00:00Hello, everybody, and thank you for joining us for yet another amazing Wellness House
00:05Virtual Summit.
00:06I hope everyone is staying safe and enjoying the show so far.
00:10My name is Jasmine Grant.
00:12I'm the Associate Lifestyle Editor here at Essence, and I'm really excited today to be
00:17joined by two experts for a very important topic, which I don't think we speak about
00:22often enough.
00:23We're going to be talking about body invasions and specifically some of the things that women
00:28encounter as we age and go through our lives and, you know, our reproductive health is
00:34affected in various ways.
00:35And we want to kind of know why black women are so affected by things like fibroids and
00:42menopausal symptoms and what we can do from a lifestyle perspective to really offset some
00:47of those things.
00:48So first up, I would love to welcome Coach Jesse Thompson, fibroids activist, nutritionist,
00:53and founder of thedetoxnow.com.
00:56Welcome, Coach Jesse.
00:58How are you?
00:59Hi.
00:59Thank you so much for having me, Jasmine.
01:01Thank you so much for being here and for taking the time to educate us on this very
01:05important topic.
01:07So as you are well aware, black women suffer disproportionately from fibroids.
01:13And before we kind of get into the whys, can you just explain on a baseline level, what are
01:19fibroids?
01:20Absolutely.
01:22Fibroids are smooth muscle tumors that occur in and around the uterus.
01:27They are 99.9% of the time benign, and they affect 70% of women at large and disproportionately
01:36affect 90% of black women.
01:39Now, they're largely caused by a hormone imbalance called estrogen dominance.
01:45Okay.
01:45They are largely caused by a hormonal imbalance called estrogen dominance and also impacted
01:53by vitamin D hormonal deficiency.
01:57Symptoms can include everything from pelvic pain, heavy bleeding, frequent urination, even anemia
02:07that's caused by that heavy bleeding, and blood clots that can be caused by, depending on the
02:12size, their location, causing embolism.
02:15So one of the key indicators of estrogen dominance, which is that root cause of fibroids, is a heavy
02:22cycle.
02:23And if we can just for a moment, I want to kind of reframe what women think about when they
02:27say normal cycle, because according to the National Institute of Health, a regular cycle,
02:34a normal one is actually only supposed to occur over four to five days with a total blood
02:40loss of about two to three tablespoons, right?
02:44That's completely unheard of with most black women.
02:49That's interesting.
02:51That's really, really interesting.
02:52And the statistic saying that 90% of black women develop fibroids, right, at some point in
02:59their life, that is an extremely high number.
03:01Why do black women tend to get fibroids so frequently and with such severe symptoms?
03:08That's a question I get asked all the time.
03:11To answer this, let's dig a little further into the estrogen dominance, okay?
03:16Estrogen dominance is actually triggered by three issues, stress, diet, and chemical pollutants.
03:24Stress is the number one accelerator of inflammatory conditions, including fibroids, because it is
03:32what we call an up regulator, all right?
03:35Let me explain what that is.
03:37I'll give you a personal example.
03:392014 was actually one of the most stressful years of my life up until 2020.
03:46And in that year, I had a lot of great things and a lot of crazy things happening at the same
03:51time.
03:52Lots of pressure.
03:53And in that one year, all things being the same, meaning my diet, where I lived, what I
03:58was doing, my fibroids actually tripled in size, Jasmine, okay?
04:05Wow.
04:06Exactly.
04:06Exactly.
04:07So when I coach women in our balance program to help women to naturally reset their hormones
04:13and reclaim their lives from fibroids, the key difference we see in our sessions is that
04:18between black and white women, it's the stress.
04:22That stress, that factor actually that's brought on by the trauma of racism, it can actually be
04:28used to track and trace the development and the growth of the fibroids.
04:32That is really interesting.
04:35And so to kind of bring things home, what can black women do from a lifestyle perspective
04:41to kind of minimize the effects of fibroids and perhaps even reduce their chances of developing
04:48these severe symptoms that you were speaking of?
04:51You know, I've thought long and hard about that for the past couple of years because of
04:57these sessions, I encounter these women all the time, excuse me.
05:00And I actually created a free detox living challenge specifically to help women as a first step,
05:09right?
05:09Because not many women are prepared to take a radical change with their stress or they need
05:15support with their nutrition, with their food.
05:17Because remember I said the two key things are the stress and the diet, right?
05:22So this challenge I created, this free challenge actually is centered around two actions, two
05:28simple actions, which is detox thinking and detox eating.
05:33And the thinking is specifically focused on harnessing the power of our thoughts and our
05:38self-talk, okay?
05:40The free challenge provides 10 powerful detox affirmations to help women to speak what they
05:47seek so they can see what they've said, to really bring their mouths and their minds in alignment
05:53with the vision that they have for themselves.
05:55And then the nutrition part is very simple.
05:58It starts with helping them replace one meal a day, their first meal of the day.
06:03That's incredible.
06:04Um, I am so inspired by the knowledge that you've shared and I feel so empowered with
06:11the knowledge that we can actually change these outcomes.
06:14Uh, thank you so much, Coach Jessie, for being here, for educating us about fibroids and what
06:19we can do about them.
06:20Where can people find your work and get in touch with you?
06:23Thank you so much, um, for even asking.
06:26So my IG is coach, Instagram account is coach G-E-S-S-I-E.
06:32Um, I'm very active and very responsive.
06:35And then thedetoxnow.com is my website.
06:38They can download the free ebook for that challenge and learn so much more there.
06:42We're here to support you, be a part of your tribe.
06:45Thank you, Coach Jessie.
06:47Thank you so much.
06:49I would like to next, uh, welcome Denise Pines, founder of Wise Paws Lifestyle Summit, who's
06:55here to talk about menopause and how it adversely affects Black women.
07:00Thank you, Denise, for being here.
07:02You're welcome, Jasmine.
07:04Thank you for having me.
07:05I'm excited.
07:06I'm excited as well.
07:07I think, um, you know, when we hear the word menopause, there are a lot of different symptoms
07:13or assumptions that may pop into our head.
07:16But can you just tell us from an expert's perspective, what is menopause and what age range should women
07:24expect to, um, have some symptoms related to that?
07:29Oh, sure.
07:29Absolutely.
07:29So menopause is simply the end of your child rearing years, right?
07:34It's when your period has stopped and it's stopped for 12 consecutive months.
07:39When that's happened, you are now officially in menopause.
07:43Now there's something else called perimenopause.
07:46And those are the symptoms that we hear about.
07:49That's the timeframe that leads up to menopause.
07:53So they're like the hot flashes, the night sweats, the fatigue, the anxiety, your hair starts
07:58thinning, the moodiness, the weight gain, the dizziness.
08:01I mean, and that's only a few of the 44 symptoms that women can experience starting around age
08:0838 to about mid forties.
08:11Um, it's going to go, you know, into their early fifties, but 38 is usually now the age
08:17when people start to have one of those symptoms.
08:20And what the one I see the most is night sweats.
08:24Um, you start having these night sweats and they might stay for a week and then go away
08:28and then they come back.
08:29And then you'll start having some of the other ones.
08:31And the fatigue becomes sort of the next one, but the way we've been dealing with this is
08:37that we've been dealing with it as a hormone deficiency when really the other things that
08:43really attribute to these symptoms are the environmental toxins, the pesticides, the cleaning
08:49products we use in our house, the hair, the skin solutions, the air fresheners, um, our
08:55cell phones, um, and adrenal fatigue that causes us to have stress.
09:01Um, and these are the things that really magnify fatigue.
09:06Um, a lot of times I hear younger women in their mid twenties or early thirties, you know,
09:12say that they're tired or fatigued all the time.
09:15And that is their adrenal glands burning out.
09:18So they have literally started to burn out their adrenal glands and what those glands are
09:23there for, they are there as the backup generator.
09:26So when you actually start hitting 38 or early forties and your estrogen is starting to decrease
09:33as well as your progesterone, that adrenal gland is supposed to like raise up some of
09:40those, the decreases in the estrogen and progesterone.
09:43And so that really, you should just be going like straight, like smooth.
09:48You should just really be going all the way until, Oh, I don't have a period anymore.
09:52That's really supposed to be happening to women, but that's not what's happening to women.
09:57There's a lot to consider.
09:58Um, these different factors that you speak of, I know so many black women out there can
10:03relate or are going through some of these things.
10:05Um, and I know a lot of women that are watching, um, much like with coach Jesse will want to
10:11get in touch with you to start to understand how to kind of turn the tide for their health
10:17and to live better.
10:19So how can women who want to learn more, get in touch with you?
10:22Oh, absolutely.
10:23So, so I'm doing a, um, all day session, um, from A to Z on perimenopause, menopause and
10:31hormones called at wise pause.com.
10:34So wise P A U S E.com.
10:38And you'll find out everything, uh, leading experts in the country to just really talk
10:43and delve deep into these issues.
10:45Even the ones we don't want to talk about, like not having sex or vaginal dryness or
10:49incontinence and incontinence can happen right after you have a baby.
10:53So it's not just, this is, these aren't old women things, right?
10:58These are things that are happening to younger women.
11:00Um, so yes, that's where you can reach me.
11:03Um, my, our websites are there.
11:05Um, um, um, what wise pause.com.
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