Lipstick on the Rim: Everything You Need to Know About Balancing Your Hormones and Cortisol Levels, the Negative Side of Birth Control, Why Women Should Look Before Flushing, and More with Hormone Expert Alisa Vitti

By Mollysims.com

Are you dealing with hormonal acne, constant fatigue, severe period cramps, or struggling to lose weight despite your efforts? These are all common symptoms of hormonal imbalance that society has chalked up to being a natural part of being a woman. Today’s guest, hormone expert Alisa Vitti, experienced these symptoms herself. Through years of research, she discovered how to conquer them and vowed never to let another woman face them alone. She has since dedicated her life to sharing her resources with women around the world. Alisa is the creator of the Cycle Syncing Method®, a diet, fitness, and lifestyle program based on women’s biological rhythms for optimal health, fitness, and productivity. She is also the developer of the MyFLO period app, the first and only functional medicine period tracker designed to help users eliminate symptoms with customized step-by-step action plans. Today, Alisa Vitti talks us through her research and what women can and should be doing to optimize their health, balance their hormones and cortisol levels, and ultimately live their fullest lives.

[Alisa] on The Cycle Syncing Method

“Our hormonal patterns are distinct in each of the four phases of your cycle: follicular, ovulatory, luteal, and menstrual. We have to dynamically adjust our calorie intake, food type, workout type, and intensity to support and match what’s happening hormonally in each phase so that we can function optimally. The first phase, the follicular phase, is when many little eggs are developing on the ovary. The second phase is the ovulatory phase, where one egg breaks free and travels down the fallopian tube into the uterus. The this is the luteal phase, which is my favorite phase, and the longest phase, lasting 10 to 12 days, is the only phase where progesterone is present. Progesterone is a magical hormone in terms of mental focus, calm, and relaxation. The final phase, the menstrual phase is the bleeding phase, where you’re shedding the endometrial lining that you 3D print every month in the luteal phase. Each of these four phases has a distinct ratio of estrogen, luteinizing hormone, FSH, progesterone, and testosterone, which have direct impacts on our bodies. These impacts are studied and documented, for example, micronutrient deficiencies show up differently in these phases based on what your body is doing structurally, like making or shedding the uterine lining. Studies show the structural changes that happen in your brain matter across these four phases of the cycl,e as well as how blood sugar levels are impacted by these hormonal ratios.”

[Alisa] on How Your Diet Can Affect Hormonal Imbalances

“I think in my research, one of the things that is really important for women to do is to eat first thing in the morning, within about 30 minutes of waking up, have some protein. It can be a smoothie, it can be some eggs. It can be something that’s just going to keep your blood sugar stable. Depending on where you are in the cycle, you may want to increase or decrease the amount of carbohydrates that you’re consuming in that breakfast meal. Fasting for prolonged periods of time during the reproductive years, when you’re actively cycling, is really disregulating to your insulin and cortisol levels throughout the day and not worth it. Secondarily, this whole idea of just having caffeine on an empty stomach is problematic for most women, and it has to do with a gene variation, the CYP1A2 gene. Women who tend to have hormonal disruption happen to have this variation where they are not making enough of this enzyme to break down caffeine. We’re having caffeine on an empty stomach, and this caffeine toxicity because we can’t break it down, and it’s disrupting our blood sugar stability and cortisol levels throughout the day, which affects our ability to process stress. Then, we’re throwing off ovulation, which is a slippery slope. So getting this morning routine down is really critical. If you’re dealing with an active issue, such as trying to recover from PCOS, fibroids, infertility, perimenopause, among other things, you especially want to protect your blood sugar levels throughout the day. If that feels really complicated for you, I would really encourage you to get a continuous glucose monitor for 30 days and just see your response to different things so you can see the data in black and white.”

[Alisa] on Supplements to Take During Each Phase of the Menstural Cycle

“If you are dealing with heavy bleeding, flooding, fibroids, trying to conceive, going through IVF, or managing PCOS, there are things like turmeric and berberine, which have been clinically proven (at specific doses), to be almost a replacement for metformin, a commonly prescribed medication for that condition. For women trying to conceive, a combination of coenzyme Q10 and acetylcysteine or alpha-lipoic acid profoundly affects ovarian age and egg quality. For women in perimenopause, using melatonin is critical. It really agitates me that the male biohacking community vilifies melatonin when it has been shown to rejuvenate ovarian health dramatically. Low-dose melatonin after 40 is, I would say, a table stake for perimenopause to slow down the process, support ovulation regularity, and keep other sex hormones balanced. There is so much you can do. There’s maca and vitex, which I also really like for women in perimenopause. But it’s also about food and lifestyle. Make sure you are cycle syncing as long as possible because that will support the cycle as a whole.”

Alisa’s Must-Haves:

*** Use code lipstickxmyflo to receive a free month of the cycle syncing feature in the MyFlo® App