over on substack and make sure you're following me on instagram for all my updates on the podcast, beauty, health, food and fitness.Hey! Why not share your thoughts and insights to make your listening experience even better. Complete this listener survey to tell me what you want to hear: http://bit.ly/theemmagunsshow-survey Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I'm still persevering with this new nutrition and training plan but I'm not going to lie, it's not easy. Not to sound like a brat, but without any feedback (read: scale results) it's difficult to believe it's working so, six weeks in, I'm still leaning heavily into hope. I hope this works, I hope the effort will lead to reward and I hope that I am working smarter, not stupider.There's no escaping that some really dark and frightening things are happening the world right now. Yes, we should all be aware and informed but the fact is, we need a little distraction. Don't take my 'doom scroll' away from me when my 'doom scroll' is such much less terrifying than the actual news, you hear me? What do you think? Is a little distraction just what we all need right now?And finally, I interviewed Maxine Laceby from Absolute Collagen last week and after tapping out of interviews for a while because the podcast formula of rags-to-riches was so predictable in every chat I had, I am back! Maxine restored and renewed my faith in a format that I adore. My happiest and most rewarding work has always been via interviews and after feeling so inspired by my time with Maxine, I'm booking more guests for upcoming episodes - is there anyone you really want to hear from?Make sure you're subscribed to my Substack and following me on Instagram to stay up-to-date with my day to day and to chat with me and with your fellow listeners.Ems xxHey! Why not share your thoughts and insights to make your listening experience even better. Complete this listener survey to tell me what you want to hear: http://bit.ly/theemmagunsshow-survey Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the previous episode, I talked about how my new approach to diet and exercise - working smarter, not harder - had been a challenge because things got worse before they got better. Many listeners wrote to me asking me to delve a little deeper into this uncomfortable phases so, in this episode, I'm talking about the 'messy middle'.Forget about the metrics, this 'messy middle' was more about the mental and emotional discomfort that started to show up. After years of being rewarded for control, I let go. I stopped restricting, I stopped over-training, I decided to let go of the idea that doing more would yield bigger, better and more impressive results and what I saw was - nothing.Actually, not nothing.I saw all my metrics going in the 'wrong' direction. Did I panic? Of course I did!Yet, when it would have been so easy to quit, to go back to those old behaviours that had always given me the quick result and felt virtuous in their doing, I held fast and even though I'm still learning and it's not as though I'm through the worst of it, I can now see signs that this new approach, which requires far less stress and strain, might actually be working...Let's chat about the 'messy middle' over on Substack...Hey! Why not share your thoughts and insights to make your listening experience even better. Complete this listener survey to tell me what you want to hear: http://bit.ly/theemmagunsshow-survey Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Right, we're in the hardest part of any change-making - the bit where it gets worse before it, hopefully, gets better. Changing my diet and fitness regime at the same time has meant learning lots of new lessons, perhaps more importantly, unlearning a lot of what I thought be true, and holding on tightly while the turbulence of change has me desperately wanting to 'eject'.What I keep coming back to is that what worked for me before had stopped working and a new approach is the best way forward. Even though it's tempting to go back to what I was doing before, that would mean getting to the same place I was without any clearer idea of how to get closer to my goals. Anyway, it's all a bit unsettling, weird and strange after a few years of feeling comfortable and confident in how I ate and trained. I continue to trust I'm on the right path though...Also in this episode; my thoughts on the Beckham family drama, why the Queer Eye fall out is indicative of a bigger issue and my opinion on GLP-1s that might make you hate me.Please do head over to Substack to let me know your thoughts. It's where we can all chat about the topics in the show.Hey! Why not share your thoughts and insights to make your listening experience even better. Complete this listener survey to tell me what you want to hear: http://bit.ly/theemmagunsshow-survey Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Do you immediately assume that doing less equates to being lazy? More than that, do you feel that if you aren't constantly 'on' that the world will assume you aren't a motivated, successful, go-getter?Over the last few weeks, I've been a guinea-pig in my own 'what's the worst that can happen if I do less?' experiment and the results, so far, have been surprising. Not least because, truth be told, I have created an identity around going above and beyond, over-delivering and always being poised to pounce on the next idea that to make the decision to absent myself from that sense of urgency has been, dare I say, uncomfortable and unsettling.Whether a down-shift in perceived effort is a good thing is something only time will tell, but nearly a month into this effort, I can definitely tell you what it feels like to consciously 'do' less and how that has been showing up. It hasn't been particularly comfortable and, as someone who has also responded to my internal Sergeant Major immediately, to suddenly tell that loud, shouty inner voice 'not today' or 'not right now' has led to a fair amount of low level guilt. Doing less has felt like choosing laziness. However, doing less via conscious choice as opposed to apathy has changed the texture of my days - even this soon into the experiment. I'm practising this new, slower approach across work, nutrition and training and my one observation across all three is that I feel far more connected to all my tasks and less knee-jerk and reactive. More on this in the episode. My main takeaway is that this reframe means I'm no longer living in a state of low-grade urgency and the knock-on effects of that have been pleasing so far...Have a listen and let me know what you think of this experiment, whether you're trying it alongside me or whether this has made you look at your workload differently. Let's chat in the comments over on Substack...Hey! Why not share your thoughts and insights to make your listening experience even better. Complete this listener survey to tell me what you want to hear: http://bit.ly/theemmagunsshow-survey Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Have you been sold a lie?What if doing more is actually a fast track to achieving less?You know how it goes, you find more time in your schedule, you've become competent at a certain amount of work and so your instinct is to fill the time gap, add more to your workload and generally max yourself out. I'm not wrong, am I? Women especially have been targeted by a culture of success meaning a side-hustle, having some sort of brilliant entrepreneurial idea that'll make millions and being able to do everything perfectly in all corners of our lives. Yep, we're all expected to be able to do our own accounts, bake a Bake-Off quality birthday cake with no notice and maintain a fitness regime that requires hours in the gym. It's. All. Too. Much.So, in this episode I look at the ways in which you can still get everything done but without the accompanying panic, stress, cortisol spike and general urgency that we've been conditioned to lock into in order to appear, and feel, like we're doing things properly.Contact me: [email protected] to my Substack Follow me on InstagramHey! Why not share your thoughts and insights to make your listening experience even better. Complete this listener survey to tell me what you want to hear: http://bit.ly/theemmagunsshow-survey Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's not that I've been going wrong, as such, but after eight months of effort towards body recomposition, I've had to acknowledge that something wasn't working. I'm not mad or upset because, ultimately, I've maintained my 50lb weight loss. However, if you've set your sights on a goal and after months of effort, you are no closer, it's only sensible to take a look at your output and see what you could be doing differently.The plot twist here is that my new approach actually feels like doing less. But, if you don't try you'll never know and as much as this is a huge trust exercise, I am also hopeful that this does work. To be more specific, I really want this to work because if it does then it means there's more than one way to skin a cat (horrible expression, but it's universal) and I can finally let go of the idea that the only way to get to where you want to be is to go at it full pelt until you eventually fall over.As it turns out, this whole new approach has come at a time when I think I need it most, and not just when it comes to my training, but let me know what you think and if you have any examples where doing less actually got you more...Follow me on Instagram @emmagunsSubscribe to my Substack @theemmagunsshowEmail me office@emmagunsHey! Why not share your thoughts and insights to make your listening experience even better. Complete this listener survey to tell me what you want to hear: http://bit.ly/theemmagunsshow-survey Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.