Seed Cycling Help for Menopause & Thriving Through Perimenopause
Lisa Arendell [00:00:00]:
Today I’m interviewing my friend Vashti Kanahele. We met in our integrative health coach certification years ago. And I really, really love this woman. She is so stinking smart. But look, she has overcome a lot. She’s had, let’s see, Epstein Barr virus, she had Lyme disease, she had Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. And she has worked so hard to get on the other side of chronic ill. This by really digging into environmental toxins and just integrative health overall. You’re going to learn a lot because not only did she hack her own health, but now, like so many of us, she’s getting older. And as a hormone expert, she is sharing how we can thrive through perimenopause. And if you’re already menopausal, she talks about something called seed cycling. And if you’ve not heard of this before, you’re really going to find this fascinating. I think you’re going to love hearing what she has to say and just using it as a tool in your tool chest. Whether you’re there right now or you’re like me and you’re going to be there one day, right? We’re going to be there one day. So sit back and relax. Or go for a walk. Even better. Let’s go for a walk.
Lisa Arendell [00:01:11]:
Throw on this podcast and hey, shoot me a DM on Instagram. Let me know what you think. If you find value, I would love for you to share it. Thank you so much for being here. Let’s go.
Lisa Arendell [00:01:20]:
Welcome to the show. Today I’m so excited to have you sit in on a fun conversation with a friend, a colleague, someone who goes back years with me. We met each other first in our integrative women’s health coach certification and we have stayed connected ever since. I love this woman. I love her not only on a personal level because she’s just a sweetheart. She has helped me through so many things with my own health over the years, but she is just a wealth of knowledge and she’s always learning. She’s always doing continuing education and learning all the new things so that she can help her clients, herself and her family. So we’re talking today with Vashti Kanahele. She is a functional medicine coach who deeply understands the challenges of chronic illness, having overcome Lyme disease, Epstein Barr virus and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, and that is something she and I have in common. These conditions have given her a unique perspective on the complex interplay between environmental toxins, nutrition and lifestyle factors that can impact health and well being. In her own health journey, Vashti found that conventional medical treatments alone were not enough to address the root cause of her condition. She turned to naturopathic and functional medicine, which ultimately helped her put her chronic illnesses in remission. So, without further ado, Vashti, welcome. I’m so excited to have you here today.
Vashti Kanahele [00:02:56]:
Hi, Lisa. It’s so great to be here. Like listening to you with the intro there. We’ve known each other for so long, and it’s just such a pleasure to be here today.
Lisa Arendell [00:03:07]:
I’m excited because I feel know, I just have all these amazing people in my life with so much knowledge, and so many of them are friends. So I always feel like we’re just, like, chatting, even though we’re kind of across the world right now. We’re just chatting like friends across the table with a cup of coffee. So I’m thrilled that you’re here and where I would love to start today, I mentioned some of those chronic illnesses. Can you kind of take us through a little bit about that and how that did draw you to where you are now in the functional medicine space?
Vashti Kanahele [00:03:41]:
Yeah, absolutely. I did a complete, like, 180 in my career back in 2015, I got an odd bite. We were living in Penalampin, Cambodia at the time, and I can still remember exactly where I was taking my oldest daughter to preschool at the time. And I got this bite, and it didn’t heal. It didn’t heal. And months went by. I was also pregnant with my second daughter. Though maybe it’s just these pregnancy hormones. My immune system is worn down. So I just sort of went on, and I delivered Kate in Bangkok, and I was feeling like, okay. But then I just wasn’t feeling, you know, and I thought, this is more than new, motherhood. I know what that tiredness is. And this was, like, next level. And I just felt terrible. I could hardly function. And there I was with an infant and a toddler. And so we were moving back to the States. That was 2015. We’re moving back to the States. And I thought, I have to get this checked out. And I was like, you know me. I’m always researching. Sometimes that’s not the best thing, but I was researching, and I was like, I think I might have Lyme disease. And people will tell you, no, that is impossible. Like, you can only get know in the Midwest, Northeast, US. You can get it everywhere. Um, so I found a Lyme literate doctor in Seattle, which is where we were. That’s our home base. And they tested me. Sure enough, I came back positive for Lyme. Positive for Epstein Barr. And that was kind of where everything shifted for me, because I had these illnesses and didn’t know what to do. Thankfully, I had a really good doctor, and we worked, you know, I know we know so many people who don’t find that quickly. I was very lucky, and they suffered for many years without having answers. And so it was walking down that path myself over years, because it’s now 2023, and while they’re in remission, you still have to make sure that you’re not getting flares, and you have to learn to live with these things. Right? And so then in 2017, I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s, which is not uncommon. These diseases can cause autoimmune. If you already have that autoimmune sort of stool happening in your you know, then I was supposed to be flying back to Nigeria. Years have gone by, and I thought, oh, my God, I’m going to starve. And then I was like, I can do this. And I know that I want to help other people, so not to take up too much time with this. But then that was when I started, and that’s when we met each other. It was not very long after that because I thought, I have to figure out how to do this for myself, and there are many more people out there like me.
Lisa Arendell [00:06:49]:
Yeah, go ahead.
Vashti Kanahele [00:06:50]:
And that’s what happened. I was working in international development, and I just really researched and found the program that you and I were in together. And that’s really what started this journey that is now, like, five years in the making of just education, continuously looking for better ways to help people.
Lisa Arendell [00:07:10]:
Yeah, it’s just such an incredible story. Vashti and one of the things I really wanted to highlight, know if you’re listening and you’re like, well, that’s great, but I don’t feel well, and I don’t know the right questions to ask or I don’t know how to research, or I don’t know how I won’t just go down a rabbit hole here’s. What I want to say is that Vashti may have had some basic knowledge to understand, some certain things to research, but I guarantee you she did not understand all the ins and outs of what she has now until she was diagnosed when she really started diving in. So what I want to encourage you to do is just continue to advocate for your help. If something is off, if something doesn’t feel right, don’t quit asking questions. Don’t quit getting opinions until you find someone who understands. If you caught what Vashti said, she said, I found a Lyme literate doctor. Not all doctors understand Lyme disease. So she really had to go to bat for herself and continue to dig until she figured it out. So I just want to encourage you in that I always like to highlight that point if you’re listening. Brand you know something’s wrong. You know something’s off. Maybe you’ve been told everything is fine. This is a little bit of a rabbit trail, but it’s just so important to me here that you understand. Answers are out there. Brand they will only be found if you search for them. Diligently right, okay.
Vashti Kanahele [00:08:31]:
And you know your body best, right? You can be told all day that your labs or whatever else are fine, but you inherently know your body best. And it is just with determination to just keep.
Lisa Arendell [00:08:47]:
You know some of the topics that we’re diving into today is we’re going to go in the area of hormones, because the majority of my audience here, Vashti, they’re 40 to 60 years old. These are women that span perimenopause to menopause. And we’re going to start with perimenopause here in a moment, but I want you to keep in mind, if you’re listening, that I’ll show you how at the end, we’ll let Vashti tell you how to connect with her. She knows more than just hormones. That’s enough. That’s a huge topic, but she’s very well read on a lot of different topics, so you’re definitely going to want to connect with her. So, Vashti, let’s go ahead and dive in a little bit to perimenopause, and I have a very specific question about it, but before I even get there, would you define what perimenopause is?
Vashti Kanahele [00:09:37]:
Well, perimenopause, it is when your body starts that shift towards menopause, right? And it’s like this word that’s tossed around a lot with not a lot of understanding even from the medical community about what perimenopause means. And the thing is, we’re told, oh, you’re in perimenopause in like your late 40s, but that couldn’t be further from the truth for most people. That is sometimes when actually people are going into menopause, right, but we’re having this time in perimenopause where you might be saying all of a sudden, oh, I have mood changes, I’ve kind of lost my sex drive. Like I can’t concentrate. We see a lot of women being diagnosed with ADHD in this time frame, honestly, headaches, night sweats, hot flashes, vaginal dryness, these are all signs that you might be in perimenopause. And that can really start even as early as our mid 30s now, okay.
Lisa Arendell [00:10:40]:
That is fascinating to me. So I want people to really understand that, because when I was growing up, my sister Jessica was born when my mom was 36. So I was 14, my mom was 36 shortly after. That’s what my mom thought. And what I thought because she told me, is that she had started menopause and that it took her ten years to get through it. Now, on this side of things, what I’m understanding is she was probably starting perimenopause brand then by the time she was upper 40s, she no longer had a cycle and had gone through menopause. So how can a woman know? So you just mentioned some symptoms. Are there other ways that she can understand her body a little bit better to know? Okay, I am in the middle of perimenopause right now just so that she knows how to handle that.
Vashti Kanahele [00:11:33]:
Yeah, I mean, you can get blood markers drawn. Blood can it’s just one moment in time, like when you go to get your blood drawn, right. So it’s not always indicative of what your full cycle looks like. You can do things like the Dutch test, which is a dried urine test. It can really give us some insight into what your hormones are doing and when you are starting to sort of gradually lose these hormones, and I use that term sort of loosely there like we’re just not making the estrogen and progesterone and testosterone that we used to. And that is kind of when you start going into perimenopause, is when you’re not making these hormones at that level. So getting those levels checked can be really beneficial. I was going into perimenopause by the time I had Kate, my youngest daughter. I just didn’t realize that I was 39 when I had her. And two years later, my estrogen and progesterone rock bottom. And many women will find that they have low progesterone. We tend to sort of lose that first, which can make the years of those late 30s through the mid to late 40s really tumultuous for women. Because your estrogen is up, it’s down, it’s all over the place. It’s like a roller coaster. You may understand if, when you’re listening, like, yes, I feel like I’m on this roller coaster. It’s because our hormones are unbalanced, right? We need the estrogen and progesterone to be balanced. We need that ratio to be balanced. And when it’s not, even if you have a little amount of estrogen, you may still have those estrogen dominance symptoms. You don’t have to have wildly off the charts estrogen.
Lisa Arendell [00:13:13]:
Okay, so for someone listening who’s like, okay, so I have some of those symptoms that you mentioned. I forgot the mood swings, maybe vaginal dryness, some different things. What are some things that they can do to support increasing progesterone? Increasingly we know testosterone falls off years ago, mine had fallen off pretty significantly. So what are, I guess, maybe some natural ways, messaging outside of any therapy whatsoever. And then what are some therapeutic help that maybe we could look towards?
Vashti Kanahele [00:13:51]:
You can always find foods that are like, say, estrogenic. That’s something that we often have to be careful of. But some people really do need more estrogen. You can find progesterone enhancing foods. Testosterone is a little bit harder, honestly. But you can do I know you’re saying not therapeutics, but like supplements that help. I don’t know. You may like DHEA for testosterone. You can do progesterone creams and things like that that are over the counter, so to speak. So you don’t necessarily have to have a medical professional involved. Though if you’re dealing with your hormones, it’s always better to have someone there that’s well rounded in hormones brand. Those are some things that you can do. And we’re also going to talk about, I know, seed cycling here in a few minutes, and that would be outside of those therapeutics as well. And then if we’re talking about therapeutics, things like bioidentical, hormone replacement therapy are really helpful for people. Personally. I’ve been doing estrogen and progesterone for several years now because, like I said, I didn’t have any hormones. And we need our hormones to live, literally. We’ve been taught that estrogen is the devil, but we really need it. We need it for our bone health. We just need it to live. So it’s important to have those things on board, if you have access to them, what you’ll often find. And I want to bring this up because I think it’s an important piece of information for women when they’re going in and they are advocating for themselves, a lot of times they’re going to be told, oh, you’re depressed, you should go on an antidepressant. And antidepressants definitely have their place, but that is not always what is needed. And they’ll often combine that with you needing an antidepressant and birth control, which birth control just hampers us making hormones anyway, right? And then it’s just like really adding fuel to the fire. In my opinion. That’s kind of like a pill for the ill, like band AIDS on these symptoms, right? But then at some point you’re going to come off of that birth control and you’re just going to be feeling terrible and your body’s just suppressed making any of its natural hormones for years. But that’s something I see a lot, especially for women in their early to mid 40s, is to take this antidepressant and take this birth control pill.
Lisa Arendell [00:16:35]:
So along those lines, I’m glad you went down that path because I want to stay here for a moment. I actually had a conversation with a gal on it actually, I think it was on Facebook Messenger the other day. And I had posted a live video that I did with one of the physicians at an online telehealth company that I personally use. I love this company. I’ve been on bioidentical hormone therapy since last September. It changed my life. I’ve felt so much better since. But she said, why did you not just go to your general practitioner? Why are you using telehealth? So I voice messaged her back because I couldn’t just type it all out. I was like, oh, well, just so you understand, many times the conventional practitioner does not understand the root cause. And they will either not run a full hormone panel or not run a full panel period to understand the entire picture, whether it’s because of insurance or whatever their lack of knowledge, whatever it may be. So I choose to go with a functional practitioner and the one that I’m using is telehealth. And so we kind of went down that rabbit trail. I think she ended up having a consultation with them. So this is what I ask any hormone specialist that I talk to here on this program, because I don’t care if you’ve heard every single podcast of mine, people cannot hear this enough. Can you help people understand where maybe the place is, when maybe it’s time to seek out a functional practitioner and maybe not just take the word of a conventional practitioner.
Vashti Kanahele [00:18:19]:
If you are not feeling heard or listened to, if you’re told, no, we can’t do that. That’s not real science. These are words that are used all the time. I would rather you just take birth control or we can put you on synthetic hormones which are made from chemical compounds which have their own set of issues. And I feel like when you’re not being heard or listened to, it’s time to see somebody else.
Lisa Arendell [00:18:54]:
That’s a great answer. I love that because, and I say this every time, I am not an anti conventional practitioner. Oh my God. Yeah, absolutely. We have them. We love them. They absolutely have their place. However, this is not often their specialty. And even if they do understand hormones, looking under the hood, getting to the root cause typically is not what they are taught and trained to do. They’re taught and trained to treat a symptom and the symptom doesn’t heal. Treating the symptom alone is very surface level and we want to go below that.
Vashti Kanahele [00:19:30]:
Absolutely. And you’ll often find other things when you start peeling that onion of someone’s health. And they might be coming to you for hormone dysfunction, but it could very much be that they have gut issues because we have a strobo that is in our gut and that is really a collection of bacteria that is capable of metabolizing your estrogen that is circulating.
Lisa Arendell [00:20:03]:
Right.
Vashti Kanahele [00:20:03]:
And it’s really important to have a healthy gut in hormone balance. And then you might find that somebody has a chronic summary infection. The thing is, so many people now are sicker than they realize and hormones are one of the first things to kind of get unbalanced.
Lisa Arendell [00:20:25]:
I love that. That’s so true. And it’s interesting how it is not talked about. Apparently it is. I’m just amazed at the conversations I have in my DMs on Instagram and Facebook with women who are 40, 45, 55 and have never had their hormones checked. It’s a little bit like walking around kind of blind and throwing mud on different things that you know aren’t right. You know, you don’t feel right. And whether it’s something you just got at the drugstore or that you were prescribed, when you don’t have a full picture, then you’re just kind of walking into anything that you’re doing a little more blindly. So it’s definitely something I know you recommend. It’s something I recommend. And before we get to so if you’re listening and you’re like OK, Perry, I’m done with that. I’m either in the middle of menopause or I am postmenopausal. What about me? We got you. Hang in there for 1 second because another question I wanted to ask you still. I guess this would be anywhere on the spectrum. Bashtai whether it is perimenopause, whether women are right in the middle of menopause, what are some of the things that you see that women are doing or lifestyle habits, maybe, that they’re in the middle of that are exacerbating some of these miserable symptoms?
Vashti Kanahele [00:21:52]:
First and foremost, I see it as over exercising. As women, we’re often taught to eat less and exercise more.
Lisa Arendell [00:21:59]:
Right.
Vashti Kanahele [00:22:00]:
And that can really just make things so much worse because one, most women, if they’re feeling like this, don’t have energy, tons of energy to be doing like crazy workouts, but they’re just working out cardio, cardio, cardio. And nothing is happening. And that is just going to make your unbalanced hormones more unbalanced. And we’re having the sex hormone conversation, but this is also a really great time to have a full thyroid panel done because that is often something we see in the mid 40s as well. So is thyroid dysfunction. So another conversation, but something that’s similar and plays, all the hormones play together. They’re not independent of one another and are not eating enough healthy fats. We need fat for our hormones. We just need fat. And a lot of us, especially if you’re talking forty S. Fifty S. Sixty s grew up on the low fat diet.
Lisa Arendell [00:23:03]:
Right.
Vashti Kanahele [00:23:05]:
And that doesn’t do us any good, and it can really be hard to get out of that. But it’s important to eat those healthy fats every day, every meal, whether that’s salmon or herring or sardines, some sort of nice fish, avocado seeds. And that’s what we’re going to talk about here in a few minutes. Eggs can be really healthy for a lot of people. Olive oil, beans. There’s a lot of really healthy fats out there, but people, especially women in this age group, aren’t necessarily consuming them.
Lisa Arendell [00:23:41]:
Right?
Vashti Kanahele [00:23:42]:
And another thing that I see is not avoiding toxins. And that’s a huge subject that we don’t need to go all the way down, but many of the toxins in today’s world are endocrine disruptors, which means that they disrupt our hormones. And something that we all do all the time is touch thermal paper at the grocery store, and that is BPA laden paper. And so you’re automatically getting BPA on your skin, your hands, it’s being absorbed into the skin. That’s an easy one, that you don’t have to touch the paper, they can rip it off and put it in the bag for you or whatever.
Lisa Arendell [00:24:23]:
But you’re talking about receipts, is that correct?
Vashti Kanahele [00:24:26]:
Yeah, receipts.
Lisa Arendell [00:24:27]:
Right. Okay.
Vashti Kanahele [00:24:28]:
So they’re lined with BPA, which is a hormone disruptor. We all see BPA free signs everywhere for like, water bottles and things now, but it’s generally on receipt paper and using products that may not be clean. Shampoos, beauty products, makeup, they’re full of chemicals that disrupt our hormones. And so those are things that can make things worse. And we can have a whole other conversation about toxins, but that’s just one example of how I see that happening.
Lisa Arendell [00:25:04]:
Yeah. And let’s go ahead and just between me and you, let’s go ahead and make plans for another podcast all about toxins. Because I know that is a passionate subject of yours, and I know you are so well versed, and I know when you were part of a program that I had years ago, you opened the eyes of these ladies like crazy. And again, if you’re listening and you’re like, great. So basically, I just have to live in a bubble, not touch anything, not go anywhere and not eat ever again. That is the last thing that I am saying or that I am saying. What we are saying is knowledge is power and some simple things that you can do to shift habits, consumption, paying attention to ingredients, those things can add up and make a really big impact on how you feel. So please understand that this is not to overwhelm. This is to bring awareness because so many have you ever heard those of you listening, have you ever heard don’t touch receipts? I remember hearing that years ago now. I’ve never heard of it called thermal paper. Is that what you said? Vashti?
Vashti Kanahele [00:26:09]:
Yeah.
Lisa Arendell [00:26:09]:
Okay, so I’ve not heard that, but that’s great to know. I’m always learning, but I knew and I couldn’t remember what it was. But I remember there was something about it and I have just really pretty much touched every receipt probably since then because I forgot all about it. So I’m glad to hear that again. But just understand, knowledge is power and small shifts. It doesn’t take radically changing everything in your life, but a few small changes can really add up. And again, you’re going to find out at the end of this program how to connect with the Bastion, because she just has resources and she herself is just a walking resource. So let’s go ahead and dive into menopause. And go ahead. We define perimenopause and menopause for us.
Vashti Kanahele [00:26:58]:
So menopause is when you have stopped having your period for one year or more.
Lisa Arendell [00:27:07]:
Okay, so skipping a period and then having another one, would you be considered menopausal, just not post menopause at that point?
Vashti Kanahele [00:27:18]:
Yeah, I mean, you’re starting through that transition for sure. Those years leading up to that point when you’re seeing the changes in your monthly cycle, you’re having these symptoms that we’ve talked about that are like straight perimenopause or menopausal transition. But then you must have one year between your last period to be considered. I would say postmenopausal.
Lisa Arendell [00:27:48]:
Okay, that’s really helpful to know. I think a lot of ladies don’t know that, so that’s super helpful. What I know about menopause and post menopause, it’s different. Your hormones are acting and reacting in a different area because there’s not the same level there unless you are on some kind of therapy or you are really getting everything you need through different foods. If your body is just kind of doing its natural thing and you are exposed to toxins and our bodies are degenerating, we are breaking down. But we can slow that process with some real key things. So take us through Vashtai. First of all, what is seed cycling? And then take us through how that can benefit these ladies.
Vashti Kanahele [00:28:39]:
Sure. So seed cycling is the practice of using different seeds to help balance your hormones. And that would be generally during your Follicular phase and your luteal phase. So the first half of your cycle and the second half of your cycle. Now we’re talking specifically then with people who are no longer cycling, right? So if you’re no longer menstruating, you can still do this practice of seed cycling. You just don’t have to follow exactly like day one to 15 and 15 to 30. It’s generally based on a 30 day cycle, though very few women have a 30 day cycle. So if you can start this seed rotation, the seed cycling anytime, but it’s important to keep the seed combination together. So you can start like, say, with flaxseed and pumpkin in that first like one to 15 days, and then you do that for two weeks, and then you would switch to the other combination, sunflower seeds and sesame seeds. And these seeds have different elements to them that help us to balance our hormones. So like in that initial, say, two week cycle, if we’re talking about non cycling, women’s flaxseeds are really good because they contain a lot of phytoestrogen, which is good for us too, because we are needing estrogen at that point. But it also can help block our body from making too much estrogen, generally not so much of a problem. Postmenopausal pumpkin seeds contain high levels of zinc and omega six, which supports our immunity and protein absorption, which is really important regardless of our age. But as we are aging, it’s even more so because that’s something that often we stop absorbing our nutrients as we age. So that would be like that first, say, two weeks that you can start anywhere. Some women like to start on the new moon as an easy way to keep track. If they’re not cycling anymore, then you would go into this second phase. So the next two weeks, which would be sesame seeds and sunflower seeds. This helps balance your estrogen but boosts your progesterone. So they’re also really rich in minerals like magnesium, which we also need and tend not to get enough of. And then the sunflower seeds are high in vitamin E, which is our body’s primary fat soluble antioxidant. And then the sunflower seeds really improve liver detoxification, which is very important when we’re also talking about breaking down toxins and estrogens and other things like that.
Lisa Arendell [00:31:55]:
Fascinating. You were the first person years ago that I ever heard this from and vashti in all these years since, I just don’t hear this being talked about. So I’m just so excited. This was one of the topics that I was most excited about today because I know I’m in the functional space, I’m in the functional circles, and I still don’t. It’s not that it’s unknown, I just feel like it’s something that is either forgotten about or maybe not as understood. So help us understand now. Okay, so we understand the different seeds. You said flaxseed, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and sesame. Sesame seeds. So are we talking a handful a day, a teaspoon, a. Day, take us through what that looks like practically.
Vashti Kanahele [00:32:37]:
Sure. So you can do these grounds as well. That often opens up some of the nutrients. But you want to be careful because they can go rancid really quickly. So you want to store them in an airtight container in the fridge. And you would only want to grind like one to two days worth at a time. You can use a coffee grinder or a food processor to prepare your seeds. I’m also going to give you in a minute another option that’s already done for you. So if you’re short on time and don’t want to do this okay, great preparation step. You can just buy them. You can do it like a teaspoon, just a spoonful. You can eat them just plain if you want. I always like to add them to my morning smoothies. If you’re not a smoothie person, you can sprinkle them on salads especially. They’re all good on salads. You can sprinkle them on your veggies, your yogurt, soups, whatever it is you’re eating. Like I said, you can eat them alone, but they are often better absorbed when they’re with other food.
Lisa Arendell [00:33:49]:
Okay. And you said about a teaspoon a day, is that correct? So in those 1st 15 days, the flaxseed and the pumpkin seeds were about a teaspoon, now that would be a teaspoon ground pumpkin seeds. Because I’m thinking a whole pumpkin seed that wouldn’t be very much ground. Okay.
Vashti Kanahele [00:34:07]:
When they’re ground, the essential fatty acids are better observed.
Lisa Arendell [00:34:13]:
Okay, very good. And just to reiterate what she just said, because this is so important, because they do sell like flax steps. I know they will sell those already ground. What she is saying is it’s really wise if you buy them whole, brand them yourself just a couple of days ahead of time and then store them in the refrigerator so they don’t go rancid. Because once they go rancid, not only do they lose some nutrition, some of the nutrients that we’re looking to get out of them, but am I correct Vashti that they could also then maybe shift to being a little more harmful?
Vashti Kanahele [00:34:49]:
Yes, shift to be more harmful. We don’t want them growing mold or anything like that. So it’s important to have them not be rancid.
Lisa Arendell [00:35:04]:
Right. What I love about this topic too is this is one I love that God gave us so many tools to use that he created and here we are with steps that we have readily available and that you can do something that is inexpensive to help balance your hormones naturally. Maybe you can’t get to your practitioner right away. Or maybe your practitioner isn’t taking you seriously and you haven’t yet found someone who will. And you’re like, what can I do? Try this. Because you’re saying you can do this at any stage. This is not just for menopausal and postmenopausal. This is also for Perry as well. Am I correct?
Vashti Kanahele [00:35:44]:
Oh yeah. For Perry as well. If you’re cycling, you just want to start that first stage that we were talking about with the flaxseed and the pumpkin seed on day one of your period.
Lisa Arendell [00:35:58]:
Got it. Very good to know. Anything else about that specifically that we should know, that we should understand? Is that pretty much the gist of it?
Vashti Kanahele [00:36:08]:
That is pretty much the gist. I did want to tell you that I have this brand. I love Bia. B-E-E-Y-A. Wellness. And they sell them in phase one and phase two already made for you.
Lisa Arendell [00:36:22]:
Interesting. Is it in an oil form?
Vashti Kanahele [00:36:25]:
No, it’s in a bag. It’s like a seed form. Okay. But they’re like a wonderful women owned business, and I’ve used them with multiple clients with good success. So if you’re like, oh, this seems overwhelming, I don’t want to do that, or you’re just like, I don’t have time for this. There are always ways to go ahead and just buy them. And I will say that I would give myself three months at least. This isn’t something where you just start it and you’re going to notice a difference right off the bat with your symptoms.
Lisa Arendell [00:37:02]:
Right.
Vashti Kanahele [00:37:03]:
You can need three, some people, four or five or six months to really see changes. But it can be a really effective tool. And like you said, it’s not expensive. You’re not having to locate a functional or naturopathic practitioner and something you can just do in your home.
Lisa Arendell [00:37:24]:
Could you say that company again? Vashti. And do you have? Go ahead. And it’s B-E-E-Y-A okay. And is that a if they go.
Vashti Kanahele [00:37:35]:
Oh, yeah, it’s biowellness.com.
Lisa Arendell [00:37:39]:
Perfect. Biowellness.com. So that’s great because I know the girls listening are busy girls, and there are some that may be all about branding their own, and there’s others that’s like, hey, can somebody just do this to me and make it simple?
Vashti Kanahele [00:37:55]:
Absolutely.
Lisa Arendell [00:37:56]:
I love that.
Vashti Kanahele [00:37:57]:
And they have a really nice blend of things. It’s all the things that we’ve talked about, including organic chamomile powder, I think, which is just really lovely and calming.
Lisa Arendell [00:38:10]:
Very good. Okay, so we’re coming up on the end of the show, but Vashtai, please tell everybody. Well, I tell you what, before we get to all the ways they can connect with you, tell me a little something. Something about a book, I hear something about a book. Let’s talk about that for a second.
Vashti Kanahele [00:38:28]:
Yeah. Thank you. So I have been really feeling pulled to write a book for a while now, and instead of writing just how to balance your hormones book, which there are so many, by really great practitioners out there, I decided to tell my story. And so this is my story from 2009 to now, including my infertility struggles. It’s part action adventure because I lived in Iraq, in Lebanon, and the first few years before we had kids were very exciting. So if you like action adventures, You can read this book, too. But then we really dive into the infertility stage. How I started really down this path of finding what worked well for me, even if it was outside the conventional, and then my path with Lyme and EPV and Hashimoto’s interwoven with my life overseas. I’ve lived most of the last 15 years abroad. And so it’s a travel adventure and health and wellness and really that importance of community and having those people in your life who help you and are there with you every step of the way. I’ve realized through this journey that there are people in my life that I don’t know that I would have gotten through this without. I think we all have those people. And so that is basically what the book is about and how to overcome it. Wow, that is really difficult.
Lisa Arendell [00:40:06]:
I’m pretty excited about this book, Bashtaik, because what we didn’t talk about in this podcast is what you just alluded to, which is all of the travel. You really have a fascinating life just by nature of all of the moving you’ve done and everything you’ve been involved with. So how can people find your book? Where can they purchase it?
Vashti Kanahele [00:40:27]:
It is being published in the fall. So right now you can get on my waitlist and I can link that in your show notes or you can link that in your show notes, or you can go to Vashtikonahaly.com and they can sign up there as well.
Lisa Arendell [00:40:43]:
Okay. And I will have all of Vashti’s information in the show notes. So if you’re like Vashti Kanahele, how do you spell that exactly? So I got you there, too. Don’t worry about it. I know when I said her name at the beginning, everybody was probably like, oh, there’s going to be this accent. No, no accent. She sounds like me and you.
Vashti Kanahele [00:41:04]:
I remember seeing your name for the.
Lisa Arendell [00:41:06]:
Very first time when we were in our health coach certification and thinking, wow, what must she sound like? Because your first and last name are both very exotic.
Vashti Kanahele [00:41:16]:
Yeah, it’s just so funny. I took my Persian first name and I’m not Persian. My mom really loved the story of Vashti in the Bible, and then I married a Hawaiian, and so Haley is what I love, but it does always take people by surprise. It’s so funny. So, yeah, they can find me on my website at vashtikanahele.com at @vashtikanahele on Instagram if they’re looking to work with a doctor and a coach. I also work with Dr. Patrick Fox now, and we have really exciting packages for people to get that doctor and coach model. So you have the support of a coach to hold your hand all the way through, and then you can also be seeing a naturopathic doctor at the same incredible, incredible.
Lisa Arendell [00:42:11]:
And again, just go check out the show notes because I’ll have all of the goodies there. Vashti, I just cannot thank you enough for your time, for your expertise, for sharing all of your knowledge with us. This was so much fun. I’ve always felt this way, but I feel like I could just sit and talk with you all day long about all of these things because I always learn something new when I listen to you. And you just have such a great way of delivering information that women need to know that they may not know or that maybe they just heard a little bit about, and they need to know on a little bit of a deeper level. So thank you for what you are doing in this space for women, for their health, for the empowerment that you give them. I’m so grateful. And just thank you for being here today.
Vashti Kanahele [00:42:57]:
Thank you so much for having me on. It was so great. I agree. I feel like we could just talk all day about all sorts of different things. And thank you for putting this information out into the world. That is very important.
Lisa Arendell [00:43:09]:
Yeah, same. And you’re so welcome. And this was a blast. And we will do a part two one of these days with regards to toxins, because it is a deep conversation and it is one that I think women can get very overwhelmed with. But you also bring some common sense, and you pull back that overwhelm, which I love. So we’ll do that again soon. Okay?
Vashti Kanahele [00:43:32]:
Sounds great.
Lisa Arendell [00:43:33]:
Okay. And hey, thank you guys for listening, for being here. You know, it means everything to me. Do me a favor and share this episode with a friend if you found value. If you’re thinking, oh, my gosh, I know someone going through this, maybe they could use some help. Maybe they are just unaware of the resources that are out there, please share this episode. It helps us get the word out. And it just means so much to me for you being here in the first place and then just sharing. It means caring. It means everything. So thank you, and I will see you in the next episode. Episode. Bye for now.
Links mentioned in this episode:
- Vashti Kanahele - Functional Medicine Coach
- LMNT: For listeners of the Lisa Lou Show, get a free sample pack with your first purchase of any element product.
- Gut Health Protocol. Get 10% off your first order of this or any other products here with code LisaLou
- Get a free hormone consultation in the US by a functional practitioner who I use and trust!
