Kim Vopni (00:01.506)
Hi Zora, welcome. Nice to see you.
Zora Benhamou (00:04.123)
Thanks for having me. I'm so excited to speak about all of the things that we're going to speak about today.
Kim Vopni (00:10.88)
All the things I know the other episode. So your return guest the other episode we chatted about biohacks for women. We've had I would say a slant towards perimenopause postmenopause and today we really want to cover the surgery piece. Now the surgeries that you've had are not necessarily pelvic related but we could argue that they are hip replacements are very very much influenced the pelvic floor. But really from a from a surgical perspective.
The body is undergoing this controlled trauma, we can argue, and there's a lot of prep work and recovery that you did for your two hip replacement surgeries, and we're gonna dive into how you got there and all that, but I really wanted to explore that, because that was a huge thing for me was when I went through my pelvic surgery, first of all, the time it took me to make that decision, and then once I'd made the decision, the prep work,
I always look at things preventatively and if I've done all the things, addressed all the root causes, I want to get my body in the best shape possible for this surgery and I need to recover very intentionally. And that ended up becoming a program that I created, Pelvic Surgery Success for People Going Through Pelvic Surgeries, because I feel like there's so much that we can do differently and better than the show up for surgery and then get a green light at six weeks and go back to quote unquote regular activities.
without all of the extra knowledge. So you've got this whole other, like you blew me out of the water in terms of your prep work and your recovery. So I wanna go there. But first of all, please introduce yourself, who are you? And kind of lead yourself into osteoarthritis, like what brought you to your hip surgeries.
Zora Benhamou (01:47.387)
Thank
Zora Benhamou (01:58.971)
Yeah, so I'm a gerontologist, so I study aging and longevity. So I understand bones and bone health and all that. when I, and I'm also obviously interested in the menopause and biohacking as well, but as a gerontologist, I really felt that I was taken aback by surprise when I was starting to have hip pain and then eventually told I need a surgery. I was told I need surgery when I was 48.
And I just laughed it off and said, I don't think so. You don't know me. I can biohack my way out of this. And I actually did for a while. did a year after year, I do some platelet rich plasma injections and all kinds of crazy stuff and it worked and it brought me to life again until it didn't anymore. And then I had two years of just going back to what used to work and it wasn't working anymore. And, and I was told you,
got osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis, just to make things clear for people, is different than osteoporosis. A lot of people go, oh, osteoporosis, I also have. I say, no, this is not osteoporosis. Osteoporosis is loss of bone density. Your bones are becoming fragile. My bones are really strong. There's nothing wrong with the bones. It's the joints and the articulations that become inflamed. There's an inflammation there. The cartilage is starting to wear and tear or remove itself.
And so that's why you have this sort of people saying bone on bone and it can happen to your knees, your hips, any joint that you have. And it's very painful. And every time you move, you feel pain. And then you have loss of range of motion. You may have swelling. For me, I was also told that you have a hip impingement. And so there are 12 risk factors for osteoarthritis. Remember, osteoarthritis is degenerative disease and no doctor except one.
can say you reverse, can reverse it. Osteoporosis, you can reverse, clearly we can. Osteoarthritis is a different game. So I tried my best. I still thank you. Maybe you could if you catch it early enough and you did the right biohacks, which I'll explain some of them later. But for me, it was a little bit too late. And I had to make that decision to get a surgery. And as anti-surgery as I was in the beginning, I was begging for it at the end. You know, you just know.
Kim Vopni (04:20.833)
Yeah.
Zora Benhamou (04:23.451)
when you need it because the quality of life is so reduced. And osteoarthritis is pretty prevalent in the world. In fact, I think there are over 500 million people living with this, this pain. It's a living with chronic pain. And there are 400,000 surgeries in the U.S. done every year. And it affects about, I think it was six to 7 % of the world population. And there are lot of people who cannot get surgery. Either they're
Kim Vopni (04:37.282)
Wow.
Kim Vopni (04:43.509)
Wow.
Zora Benhamou (04:53.503)
in there, they are not offered it, or there's a long waiting list, or you don't have private insurance and you are living with this pain, or they just don't know that there are solutions. And so I, people said, I'm so sorry, you're getting surgery. I'm like, no, I get to do surgery. I'm privileged to get this done and have a second life. So, and when it comes to osteoarthritis, usually it happens a little bit more often in the knees. Hips are second place.
Kim Vopni (05:08.033)
Yeah, yeah.
Zora Benhamou (05:22.807)
And very often it happens to women than to men. And that makes me think because one of the risk factors is a loss of hormones. And I noticed right around that menopause transition, my osteoarthritis accelerated. So my hacks weren't working anymore. I wonder why. So there are the risk factors, but risk factors, there are the genes, there's your age, there's being female. These are all putting you at risk. You can't really change those.
Kim Vopni (05:30.401)
Mm-hmm.
Zora Benhamou (05:51.617)
You, depends on if you're athletic. That was me. I'm somebody who's very athletic and I've had injuries. There's another risk factor. So you can see how all of this stuff kind of falls into place. Obesity is another one. That wasn't my case. So if you are younger and athletic and you search online, what can I do to, for osteoarthritis? The, the recommendation is to lose weight. I didn't want to do that. That was not my case.
Kim Vopni (06:17.845)
Yeah. Yeah.
Zora Benhamou (06:18.459)
So what do you do? And it's really frustrating because you do feel so alone in this, at least I felt alone. I'm so grateful that you're giving me the platform to speak about this because it will resonate with, with women. I wish I heard this when I was told, or I had to make that decision to go through surgery. So, so yeah, so in the end I decided, okay, this is, this is it. I'm going to have a new life. And when you decide that you just change the chip, you're like, all right, now I'm going to be bionic.
I'm not going to like, I'm going to be superhuman. This is going to be amazing. And at least I try to put on that positive mindset. So there are some things that you want to do before any surgery. And I've learned so many things because of the guests from my podcast and then thanks to you as well. I've been showing, sharing so much information to everybody else, but I get to have guest experts like you come onto the show and give me a lot of information in terms of surgeries, recovery, uh,
regenerative medicine, all these things. So I tapped into that network and I said, look, I'm getting a surgery. What can I do to supercharge my recovery? Because I want to get over this as fast as I possibly can. So I've been giving this protocol and I had two chances to experiment with them because I had one hip done and then three months later had the second one done. And so that's been a great
Kim Vopni (07:31.137)
Mm-hmm.
Zora Benhamou (07:39.811)
chance for me to, to, to test things out. And I'm to share with you some of, some of the things that I've learned in terms of the perioperative experience, the pre, the during, and the post.
Kim Vopni (07:48.631)
Yeah, yeah.
So you in the, like when, what you do, you're a biohacker and hack my age is the name of your podcast. For those people that don't know, and maybe you haven't listened to the previous episode that we did, which I will link in the show notes, what is biohacking? What is hacking your age or what are, what are hacks for the people that don't know that term?
Zora Benhamou (08:10.671)
Hmm. Yeah, that's a good, a a good thing. I probably shouldn't explain what a gerontologist is. These professions that have, you know, people don't really know about it, but biohacking is just as the word as you said is hacking is finding a shortcut and biology, bio-biology, a way to hack the system, a way to improve your health through
Kim Vopni (08:17.441)
You
Zora Benhamou (08:33.975)
Mostly external factors, as well internal as well. you, I, I, the easy word is just health optimization. It's kind of next level health. When a, when a biohacker, for example, does blood work, we get the results back that are all normal. And we may go a little disappointed because we know that blood work is just the average taken from the average of the population. And they keep shifting it as the population gets a little sicker and sicker.
Kim Vopni (08:40.375)
Mm-hmm.
Kim Vopni (08:58.775)
sicker and sicker. Yeah.
Zora Benhamou (09:00.057)
So if the average American, for example, is sick, then we're told we're normal, then we're sick. We're like, okay, we got to get into some optimal levels if we really want to bump it up a notch and really protect our future selves. And as a gerontologist, this is somebody who studies aging and longevity. And this is, we not only look at the biological aspects of aging, but the sociological and the psychological aspects of aging. So I like this whole holistic approach. And yes, we do study older adults, but we look at the whole life course from birth to death to understand what's going on.
And so when you put the pieces together, the biohacking piece is such a, is such a great add on to longevity or aging. If that's your concern, because when I bring in the menopause space and in my conversation in our, in our podcast, because we're focused on biohacking menopause. Well, yes, there's a lot of things we can do to alleviate the symptoms to feel better. And that's fabulous.
But the gerontologist in me says, I want to protect your future self. So we've got to do things a little differently if we want to get to this, our 70 and 80 year old self and make sure she's going to be in a good condition to do all the things that she wants to be doing in life. So biohacking, biohacking. Yeah. To answer the biohacking is it sounds the next level optimization. like to test measure and assess. We don't tend to just.
Kim Vopni (10:12.791)
Yeah, yeah.
Zora Benhamou (10:22.533)
take a vitamin C and say, woo, it's what happens. No, we'll take it and we'll start measuring to see if the supplement we're taking is actually working. We understand there's bio individuality with things. So even though we love the research, we love to look at studies, but if that whatever technique or that research doesn't work with you, if that...
Keto diet, for example, not, you'd have no results. Well, then who cares if it works for 12,000 people? The only person who matters in the room is you. So that's where we get a little experimentive and we understand if it fails with our experiment, that's okay. We get a little bit step closer to understanding more what's going on in our body and what we can do to help it.
Kim Vopni (10:50.583)
Right? Yeah.
Kim Vopni (11:06.157)
And you were saying how you you know I can buy my way out of this and I would say that was similar to myself where I was dealing with pelvic work and prolapse and I I felt. Privileged again is you have said I felt incredibly fortunate that I had this knowledge I had this network of people and I felt like I would be able to fix this but there are certain times where all the bio hacks in the world all the tricks.
tips people is not gonna change and then we face the surgery and then your mindset shift was very much like mine was like, I've made, it took me a long time to make this decision. Now that I've made it, I'm going into this with the appropriate mindset. I'm going to biohack, like hoo-ha biohack I always say, get myself in the best state possible and then there'll be a recovery protocol as well. what,
What biohacks were you doing before that were helping you kind of stave off surgery that then stopped working?
Zora Benhamou (12:08.109)
Yeah, that's a good question. And I am glad you asked it because it will be helpful for people who, who are maybe in earlier stages or maybe it's not necessarily osteoarthritis. Maybe it's something else, but they, what helped me a lot. And again, this only works for if the research showing somewhere between 40 to 60 % of the people in its platelet rich plasma injections that gave me.
Kim Vopni (12:15.789)
Mm-hmm.
Zora Benhamou (12:32.591)
brought me back to life. And that was where they take, draw your blood from your arm. They spit in a centrifuge, literally like 15 minutes, then they re-inject it. They re- so they separate the platelets and the plasma and they give you plasma rich, or platelet rich plasma back into your joint area. And then that is supposed to sort of reactivate, healing.
Kim Vopni (12:47.415)
Pletly rich plasma.
Zora Benhamou (12:59.035)
And the doctor who gave me these platelet-rich plasma injections also added a little bit of hyaluronic acid, a little bit of curcumin, a little bit, like he had his little cocktail there going to lower the inflammation, bring up a little space, and that was working for a while. But I have recommended it to other people, and the feedback that I get just from my own little community is it was about 50%. 50 % had success, the other 50 % no. And the problem is that insurance doesn't pay for this,
Kim Vopni (13:08.94)
Mm, cool.
Zora Benhamou (13:28.613)
Probably why they know it's not going to work with everyone. So, so that, that one, that one is definitely a rabbit hole to go down. Then I also, when I felt a lot of joint pain because I walked too much or did something, the red light therapy was working. I had this little device and I put it on different parts of my body, all kind of around the hips area. And that would lower the inflammation and make me feel.
Kim Vopni (13:28.961)
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Zora Benhamou (13:54.415)
really, really good. so it was great to have device at home, because some people go to a clinic and they do that, and I don't think it's quite enough. Massage as well, certain types of massage and manipulation. But the problem is I was a nomad during this whole biohacking my way out of this, and I could never stay in one place. But I have to say, the massage that worked the best was in Vietnam, in Ho Chi Minh. And I
It was the most painful thing I've ever been in through my life. And I've been through a lot of pain and, it was about a one hour massage. Sometimes it would get closer to two, but I walked out of there feeling 50 % better. And I was shocked because I barely felt the needle move for anything. And the problem was she wanted to treat me, but I only had a visa for one month. So I went on and, and, and, but, but it was like a deep tissue.
Kim Vopni (14:34.987)
Wow.
Kim Vopni (14:45.473)
Right.
Zora Benhamou (14:51.803)
I don't even, was again, mix of Chinese medicine and her, I can't even describe what it was.
Kim Vopni (14:58.111)
massages in Asia are on another level compared to massages in North America. So before we started recording Zora and I figured out we both lived in Indonesia when we were when we were younger. And so we had a little conversation about that. you know, the old that the gnarly hand to women who have been doing this for years and years and they are they are not professional per se, but it is some of the best massage I've ever had. Yeah. So interesting.
Zora Benhamou (15:02.053)
Yeah.
Zora Benhamou (15:27.067)
Yeah. Yeah. So, um, find, yeah, find a therapist near you. Uh, the other things that worked as well, the vibe, the vibrating balls, and I'm sure you've worked with this a lot of pelvic, uh, uh, I was literally living with this ball on my hips and I would feel that was a little bit releasing the tight psoas. So I had these psoas muscles in the front and that was helping. And then, um,
Kim Vopni (15:32.427)
Yeah, go to Vietnam.
Kim Vopni (15:39.191)
Mm-hmm.
Zora Benhamou (15:53.595)
There was another ice bathing sometimes worked for me, not, I know it works for a lot of other people, but so you just jump in a really cold pool or cold bath and, and, uh, and that would bring some relief. But again, it wasn't, it was a hit and miss with me. And of course I tried everything under the sun, acupuncture and, um, all kinds of injections. And, and again, it just, I still believe that it works for some people.
And I wouldn't knock acupuncture. think it really brought relief for those who recommended it. It just didn't work for me. So the list is very long. The pain reprocessing therapy, I'm not sure if you've heard of that. Pain reprocessing therapy. So when you are living with chronic pain, your autonomic nervous system is on absolutely high alert and your brain starts to create these pathways of
Kim Vopni (16:28.194)
Mm-hmm.
Kim Vopni (16:34.349)
What's that one called?
no, I never heard of that.
Zora Benhamou (16:49.143)
it enhancing the pain because you're looking for it. You're like an eagle toning in. Where's that pain? Where, how can I move to avoid it? But you know, it's going to be there. And so that doesn't help at all. And there's this really cool app that I found. if I can remember the name, it's, I think it's curable. think it was called curable. I'll find it and give you the link, but it was an app and there's a free version and there's a paid. And what it does is it.
Kim Vopni (16:54.092)
Yes.
Zora Benhamou (17:17.723)
trains you to be more relaxed, to not be so hyper-focused on that pain and, of course, breath work and meditation. And it kind of guides you on the things that you like better that seem to work better for you. Cause it, this app is for people with migraines or, or a hip pain or all kinds of chronic pain if you're living with that. And that helps a little bit because I didn't know that I could control.
some of this stuff with my brain and what you're trying to do is erase those pathways and try to carve out new ones. And so that was, that moved the needle when I was really, when it was really bad. And I thought, okay, I can, I can breathe through this and, and try to reprocess this pain, but it wasn't enough to actually heal me. And again, you're just trying to change the pain.
Kim Vopni (17:46.615)
Mm-hmm.
Zora Benhamou (18:05.551)
So those are some of the things that worked. One thing that didn't work, but I would highly recommend people to look into is a drug called pentacin polysulfate. And I think it's brand name is Zilusul in the US. And this was recommended by the Boulder Longevity Institute, so regenerative medicine clinic.
They used originally with race horses, they would use this and inject them and they go off to the races again. so they, they had human trials and they were all quite successful. And this doctor, shared with me, it's, works with 80 % of her patients. And so let's give it a try. And you inject it, it's a drug and you need the doctor and you need a prescription and you need to obviously have followups. And, and I hate injecting myself, but when you're so desperate, you will do anything.
Kim Vopni (18:41.483)
Wow.
Zora Benhamou (18:56.543)
And I felt zero. was so sad because the research on this, this drug is incredible. was like, my God, if it doesn't hurt me, mean, if it doesn't cure it, then it certainly will help. It's like anti-cancer, antibacterial, antiviral, anti everything, inflammatory and like, it boosts the immune system. I'm like, gosh, it sounds like a miracle drug. so it certainly shouldn't be, it shouldn't hurt, but it didn't work. But I would definitely, maybe, maybe it was too late for me.
Kim Vopni (19:11.532)
Yeah.
Kim Vopni (19:24.706)
Mm-hmm.
Zora Benhamou (19:24.751)
because what it's supposed to do is reduce inflammation. And what I learned from Dr. Elizabeth Youorth, who is from the Boulder Ongevity Institute and is a great podcast episode I did with her. Have you interviewed her yet?
Kim Vopni (19:34.709)
Yeah, I have an interviewer I've listened to. I love her stuff. Yeah, she's amazing.
Zora Benhamou (19:38.139)
Let me connect you. Let me connect you. She's incredible. She was the only, the first person, the only person I heard until recently who said, osteoarthritis is not a wear and tear problem. I was like, what? Cause up until then, every surgeon told me like you wear and tear. she says, Zora, you are not a professional athlete. Okay. And professional athletes do not get this at your age.
And I was like, that makes perfect sense. And she's like, your right one, your left is bad and your right is doing good. They're the same age and the same wear and tear. what it's not, it's an inflammatory disease. It's an inflammation problem. So if we can control the inflammation, then we should be able to save the joint. And I heard this for the second time in my life at the European menopause and anthropos, society's Congress, which is just a few weeks ago. And there was a.
a leader in the osteoarthritis world and he said the same thing and I had to go up to him. I'm doing an interview with him because I was thinking, wow, you are the only person other than Dr. Yorth who says this is not a wear and tear. So it makes sense. I think those are, those are things if we can lower the inflammation, believe me, anti-inflammatory diet, there was no one doing it better than me. I tried that and, and it worked actually. I was following a crazy and lectin free diet, which
Kim Vopni (20:33.996)
Wow.
Yeah.
Kim Vopni (20:58.935)
Mm-hmm.
Zora Benhamou (20:59.419)
It's absolutely miserable, but that would move the needle for a while. And just then it stopped working. But again, if anybody's feeling joint pain, maybe lectins has something to do with it. And this is type of gluten. It's kind of a gluten and an inflammatory thing that are in vegetables, sadly, which I love, but also the grains and things. that's kind of a, another rabbit hole to go down, but an anti-inflammatory diet would be great for everybody to do some kind of.
Kim Vopni (21:04.204)
Yeah, yeah.
Kim Vopni (21:10.987)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Kim Vopni (21:18.135)
Yeah.
Zora Benhamou (21:27.835)
of that and just eating more fruits and vegetables is part of part of the thing. So.
Kim Vopni (21:31.372)
Yeah, yeah. And I would say, like, that was something that I definitely did going into the surgery as well was really focused on. I don't feel like I was in a highly inflamed state. But there's we're all facing some elements of inflammation and really focusing on, you know, removing all sorts of anything that could be inflammatory ahead of time. Did you ever get or hear about low dose naltrexone LDN?
Zora Benhamou (21:58.945)
Yes, yes, but it wasn't recommended. It wasn't recommended to me. And if there's anybody who would recommend it, it would be from Boulder Longevity. And I don't know why they didn't. Because I think they wanted to bring out the big guns, which they didn't recommend peptides or anything. so, and I really think, well, this is a drug. So I think it was probably
Kim Vopni (22:06.262)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Kim Vopni (22:12.501)
I was gonna say maybe this other one was just like that. Yeah, so much better
Zora Benhamou (22:23.003)
their most powerful thing. I'm sure they threw that at me. so actually if somebody is in the early stages, maybe they do want to go into low dose naltrexone or maybe they want to go into the BPC 157 or the TPC 500. Those are
Kim Vopni (22:26.274)
Yeah.
Kim Vopni (22:32.973)
Naltrexone, yep.
Kim Vopni (22:37.921)
I was just going to ask you about that. Yeah, I did it. I did an episode with Nat. I can also link to that one too. It's actually hasn't come out quite yet. But with Natalie Nidam, who we both know and and yeah, we talked about I like as soon as I learned about BPC 157, I thought immediately, of course, I always go to the pelvis and you know, could this help from an organ paralyzed perspective and all that or even just, you know, preventively post childbirth or you know, all that.
Zora Benhamou (22:49.251)
Yeah, that's great. He's fabulous.
Kim Vopni (23:07.23)
So did you use any of that?
Zora Benhamou (23:09.701)
I used it post operation for fast burn healing. Yeah.
Kim Vopni (23:13.087)
Okay, okay. So we're getting there. Okay, cool. Okay. All right. So let's then now shift. So those are kind of things you've tried some work, some didn't some work for a period of time. Decisions now made you're having your surgery. It was your left hip first. That was the one that was had more degeneration. Well, maybe if we don't even use that term anymore now if it's not, right, it's not but more inflamed. So what did you do? How far so
Zora Benhamou (23:36.218)
Yeah, yeah.
Kim Vopni (23:43.51)
You're in you had this done in Europe, I believe. Different scenario, I mean, it would take us probably take me probably five years if I made the decision to have surgery for me to be able to see a surgeon and then get a surgery booked, it could take between two and five years, probably, which is ridiculous if you're not paying privately. So what what was the time you've made the decision? How long did you have? What time period did you have to now implement your the protocols you're going to talk about kind of the pre surgical preoperative protocols?
Zora Benhamou (23:46.139)
Mm-hmm, in Spain.
Zora Benhamou (23:59.611)
Yeah. huh.
Zora Benhamou (24:13.275)
I have private insurance, so I didn't have time. Okay. So anyone, but you can still, but I still was doing a lot as ahead of time, just cause that's my diet and lifestyle is anyways. So I, I had actually by the time I, I was surgeon shopping, you know, finding the right person and I found him and I, and he said, can you come next week?
Kim Vopni (24:21.704)
of time. Yeah.
Zora Benhamou (24:41.567)
I was, it goes, have, and it's actually a surgeon who's always booked. In fact, I was lucky to even get some, an opening with him and somebody must've fallen from the cracks and I just slipped in. And so I actually, I wasn't prepared because my husband was walking across Europe and he was on a mission for a business. I said, don't, you don't worry. We got two kids. Like we had them for some reason, right?
put them to work. And so they came and they took care of me. So I had to organize just my kids to, to fly in and take care of me. So I said, let's do it. Can you have an opening the second week? He said, yes. So I was really lucky to get in there. And so the, the, the most important things, what I believe, and he would agree was keep your muscle, keep that muscle mass as much as you can. And I had been working on that because I had,
at when I was told two years earlier that I was probably like an hour, a year and a half at the time that you can't do impact exercises. said, well, I had already built all this muscle. Like how am I going to preserve it? And that's exactly when I've discovered a blood flow restriction bands. And that has been a lifesaver for me because I was able to do
the rehab stuff, the boring rehab stuff, but with these bands on. But I also would just putter around the house and actually it worked. And after I started talking about it and sharing it, people started to buy this and give me feedback. And I was like, okay, I'm not the only one. But when you do some research on blood flow restriction, you find two camps. You find the bodybuilders who want to make more muscle with less weight. But then you find the rehab people, people who have injuries, people who have surgeries and they cannot get to the gym. can't...
exercise or they can't, they're going to lose their muscle mass. So they strap these bands on them and they work with them and they are able to either maintain or even build the muscle mass without that exercise. I'm not saying again, saying, don't do your exercise. It's just when you cannot, this was been a really lifesaver for me. And that's how I went into the surgery already with good muscle mass.
Zora Benhamou (26:51.617)
And of course I was eating my protein. So when I was told I'm having surgery in a couple of weeks, I started to double my protein. I was like, okay, now I gotta really ramp it up and then keep that going for when I get out of surgery. So to rebuild the muscle, the tissues that just been torn apart.
Kim Vopni (27:09.431)
Yep, yep. So you had a very short period of time you had been doing and that's what I always say too is if somebody is has been scheduled for surgery or if they think they are going to be choosing surgery. If you have the luxury of pushing it out or making a choice when it happens. Pause it for a moment give yourself at least six months if you can of doing all of the things the the diet the the reducing inflammation the exercise like all the things first and that.
Maybe you can cancel your surgery. I'm not talking about an osteoarthritis per se, but maybe you get to the point where you could delay or cancel it. However, if you still go forward, that has been all of your prehab. So you were fortunate that you had like a week to two, you ended up getting a two week timeframe. All the things you've been doing were your prehab. Then you said you doubled up your protein. So now we're at the post-operative side. You have your surgery. Were you nervous going in? And then afterwards, what was your post-op recovery like?
Zora Benhamou (28:03.763)
wow. That's a whole other story. One thing I do want to mention, because I'm in the menopause space is that when, when you lose estrogen, these things can accelerate and that's because estrogen is protective in the sense of your joints. It's hydrating. It's bringing fluid. It's, it's an anti-inflammatory. And even though I was on hormone therapy for, for years before this, I was on baby dosages.
And I think that was a big mistake. wonder, I don't know if it would have maybe delayed the surgery or who knows, but I have to say it's kind of the low hanging fruit. That's kind of what I went to first. When you have joint pain in this period of life, go check your hormones, try the hormones. I mean, it's, one of these things that maybe your joint pain or frozen shoulder or it's going to go away. I've met so many women who have, so that's another great hack. Again, it didn't work for me. Was it enough?
Kim Vopni (28:36.258)
Mm.
Kim Vopni (28:58.765)
thousand percent.
Zora Benhamou (29:00.123)
but certainly go down that road. Especially if you have no reason for having joint pain. Like I clearly had an injury, but if you didn't have an injury and you, no reason at all, go check the hormones. So yeah.
Kim Vopni (29:15.093)
And just sorry, just one thing. As you're telling this story here, I also want to hear what the were you offered an anterior lateral posterior where you offered a choice of two, what type of hip replacement you would have? No. Okay. Which one did you have?
Zora Benhamou (29:27.771)
I wasn't offered. I had a lateral, a lateral. I wanted the anterior. So one thing anyone's listening who wants, has a choice, go look for a surgeon who does the anterior approach. And in Spain, at least in this area that I am, I could not find one. I went through like nine surgeons. No one does it. They all do lateral. And so
Kim Vopni (29:32.373)
Lateral. Okay. Yes.
Zora Benhamou (29:54.655)
I said, okay. And I said, well, the recovery will be a little bit longer, but it's okay. It's a lot longer. It's a, mean, I've w I was on YouTube and Instagram and watching everybody like bounce right back day one, they're walking and not without crutches. Even I have a friend. So it's not just, you know, made up. have a friend who's 65 and she got her hip surgery in the U S and she was walking the first day without her crutches. I had a walker.
Kim Vopni (30:22.199)
Wow. Yeah.
Zora Benhamou (30:23.905)
And so there is a big difference and there's a long, longer recovery, much longer in with the lateral. So if you can choose, please go for the anterior. And that was, again, was recommended to me by, by everyone at the Boulder Longevity, but I just, I couldn't.
Kim Vopni (30:40.001)
And the posterior pair also has more pelvic health implications, higher rates of incontinence as well. Yeah.
Zora Benhamou (30:46.263)
yeah. yeah. And there's higher risk of dislocation. And that's what we don't want. Evidently when you have a replaced hip and you dislocated, it's extremely painful and then you have to go and get it put in again. So you don't want that. again, that's a whole, if you have the strong muscles already going in, that helps too. So more reason to go into your surgery with strong muscles. And I see too many people who are
Kim Vopni (30:56.385)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Zora Benhamou (31:14.883)
And I understand they're in pain. It cannot move. I don't feel like exercising. You're depressed. It's horrible. And they'll say, I'll start exercising after. And I said, no, no. Do as little with a little range of motion, which I know that is there are things that you can do. So you have to work with your physio or somebody who understands the limitations. Of course you don't want to make things worse, but within your limitations, you can still build muscle and obviously consider those.
Kim Vopni (31:30.221)
As much as you can, yeah.
Zora Benhamou (31:44.559)
those bands because that's, you know, I'm in a light.
Kim Vopni (31:46.369)
Yeah, I listened to your episode with the creator. I think it was the creator of Suji or one of the people from Suji. Yeah, it was.
Zora Benhamou (31:52.743)
yeah. There's a couple of them. It I was using the Katsu bands, which is from Japan, but I discovered Suji after my surgeries. And because it's, it's another, just an alternative, different, completely different, technologies, but they both will help with the muscle. And that's, that's important. So Suji is another great one. And, and that's been, that's, I actually, I just, mean, I just recently got it and I actually had some really good results in a short amount of time.
Kim Vopni (31:57.59)
Yes.
Kim Vopni (32:01.26)
Yeah.
Kim Vopni (32:10.689)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm super fascinated by that.
Kim Vopni (32:20.759)
Yeah. Yeah.
Zora Benhamou (32:21.881)
So I love them both. They're all fat. And there's a million other ones out there. They all work. They're all great. Like just which one works best for you.
Kim Vopni (32:27.499)
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. All right. So what did you implement? So you talked about loading up your protein ahead of time. What did you what did you do in your recovery? Like, let's let's look at kind of, you know, normal. Most people will think of recovery as a six week thing. That's when like superficial tissue healing has happened. So within that first six weeks, what were you? How are you biohacking yourself?
Zora Benhamou (32:52.779)
Yeah. So there's a, there are a lot of things that I did. What I did before, I also did after in terms of the blood flow restriction and the, but also if you are doing blood flow restriction, need post surgery, you need to wait. Yeah. You don't want to go right into it unless your doctor approves you because there's arms and there's legs. So if you had
Kim Vopni (33:05.421)
Okay, I was just gonna ask that.
Zora Benhamou (33:15.163)
Hip surgery, then your doctor may allow you to do your arms. And again, you have to bring in these devices to show the doctor to see if it's okay and stuff. So, and also talk to the company because the company also has some protocols that they've seen work in their population and you can transmit the information better, but definitely do those before and after, it can wait, get the clearance from your doctor. But in terms of supplementation, because remember when I said that we need to get a lot of protein, I doubled it. It's really hard.
It's really hard to eat that much chicken or that much fish. it's, it's so many eggs. It's, it's terrible. So I would supplement with, either protein powders, or essential amino acids. And these have been lifesavers for me because I knew, especially when you get out of the surgery, you're not really so keen to eat. Okay. You may be recovering and, and so, but I knew how important it is to get the protein in because the muscle cannot grow if you don't feed it. So.
go feed your muscles. And if you cannot eat, then get essential amino acids probably easier than getting a protein shake or something. I was in the hospital for four days. Most people in the US and maybe Canada, I'm not sure, they are going home the same day. So you can make your protein shake. So you can either make your protein shake, essential amino acids, creatine, monohydrate is also fabulous, collagen.
Kim Vopni (34:27.189)
out pretty quick.
Zora Benhamou (34:38.683)
Urolithin A is, these are all great for supporting muscle and muscle health, but you also want to get into bone health. So, um, a good calcium and a good supplement, a bone supplement that includes calcium, magnesium, vitamin D three in the K two boron minerals, all these things, because when you stick an implant in your body, your bone needs to grow around the implant. Unless with older adults, at least in Europe, I'm not sure how they're doing the U S they will,
cemented in. So it's not as crucial, but the younger patients, you need to be a little bit more sedentary, be careful because it's not cemented. And then you've got to wait for that bone to grow. And my bone is still growing. I mean, it's about four or five months now post last surgeries. And even though I feel great, I feel like, I can jump around. My surgeon says, you're not allowed to run yet. You're not, your bone is still growing. You don't feel your bones growing around the same time.
Kim Vopni (35:25.879)
Mm-hmm.
Kim Vopni (35:33.271)
Mm-hmm.
Kim Vopni (35:36.811)
Right, right, yeah.
Zora Benhamou (35:38.523)
So a really good supplements, you got to get these supplementations, but when you are, um, when you are recovering post-surgery, my protocol is like, got to, there's a couple of things you want to do. want to reduce inflammation. You want to preserve and, or, and, and build the muscle mass and rebuild the tissue and building bone back. And then you want to detox because you've taken so much medication.
Kim Vopni (36:05.111)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Zora Benhamou (36:06.299)
And you want to say yes to everything all the time, because that's the time to take all of the drugs. And you just don't want to be in pain. Don't try to be a hero at this time. No need. Just recover, help yourself recover. You need to sleep. And you say, you asked me, was I stressed? Was I worried? And yes, especially with the first one, because you don't know what's going to happen. And I was waking up
Kim Vopni (36:15.105)
Yes. Yes.
Kim Vopni (36:28.375)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Zora Benhamou (36:34.597)
before the, like days before the surgery, waking up in the middle of the night, 2 a.m. mind racing. Is this going to hurt? They're going to cut off my bone. Will my body be traumatized? Am I going to need therapy? What if I wake up in the middle of surgery? Like all these things. It's just horrible. And I started to have a chest pain and I don't have anxiety, but I recognize that all my menopausal women, I was like, this is what they're feeling friggin every day.
Kim Vopni (36:48.578)
All the things.
Zora Benhamou (37:04.347)
I don't know how they're dealing with it, but it was horrible. And I, I have, don't know if you know this technology called new calm. It's a neuroacoustic software. And I was thinking maybe, cause I was worried of waking up in the middle of the surgery. said, well, maybe I should use this while I'm, while I'm asleep. I called the company. was sending an email like, can I use this? And they were like, use it now. Use it every day. Use it three times a day. So I did. And I, I woke.
Kim Vopni (37:11.97)
Mm-hmm.
Zora Benhamou (37:33.147)
up the day of the surgery with the best sleep of my life. couldn't believe it was, and I just kept these things in my ears. This is neuroacoustic software in case you're not interested. There's an app on the phone. You listen to the headphones and it brings your brain into a meditative state. And I was using it before for meditation. Like I was like, this is cool. But I remember, I do remember that so many women in my community were saying it helps them with their anxiety. So that's why I went to Newcombe to try it. And I'm just, I sound like, like a
Kim Vopni (37:36.237)
Mmm.
Zora Benhamou (38:02.361)
I'm totally converted. I went into the surgery, literally listening to this. I had to stop it when I wheeled me in, but I was so calm and so relaxed. So sleep is another priority pre-surgery and post-surgery. Sleep is medicine. Okay. So we really got to work on our sleep hygiene for that. And I understand the distress and the anxiety, especially as you lead up.
Kim Vopni (38:03.796)
Hahaha
Zora Benhamou (38:28.857)
to the surgery and cause when you go into, they wheel you in like on a wheelchair and those doors open and you see that operating table with all these lights. looked like Frankenstein and you're going, well, that's for me, I guess. and it's scary. It's impressive, but I was like, bring it on. I couldn't believe myself. Somebody was waking up in the middle of the night worried. And, and so I, I went in and guess what? I woke up.
Kim Vopni (38:37.685)
Yep. Yep.
Kim Vopni (38:43.681)
Yeah.
Kim Vopni (38:57.675)
You woke up.
Zora Benhamou (38:58.555)
in the middle of the surgery because they just sedate you. And I wake up to hearing a saw and I was like totally calm. Like me, you know, panic person knowing myself, so relaxed. was like, Oh, I guess they're cutting off the bone now. And then you kind of ate it out. And then I hear this like hammer going in and I was like, I think they're putting the implant in me now. And I was like, you're so out of it. And I was like,
Kim Vopni (39:03.279)
my god.
Zora Benhamou (39:28.571)
After a while I said, you know, I don't think I should be awake for this. So I started to grunge because I couldn't talk. Two seconds, you feel the cold drugs like going through you as out. And then I asked the doctor the next morning, said, did I wake up? He says, yeah, but we just put you right out. No big deal. I was like, okay. Surprised how relaxed and how calm. And what's super interesting is that in anesthetics, they give you a drug,
Kim Vopni (39:48.653)
That is hilarious.
Zora Benhamou (39:57.647)
think it's benzodiazepine, what is it? It's a type of drug for, it's an anti-anxiety drug basically. But what it does is it tries to erase memory. It's trying to get rid of that. And I'm doing a bit of research for a reel that I'm making about the five medications that create memory loss. And that's one of them. And women, a lot of women in menopause, put on anti-anxiety medications. I read that, I thought, my God, well, it's great for surgery, but I wouldn't want to be doing this every single day.
Kim Vopni (40:02.017)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Kim Vopni (40:18.911)
or offer that. Yep.
Kim Vopni (40:27.061)
Every day. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Zora Benhamou (40:28.505)
So we got to look for alternatives. And so in the end, I kept doing the new call and I kept doing it for the, until the next surgery and beyond, because I was so addicted to it, but that you gotta stay calm, stay relaxed. But you know, the drugs do that for you, but it's, it's, it's nice leading up. If you do have stress and anxiety, you don't have to do calm, but do meditation. You find plenty of stuff on YouTube, work on that autonomic nervous system. It's, it helps a lot. So.
When I went to the second surgery, was like, no problem, bring it on, because you also have the experience. And I didn't, I wasn't traumatized by the first experience. So if I were, I probably would be on high alert. So try to make the experience as best as you can. So that's the answer to your question is, you nervous? And boy, I understand that a lot, but there's so many things we can do to work on that.
Kim Vopni (41:07.467)
Yeah. Yeah.
Kim Vopni (41:15.447)
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Yeah.
Kim Vopni (41:21.495)
Did you use, so we've covered supplement, did you use red light therapy? What other things were you using, like technology wise maybe? And then I also am curious about what did you do differently if anything with the second surgery, which was three months later, is that right? Yeah.
Zora Benhamou (41:38.447)
Yeah, three months later. So after the surgery, rest relaxation, and I was my first experience with the peptide called BPC 157. And that's a peptide that you can buy oral, injectable, sublingual and all kinds. And usually people are using it for their gut and gut issues. But in my case, I was told I need to inject myself. Believe me, I try to talk myself out of, mean, talk my way out of it. Cause I don't like injecting.
they were like, nope, you got a pretty big surgery. It's not, you know, the supplements are not going to do much for you. They protect your gut from all the medication, antibiotics and all that. But, so I use the injectable and I, but I, because I was the scaredy cat, didn't, I waited a week or two and then I, did it because I was, you know, when you're doing things first time, I didn't have a chance. I would have probably, if I had the time, got on BPC before, before, but I just didn't have time.
Kim Vopni (42:31.479)
before. Yeah.
Zora Benhamou (42:34.787)
So if you can great experiment with it, get confident with it so that right after surgery, you can start using it right away. And so because I was healing quickly, normally the doctor wanted me to wait six to 12 months. And I was like, there's no way I'm going to wait six to 12 months because I am in pain with the other one. And I had one leg longer than the other. So I'm hobbling and I'm absolutely imbalanced. had about two and a half centimeters difference in height. Significant.
Kim Vopni (42:55.565)
Mm-hmm.
Kim Vopni (43:01.687)
Wow, that's significant.
Zora Benhamou (43:04.717)
So I had to wear, I was wearing one croc around the house, know, crocs. And I just said this, I feels comfortable to me, but I have to wear one shoe all the time. And so, and the problem with that is I was seeing the physio for recovery says you don't want to be walking too much, even though it's recommended to walk, but you are imbalanced and you're going to have back pain, shoulder pain and other pain. that's exactly what started to happen. So I had to take it down a notch and that's the
Kim Vopni (43:08.365)
Yeah.
Kim Vopni (43:27.661)
Hmm? Hmm.
Zora Benhamou (43:33.467)
again, hopefully none of the people who listening will have to be in this condition for a long time. For me, it was three months and then I got the second one. And the second one, I introduced not only the BPC 157, but I added TB 500. It's also known as thymus and beta four. So there's, those are two, the difference is one, is thymus and beta four is natural and the TB 500 is synthetic.
Kim Vopni (43:50.093)
Dimas and Beta, yeah.
Kim Vopni (43:57.153)
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
Zora Benhamou (44:00.603)
Natural one TB4 is more expensive and it's broader range kind of does a lot of other things. Whereas the TB 500 is cheaper, but very targeted. And it was very targeted for me and healing and repair tissue repair regeneration. And also injected and gen, and yeah, brought in geogenesis, a lot of things, which is really, really important crucial for, for healing. I noticed an uptick.
Kim Vopni (44:16.981)
Also injected? Okay, yep.
Zora Benhamou (44:27.523)
when I added that on. And when you are searching for peptides or your doctor's talking to you about it, very often they're recommended together. Sometimes you can find formulas that are already blended together, so, they just go hand in hand. But as they're expensive, and I didn't have much time, and I was scared and I wanted to try one and then the other, and you if I don't, if I have a bad reaction, I don't know, is it the TB 500? So again, I didn't have time, but if you do, again, go and experiment with these things and then,
Kim Vopni (44:50.507)
Right, yeah.
Zora Benhamou (44:56.719)
Then you go into your surgery already knowing, I react well to this and there's not gonna be a problem because there's always, never know how you're react to these things. And please don't do this on your own. Do it with the guidance of a professional. Because you can order these things online because they're quote unquote research purposes and they're not really checking if you're a researcher. And then again, who knows what you're buying online. Don't go and get this on some weirdo website. You gotta go through, I recommend always through a doctor or a professional like Natalie Nittam.
who understands where to get it and how it's safe and how to walk you through the protocol because everybody's protocol will be different. How many times do you inject? How much do you put in? And again, it depends on everybody's surgery. But I think that these kinds of peptides are fabulous for any kind of surgery, a hysterectomy or a facelift or mastectomy, knee replacement. So these are really, really good healing modalities. I highly recommend that I did notice a strong uptick with
with the TB 500 when I added that in.
Kim Vopni (45:56.694)
Yeah, did you I don't know this. Is it from an injection site? Is it is it specific to where the injury is? Or can you inject it anywhere and it influences wherever that injury is like, would you inject it into your hip or you
Zora Benhamou (46:10.043)
Yeah. No, you don't need to ejected the hip. was, yeah, it just in the, the fat from the belly fat, for example, that area. That's like most common site is to do that.
Kim Vopni (46:12.162)
You don't, okay.
Kim Vopni (46:17.889)
Okay, got it. Yeah.
Got it. You mentioned your Liffin A might appear as one of the, I've seen a couple of other brands, but that's kind of the most well-known. Did you use that the first and second time or just the second time? You did. Okay.
Zora Benhamou (46:32.347)
I did, I did, I did use it the first time, but I got a bottle of it. Uh, I can't imagine. think it was maybe several weeks before the operation. So I went on it because I knew it helps with muscle strength and it helps with lower inflammation. And so I thought this is going to be really great for me. So I, and then I used it all throughout the three months until the second one. And again, I noticed an uptick, but I'm, so I'm, is it the TB 500? Is it because I.
Kim Vopni (46:41.409)
Mm-hmm.
Kim Vopni (46:45.015)
Mm-hmm.
Kim Vopni (47:00.33)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Zora Benhamou (47:00.891)
I used enough of the Urolithin A. It's almost hard to tell. was, I tend to give the credits to the TB 500, but it could have been, it could have been, yeah, the just being on it because when they take a supplement, it takes a while, very often for it to kick in, you know, you got to build, build this up. So, um, so I think, but it's definitely part of my protocol because the researcher they have is so impressive. I think, well,
Kim Vopni (47:25.057)
I know, it's amazing.
Zora Benhamou (47:27.407)
this is going to only help me. and, and, and, so, so that was, those were, those were key players. Another, another key player I think people should look into, but I couldn't get it was, Nanjalon decant, which is a steroid. It's a, it get a bad rap because of the bodybuilding space and all that, but given in a low dose for a short period of time helps with tissue repair and, especially with the muscle like that's why the whole bodybuilders do that.
Kim Vopni (47:29.175)
Totally.
Kim Vopni (47:42.453)
Hmm, I don't know that.
Kim Vopni (47:46.711)
Sure.
Zora Benhamou (47:57.207)
So, but it is, it is again, with the guidance of your doctor, it should be really safe and effective if you're using it at the right, the way the right, the right protocol. But I would have tried it if I could get ahold of it. again, another rabbit hole to go down. And then the other thing that I think is really important, I couldn't get ahold of it. I certainly would have taken it if I could was cerebral license by IV and you have to do, I think three or four, maybe five series. It depends again, your surgery, but.
you would have to go into these IVs and what it does, it's a, it's a neuropeptide and it protects the brain. So when you think about the anesthesia that I got, all the medication, how that's affecting the brain, let's clear this out. Let's improve brain function. And so that's, that's something I definitely would have looked into, but again, you find it here in Spain. And, but if you're in the U S Canada, you should be able to find that. The last thing I tried that was,
Kim Vopni (48:44.695)
Mm-hmm.
Zora Benhamou (48:54.681)
Great, think anyways, I didn't feel anything, I think it's something, again, long, long, lot of research and a lot of people sharing their stories is methylene blue. And methylene blue, you can buy this online, you don't really need a doctor. There are are contraindications, for example, if you're on SSRIs and you get certain gene mutations, you probably shouldn't be doing this, so do your research first. And again, better to go get the guidance of your doctor.
But it's actually the original, it was like one of the first drugs in the planet. It was created in the 1870s, more or less, by a doctor who found out that it could cure certain, I think it was infectious diseases, but it was, again, there were no drugs actually on the planet at the time. So that was one of the first ones that came. And it actually came from a, it was a textile dye. That's why it was.
Kim Vopni (49:28.93)
Mm-hmm.
Zora Benhamou (49:52.571)
and it stains and all that. they, actually I spoke to a nurse recently who says they still use this for carbon monoxide poisoning in hospital. So it's something that's not some weirdo thing. It's you can get it. I was taking it because it's, it helps the mitochondrial function, which is great when you need to repair, but it also was an antiviral and antibacterial. So I figured, well, going into the hospital, who knows what's going on in there. Let's just take this, turns my tongue blue, but you can, you know.
Kim Vopni (49:59.182)
Mm-hmm.
Kim Vopni (50:17.591)
Yep.
Zora Benhamou (50:21.721)
get rid of that. And that's another thing that's quite simple, not expensive, and it may just protect you and it shouldn't do any harm. But again, cross this all with your doctor first.
Kim Vopni (50:29.771)
Yeah.
Kim Vopni (50:35.053)
So on the doctor point, you again, you're in Spain and the and you're paying with private insurance. You had the luxury of being able to find like, I'm to go to this surgeon, this surgeon and pick which one you wanted. And in many parts of the world that like I'm in Canada that there is, would take you 25 years if you wanted to have nine different surgeons to interview. So what you mentioned Dr. Elizabeth Yearth from Boulder Longevity Institute.
Zora Benhamou (50:55.544)
If you want to know.
Kim Vopni (51:04.971)
You had you had people who were guiding you but what type of doctors so the surgeon is one but what other in terms of the things that you are getting prescribed the what sort of doctors do you need to would you recommend having as part of your care team.
Zora Benhamou (51:22.171)
So definitely somebody in the regenerative medicine space. It doesn't have to be Boulder Longevity or it be wherever you're located because those people are a little bit ahead of the curve and they understand some of the benefits or off-label use of certain things. And so I would do a Google search like anti-aging, functional medicine, go to the A4M site, but look for sort of a functional medicine doctor. I tend to lean also towards the sports doctors.
in rehab. There's, I think somebody would, interestingly, we talked to is Dr. Vonda Wright, who I think, you know, she's an orthopedic surgeon against somebody who's just really in this, in the menopause space as well, who understands these issues. And, and, and so I think somebody, somebody like that, but, but you can have nutritionists. think nutritionists is really helpful.
Kim Vopni (51:58.52)
Yeah, yeah, she's amazing.
Zora Benhamou (52:17.077)
peptide experts like Natalie Nidam, there's another guy, Rowan Sanderson from the hormone balance clinic who's in the biohacking space, who, who's in Europe and kind of knew where I can get some of these things. and, and has a lot of experience with his clients. So, so I would say again, we don't know, I don't know people's preexisting conditions. And that's it's always good to find a regenerative medicine doctor, somebody, cause some of these things you do need to be prescribed by a doctor. So I think that's it.
Kim Vopni (52:18.967)
Mm-hmm.
Kim Vopni (52:27.373)
Mm-hmm.
Kim Vopni (52:45.271)
Yeah. Yeah.
Zora Benhamou (52:46.511)
but a good pelvic floor specialist, right? think that's understanding the pelvic floor. If you are going through a pelvic issue or hip issue, that's frozen shoulder, maybe not, but anyways, I did go, since I interviewed you on my podcast, I did find a pelvic floor specialist because that was why I was thinking, my gosh, maybe my problem is my pelvis. Something's offline. Everything was fine.
So, but I did, I did follow your recommendation and I love the Buff Moth program that you have. And I've been through the whole, the whole app. And actually it's one of those things that I always, that sticks with me forever. And it still does. And in, in, this menopause society convention, for example, in the conference, the moment somebody talked about GSM, the geratogenetourinary syndrome of menopause, I started doing my Buff Moth exercises. It's just always there with me.
Kim Vopni (53:26.999)
Mm-hmm.
Kim Vopni (53:42.125)
That's awesome. Yeah.
Zora Benhamou (53:44.239)
No, I really appreciate everything you taught me and, and, and it just sticks. It's amazing how much it sticks. So, so I highly recommend doing that.
Kim Vopni (53:49.815)
Yeah, yeah.
Thank you. appreciate that. What, just to wrap things up, is there anything looking back? I know it's only been, you know, I think you said three or four months since, but would you have done anything if you were to do it again now? Is there anything that you would change do differently?
Zora Benhamou (54:08.045)
I would have, a lot of people, when you ask about their hip replacement, it's a new life. Most people will say, I wish I did it earlier. Okay. I don't think so for my case. I think I needed to be ready because I was in that mindset where I like you, I just, need to try everything first and be sure and rule out everything else.
before I make that big decision. The surgery will always be there. So I think if I went earlier resistant going into surgery with fear and I don't know and not confident, I'm afraid what the outcome might've been. I think you need to be in that right mindset. And that's really, really important. So that I wouldn't change, even though knowing now I still think I would have need to go through that process. So that I would have
Kim Vopni (54:46.733)
thousand percent.
Zora Benhamou (54:58.617)
I would have definitely looked at my hormones deeper and see if that could have helped anyway. And I probably, yeah, I probably made, I might have had the surgery a little bit earlier if I was in one place, but as a nomad constantly going to different countries every week, it's like, wow, you, you, yeah, you're quite limited. So most people don't have that problem, but I think, I think you need to be ready.
Kim Vopni (55:01.911)
Mm-hmm.
Kim Vopni (55:06.093)
Mm-hmm.
Kim Vopni (55:15.521)
Yeah. Yeah.
Zora Benhamou (55:27.545)
And I, and I, I think it's some people, again, I think it's a very personal thing. Some people looking back are in that space and he listening to this now and they go, you know what? I don't want to wait until it gets worse because I got, I really, what pushed the decision was I started to get into this negative mindset and poor me and why is this happening? And I can't go out with my friends. can't go out for a walk with my husband. I can't even have intimacy with him. I can't.
It's this horrible thing. And I, and as we know the mind body connection, the body is suffering from that. And, and even though I'm positive, I like to see the silver lining and a of people would not even know I have this. Your autonomic nervous system is on such high alert. Your cortisol is always running through you. It's doing damage. And that's when I said, okay, this.
Kim Vopni (56:03.382)
Yeah. Yeah.
Zora Benhamou (56:24.431)
there's going to be more benefits than risks to a surgery and I better do it now. So somebody listening now may go, I don't even want to wait until I get there. Let's just get this done now. Maybe right decision for you too.
Kim Vopni (56:33.429)
Mm Yeah, yeah. Amazing. This has been such a rich conversation. And yeah, I think I'm going to add it in as a link in the pelvic surgery success program to because it's just so many, so many tips and things that people can. This is not common knowledge. A lot of a lot of this. So where can people find you find your podcast? Listen to more of the the you have such
amazing conversations with people and your guests are always incredible. So I'd love directing people to your podcast.
Zora Benhamou (57:07.749)
Thank you. Thank you so much. Hackmyage.com. can find everything there. I'm on all social media, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube. Everything's always Hack My Age. Keep it simple. And, and I've got plenty of freebies as well. If people want, I have radiation offset hacks because you get a lot of X-rays when you're doing this and you go in and go, gosh, I've, I've had mammograms and I have, you know, how much radiation can my body stand?
Kim Vopni (57:28.567)
Yeah. Yep.
Kim Vopni (57:35.659)
Yeah, yeah.
Zora Benhamou (57:36.795)
So I've got a whole protocol on how to offset the damage to the radiation as well. So go into that freebie section and you'll find stuff like that. It's, it's, there's a lot of, is there a lot out there? And then there's of course the post-surgery scar hacks as well. Like it's a whole other conversation, but if you want to eliminate the, or at least the, the scars to heal better and well and less visible, there's, there's a ton of stuff out there that you can do.
Kim Vopni (57:51.863)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Zora Benhamou (58:04.419)
And it's not always buying things, know, simple massages and a little rose hip oil. It's again, that will do miracles when you, you know, better than nothing at all.
Kim Vopni (58:14.381)
Yeah, amazing. Amazing. Well, thank you so much. And I will put all the links to everything that we chatted about in the show notes. And thank you for all the wisdom that you share with us.
Zora Benhamou (58:24.949)
thank you, Kim. And I can't wait to have you on again too, because you're one of our incredible guests as well.
Kim Vopni (58:30.434)
Thank you.
