App INSIDER: The Cost Of Being A Bad-Ass - How To Cure Your Hormones With Dr. Sara Gottfried

Ben Greenfield (0:00)

Hey, podcast listeners, welcome to this App Insider interview with Dr. Sara Gottfried, MD, author of The Hormone Cure.

This podcast was not originally titled The Cost of Being a Badass, but upon publishing it, we decided that was probably gonna be the best name for it because we get into everything that you need to know about how to fix the consequences of living a really active lifestyle and doing lots of cool things. So you're gonna get a lot out of today's episode. I hope you enjoy it. Feel free to share it with a friend and let's delve right into The Hormone Cure.

SPEAKER_2 (0:37)

Welcome to the bengreenfieldfitness.com podcast. We provide you with free exercise, nutrition, weight loss, triathlon and wellness advice from the top fitness experts in the nation.

So whether you're an Ironman triathlete or you're just trying to shed a few pounds, get ready for non-run-of-the-mill, cutting edge content from bengreenfieldfitness.com.

Ben Greenfield (1:11)

Hey, folks, it's Ben Greenfield, and I have on the call with me a wife, a mother to two girls, a scholar, a yoga teacher, and a Harvard-trained MD, among other skills. She's got over 20 years of experience in medicine, and she is the author of the fantastic book that I had the pleasure to read last month called The Hormone Cure.

Her name is Dr. Sara Gottfried, and she is just a wealth of information when it comes to hormones, hormone balancing, hormone stabilization, and all those little things that kind of hold us back from reaching our goals, whether they're fat loss goals or performance goals or whatever the case may be. So, Dr. Sara, thanks so much for coming on the call today.

Sara Gottfried (2:00)

Hey, Ben, I'm so happy to be with you today. Thank you.

Ben Greenfield (2:04)

So I'm gonna jump right in here. You're kind of rogue when it comes to being like a classically trained MD, right? Because you went to Harvard Medical School and you're, I believe, a board-certified OB-GYN, right?

Sara Gottfried (2:21)

I am, although if we've got some guys listening, don't start cowering in the corner because I've got lots of material for you as well. I'm an integrative physician, so I take care of both men and women, but yes, I am board-certified in gynecology.

Ben Greenfield (2:34)

Okay, gotcha. Yeah, and thanks for calling out the guys because I've actually read your book and I've been trying to get my wife to read it for a month and she hasn't yet, but I feel like, I feel like I got almost more out of your book than maybe she, well, definitely more than she has yet. So-

Sara Gottfried (2:50)

Well, Ben, it'll still help the relationship, I have to say. You know, when my husband read the book, he said, you know what, guys totally need this material. Their lives will be so much better if they understand what their women are going through.

Ben Greenfield (3:03)

Yeah, for sure. And that's exactly what I was getting at. Like I kind of understand the hormone cycles that she goes through just a little bit better now.

So what made you kind of break out of the mold and go rogue, if you will, when it comes to kind of taking the approach that you've taken towards medicine?

Sara Gottfried (3:28)

Yeah, well, I would say I wasn't born in the mold.

I was raised by a mother who's a serious whole foodist. I had a great grandmother who would show up at our house with suitcases of kale and Meyer lemons. And she really believed that the answer to health was not found at the bottom of a prescription, a bottle of prescription pills. She really thought it was through lifestyle design and the way that you think, eat, move and supplement. So that was something that I was born into. I have this lineage of looking at health this way. And then I would say I went into the mold very briefly by going through this conventional medical training. And then it was when I was in my 30s where I came back to this. I kind of came back home because I was one of those mid-30-somethings who was struggling with PMS. I had low sex drive, I was a runner, and yet I had this muffin top that just wouldn't quit. And that's when I realized that I needed to do the lifestyle redesign that I kind of grew up with, that I was immersed in as a kid.

And I had a hunch that my problem was hormonal, and it turns out that I had a cortisol that was about three times what it should have been. It took me a month to fix it.