In this episode of The Thermo Diet Podcast Jayton Miller sits down with Jessica Ash and talks about all things women's health and how to optimize it, check it out and let us know what you think!
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Full Transcript
Jayton Miller:
How's it going guys? Welcome back to the Thermo Diet Podcast. I'm your host, Jayton Miller. And I'm here with Jessica Ash. How are you doing, Jessica?
Jessica Ash:
Hi, Jayton. Thank you so much for having me.
Jayton Miller:
So, if you could, could you please tell the audience your background story and how you got here?
Jessica Ash:
Yeah, absolutely. My health journey really started when I was young. I was a teenager when I started experiencing problems. I would say that's pretty similar for most women. Once you go through puberty, your hormone problems really start to show their ugly face. And so, like a lot of women, I was struggling with different things like acne and period issues. And so, doctors always just go for the birth control pill and that's their biggest fix is, "Hey, let's just go on the pill and we'll "regulate your hormones." And so I was on the pill in my late teen years and eventually I decided to go off. I was starting to dive into health, I became a personal trainer. And I really thought like, "Why am I taking these? I don't really know why I am."
Jessica Ash:
So, I go off the pill and about six months later my health just goes downhill very, very quickly. I was gaining weight rapidly. I was experiencing hair loss. I was seeing all types of issues pop up, autoimmune issues and thyroid issues. So dry skin, cold and hot, cold and hot, cold and hot. And nobody could tell me what was wrong. I got so much testing done and nothing was working. I finally was able to figure it out on my own. I did tons and tons of research and realized I have a thyroid issue. I have autoimmune issues going on, lots of inflammation, and I started changing my diet. And that really is where it all began. I dove into gluten-free and then paleo. And like most people I went low carb and keto, and eventually that was not working for me anymore. It helped with a lot of my issues, but it only got me so far.
Jessica Ash:
And then I was at the end of my rope a couple of years ago and discovered the Ray Peat community and everything really started making sense. I was already a nutritionist at the time. I already had a lot of hormone knowledge. I was specializing in women with PCOS and hypothyroidism as well. So it wasn't new information to me, it really just connected the dots for me. And as I began to implement more carbohydrates with myself and with my clients, really focusing on animal proteins and animal foods, taking out all the nuts and seeds and vegan protein powders and things like that, my health improved and so did the health of all of my clients. And that's really what got me here today. And then I've just taken that further the past couple of years.
Jayton Miller:
That's awesome. So, what are some of the biggest tips that you would give to women that are just now starting this journey?
Jessica Ash:
I think don't get overwhelmed. I think it can be really overwhelming and it can be like, "Oh, I need to take all these supplements and I need to do all these things." And I think really remembering what are the foundations of health and focusing on those things first. Because if we're not really nailing the nutrition, we're not going to nail anything else, no amount of supplementation, you can't out supplement a bad diet. And so I see a lot of women, I'm seeing a variety of women. I'm seeing people from the Ray Peat community, but I'm also seeing people who have never heard of Ray Peat and have no idea and are like, "Carbohydrates, what?" But what I see the biggest mistake that people in the Ray Peat community are making, are doing a lot of liquid calories, a lot of snacky meals, a lot of like they're not eating nutritional, I guess, nutritionally sound.
Jessica Ash:
Are kind of eating these spotty foods because they're worried about, "What can I eat and what can't I eat?" So I really help people nail down. Remember, you got to be eating every three hours and you've got to be focusing on carbs and protein with every single meal. Because if you're in a really hormonally, imbalanced state, you can't handle a ton of carbs alone and you can't handle a bunch of protein alone. You've got to be really focusing on balance. And then of course getting a little bit of saturated fat in there as well. But don't overdo it on the fats with the carbs or that's going to really result in rapid weight gain if you have thyroid issues, you have adrenal issues, which most people who are pursuing health do have. So we really nailed down the nutrition. And I always just say like, "The first thing that we can do is within 30 minutes of waking eat your breakfast that has protein and carbohydrate. And after that eat every three to five hours until you go to bed." That's the first thing that I recommend.
Jayton Miller:
So the meal frequency is something that I noticed tends to be a lot more important for women. Do you know kind of why that is and why it's more important for women to eat more frequently?
Jessica Ash:
Yeah, so there'll be many people. I really like the work of Ray Peat. I also like the work of Dr. Katharina Dalton and she talks about how women are very sensitive to adrenaline, and Ray Peat mentions this a lot that we're just, we tend to be a little bit more hormonally sensitive. So we're less resilient to stress. Our liver is more burdened by this cascade of hormones because we are going through the monthly menstrual cycle. And so at different points in our cycle we're making more hormones, more estrogen. Usually around the middle of the cycle, around ovulation and then mid-luteal phase.
Jessica Ash:
And towards the second half of our cycle, not only does our metabolism speed up because of progesterone being produced, but we also have that extra burden of estrogen. And so adrenaline can actually prevent the cells from picking up progesterone properly. And so if our body's having to constantly make sugar with stress hormones, adrenaline or cortisol, what we'll find is we are actually getting those anti-inflammatory pro-thyroid, pro-sleep, anti-stress effects of progesterone because the adrenaline is preventing ourselves from being able to respond to progesterone properly.
Jessica Ash:
And so I do find women are just a little less resilient to stress. Our biological purpose is reproduction, which means that in a stressful time it makes sense for our body to kind of shut down reproduction. We don't want to be making another baby when food is scarce or we're running from an angry bear. And so the body is going to be very sensitive to stressors because the body always wants to make sure survival is priority.
Jayton Miller:
Definitely. So whenever it comes to this high adrenaline state and this high estrogen state, what are some of the things that you do to prepare for that increase in estrogen during that time of the month?
Jessica Ash:
Yeah, so the liver is going to be the primary organ that's responsible for breaking down estrogen. But once estrogen is metabolized and kind of broken down in the liver, it's put into the bile and then the gallbladder's going to secrete that bile into the small intestine. And then of course the bile is going to go through the digestive tract and all the junk should be carried out with a bowel movement. What can happen is if we have really poor digestive function, Ray Peat talks a lot about how endotoxin is going to burden the liver. And if we have bacteria overgrowth in the small intestine, that's going to affect how we detoxify estrogen. There are certain bacteria that can create enzymes that actually reactivate estrogen and allow your body to reabsorb and recirculate it, and it will eventually end up in the organs and the tissues.
Jessica Ash:
And so we have to make sure that we're focusing on two aspects of our health, which is liver and gut health. And if we can optimize our liver and our gut health while keeping stress low and thyroid function up, our body's going to take care of estrogen detoxification. So liver support is imperative, B vitamins, getting enough protein. I usually recommend anywhere from 70 to a 100 grams for women, depending on their activity, maybe even a little more. And then getting enough carbohydrates. Many women are intolerant to carbohydrates because they've been on low-carb diets for so long, maybe intentionally or maybe unintentionally. And so the goal is to definitely get yourself up to being able to tolerate 200, 250 grams, even more of carbohydrates so your liver can function optimally. And then meal frequency is important at first. If your liver is really struggling, it's not going to be able to really store up sugar at all, it's being used.
Jessica Ash:
And so we kind of have to be really frequent with our meals at first. But those are the biggest things when it comes to detoxifying estrogen. And then other more smaller things, like nutrient dense foods, like grass fed beef liver, oysters for zinc, and then the raw carrot salad obviously to bind to estrogen and to keep the small intestine clear of bacteria. And then always making sure transit time is good. So we don't want our food moving through our digestive track very, very slowly, or that's just going to lead to more absorption of hormones, more endotoxin production, which is going to burden the liver. So we want to keep our transit time up, which really comes from keeping our stress levels low and our thyroid function high.
Jayton Miller:
Now, do you notice a difference between younger women and women who have already gone through menopause?
Jessica Ash:
Yes, yes. So we're going to have a completely different hormonal profile at that point because oftentimes women that have gone through menopause, unless they've really been taking care of their health and eating, supporting their metabolism, often women who are going through menopause or have gone through menopause have a lot of estrogen stored up in their tissues. Remember, many of the tissues can make or produce estrogen, whereas only our ovaries can create progesterone. I mean, our adrenal glands can make minute amounts, but not enough to really matter.
Jessica Ash:
And so after menopause often we have a lot of estrogen stored up in our tissues. Our thyroid function is low, because progesterone production has gone down. And so women who have gone through menopause really do need to think about really supporting their metabolism, getting their thyroid function up and possibly supplementing with some bioidentical progesterone to get themselves to where like a cycling woman would be, or the metabolism just kind of stays slow.
Jessica Ash:
And then for women who have gone through menopause, there's the other aspect of iron toxicity. Over time iron will accumulate and that will definitely affect our hormones at an older age. So if iron has accumulated our whole lives, we really have to work on helping the body utilize that iron and get that iron out so that our thyroid isn't as affected and our ovaries aren't as affected. And our other, obviously it affects every single organ.
Jayton Miller:
So what do you recommend for women who no longer have their ovaries? Either they had a hysterectomy or their doctor saw that they had PCOS, so they just removed the ovaries entirely. What do you recommend in that case typically?
Jessica Ash:
So when it comes to a hysterectomy, some women just get their uterus removed and then some women get everything removed. And so if you've gotten your ovaries removed, you no longer have the ability to create progesterone. And so a lot of women with hysterectomies really do find that they need to supplement bioidentical progesterone. After a hysterectomy oftentimes there are some things that never go back to normal because there is, the brain is constantly communicating with the uterus and constantly communicating with the ovaries. So once they're not there, that's slightly stressful for the whole body. The communication is cut off and it can definitely cause some systemic stress. But I think the best route there is just to make sure you're really focusing on your thyroid function. You're keeping an eye on those temps and pulses and the thyroid. And then you're also maybe supplementing with bioidentical progesterone if you need it.
Jayton Miller:
Awesome. So one thing that I typically notice is that throughout the night women tend to wake up a lot more often because they're not storing as much glycogen and they have that rise in cortisol and adrenaline throughout the night. What are some of the things that you do to prepare sleep and help kind of mitigate that experience?
Jessica Ash:
So lowering stress overall is very important. I do a lot of mineral balancing. I use Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis to help women balance their minerals, because I find that that is a huge contributing factor. Many women start a metabolic style of eating and they're in such a depleted state. They're depleted of things like potassium and sodium and magnesium and no amount of food will get them those nutrients back. They have to in some way, shape or form really focus on getting those nutrients in their diet in abundant amounts. And so balancing minerals is a huge step to getting the stress response lower and allowing the liver to store sugar longer term. But usually if you're in a very depleted state, your liver's just going to have a hard time keeping sugar stored as glycogen.
Jessica Ash:
A very healthy liver can usually store, stay fasting for about eight to 10 hours before switching into that cortisol and adrenaline state. Whereas an unhealthy liver, I find that like the usual wake up time is usually around like midnight to 2:00 AM if somebody has eaten around 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM. So the first step would be to try to eat a bedtime snack right before you go to bed that contains some carbs and some protein. This could be something as simple as some tea with raw honey and collagen, or maybe some ice cream with some college added, or some Jell-O made with some juice and gelatin. Just something small to kind of give the body some carbs and some protein. And every person's different. Some people need a really large bedtime snack and some people just need something very small.
Jessica Ash:
And if that doesn't get you through the night, then you might need to actually allow your body to wake up, because what's happening is the cortisol is waking you up. The hunger is waking you up. And so all you have to do is have a little juice and collagen by your bedside and just drink that. And you're usually going to fall right back to sleep. And then eventually, if you are really working hard on getting your meal frequency in for six to eight weeks, eventually you'll find that the wake-ups become less and less and less and less. And eventually you can sleep through the night. But progesterone is another thing that will contribute to helping you sleep throughout the night, because it really prevents hypoglycemia.
Jayton Miller:
Okay, interesting. So what are some of the best ways to kind of spice up the way that you eat? Because sometimes people complain about the monotony of it, or just not being able to be creative with their food. So what do you do to kind of mix it up and not make it boring?
Jessica Ash:
Yeah, I think it's important to kind of see the sky is the limit with what you can eat. Every food can be made higher quality and be made into something that is "allowed." So if you like tacos, just make tacos that are higher quality, use some heirloom corn and make some tortillas or make some taco shells. Use grass-fed beef for the meat. Use some high quality dairy, sour cream or Greek yogurt. You can easily recreate your favorite foods. We need to kind of stop staying in this mindset of like, "I can only eat orange juice, eggs, sourdough, sugar, and maybe some white rice or whatever it is."
Jessica Ash:
A lot of people are really sticking to rules rather than understanding that this is going to be a lifestyle. This is a long-term game. If you're really going for perfection, you're first of all going to be miserable. And second of all, you're actually probably not going to get healthy. Even if people are eating the perfect diet, they're on point, they eat the same thing every day, if they're miserable and they're not enjoying their food, they can't heal. So I go for this idea of not being completely perfect and not being like, "Oh zero starch and all fruit and all this and all that." Why don't we just eat high quality and do our very best to balance carbs and protein? And usually you can heal. So I would say, don't be perfect, and make sure you're recreating your favorite foods with higher quality versions of those foods, rather than just omitting them altogether.
Jayton Miller:
Definitely. What are some of your go-to foods?
Jessica Ash:
Oh, my go-to foods. I mean, I really do love eggs, but I cook them in different ways. So I'm never like, "Oh, I have scrambled eggs every day." Sometimes I'll have them scrambled. Sometimes I'll have them soft-boiled. Sometimes I'll put them into an egg salad with coconut oil mayonnaise. Sometimes I'll make deviled eggs with wasabi. I'm always changing it up how I eat eggs, just because eggs are super high quality. They're nutrient dense. We know they're good for us. They're great for the liver, but that doesn't mean I have to eat them the same monotonous way every single day. And I can eat them for breakfast. I can eat them for lunch. So I love eggs.
Jessica Ash:
I'm super into iron corn flour. So I do a lot of iron corn, heirloom wheat, sourdough or crackers. So, that's a really easy to digest "gluten." I used to not be able to tolerate gluten at all. But using iron corn flour it definitely makes it easily digested. I love potatoes. I think well cooked potatoes are wonderful for both the digestive system, and also just for making you feel satiated. Many women find that if they're doing too much sugar and too much fruit and not enough starches, they don't feel right. And so I find that women tend to have a higher need for starches.
Jessica Ash:
Now I know a lot of people have gut issues and so starches can be a problem, but you want to be coinciding your gut work, working on your gut health and making sure your body is satiated with enough glucose. And so starches are important. So I love potatoes for that. And then, good grass fed beef and grass fed beef liver, like in the form of a pate. I really like that. I didn't used to, but I've learned to really enjoy it. And I've been really loving these iron corn crackers with liver pate and some strawberry jam.
Jayton Miller:
That's awesome. Yeah, it's really interesting whenever your body makes the correlation between the nutrient that it's getting and then the taste comes after in some cases, whenever it kind of recognizes that signal.
Jessica Ash:
Yeah, yeah. It takes a while. I find that a lot of people end up craving foods like oysters and pate after they have eaten it a couple of times.
Jayton Miller:
Definitely. So going back to gut health, besides the raw carrot salad, what are some of the other tips that you would get to if somebody doesn't have a regular bowel movement at the moment?
Jessica Ash:
I mean, I do think cascara can be a really great addition to kind of keep transit time up, [inaudible 00:19:06] and cascara does help keep movement in the muscle contractions are happening. Myofascial release is another one that people don't think of, actually physical bodywork. A lot of people who have had gut issues for a long time have almost what we would call knots in their gut. And so all the fascia is actually bunched up around their intestines and it's impairing the muscle contractions. Because honestly the colon is a muscle at the end of the day. And so we're wanting to promote anything that's going to help that muscle contract. And so actually doing bodywork. I really like lacrosse balls to actually get the fascia unbound. That's actually usually one of the most helpful things for my clients.
Jessica Ash:
Magnesium is very important. Often people are very deficient in magnesium. And so getting magnesium levels up with things like magnesium chloride, magnesium bicarbonate, and even often, well sometimes supplement glycinate or malaise if they're very low can help with bowel movements. Something that's very overlooked is potassium levels. Potassium is needed for nerve function, including the nerve conduction that stimulates the colon to actually contract. And so if we're very low in potassium, which I would say 99% of my clients are, we're actually going to have a hard time getting that urge to go. And so potassium is very, very important.
Jessica Ash:
And then just finding your starch tolerance. I think some people take it to extremes. Some people are eating starch four times a day. And then some people are like no starch, and not all starches are created equal. Some people do well with some sourdough type starch. And some people do better with potato type starch, but always combine your starches with fructose. So if you are consuming for example a potato, always have a couple sips of orange juice or a couple of bites of fruit with it. Because it's going to actually help with the digestion as well as the utilization of that sugar.
Jayton Miller:
Awesome. So say someone is starting to implement this and they just cannot get out of that sympathetically dominant state. They're constantly wired and they just can't seem to relax. What are some of the tips that you would give them throughout the day that aren't necessary dietarily related that can help kind of pull them out of that state?
Jessica Ash:
Yeah, I think a lot of times when we can't get out of that sympathetic state, we're stuck in our heads. So either we're stuck in a fear-based mindset, like we're thinking about our job and our finances and whatever's maybe stressful in our life, our relationship. And so we're just constantly in this fear-based mindset. And so doing things that are going to help us get into the other side of the brain, artistic, creative, whether that's adult coloring books or some type of crafts or going outside and just taking a leisurely walk in the sunlight and picking some flowers. I sometimes recommend clients do something where we call a rainbow scavenger hunt where you're looking for something green, something red, something yellow, something blue. And what that does is that kind of just gets you out of your freak out mode, you're running from an angry bear constantly.
Jessica Ash:
And remembering to play. I think we sometimes forget that as adults, even though we're not children anymore, we still need to play. We still need to do things that are fun. We still need to be doing things just because we want to do them, not because we have to, or that's our responsibility, or somebody's counting on us, but just because we want to. So something outside usually helps. Taking some deep breaths usually helps. A lot of times our diaphragm's really tight, we're taking really shallow breaths. We're hyperventilating. So getting in tune with our breath, taking about 10 deep breaths and then doing something that's going to be creative.
Jayton Miller:
Awesome. So in general, whenever it does come to exercise, what are some of the recommendations that you would make for women who are in a stress state and then who are not in a stress state and kind of some of the differences that are there?
Jessica Ash:
So if you're in a stress state, most likely, I mean, I would say track your temps and pulses, and this is going to be different for every single person. But most likely exercise is not going to work for you at all. If you're constantly in a stressed out state, you're going to find that it's just dropping your blood sugar too low. It's suppressing your metabolism. And it's really just depleting you more. You're peeing more throughout the day. You're losing minerals, that kind of thing. So I would say if you're really stressed out and you're in this depleted state, exercise is probably not a good idea. Maybe some leisurely walks, but I do recommend bodywork. So start working on the fascia, start doing foam rolling and trigger point therapy. Start actually doing body work, because that's going to really help the healing process get faster.
Jessica Ash:
And you're going to move a lot of toxins. You're going to move a lot of lymph fluid. You're going to really actually find that you're healing quicker. And then once you're out of that stress state, you can definitely start to experiment with more exercise. Strength training is great. You know, cardio's not great for most people that tend to stick in that stressed out state, cardio is never going to be a good idea. But strength training is really an awesome way to increase your metabolism. The more muscle we have, the more free fatty acids that will be used by the muscle and we'll actually have higher metabolic function. So everyone's going to be different. Everyone needs to start really small, but eventually we can get to a point where we can work out a couple of times a week pretty heavy.
Jayton Miller:
Definitely. So what are some of the sources that you go to for myofascial release? And one of the discouraging aspects that I hear a lot of people talk about is the pain associated with that. And how do you kind of lean into some of that pain and differentiate the difference between the good pain and the bad pain?
Jessica Ash:
No, that's a really great question. I think, for myofascial release there's so many resources online showing you how to do proper myofascial release. You really want to understand your muscle groups at least basically. So, understand what your quads are, understand what your hamstrings are. It's very easy to just google muscle anatomy of the human body and just give it a look for five to 10 minutes. Really see how all your muscles and tendons are tied together. And then type in fascia and just look at the fascia and how it interconnects and is interwoven throughout the muscle. And so understand what you're doing first before you actually dive into it. And it doesn't take very long to just understand why you're doing what you're doing.
Jessica Ash:
Because if that fascia gets really bunched up, we have problems with muscle contractions and it's going to affect our whole structure. So just understand the muscle and the fascia first. And then I would say start with a foam roller. That's going to probably be the easiest to start with, or like a lacrosse ball, so you can put as much pressure or as little pressure as you want. And then do your muscle groups in groups. So for example, one day I'm going to work on my quads and hamstrings. One day I'm going to work on my glutes and my lower back. One day I'm going to work on my upper back. You just kind of pick groups and you start to just explore. I always say like, "Do a body scan and just notice where you're tight and where you're tense." Because when you're trying to relax, let's say you're laying in bed at night and you try to relax all your muscles. Many people find they cannot relax all of their muscles. They literally cannot get rid of this inner tenseness almost. It's like they're tense.
Jessica Ash:
And so that's where you have to start practicing awareness and say, "Okay, where am I tight?" And so myofascial release can really help you. You start to use a foam roller on your quad and you realize like, "Oh my gosh, this is so tender. This is so hard to roll. I have got a lot of work to do here." And just work on it maybe for two to five minutes until you can't tolerate it anymore. It will be uncomfortable. It will be tender. And it will be painful in the sense of like, when you get a massage and you are like, "Oh, that hurts so good." Rather than like, "Oh my gosh, ouch. I think I just broke my ankle." We know the difference between, "Wow, that hurts so good," and, "Oh my gosh, that is painful. That hurt me."
Jessica Ash:
And so a lot of people who are really, the people that need it the most, it's going to be the most uncomfortable for them. So if you have a really hard time with myofascial release and it's so painful for you, you might have to go slow. You might need to sit in a sauna or do some type of heating pad before to kind of warm up the muscles and make it a little easier. But you're the one that needs it the most. If it's uncomfortable, then that's where we should really push through and keep being consistent at it.
Jayton Miller:
Definitely. At a higher level, have you ever heard of Functional Patterns with Naudi Aguilar?
Jessica Ash:
I have heard of Functional Patterns. I'm not familiar with him.
Jayton Miller:
Okay, so Naudi Aguilar's the founder of Functional Patterns. He's just basically, if you know one, you typically know the other. So him and Thomas Myers basically say that, "It's taken a lot of pain to get this into the body, so it's going to take a little bit of pain to get it out." And whenever I made that connection, I was like, "Oh, okay, that makes a lot of sense." I would say that mitigatestress.com with Nathan Colonna. He has a really good free starter guide that is jam packed with information over trigger pointing and all kinds of fascial information. So you should definitely check that out.
Jessica Ash:
Yeah, Nathan is the one that introduced me to it, like his stuff and it really like, it changed my life.
Jayton Miller:
Yeah. Nicholas Simpson also is one of the ones that talked about the [inaudible 00:28:58] method too. So like with the gait cycle, like Functional Patterns talks about, he talks about that in terms of spinning and stuff too. So in terms of the hit trainings and things like that, do you typically recommend explosive training for women too?
Jessica Ash:
Yeah, if they're hormonally sound enough, usually like plyometrics or a little bit of hit training, like some intense movement tends to be okay. It just really depends on the stress. Some women, it takes them a couple of years to be able to tolerate that, but it can be very helpful, especially at certain times of the cycle. So when we have some progesterone at play, like during the first half of our luteal phase, which would be like the third week of our menstrual cycle, we tend to do really, really good. Also the second week of our cycle, which is right before observation we're really, really good. But usually during menstruation and the week before our period, that's going to work against us. And so we should do a lot slower training, lot more body work and not push it so hard, just because our hormones will end up actually working against us when we do any intense exercise.
Jessica Ash:
But yeah, I find that a lot of people that talk about, because women's hips are a little different, I find that a lot of men who talk about the gait cycle, it doesn't apply as much to women. For a lot of women they find that that is an actual uncomfortable position for them. The tucking on the hips and pulling the, I guess we would say like pulling the core back. And so it's interesting to me because there's not really a lot of women that talk about that. I mean, Katy Bowman, I don't know if you've ever heard of her. She talks a lot about it. And so I find that for women, Katy Bowman is a good resource for those functional patterns as well.
Jayton Miller:
Okay. Another thing that I typically see with some women is, they'll be experiencing these issues and then they'll have children, typically their daughters. And they'll be like, "My daughter's experiencing a lot of the same things that I am. What can I do to help her? And is it going to be some of the same things that I'm going to be doing?"
Jessica Ash:
Yeah, yeah. So I would say that very commonly women go into pregnancy hypothyroid, or progesterone deficient, estrogen dominant, and that kind of gets imprinted onto the child. And so also gut health is going to be passed on to our children just because there is a microbiome in the uterus. There's a microbiome that gets passed on when the child passes through the vaginal canal. And so our child gets our microbiome, gets our hormones. I mean everything, our thyroid function. And so a lot of the same things that we implement as adults we can implement with our children. So things like magnesium and things like the raw carrot salad and organ meats and oysters and things like that. And the younger you start with them, the easier it is.
Jessica Ash:
If you feed a one-year-old oysters, they're going to probably love them for life. Whereas if you try to get a four or five-year-old to do it, it's going to be a little more tricky. But you can definitely do it if you understand how important it is because they need the exact same things that we do. We just have to be a little bit more cautious with the amounts. We're giving them, they need a lot less. And then if they have a hard time tolerating foods, like let's say dairy, we just need to start them really small and listen to them. If they're irritable, they're not going to be able to say like, "Hey mom, that milk really hurt my stomach." They're going to more be irritable or they're going to be having weird bowel movements. And they're not going to be able to really translate that. They don't really know how tune into their body the same way.
Jessica Ash:
And so we kind of need to be extra cautious to listen to them and listen for signs and look for things like bloating and look for their bowel movement patterns and look for things like rashes and see what's their hair texture? Does their hair look healthy? Do they have dark circles underneath their eyes? Or, do they look bright and healthy? So we do need to be a little bit more in tune with them, but many of the same practices that we implement as adults we can implement with our children.
Jayton Miller:
Okay, awesome. Well, I only have a couple minutes left on this recording, so I think I'm going to stop with my questions there. Where can people get hold of you, Jessica?
Jessica Ash:
They can find me at my Instagram, @jessicaashwellness. I also have a website, jessicaashwellness.com, where I work one-on-one. And I have a few online programs that people can enroll in and kind of DIY their own health.
Jayton Miller:
Awesome. Well, thank you for listening. If you are not in the Facebook community, please get in there. There's people absolutely killing it on Thermo, and feel free to use this information and reach out to Jessica and follow up with her work.
