Summary
Dr. Stephanie Estima, a functional medicine practitioner and former chiropractor with a neuroscience background, joins the Mind Pump hosts to discuss women-specific health and hormone optimization. She shares how her clinical observations of different outcomes between men and women following identical protocols led her to focus on female-centric health approaches. The conversation covers how ketogenic diets affect men and women differently, particularly around perimenopause and menopause. Dr. Estima discusses the importance of understanding hormonal cycles when designing training and nutrition programs for women, and how her own struggles with menstrual health informed her clinical approach over 19 years of practice.
Key Points
- Men and women respond differently to identical diet and exercise protocols
- Ketogenic diets may not be optimal for perimenopausal and menopausal women
- Women's training and nutrition should account for hormonal cycle phases
- Functional medicine takes a whole-body approach versus isolated symptom treatment
- Chiropractors with neuroscience backgrounds can bridge movement and brain health
- Perimenopause and menopause are having a cultural moment with more open conversation
- Women should not simply copy men's fitness protocols and expect the same results
Key Moments
Men and women respond differently to identical protocols
Dr. Stephanie Estima describes how men following a ketogenic diet reported dramatic improvements in two weeks while their wives eating the same foods saw minimal results, highlighting the need for sex-specific health approaches.
"we would have men coming in after two weeks saying, doc, I feel great. I've lost 20 pounds. I've, you know, my libido's back. I'm sleeping, you know, the way that I did, you know, 20 years ago. And then the woman, the wife would sort of be dragging her feet"
From neuroscience to functional women's health
Dr. Estima describes her journey from chiropractic training with a neuroscience background to focusing on women's health after 19 years of clinical practice showed consistent sex-based differences in treatment outcomes.
"my background uh i'm trained as a chiropractor I did my undergrad in neuroscience and psychology and so I've always just had this love affair with the brain and the neuromuscular skeletal system in private practice for 19 years before retiring it and moving more into the online space."
