The Hormone Prescription For Fixing your Fatigue with Kyrin Dunston, MD

Episode 68:

The Hormone Prescription For Fixing your Fatigue with Kyrin Dunston and Evan H.

Hirsch, MD

Evan H. Hirsch, MD 00:08

Hey everybody, welcome back to the energy MD podcast where we are on a mission to

help a million people resolve their fatigue so that they can have more fun and success in

every aspect of their lives. And as you guys know, we're looking at over 30 different

causes and some really important causes are hormones. So we're gonna be talking with

my good friend Kyrin today, Dr. Kyrin, and we're going to be talking about hormones. So

let's learn a little bit about her. So after discovering the hidden cause of midlife weight

gain and fatigue and women, OB GYN Dr. Kyrin Dunston, lost a life changing 100 pounds

Wow, and fixed her adrenal fatigue. She is fellowship trained in anti aging, metabolic and

functional medicine and his practice this exclusively for over a decade. A pioneer of

female hormone justice, Dr. Kyrin hosts the hormone prescription podcast, with new

episodes weekly. She is the founder of her hormone club and end to end all inclusive

membership providing women access to state of the art natural hormone therapy

treatment throughout the US and the midlife metabolism Institute, providing educational

and coaching programs for women at midlife to fix their hormones, their metabolic, their

metabolism and their health. Dr. Kyrin has been featured on TEDx, CBS, NBC Reader's

Digest The Huffington Post, first for woman, best self and more. She's your midlife

metabolic ninja, I love that he will show you the steps to take to unleash your best health

yet. Dr. Kyrin, thanks so much for joining me today.

Kyrin Dunston, MD 01:42

Thanks for inviting me super excited to be here.

Evan H. Hirsch, MD 01:46

So we're going to be talking about the hormone prescription for fixing fatigue. So let's

just dive in here. So how do hormones relate to this picture of energy and fatigue?

Kyrin Dunston, MD 01:59

Great question. So what most women don't realize is that your hormones are

communicators in your body, they're actually part of your nervous system, right? We all

know that our brain is our mainframe computer that controls everything that happens in

our body. And we've got the hard wired part of our brain, that's actual nerves that go

from one place to another, like from your brain to your fingers, so you can snap your

fingers. And then we have the wireless connections from our brain. And that's actually

our hormones. So if this is our mainframe computer, controlling everything, and our

nerves are controlling a lot of motor neurons, and they're bringing a lot of sensation in

what's controlling the physiologic function of our bodies, or the metabolism is our

hormones. These hormones are secreted in your brain and tells different specialized

organs to make these hormones. So think about it kind of like the internet in your house,

right? When it comes into your house, you can plug your computer in and get a hard

wired connection, that's pretty sturdy, very rarely goes out. Or you can use the wireless

internet, I don't know about you, but where I am, the wireless internet always has

problems, right? Maybe the signal isn't coming to the router properly, maybe there's a

problem with the router, putting out the signal, maybe the computer can get it, you know,

there are a million problems that can go wrong. And it's the same in your body, that

wireless system of communication, the hormones, there are a lot of things that can

interfere with them. And that's what tells your cells how to function and regulate your

metabolism. So what a lot of people don't realize what's very common for women over

40 is they have weight problems, and they have energy problems. And the two are

directly connected. Why? Because excess weight is excess fat. And fat is your storage

fuel source to run your body. And if you can't turn that thought into energy, and the

currency of energy is ATP, right? So dollar bills, that runs your financial economy, and

ATP runs your body economy. So if you can't convert fat into ATP, then you're going to be

tired because you don't have enough ATP and you're going to be overweight because

you have too much fat. Well what connects those and tells your body to run that

metabolism. It's metabolism that connects these I consider it like a bow tie. So in the

middle is your metabolism and on one side is fat and on the other is the ATP. If it the

hormones aren't communicating to your metabolic organs to run properly, that's where

you get the fatigue and the weight gain. And so that's how hormones create fatigue,

particularly at midlife and women and men as well.

Evan H. Hirsch, MD 04:55

So which hormones are we talking about here? Can you kind of they all are they are all

the hormones. We talked about sex hormones, kind of take us through that. And then

which ones specifically are like more important when it comes to energy?

Kyrin Dunston, MD 05:11

Right, great question. So there are hundreds of hormones in the body that all have

various functions. When we're talking about energy and fatigue and weight, we're

particularly talking about the seven main metabolic hormones that include the three sex

hormones, estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, and most women know that they have

a problem starting at 40 and beyond with sex hormones, because we're programmed

that way. But what they don't realize is that we've got these other hormones that

determine our med metabolism, that we may not be aware that we have a problem with

that was the case for me and my 40s when I weighed 243 pounds, and those would be

insulin, cortisol, DHEA, and thyroid hormone. So I always say there are two prescriptions,

you need to fix your fatigue and weight problems, as you age one is a written

prescription for the hormonal poverty that occurs by programming, right, our ovaries

start going down and function and then cease completely. So to restore the hormones

to prosperity, you need a written prescription, but you also need another prescription.

And that prescription is diet, lifestyle supplements, all the other things that go into

program these other metabolic hormones.

Evan H. Hirsch, MD 06:37

And is there a is there an order that you like to go through with these different hormones

in order to fix the whole picture? I mean, how do you I guess, is there a step by step

process that you kind of take people through to fix their hormones?

Kyrin Dunston, MD 06:53

Absolutely. So two prescriptions, one's written ones not. So you definitely need to get

the proper testing to see if you're in the hormonal poverty of perimenopause and

menopause, I like the Dutch test, I think it's the best. And then if you need some type of

remediation there, like a prescription, then you need to get that but at the same time, you

need to be addressing the other four, metabolic hormones. And you need to have the

proper tests for that, right, we can talk about that if you want. And then you need to

address the problems that you find there. I think that insulin has to come first. You know,

we hear that you are what you eat. So often, I think that when we hear that it goes in one

ear and out the other. There's so much conflicting dietary advice online, and people

aren't necessarily getting the useful, shall we say information that they need from their

doctors, because we're not trained in nutrition, nutritional science. So people are out

there on Dr. Google reading books and blogs and listening to podcast trying to figure it

out. And it's a very polarized topic online. So people are confused. And so I start with

what you're eating. Because literally, when you look in the mirror, you see your face, but

really, I saw this picture one day that really drove this home for me about you are what

you eat. It was a picture of a person. And instead of having a shoulder, they had

broccoli. And instead of having an elbow, there were tomatoes here. And instead of

having bacon, a forehead, they had bacon. And so it was a person made out of food.

And so I and they call it the food body. So now when I look in the mirror, I don't

necessarily see my facial features, I say food. So the food becomes our structure and

our physiology and our metabolism. But it also directly programs, our hormones,

through our insulin. There's really no greater interface that we have with the external

environment than the food that we eat. Most people think if you ask them, oh, what's

your greatest interaction with the external environment? You think it's your senses,

right? The things I see that things I hear, or your skin right? And it's not it's your

gastrointestinal tract, right? If you take it and lay it out, the surface area is as big as two

doubles, tennis courts. So you're taking the external environment and you're putting it

inside of you, that's your biggest interaction. And most of us do that at least three times

a day. So that is directly programming your hormones and and even though I talk about

sex hormones in one category, and the other four hormones in another, they're all

connected, right? I used to have this mobiel that was above my index desk when I had a

brick and mortar office. And I loved to use it to demonstrate the function of hormones to

people because if you push one piece, right, what you eat affects your ends. fill in the

hole mobiel moved and all the other pieces moved in, there were seven pieces. So I used

it to demonstrate this interaction. And so the biggest impact you can have on your

hormones is definitely with what you eat. And so I always start there.

Evan H. Hirsch, MD 10:18

Excellent. And so and so that's gonna affect the insulin. And then what does that

domino effect look like in terms of how does insulin affect the other hormones?

Kyrin Dunston, MD 10:29

Right, so it's comes in with insulin, which is your main regulator of your blood glucose, or

sugar and sugar is your main fuel source fat is your secondary storage source. And so if

your insulin is wonky, and a lot of people think, Oh, I don't have diabetes, I don't have

diabetes in my family. My doctor says my labs are quote, unquote, normal. I'm fine.

That's not me. You're not talking to me. What I want to say is, yes, I am talking to you. It's

a rare person. In America anyway, in this day and age who doesn't have some degree of

insulin dysfunction, even though their doctor told them, their labs are normal, and they

don't have diabetes, or prediabetes, particularly women over 40 and 50. Because that

state of perimenopause and menopause can cause what we call insulin resistance. So

you have to have the right tests and read them the right way. So insulin comes in to

regulate our blood sugar, most of us have some degree of wonkiness with that, whether

we're aware of it or not. And then it's directly going to affect our stress hormone

cortisol. A lot of people have heard of cortisol, the stress hormone, but we mostly hear

about it in reference to life stress, right? Pretty much everyone knows, in this day and

age, oh, I have a stressful life, jobs, relationships, money, time, all these things. And

that's affecting my cortisol and oh, I should meditate, right. And I should say, learn how

to say no, and do all these things. But the, the issue is, it's so much more than that. And

particularly, it's about your insulin. So if you've got a wonky insulin, cortisol is kind of the

balancer on the bottom end of that blood sugar and that insulin, so your blood sugar,

being wonky is affecting your insulin, and then that's in turn affecting your cortisol. And

this is where a lot of what a lot of people miss about stress in the body, what you

consider stress is not necessarily what your body considers stress, your body considers

a whole lot of things stressful. And all you're thinking is I can't stand my boss, right? And

I need a vacation. And that's the only stress you think is stress. And meanwhile, your

body is over here, juggling lots and lots of balls. And one of it is what you're putting in

your mouth three times a day. That's very stressful. So insulin goes into cortisol. And

you've got to look at what are all the things first, you got to have the right test and read it

the right way for cortisol. And then because I had what I weighed 243 pounds, I had the

mainstream cortisol test, and it said I was fine. And when I had the right test, I still

wasn't fine. I had a flatline cortisol. So I had enough cortisol to survive, but I didn't have

enough to thrive. And the difference is everything. It's a difference between you living

the best health of your life, and the most fulfilled life that you you deserve to live and

just existing. So you've got to address all the problems that are affecting your cortisol

could be biologic chemical, and all kinds of different stressors for your cortisol. And

then we've always got to look at thyroid hormone. And I love talking about thyroid

hormone, because this is actually something that corporate doctors will diagnose. So a

lot of people are aware that they have a thyroid problem, but probably with what you do

fixing people's fatigue. And you're aware of this, too, that people get so fixated on my

doctor said I have a thyroid problem. I have a hypothyroid diagnosis, I'm on this

medication, I need to fix my thyroid. And I did this podcast episode a few months ago on

the hormone prescription called why you will never fix your thyroid by trying to fix your

thyroid. Because people are so obsessively focused on I need to fix my thyroid but what

they don't realize is your thyroid doesn't have any interaction with your external

environment. So it's very hard to impact your thyroid, but meanwhile, it's in a trio with

cortisol and insulin, thyroid cortisol and insulin. I call them The Three Musketeers.

Right? So they all hang out together. other, and they go on adventures together. And they

affect each other just like you and your two best friends affect each other. So if your two

best friends are having a problem, and they're depressed and stressed out because you

got wonky sugar and the cortisol stressed out, what happens, they start pulling on the

thyroid. So you have to address these other hormones to address the thyroid. Now,

having said that, there are some specific things you can do to help manipulate it. But

really the goal mine for thyroid is fixing cortisol, which comes in a package kind of

which DHEA and insulin.

Evan H. Hirsch, MD 15:39

Okay, great. So let's talk about testing. So what do you like to see? Or how do you

assess for insulin issues?

Kyrin Dunston, MD 15:48

Right, so I recommend that everyone have a fasting in the morning. So you can have

water, but basically nothing else, usually best to do within one to two hours after

awakening bloodwork. And you want to look at a fasting insulin level of fasting glucose

and a hemoglobin a one C, which is a measure of how much glucose or sugar has been

stuck on your red blood cells over the past three months, it's usually used to track

diabetic progress. But it's a great indicator of how each one of us is doing with our

glycemic control, we can do an hemoglobin a one C. So those are the basic tests I like

sometimes we'll do a one or two hour glucose tolerance test. And look at those

measures while the the insulin and glucose after a sugar load at one and two hours. But

usually it's not necessary. Most times with those three tests, you can pick up most

insulin issues. Yeah, so that's where I would start for thyroid, there are about seven or

eight different blood tests that I recommend. And these tests can be done by most

Regular Labs. But it's not the the mainstream thyroid profile that has some calculated

measures. But you definitely want to look at the TSH thyroid stimulating hormone, the

free and total T three free and total t for the reverse T three. And then I always look at

thyroid peroxidase antibodies and anti thyroid globulin antibodies, because like the

other day, this happens at least once a month, someone has no history of thyroid

problems. They say their doctor has checked them and their thyroid is quote unquote,

normal. And she came back with thyroid peroxidase antibodies, if you don't check them,

you don't know. But I've had people come back with that in that exact same situation.

And then we were able to do some things to get rid of those antibodies, and then they

never got a thyroid problem, because we precluded that by fixing the reason why people

get Hashimotos and then down the line have low thyroid function. So you definitely want

those tests. And then for cortisol, you definitely want to salivary cortisol test. And you

want to collect saliva throughout the day. So morning, noon, afternoon, midnight,

because your cortisol has a diurnal variation where it's high in the morning, and then it

comes down lower in the afternoon and goes down for you to sleep. And then usually

they'll do a DHEA from that. And then of course, the sex hormones. And I think the gold

standard really right now is the Dutch test that looks at the urinary metabolites, to get an

idea of what's going on with your three types of estrogens, right, not just estradiol but

your estrone estradiol and it's trial that looks at your phase one and phase two detox in

the liver, which is super important. That's not really part of the mainstream evaluation,

nor is sex hormone testing in general, I should say. But, you know, people worry about if

they're going to use estrogen, is this going to cause me a problem? Is this going to

increase my risk of breast cancer? And it's not estrogen that that causes breast cancer,

right? All men and all women and all children on the face of this planet have estrogen. If

estrogen causes breast cancer, everyone would have breast cancer, everybody doesn't.

So what is it about certain people that increases their risk, and one of the things is how

they detoxify or get rid of the estrogen that their body does have because if it goes

down certain pathways that you might be genetically disposed to you might be

environmentally predisposed to, then you are at increased risk for things like breast

cancer. So you need to look at your detoxification pathways. And then you want to look

at your progesterone and also your testosterone, which is super important for men, but

a lot of women don't realize it's super important for their optimal functioning as well.

Evan H. Hirsch, MD 19:45

And so in terms of those metabolites, I know that there was some not necessarily

controversy or but some conflicting studies, especially on like the two to 16 hydroxy

estrogen ratio. How are you using some of those metabolites to determine whether

somebody is at increased risk for a female cancer. Are you using the two to 16? Are you

looking at the methylation? What do you like?

Kyrin Dunston, MD 20:09

Right, so phase two is the methylation phase one is the three different sips Cytochrome

P 450. Enzymes. So you want to look at the different, how much you're putting down

each one of those pathways. And if someone is not putting it down the pathway that

increases methylation to dispose of the estrogen, and is putting it down the four

hydroxy pathway where they make quinolones that are more toxic to DNA, then I put

them on supplements to improve their detoxification, if they have a methylation

problem, we use supplements to improve methylation. So you have to get it out because

in a healthy way, because if not, most people don't realize that not only everything you

take in right, all the liquids that you drink all the foods that you eat, you break down,

extract what you need, and then you have to dispose of the rest. Imagine if you never

disposed of the trash, right and never pooped, you never peed, you would pretty much

die in short order will everything your body makes, it also has to detoxify and get rid of

or it can become toxic. So it's the same with these hormones. So you want to make sure

that your detoxification pathways are going out. And I don't so much use the ratios, but

on the tests that I use, it tells you actual percentages that are going of estrogen going

down each of those pathways, and how much is being methylated or not. So then you

can customize your program for each person to increase the excretion.

Evan H. Hirsch, MD 21:49

Okay, thank you. And then coming back to the fasting insulin, glucose and a one see

what, let's get really granular here. What what do you like to see in terms of numbers?

And what do you consider abnormal?

Kyrin Dunston, MD 22:03

Right, so I like to see the fasting glucose at 85 or less. Now the lab is going to say it's

normal up to like 99. For some labs, it's going to vary by lab, because what most people

need to understand is that the lab determines its normal or reference ranges by what

95% of the population has. So if you think back to high school science, the bell curve,

right, so all population measures will fall under the bell curve, everybody's height,

everybody's weight. So the majority of people will be clustered around the highest part

of the curve in the middle, and then the tails come down and go out to the side. Well,

that middle 95% is what is considered normal for any population, including their fasting

blood sugar. So you might be considered normal at 98, fasting blood sugar, but the truth

is there you are then being compared to unhealthy people, if you look at the American

population, 60% of us are overweight or obese at any given age. And so they're taking

those measures of fasting blood glucose for everyone. And then they're saying you're

normal for a 60% chance overweight person. And to me, I don't want to be compared to

not optimally healthy people. So when we do a root cause approach, we look at optimal

values. If you are optimally healthy, what should you be, and the data is pretty clear that

you should be 85 or less with your fasting blood sugar. And that even though you may

not have a diagnosis of diabetes, every point you are over at five increases your risk of

getting a diabetes diagnosis by 6% in the next 10 years. And we have this really This

fixation with the fact that diseases are genetic, my mother had it my family had it, it runs

in my family, I'm gonna have it when the truth is the science has proven that there's only

a five to 10% genetic component in most in the large majority of diseases. There are

some specific ones that are genetically completely 100% determined, but the majority of

diseases are not divided. Diabetes is one of those and I'm talking about type two

diabetes here. So you want to get the right test done and you want to want it to be the

fasting blood glucose less than 85. And you want to look at optimal values. That's an

optimal value fasting blood sugar less than 85 fasting insulin less than eight

hemoglobin a one C definitely less than 5.0 to 5.2 is optimal, not higher.

Evan H. Hirsch, MD 24:54

Nice, those are some tight ranges. I need to be looking a little bit differently at some of

these, I think so thank you for that. So the the thyroid antibody case that you were

talking about, which was really interesting, where you did the antibodies, and you found

it before somebody had had damage to the thyroid, potentially and low thyroid

hormones. Did they actually have? Do they have any low thyroid symptoms?

Kyrin Dunston, MD 25:21

Well, so the woman the other day has no, well, she does have weight gain and fatigue,

those are the only two symptoms. But actually, her other thyroid numbers were in the

optimal range, even though she had thyroid peroxidase antibodies. So it's at a very low

level her antibody. So of course, when you see that for the first time, you always repeat

it. So that's what's going to happen. But I have, I see this at least once a month, and I

have had people who had sub optimal thyroid function who had thyroid peroxidase

antibodies, their doctor had checked their thyroid by doing a standard thyroid profile and

told them their thyroid was fine. And they usually have other symptoms also

constipation, hair loss, dry skin, brittle nails, depression, anxiety. But if you catch it early

enough, even people who have a diagnosis of Hashimotos, I've had come to me, and

then when they get the proper root cause treatment, and they're not just stuck on

Synthroid or site ml or something like that, and basically told, Oh, you're gonna have this

for the rest of your life, which is ridiculous. I've had people go to no antibodies, an

optimal thyroid function. So it's something that's very remediable.

Evan H. Hirsch, MD 26:43

Excellent. So one of the things that I've seen, and I'm curious if you've seen the same

were people who have poor adrenal function and poor thyroid function, that the thyroid

can appear to be better than it actually is, because it's compensating for low adrenals.

And so I've seen where I fix adrenals, or I'm supporting the adrenals. And then the thigh

you repeat the thyroid hormone thyroid hormones actually worse. And so it's kind of like,

you know, that's where I feel like the subjective experience of the human and the

symptoms that they're having becomes even more of more important, because the labs

are imperfect. Have you seen anything weird like that, when you're when you're working

on one hormone and how it affects other hormone levels?

Kyrin Dunston, MD 27:26

Oh, absolutely. And like I said, insulin, thyroid, cortisol, Three Musketeers, they do this

continual dance. So you are kind of, you have to evaluate, I always say health is a

journey, not a destination, you have to be reevaluating these and you, you might do

something to effect one, and then you have to reevaluate, well, how are the others being

affected? And it's just like in your friend group, right? If something affects one, then they

bring it to the group while it's gonna affect the others. And then you gotta check in with

the other. So it's a system. And so, absolutely, and, you know, I think the reason why

most people, actually, most people don't ever get their thyroid straight and they don't get

off thyroids up supplementation is because of this failure to address cortisol. And I'm

not sure exactly what you were detailing there. But yes, this dance this conversation,

right, these hormones are communicators, they not only communicate with every cell in

your body in every system, but they're talking to each other. And so if you don't ever

address the problems, that one person in your friend group is having, it's going to

continue to affect the whole group. And cortisol is usually the one that's left out in the

cold. So I'm not sure if I'm answering your question. Exactly. Okay. So you have got to

and, you know, addressing your cortisol can sometimes seem like an endless task. And I

felt I feel this way too, right, because I started on this journey over a decade ago for my

own health. And when I learned about this type of medicine, and this specialized type of

testing and treatment, I had been trained in a model of medicine that was all about

drugs and surgery to secure the symptom. And when you get rid of the symptom, you

claim victory, and you're on the path to freedom. And that wasn't my experience. And so

when I learned about this, I said, Oh, my gosh, maybe everything that I learned, I won't

say was wrong, but maybe that's just one tool box, right? And maybe there's this other

ginormous toolbox that I didn't learn about. I'm going to explore it and use it on myself

as the guinea pig and if it works, I'm going to spend the rest of my life teaching other

people about this. And so, what I learned was this root cause resolution approach And

gosh, I got lost in telling my story. And now I forget. Can you repeat the question?

Evan H. Hirsch, MD 30:06

Well, we were talking. We were talking about adrenals and thyroid, and how, yeah, how

the friends are all related. And they have

Kyrin Dunston, MD 30:17

the frustration. Yes. So I went on this journey, I got everything straightened out, I lost

100 pounds, I cured my irritable bowel gastritis hair loss, no libido, depression, anxiety, I

had all these health problems. And then I'm like, Oh, I'm set for life. And it's like, no,

because then I went to work at this place, as a consultant in Texas for three months.

And they had just built out this space with all these toxic petroleum based chemicals,

and I got sick. And so then it was back to detoxifying and fixing my cortisol. And so

that's why I say health is a journey, not a destination. And it can seem never ending. And

people often want to give up and frustrate right, this Cadillac, or Ferrari have a body

machine that we get to live in while we're here on this planet. It's as complicated as a

Ferrari. And it requires right the Ferrari you see at the racetrack, and the Formula One,

right, they gotta pull it over. And how many guys do they have working on it and

everything, right? Tweaking bolts, and checking fuel and water levels and different

things. I don't know about cars, but you get the analogy. Right. So I think that we got this

idea from our upbringing and our culture that our body is supposed to be plug and play,

all you need to do is lay down at night for a few hours, throw some liquid and solid into

your mouth, and that's calories, and you're good to go. If there's a problem, you go to the

doctor, they're the expert that give you a drug or do a surgery, get rid of your symptom.

And you are, you're golden. And that's so not true. And so we're not used to spending the

time, effort and attention to care for this precious vehicle that really is what's required.

And so part of what I work with people on is helping them to decondition themselves

from what they weren't taught. And they were taught that's not true about creating

health. Because the other way will let you exist in a body for a certain period of time,

right? On our tombstone, we'll all get a beginning date and an end date and a dash in

between, right? That dash represents time, What gave you that time was your health.

And when it runs out, you're done, you get the end date to your dash. So if we don't

realize this, guess what our end date comes sooner, or our true health span where we're

actually healthy and can enjoy our lives and do the things that we want to do is

shortened, which is the condition that the majority of us are living in, in most

industrialized countries, right now. We have chronic diseases, I think it's 50% of us over

50 are on five or more medications. So we're kind of in this existence state. By the time

women are 56, three quarters out of us three out of four are overweight or obese. And

what does being overweight and obese do to your energy level and your ability to

function in life? It limits it right? You don't have the energy to go back to school or do

that new hobby or participate in your relationships the way you want, right? You fill in the

blank about what it's making you miss out on in life, it's usually a lot of things when I talk

to people, you know, we're a lot of us are in denial. We don't want to look at that. But I

hate nothing worse than talking to a woman in her 80s Who says Wow, nobody told me

any of these things I lived by, you know, mainstream medicine, I didn't know what was

available to me. And now they feel like it's too late. And they've lost all these years of

truly living and being vital and alive. So wake up now people.

Evan H. Hirsch, MD 34:12

Well said, so what you're talking about is basically a daily practice. Right? So what are

these things that that people need to do on a daily basis in order to create that habit so

that it's not like you're all you're doing is sleeping, and that's enough to kind of get you

through this life? So are you it would be great if you would kind of share with us some of

your favorite practices or some of the practices that you do on a regular basis, whether

it's mindset or sleep or exercise or whatever. What do you find most helpful?

Kyrin Dunston, MD 34:45

Sure, yeah, I'd say mindset is the first thing that I have had to change. It's not that this

machine is just going to keep going if I slow some throw some calories in there solids

and liquids and I lay down for as few hours as possible, right? That is going to run you

into the ground sooner or later. If you're lucky, it'll run you into the ground sooner

because then you're gonna know something's wrong and you're gonna do something

about it. I think the saddest is when it kind of keeps you limping along for years. So it's

the, the whole paradigm shift of my body is just a machine like a car, and it will if I give it

the right calorie fuel and lay down for a few hours, so it'll be fine. And it's shifting to

know, this is a very intricate living system that needs time, attention, care, and nurturing.

And it's actually an honor that I get to spend time on that, you know, our mantra is, I don't

have time, I don't have time, I want it to be easy. I want it to be simple. Well, some things

in life aren't easy and aren't simple, like death is just not easy or simple. And no matter

what we do, we can't, we can't evade it. And we can't make it simple or easy when

someone else dies. So it's the same in our lives that our bodies are these very complex

living energy systems. And so it's approaching every day from the mindset of mine

number one job is to nurture my home that I live in, which is my physical body, right?

Most of us think that our structure home that we pay a mortgage on is where we live,

well, if that burns down, you've got insurance, you rebuild another house, when this body

that you live in, burns down, you don't get a replacement, right, Steve Jobs had more

money than any human on the planet. And he couldn't add one second to his life when

he got pancreatic cancer, right? Doesn't matter. When it's done. It's done. So that it's an

honor to spend the time attention and effort. And then I go about my day in that way. My

number one priority is eating well and nurturing myself hydrating well, right drinking

good, pure, clean water. Getting enough sleep, I call it the neck nectar of life, right? So

going to bed early enough that I can wake up naturally, when my body is done sleeping,

that means no alarm clock, right. So that means I have to get myself in bed early enough

to allow that to happen. And that's a way that I honor myself. But it also means looking

at not putting toxins in my body, because that's going to stress my cortisol, making sure

that I eat insulin aligned foods. And I don't stress my insulin and stress my cortisol,

getting rid of stress right where I can. So there's some things in life we can't get rid of,

but some things we can. And it's funny, because when I first talked to people about this,

the psychosocial stressors, I say, Well, what can you get rid of? What can you change?

So it's not stressful? Or how can you change the way you think and feel about it? So it's

not stressful? And everyone? First answer and this used to be my answer to is, oh, I can't

get rid of anything in my life, I can't change anything. And that's actually not true. It's

that's just a belief that we hold. So another practice that I do is always questioning the

beliefs that I have. Because most of the times, it's not things in my life, that are actually

stressing me. It's what I believe about what's happening, that is causing the stress. And

so if I can examine my beliefs, and I love to do this, I find that it's not something that

people are used to doing, but I love to do it. And it actually ends up reducing the stress.

So I'd say those are the foundations, of course, and there is physical exercise resistance,

aerobic stretching. Working with my energy body, that's another thing that's super

important. That, you know, we're not just these physical beings. We are energy beings

first and we have an energy system. I know, most people aren't aware of this. They're

like, if I didn't hear about it at my doctor's office, it's not a thing. And you're not hearing

about it in school and you're not hearing about it at your doctor's office. You just hear

some people you dismiss as woowoo on the internet talking about it. I know Dr. Evan

talks about it. I do too. But Gone are the days that you will probably never achieve the

health it's possible for you if you don't address your energy system, and your energy

system and compasses all the things that are tangible about your physical body and

your physiology, right. Your physical body is Newtonian physics. I take this drug, it

affects this enzyme, it changes the enzyme, and then this symptom changes. But we are

much more complex and science has documented our thoughts, our feelings, our

beliefs, our spirituality, spiritual connection. I'm not talking about religion, I'm talking

about science has validated spirituality. If we don't address these things, and get into

alignment, it it's arms, the framework for our physical body, our physical body is just a

manifestation of this energy, right and how the energy is running clear and free or not

may be blocked. So we have to learn how to address that. I know that's something you

work on with people. It's something I work on with people. So definitely addressing that

each day for me as part of my practice.

Evan H. Hirsch, MD 40:26

I love that sounds like mind body, spirit, energy, emotions, all those different bodies.

Thank you for sure. Yes. Yeah. So we are just about at the end of our time, but I know

that you have a free gift for our audience, can you tell us a little bit about it?

Kyrin Dunston, MD 40:44

Sure. So we talked about that insulin is the place to start. It's programmed with what you

eat. And a lot of us are eating things that aren't in our best interest and are hurting our

insulin. And we're not aware we think we're eating healthy things. So I created the diet,

deceptive dozen, that's the 12 foods that are flying under your radar that you think are

healthy, that you're eating that are hurting your hormones, because they're hurting your

insulin. And then you'll also get with that MMA as a bonus, my lean 15, which is the 15

foods you should add to your diet, because they actually will help your insulin and your

hormones.

Evan H. Hirsch, MD 41:24

Excellent. And then you've got a hormone bliss challenge coming up, right?

Kyrin Dunston, MD 41:29

Yes. And so that's the first step is working on the foods you're eating you think are

healthy, that aren't, get rid of those, add the foods that are healthy, but then I really take

you through the exact steps that I use with my one to one clients in a seven day

program, where we meet for 30 minutes each day, and I give you exercises and

challenges. And it's amazing the change you can see in just seven days. I mean, I've had

women say things like I feel like the light bulb has come back on in my life, which is so

gratifying and just a short period of time. And really to see that you can get impactful

results with targeted treatments right in a short period of time, and take you through the

steps. So I hope you'll join me for that.

Evan H. Hirsch, MD 42:21

Excellent, yeah, and we'll drop the links below and share it with our community very

excited and love the work that you're doing. You're such a light in the darkness for a lot

of these women who are having these hormonal challenges. So thanks for being on

today. So great to see you and talk with you again.

Kyrin Dunston, MD 42:38

Thank you for having me, Evans. Super fun to be here. And I hope everyone enjoyed it,

learn something, and that you definitely will access the resources that we've offered.