The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
145. Dr. Austin Lake: Biohacking Women’s Health - Birth Control, Hormones, Sleep & Nutrients
04 Mar 2025
Chapter 1: What are the common misconceptions about birth control and women's health?
a 16 year old or even a 13 year old on birth control to control an issue that doesn't actually solve any problems but creates a lot more problems you start seeing the side effects of not having ovulation and that's a big problem long term and you start seeing issues like endometriosis and pcos you look at these young healthy childbearing women and you wonder why is it so difficult to get pregnant why is it so difficult to maintain a pregnancy
because of insulin resistance, right? You got all these high carb, carb-refined carbohydrates being consumed in conjunction with endocrine-disrupting chemicals, you know, fragrances, lotions, lathering on their skin. And next thing you know, you have this hormonal storm that happens.
You think about the fact that limiting that phase of the menstrual cycle could have that profound of an effect on a woman that she might not be. thinking about. I don't think very often their OBGYN is explaining the consequences.
These women are getting testing done. They'll come back in six months and they'll put on a home replacement therapy and things will change short term, but then they go right back to where they were because they never fixed any of the foundational problems that were existing.
And they don't know that there are alternative options out there. When we look at the pandemic of autoimmune disease, the majority of this affects women. 75 or 80% of all autoimmune diseases are having to
females and that's why things like this is so important for people to know like you can improve your fertility and you can do these things and it's very inexpensive and most people can do it like that's so empowering to know that's an option for women that are having hormonal imbalance where do they start this was like a more recent revelation that I had about
Hey guys, welcome back to the Ultimate Human Podcast. I'm your host, Gary Brekka, human biologist, where we go down the road of everything anti-aging, longevity, biohacking, and everything in between. And I am super excited for today's guest on the podcast because we don't really get a lot of time to shed light on specifically women's health issues.
And our next guest is an expert, as you heard, on women's health issues, everything women menopause, cycling, birth control, everything in between. And just so happens my wife is having the worst menstrual cramps of her life. And she was like, I want to come in and ask him questions during your podcast. So she's waiting for you literally right outside the door. Okay, great. Good to know.
Welcome to the podcast, Dr. Austin Lake.
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Chapter 2: How does birth control impact women's hormonal balance?
You're just being foolish with it. You're not being intentional. And I kind of do it with my clients. I just look at it like, hey, you say you've done everything and nothing works, but have you done this? Have you tried getting your circadian rhythm balanced? Have you tried not eating these foods? Have you tried taking these supplements and being consistent with them?
Have you actually followed a protocol? Like, have you kind of done some detailed lab work? Like, have you, have you done this stuff? Right. Well, I've tried a little bit of this, a little bit of that.
And is this what your active life program is about? Yeah. Yeah. Talk a little bit about that. Is there, is there, so woman watching this podcast that feels off, right. It feels out of balance, which is very likely hormonal. Yeah. Um, it could be a host of other things. And then I want to talk about, you know, autoimmune conditions as well, but, um, Where do they start?
What kind of panel do they pull? Where do they start? What are some of the biggest things that move the needle the most for women that are having hormonal imbalance? Like this woman that I was speaking of earlier when I looked at her. I was like, well, look, it looks to me like, first of all, you're completely out of phase. So the level of your hormones doesn't matter as much as your ratios.
And your ratios are way off, even though they're in the normal range. One's really high, one's really low, and you have estrogen dominance. Right, and you have estrogen dominance, and then they blow up like a balloon. They think that they're fat, but they're not. They're just retaining water in that interstitial space. And estrogen is very good at doing that.
there are gene mutations like CompT that don't allow estrogen to be eliminated as like the E2 pathway as well. And so then they start retaining a bunch of water. And nothing is more frustrating to a woman than like doing everything right.
And exercising and they're not gaining or they're losing, they're not losing any weight. They may be gaining weight.
Right.
Yeah. Yeah. So we start with whatever labs they've had done. We kind of analyze what were they, where they currently are. Most panels are pretty basic. So we can kind of facilitate and recommend like what they think, they should get. And we'll usually start with, you know, looking at micronutrients, making sure that they have sufficient B vitamins, you know, vitamin.
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