Midlife Inflammation & Weight Loss with Dr. Mary Claire Haver…15 Minute Quickie

Mary Claire Haver (00:00:00) - We know that chronic inflammation starts skyrocketing. Along with these changes. We're losing muscle as inflammation goes up and we're gaining fat in new places as inflammation goes up. And if we can attenuate this chronic inflammation, it looks like we can start attenuating those body composition changes and the weight kind of comes off.

Sarah Milken (00:00:23) - Hey peeps, welcome to the Flexible Neurotic Podcast. I'm your host, doctor Sarah Millican. Yeah, you heard that right. I'm a real PhD doctor. Long, long ago, like last fucking year, I was sitting in the midlife funk wondering, was this it for me? That day, I realized I needed to get off my ass and start my midlife remix. I dusted off my PhD, wiped the menopause sweat off my forehead, grabbed my golden shit shovel, and started digging deep to all my midlife bitches. It's not just luck, coffee, and hormones that get you through your midlife remix. It's action steps. Let's do this. Hi peeps, it's me again, Doctor Sarah Milken with a new episode of the Flexible Neurotic Podcast.

Sarah Milken (00:01:10) - This is the Midlife Podcast that celebrates the Uggs and fabulosity of midlife. If you're new here, hi! If you're an old timer, hi! We're back. And it is after the first of the year and I decided to do a new little thing, I am going to go back and into some of my old episodes. When I say old, we're only talking within the last couple of years, so all the information is current. You know, I love researching and I've spent so much time curating all of these fabulous episodes for you guys and for myself, because, you know, I want the expert info for my midlife shit to come on. So what I'm doing is I think I'm not 100% sure. Don't hold me to it. But every couple of weeks I'm going to put out a mini episode that is like a quick 10 to 15 minute clip and discussion from an older episode, and we're just going to Golden Nugget for us. Like one amazing thing that an expert said that I got deep into conversation with.

Sarah Milken (00:02:17) - So it's basically going to be a golden nugget. Minnesota. I find these so fucking helpful because when I went back and look through all the show notes, I'm like, you guys, there's so much information here, so much information that probably flew in the midlife brain and out the midlife brain, information on menopause hormone, midlife diet, getting your shit together in midlife, empty nest, all of it. There is so much stuff, so flexible, neurotic style. I'm getting out my golden shit shovel. I'm digging deeper and bringing you some golden nuggets that we're going to reconnect with maybe forgot about. And we're going to start loading them in to our midlife to do list. Let's go. So today is going to be our first Golden Nugget Minnesota. And we're starting with inflammation a hot word last year the year before it seems to be like all over the place. And I'm fucking the poster child for inflammation. All of my numbers are basically off the charts. You've heard me talk about my cortisol. My doctors like Sarah, you have cortisol.

Sarah Milken (00:03:23) - That's like for for adults. What the fuck is going on? Are you meditating? What are you doing? As we know, inflammation has such a crazy impact on the body, mind and quality of life. I mean, obviously bloating is so uncomfortable and can ruin an outfit, but I really had no idea what inflammation really was until I sat down with Doctor Mary Claire, Hover board certified ObGyn, Menopause Normalizer, and we talked all about inflammation, hormones, and the changes that the body experiences in menopause. She's an amazing doctor who used her education and research to experiment on her own menopausal problems and symptoms when she felt like nothing else was working. And let's just say she's cracked the menopause code. I'm sure you know her. You follow her TikTok. Follow her Instagram. Doctor Mary Claire Haver Throughout Doctor Hannah's research, she put together so much information that she wrote a book called The Galveston Diet so good. It's basically based on three pillars. We're only going to talk about two in this mini Golden Nugget episode.

Sarah Milken (00:04:35) - The first pillar is intermittent fasting, and the second pillar is avoiding anti-inflammatory foods, both of which leads to inflammation in the body in this mini. So we're going back to what we learned about inflammation. What is it? What problems could it be causing for us midlife ers and how do we solve these problems. This golden nugget is a game changer. So let's get into it.

Mary Claire Haver (00:04:58) - When we lose muscle that. Controls our basal metabolic rate. So this is all the research that I'm diving into and learning. I'm like, no one told me this. No one talked about this. Like, where else can I go with this? And what changes can we do to reverse this? And they started pointing me in the direction of inflammation. We know that chronic inflammation starts skyrocketing. Along with these changes. We're losing muscle as inflammation goes up and we're gaining fat in new places as inflammation goes up. And if we can attenuate this chronic inflammation, it looks like we can start attenuating those body composition changes and the weight kind of comes off.

Mary Claire Haver (00:05:31) - So I started looking at how we could lower inflammation with nutrition. And I got so interested in it I was like, you know, there's a huge gap in my knowledge here. What can I do? We had a speaker come in from Tulane, and he was the head of this culinary medicine program, and I didn't know what that was. And it turns out it's it's a medical nutrition.

Sarah Milken (00:05:47) - I know it sounds like you're going to be a chef in France.

Mary Claire Haver (00:05:50) - So we did.

Sarah Milken (00:05:51) - Work.

Mary Claire Haver (00:05:52) - In kitchens to learn cooking techniques. It was really a cool it was like medicine. And we had registered dietitians and we had chefs and we had, you know, people who were physicians but so interested in nutrition. It was kind of melding all three of these things together, where we could practically sit down with patients and talk about how to prepare meals that are healthy, how to it's really the best thing I've ever done. So I'm taking these courses, my brain's exploding, and I'm putting this little plan together in my head just so I could tell my patients.

Mary Claire Haver (00:06:21) - I start utilizing the changes in myself. Body composition starts going back to what it used to be, perimenopause, and the weight comes off and I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, this is working.

Sarah Milken (00:06:30) - So I think you explain in the book so well that it's not a diet because it's not a temporary solution. It's not like a one week cleanse. You're basically saying this is a lifetime lifestyle.

Mary Claire Haver (00:06:41) - Yes. And you explain.

Sarah Milken (00:06:42) - That very clearly in the book. And the subtitle of your book is The doctor developed patient Proven Plan to Burn Fat and Tame Your Hormonal Symptoms. The three pillars of the Galveston diet are one intermittent fasting, two avoiding inflammatory foods, and three fuel refocusing with protein, healthy fats, and food for nutrients. You say that body weight and composition in midlife is not about willpower, it's about hormones.

Mary Claire Haver (00:07:12) - We talk about intermittent fasting in terms of lowering inflammation. There's some great research around autophagy. Kind of, you know, when you're in the fasted state, your cells clean out the junk proteins and kind of poop them out, you know, and they go in the bloodstream and you filter them out through the liver and the kidneys.

Mary Claire Haver (00:07:26) - Also, people who fat, intermittent fast have lower insulin levels and lower glucose levels. And so, you know, kind of using that as a tool to lower inflammation. And insulin is directly correlative to increasing inflammation levels and visceral fat deposition. So getting those levels to come down is only going to work in your favor. It's not a great way on its own to lose weight. You can eat a lot of things that are going to undermine the anti-inflammatory benefits of fasting in your eating window. So that's why we don't just fast.

Sarah Milken (00:07:57) - The best part about what you do is you're taking real peer reviewed research that you're finding on PubMed or whatever. It's not just like some random guy did it in the basement of his house and you're like, these studies are done on menopausal women, not on 14 year olds. Yeah, it's it makes sense. And you take all these research articles and make them so accessible into these sort of like five step nuggets that are so helpful. The second pillar of the Galveston diet is anti-inflammatory foods.

Sarah Milken (00:08:28) - And I would love for you to tell us what the research shows of why we care about anti-inflammatory foods in midlife and what they're going to do for us.

Mary Claire Haver (00:08:37) - So anti-inflammatory foods are basically fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds, lean meats. Back when I was originally researching for the program, there was a lot of of theoretical data that came out about omega six and omega three ratio. That's kind of been debunked a little bit. I mean, no one wants to sit there and, you know, just inhale corn oil, but it doesn't seem to be as inflammatory as possible. We still recommend a diet rich in omega threes because there's, you know, when you're eating diets that are naturally rich, you know, like the Mediterranean diet is very rich in omega three fatty acids. And you tend to be healthier. But demonizing some of these oils, you know, can be problematic.

Sarah Milken (00:09:21) - The inflammation as it relates to cognitive decline and Alzheimer's and the inflammatory foods. I mean, I read this statistic the other day that said that 75% of people with Alzheimer's don't even have one or both of the genes for it, that it's literally lifestyle.

Mary Claire Haver (00:09:42) - Yeah, that is astounding. So one of the biggest eye openers for me when I started down the research rabbit hole, when I say research, I am reading other people's research. I was not in the lab doing the research. Yeah, but your.

Sarah Milken (00:09:57) - Part is just as important because. You're taking it and breaking it down and making it digestible for people like us.

Mary Claire Haver (00:10:04) - And I thought everyone with Alzheimer's had a genetic like you. I didn't realize that so much of so many chronic conditions was a lifestyle. I mean, I knew heart disease and I knew, but I knew some diabetes type one for sure. But type two is almost always lifestyle. And I mean, you have a predisposition, but I did a survey on social media and I said, what scares you about getting old? And for me it's cancer because my brothers and everyone said the loss of ability to take care of myself like that, I can't think or I can't move. So it was, you know, Parkinson's, ALS, Alzheimer's, dementia, you know, something where you're going to be a burden on your family and not be able to care for yourself as you age.

Mary Claire Haver (00:10:45) - That terrified them. So then I started reading more, and they're like, what can we do to decrease these risks? And so I started going down the rabbit hole. I'm like, oh my God. Nutrition and Alzheimer's, nutrition and dementia. Like, I didn't know no one taught us this. I mean, you know, like porn, eat a healthy diet, you know, and so but like people who eat according to these certain patterns have a much lower risk, including exercise of these diseases. And like had known 20 years ago that you could have avoided, you know, being unable to care for yourself and being institutionalized or you're, you know, being a burden on your family and locked in a room somewhere. Yeah. Just by making a few easy nutritional changes and incorporating some exercise. Wouldn't you have done it?

Sarah Milken (00:11:30) - Yeah, I.

Mary Claire Haver (00:11:31) - Know.

Sarah Milken (00:11:32) - And now the thing is, we're getting all this information now, and it's going to be interesting to see how many of us can listen and come to the call and actually do the work, because it is a lot of work.

Sarah Milken (00:11:46) - There are so many things that we have to do, but what's so interesting about it is it's a theme I talk about in this podcast a lot. It's self-responsibility. No one's coming to save you. The information is there. People like you are disseminate getting this amazing information, and it's up to us to take it and actually make these micro changes in our actual lives. Hey peeps, it's me again because this is a short Golden Nugget episode. I don't have a whole golden nugget summary, but I'm just going to do the bottom line for you. Who knew that inflammation was the leading cause of so many mental and physical issues that we women face in midlife and menopause? I mean, this information is game changing. The biggest thing that we can do is bridge the gap between knowing the information and actually fucking doing it. All the small steps that we need to do to help our bodies and minds as we age is basically fighting against inflammation. Doctor Mary Claire Haver emphasizes the fact that inflammation is a leading factor in cognitive decline, health issues, and obesity.

Sarah Milken (00:12:57) - That's huge. The fact that our lifestyle can be a leading cause in cognitive decline means that we have so much agency to fight against it. It's the baby steps that are so hard, so what can we do to keep our inflammation low and our mental health high as we head into midlife and menopause? The two biggest things are one. Intermittent fasting. Doctor Mary Claire Haver suggests the 16 eight method. And of course, I am not a doctor, so definitely clear this with your doctor before you start or try anything. And number two, increase anti-inflammatory foods in our diets, such as fruits, vegetables like Hume's nuts, seeds and lean meats. Corn oil should be eaten very sparingly, and the rule of thumb is Omega three is your fucking bestie. Mid lifers. Don't worry about digging through your old notes. From all the amazing information we received over the last year, because I will be doing it for you. Stay tuned for more golden nuggets that you probably forgot in the midst of midlife parenting. Careering, empty nesting, and all the things that we're doing in midlife, there are three things you can do.

Sarah Milken (00:14:09) - First, subscribe to the fucking podcast. Second, share it with some friends who like midlife shit. And third, write an Apple review. It's really annoying, but it is so helpful. DM me. You know, I always respond, everyone matters. And of course follow my Instagram at the flexible neurotic duh. Love you talk soon.