The Truth About Women's Nutrition, Hormones & Ageing | Mini Episode

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

This episode is brought to you by Paypal. You know how a mom's bag has everything? Sunscreen, snacks, a stapler?

The new Paypal app is like that, but for your money. Shop, pay, manage your account, and earn rewards all in one place. And with purchase protection on eligible items, biometric security, and pass keys, you're protected at every step. Download the new Paypal app to get started. See paypal.com/protectionterms.

Dr Faye Bate (0:29)

I'm going to show you a sheet of paper. And I would love to know whether you would buy this thing metaphorically, or say bye bye, as in goodbye.

So testosterone supplements.

Dr Florence Comite (0:42)

So in general, I believe testosterone is a critical hormone for men and women. Beginning in our 30s, we begin to lose testosterone, 1 to 3 percent a year. But to just erratically go out and buy testosterone supplements without knowing anything about your own body and what's necessary, bye bye.

Dr Faye Bate (0:59)

Bye bye. LED face masks.

Dr Florence Comite (1:03)

Those can be really useful. I think if you're using them religiously, I mean, you have to put an effort into it, which means you have to do it every day. It can help reverse fine lines and you can help with your hair as well. So wearing a mask is something to consider. Just compare the different types of masks so you get one that's effective.

Dr Faye Bate (1:22)

I like to do my first thing in the morning. It sets the time at 10 minutes and then I know, right, I don't get as many tasks as I do in those 10 minutes while I'm at my desk and it works quite well.

Dr Florence Comite (1:31)

They're great pictures on Instagram where you see people doing lots of different things. I get targeted a lot for that.

Dr Faye Bate (1:38)

Full body MRI scans.

Dr Florence Comite (1:40)

So that's a complex answer and I'll tell you why. First of all, I do them in patients. When I studied patients and I found to risk even in the 20s or 30s, a risk of cancer and there are ways to look for that. I worked with companies that were beginning to develop it.

But you have to be aware that if some glitch or abnormality comes up, whether in your thyroid, in your brain, in your pancreas or liver or kidney, you then might need further studies. Both the anxiety and the stress of something's wrong, along with doing additional tests are something to be considered before you embark on that.

That said, if there's a family history of diseases, particularly cancers like pancreatic cancer, liver cancer, other kinds of conditions that are hard to diagnose and pick up early, they are worth considering. You just have to make sure you work with a clinician or somebody that can help guide you into what the next steps might be if something turns up. Like we've had to do lung biopsies in folks. We have found minor tumors in the brain called meningiomas, and one patient ended up having surgery to remove it, and that was pretty traumatic to go into the brain. But finding a pancreatic cancer, finding a kidney cancer and saving a person's life, what could be better than that?

Dr Faye Bate (2:59)

I worry about some of the ones where there's not a clinician attached to it. There's no counseling before someone has the scan. There's no counseling after if they find something, you just get referred onto a clinician. And you're right, I think you need the counseling beforehand to prepare you.

Dr Florence Comite (3:13)

Yes, and to also make sure you can handle it. It's like finding out you have a risk genetically of Alzheimer's Dementia or another chronic disease like heart or stroke or Parkinson's. I think the issue of what you have to deal with in your day-to-day life means you need support and that would be hard to find. And that is also true of families where a parent or a grandparent, but here it has those conditions and then you worry is it going to affect you. You might not worry in your 20s because you feel invincible, but later on it bears on you that this is something I need to think about. Am I at risk?

In fact, we have somebody who talks about it all the time because both grandmothers had Parkinson's and now her mother has Parkinson's and they all got Parkinson's at 60 and she's only about 10 years younger. So she's talking to us about what to do now so she could put it off. And that's the good news. If you know what's going on, you can actually change the way genes work. And that's the point of invincible, defy your genetic destiny, right? To live better longer. And if you can do that, you can actually keep your health for a much longer time because we women do live longer, but not in good health.