Ep. 59: Hypothalamic Amenorrhea, Period Issues and Overlapping GI symptoms with Lindsey Lusson

 

 

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Transcriptions:

SPEAKER

Dr. Heather Finley & Lindsey Lusson

Dr. Heather Finley: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Love Your Gut Podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Heather Finley, registered dietitian and gut health specialist. I understand the frustration of dealing with GI issues because I’ve been there and I spent over two decades searching for answers for my own gut issues of constipation, bloating, and stomach pain.

I’ve dedicated my life to understanding and solving my own gut issues. And now I’m here to guide you. On this podcast, I’ll help you identify the true root causes of your discomfort. So you can finally ditch your symptoms for good. My goal is to empower you with the knowledge and tools you need so that you can love your gut and it will love you right back.

So if you’re ready to learn a lot, gain a deeper understanding of your gut and find lasting relief. You are in the right place. Welcome to the love your gut podcast…………..

Welcome back to the next episode of the love your gut podcast. I am so excited today [00:01:00] because I have my good friend, Lindsey Lusson here with me, and we are going to talk all things period loss, GI issues, hypothalamic amenorrhea, primary amenorrhea, and everything in between. So Lindsey, welcome to the show.

Thanks so much for having me. There’s a lot of Overlap and things that we can unpack here. And I think that this is going to be so valuable for anybody who has ever struggled with period loss and digestive issues or currently struggling. Totally. And I think we’ve had a lot of kind of shared clients over the years or referrals back and forth.

So I think it’ll be helpful to have a discussion around like, when is it appropriate to work on your GI issues first? When is it appropriate to work on period recovery first? What are some of the kind of overlaps and gaps in between? So why don’t we start out by just defining some terms and kind of getting everybody on the same page.

So Tell us a little bit about what you do, why you do it and give us a little [00:02:00] background on what is hypothalamic amenorrhea? What is primary amenorrhea? So we kind of know the difference and then we can go from there. 

Lindsey Lusson: Yeah, sure. I’m a period recovery and fertility dietitian, been a registered dietitian for 14 years.

Went through kind of my own journey with losing my period and experiencing infertility as a result when I lost my period back in gosh, like senior year of high school is very much a swept under the rug. Just take the pill. This is no big deal, but I feel like women just have this really amazing, innate intuition.

You just always kind of know something is not right. And so I was always trying to get down to the bottom of why I wasn’t getting my period. Fast forward to when I was ready to get pregnant, I was basically told that I needed to start pretty high level intervention for fertility treatment. And that just didn’t sit very well with me.

Around the same time, interestingly enough, people started talking about this term, hypokalemic amenorrhea. I went through four years of undergrad, three years of grad school. never came across the term kind of [00:03:00] identified with this idea of having female athlete triad, which is disordered eating bone loss and loss of period.

But I didn’t really fit the athlete mold. And so when I came across this term, it was kind of like a light bulb moment that this is what. What’s going on with me. Fast forward was able to get my cycle back. Ovulate on my own, get pregnant naturally three times. And so now today I help women all over the world do the same thing.

Be able to get down to the bottom of their missing period. Be able to ovulate naturally on their own and take home healthy babies. 

Dr. Heather Finley: So interesting. And I also agree. I think we probably had one lesson on the female athlete triad in all of undergrad. And it was Oh, and by the way, here’s this thing.

Okay. Moving on. Kind of same with GI issues a little bit too, where it’s like, Okay. And there’s this thing called the low FODMAP diet and moving on, so why do you think it is that we’re not taught about this or why do you think it’s, it’s becoming a lot more common that people are actually talking about this, but I know you and I have had many conversations [00:04:00] offline about like how a lot of physicians don’t even know what hypothalamic amenorrhea is.

Why do you think that is? Or what do you think some of the drivers of that are? 

Lindsey Lusson: Yeah. I think at the root, at least when you and I were going through school, a decade or two ago, I think lack of information was a big problem back then. Cause like I said if you look back to the earliest research paper on hypothalamic amenorrhea, it was written in like the seventies maybe.

So that’s like relatively new in the research world. And so we all know that it takes a decade plus for like research to get caught up to be actually be put into like policy and protocols and things like that, like in a health, a traditional healthcare setting. So I think that lack of information is part of the problem too.

I also feel like for both GI and like hormone issues I’ve got another one too, that I’ll get into in a second. I feel like we, at least for me, it was very presented as this is super rare. Like you’re never going to come across I don’t feel like anyone has this. [00:05:00] Unless you like work for the IOC and you’re working with.

Gymnasts and figure skaters all day. So I feel like it was kind of posed as this is super rare. This doesn’t happen very often. And then finally, I know specifically for like period problems. Women’s health and hormones. It’s just so understudied. Like women’s health is so understudied, even today in 2024.

We’re like very much in the infancy of the research and understanding everything. And I think maybe we can say the same thing too, for gut health. 

Dr. Heather Finley: Totally. Yeah. And it’s you said it’s, Oh, this is a rare thing, but it’s actually not. I think I was a swimmer my whole life and I ran cross country in high school and there was a lot of times In high school where I’d have cross country practice and swim practice in the same day.

And so it’s very easy. If you take a scenario like that myself and, millions of other high schoolers that probably have a similar routine when sports is like such a huge part of your life, it’s And it’s very easy to like, even just go to your pediatrician for your yearly checkup and then [00:06:00] be like, Oh you’re just a late bloomer or like you, you’re just super active.

So this is quote, unquote, normal. And it’s easy to kind of brush like under fueling under the rug and not pay attention to a growth chart or anything. And, perhaps maybe catch some of these things before they start affecting fertility or Affecting, all the other things that can come along with it down the road.

So yeah, same thing with GI issues. It’s Oh, this is actually not that common, but I think some of the research now shows like 70 percent of people in the U S have GI issues. I’m like, that’s a lot of people that have some level of GI issues. 

Lindsey Lusson: Yeah. A hundred percent. And something that you said, because I know we were talking about like a defining what is AJ?

What is primary amenorrhea? Something that I think really deserves more attention is early intervention for when women aren’t starting their period. So we work with a lot of clients who are like, I was a late bloomer, or, I didn’t start my period until I was 16, 17, 18, or until I went to [00:07:00] college, et cetera.

And that alone is kind of a red flag because anytime somebody isn’t starting their period by age 15, that is like the clinical definition of primary amenorrhea, meaning that something is misfiring in their reproductive system. Signaling usually like with the hypothalamus that is not allowing the body to turn on that hormonal system at the appropriate time that it’s supposed to.

Dr. Heather Finley: So break down for us then what the difference between primary amenorrhea and hypothalamic amenorrhea and where the overlap is because. There can be overlap as well. 

Lindsey Lusson: Yeah, definitely. I am probably a little bit biased because usually the people that we’re working with who have primary amenorrhea, also it is more hypothalamic amenorrhea in nature.

But there are incidences where there can be other reasons why somebody wouldn’t start their period where it isn’t kind of the frankender feeling. So I guess let’s first by start by defining a little bit more hypothalamic amenorrhea. In the most like simplistic terms, it is caused by kind of three main things, stress.

So that can be like psychological [00:08:00] stress. It could be physiological stress from trauma or eating disorder, et cetera. There is also typically a under fueling component of it, whether it’s a, Heather, back in high school, multi sport athlete, very limited time. Maybe so also some GI issues going on kind of a frank under feeling like, Oh my gosh, I had no idea.

I needed to be eating this much. So it could be an unintentional under feeling. It could also be an intentional under fueling with more of a disordered eating, eating disorder, part of it. And then also typically. High energy expenditure, whether that is intentional as part of an eating disorder or unintentional.

Usually what we see more often is like athlete put past division one athlete kind of continued their training into young adulthood, middle adulthood. So yeah, so the three main triggers stress under fueling and over exercise. Usually it’s not one of those alone probably could be a trigger, but usually it’s some sort of combination of all three of those.

And it happens in [00:09:00] somebody who started their period at a normal age and then kind of mysteriously loses their period at some point. Whereas primary amenorrhea is they don’t actually ever start their period at kind of that normal around age 15, 16 designated age. 

Dr. Heather Finley: And so you work with clients primarily that have hypothalamic amenorrhea, but you do get a handful that have primary amenorrhea.

But like you said, many times it’s actually driven by the same things as the hypothalamic amenorrhea. 

Lindsey Lusson: Yeah. It kind of depends upon the trigger, right? So if we’re working with a client who Is 30 and has never had a period. It’s been covered up by hormonal birth control. And then we start having a conversation.

And this is a piece that I feel is just so often missed in a traditional clinical healthcare situation is we start actually having a conversation about bull, what went on in high school? What was the environment with food? What were the pressures that you were put? putting yourself under in terms of training.[00:10:00] 

Was there ever a change in the way that you chose to, approach food or restrict food? And usually at least the clients that we’re working with that maybe never have ever had a period kind of roots in restriction, disordered eating disorder from a really young age. 

Dr. Heather Finley: I want to bring light to something that you’ve said a couple times is that it was covered up by hormonal birth control.

So just to kind of put it out there, if somebody has had a period, but it’s induced by hormonal birth control, that’s not the type of period that we’re talking about. We’re talking about like someone’s body menstruating on its own without the use of like birth control or something just to clear the air a little bit so someone’s not I’m on birth control and I’ve had a period.

But we’re talking about have you ever had one without anything inducing it? Natural 

Lindsey Lusson: ovulatory cycle versus. Birth control is really more what we would consider to be a withdrawal bleed from the synthetic [00:11:00] hormones that are in your system. 

Dr. Heather Finley: Yeah. Okay. Just wanted to make sure that like the listeners were on the same page as us and weren’t being like, Oh, this doesn’t apply to me because I’ve had a period for 15 years cause I’ve been on birth control for 15 years.

Okay, so the reason for this conversation is because of the overlap of GI issues with all sorts of period issues. So we, like I said at the beginning, tend to see quite an overlap in some of our clients. It’s pretty common when someone is missing a period or even on birth control to have GI issues. So let’s talk about some of the common GI issues that you might experience and why that is.

And then we can have a conversation about do you address the GI issues? Do they go away? What kind of some typical scenarios can look like? So in the clients that you work with, let’s say it’s somebody who’s been missing a period for several years. You identify that they have hypothalamic [00:12:00] amenorrhea.

What would kind of be expected from like a GI standpoint, or what are some of the common things that you see? I 

Lindsey Lusson: see a lot of slow motility. So people not having bowel movements every single day, or if they are going, they feel like they are having incomplete bowel movements. A lot of bloating a lot of feeling like they.

Can’t digest food well, which usually puts, sends people kind of down this rabbit hole of elimination diets and food sensitivity testing. And so I would say that those are the biggies are like bloat, constipation, slow motility. And just kind of like their GI issues, just like it feeling very like taking over their lives.

Dr. Heather Finley: So from an energy standpoint, like why would that actually be? normal, like why do we expect that would be the case and expect that somebody who comes to your program might have some of those symptoms? 

Lindsey Lusson: So I think that way, I think [00:13:00] that kind of the way that we’re taught to think about the human body is that There’s the separate systems.

There’s the reproductive system. There’s the gastrointestinal system. There’s the muscular skeletal system. The fact of the matter is that they’re all very closely interrelated and can be impacted by a variety of different things. So if we think about what is causing your body to shut down ovulation and your body to say mayday, this is not a safe place to make a baby.

shut down the system, we have to conserve energy. It makes sense that there would be other systems in the body that would be impacted from remaining in a low energy state. So we see this with bone loss. So people lose the ability to maintain regular bone mass whenever they aren’t cycling regularly.

We see it in heart issues and we also see it in digestive issues. So if the body. Simply doesn’t have enough energy to move food and waste to the digestive track. That’s going to contribute to food sitting in the stomach longer and some of those bloat constipation and kind of trickle down effective, even [00:14:00] kind of even more severe than I’m sure in your practice GI issues.

Dr. Heather Finley: Yeah. So at the end of the day, it’s really all about what does your body have the energy to do? And a GI. Or having a bowel movement is kind of a non essential function. It’s way more important for your heart to beat and your lungs to breathe and your brain to think than it is for you to have a bowel movement each day.

So it’s like your body is actually just really doing what it was designed to do, which for better or for worse, that’s kind of the reality. 

Lindsey Lusson: And same thing with reproduction. Like we, that’s not an essential for life function. It’s a nice to have, but not necessary for you to survive. The next 24 hours function.

Dr. Heather Finley: Totally. Totally. So what do you kind of see as like the progression, you have clients that come to your program, probably have constipation, bloating gas, whatever else add to the list of the GI [00:15:00] symptoms, they’ve probably gone down the food sensitivity rabbit hole, probably all that has done is restricted them more, added more stress and potentially made the issues worse.

What do you typically see as far as. When GI issues get better. And like what percentage of people just estimate wise, I don’t know that we have like specific research on this, but just in your opinion and your experience, people start working through your program. They start eating more fueling themselves.

Potentially exercising less, et cetera, like addressing all the pieces. Do the GI issues get better and kind of what’s the timeline for that? 

Lindsey Lusson: Yeah. So what I usually tell my clients to expect, and this is really just based off of the 300 plus clients we’ve served and patterns that I’ve observed with them is there is a little bit of a learning curve, right?

So if your body is. It’s only used to handling X amount of energy in terms of digestion and metabolism and utilizing all of those nutrients. There [00:16:00] is going to be a learning curve because part of the process of being able to get your cycle back and to signal to the body that, Hey, this is a safe place to ovulate and make a baby and therefore have a period is getting your body in an energy surplus.

This is one of the most challenging parts for. literally everyone during AHA recovery is that it’s uncomfortable. Like it’s uncomfortable to eat more food, especially when your digestion has slowed, especially when your metabolism isn’t working adequately. And so there is this, I always tell people kind of a two to three week learning period, learning curve when the body is having to relearn how to properly digest all of this food.

Get it out. There is also sometimes a clearing out of the digestive tract. So for people who are having infrequent bowel movements or incomplete bowel movements, sometimes they’ll actually have a lot more bowel movements during this adjustment period because they’re kind of clearing out their bowels for the first time in months, maybe years.

But usually after about two to four weeks of correcting the [00:17:00] energy deficit, our clients report like a complete 180 on most of their gut issues. This is not the case for every single person, but I will confidently say that at least 90 up to 95 percent of our clients are able to get, I don’t want to say instant relief, but within about a month or so, like a huge difference.

Dr. Heather Finley: Which really in the grand scheme of it all is not that long. It probably does at the time feel like the longest month of your life while you’re doing that. But if you think about it in the grand scheme of everything, that’s actually a pretty quick turnaround. Like the body really can heal itself pretty quickly, given the proper inputs.

Are there things that you recommend that your clients do in the meantime to help with like comfort and symptom relief, et cetera? What are some of the things that you found that have been helpful? 

Lindsey Lusson: Yeah, definitely. So it feels really backwards for a lot of our clients because they feel like the pathway into [00:18:00] HA, not for everybody, but for a lot of people is almost like very clean eating, very healthy eating, borderline orthorexia eating.

So it can feel very counterproductive. But one of the things that we’ll tell our clients to do is actually start cutting down on their fiber intake and to lower the amount of fruits and vegetables that consuming, especially like raw uncooked vegetables. And that Can help to not overtax the GI system as it’s kind of adapting and relearning how to move all that food and process it and move it through the digestive tract.

The other thing is to kind of think about decreasing volume and focusing on nutrient dense foods. So things like nuts, seeds, avocados, higher fat foods, liquid calories can also be really helpful here too, because we kind of have this short term must correct the energy deficit. But while battling these GI issues.

And so the idea is how can we get you the most energy possible without over, without overfilling your stomach with a lot of volume. So that’s kind of where we are usually talking [00:19:00] to people like, Hey, veggies are great time and a place. Let’s talk about decreasing the portion, making sure that they’re cooked, kind of thinking them more of more of a sprinkle or an add to the meal, not like the entire base of the meal. 

Dr. Heather Finley: That’s something we tell our clients too. Like one of the biggest, most powerful shifts you can make is stop eating raw salads for every single meal. If you’re bloated and you’re constipated, a raw salad is actually extremely hard to digest.

And can be really triggering from a symptom perspective and prevent you from actually eating enough too. Switching from raw to cooked like that alone can make a huge difference. Anything else that you see is either nutritional or something else thing that really helps like a shift that somebody could make.

Lindsey Lusson: We really try to get our clients off of sugar alcohols or any sort of fake artificial sweeteners. A lot of our clients are very athletic and they’re into fitness. And so they’re typically consuming all the protein bars, all the protein powders, all the, halo [00:20:00] top ice cream or high protein, low sugar version of a regular type of food or a dessert food.

And unfortunately, most people don’t do well with sugar alcohols, whether they’re crazy bloated or they’re pooping their pants. Like most people just don’t tolerate them well. Trying to eliminate those as much as possible. And then also, this isn’t a problem for every single person, but cutting down on carbonated beverages, like if somebody’s drinking diet sodas, or if somebody’s drinking just a lot of sparkling water through all throughout the day, that alone is definitely going to make you a little more bloated.

Dr. Heather Finley: Yeah, totally. It’s like a trade off, okay, enjoy that, but know that with that can come like some of these other things. Okay. So you said 95 percent of people can resolve their, or you’ve seen 95 percent about resolve their GI issues once they are eating more. Exercising less resolving the period.

What about like the 5%? So we were talking about this offline the one in 200 where it’s okay, you’ve kind of followed the program. You’ve been eating more, [00:21:00] you’ve decreased your activity. You’ve been at this, you’re being really diligent and honest with yourself about resting, et cetera.

And yet your GI issues are. So horrible. Or you’re just not getting your period back. So let’s look at it like kind of from the reverse, what are some scenarios that you’ve seen that, would be in that kind of 5 percent that we’re talking about? 

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Lindsey Lusson: Yeah, definitely. I’ve definitely come across chronic unresolved constipation and I say and unresolved might sound extreme because I do feel like there’s always a solution for it.

But Usually I’m seeing this in our more severe eating disorder clients. So kind of coming back to a topic I’m sure you’ve covered on this podcast several times about the gut being a muscle and the gut being out of shape. And so step one to getting that working again is getting food and waste to regularly move.

Through the digestive track. What if you can’t do that? What if for reason X, Y, or Z, whether it’s stress related, whether it’s something more complex medically, what if you can’t do that? [00:23:00] And that’s where I’ve learned a lot through you and looking a little bit further into mineral balance and thinking about different supplements that we can aid in helping them to be kind of clearing out and emptying their bowels.

And. That’s a little more person dependent because I think you have to kind of start thinking about their symptoms. But looking at minerals in particular, I know minerals do a world of a lot difference for my regularity. And kind of thinking about the three major ones that are what we’ll see most often depleted in somebody that’s coming from a disordered eating or just a high energy expenditure, high stress background, or sodium, magnesium, and potassium.

Dr. Heather Finley: Yeah, which all are needed. It’s a common scenario that we see and maybe you do too, is we have clients coming to us taking 1500 milligrams of magnesium citrate and they’re like, I’m still constipated. Like, why is this magnesium is supposed to be loosening my bowels and it’s not doing anything.

And the reality is because they are coming kind of from what you were talking about earlier, like this really clean kind of [00:24:00] orthorexic eating background. They’re actually pretty sodium depleted. They’re not getting enough salt in their diet. Cause they’re eating pretty minimal processed foods, probably not adding enough salt to their foods.

I think the nineties were really bad from a salt standpoint. Like we all became fearful and we all still haven’t recovered from that. But salt is so helpful for actual magnesium absorption. And then from like a muscle contraction standpoint, potassium is so essential. I think we always think of bananas and we think of potassium, but you can’t contract a muscle without adequate potassium.

And I think the latest research showed like 99 percent of Americans don’t meet their daily potassium needs. So if you’re consistently over time, not meeting that, like you can become very depleted, you have a huge like ditch of deficiency that you’ve got to fill in over time. So 

Lindsey Lusson: Definitely.

And I think in this pattern of combination, like a double whammy of past restrictive eating [00:25:00] past excessive expenditure, you’re just really that far in the hole. And then another thing that you’ve brought up when we’ve had some conversations about clients too, is the idea of man, maybe somebody is a rock star with their intake.

But maybe they haven’t addressed the stress component and they’re just constantly in fight or flight state. And so they’re just burning through all of their minerals so fast. Like the intake can never meet because we’re already starting in such a far depletion and there’s still just a lot of high stress stuff going on.

Dr. Heather Finley: Yes. Yeah. And your stress will rapidly deplete the three minerals that you just talked about. And then probably a conversation for another time, but then you kind of take into account perhaps somebody who’s been on hormonal birth control for five to 15 years, however long. And we know that hormonal birth control depletes a lot of the vitamins and minerals that are really essential for.

gut function. And we know that it can disrupt the balance of bacteria in the gut. So like that can be, potentially something to look at [00:26:00] as well. If there’s a long standing history there of hormonal birth control use. 

Lindsey Lusson: Yeah, definitely. And, talking more about the 5 percent of people where the gut issues are like impacting their ability to actually fuel, to be able to recover.

Just looking further down the line. That’s usually the people I’m referring to you, but doing like additional testing is there an infection? Is there SIBO? Is there something that needs to be treated to get this person the relief that they need to then start addressing the energy deficit part of it?

Dr. Heather Finley: I think the third scenario would be like, what about the client who they’ve done a lot of functional stuff and we definitely see clients like this. I think you do too, but the typical client who’s gone to the functional medicine doctor, the naturopath, they’ve done stool testing, perhaps they’ve done mineral testing.

They’ve done a lot of fancy expensive testing. And I’m a fan of testing. Within the right context, of course, but the scenario that you see is they go, they get these [00:27:00] results, they’re horrified with their results, and then they’re put on like hundreds of dollars worth of supplements, but they never actually address the true root of the problem, which is actually a nutrition problem.

Not necessarily. And that’s contributing obviously to the fact that they, maybe they do have candida, or maybe they do have. SIBO like you mentioned, but they don’t get any better. So let’s talk about that scenario because I think we both see that a lot. 

Lindsey Lusson: Yeah, definitely. And I think that’s so important because I feel like that you could be treating the same SIBO over and over again.

But if you’re chronically constipated because you’re not eating enough. I’m kind of pulling out one specific scenario, then you’re going to kind of like round and round we go. Testing is something and I work with clients that kind of walk this fine line between Eating disorder and disordered eating.

A lot of our clients were never formally diagnosed, but they’re like, Oh yeah, that [00:28:00] one time in college, or I got way too obsessed with stuff before my wedding. And even when we kind of correct things from a habit behavior standpoint, so the psychological stuff can really stick with you. And also to just knowing kind of like the personality type of a lot of the people who work with that develop HA.

I do think sometimes testing can cause you to focus on the wrong things or to become hyper focused on, oh my gosh, like I need to I need to get my secretary IGA up And they’re kind of missing the whole boat on yes. And one of the reasons why it’s out of whack is because there’s this chronic underfeeling or because you’re still running seven miles every single day.

Though I do feel like sometimes for a certain type of client, testing can almost give you too much information. And so we really like in our program to kind of start with the basics of Hey, how’s your sleep? How’s your stress? How’s your fueling? How’s your nutrient timing? How’s your macronutrient balance?

Let’s get this foundation down first. [00:29:00] Cause we got a good chance that we can resolve a lot of these gut issues and then we can always do further testing looking into other things at some point. So yeah, I do find that a lot of our clients are coming to us with Yeah, on a ton of supplements. And not all bad, right?

Like these things can work together. And I know we kind of wanted to go here too. These things can work together, but unfortunately, depending upon the practitioner that they were working with before they work with us, kind of miss the whole boat on getting the foundation down first. 

Dr. Heather Finley: No, I’m 100 percent with you.

And like I said, I’m a huge fan of testing, but within the right context, I think it’s incredibly wasteful to do testing and just treat with supplements because like you said, you’re not addressing the root of the issue. If your Secretary IGA being low or your SIBO not going away is actually like an underfueling stress issue.

You can take all the immunoglobulins, all the [00:30:00] antibiotics, all the whatever anything. It’s not going to actually resolve the issue. So you have to use like nutrition, lifestyle, and then supplements can be supplementary to actually addressing the whole picture. And I think honestly, probably another conversation for another time, but that’s where functional medicine goes wrong is it’s.

It’s like people kind of have this idea that functional medicine is you go in, you take a test, you take supplements, but like true functional medicine is not that. It’s you go in, you assess the whole picture. You identify all of the underlying things. And address those and then you can use supplementary things as kind of a stop gap, but it’s not the whole treatment, but that’s unfortunately kind of what it’s become.

And I’m like, that’s no different than the conventional healthcare model that everybody’s frustrated with. Like you go in and you get a medication or you go in and you get supplements. Both of those things aren’t helpful. 

Lindsey Lusson: [00:31:00] Right, right. Yeah. And it’s hard to say to exactly where the gap is because I’m thinking about like some of my clients to like, maybe there were conversations around, Hey, you also need to make sure you’re eating enough or Hey, you also need to make sure that you’re managing your stress.

And those things were like in one ear out the other. And they were like, I’m going to take care of you. this cool little supplement and all my problems are solved and I’m going to go on my merry little way with, doing orange theory seven days a week, like it’s hard to identify exactly where the gap is, whether the instruction wasn’t given or if the, that in particular person latched onto the wrong parts of the treatment or 

Dr. Heather Finley: just lack of accountability, where it’s okay, maybe that provider didn’t have the bandwidth to be like, Hey, I’m going to keep you accountable to actually addressing these things.

So yeah, there’s, there can definitely be a lot of pieces to the puzzle.

Okay. So we’ve covered like three pretty standard scenarios that we see. So anything else that you feel like we should address when [00:32:00] it comes to lack of period, missing periods, period issues, and kind of the overlap of GI issues, anything that we missed? 

Lindsey Lusson: I think the thing that we’ve, we haven’t gotten into yet, and I think it’s appropriate that we kind of save this for last because it is more of a, this truly is a rare scenario, but where the issues like ongoing issues with kind of more severe gut issues are actually impacting the absorption of nutrient and calories.

To support hormone balance where like the gap is actually that like they are fueling enough. They are weight restored We have slowed way down on exercise. We are addressing the stress component, but we’re stuck and That very that scenario. 

Dr. Heather Finley: Yeah, and we’ve both had clients Like that where it’s okay, what else is going on here?

And, some typical scenarios that we could see is perhaps there’s a gallbladder issue and, there’s not good fat [00:33:00] soluble vitamin absorption because of the gallbladder issue or lack of gallbladder could also be a scenario or. From like a mineral perspective, there’s not good mineral absorption because there’s low stomach acid.

And then that’s kind of a catch 22 cause you need minerals to make stomach acid. It’s like kind of, where do you start there? Or just overall, something that we see, which this is kind of niche as well as with disordered eating and orthorexia. type eating. A common scenario that people will go towards is becoming more like vegetarian, vegan.

And something that we see on testing is as someone follows a vegan or vegetarian diet, we’ll see a last taste, which is a marker of pancreatic enzyme output decrease. And over time, The pancreatic function can decrease, which truly then can become kind of a digestion absorption issue. And that’s not to say that every vegetarian or vegan is going to struggle with that.

It can be, you can very much execute that [00:34:00] well if you’re paying attention, but if you’re not, then that could cause some issues. Yeah. Yeah, I think you’re right. There definitely can be a digestion, absorption, et cetera, piece that if kind of all of these things are in place and nothing’s shifting, it’s worth looking into that.

Okay, what is your body not absorbing or what is it lacking? 

Lindsey Lusson: It’s interesting too, that you bring in like the vegetarian or vegan thing. Cause I do get a lot of questions from people of, can you get your period back following a vegetarian diet or a vegan diet? And in my experience, yes. It does typically take a little bit longer and from a hormone fertility perspective if somebody is very strict vegan and they’re not consuming enough dietary cholesterol, that can have a major impact on your body’s ability or rather inability to make proper sex hormones.

Dr. Heather Finley: Yeah. And that’s going to affect the gallbladder as well too. So then it’s just, yeah, it’s affect multiple systems. So what would your advice [00:35:00] be to somebody then that maybe kind of fits in that bucket of okay, perhaps there is an absorption digestion actual issue going on. That’s kind of the big bulk of this piece here.

Lindsey Lusson: Yeah. I think that’s where you really do have to get specific with a little bit of testing because I think that a lot of. People, the people that I’ve worked with in that scenario, they feel really lost because they’ve, they feel like they’ve turned over almost every single stone. They’re that, I think that is actually the best place to start bringing in functional testing is to see what else is going on under the surface.

That’s kind of impacting their system. And those aren’t tests that they’re going to get with their regular doctor. And just somebody kind of a fresh set of eyes to look at things from a different perspective. 

Dr. Heather Finley: Totally. And I think you’re right. Kind of that lost feeling of am I broken?

Is there something wrong? I’m like following all the boxes and something. So just to encourage that person, there’s always more that can be done and looked at, if you’ve addressed the basics and you’re doing all those things and nothing’s shifting, there’s [00:36:00] always another stone that can be turned over to look at.

Okay. Yeah. Or the onion layer, however you want to, whatever analogy you want to use let’s really kind of get to the core of what’s actually going on so that you can feel better. 

Lindsey Lusson: Yeah, definitely. 

Dr. Heather Finley: Okay. Any last minute thoughts for our listeners? And if not, where can people find you, learn about you, your programs, et cetera?

Lindsey Lusson: Yeah, I guess in terms of last minute thoughts, I, if anybody is feeling lost with period issues, I would highly recommend, of course, thinking about a lot of the we talked about here in this episode, because I do think that like when we talk about Oh, I have a gut infection or, this is I’m eating enough, but like things aren’t allowing my body to like properly digest and absorb the nutrients.

If you’re still doing that and you’re running seven miles a day and eating 1700 calories like that’s probably not your issue. So I would say that, but I would also encourage people who do fall in that more niche scenario that we described Testing is can be so transformational like in the [00:37:00] clients that I’ve referred to you Heather.

We’ve seen people actually be able to get cycles for the first time ever. So never give up on testing or just, don’t give up on just like conventional healthcare telling me like, Oh, this is the end. It looks like your own hormone replacement therapy at age 25 for the rest of your life, like there’s more that can be done.

Dr. Heather Finley: And feel free to reach out to, I’m, I will. And I know Lindsay will do the same. We’ll honestly tell you if we think that we can help you or if you’re missing a step, it’s pretty common that I’ve told people like, Hey, I’d love to help you. However, I think the first step for you is actually getting your period back.

Tell me a little bit more about what’s going on. Yeah. It’s it doesn’t make sense right now, maybe for us to go down the testing rabbit hole, but let’s do this first. If you’re still experiencing these issues, then come back, and vice versa. So we can always explore like what would be the next best option for you.

Lindsey Lusson: Yeah. Yeah. If anybody is interested in learning more about me and what I do everything is food, freedom, fertility. So I’m on Instagram food. freedom. fertility. Website is [00:38:00] foodfreedomandfertility. com. And I’m usually most active hanging out on Instagram. So just like Heather said, if you ever have a question, you can always reach out over DM and I will let you know pretty quickly if I think that our team can help, or if not, how to get you in front of the right person who can.

Dr. Heather Finley: Awesome. Thanks for joining us, Lindsay. Last question actually is what is your favorite way to love your gut? Because this is called the love your gut podcast. 

Lindsey Lusson: Oh man. I did HTMA with you over the summer with your team and I kind of went into it a little bit like, Oh, I don’t really feel that bad.

But. minerals have been really helpful for me. And I know I kind of feel even crazy sometimes that I’ll even travel with like my like mineral powder, but I’m like, you know what travel disrupts my digestion. These are such a game changer for me. I’m just going to be that weird person that like travels with her supplements.

So yeah, minerals have been a game changer, especially when I think about just my Okay. There are things about my lifestyle that I will manage as best as I can, but I do have three young children and I am a business owner and the stress is just there. So [00:39:00] yeah, minerals are, have been a game changer for me.

Dr. Heather Finley: Welcome to your mid thirties. This mid thirties guys. We travel with our mineral powder so we can feel our best. I love it. Thanks for joining and everyone go check out Lindsay and she has a podcast as well. So you can tune in there. Thanks. 

I’m giving your gut a thumbs up because you just finished another episode of the love your gut podcast. You know that in order to live a life free from uncomfortable bloating, you need to figure out why you’re actually bloated, right? The best way to do that is by taking my free quiz. Take the next steps towards determining your root causes by visiting drheatherfinley.

co backslash quiz and learn what it is that’s causing your bloating. Soon enough, you’ll be transforming your gut issues and I can’t wait to help you. Be sure to tune in next week for the next episode of the Love Your Gut [00:40:00] podcast.