I'm Hormonal | PCOS, periods, gut + hormone health insights

How Blood Sugar Spikes Can Mess Up Your Period & Where to Start | Ep. 86

• Episode 86

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This episode dives into the essential role of blood sugar regulation in women's health. We explore how imbalances can lead to symptoms like fatigue, cravings, and irregular cycles, while providing practical solutions to stabilize your levels.

• Understanding blood sugar’s impact on hormones 
• The importance of glucose management for energy and clarity 
• Key signs of blood sugar imbalances 
• Four foundational strategies for blood sugar stabilization 
• The role of dietary changes and movement 
• Tips for monitoring and improving your blood sugar health 


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Speaker 1:

Do you have brain fog, low energy, cravings, poor sleep or irregular periods? If any of these sound familiar, your blood sugar balance could be the missing piece. The good news, though, it's one of the easiest things to start working on, and it can make a huge difference. In today's episode, we're diving into why blood sugar matters, how to tell if yours is out of whack and exactly where to start. Let's get into it.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to I'm Hormonal, your source of information about women's hormone health and how to support your body. Naturally, I'm your host, bridget Walton, and I'm a certified functional hormone specialist and menstrual cycle coach. I am on a mission to hold these hormone conversations with as many menstruators as possible, because you deserve easier access to accurate information about what's up with your unruly menstrual cycle and with your fertility mysteries. Don't you think it's time that we figure this out once and for all? Hi, friend, welcome to this episode number 86 of I'm Hormonal. I'm your host, bridget Walton, and I'm really looking forward to having a full episode, a full conversation about blood sugar regulation today, because, while I've touched on it in the past in other episodes understanding what's going on with your blood sugar, understanding how it impacts your hormones, how it impacts your energy levels, your clarity of thought and more. This is so important and it is applicable to every single one of us out here. Right For you listening. While I don't know what's going on with you specifically, I'm pretty optimistic that, putting in place some of the suggestions and techniques that I'll mention later in the episode for where to start with blood sugar regulation, they will help you to have better sustained energy, have better sleep, to see more regularity in your cycles. If that's something that is out of whack, I'll start off today by talking about why this actually matters. Right, maybe this is the first time you're hearing about blood sugar regulation. Or maybe you think, like, well, I don't have diabetes, so why do I need to focus on that? And you're right. There isn't a lot of focus sort of more, I guess, nationally on this conversation.

Speaker 1:

But let me walk you through what happens in your body when you are eating food and or going through different activities that spike your blood sugar. And I'll start by saying that, yes, our bodies are designed to have our blood sugar levels go up and down. That is completely normal. That has to happen. We don't need it to be. That is completely normal, that has to happen. We don't need it to be and we don't want our blood sugar levels to be exactly stable all the time. That's not a realistic goal. However, when we have blood sugar spikes, that can cause additional inflammation, causes something called glycation, which, the long story short. That's just not optimal for our health, not optimal for your hormone balance. So the goal is to eat and move in a way that prevents these spikes and deep drops from occurring.

Speaker 1:

Now, when I eat an apple, my digestive system is breaking down that apple. The sugar from it, the glucose that it breaks down into, goes into my bloodstream and the cells and tissues in my body are able to use that glucose for energy as they take in the glucose that brings down my blood sugar levels. Also, insulin is the other hormone that's important here, because insulin helps to bring the glucose into the cells. Not, you know, we didn't evolve to be able to process all of the sugar that comes in like a family size thing of Skittles at once, or whatever size cinnamon bun that you're going to get when you're at the mall or whatever it is. That is your sweet treat. Now, it doesn't have to be something that is so dramatic as a huge dessert. We can also have glucose spikes from things that we maybe even think are healthy, like watermelon has a lot of sugar in it and pineapple has a lot of sugar in it. Let's talk about what happens in your body when your blood sugar levels are high, and, don't worry, I'm going to come back to what you can do to help keep your blood sugars, blood sugar levels, in a normal range, because I'm not going to not eat watermelon or pineapple or other sweet treats, but it's just about understanding how you can work with that to keep them in a good range. How you can work with that to keep them in a good range. Okay, thanks for listening to that foreshadowing Right here in front of us, though, what happens when blood sugar levels are high, and why does this matter?

Speaker 1:

When blood sugar levels are high, or oftentimes high, that will make your insulin levels go up high too, and it's the high insulin levels that can lead to a higher production of androgens. Now, androgens are hormones like testosterone that can, when elevated, result in acne, additional body hair or like facial hair growth, and they can also impact ovulation. Now, I think we're all on the same page with this, but let me just clarify that that's what occurs in women when androgen levels are relatively high. Of course, for men, that'll be a different picture that's being painted there. Okay, back to you, though. Insulin levels are high, that drives up androgens like testosterone.

Speaker 1:

Well, what happens next is, naturally, androgens are converted into estrogens. So now we have high levels of estrogens, too, and high levels of estrogens. That's what lead to PMS and experiences like breast tenderness. Pms and experiences like breast tenderness, headaches, mood swings, irritability you guys know the whole jam there. What's more than that is that high androgen levels can also prevent follicles from properly maturing, and therefore that can prevent ovulation. So not only are androgens high, also estrogen levels can be relatively high. Only are androgens high, also, estrogen levels can be relatively high. And on top of that, if you're not ovulating, your body isn't going to be producing you know this good juicy amount of progesterone that can help to counterbalance estrogen in the second half of your cycle, and that's going to be a little bit uncomfortable too, to put it one way. So last thing on this sort of chain here when insulin levels are high, that will also encourage your body to store energy as fat, and when you have higher levels of fat or adipose tissue in your body, that's even more opportunity for androgens to convert into estrogens, because that's where that chemical change, that's where that process takes place as an adipose tissue. So hopefully you know maybe some of those terms were new to you and that's okay, right, you're like Bridget, what did you just say? But if you take away nothing else, just know that blood sugar spikes can lead to increased production of testosterone and then that converts to androgens. That also is going to impact your fat storage and overall those can lead to more symptoms of PMS, can impact your ability to ovulate each month and it can overall increase inflammation in your body. So hopefully I've sold this hard enough that we should avoid that and let me help you do that.

Speaker 1:

Let's talk through the four starting points I want you to keep in mind, because these are really four easy ways and easy concepts, I suppose, to integrate into your daily life that will help you to support more stable blood sugar levels. If you have the opportunity to jot down a couple notes or take a note in your phone while you're listening, then definitely go ahead and do that. At this time, the first thing I want you to focus on is incorporating a savory breakfast at the first part of the day Now savory right. In contrast to a sweet breakfast and what comes with a savory breakfast, you're really focusing on the protein and fats that are in there. Those are at the forefront of the breakfast conversation, as opposed to carbs and sugars.

Speaker 1:

Easy go-tos for savory breakfast would be something that is egg based. So if you are a person who eats eggs, then whether you're having hard boiled eggs I mean literally in any form I don't know why I'm over explaining that to you you got this Eggs. Or maybe you're going to have a more savory oatmeal, which you can do by adding, maybe stewing apples in coconut oil, right, so you have that fat component. You want to consider adding some protein powder, so you have the protein component. You can put some extra seeds in there. You can put a nut butter on it, so that then, all in all, you're having something that is not so heavy on the carbs, right?

Speaker 1:

I don't mean to sound like a broken record. I'm going to say that 18 more times, so I apologize in advance, but that's what we're going for. It's not that carbs are bad. You absolutely need them. If you have a menstrual cycle, carbs are still your friend, but it's just how much and really when in the meal or in your day are you having that? So just to add onto that thought, if you're going to be having maybe an omelet for breakfast and you want to have some potatoes on the side, love that plan.

Speaker 1:

The thing is, you want to have carbs that are slower to break down, so we will suffice it to say unprocessed or unrefined whole foods. I'm getting a little bit off topic, because all I need to say here is focus on a savory breakfast. Again, if you have the opportunity to write down a couple of ideas, then put down next to this note what are three or four different savory breakfasts that you really like Breakfast burrito, avocado toast with some egg on it. Write down some things that are reasonable, that you can actually have, and don't be afraid to just make leftovers from the night before into a savory breakfast as well. I think dinner for breakfast is underrated.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so that was number one savory breakfast. Number two incorporate a veggie starter. So what does that mean? That means that the first thing that you're eating in your meal is vegetable based. So what are some examples? Maybe you're going to have a salad before your meal starts. That's a pretty easy way to do it. Or maybe you're sitting down to your plate of sweet potatoes, broccoli and salmon and you're going to go for the broccoli first. What happens when you consume the vegetable first is that the fiber that's in those vegetables helps to slow down the absorption of glucose into your bloodstream, therefore avoiding a big glucose spike.

Speaker 1:

Now you can get creative with this too, and it doesn't have to be like you have to have, you know, two raw carrots, right? You can make this tasty, you can make. Or maybe you're at a restaurant and you want to get the Brussels sprout appetizer, or you want to get something else. Maybe there's a good soup, right? Soups are so easy to make ahead if you're at home and have those as an easy veggie starter. I would recommend to you, though, that you have a soup that has like whole chunks of veggies in it, because if you have one that is blended, then it's not going to have the same fiber content. That will slow down digestion, rather slow down glucose absorption, because those fibers have been pulverized in your Vitamix.

Speaker 1:

Anyway, a veggie starter is where it's at Shoot. To include a veggie starter in at least one meal per day that would be my goal for you, and try to have maybe a quarter to a third of the mass of your meal being vegetables. That's going to be a sweet spot to shoot for, although certainly some vegetable is better than just jumping right into your pasta. So, veggie starter, write down a couple of options that sound good to you. What do you have in your house right now that you can make? Or again, it can just be a matter of eating the food that's all on your plate anyway, but just in a certain order veggies first and keeping the carb part for the end. Now, number three here in this list is incorporating apple cider vinegar into your day, another one that I would encourage you to shoot for, doing one meal a day.

Speaker 1:

If you like the taste of apple cider vinegar and you want to dilute some of it in water or sparkling water seems to be a real favorite amongst the gals that I've been talking to about it lately then that's a great option. One thing I really like to do is I'll oftentimes have for my veggie starter. I have a really basic mixed greens salad. I'll put apple cider vinegar and extra virgin olive oil on it, so I have both a veggie starter and apple cider vinegar dynamic duo at the same time, I also put a bunch of seeds and tahini on it. I love some tahini, and it's so easy and quick to assemble. I would definitely recommend it. If you're like, what do I, how do I do this, then you've got a good option there. But don't overthink it. You can add apple cider vinegar to a lot of different vegetables. You can also make dressings out of it pretty easily, and pretty tasty dressings. So if none of those sound appealing to you, though, are you the kind of gal who likes a little mocktail? Because you can definitely find a lot of good apple cider vinegar mocktail recipes out there under the interwebs as well.

Speaker 1:

One of the books that I recommend and that I actually send to my clients in a welcome package is the Glucose Goddess Method, or Jessie Anshope Inshospe. She is the author. She has another book called Glucose Revolution. If I've really piqued your interest by this point, definitely grab one or both of her books. What she talks about is really aligned with this conversation that we're having right now. Of course, she focuses on glucose, as the glucose goddess super easy to consume, makes a lot of sense. She'll really break everything down for you, and her book, the Glucose Goddess Method, has a bunch of examples of recipes that you can use. So it's totally worth the you know 15, 20 bucks that you will spend on it, I promise you.

Speaker 1:

Fourth and final on this list is getting in 10 minutes of movement after probably your most carb-heavy meal of the day. But just like the veggie starter and apple cider vinegar, shoot to get in some movement after at least one of your meals, whichever one works best for you. Now these 10 minutes of movement could be taking a lap around the block. Maybe you happen to have your workout class or your workout planned for in the evening after you eat dinner, or maybe it's just after breakfast. So great, that was a super easy way to check it off. If you want to keep this in mind while you are at work, then you can do some calf raises underneath your desk for a few minutes. Maybe you take the stairs up and down from your um to your office, rather or I mean, let's get crazy and like park a little bit further away from the door than you need to when you stop by the store. So I know that this isn't rocket science. You guys have ideas in your brain, but hopefully that will help to really just make this so achievable, so doable, and you've totally got this. Don't be intimidated by it. 10 minutes within the 90 minutes after you're done eating your meal.

Speaker 1:

Now, in summary, savory breakfast, veggie starter, apple cider vinegar and getting some movement in. I do think it's worth clarifying that. Yes, of course, there are other ways that you can support your blood sugar levels. These are the four areas that I want you to focus on first, but overall, as you work to eliminate how many processed foods you are consuming, when you are eliminating foods with a lot of added sugars, that will naturally be supportive of your blood sugar levels too added sugars that will naturally be supportive of your blood sugar levels too. So if you didn't listen to last week's episode about nutrition specifically and I gave some recommendations like that about focusing on whole foods that would be a good one to go back to and check out, just because that will naturally reinforce what's going on with your blood sugar.

Speaker 1:

If you are looking for still more clear and specific examples of how you can make these habits and others work for you in your life and keeping your blood sugar levels stable, then definitely come back for Thursday's episode, where I will be walking through like what do I do in my day and what can you do in your day, especially while you're traveling, to help support blood sugar levels? It won't be these four. I'll like share more context with you, more examples, but definitely come back. And also, if you are somebody who travels a lot for work, then this will really resonate with you, because I'll talk through what I do when I'm traveling, when I'm on the road, because that can be a little bit. A little bit trickier. You need to do a little bit more planning to keep things in good shape when you're away from home.

Speaker 1:

Now that we've covered why blood sugar stabilization matters, we've covered where you're going to start. Let's talk a bit about how you can tell in real time what your blood sugar is up to. Of course, if you're not somebody who has a continuous glucose monitor, let's talk about what you might feel like if your blood sugar is low. You probably have some background context on this already. We all, actually, you know what. If you have never felt like you had low blood sugar, then please send me a DM at Bridget Walton on Instagram. I would love to know if you're out there.

Speaker 1:

But anyway, I'm surmising that All of us have experienced low blood sugar before, which is this feeling of exhaustion. Right, you're just like why am I so tired? Right now? It's 2 pm. I should be alive, I should be moving, I just had lunch, I should be energized, but I'm really tired. You could also be having a craving for, probably sweets. That makes sense, right? Your body is telling you, hey, girl, we need a little bit more energy here because blood sugar levels are low, so go ahead and grab that Snickers. So if you are somebody who has a lot of cravings, that can be a symptom.

Speaker 1:

Also, when it comes to brain fog, that can be a sign of low blood sugar, because our brain requires surprise a lot of energy to function, and so when a blood sugar levels are low and your brain is like, okay, we need to kind of conserve energy or we don't have access to this energy, for lack of a more specific description. That's why you can have a bit of brain fog. Now what happens? How do you feel when blood sugar levels are high? If you are feeling really anxious all of a sudden you're not sure why then that could be tied to your blood sugar, because when blood sugar levels go up, that will also kind of initiate or encourage your cortisol levels, your stress hormone levels, to go up as well. So if you're like, why am I feeling stressed right now? Nothing is happening. I just finished my triple shot latte here, but I mean I'm just writing this report, okay. Well, we can think about the fact that maybe that latte itself is what drove up your cortisol and therefore drove up your glucose. But it could work the other way around.

Speaker 1:

It's like a chicken or the egg situation that, with this context, you can pay more attention to. If you're having low blood sugar, if you're having higher blood sugar, thinking about, okay, how did I feel when I did follow one or multiple of these four starting foundational points? Or if I had a really sweet breakfast, okay, that makes sense that I was tired in the afternoon. So you can do a little bit of an experiment with yourself, get a journal or start a note in your phone to track these things. When I work with clients and they start to implement some of these habits right away I mean right away they feel better and notice a change in their energy. So it's not something that you have to wait weeks or months for to see a change in. It's something that you can start seeing effects of very soon.

Speaker 1:

It is worth mentioning or clarifying that it's not like your whole metabolic health and metabolic function is changing just in an instant like that. It certainly takes time to overall improve your metabolic function, but little by little, you will be chipping away at this big rock, and ain't no better time to start making progress on that than right now? Because, in a last fun fact, this is my last ditch effort, in case you're still thinking hmm, I don't think this is a problem for me, which I don't know you. So it might not be, but 88% of Americans have metabolic dysfunction, at least that's per a survey that was done back in 2018. So who knows how the numbers have shifted, presumably, however, slightly, in the last handful of years, but 88% of Americans have metabolic dysfunction, which means that you could have some sort of either diabetes or insulin resistance or prediabetes or another issue that's tied to your blood sugar regulation.

Speaker 1:

So let me know how it goes, let me know how you feel as you're implementing this savory breakfast veggie starter, apple cider vinegar starter. I don't think I mentioned that, did I earlier? You want to have the apple cider vinegar, ideally at the beginning of your meal. It's hard to do it wrong, right, that'll still be okay to have it in the middle or afterwards if you forget, but ideally you'll be having that towards the beginning of the meal for optimal outcomes. All right, friend, that is pretty much it for today, but definitely come back on Thursday, especially if you are somebody who works in a high-stress job. You are on the move. You want to understand how you can implement these practices realistically in your everyday life, then you are going to love that episode. I will see you then.

Speaker 1:

I'll just wrap things up, though, with a couple of updates for you, because first I want to let you guys know that you'll be seeing a little rebrand action from I'm Hormonal over in the next couple of months, so keep your peepers peeped for that. What that means for you is I'm going to be coming out with a brand new round of free resources and downloadables for you that I'm really excited to share with you. I've mentioned this before, but I'm really starting to focus on working with those of you gals who are high performing. You are in a lot of corporate spaces Again, you're on the move, and so I'm really excited to show you and share with you what I've got, because I spent over five years working in the corporate space and, before that, four years in the military right A little bit of stress in that work environment too, combining both of those experiences with everything that I know about hormones all of my client work that I do. Now I just I've got the tips for you.

Speaker 1:

If you have unpredictable periods, if you have no period, if you have gut problems or a lot of bloating, then this is going to be your go-to podcast and I'll be your go-to gal for whatever you need. I'm here to help you. That being said, if you are interested in understanding more about how I can support you one-on-one in your journey to hormone balance, then check out the link in the show notes. You can set up a strategy call with me and we can talk through what your goals are and what a partnership together would look like. So check out the link in the show notes, as always, if you have any ideas, if there are any topics you want to hear me talk about, check out my Instagram at Bridget Walton and send me a DM with whatever is on your mind.

Speaker 1:

Okay, thanks again for listening, especially those of you who made it all the way to the end here. I will see you on the next one. If you loved today's episode and got something good out of it, make sure you subscribe so that these episodes show up automatically in your feed. No work needed on your side, let's put it on autopilot. As always, I need to give you my reminder that the information I share with you here is for educational purposes only, and it should not be used as a replacement for medical advice or diagnosis. Now, if you are, on the other hand, in the market for some one-on-one support, then I would love for you to take me up on my offer for a free strategy call. You can find these links and more in the show notes.