Today, I invite you to take a journey into one of my own personal interests – hormones. I spend a lot of time – perhaps too much time – thinking about the various hormones that control my mood, my energy level, my recovery times, and my performance. And after listening to our guest today, I hope you’ll understand why you should, too. Hormones are some of the most important signaling mechanisms our bodies have, and they can make us feel great, healthy, and full of energy, or depressed, overweight, and constantly tired.

My guest today is an expert in all things hormone related. She’s the national bestselling author behind the book “The Hormone Secret.” Through her clinic, the Vitality MediSpa and Wellness center, and her book, she’s helped thousands of people reach optimal health through her unique focus on hormones. She’s also been accepted into Premiere speakers, an honor she shares with such greats as Arnold Schwarzenneger, Bill Clinton, and more.

In this episode, we’re going to discuss what you need to look out for, foods that optimize the ideal hormonal balance, environmental factors to avoid, and much, much more.

So, without any further adieu, let me introduce you guys to Dr. Tami Meraglia.

This episode is brought to you by Onnit. Please consider shopping with this link to support the show!

In this episode with Dr. Tami Meraglia, we discuss:

• How Dr. Tami Meraglia “started her education over again” after medical school, on what topics, and why
• Some common symptoms or health issues that you might not know are caused by hormone imbalances
• What are the roles of the various hormones in our bodies, and why is it so important to have a correct balance
• Why testosterone is so important – especially for women!
• Two safe, all-natural herbal supplements that can boost your natural testosterone
• What are the physiological costs versus the benefits of drinking alcohol?
• What kind of diet does Dr. Tami Meraglia advocate for optimizing endocrine and hormonal health?
• How dangerous are the compounds in our soaps, colognes, and household products, and what should we look out for?
• How to fire your doctor (and when), and why doctors aren't necessarily 100% right
• Two important pieces of homework for you to complete this week
• How to get yourself to do new habits every day with one simple mental exercise
• Which skills are the most important to teach our kids?
• What books have Dr. Tami recommended the most?
• How physical activity can improve your family life – and your brain
• The #1 top lesson Dr. Tami Meraglia would you like you to take away from this episode

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

• Dr. Tami Meraglia's website – check out the free hormone quiz!
• The Hormone Secret by Dr. Tami Meraglia
• Vitality MediSpa
• Ashwaganda Supplements
• Organic maca powder supplements
• Resveratrol supplementation
• Our previous episode with Robb Wolf
• Our previous episode with Ben Greenfield
• EWG.org, a great free resource
• Beard oil (I love Woodsman by The Bearded Bastard)
• Kelly Starrett
• The Paleo Physicians Network by Robb Wolf
• Gretchen Rubin's book, Better Than Before (and our interview with her)
• Amy Cuddy's TED talk on power poses
• My TED Talk (Link coming soon)!
• Grain Brain by David Perlmutter
• The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz
• A New Earth and The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
• iFly indoor skydiving
• Dr. Tami Meraglia on Facebook

Favorite Quotes from GUEST:

Introduction: Welcome to the Becoming SuperHuman Podcast. Where we interview extraordinary people to bring you the skills and strategies to overcome the impossible. And now here's your host. Jonathan Levi.

Jonathan Levi: Before we get started today, I just want to let you guys know that this episode is brought to you by Onnit. From their awesome fitness equipment to their ultra high-quality health supplements, Onnit offers an entire range of products to help you become SuperHuman. Check them out at jle.vi/onnit. And use the coupon code getonnit for 10% off today.

Greeting, Super friends and welcome to this week's show. Today you guys, I invite you to take a journey into one of my own personal, weird geeky interests. And that's hormones. I spent a lot of time, perhaps too much time thinking about the various hormones that control my mood, my energy level, my recovery time, my sex drive, and overall my performance as a human being.

After listening to our guests today, I hope you'll understand why you should too. Hormones are some of the most important signaling mechanisms our bodies have and they can make us feel great and healthy and full of energy or depressed, overweight, angry, constantly tired, all sorts of really undesirable things.

My guest today, fortunately, is an expert in all things, hormone-related. She's the national best-selling author behind the book, The Hormone Secret. And through her clinic, The Vitality MediSpa and Wellness Center and her book, she's helped thousands of people reach optimal health through her unique focus on hormones.

She's also recently been accepted into premier speakers. An honor that she shares with such great says Arnold Schwartzenegger, Bill Clinton, and much, much more. So you know, that you will not disappoint. In this episode, we're going to discuss what you need to look out for foods and products that either optimize your ideal hormonal balance or completely destroy them, and environmental factors to avoid.

And so, so much more. There are a lot of really surprising takeaways that you might need to be aware of, and you might need to take a harder look at in your own life because they might be screwing up your hormones. And so without any further ado, let me introduce you guys to Dr. Tami Meraglia.

Dr. Tammy, welcome to the show. I'm so glad that we were able to reschedule. I know you've been so busy and so we really do appreciate you joining us today. 

Dr. Tami Meraglia: Thank you so much. I'm excited to be here. 

Jonathan Levi: I am too. You know, I have to admit that I am someone, I spend a disproportionate amount of time thinking about hormones and thinking about how they affect me.

And I just got my blood tests back and I had these really great results that I'm super excited about. So I'm excited to share that enthusiasm with our audience today. 

Dr. Tami Meraglia: Well, I think they will forget that how they're feeling actually is probably affected by their hormones. You know, hormones affect how we look, how we feel, and how we function.

And if they're out of whack, there's just no way you can be at your best, in any way, shape, or form. 

Jonathan Levi: Absolutely. I couldn't agree more. Let me backpedal really quickly though, just for those who aren't familiar with your work, and maybe you could give us a little bit of biography and a background on why you decided to focus on hormone balance specifically in your medical practice.

Dr. Tami Meraglia: Sure. Well, I'm very excited and blessed to be able to use the title national bestselling author of my book, The Hormone Secret. Congratulations. Yay. It was published by Simon and Schuster last April, and it's available at Amazon and bookstores and on our website, drtami.com and that's T A M I, and it was

really created because of my practice. And I used to be a regular family practitioner and MD, and I would have my patients come and they would tell me how they feel and mostly a lot of fatigue and sleep problems and losing that sense of joy and spontaneity and humor and the ability to laugh and enjoy life.

And I'd run a bunch of tests, you know, thyroid and anemia and all this. And then I would end up telling patients they were fine. And I realized, first of all, my patients kept saying, but I don't feel like myself. I'm not really sick, but I don't feel like myself. And that's what I realized that fine is a four-letter word.

And nobody wants to be fine anyway, we want to be fabulous. And so I started my education over again. You know, you think that 13 years was enough, but then I ended up going and getting a fellowship in naturopathic medicine and became board certified in functional and naturopathic medicine. And my focus was hormones and nutrition.

And I really wanted to start with nutrition. When I saw people like in my clinic, I thought, well, nutrition is your information. Nutrition is how you change things. But people felt so crappy. They didn't want to do the work or couldn't get their mind around it. So when I fixed their hormones, they would start feeling much better, really quickly.

And then we could use some extra work on your fine-tuning nutrition after that. So that's how it all began.

Jonathan Levi: I love that. It's something that I often get made fun of with friends or family or particularly, you know, the person I might be dating because I'll say, you know, I'm feeling so good. My hormones must just be all in check.

My testosterone must be higher than normal. And I have all this energy and drive and people roll their eyes, but it's so true. If you're out of balance, you can feel it. And you may not know that that's what it is. 

Dr. Tami Meraglia: Yeah. There's so many symptoms that people don't actually understand that it's your hormones.

For example, women who wake up between two and four in the morning with their mind wide awake, and don't really know why they woke up. That's usually a progesterone deficiency yet their traditional doctor will give them a prescription for sleeping pills rather than checking for their progesterone levels.

Jonathan Levi: Well, so let's go into a little bit, I mean, we talked a little bit about sleep. I certainly know that for my exercise regimen and my focus level hormones are important, but what are some other reasons that people should be concerned about hormones? I mean, what are they governing in our body? 

Dr. Tami Meraglia: It would be a lot easier and quicker to talk about what they don't govern.

Jonathan Levi: I figured you'd say that.

Dr. Tami Meraglia: It was really everything. Um, your brain function, your bones, your cardiac health, your fat to muscle ratio, your energy level. There's just so much. Your temperature. Just everything about who you are, your confidence level is all affected by hormones. 

Jonathan Levi: Awesome. Okay. So let me rephrase that by saying this.

I think a lot of our listeners and myself included, we know about the big ones the testosterone and the cortisol, and the estrogen. Up until recently, I didn't understand just how complicated the endocrine system really is. And I thought testosterone is good and higher testosterone is better and estrogen and cortisol are bad.

But I've learned that that's really a huge oversimplification and that we need to think about all these hormones in a more complex way. And we need many, many more of them than we realize to survive. So can you walk us through what it means maybe to have the right balance of hormones in our bodies, both for men and for women?

Dr. Tami Meraglia: Absolutely. There's an interesting comparison before medical school. I danced in a ballet company professionally for about 12 or 13 years. And yeah, I liked to think of your hormones as a symphony. And I've got to hear the symphony a lot when I was dancing. But if there was one part of the symphony that was out of tune, the entire symphony wouldn't sound good.

It's not like, just because the violins are sounding terrible. The rest of it sounds good. No, they all sound terrible. And that's very much like our hormones. It's not necessarily just the one that's out of whack or our has a deficiency. It's the overall imbalance that it creates that causes a huge problem for your overall energy and vitality and, and how you look, feel, and function.

But luckily we can reboot our biology and we can change our hormone levels naturally. You don't have to actually take it. One of the things that I find that is overlooked in women is their testosterone level. Lots and lots, and lots of attention has been spent on estrogen and progesterone, but very little of testosterone.

And it turns out that the women-only need a fraction of what men need in a very small amount. It has an oversized role in their vitality. And there are ways that you can actually utilize your own testosterone and boost your own testosterone because most women are pretty afraid of taking testosterone and you don't need to.

Jonathan Levi: Of course, you know, that's something that I've invested in a lot because I used to have actually low T and, uh, I tell some of the women in my life, particularly, I tend to hang out with a lot of very athletic weight-lifting type people, women, especially. And I tell them, you know, you could increase your testosterone.

They go, why the heck would I want to do that? You know, it's like, well, like you'd recover faster. You'd have more motivation. I mean, what am I missing here that women should know about testosterone? 

Dr. Tami Meraglia: It's basically the secret anti-aging hormone. Oh, wow. Yeah. When your skin starts to get saggy and droopy that'll has a lot to do with your testosterone. When your fat to muscle ratio is becoming more challenging after the age of 35 and you either a or the same weight, but have more fat or B, you're struggling to lose that 10, 15, 20, or more pounds.

That's testosterone. Wow. Your bones, osteoporosis, and osteopenia affect many women in their forties, fifties, and sixties. Amazing results when you optimize your testosterone because it directly affects your body's ability to make bone. We have testosterone receptors in our brain Testosterone is required to feel confident and it's been used as a treatment for depression for decades.

Jonathan Levi: I love it. Okay. So I know the things that I did. I mean, I went on a higher fat diet. I lifted heavier weights. You try to optimize for more regular sexual contact, things like that. But what are the ways that people, particularly women can increase their testosterone? I imagine it's the same triggers for both men and women. No?

Dr. Tami Meraglia: Yes and no. Turns out that women, they need some ingredients. Men do too, but there are some specific ingredients that if you're over the age of 30 or 35, your adrenal glands are now the primary functioning factory for the production of testosterone and your adrenal glands are kind of tired. They're tired of your 24/7 lifestyle.

They're tired of the project deadlines and the toddlers that can't get their own dinner ready. Aging parents, and 400 emails and traffic and, and, and, and. So the adrenal glands are the size of walnuts and the adrenal glands have to deal with all of the hormones that are about stress, cortisol, cortisone, you know, all of them.

And they also have to start producing all of the hormones that bless their life like testosterone, estrogen, progesterone, data, and they can't do both. They're small. There's a limited number of raw ingredients, time, and energy. And stress trumps all. So your body has to be given the ingredients the time and the opportunity to make those hormones.

And it turns out that, for example, to boost the production of testosterone in the adrenals, there's a host of things, but two, in particular, that can make a huge difference. And one of them is called Ashwagandha. Okay. And that's an Ayurvedic herb and it tonifies and heals the adrenal glands and specifically helps your body to increase the production of its own testosterone.

And the great news is, is that your body's not going to produce too much. Especially when it's already having a tough time. I'm not going to go into overdrive all of the sudden. And the other one is Maca. And Maca is another ancient herb. And I love Maca because it takes the testosterone that you already have and it's on a carrier protein and it kicks it off the protein.

So you actually are getting more activity out of the testosterone you already have. 

Jonathan Levi: Interesting. So I'm assuming this is all in addition to you need the proper amount of sleep, you need all the ingredients, the healthy diet, all that good stuff, the weight-bearing exercise. But are these supplements applied to men and women, or only to women who are kind of taxing the adrenal glands?

Dr. Tami Meraglia: So it turns out that this is the recipe for women and men, but men need, sometimes a little extra help. Yeah. All of these doses and everything, or what I go over in my book, The Hormone Secret, and it really does move the needle. That's what I do in my practice. I actually measure blood tests and urine tests and saliva tests.

And we see that this actually, isn't just an idea. It actually has been proven clinically with objective data, which I love. 

Jonathan Levi: Absolutely. 

Dr. Tami Meraglia: It's not my opinion. The nutrition is huge. One nutrition thing is, is that your testosterone levels drop after you eat sugar. They dropped 20 to 30%. So I always say, you know, if you're going to go out on a date and you're going to have dessert, there's not going to be any sweetness later on in the night because your testosterones dropped.

Exactly. We forget that what we put in our mouth, it's not neutral. It matters. Food is information. And so what you're choosing to eat and what you're choosing not to eat has a big impact on what your body is going to do. You would never put corn syrup into a Lamborghini. 

Jonathan Levi: No, you wouldn't. I love that.

You know, I've cut all refined sugar from my diet. I've, uh, we're in the middle of a three-part series on paleo. So as you can imagine, uh, if I'm devoting that many episodes, I'm a pretty hard devotee to cutting out the grains, cutting out the sugar. I also cut out alcohol and I noticed that that has boosted.

Uh, I mean, like I said, my recent blood tests have been just spectacular. So I think it is a really interesting idea that we want to increase the romance in our lives. And we do that with chocolate and alcohol. 

Dr. Tami Meraglia: The wrong direction. And you know, the alcohol actually has a really interesting physiological,

very easy to explain direct impact on your hormones. The liver is so important in hormones. People forget about it, but it activates your hormones. It converts your hormones. It gets rid of old worn out hormones. It is a superstar with regard to your hormones. And if you're not cleaning out your liver and doing a detox, at least once a year, your hormone levels can never be optimal,

no matter what. Because we're inundated with things that our liver has to deal with. And so it just gets congested. We'd never expect the filter in our car to last 40 years. It just is something that has to be cleaned out. But alcohol in particular is something that delivers makes us a top priority and it has to deal with it because it's toxic.

Now there's lots of talk about how red wine is good for you. No, it's not.

There's resveratrol in red wine, but in order for you to have the cardiac benefits of the amount of resveratrol that is in wine, you would have to be absolutely inebriated, in order to get enough resveratrol. Just take some resveratrol. Now having said that if you want to enjoy some red wine or some alcohol, you know, 

I say it's a tolerable challenge to your body. It's not good for you. Please stop fooling yourself. It's not good for you, but in small amounts, it is something that your body can tolerate. That's like sugar. It does have a negative impact. It does, but in a small amount, as long as it's not a slippery slope, your body can tolerate  it.

Jonathan Levi: Sure. I want to go back because you said something interesting about being able to quantify and, you know, we've been talking a lot about testosterone and other hormones. I wanted to ask you because there is, especially amongst young men, there's this impression that more is better. And I think that's a dangerous thing.

So while we're on this topic of quantification, what are the kinds of good values for I mean, our average listener is an 18 to 30-year-old male or female. 

Dr. Tami Meraglia: Well, this is where I just go. You know what? There's so much information online that you can actually get falsely reassured that you're doing something that is simple, and straightforward.

Yeah. I'm going to increase my testosterone. I'm going to increase it to the optimal range of 15 to 25 in a blood test, but there's so much more and that's where I have a lot of people who become patients. They hear me on podcasts and they hear other things. And we have a virtual medical clinic where we actually have appointments via Skype and phone with people all over the United States.

And then when we start digging in, they say, Oh yeah, you know, my chiropractor, my doctors, you know, I had low T symptoms, so they just gave me testosterone. I said, well, did they check your estradiol? Did they check your estrogen? Did they check your prostate-specific antigen? And did they check your CBC, RBC, hematocrit, and hemoglobin they're like, what are you talking about?

Right. When I need to order, why do I need to know all of that? I said, well, some men, they convert their testosterone to estrogen, and that increases your risk for prostate cancer. And it's inflammatory and it's going to make fat. Going to be the wrong direction. So you need to know whether or not you're the type of person that is doing that.

And you cannot know that without checking. Also a small percentage of men they get thick blood. The thick blood is you can see it in the hemoglobin and hematocrit and the red blood cell count. And your heart does not want to have thick blood. You know, all this study, all of the lawsuits and all the news, the hysteria about taking testosterone, being associated with heart attacks and cardiac risk.

That's not news. We knew this a long time ago, we knew that's in a small percentage and then they get thick blood. That's why you check. Right. And if you don't know what you're checking for, and you don't have somebody who has a comprehensive approach and the knowledge to see the 16 armed octopus, then you could be doing more harm than good, just by saying, I'm going to reach this goal.

Jonathan Levi: Well, let me ask this. How can someone know if they may have a problem that needs addressing? I mean, is it something that they addressed by their symptoms, like feeling tired, or is it something that you discover in regular blood testing? And if so, what values indicate to someone that they got to make a change?

Dr. Tami Meraglia: You know, we do both. I use the lab values as a guide for safety, but I treat my patients. I don't treat the piece of paper. I have a hormone quiz. It's free. It's on my website and it has a free hormone handbook about the nutrition and supplement. Things that fit, whatever hormone deficiencies you might have.

And you might be surprised that these symptoms are associated with that hormone. So it starts with symptoms. And then we confirm with labs, but again, the labs are well, is that adrenal fatigue, and we really should fix the root cause of this, rather than just giving testosterone or just giving something or

how are we supposed to approach it? Then I have other men and women who are in a deficiency state, they're feeling terrible that we've increased their hormone levels, whether it be with nutrition and supplements and lifestyle, or by giving bio-identical hormones or both. And they're not in the optimal laboratory range, but they feel fantastic.

They feel so much better than before. So. I don't say, well, we got to go higher. We got to reach that lab value of X.

Jonathan Levi: Right. So I guess a good guide is if you're feeling tired if you're feeling lack of sex drive, if you're feeling depressed, all of these might be reasons to take that hormone quiz or take those blood tests and take the next step to figure something out.

Dr. Tami Meraglia: Yeah. And if you're feeling like your life has changed, your energy has changed, your body has changed, then there's usually a reason. So you have to start knocking on doors. 

Jonathan Levi: Absolutely. All right at this point, I just want to take a quick second and hit pause to let you guys know that this episode is brought to you by Onnit.

I first discovered Onnit through Tim Ferris, who also swears by their stuff, and I've had the chance to try a bunch of their products from their chewable melatonin, to their alpha brain balanced neurotropic, and even new mood, which helps reduce stress and improve your mood. But Onnit has much, much more to offer from ultra-high-quality protein to fitness equipment and more. Please take a moment and show support for the show by visiting jle.vi/onnit and using the coupon code, getonnit to save 10%.

All right. Back to the show. Dr. Tami, you mentioned nutrition and as I mentioned, you know, I'm a big advocate of paleo, but I'm curious and don't pull any punches, but I'm curious, what kind of diet you advocate for hormonal health?

Dr. Tami Meraglia: So I'm more of a paleo plus, and I'm not sure if that's a word, whether I'm making it up. And that's my next book. 

Jonathan Levi: Paleo is really hot right now. You can sell paleo anything. 

Dr. Tami Meraglia: So paleo plus is what I tell the vast majority of my patients to do. The studies are pretty clear that plant-based protein like beans, legumes, and lentils are amazing. 

And they're, anti-inflammatory, they're going to decrease your risk of dying from all causes and their fibers are amazing for cholesterol levels and they are just overall great for your body. So that's where the paleo plus comes in. I'm not a fan of grains for grains sake. I think that what we think of as wheat and pasta and bread and cereal and granola that's for your mouth.

Yeah. You do not need that to survive. We wouldn't become extinct as a species. If we had not developed agriculture. And I think that there's something to be said for those protein, rich grains for our health. 

Jonathan Levi: Sure. Okay. Well, I'm glad to hear that because that's essentially what I'm doing. And we had Robb Wolf on the show and he also said, you know, if you eat the chickpeas, once in a while, it's really not the end of the world.

In fact, it might be the right thing to do. So speaking of previous episodes, we had Ben Greenfield on the show and something that he mentioned. And one of the reasons I sought out to interview you is because he said he avoids gyms because of get this. Perfume. It caused me to sort of dig and what he was saying is that a lot of

essentially soaps for fumes, even household cleaners, they have all this nasty stuff in them that can actually screw up your hormonal levels, supposedly. So I'm curious how much of this is actually a risk. How worried should we be about the household products, cleaners, soaps, things that we're using, and are they actually screwing up our hormones?

Dr. Tami Meraglia: Yes and yes. 

Jonathan Levi: Oh, wow.

Dr. Tami Meraglia: And so my second board certification is in cosmetic medicine and I actually am in the final stages of developing an organic skincare line for people who have skin over 40. You know, I call us people North of 40 because there's a lot of really great organic skincare, but it's great for moisturizing and maintaining.

But if you want your wrinkles to diminish and your brown spots to go away and your pore size to shrink, there really isn't much out there. Other than the chemical field stuff. So stay tuned. Maybe I'll have to come back when my organic skincare launches. 

Jonathan Levi: I love that. In the meantime, what are some of the ingredients?

I mean, I know I discovered this great website, ewg.org, the Environmental Working Group.

Dr. Tami Meraglia: Yeah. It's amazing source of fantastic information that is free from bias. Awesome. And, um, I talk about this too, in my book, because it does affect your hormones and parabens like P A R A B as in boy, E N. It's a methylparaben, ethylparaben, butylparaben is a preservative and it is in your shampoo and it is in your conditioner and it is in your skincare and it is in so many things and your body absorbs it.

And it acts like bad estrogen in your body. Oh boy. Yeah. If it's the receptor and what's the purpose of this Paraben? Well, it increases the shelf life so that the corporations can have higher profitability. 

Jonathan Levi: That's it? Wow. So it has nothing to do with estrogens being in the perfume because it makes the woman more attractive or pheromones, right?

Oh, wow. Okay. Let me ask this. Actually I was at a friend's house and a friend of his comes over with an armful of these bottles of colognes and hands them over to us and says, I'm not wearing cologne anymore. I've switched to all-natural beard oils. And of course, I asked him about it and he said, well, you know, I feel better and I have more energy.

And I think there's something in the cologne that's screwing up my mojo. I switched also to all-natural beard oils. Do you think, I mean, is cologne as bad as these soaps? 

Dr. Tami Meraglia: Well, yeah, I mean, there's lots of chemicals in them and the colognes actually don't have to label them all because quote-unquote, there's small amounts.

Oh, wow. Yeah. So you don't really know what's all there and your body absorbs it. And we know that because we have had done urine tests, urine tests, and teenagers, urine tests in babies. They have these chemicals in their urine. 

Jonathan Levi: Wow. I thought I was getting more attention from the ladies because, uh, the beard oil smells so good, but it might actually be that my endocrine system isn't screwed up anymore.

Yeah, it could be. It's pretty good beard oil. I'm a big advocate of it. I've recommended it to a ton of friends. There's nothing unsafe about, uh, some sandalwood rubbed on your face. So no. So what else have you a good amount about The Hormone Secret. What elements of the book have we failed to maybe cover. 

Dr. Tami Meraglia: You know, one of the things that I have in my book that people are always surprised because I'm a doctor is how to fire your doctor.

Jonathan Levi: Oh, I love that. 

Dr. Tami Meraglia: I think that my job is mostly to inspire people, to learn how to be the CEO of their own life and their own health. And, you know, the CEO of a company does not actually do the bookkeeping, and they're not the person who is doing the transactions, but they're the person who makes the final decision. On what's going on.

So you might not know, you know, the transaction of how that hormone is going to be optimized, but you have the final say. And if you have a doctor that doesn't listen to you or dismisses natural means to approach a problem, fire them. They work for you actually you're their boss and a partnership is what you're looking for.

Jonathan Levi: Oh, I love that. I subscribed to a lot of experts from Kelly Starrett to Robb Wolf  and Kelly Starrett talks about doctors who will tell you that squatting is destroying your knees and Robb Wolf talks about all the doctors that he hears from that recommend a diet with full of healthy grains. It's like, Oh my, you know, just because someone went to med school does not mean that they're up to date and does not mean that they're unbiased. Unfortunately. 

Dr. Tami Meraglia: Well, and there's just a lot, I've walked both paths and I don't criticize the medical community until they make negative dismissive remarks about something they don't know about. And unfortunately, that's pretty common, but I don't criticize them for not knowing. I mean, we had to lie and say that we worked 80 hours a week in medical school in residency because that was the law.

Just think about that for a second 80 hours a week. And it was full of learning about everything that can kill or harm you. And we barely squeezed it in. So there isn't a lot of time and there just isn't and I'm glad that somebody can tell that some weird sensation in the lower right-hand part of your abdomen and not wanting to eat as early appendicitis.

I'm glad that they know that that's not something else. Right. But I wish they wouldn't Papou and dismiss and criticize things that they don't know about that are natural because I think that there's so much power. And harnessing the body's ability to use nutrition and specific targeted supplements and herbs and minerals to boost the function of our bodies.

Jonathan Levi: Absolutely. I know Robb has been a big advocate. He's actually created a list of doctors that he and his listeners have interacted with, who get it and are up to date with kind of the more paleolithic approach to nutrition and fitness and all of that good stuff. So. I know, but it's so confusing, isn't it?

Dr. Tami Meraglia: Because then they'll have people who in my practice, patients who will come to me and they've been kind of on their own because they just don't have a doctor that can be a partner in all of this with them. That's why we created the virtual medical clinic and they're listening to all of this great information online and there's so much.

But it is complicated and not every single thing is for every person, this one particular patient, they were increasing their fat, you know, that's a really big thing right now that we're not eating enough good fat. And so they were increased. Well, we did this digestion analysis and we discovered that

she actually has lacking the enzyme to break down fat. 

Jonathan Levi: Oh, wow. Yeah. 

Dr. Tami Meraglia: Who would have funk it? Wow. So you need somebody, who's going to take that great information and filter it and say, huh, is this right for me. And yes, that's a great idea for a lot of people. A lot of people aren't eating enough good fat, but for her, it actually was causing her liver enzymes to elevate.

She had a fatty liver, she had fatty stools, and she was feeling sluggish. It was just awful. 

Jonathan Levi: Wow. I was going to say, when you said digestive analysis, I immediately thought, well, how does that work? And then I realized that probably not dinner table conversation. The liver test works. 

Dr. Tami Meraglia: Right. 

Jonathan Levi: I was like, maybe we won't go into that too much.

How that whole process works. Dr. Tami, let me ask you this. We love to give actionable homework on the show every week we like to give our listeners, something that they can work on until next week's episode. So I'm wondering if you were to give our audience one piece of homework that they have to do this week, whether that's a thought exercise or a conversation they should have with their doctor or even something that they should read or check out, what would that piece of homework be?

Dr. Tami Meraglia: Okay. Can I give one more than one? 

Jonathan Levi: Of course. Absolutely. I love it.

Dr. Tami Meraglia: Take the hormone quiz. Find out where you're off and what nutrition and, and you might get more than one email. I've had people, who've got five emails and that's what they have all five hormone deficiencies. It is customized. Number two is there are studies that show that if you stand like Superman or Wonder Woman, these two minutes, your testosterone levels go up by almost 30% just by doing that.

So I want you to stand. You don't have to have a red cape, though, if you do, you can. And then the last thing is to take whatever you're trying to work on, whether it be a change in nutrition or starting to meditate or exercise and put it in your calendar as an appointment. But. I want you to go one step further.

Lots of people do that. And it's still unsuccessful. I know that my calendar pops up with meditate, like, yeah, yeah. We're designed to avoid changing inertia. We're designed to stay doing what we're doing, even without us doing nothing we're designed to not change inertia it is, it takes, it takes a huge amount of energy to change directions.

So you're not going to do it. You're asking yourself to stop doing what you're enjoying and go do something that by definition you don't enjoy. That's why I had to make an appointment to do it because you're not getting to it. Right. So I want you to dig deeper. And I want you to make that appointment and link it to your core values.

Here's an example. My appointment reminder to meditate now does not say meditate. My appointment reminder now pops up meditate so that I am full of strength, energy, and vitality when I get to meet my grandchildren. Oh, 

Jonathan Levi: I love it. I love that.

It's funny literally, to prepare for this interview and get some inspiration. I was reading Gretchen Rubin's book Better Than Before, and it's all about habits and everything. And you know, that's exactly the idea. 

Dr. Tami Meraglia: I have to go to a deeper place. You have to get to your why, and you have to get to your, if this, then that, and you have to link it.

And only then will you actually jump that hurdle of inertia. 

Jonathan Levi: Absolutely. And I also want to thank you for mentioning the Amy Cuddy Ted Talk, because I'm now in the process of prepping for a Ted Talk, and, uh, they keep telling us, you know, if backstage we see you doing a Superman post that's okay, nobody's going to laugh at you.

Everybody makes sure everybody makes sure you do use Superman pose before you go on stage. So, you know, I've been practicing that. 

Dr. Tami Meraglia: Oh, that's so exciting what's your Ted Talk on?

Jonathan Levi: It is on accelerated learning and memory strategies and why we should be teaching children in schools. Basic learning skills, the way that we teach math, science, and history.

So something that follows them through their education as they develop intellectually. Amen. 

Dr. Tami Meraglia: And add organization skills to that, you know, I have a successful practice, a book. I have a family and two businesses. It's not because I'm the smartest it's because I learned how to get organized. That's what we need to teach our kids as well.

Jonathan Levi: I couldn't agree more. That was one of the biggest things for me in dealing with my kind of learning disabilities is get organized and structure things properly. 

Dr. Tami Meraglia: Yeah, well, that's exciting. Let me know when that's going to be airing and I'll share that with my tribe. 

Jonathan Levi: I would appreciate that Dr. Meraglia. I have just three rapid-fire questions for you before we wrap up that we'd like to ask all of our guests, if you have a minute.

Awesome. So the first thing is what's one book that you've recommended above all others, not including your own, unfortunately. 

Dr. Tami Meraglia: Of course, cause we already mentioned that one at a time. Gosh, just one. I kind of customize things for my patients. So Brain Grain. Oh yeah. That I think is a big aha for people.

Jonathan Levi: Yeah. That's a good one. That's a really, really good one. 

Dr. Tami Meraglia: And then on the spiritual side, The Four Agreements. 

Jonathan Levi: Awesome. Yeah. I recently read that. Although I found that after reading a lot of Eckhart Tolle's stuff. It's like, if I had read The Four Agreements first, it would have been revolutionary, but after reading Eckhart Tolle's stuff, it was like, yeah.

Okay. I guess, you know, all right. What's the most impactful hundred dollars you've spent recently. 

Dr. Tami Meraglia: You're maybe not going to think this is, but it is for me, our family, my eight-year-old and 10 year old, and my husband and I went and did indoor skydiving. 

Jonathan Levi: Oh, that's so cool. A friend of mine used to own one of these tunnels and it's such a cool experience. 

Dr. Tami Meraglia: When you do a physical activity and be something that is new together, the chemical bonding that occurs is significant. So it's actually what I tell my patients who are having troubles in marriage, that they're required to go do something physical that neither one of them has done before. That's brand new to them once a month. 

Jonathan Levi: Yeah, absolutely. It promotes neurogenesis, right?

Dr. Tami Meraglia: Yeah. And it just is those memories. So it was a blast. We just still talk about it. It was great. Money spent on the experience together. 

Jonathan Levi: That's very cool. Where did you do that by the way? 

Dr. Tami Meraglia: Here in Seattle. This is where we live. They have one here. It's called iFLY. 

Jonathan Levi: So my friend used to be one of their franchisees. He used to get lots of 10 all the time. Oh, fun. Yeah, absolutely. All right. The last rapid-fire question is this if people in the audience take away only one learning or lesson from today's episode, what would you like that to be? 

Dr. Tami Meraglia: You have choices and whether you think you're choosing or not choosing, you are. What goes in your mouth matters.

What you do with your time matters, what time you get to bed and go to sleep matters. Whether you move your body, it matters. There is no neutral. And I just want to help people realize that they can, it doesn't have to be this monumental huge thing. Just start by standing up when you're on the phone. 

Jonathan Levi: I love it.

I've been standing up this entire time, so I'm really glad what an inspiring message about choices. Dr. Tami, it's been such a pleasure chatting with you. We're going to link up to the quiz into your website and your book and everything in the show notes. But if people want to reach out to you want to learn more about what you're doing where should we send them? 

Dr. Tami Meraglia: You can send them, they can go to drtami.com, and then they can follow me on Facebook. My Facebook is not about promotions or sales. It's just recipes and quotes and studies that I help bless people's lives. And that's Ask Dr. Tami. And that's TAMI tango, alpha, mary, India.

Jonathan Levi: Awesome. And we will, as I said, we'll put all that stuff in the show notes so people can check it out and get all linked up. Again Dr. Tami, thank you so much. It's been such a pleasure and you've certainly answered so many of my long-standing questions. So I do appreciate it. 

Dr. Tami Meraglia: Well, I'm so blessed to have spent this time and I can't wait to see all the insanely crazy, amazing things that you're working on this year, coming up to impact the world and make each person be healthier and stronger.

So anything I can do to support just holler. 

Jonathan Levi: I thank you. And likewise. All right, Dr. Tami, I will let you go for the day, but let's do keep in touch. It's been such a pleasure again and have a wonderful one. 

Dr. Tami Meraglia: You too. Thanks so much. Bye-bye. 

Jonathan Levi: All right. Superfriends. That's it. For this week's episode, we hope you really, really enjoyed it and learn a ton of applicable stuff that can help you go out there and overcome the impossible.

If so, please do us a favor and leave us a review on iTunes or Stitcher, or however you found this podcast. In addition to that, we are. Always looking for great guests posts on the blog or awesome guests right here on the podcast. So if you know somebody or you are somebody, or you have thought of somebody who would be a great fit for the show or for our blog, please reach out to us either on Twitter or by email or email is info@becomingasuperhuman.com. Thanks so much. 

Closing: Thanks for tuning in to the Becoming Superhuman Podcast. For more great skills and strategies, or for links to any of the resources mentioned in this episode, visit www.becomingasuperhuman.com/podcast. We'll see you next time.