Kim (00:03.202)
All right, in this week's episode, I am talking about supplements. I get asked a lot about the supplements that I take or recommend, and some are related to the pelvic floor. Someway I would say would be indirectly related to the pelvic floor, but I'm to go through my list. So one of the very first ones would be magnesium. this is something that there's many different types of magnesium, but for sleep and calm.
calming our mood, calming anxiety, which often goes along with pelvic floor dysfunction. Magnesium bisglycinate would be the one that is more calming, more for sleep, more to help us reduce anxiety. Magnesium citrate and oxide would be more beneficial for people struggling with constipation and if we want to help make sure that we're going to have a good poop the next day. So I take
bisglycinate and citrate at night before bed. I also have a magnesium spray that I've just started using that I spray on my caps just before I go to sleep. And I have noticed that I have I sleep longer. I don't I don't wake as frequently. I don't really wake frequently anyway, but it has. And when I do wake, I don't stay awake. I just kind of wake. I turn over and I go back to sleep. But I've noticed that there's a longer time in between for
with this magnesium spray, which is mainly bisglycinate. So those are the two main types. There's also threonate, which would be good from a brain health perspective. There's several others. There's one product that has a bunch of different types of magnesium called magnesium breakthrough by bioptimizers. And I'll put some links in the show notes as well for the the ones that the companies that I like and the products that I have used before. Another
I consider essential for many, many reasons, including the pelvic floor is vitamin D. And you also want to take vitamin D with K2. K2 is what helps ensure the vitamin D gets into our bones. And from an aging, powerful aging and longevity perspective, we really want to be paying attention to our bones. And many people in my community have avoided high impact. They have avoided resistance training. They may have done this.
Kim (02:26.498)
because they think it's gonna make their pelvic floor situation worse or maybe they've been told that they shouldn't do it. And when we know that we lose 10 % of our bone mass in the first five years post menopause, if we're not doing impact and we're not doing resistance training, our bones are in trouble. So how we help our bones is with resistance training, with impact. And in my programs, I go through how to do that in...
bunch of different ways to help mitigate symptoms and to help also build a resilient pelvic floor so that you can do those hard things. But also about how we nourish the body. So the amount of protein, a lot of people are told to be careful with protein if they have osteoporosis. Over I think the statistic is 50 % or over 50 % of our bone is made up of protein. We have to have protein and we also need protein to build muscle and we need muscle to help with our bones.
Eating protein is really, important as well. I usually say one gram of protein per pound of body weight based on the literature that I have read. But you want to also supplement with vitamin D and K2. So K2 again is what helps get the vitamin D into the bones. And also a meta-analysis demonstrated lower levels of serum vitamin D in women with pelvic floor dysfunction compared with healthy women.
And findings of another study suggest association of vitamin D deficiency and pelvic floor dysfunction in post menopausal women. In addition, post menopausal women have a high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in general. And again, K2 is what helps get the vitamin D into the bones for our bone health. So those are two essentials and vitamin D, I won't go into all the other reasons why vitamin D is so essential, not just pelvic floor. Of course, I'm biased to that in this podcast, but vitamin D is something that that's a daily.
especially myself, I live in Canada. We don't have super sunny winters at all. So got to do the vitamin D. The next one would be creatine. And there's oodles and oodles of research on this. I've done a podcast episode about it. I have a blog post episode about it. Creatine helps with enhanced strength and power. Older women, they experience significant strength gains, especially when they combine
Kim (04:50.114)
their creatine consumption with resistance training. Postmenopausal females may also experience benefits in skeletal muscle size and function when consuming high doses and favorable effects on bone health when it's combined with the resistance training as well. In general, it's thought that just by taking creatine, it's not magically going to give you great muscles and great bones. You need the stimulus of the resistance training in order to almost activate the creatine in the body.
Creatine supplementation combined with resistance training leads to greater gains in muscle strength and lean body mass compared to resistance training alone. And this was in older men and women. And creatine supplementation can attenuate the progression of sarcopenia, which is age-related muscle loss by improving muscle mass, muscle strength, and physical performance in older adults. And I'm including that population because it's one thing to look at the research in the younger population, but
Many of us again are in this approaching menopause or post menopause zone. Many of you who are listening to this podcast. So I want to show that this is, it's never too late and that we can experience these gains even if we are technically in this older population. There was also one pilot study that looked at women with stress urinary incontinence who took a supplement that contained creatine among other ingredients.
And the women also received daily pelvic floor muscle training for six weeks. And the results of the pilot study showed that women taking the supplement and doing the pelvic floor muscle training had significantly improved urinary symptoms. I had formulated a similar product and I've now I'm going to be launching. So by the time this episode is coming out, I'm relaunching a new creatine product. The first one, it just had too many ingredients in it.
wasn't cost effective, too much magnesium for a lot of people. So the new one that I'm creating is called Buff Plus and it is creatine and an incredible peptide called Peptis Strong, which I'm going to be talking about in a second and also fulvic acid, which I'm going to be talking about in a second as well. So if you're looking for a really like creatine plus with a whole heck of a lot of other benefits, then you can check out Rajiv.com, which is my supplement.
Kim (07:14.062)
company. Again, I'll have a link in the show notes here as well. So the peptide, peptis strong is many studies have shown that it increases muscle synthesis. So they're basically the formation or creation of muscle reduces muscle breakdown again, that, you know, age related muscle loss that we're facing, it increases mitochondrial mass and increases strength recovery and mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell. That's where what's generating and giving us energy and
Often as we're aging, are losing energy often because our mitochondria we have less and there's not a good production of energy in the body. And this peptis strong helps increase that. So the number, the mass of mitochondria and also our ability to recover from strength workouts. So again, I definitely am encouraging people to do resistance training, to do high intensity exercise.
And this is something that will help us from a recovery perspective as well. It has been shown to have four times the protein synthesis compared to whey protein. Whey protein is often found in protein shakes. It also prevents the loss of lean muscle mass by 54%. And there was a 47 % decrease in fatigue and overall boosting of muscle strength and power. So super, super excited to have that in my new formulation called Buff Plus.
And fulvic is another ingredient fulvic humic acid. Sometimes you may see it independently as fulvic acid or humic acid and it contains 65 plus trace minerals, electrolytes, amino acids. So amino acids are what are like the building blocks of protein and they work together to help relieve your body of toxins, heavy metals, pesticides, and the trace minerals and fulvic compounds bolster the absorption rate of nutrients. So it's helping
whatever other things you're consuming, it's helping you absorb them better. So you get more nutrition from the foods that you eat or the supplements that you're taking. Compounds and humic acid nourish the gut. So really great gut support and support a healthy microbiome. That's like the bugs in our gut. I talked a lot about that with Dr. Will Balsiewicz in another episode about two months ago. And that helps improve digestion, less bloating.
Kim (09:37.194)
And several minerals also act as natural electrolytes. So really good from a hydration perspective. And this also activates biological processes for increased energy without the downside of things like caffeine that would act like a stimulant. Humic acid is believed to bind certain toxins, which help, you know, they bind and then we poop them out. It helps us detoxify the body. So that's another ingredient, along with creatine and peptis strong in the new Buff Plus. So super excited about that.
Another product that I supplement that I take, and this is one that I can I've done an article on. I've also done a podcast episode about is collagen. So fibers connective tissue and the pelvic floor muscles support the vaginal walls with collagen types one and type three playing a significant role in the tissue tensile strength. One study found conclusively that women younger than 53 years of age with pelvic organ prolapse have a 30 % lower collagen concentration compared to age matched controls, which indicates a consistent
constitutional tissue weakness contributing to prolapse development. Another study wanted to see if there was a correlation between the clinical stage of pelvic organ prolapse, histological structure, and results of immunohistochemical, that's a big word, study of the vaginal wall. There were 60 postmenopausal women who had undergone some type of pelvic floor surgery during which a biopsy of the vaginal tissue was taken. And there were three groups in the study. Group one was women with stage one or two prolapse.
second group was women with stage three or four and the third group was women with no prolapse and they found a significant difference in the connective tissue of group two namely degradation of collagen fibers with a decrease in connective tissue strength and elasticity. They found that women with pelvic organ prolapse had a lower ratio of type one to type three collagen and analysis of the collagen content in the vaginal wall and patients with mild so stage one to two revealed a significant increase.
the level of collagen type 1 and a decrease in the content of type 3 compared to patients with more severe pelvic organ prolapse. And again I have a whole episode and article specifically on collagen with links to the one I've tried several. One of my favorites is Totally Derma. It's really pricey, however it's really awesome not just because of the collagen but because of all of the other ingredients that they also incorporate that have
Kim (12:03.362)
oodles of other benefits and they have some really good research as well. But it is it's costly. So it's not accessible for everybody. There's another one called Sparkle Wellness that I do like theirs as well. But there's many there's loads of different types of collagen out there as long as you're looking at type one and type three. There's also specific peptides that collagen peptides that can also help with bone. So if you can look for four to bone,
So that's a trademark type and any collagen that you find, you can look at the label and if they have four to bone on there, there's some good research as to how it will help support the bones as well. So again, that's become a, a, a recent extra passion of mine is bone health and anything I can do to support my bones and offset age-related muscle loss, as well as helping support every, all the other tissues in my body is really, really important to me.
See a buckthorn oil. So see buckthorn oil is in my Omega muff product and see buckthorn oil has shown beneficial effects on vaginal health, indicating it as a potential alternative for mucosal integrity for those women not able to use estrogen treatment for vaginal atrophy. I consider vaginal estrogen the gold standard. Again, I have a whole podcast episode and article about
vaginal estrogen and other helpful therapies for vaginal dryness. And I do include seabuckthorn oil in there. So this is oral seabuckthorn oil, which is rich in flavonoids and omega-3, 6, 7, and 9 fatty acids, which have a strong effect on the cardiovascular system. But also it has been shown to help with the of the dryness that is associated with genitourinary syndrome of menopause. There was also a 2021 review of
previous studies and sea buckthorn oil possesses several medicinal properties as well antibacterial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory. So this is whole body, but specific to the pelvic floor as well. When we think of genitourinary syndrome of menopause with the additional like with the change in the pH, the additional risks we face for infection, having this not only benefit the integrity of the vaginal mucosa and helping with vaginal dryness, but it could potentially
Kim (14:28.98)
no research that I know of, could potentially play a role in in reducing the overall infection, but also again, from an anti inflammatory perspective, super, super supportive.
Kim (14:42.722)
The next one would be probiotics. And there's lots of people that have different viewpoints on probiotics. I've had lots of different conversations with gut health people talking about constipation and digestion. Some people are in favor, some people are not as in favor. I have one that I've formulated and it has a lot of very supportive
elements from a gut health perspective, well as a trademarked, well-researched specific blend of probiotics. So my probiotic is called Puforia. And it again, it has a specific strain that's really, really beneficial and does actually get down into the gut. It also has tumeric root, aloe vera, psyllium husk, clipped slippery elm, and inulin, which is a prebiotic. And prebiotics are the food for the probiotics.
This is something I talked a lot about with Dr. Will Balsiewicz. He has created an amazing prebiotic called 38-TERA, and I'll have a link to that one as well. It tastes really, really good and is super, super, it's like super food for your gut bacteria, and again, for the probiotics. Another one that I use from a sleep support perspective, so again, this is kind of an indirect link to the pelvic floor. When we don't sleep well, we usually feel more anxious.
We have trouble with our blood sugar. We are often more symptomatic with our pelvic floor. And one thing that I've added to my nighttime routine is L-theanine, which is a natural compound found in tea. And it promotes relaxation of brain activity, basically. And sleep studies suggest that the administration of 200 milligrams of L-theanine before bed may support improved sleep quality, not through sedation, but
basically from an anxiety reduction perspective. So I've really noticed a difference when I have that in my sleep stack. Something that I have just started taking, I've been following a company called Qualia. I've had a lot of people who I follow talk about this company and they have several different products. One that has really sparked my interest is their senolytic. So cellular senescence,
Kim (17:04.014)
Some people if you follow anybody in the biohacker space or longevity space, they will be talking about cellular senescence, which is Basically when our our cells die we need to have some way to get them out of the body And if we don't have a good removal system, they become these zombie cells senescent cells so cellular senescence is one of the hallmarks of aging and It's the process by which cells permanently stop dividing but don't again they don't
die off and and leave these senescent cells linger. That's where they get the name zombie cells. They linger inside the body and they start to accumulate over time and that can affect healthy function of tissues and organs as we're aging. So the word senolytic is derived from the Latin word, the words senex, which is old and lytic, which is destroying.
So a senolytic is a substance designed to destroy these senescent cells and basically create more space in our tissues for more youthful cells that can help with whole body rejuvenation. So qualic senolytic is something that you only take two days every month. So every month, like some people do it at the very start of every month. Mine, I happen to be doing it in the middle of the month.
You take a series of you take six pills on day one and six pills on day two and it's full of a bunch of different incredible ingredients that help with this. This cellular senescence removal so it's basically helping with that whole body rejuvenation so I've only been doing it for a couple of months now it's not necessarily something that you feel. So unlike. You know creating I notice that.
I recover quicker. I notice that I have more energy with my workouts. Probiotic, I noticed that I have better digestion. Elfenin, I noticed I have better sleep. With the senolytic, you don't necessarily feel anything in the moment or even in the days that you're taking it, but it's just something that I feel is an additional layer of support to my tissues as I'm aging. I want to do everything that I can to make sure that I am getting rid of the stuff that I don't need anymore and also that I'm able to create space for
Kim (19:19.38)
new good youthful cells. Another one that I've been taking for probably I guess about a year or so is black seed oil. Some people say black cumin seed oil. I first learned about this from there was two people who started talking about it around the same time. One was Andrea Donsky, the other was Dr Amy Horniman. Several studies have shown that black cumin seed either in oil or powder, I take it as an oil in a capsule, can help promote healthy cholesterol levels.
when people used black cumin seed oil and exercise, it was more effective at improving people's lipid profile. So balancing out their cholesterol levels as well as triglycerides. And that was when they compared like that versus just exercise alone. Overall, it appears that black cumin seed oil can support heart health and cardiovascular health. So again, I am now on the post menopause phase of my life where I'll be for the rest of my life. And I know that
Yes, I'm taking hormone therapy, but I know that again, aging in general being post menopause, my cardiovascular risk is now higher. So I'm doing everything again for supporting my heart and cardiovascular health and black cumin seed oil is one of those things that I've seen in the research and have been taking it also appears to help reduce redness, swelling, irritation. that inflammation, particularly in the joints.
And a review of multiple studies, including human clinical trials, found that it may be effective as a therapy for autoimmune disease. And if you have been around here for a while, you know that I have an autoimmune condition called Hashimoto's. And I'm fairly able to keep my autoimmune markers, the antibodies, in check. And that is with a combination of lifestyle as well as a medication called low dose.
naltrexone. But again, I want to be doing all the things that I can to support the fact that I have this autoimmunity and inflammation is one thing that's very common with autoimmune disease. And also people with rheumatoid arthritis, which is another type of autoimmune disease causes joint discomfort. When they rubbed black cumin oil on the skin, it reduced swelling in the joints.
Kim (21:34.83)
and it also may help normalize levels of inflammatory markers in the blood, particularly associated with things like colitis. It also has an incredible ability to balance blood sugar. And again, in the post menopause zone, when we are in a low estrogen state, we become more insulin resistant. So we have difficulty with managing blood sugar. And especially again, in this population of women with pelvic dysfunction who may not be exercising.
especially later in the day. we know that exercising or even going for a walk after meals or doing some air squats after meals can be really supportive of our blood sugar. But again, a lot of people are not doing those things either because they may be symptomatic or they may have been told that they shouldn't do those things. And so coupled with potentially a low estrogen state or a less favorable hormone balance overall, knowing that that's going to increase our insulin resistance.
I want to be doing again all the things that I can to help mitigate these risks. I started in university. Well, actually, started, I lived overseas in Indonesia when I was in high school. And I, not so much there, but when I went to university, I started to, I thought I wanted to become a vegetarian. basically at the time,
I didn't do any research about it. just thought I just won't eat meat and I replaced meat with carbohydrate and I became very, I ate carbs all the time and I was very active. I never had a problem with weight. it, it, it never occurred to me that it would be messing with anything like my blood sugar. And at the time I didn't have any, whenever I had blood tests, was never any challenges. However, as I
went into my postpartum phase perimenopause phase, it definitely became a challenge for me. So I've been working very hard with addressing the autoimmune, getting ahold of my, like getting an overall handle with my hormones. And I'm in a really great state now being I'm 53 compared to what for the majority of my forties. So anyway, long story back to
Kim (23:58.84)
black cumin seed is also shown to have a good ability of helping balance blood sugars. Most studies look at thymoquinone, which is the main phytonutrient in black seed oil, which might reduce the glucose absorption in the intestine while supporting insulin production by the pancreas. So I think this is a really cool, amazing supplement and it's part of my daily routine. Another one that's part of my daily routine is called natokinase. And this is something that I had never heard of before. I'd heard of natto, which is a fermented food from Japan.
not something I can consume really, but I was listening to a podcast, somebody who was talking about post pandemic and how we can support our body from a detoxification perspective. And they were talking a lot about natokinase. So I was curious about that, the detoxification component, but it's also been shown to help dissolve blood clots and about, let's see, what are we at? Two to 2024. I think it was about a year and a half, two years ago.
I developed a blood clot in my calf after a long haul flight to Bali. So I got on the flight. It was late at night. I reclined my seat. I crossed my legs. I fell asleep for seven hours and I ended up developing a blood clot. So again, that cardiovascular risk perspective and also blood clots is something that I need to be careful with. So this is something that I use to help support that as well.
The next one is Toko-e. I heard about this through Andrea Donsky, who is going to be an upcoming guest on the podcast. She has a fantastic line of supplements called Morphous. Wearemorphous.com and she also has an amazing podcast. is an incredible, she was one of the first people talking about menopause on TikTok. She is an incredible wealth of knowledge with regards to perimenopause, postmenopause.
So over 100 studies, this is taken from her website, over 100 studies and clinical trials have proven the benefits of tocotrienols, toc-o-e as a short form from Delta and Gamma tocotrienols, including lower inflammation, lowering cholesterol, improving brain health, improving liver health, healing skin scarring, lowering blood sugar, improving insulin function, improving insulin sensitivity, improving metabolic health, supporting weight loss, improving bone health and decreasing bone loss. So again, when we think about
Kim (26:25.344)
Myself and also the population that I serve really want to pay attention to our cardiovascular risk really want to pay attention to our blood sugar management and that insulin sensitivity Really want to pay attention to our bone health as well And the brain is another thing in there a lot of people talking from an Alzheimer's perspective It's now being called the type 3 diabetes. So when we look at overall metabolic health and blood sugar regulation anything again that
is going to help support all of that is something that I am including in my day. Quercetin. I first learned about Quercetin during the pandemic. I was using a platform called Clubhouse, which was kind of like interactive podcasts. So was a voice only social media platform. you would go into quote unquote rooms where you would listen to people speak.
connected with a ton of amazing people via Clubhouse and learned a ton and quercetin was one of the supplements that was talked about a lot there. It's known for its anti inflammatory, anti cancer and cardiovascular benefits. And there's a link that I'll put from a study that talks about a whole bunch of benefits from a course of 10 perspective. So rather than listing them all out here, I'll just post a link to the article so you can go and read it's a very extensive article.
B complex, so B vitamins, they are critical to our cell metabolism. They can also help ease stress and improve our mood and especially B12, which is part of that. There's many different B vitamins. B12 in particular is really important from a thyroid perspective. So again, myself, but also many of the people in my community struggle with thyroid challenges. Many women are diagnosed with hypothyroidism, especially in that perimenopause zone of life and
many of those are, they actually have Hashimoto's, but mainstream medical doesn't typically screen for that. So it might appear that they have hypothyroidism, but it's not pursued to see if the reason is actually the autoimmune form of Hashimoto's. So a lot of women are put on thyroid medication improperly without the full root cause investigation, but B vitamins play a really
Kim (28:50.22)
key role in terms of supporting thyroid function in particular B12. NAC, I don't remember when I first learned about this one. It's been pretty sure it was pre-pandemic and I don't remember how I first learned about it but anyway NAC, N-l-cetylcysteine is a big word is a precursor to the amino acid L-cysteine which is a compound
that's instrumental for the production of glutathione and glutathione is the body's master antioxidant antioxidants are well known for their ability to minimize oxidative stress and then the resulting negative effects from oxidative stress. And there's lots of things like oxidative stress is not something we can avoid, but antioxidants are basically something that can help us with oxidative stress.
exercise, high intensity exercise increases oxidative stress and that doesn't mean that high intensity exercise is bad. It's really really great but an antioxidant like NAC is something that can help reduce the negative effects that are potential from oxidative stress. So that is something that is in my daily routine as well. Electrolytes. This is not, I wouldn't say I do this daily but probably four to five times a week I
am using electrolytes and there's many different electrolyte companies. Most recently I was at a conference and I have been looking for one that has sea salt or like the more mineral rich salt and I found a company called Relight and their electrolytes have additional nutrients and herbs that help support immunity, workout stamina and overall energy of course hydration.
And a lot of people in my community talk about the fact that when they have electrolytes, they poop better. It helps them with their digestion. So that's just an anecdotal comment from my community. But I do find that it makes it very easy to get in the, don't necessarily have a problem drinking water, but sometimes it's nice to have a little bit of a flavor. So Rilite has really great flavor profiles and it has the perfect blend from a hydration perspective.
Kim (31:09.638)
And yeah, so that's again, not a daily staple, but it's becoming pretty regular for me. Now we're going to end up with the last one on my list here is berberine. And berberine is a lot of people refer to it as sort of like the supplement form of metformin. Metformin is a popular diabetes medication. Berberine is a blood sugar. It helps with blood sugar regulation, and it may also help with cholesterol.
in a similar way to metformin. And numerous studies have been done on berberine and it works through several mechanisms to regulate the blood sugar. So again, that overall theme of postmenopause especially, but you don't have to be postmenopause to have insulin resistance. In general, a lot of people have insulin resistance and poor metabolic health. So this is something that we can take to help reduce insulin resistance, which can then make the insulin more effective.
and it helps stimulate glucose uptake in the muscles in our liver and the adipose tissue, which can then again reduce the blood sugar levels, which is good. It increases our glucose metabolism. So that's called glycolysis and that happens inside the cell. It helps the gut break down carbohydrates more slowly, which prevents the blood sugar highs and lows, kind of those highs and crashes. It also helps regulate the gut microbiome and that can play a role in, you know,
you look listen to any of the gut health podcast episodes that I have which there are many so much stems from the gut and so many people in my community struggle with poor gut health and constipation. So we want to look at all of the different ways that we can help improve our gut microbiome so that we poop well so that we reduce the strain on the pelvic floor so that we eliminate our toxins so that we get rid of the hormones that we no longer need.
We have to poop every single day and so many people struggle with that. also helps, berberine also helps reduce the sugar production in the liver. And when ATP, so that's our energy currency, basically when the ATP levels are low, berberine can help the signaling pathways to replenish ATP supplies in our cells and ramp up fatty acid oxidation. So in other words, it boosts your energy and it helps burn fat.
Kim (33:36.23)
and when we are postmenopause we have more struggles with energy and and we have more fat accumulation. So that is a summary of the supplements I take. Now on top of that I do take hormone therapy, take progesterone, I take bioidentical progesterone, I take bioidentical estrogen systemically so meaning the whole body delivery, and I also take vaginal
estrogen or use vaginal estrogen as part of my kind of again daily routine. But this is focused on the supplement side of things. So some of these directly associate with pelvic floor, some of them more indirectly associated. But these are things that I am doing to help maintain my overall health and some again directly to my pelvic health, but also then indirectly. So I hope you found this valuable. I will have links to many of the products that I use.
the supplement companies that I recommend and you can then go check those out for yourself and see if it's something that you'd like to add to your day. So that is it for this episode we'll see you again next time.
