What Menopausal Women Need to Know About Cortisol with Carla DiGirolamo, MD, PhD (Episode 142)

Hit Play Not Pause

Health & Fitness, Education, Self-improvement, Mental Health

4.9 • 696 Ratings

🗓️ 23 August 2023

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Of all our hormones, cortisol might be the most misunderstood and maligned. We’re told this stress hormone is the culprit behind excess belly fat, high blood sugar, accelerated aging, and a host of menopausal and midlife woes. Menopausal and midlife women sometimes are afraid to exercise too much because they’ve been told it will raise their cortisol, which can already be elevated during this time of life. The problem with this narrative is that it’s one-sided. It paints cortisol as a demon to be avoided at all costs, when actually cortisol is essential to maintain and improve fitness, and frankly for human life. This week we sat down with endocrinologist Dr. Carla DiGirolamo to dive into what cortisol is, what it does, and how menopausal women can manage–even befriend it–to optimize their health, performance, and well-being.

Carla DiGirolamo, MD, PhD, is a Double Board Certified Reproductive Endocrinologist and Obstetrician/Gynecologist specializing in infertility and menopausal medicine. She is also a Crossfit Level 1 trainer, Certified Nutrition Coach, and member of CrossFit Health. She is a MedFit Care provider and provides weekly workouts and medical updates at her Substack Athletic Aging. She has most recently become an Endocrine Consultant for Wild Health.

Dr. Carla DiGirolamo’s Athletic Aging blog post on cortisol

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You are listening to Hit Play, Not Pause, a feisty menopause podcast for active performance-minded women.
0:14.6	I am your host, Celine Yeager. Each week, I bring you advice from athletes, scientists, researchers, and other experts to help you feel and perform you best no matter what your hormones are doing.
0:25.0	This show is a production of Live Feisty Media.
0:31.2	Hello, strong feisty women. I hope you all are well. It is time for another show on hormones. But this time we're not
0:41.3	talking estrogen or progesterone or even testosterone. We are talking about one of the most
0:47.5	misunderstood and wrongfully maligned hormones coursing through our veins, cortisol. That somewhat infamous stress hormone
0:57.7	that gets blamed for excess belly fat and high blood sugar and accelerated aging and a host of
1:04.0	other menopausal and midlife woes. The conversation around cortisol has gotten so out of control that we hear from menopausal
1:14.1	and midlife women who are actually afraid to exercise or exercise too much because they've been
1:19.7	told it will raise their cortisol, which, and this is true, can already be elevated during
1:25.1	this time of life. The problem with this narrative is that it's
1:29.4	completely one-sided. It paints cortisol as a demon to be avoided at all costs, when actually
1:35.9	cortisol is essential to maintain and improve fitness and, frankly, for human life. This week,
1:42.3	I sat down with our favorite endocrinologist, Dr. Carlet
1:46.8	DeGerolomo, to dive in to what cortisol is, what it does, and how menopausal women can
1:54.2	manage and, yes, even befriend it to optimize their health, performance, and well-being.
2:00.3	I hope you enjoy this one as much as I did.
2:03.8	Along with being a double board certified reproductive endocrinologist and OBGYN, specializing in
2:10.6	infertility and menopausal medicine, Carla is also an endocrine consultant for wild health. She is a
2:16.9	CrossFit Level 1 trainer, a certified
2:18.8	nutrition coach, a member of CrossFit health. She's a MedFit care provider. And she now
2:24.5	provides weekly workouts and medical updates at her substack athletic aging. So I will put a link to all
	...

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