Hi Dear Friend,
This week I’m thrilled to introduce you to Dr. Sara Gottfried (in case you didn’t already know about this women’s health champion!). Over the past year, Sara has become a friend and mentor of mine. Before I met Sara, I didn’t fully understand how much stress could throw off my hormone balance and affect my overall health. And I’m guessing that some of my readers are in the same boat. That’s why I filmed this interview for you. I hope our conversation empowers and helps you as much as it’s helped me.
Watch my interview with Dr. Sara Gottfried above or download it here and listen on the go. Note: To download the mp3 file right click (or Ctrl+Click on a Mac) on the link and “Save Link As” to save it to your computer.
Why am I blown away by Sara’s work?
For starters, she’s a Harvard-educated physician, board certified gynecologist, speaker, yoga teacher, wife, and mom of two daughters. She’s also the kind of doctor that makes me cheer—a practitioner who’s getting to the root causes of health issues impacting millions of women. And she’s not throwing pills at her patients’ problems. Instead, Sara is teaching us how to address these challenges with an integrative approach. You know, all the stuff we love at KrisCarr.com—diet, lifestyle, holistic mental and emotional therapies and supplements.
I recently read Sara’s new best-selling book, The Hormone Cure: Reclaim Balance, Sleep, Sex Drive, and Vitality with The Gottfried Protocol and it really helped my daily wellness plan. With a couple tests and a few simple adjustments, I’m seeing major improvements in my energy levels, which had been less than ideal for a while. In this interview, Sara and I delve into a huge topic for most of us—stress!
Here’s a peek at the questions we covered:
- What’s runaway stress and how does it impact our hormones and health? Take Sara’s free quiz to begin exploring your hormonal health.
- What are some practical ways we can overcome runaway stress? Sara and I share our personal strategies (Sara loves the Inner Balance app).
- What’s the link between cortisol and challenges like depression, moodiness, chronic disease or gaining weight? Find out how Sara and I have measured and improved our cortisol levels.
- What’s public enemy #1 of our well-being? We all need to be aware of this priority and keep it in the forefront of our minds each day…
- What foods reduce stress in the body? You could easily start adding these foods to your diet today.
- How do carbohydrates impact our hormonal health and stress levels? Hint: they’re not your nemesis.
- For a green juice drinking yoga mama in our audience who’s rocking some of these tips already, what’s she NOT thinking about or addressing? You don’t want to miss Sara’s insider tips!
Watch the video above or download it here and listen later. For more information on Sara, her free resources, programs and books, visit her website. Note: To download the mp3 file right click (or Ctrl+Click on a Mac) on the link and “Save Link As” to save it to your computer.
Your turn: I really want to hear about what you’re struggling with when it comes to stress, hormones & your well-being. Comment below with your insights & tips.
Peace & happy hormones,
Two awesome health advocates for the NATURAL Way ~ 3 Cheers!
Functional medicine is the answer 4 me too, but who is a CDN Dr. Sara?
I believe testing is crucial, and would LUV a “Charlies Angels test kit” for Cortisol, Estrogen, and Thyroid, especially 4 us Canadian Gals : )
Licorice for low cortisol, is the protocol in the book?
Kudos 4 sharing your Fabulous Advice on hormonal havoc ~ look forward to round 2
That was a really good and informative video with Sara Gottfried. Thank you! I wish she were in my town! I’m a very stressed out mom of 10!
Hi Kris, I am so glad people like you and Sara exist, who find and share with a sexy-easy-to-understand way all the information that makes our health better. I have been taking baby step after baby step to a better health, starting with yoga, then vegan-at-dinner thanks to you, than green juice (yeaaahhh!!!) plus much more greens daily and more to come… Such interviews touches me, and for the fun: I listened to this web interview on my phone while walking in my living room (to exercice more my body!) and took a bit of 85% cacao dark chocolate when the topic got brought in the interview 🙂
Really love you and look forward to more of your tips, infos and so on.
A Big Hug from France!
I have hypothyroidism. I’ve been told by my naturopath that having too many raw greens can be bad for my thyroid. Do you and Dr. Gottfried agree with this? And do you have any green juice recipes would be good for someone with hypothyroidism?
And on a side note: thank you for such a great interview! It was so fascinating! I’ve already downloaded Inner Balance and ordered Dr. Gottfried’s book from Amazon!
Thanks for this interview. It was such a blessing and a gift! I’ve been working on some healing aspects with fatigue, thyroid, and adrenals. Even though I have a very enlightened, integrative physician who rocks, I feel this information is the missing piece. I’m so stoked to get Dr. Sara’s book. It was refreshing and very useful. Thank you!
Dear Kris,
Thank you for all you do. Two years ago I was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease. Thanks to your inspiration I’ve been able to hold the belief that the body can heal itself and have been on my own healing journey ever sense. I suffered a set back three days ago with a terrible bout of gout which is unusual because I’m on a whole foods plant based diet. But test results showed high levels of uric acid in my blood. I felt so defeated at first. After all I’ve done, I thought for a brief moment that no matter what I do, this will end badly. Then I watched this video and was reminded again there is always a way. The body can heal and I can do it! Thank you for helping keep a light on when everything seems dark.
Thank you for sharing this. I really enjoyed it. I am a health psychologist and teach about many of the things Sara talked about in the video. I am curious if she has any recommendations for approaching our physicians about cortisol/glucocorticoid and hormonal testing?
G’day Kris,
This is a really important interview as so many of us are completely zapped by modern life. Sara’s such a fantastic resource.
As a single working Mum, I’ve experienced first hand a total crash which landed me in hospital. Like Sara, I was prescribed all manner of things like radical hormones and anti depressants until I finally got the right help and information. Using a completely natural approach and specific protocol, I feel better than ever and know exactly what to do when I’m super busy to avoid any downturn.
Here are some additional important keys to balancing the OAT (adrenal-ovary-thyroid) axis :
– Gentle liver detoxification to increase your clearance. When your liver’s congested, which is the case for most of us, you can often have a reverse effect from supplements, even the good ones, and feel worse.
– Slow introduction and reduction of supplements. It’s very important not to just jump right into new supplements – wean on to new ones and off the old ones over the course of a couple of weeks.
– Take a breather. Becoming acutely aware of how you breath will enable you to recognize when you’re in fight/flight mode – the common sympathetic nervous system response to stress, real or perceived. Don’t panic, just stop, drop and breathe :
1. Watch for rapid, shallow mouth breathing in your chest.
2. If you notice this, begin breathing calmly through your nose, into your belly for a minute. Even 3 breaths will help.
Learning how to regulate your breath/nervous system in this way is one of the single most useful things you will do to help you manage stress and therefor keep a healthy OAT axis.
If you’d like more information on this, you can pop over to my site and grab my free instructional videos http://soniasommer.com/ Or feel free to drop me an email and I’d be very happy to offer any additional ideas and strategies to help you.
Lots of love to all of you beautiful, busy women, Soniaxo
Great information and so helpful. Now for some green juice with a dark chocolate chaser.
Thank you Kris for interviewing Dr Sara. I always enjoy her wisdom and knowledge. (and I’ll admit being infatuated with her!) I do recommend her book The Hormone Cures highly to my friends and readers. I also have the hard cover version and want to get the paperback with the extra 50 pages of information.
Really enjoyed listening to this interview. I’m working on reducing stress and improving my diet to help me cope with my endometriosis.
Kris THANK YOU so much – this is such a treasure chest of info.
I was diagnosed Hashimotos/hypothryoidism in December last year. I am working on
healing through nutrition and lifestyle and choosing not pharmaceuticals. There was
so many gems in this talk with Dr Sara that I will take away and work on.
Namaste from Australia.
Hi Australia, here is Austria 🙂 I have been diagnosed with Hashimoto’s a long time ago but only recently I stated to keep a serous eye on my Vitamin D levels and selenium levels. Hashimoto’s patients are low in vitamin d most of the time… supplementing it should be done together with somebody who knows about the connection, so I am working together with my doctor. Another interesting aspect: often gluten-free is mentioned in the connection of Hashimoto’s – so I am on day 2 of my gluten-free diet, especially because my antibodies are always wild. Maybe that’s also an idea for you? I have been taking t4 for a very long time and do not have any problems with them. All the best.
Thanks Kris for sharing! Other tips on great reads when it comes to hormones and women are Claudia Welch – Balance your hormones, balance your life and Toni Weschler – Taking charge of your fertility. Very much the same holistic approach.
Nice blog, It gives the best information ….
Flora Health’s Udo’s Oil or 7 Sources is a great source of omegas for vegans, though can be a bit pricy.
Thanks for an awesome interview!
Thank u soooooo very much Kris and Dr.Sara..This session has been an eye opener to me.
I’m at such a transitional time in my life and more and more I realize I’m feeling stressed out and anxious during the day. While most people are saying this normal, it’s hard to deal with daily. I loved this interview. Thank you for helpful, takeaway tips I can start using today.
Love both of you and really enjoyed this interview. I did the tests recommended by Dr. Sara in her book and found my cortisol is way high and everything else (DHEA, estrogen, progesterone) were really low. So I’m working on the cortisol and using the recommended supplements. My struggle is in the dietary aspects – I don’t have a juicer so am constantly trying to make a smoothie that I like, with no success. Haven’t found a protein powder that I like and can’t find a veggie combo that tastes good to me. Any suggestions for easy on the “newly green palette” smoothies? Also, trying to eat my greens is a struggle. I have a 2 year old and there is little time for prep or cooking. Any quick ways to cook veggies that are simple but flavorful? My other question for Dr. Sara is that I am on a combo birth control pill (yasmin), is that helping or hurting? 43 and do not want any more kids.
Awesomeness all around ladies!
This is perfect!! I am planning to write a blog about the effects of stress and our reactions to stress. I am so excited to share this video as part of my blog!!
I have hashimotos, cortisol low in the morning and 20 years of high stress (severely disabled daughter, passed away after 5 brain surgeries, shortly after another daughter diagnosed with crowns and almost died from malnutrition, had a brain tumor removed 6 months ago and husband with prostate cancer now). Have been taking tons of supplements and working on getting off 50 plus pounds. Last 3 weeks been on cleanse, protein shakes in morning, greens and very little animal protein. Cannot get weight off. Feel like crying constantly. Help me please. I eat 85% very good, almost no sugar, no processed foods, have tried elimination of high allergic foods, no carbs (other than in veggies) for three weeks and lost a grand total of only 5 pounds. Discouraged.
Hi Kris, Thank you for the many inspirational messages you post. I’m not often on fb; – but am so fortunate to have found this interview with you and Dr Gottfried. Will be forwarding it to my daughter, Dani, who has been struggling with ‘poly-ovarian-cystic-syndrome’ for years – and I think that Dr Gottfried’s book will help her. – Thank you again and blessings. Have a great day, Helen.