Why is it so hard to get real answers about your health?

If you've been told that everything looks fine, but you know that something is off, we're not imagining it.

That's why I created Vitality three sixty to help you better understand what's going on inside your body so that you can take the targeted action needed.

With a functional health approach plus testing, we go beyond the guesswork to uncover the root causes of your symptoms.

I've teamed up with doctor Asmina, an incredible integrative GP, and together we will help you decode your body's signals and answer questions like why am I always exhausted?

What's really causing my stubborn weight?

Am I inflamed?

Insulin resistant?

Or maybe missing key nutrients?

Because when you understand your body better, you can transform your health.

Visit v three sixty dot health or check out the show notes for more.

This is healthy Heir with Amelia Phillips and welcome to this month's Ask Me Anything episode, where I get to answer all your fabulous questions.

Some of these come from my beautiful listeners, some from my wonderful members on my Vitality three sixty programs, and some questions come from Instagram as well, so wherever you're beaming in from, welcome and keep those questions rolling in.

Well, I have got some exciting news for you.

You are listening right now to a soon to be published author.

Yay Yep doctr Jasmina and I have just been picked up by one of Australia's major publishers and we are co authoring a book together.

It's been a bit of a long time in the making because we actually pitched a book idea last year to them and sadly we're rejected.

But we went away and we took on their feedback, we reworked out topic angle, and we went back to them very recently and to quote what they said to us, they said it was a very easy yes from all their team, so that was really really exciting.

And look, I cannot wait to share more with you soon.

But we haven't actually officially signed the contract yet, so I'm not going to jinx us by saying anything else at this point, but as soon as I've got more info, I will be sharing it with you.

I also wanted to say that we're going to be creating a little bit of an inner circle group over the next few months, a selection of women in midlife that are really focus on their health who we would love to interview and potentially feature in the book, and also of course bring you along for the journey of writing the book and then be the first to gift a book two when it comes out.

So you know, if you enjoy my podcast and you like listening to myself for you're familiar with dot dir Asmino, who's going to be a co author, please flick me a DM on Insta or an email, tell me you're interested in joining this in a circle and I'll start putting the list together and I'd love to connect with you.

Other than this exciting news, life has been ticking along nicely.

We took the kids down to the snow last weekend, which is always a bit of a roller coaster of a holiday, isn't it.

You know, one minute they're squealing with the light and they're skiing down the mountain, you're hashtagging blessed and feeling amazing, and then the next minute their gloves are soaked through, they've got frozen fingers where snowball goes down the back of their neck, they're in tears.

It is kind of exhausting holiday.

If you don't love skiing, then I really don't recommend it.

But look, the main thing is we all came back in one piece and I've really just been playing catch up this week.

Also went to Melbourne last week and got to train with some Olympians at the Victorian Institute of Sport and Melbourne.

Gosh, shout out to all my beautiful Melbourne listeners.

You put on such a beautiful day.

The sun was out, it was lovely, crisp winter day, so it was really really nice and a little daunting lining up on the track next to Olympic sprinters and distance runners.

One in particular, and if you Canon went on three days later and broke a half marathon record Australian records, so I was pretty tough to say that I was training alongside him, but I'm going to share over Instagram over the next few weeks some of the cool strategies I learned.

There were some great interval training techniques such as the Norwegian four by four, which was awesome, and Apple was also there showcasing some of their cool new features on their Apple Watch and Apple Watch Ultra, so I got to kind of deep dive into the data behind that, so I'll share some of that as well soon.

So if you're a runner or you're wanting to get a little bit fitter, then look out for those posts on Instagram.

But yeah, it was really fun.

Love Melbourne, love it, love it, love it all.

Right, Well, look.

Enough about me.

Let's dive into our wonderful listener questions.

Kicking off with Lily Hannon from Instagram.

I'm in perimenopause and I feel like crap, oh your poor thing.

Some days I feel terribly flat, almost depressed, and other days I feel overwhelmed and stressed, almost manic.

And some days I'm abs lutely fine.

How do you know when you've reached that point of needing a professional or a psychologist to step in?

Lily, first of all, to kick off, I am not a psychologist or a counselor, so take everything I say today with a grain of salt.

And secondly, I think if you're even considering it, then go and do it, because you know your emotional health is not something to mess with.

But let me give my two cents worth anyway, because what you are describing there the emotional rollercoaster of perimenopause and menopause that many of us go through is so so common.

It doesn't make it any less exhausting or confusing.

But it is common and you are not alone, that's for sure.

Fluctuating estrogen progesterone during perimenopause can significantly impact our mood, our stress resilience, which basically means our ability to manage the stresses that we get every day, and that mental clarity as well.

Many women feel like they're losing their grip on who they used to be.

I mean, I experienced it too.

You know, one day low and weepe, the next day is over stimulated or irritable, then.

Back to normal.

So I guess your question is around when to go and see professional support.

I guess there's a few red flags that I would consider if I were you, kind of a few signs that it might be time to speak to someone such as a psychologist, a therapist, functional medicine practitioner who might also be able to talk to you about hormone support and rebalancing those hormones.

So, first of all, if you are feeling persistently low and anxious on most days, that's a really important sign.

If you feel like this is increasing it's not just a few days before you period, but it's kind of almost taking over.

The whole month.

If your mood swings are affecting your relationships and you can feel that your relationship is really suffering from it, whether it's your intimate partner or relationships at work, or your family, your kids, and also just your ability to function on a normal level daily when you feel like, oh my goodness, this isn't me.

I mean, it's such a common description that I hear women coming to me with where it's just like, who.

Is this person?

And I did a whole episode on a while ago talking about feeling like the lava monster out of Mowana.

So many women could relate to that.

So if you're feeling detached from your usual self, it's definitely worth checking in because it can get better and you don't want to feel like that for too long.

And also when you're coping, tools aren't working anymore.

You know things that used to help, like walking, journaling, chatting with friends, having a big old belly laugh out with your girlfriends for dinner.

If they're just not cutting it anymore, that's a big red flag as well.

And also, of course, if you are having thoughts that concern you, whether it's dark thoughts, intrusive thinking, sense of deep despair or hopelessness, even if intermittent, you really do need to reach out.

I've actually got a super cool tool you can use, and I'll pop the link in the show notes.

It's a self assessment call the DAS twenty one, which stands for Depression, Anxiety and Stress score.

And there's a DAS twenty one, and there's a DAS forty two, which is basically twenty one questions or forty two look just for us everyday people.

The DAS twenty one suffices fine, and basically it's twenty one questions, and then you'll be given a score for each of those three emotional health categories, so a score for depression, a score for anxiety, and a score for stress, because they are three very different emotions, and you might score really beautifully on depression and anxiety, but you might score poorly on stress or any other combination.

And I think it's really helpful to understand which of those three are impacting you the most.

And in your results it will say you know, mild, moderate, or severe.

So I think if you're in the upper end of moderate or in that severe category.

That's also a really big red flag to go and speak to someone.

But look, it never hurts.

I mean, we go and get a massage, we go and see a personal trainer when we want to get fitter.

So why not go and see a psychologist if we feel like we need to really improve that emotional health.

So I say, just do it.

But look, Lily, do this das twenty one in the show notes and at least that'll give you a little bit of a quantitative number around how you're feeling.

And by the way, when you do do that test, it's in the past seven days, so you reflect on the past week and then you.

Answer the questions that way.

So I hope that helps, Lily.

And I'm sending you a super big hug down the microphone into your ears, and this too shall pass, so don't give up and sending lots of support your way.

Why is it so hard to get real answers about your health?

If you've been told that everything looks fine, but you know that something is off, you're not imagining.

That's why I created Vitality three sixty to help you better understand what's going on inside your body.

So that you can take the targeted action needed.

With a functional health approach plus testing, we go beyond the guesswork to uncover the root causes of your symptoms.

I've teamed up with dottsmina, an incredible integrative GP and together we will help you decode your body's signals and answer questions like why am I always exhausted?

What's really causing my stubborn weight?

Am I inflamed?

Insulin resistant?

Or maybe missing key nutrients?

Because when you understand your body better, you can transform your health.

Visit V three sixty dot health or check.

Out the show notes for more.

Okay, Question number two comes from Melanie reading over email.

What is the best magnesium to take?

There are so so many options and I'm confused which one is the best?

Oh, you are so right, Melanie.

It's really confusing when we look out there on the shelves and there's just more and more products coming out every day.

But I love magnesium as a supplement, and so many women are insufficient or deficient in magnesium, and our soils in Australia are very low in magnesium, so that could be one of the reasons why, as well as eating too much processed.

Food and not enough whole foods.

But look, magnesium is involved in over three hundred biochemical reactions in our body, so it really is a cornerstone mineral for optimal health.

Some of the key roles it plays in our body relate to areas like energy production, so literally the energy powerhouses in our bodies, such as our mitochondria.

It helps convert the food you eat into energy.

It fuels your body right down at a cellular level.

It's a cofactor to a number of chemical reactions in the body that all relate to our metabolic health.

So if weight, metabolism energy is an issue for you, then I think we just stopped right there and just start taking it.

But let me tell you some of the other areas magnesium helps.

It helps with sleep support, calming your nervous system helps her regulate that beautiful sleep hormone melatonin, which helps you fall asleep and stay asleep for longer.

The other area magnesium helps is stress reduction.

Yes, please maybe, Lily, if you're still listening, you can pop some magnesium into help as well.

Without stress, it helps to lower our quartisol levels.

It acts as a natural stress reliever, which has a cascade.

Of course, of all these other benefits to other systems in our body.

The other thing it helps.

With is blood sugar balance, kind of relating back to that metabolism and energy production.

It helps improve our insulin sensitivity, which a lot of people aren't aware that magnesium does this, so helping to keep our blood sugar levels stable.

Plus it helps with heart health.

So yeah, I hope that's convinced you that it is a mineral worth taking.

So we can, of course get magnesium from our diet, and it is rich in certain foods.

So dark chocolate, yes please, or cacao powder is actually very high in magnesium, so that's a great one.

But hence seeds, chia seeds, almonds, legumes, dark leafy greens, they're all really high in magnesium, so.

Really try to dial those up.

But like I said, even in the whole foods our soil is so depleted in Australia in many areas, not all areas, but in many areas.

So that's why supplementing is an option that a lot.

Of people like.

Now your question was around the best magnesium to take.

There's kind of three main ones to consider, which is magnesium glycinate, magnesium citrate and magnesium three and eight.

Now I'm going to really focus on and some people call it citrate.

Some people call it citrate, but I'm going to focus on the first two, so glycinate and citrate.

So kicking off with magnesium glycinate, this tends to be the one you go to if you're looking for that calming impact and something to help with your sleep if you're having sleep issues, whereas a magnesium site trait is more if you're having muscle and recovery issues and maybe you've got some constipation at a very high level.

So getting back to the glyconate, it's.

Highly by available.

It makes for a great option when you're feeling stressed and wired and maybe having some sleep issues and wanting to reduce that anxiety.

And it's better if you've got a little bit more of a sensitive tummy as well.

It's quite well tolerated, So I usually say to start around three hundred milligrams and then tight trait up if you need to, And you can split this one between morning and night, or you can just have at any time after four pm.

And so the brand I like is called Flawedis.

And it's pure magnesium switch off, so you can DM me if you want more info about that, but that's a brand I like.

So then the magnesium site Trait, which is really good for relieving constipation, so it may make your stools a little bit looser, and it's great if you're experiencing any muscle issues like cramps or do you ever get the little twitch in your eye during the day.

It's also really well absorbed and it can support energy production as well.

Now, bioceuticals do a great one, the Ultra Night musclees Ultra MUSCLEES Night I think it's called.

It's great.

You can get it over the counter at most chemists and it's a pretty common one, so yeah, that's what i'd recommend.

Look, Magnesium the inate is also worth considering, and especially if you've been kind of switching between those two you want something different.

It's more known for boosting cognition as it crosses the blood brain barrier really well, and so it makes it ideal for supporting things like memory focus cognitive health.

So yeah, if that's.

More of an issue for you, like brain fog and focus mental focus, then I would try the magnesium three and eight and Designs for Health do a great one called magnesium three in eight, So give that a try and look for those two the ultra night muscle in the three and eight.

Just follow the directions on the packet, but always start the first few days.

Just start on a half dose and then slowly work your way up to make sure your tummy's okay with it.

So they you have it, Melanie, the three main types of magnesium to consider, okay, And our final question comes from anonymous.

Just their email I got was help eggy gas.

Charming.

No wonder you're anonymous, but I totally understand and I'm sure many listeners can relate.

She has written, lately, I have been feeling extra gassy and they don't smell great, almost egg like yuck.

I know, what do you think is going on?

Okay?

So it's actually really really common to have that rotten egg gussy smell.

So it's usually caused by these sulfur containing compounds which gut bacteria produce during digestion.

So it's not actually your fault, it's your gut bugs producing an Okay, you're not producing the gas.

It's them.

They're the ones that are being gross.

Here's what it can mean from a gut health perspective.

So it's usually caused by foods that are high in sulfur.

So these are foods like surprise surprise eggs, broccoli, coliflour, garlic, onions, meat, and dairy.

These foods are all rich in sulfur.

Now I've just rattled off super super healthy foods as well, So if we're going to avoid them, we certainly don't want to avoid them for too long.

But what happens is your gut bacteria ferment these and then they release this hydrogen sulfide gas and that's what you can smell.

So it can often mean a you're eating a lot more of those foods and your gut bacteria is just not quite coping with it.

B it can be an imbalance in your gut bacteria what we call dysbiosis.

So this is where there's an overgrowth of certain bacteria which can produce more sulfur gas.

So it might be this imbalance in your gut microbiome.

For example, if you've recently had gastro and then you're going back to these foods again, that gastro has caused dyspiosis, where you know certain bacteria have been wiped out and then you've got overgrowth of these not so nice bacteria.

See, it can be caused by slow motility or constipation.

So this is where the food moves really slowly through your gut and it gives the bacteria more time to ferment it, so then that leads to more gas or d It can be malabsorption, so this is where you're just not able to digest certain nutrients such as lactose, fructose, even protein, and so as it travels through your guts, more of this undigested material reaches the colon where the bacteria feast on it, and so then they create that gas because they're literally larger undigested particles are getting down there.

And then finally it.

Can be SEBO, which stands for small intestinal bacterial overgrowth.

And this is where this sulfur producing bacteria are in the wrong parts of your gut and they can cause bloating, discomfort, and bad smelling gas.

And this can often happen as we age because similar to our skin, our gut actually becomes a bit wrinkly, and that kind of wrinkleiness and that reduced motility can mean that bacteria able to get into places where they historically wouldn't.

So I hope that's given you a few reasons or understanding as to why you might be feeling that way and getting those smells.

But then what can you do about it?

Okay, Well, first.

And foremost, reduce those sulfur rich foods for about a week, So all those ones I just mentioned earlier, eggs, broccoli, cauliflower, garlic, onions, et cetera.

Just google the list of sulfur containing foods.

Just stop them for a week to just give your gut bugs a chance to catch up and maybe the healthy ones to proliferate a little more.

You can take probiotics and look, honestly, just for ease the inner health plus probiotics a really simple place to start.

There's got lots of clinical evidence behind it.

I'm not going to go into lots of different brand names for the purpose of today's episode, but there's another one call I guess called probispore, which I would look into as well.

But just taking some probiotics, So just increasing.

Of probiotic rich foods such as yogurt, pouring kafir, fermented veggies, although maybe for that week, probably wouldn't do the fermented veggies.

While we're just trying to help your tummy settle.

Another thing that can help is activated charcoal supplements for that week that you're having off.

And then we want to improve your gut motility, so we want to get the food moving through faster.

So that can be things like making sure you're drinking enough water for that week, that you're eating lots of fiber rich foods but not the sulfur containing fiber rich foods, just any other fiber rich foods, and that you're moving after eating, because that movement can also increase that motility.

So to really focus on those four key strategies, which is eliminating the self rich foods, adding in some probiotics, whether it be through supplements or through food, taking some activated charcoal, and then getting that gut motility moving.

Give those a go and hopefully your tummy will settle and whatever is causing this will rebalance and go away.

So there we have it, my friends, that is enough of the questions for this month.

Keep them rolling in and as always, I will see you back in the booth next week.

Take care.

Why is it so hard to get real answers about your health?

If you've been told that everything looks fine, but you know that something is off, well, you're not imagining it.

That's why I created Vitality three point sixty to help you better understand what's going on inside your body so that you can take the targeted action needed.

With a functional health approach plus testing, we go beyond the guesswork to uncover the root causes of your symptoms.

I've teamed up with Dottyasmina, an incredible integrative GP and together we will help you decode your body's signals and answer questions like why am I always exhausted?

What's really causing my stubborn weight?

Am I inflamed?

Insulin resistant?

Or maybe missing key nutrients?

Because when you understand your body better, you can transform your health.

Visit v three sixty dot health or check out the show notes for more