824: The Menopause Gut: Endogenous GLP-1, Akkermansia, and Hacking Midlife Insulin Resistance
Beauty Bytes with Dr. Kay: Secrets of a Plastic Surgeon™
Kay Durairaj, MD, FACS @beautybydrkay
4.9 • 608 Ratings
🗓️ 21 April 2026
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Why do so many women suddenly experience mysterious bloating, weight-loss resistance, and severe brain fog the moment they hit midlife? In this timely episode of Beauty Bytes, I am joined by Cynthia Thurlow, a nurse practitioner, host of the Everyday Wellness podcast, and author of the highly anticipated new book, The Menopause Gut . We dive deep into a conversation that the medical community has ignored for far too long: the critical connection between declining estrogen and your microbiome . Cynthia explains the concept of the "estrobolome" and reveals how the loss of estrogen literally breaks down the mortar of your intestinal walls, causing leaky gut, new food sensitivities, and systemic inflammation . We explore why treating midlife mood changes might actually start in the digestive tract, considering 70 to 80% of our neurotransmitters are produced in the gut. Cynthia also breaks down the harsh reality of midlife insulin resistance and sarcopenia, while giving us the exact blueprint for reversing it—from tracking macros to hit 100 grams of protein, to slowly building up to 25-30 grams of fiber to stimulate your body's natural GLP-1 production . We even tackle the taboo topic of why you must be pooping every single day to eliminate excess estrogen . If you are tired of being told that midlife weight gain and exhaustion are "just normal," this episode is your ultimate guide to taking your power back.
Guest Information:
Cynthia Thurlow is a nurse practitioner, international speaker, and host of the Everyday Wellness podcast. Her new book, The Menopause Gut, is available for pre-sale and officially launches on April 28. You can learn more and access her pre-sale bonuses at cynthiathurlow.com or follow her on Instagram
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Well, hello, hello, guys. You're listening to Beauty Bites with Dr. K, |
| 0:19.2 | Secrets of a Plastic Surgeon, and today's podcast is a very |
| 0:22.9 | timely one. You guys know that menopause is having a moment. Today we're going to talk with |
| 0:27.5 | Cynthia Thurlow, and she is a nurse practitioner. She's an author, an international speaker, |
| 0:33.5 | and she's host of the Everyday Wellness podcast. She's written a book about to launch. It's |
| 0:38.8 | the menopause gut. And this book tackles a question that so many women are asking right now. |
| 0:44.0 | Like why do we suddenly feel like the weight, the energy, mood, digestion, sleep, everything |
| 0:49.8 | changes in midlife. So welcome to the podcast. I'm excited for this one. Yeah, Dr. Kay, thanks for |
| 0:56.3 | having me. I'm really excited to be with you today. So your new book is called The Metapause |
| 1:00.7 | Gunt. What made you feel like this is the conversation women need to be having right now? |
| 1:05.4 | Yeah, I mean, I think for the past 10 years, just having the privilege of being able to work with |
| 1:09.8 | exclusively middle-aged women, there's just been questions that having the privilege of being able to work with exclusively middle-aged |
| 1:11.0 | women, there's just been questions that I haven't fully been able to answer for myself. |
| 1:16.0 | And because I have my own podcast, I was interviewing microbiome experts and nitric oxide |
| 1:20.0 | experts and other clinicians, both nurse practitioners and physicians. |
| 1:24.2 | And it became clear to me that the conversation around the perimenopause |
| 1:29.6 | to menopause transition was more than just a little bit of lifestyle mixed in with replacing |
| 1:35.5 | hormones, although very important. And I kept thinking, you know, if I have patients that are coming |
| 1:41.0 | to me that are doing all the right things and they're on hormones |
| 1:45.3 | and they're on some peptides and they're still not feeling better than there has to be more |
| 1:49.0 | this conversation. And so after the after I would say probably the last five years really looking |
| 1:55.3 | at microbiome research, really getting detail oriented about diagnostic stool testing, really getting nuanced about |
... |
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