Dr. Jessica Shepherd
speaker
254 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard May 2025
last heard May 2025
Dr. Jessica Shepherd’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
So your processed foods, your foods that have high glycemic index, that have a lot of sugar, a lot of soft drinks. I do see a lot of my patients who are in that timeframe when I look at their diet. I'm like, let's start here. Because for me, that's a lifestyle change that can impact you greatly. And I don't necessarily have to put you on a medication. So that might be a better way of looking at it.
And also with exercise. Exercise does have a beautiful way of releasing... other chemicals and hormones in our body that can help regulate our period, but we have to utilize that. And then also stressors, what's going on in your life. It's notorious for stressors. Women come in and they will say, I'm having all these changes in my cycle, whether it's heavier, lighter, irregular, doesn't matter.
I will always ask them, what's going on in your personal life? What's going on in work life? And again, when we have that session, that's why OBGYNs are actually usually said that they're also psychologists because we absorb a lot of what's going on in their life when they come in for a visit.
Categorically, and I will say that like emphatically, because our lifestyle and how we conduct our lives on the outside with those factors of food, nutrition, exercise really does change the game. And that's why we are starting to see when we get into later life or even in midlife, that that is also a very important part of what your body's going to be able to do.
Your body can only do what you give it. And if we're not giving it the things that it can thrive, then that's when it's like, I may not be able to perform at my best ability.
I'm so glad you asked this question because what does it have to do with the mind? Because the brain usually is the control center for a lot of hormones. So it is the one that is going to tell the ovary, I need you to kind of give off a little bit of estrogen today. We're going to give off this much. We're going to dial it down on this day because we're getting ready for ovulation.
All those different messages are usually generated from the brain.
So imagine what happens with our neurotransmitters when we undergo stressful situations, whether it's something that happens when you're crossing the street and you almost run over by a car versus exactly what you said, a stressor in life that's really taking over all your thoughts, your everyday life, that your brain can respond to that in a way where it's trying to help you cope with that stress.
But what happens is when we have stress, the brain can't give off the message to all the other hormones in the way that it could when it wasn't as distracted. And that's why we have to, as physicians, get better at mind-body connection.
Yeah, hormonal acne, again, when we think of, there's different types of acne, just there can be stuff that is due to chemicals that maybe, you know, you're using on your face that are not the best, but usually a lot is hormonal. And you can actually sometimes tell by where it is on your body. What? Where you're getting, yes.
So most hormonal acne can be mostly in kind of the area by right under the eyes or the chin. Why does it go there? Because when we're thinking of where the hormones, you have receptors all over your body that respond to hormones.
And so the receptors that maybe respond more to estrogen or testosterone, there's going to be features or areas on your face that are going to be more prone to the actual area of the breakout, right? And so when we think of what kind of spurs on these changes in hormones, which will then trigger hormonal, a lot of it has to do with testosterone.
Testosterone has a lot to do with sebaceous glands, right? So our sebaceous glands are the ones on all parts of our body that hold the oil. Because we need oil. You know, your face, that's how our body functions. We need oil secretion. But when there's a buildup of those areas and in the glands...
can be an increase in testosterone as well, which then elicit the buildup of oil, which then you get bacteria and then you have acne. Wow. Yeah. And so do you see this a lot with 20-year-olds? I do. They come in and usually what is the best way to treat them? So it's a great relationship we have with dermatologists because they'll have these patients come into them.
And a lot of dermatologists will actually send the patient back to an OBGYN because typically we will put them on birth control pills to kind of help quiet down this kind of overwhelm of hormones and it responds to that. And a lot of it has to do with the testosterone feature of what's being elevated, what's creating that message being sent, and then you have the outcome of the hormonal acne.
I want them to know that the body is really trying to get to homeostasis. And homeostasis is just that kind of perfect balance that the body needs to be able to do the functions that it wants to do. Now, when we're on birth control, the goal of birth control is to somewhat suppress or kind of decrease the activity of your hormones that your body naturally produces. Okay.
And when it does that, it is doing the job of what it's supposed to be doing is preventing pregnancy by decreasing the suppression or rather the release of an egg, right? Your body's in default to get pregnant every month. Right. So it wants to release an egg. So what happens to all those hormones in your body if it's suppressing? They're still there.
They're still doing what they're supposed to be doing, but the birth control is kind of keeping it a little bit more suppressed so it can't do the function it wants to do. So when you come off, now you're lifting off this veil that was always there and suppressing. So now your hormones are like... we can go back to what we were doing. And it's trying to find that homeostasis.
And sometimes you might have highs, sometimes you might have lows.
Immediate gratification is usually what we want when it comes to our bodies. And I always am coaching my patients to give their bodies grace. And when I say that in a timeframe, that may be three to six months. I've had some patients who may take nine months to a year to kind of regulate and get back to what they used to be.
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