#222 Difference Between Men and Women in Health Optimization - Sandra Porthan

Sandra Porthan (0:00)

That is the basis that you have to have your adrenal health.

Good.

And after that, you should look at the thyroid and the sex hormones. Like, yeah, you're absolutely right. Like, that is the... Well, you should always begin when you start talking about hormones. It's your adrenal health. It's that good.

Siim Land (0:18)

Welcome to the Siim Land Podcast. I'm your host, Siim Land, and today our guest is Sandra Porthan. Sandra is a physician and a clinical nutritionist from Finland. She works with patients in hospitals and private clinics. Sandra also works with the Biohacker Center, and they have made the Biohacking for Women online course. In this episode, we talk about the differences between men and women when it comes to health and diet.

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Sandra, welcome to the show.

Sandra Porthan (1:10)

Good to be here.

Siim Land (1:12)

You've been starting to work with the Biohacker Center and doing some courses with them. So how did you get involved into becoming a health practitioner as well as starting to optimize your health with it?

Sandra Porthan (1:28)

You mean starting to anyhow getting interested in this or specifically with biohacking?

Siim Land (1:34)

Yeah, like just how did you, you know, went down the path of medicine and health?

Sandra Porthan (1:41)

Yeah, well, I have my own health journey, which kind of led to the interest. I was first actually introduced to yoga and breath work and discovered that way that I can actually affect my, like, how do I feel very quickly. I could change the state of my body and how I was like feeling. And then that interest went to nutrition. And then I first started to become a clinical nutritionist and work in a hospital environment, trying to help people with their diets and health issues. And sometimes felt that I didn't have enough tools to just to do that.

And then discovered functional medicine, started to look for functional medicine doctors and someone to work with.

And about that time, there was not that many in Finland. So then I just decided to become one myself.

Siim Land (2:47)

Yeah, that's like a lot of people do. Like if they are in need of some sort of help or some guidance, then and especially, if there's not some people talking about it, then they're forced to kind of do it themselves.

Or at least that's what I've seen.

Sandra Porthan (3:03)

Yeah, I had lots of resistance. It was not like a dream thing, but then just all turned out well eventually.

Siim Land (3:11)

And how did you like, started to work with the Biohacker Center?

Sandra Porthan (3:16)

Well, I had lots of interest. I had been following Olli Sovijärvi for a while, of course, because he was one of the functional medicine or kind of holistic medicine doctors in Finland. And I'd actually spoke to him when I was thinking about this, whether I should go to med school, what should I do? And yeah, following them, actually, I think I was in their first biohacking summit and getting to know them. And then just suddenly started to speak about this idea that we should also have some tools for women and we should also encourage women. Because I find women are natural biohackers since they already have a pretty good sense of their bodies.

So yeah, I think we were in this Optimized Day Retreat and it was after sauna when Olli was saying like, hey, you should talk to Inka about this woman thing.

She's already doing something with that. So then I contacted Inka and then we started walking on the course.

Siim Land (4:27)

Yeah, like I would imagine that by default, women tend to be more, let's say, in tune with their body. So they pay more attention to these types of things and signals that the body is giving them. So yeah, I would agree with that. And there's also some differences that women have to take into account when it comes to just their own physiology and health. So it's not like that all humans are the same.

So there is difference between individuals, but there's also pretty big differences between the sexes, like men and women.

Sandra Porthan (5:00)

Yeah, definitely. I find that women, they kind of need to learn that early on. And I do think that it's also due to menstrual cycles, since that also gives you an extra, you can see it as a benefit or a challenge, because there is a huge difference with your hormones throughout the month.