Balancing Hormones Naturally

Join the Reset Retreat: https://landing.leahbrueggemann.com/reset-retreat-oct26

Your doctor probably told you it's autoimmune, genetic, or idiopathic, which is just a fancy word for "we have no idea." But what if everything the medical industry has told you about Crohn's and colitis is wrong? Josh Dech is back, and this time he's bringing a published paper that flips the entire $40 billion bowel disease industry on its head.
In this episode:
Why IBS is a garbage diagnosis and what doctors actually mean when they call something idiopathic
The published paper that proves Crohn's and colitis have never met the criteria for autoimmune disease, and what's actually going on instead
Why your genes didn't cause your bowel disease, and the difference between genetic susceptibility and genetic cause
The six percent stat that will make your jaw drop: how the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand make up six percent of the global population but carry sixty percent of the world's bowel disease
The three things that separate us from countries with five to twenty-five times less bowel disease: ultra-processed food, antibiotic usage, and glyphosate
Why thirty-five to fifty percent of your gut bacteria die in the presence of glyphosate, and why testing for it is a waste of money if you live in the US
Generational dysbiosis: how we've gone from Amazonian tribes with 1,600 unique gut bacteria species to people with bowel disease carrying as few as 100
The dietary mistakes people with IBD make, including why bone broth might actually be making you worse
The two diets with the most clinical data behind them for Crohn's and colitis, and why forty to sixty percent of pediatric patients reached remission in six to eight weeks
What fecal transplants actually are, the three ways they're delivered, and why spending $30,000 on one might be completely useless if you don't fix your terrain first
Why you could get paid $300 to $500 per donation if you have a healthy gut (yes, really)
The nail in the foot analogy that perfectly explains what every GI doctor is doing wrong
The simple order of operations Josh takes every client through,environments, food, drainage, testing, rebuild, and why skipping steps is why people don't get better
Why taking gut lining support before addressing root cause is like trying to build a house while it's on fire
The projection that by 2030, bowel disease will affect one in 100 people, a 25,000 to 50,000 percent increase from the 1950s
If you or someone you love has been told their Crohn's or colitis is just something they have to manage for life, this episode will change how you think about that. It is reversible. And it starts with understanding what actually caused it.

Find Josh Dech:
Podcast: Reversing Crohn's and Colitis Naturally / The Reversible Podcast
Website: gutsolution.ca
Social: @joshdech.health
Use code LEAH to save 15% at Eversio Wellness here
Leah's Favorite Things: https://www.leahbrueggemann.com/favorites
I'm Leah Brueggemann, a Functional Diagnostic Nutritional® Practitioner and Hormone Health Coach, helping you balance your hormones in effective and realistic ways so you can live a healthier, happier life. Through the Balance Hormones Naturally podcast, you'll discover why your cycle is so important to your everyday health and how you can use nutrition to help support the rise and fall of your hormones and finally feel truly amazing.
Let's connect:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/balancinghormonesnaturally/
Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leah_brueg/
Website: https://www.leahbrueggemann.com/
Email: leahbcoaching@gmail.com

Every tablet you swallow is either building your cells or doing nothing. If you're exhausted, foggy, constipated, and watching your health decline as you get older, the answer might be simpler than you think. Two algae. Two jobs. Nutrition in, toxins out.
In this episode:
- Why 75% of the American food supply is ultra-processed and even your fresh produce has 50% less nutrition than it did 50 years ago.
- The two-sentence explanation of why spirulina and chlorella work: nutrition in, toxins out.
- Why your mitochondria are the real reason you have brain fog, fatigue, and weight gain after 40—and why women get hit twice as hard as men.
- The SOD connection: what your body stops making after 30, why it matters for Alzheimer's prevention, and why spirulina has 6,000 times more of it than cabbage.
- Why the blue pigment in spirulina can detect cancer cells and eject them—and why chemotherapy companies are now using it.
- The serotonin fact nobody talks about: 80% of it is made in your gut, not your brain, and why women store 52% less of it than men.
- Why chlorella before bed is the move, and what it's doing while you sleep.
- Why 95% of algae on the market has been heat-processed into uselessness, and the one thing to look for in a brand.
- How to dose it for yourself, your kids, and even your newborn.
- The 87-year-old who joined CrossFit after starting spirulina and chlorella.
If you only do one thing from this episode, start taking spirulina. Your brain and your mitochondria will feel it.
Use code LEAH B to save at energybits.com
Use code LEAH to save 15% at Eversio Wellness
Leah's Favorite Things: https://www.leahbrueggemann.com/favorites
I'm Leah Brueggemann, a Functional Diagnostic Nutritional® Practitioner and Hormone Health Coach, helping you balance your hormones in effective and realistic ways so you can live a healthier, happier life. Through the Balance Hormones Naturally podcast, you'll discover why your cycle is so important to your everyday health and how you can use nutrition to help support the rise and fall of your hormones and finally feel truly amazing.
Let's connect:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/balancinghormonesnaturally/
Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leah_brueg/
Website: https://www.leahbrueggemann.com/
Email: leahbcoaching@gmail.com
The recommendations presented in this podcast are not a substitute for medical advice from a qualified doctor. Before making any changes to your diet and lifestyle, please consult with your healthcare provider.

Join the Reset Retreat: https://landing.leahbrueggemann.com/reset-retreat-oct26

Every sip you take is either helping your hormones or quietly wrecking them. If you're exhausted and moody, bloated, and reaching for coffee or an energy drink just to feel something, what's in your cup is probably part of the picture. Here's the good news: you don't have to give up your coffee. There are a few swaps and additions that change what your drinks are doing to your blood sugar, your inflammation, and your adrenals, and by the end of this you'll know exactly what to pour into your glass.
In this episode:
Why coffee isn't inherently the problem, and the one sign that tells you it's making things worse instead of better
Mold and mycotoxins in coffee beans, where they actually come from in processing, and the brands that test for it
Why drinking your coffee out of a plastic cup with a plastic lid means you're drinking hot microplastics
The single easiest change that costs you nothing and requires no new product: move your coffee to after breakfast, and why your adrenals feel it immediately
What to add to your coffee so it isn't just sugar hitting an empty stomach, including collagen for protein and the fat sources that steady your blood sugar
Why most mushroom coffee on the shelf isn't therapeutically dosed, and what Leah adds to her own cup instead
The specific blend she uses for energy, immune support, ATP production, and focus, plus what to add if caffeine makes you jittery but you refuse to give it up
Why you should look up your zip code on the EWG database, and the line that reframes this whole thing: if you're not filtering your water, you are the filter
The electrolyte conversation, including the argument that women don't need them and why sodium, potassium, and magnesium are batteries for your adrenals
Which electrolytes to reach for if you want no stevia, no monk fruit, and no flavoring at all
The full happy hormone hot chocolate recipe, ingredient by ingredient, and why raw cacao and baking cocoa are not the same thing
The two secret ingredients in it: one for hair growth, stomach acid, and nine grams of protein, and one with saffron, which Leah calls her secret weapon for postpartum anxiety and depression
Why glycine belongs in a nighttime drink, and how the whole thing supports sleep and mood at the same time
Why maca goes in the mug for most women and why you should skip it entirely if you have PCOS
How little maple syrup you actually need, and why your taste buds will adapt if you wean down slowly
If you only do two things from this episode, move your coffee to after breakfast and pay attention to your water. Those two alone will change how you feel. Everything else is the fun part. And if you want to be a little bougie about it, come make the happy hormone hot chocolate with me.

Use code LEAH to save 15% at Eversio Wellness here.
Leah's Favorite Things: https://www.leahbrueggemann.com/favorites
I'm Leah Brueggemann, a Functional Diagnostic Nutritional® Practitioner and Hormone Health Coach, helping you balance your hormones in effective and realistic ways so you can live a healthier, happier life.
Through the Balance Hormones Naturally podcast, you'll discover why your cycle is so important to your everyday health and how you can use nutrition to help support the rise and fall of your hormones and finally feel truly amazing. We dig deep to understand and heal the root causes of your symptoms so you can achieve lasting results through manageable and realistic lifestyle changes, allowing you to live a healthy and balanced life without a long-term pharmaceutical prescription.
Let's connect:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/balancinghormonesnaturally/
Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leah_brueg/
Website: https://www.leahbrueggemann.com/
Email: leahbcoaching@gmail.com

Join the Reset Retreat: https://landing.leahbrueggemann.com/reset-retreat-oct26

You've run the labs. Maybe more than once. And you keep getting told everything looks normal while you're still bloated, still exhausted, still anxious, still dealing with periods that wreck your month. You are not imagining it and you are not crazy. You're either not running the right labs or nobody is looking at them through the right lens. Here's what that actually means and which tests give you real answers.
In this episode:
The client who came from a family of doctors, had every lab run, and was still told she was normal at six months postpartum with no energy to play with her kid.
What functional testing actually means, and why your regular blood work can be functional testing if someone reads it correctly
The wide "normal" range that runs from very sick to fully healthy, why you're sitting in the middle of it, and why your doctor genuinely has nothing to offer you there.
Why TSH alone is not a thyroid panel, and the full list of markers Leah wants to see instead.
Why hair tissue mineral analysis is the foundational lab for every one of her clients, and why minerals are the spark plugs for everything else
The scenario where your thyroid labs are perfect but your basal temps are under 97.5, your hands and feet are cold, and your hair is falling out, and the mineral that explains it.
Why potassium sensitizes your cells to thyroid hormone, and how stress depletes it in a loop that makes everything worse.
Why testing before supplementing minerals matters, and what to do with food instead.
The copper and estrogen relationship, explained with food coloring in a glass of water.
What happens when you start supporting your liver before you've addressed the foundation, and why mobilizing copper can bring on worse acne, heavier periods, more anxiety, and more cramps.
Why a Dutch test tells you about pathways, not just levels, and what that reveals about how you're detoxing estrogen.
Why looking at cortisol alone will mislead you, and how DHEA shows whether you've already come through an acute stress phase and are now running on empty.
What's actually in the viral cortisol fixing drink all over your feed.
Beta-glucuronidase on a GI Map, why high levels mean estrogen keeps recirculating, and why this is the marker to look at when you're doing all the detox things and nothing is working.
H. pylori, low stomach acid, and why that combination sets you up for poor nutrient absorption, overgrowth, parasites, and thyroid medication that won't absorb.
Why Leah does not start with a GI Map, and the foundations she wants in place first.
When an organic acids test earns its place, especially with mold, methylation, or PMDD and neurotransmitter symptoms.
Why she won't hand you a $2,000 lab list on day one, and how she lets the first test guide what comes next.
The mistake practitioners and clients both make with HTMA: trying to manipulate individual markers instead of reading the whole story.
The client with Hashimoto's and a cancer history whose high tissue calcium finally connected symptoms nobody had ever tied together for her.
If your labs came back normal and your body says otherwise, believe your body. The answer isn't that the tests are useless. It's that you need the right ones, read by someone looking at your hormones specifically, and put together with your history and your actual life. That's when it stops being a pile of numbers and starts being a story that makes sense.
If you want that kind of support, book a free consult call at bit.ly/hrpfreecall and talk to Alexis, one of Leah's past clients who's about to finish becoming an FDN herself. You can also access these labs with analysis through the membership at leahbrueggemann.com under services.
Leah's Favorite Things: https://www.leahbrueggemann.com/favorites
I'm Leah Brueggemann, a Functional Diagnostic Nutritional® Practitioner and Hormone Health Coach, helping you balance your hormones in effective and realistic ways so you can live a healthier, happier life.
Through the Balance Hormones Naturally podcast, you'll discover why your cycle is so important to your everyday health and how you can use nutrition to help support the rise and fall of your hormones and finally feel truly amazing. We dig deep to understand and heal the root causes of your symptoms so you can achieve lasting results through manageable and realistic lifestyle changes, allowing you to live a healthy and balanced life without a long-term pharmaceutical prescription.
Let's connect:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/balancinghormonesnaturally/
Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leah_brueg/
Website: https://www.leahbrueggemann.com/
Email: leahbcoaching@gmail.com
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The recommendations presented in this podcast are not a substitute for medical advice from a qualified doctor. Before making any changes to your diet and lifestyle, please consult with your healthcare provider.

Join the Reset Retreat: https://landing.leahbrueggemann.com/reset-retreat-oct26

If someone told you that skipping breakfast and fasting longer in the morning would help you lose weight, that advice was not built for your body. Research has actually linked eating breakfast regularly with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome. But what you put on that plate matters just as much as eating at all, because it sets your cravings, your blood sugar, and your inflammation for the entire rest of the day. 
This episode gives you the formula and the exact breakfasts Leah rotates through so you can stop overthinking it every morning.
In this episode:
The 30 gram minimum for protein at breakfast, why it matters for muscle protein synthesis, and how far ahead of your day you'll feel when you front load it.
Why one egg is only six grams of protein, and what to pair it with so you're not falling short before you've even started.
Leah's go to breakfast proteins: eggs, chicken sausage, plain chicken, salmon, and Greek yogurt, plus the reminder that last night's dinner counts.
The veggie hash with salmon and dippy eggs that gets her to about 50 grams of protein before the day starts.
Why fiber is the broom that sweeps out your intestines, and the specific ones she reaches for in the morning: sauteed spinach, colorful peppers, hemp seeds, and broccoli or alfalfa sprouts.
The chia seed pudding build with Greek yogurt, protein powder, cacao, and berries when you want something that feels like a treat
Why you barely have to think about fat at breakfast if you're already hitting the protein.
Low glycemic carbs and why stabilizing your blood sugar at breakfast is what keeps it stable at 3pm, which matters for cortisol, insulin, and whether the weight actually comes off.
The reheated potato trick: why cooling and reheating turns them into a resistant starch that feeds your gut and lands lower on the glycemic index.
Why Leah skips grains at breakfast if weight loss is the goal.
The exact two or three breakfasts she rotates through so she never has to make a decision at 7am.
What time to eat after waking, and why the window matters for your cortisol.
Coffee before breakfast, and Leah's blunt answer: not if you love yourself.
Whether smoothies count, the three mistakes most people make with them, and how to build one that actually hits 40 to 45 grams of protein
Can you eat eggs every day? If you're Leah, yes.
You do not need a new recipe every morning. Pick two or three breakfasts you actually like, hit your 30 grams of protein, get your fiber in, and keep the carbs low glycemic. That's it. Do that consistently and you'll feel the difference in how satisfied you are and how steady your energy stays, and losing weight stops feeling like a fight.
Leah's Favorite Things: https://www.leahbrueggemann.com/favorites
I'm Leah Brueggemann, a Functional Diagnostic Nutritional® Practitioner and Hormone Health Coach, helping you balance your hormones in effective and realistic ways so you can live a healthier, happier life.
Through the Balance Hormones Naturally podcast, you'll discover why your cycle is so important to your everyday health and how you can use nutrition to help support the rise and fall of your hormones and finally feel truly amazing. We dig deep to understand and heal the root causes of your symptoms so you can achieve lasting results through manageable and realistic lifestyle changes, allowing you to live a healthy and balanced life without a long-term pharmaceutical prescription.
Let's connect:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/balancinghormonesnaturally/
Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leah_brueg/
Website: https://www.leahbrueggemann.com/
Email: leahbcoaching@gmail.com
The recommendations presented in this podcast are not a substitute for medical advice from a qualified doctor. Before making any changes to your diet and lifestyle, please consult with your healthcare provider.