So a couple of years ago I recorded this conversation with hormone expert Leah Brueggeman, and I keep coming back to it, and lately I've been sharing it with clients. I have shared it in my Lenten program that I'm doing, and. This information is just so important. So many women are trying to figure out why they feel more anxious, more inflamed, more exhausted, more, I don't know, emotionally up and down, and their sleep is messed up.

They wanna know why they are having trouble losing weight, that their cycles are wonky, , that their perimenopause symptoms are just making them feel completely unbalanced and they are doing a lot of good things for your health. You are probably doing a lot of good things for your health. But so many times women are missing one major piece of the picture as they're trying to feel better in their bodies, and that is the impact of alcohol.

So that is why I wanted to bring back this episode. So if you are a woman who has been wondering whether alcohol could be affecting your harm, your hormones, your mood, your sleep, your cycles, your stress. This conversation is gonna help you connect some important dots. It is packed full of helpful information.

You're gonna wanna listen to it and you're gonna wanna listen to it again. , You might even wanna take notes. I absolutely love this episode. It's one of my very favorite interviews, and it's because it's not about fear, it's about awareness. It's about understanding what is happening in your body so that you can make informed choices and stop working against yourself without realizing it.

So whether this is your first time hearing it or you listened to it a couple of years ago, I think that this conversation is more timely than ever. So let's get into it.

 Welcome to the Catholic Sobriety Podcast, the go-to resource for women seeking to have a deeper understanding of the role alcohol plays in their lives. Women who are looking to drink less or not at all for any reason. I am your host, Christie Walker. I'm a wife, mom, and a joy filled Catholic, and I am the Catholic sobriety coach, and I'm so glad you're here.

 As women, hormones are something that we deal with for pretty much. All of our lives, and as women who are looking to drink less or not at all, you might be wondering what alcohol has to do with your hormones, how it affects your hormones, and that is why I have my guest today.

Leah Brueggeman. She is a functional diagnostic nutritional practice. Practitioner. She specializes in hormonal balance for women. She combines functional lab testing with nutrition and lifestyle shifts to help women finally get to the root of their issue. Leah has helped over 400 women personally get painless periods, stabilize their moods, get pregnant and lose weight.

Leah also started a podcast balancing hormones Naturally. She started it two years ago to help give women actual actionable steps that they can take every day to improve their health and hormones. And when Leah isn't chatting about hormones, you'll probably find her hanging out with her two sons and husband in the outdoors or reading a.

Good book. So Leah, why don't we just go ahead and start off, off with you telling my audience a little bit about what you do and maybe how you even got interested in helping women learn how to balance their hormones. Yeah, so I, I like to think about myself as a health detective because you've probably, I don't know, I feel like a lot of people have heard about functional medicine at this point.

Getting to the root cause is, you know, such a buzz word. We all wanna do that. But I really like puzzles, and that's what I think about when it comes to health, because it's never one thing. And I'll have a lot of women come to me and they're like I have gut issues, but then over here I have all these food sensitivities, but then over here I have painful periods.

And then over here I deal with anxiety and it's just all of these different things, all of these different symptoms. When in reality then my job is, okay, how are they connected? You know, because they're all connected. And typically if you have an issue here, you're going to have an issue in another area because of how your body works as a unit, right?

And you wanna think about it as an orchestra. So if the violins start playing out of tune and then the cellos try and follow, and then the violas, and then we have utter chaos, right? But you can't listen to that orchestra and go. Violence. You were the problem. Let's fix that. You know, it's, it's hard because now everything is out of tune, so you can't just focus on one instrument or one modality.

Like you can't just look at hormones. You can't just look at the gut. You have to build up your body as a whole, because by the time you're experiencing symptoms, so many things have gone wrong upstream. And that's why I really think about myself as a detective. And I really like. Puzzles because you have to look at those symptoms and labs and you have to go farther upstream, like, okay, where did things start going wrong first, and how can we, build up from there?

So. That's kind of what I do. And I got started because I had hormonal issues. Surprise, surprise. I feel like that's why we all get started in what we do. 'cause we, we went through the ringer and we just think, wow, nobody else should ever have to go through that. I was diagnosed with fibroadenomas, which are benign breast tumors, um, and breast cancer gallops in my family.

Like it doesn't even run, it just gallops. And so that was a really big scare. I had a fi one of, um, my fibro adenomas was bigger than a golf ball. Like it was really big. And so that's what kind of got me started in the route of functional medicine is trying to get rid of my fibroadenomas and. I went to so many different practitioners and so many doctors and it was just, oh, I can get rid of your fiber adenomas, and they would just target my fiber adenomas and I, no one ever asked me what my cycles were like, or I would've told them that my periods were horrific and I was throwing up on my period and they were so irregular.

I never knew when my next one was gonna come, and I just, I never knew that cycles were supposed to be regular, where you could actually. Expect when your next period was gonna come. Mine were just insane. I was tired all the time, and so I tried all of the things and. Everything was just so targeted on one issue that even though I would see some improvement, I never, never saw a difference in my fibro adenomas.

Didn't see a difference in my period. So anyway, flash, flash forward, I was able to regulate my cycles, get rid of my fibro adenomas. Raised my progesterone. So I was able to have, um, I have two, two healthy little boys, two healthy pregnancies, which was really big because back then my progesterone was so chronically low that I wouldn't have been able to carry a pregnancy.

And so, then I went back to school actually. Graduated college with my degree in music. I was a full-time music director, and I performed, and then I just pivoted, went back to school, pivoted, went back for health because when I was diagnosed with fibro adenomas, I had to Google them. I didn't know what they were.

And when I would talk about period cramps, because there. Absolutely zero TMI with me, um, I found out there's a lot of other women with period cramps and I thought I was the only one. I thought I was the abnormality because nobody talked about them. Nobody wants to talk about periods. Nobody wants to talk about ovulation or your cycles, and thankfully I think that taboo is going away.

But I was like, I'm gonna talk about it because I had one older sister who was seven years older than me, but I had a house full of brothers. I had six brothers. So like, if you wanted to get out of anything, it was just, I have cramps. And they'd be like, so I just think that it, it needs to be talked about more.

And so that's when I, that's when I got into this and I started helping women. And I've been able to help hundreds and hundreds of women and it's just, it's truly life changing, I don't have any favorite testimonials 'cause I try and pick one and I'm like, oh. When they tell me they're finally pregnant after years of trying.

But then it's also the women who haven't been able to like, leave their house on their period. 'cause it's so heavy now are hiking on their period. It's like, I can't pick a favorite one. They're all good. Mm-hmm. Yeah. That's amazing. I just, first of all, I'm kind of a detective too. Like I love just getting to the root.

I say like, my superpower is research. I like to research. Mm-hmm. And so I think that is so important when you are trying to better your health, whatever it is just to do a lot of research and really. Be a detective about it. 'cause there can be so many things, like you pointed out, with hormones, there can be so many things going on that you don't realize are actually impacting your hormones.

It's same with like sobriety, right? With women who are drinking, a lot of times they don't realize that alcohol might be causing a lot of the things that. Are happening within their bodies. They just think, oh, you know, it's this, it's this, it's this, and try all these things, which is great. Try all the things, but then, make sure that you're pulling it out like an elimination diet almost, where it's like, was it this?

Is it this? Yeah. And I think it. So important. And we have, we are so blessed because we have access to so many more resources than like our moms and our grandmas had access to. Mm-hmm. And so we can really get kind of a full picture to be able to know. That it is po. Like you don't have to live with those super painful periods.

You don't have to live with those, with the things that are going on. There are ways that you can moderate that. Alleviated, I should say. Yeah. And and live a healthy full life, like you were saying, like going hiking and, and doing all the things that you want to do. And I also love how you equated it to an orchestra.

So the fact that you have a music background, at first I was like, that is so lovely. Yeah. That's so beautiful. I love that. And then having a music background, I just was like, oh, of course. It makes so much sense. It makes so much sense. I think that's a perfect, um, analogy for that.

So, because most of the women listening to my podcast are struggling, maybe they don't have an alcohol use disorder, most of them are just realizing like alcohol's becoming a problem for them. It's causing a little bit of chaos in their lives and maybe they are starting to feel some of those things that you mentioned and they might be wondering.

Is alcohol triggering some of this? Mm-hmm. So could you explain how alcohol does impact our hor hormones through those different phases of life? Such as just getting our menstrual cycle, fertility, perimenopause, which that's where I'm at right now. Menopause, and then even like post menopause. Yeah, so I think to set this up, we should know that when you have alcohol, you know, to get it out of your system.

I know some people are like, oh, it's not the alcohol because I haven't, you know, I only drink on the weekends and I still have these issues during the week. Or you know, I gave it up for a week and I still have all of these same issues. And when you're thinking about alcohol and its infect on the body.

You are gonna have to give it a minimum of three months away from it to really go, do I notice a benefit being off of it three months? So that means, you know, no alcohol during that time. So if you're someone that's like, yeah, I, I see what you're saying, but like I gave it up for a month and I didn't feel any different.

That's really not long enough because alcohol affects every. Aspect pretty much of your body and we'll, we'll get into it, you know, scientifically, but I think some things to kind of remember is that, this is you for your education and for you to make an informed choice. And I do have a lot of people that are like, okay, I, I'm working on X, Y, Z right now and I'm gonna remove alcohol while I'm doing this because obviously when I'm on this protocol, alcohol isn't helping it.

So I, I wanna, do put my money where my mouth is and support 'cause I don't wanna waste my money. And then they finish their protocol and they're like, well I actually don't miss alcohol. You know, I actually feel a lot better off of it. And so, they don't even do really, the occasional drink or occasional drink is so different for everybody.

Occasional drink for people can be like once a week, once a night, once a couple times a week. I, you know, it's so different. But when we think about alcohol. We have to think about. It literally is a neurotoxin, like that's the best way to say it. Like it is literally a toxin and it affects pretty much everything in our body because our neurons affect everything in our body and touch everything.

So when you think about, um. Your nervous system and your endocrine system, which is your hormones they basically, they're like these little messengers and they communicate between all of the organs of the body to maintain like homeostasis. Okay? And so then every organ, every cell is then impacted by our endocrine system and our hormones control our metabolism.

Electrolyte balance, energy. Growth and development reproduction. They basically enable our body to be able to handle, outside things from the environment. So like, think about your immune system or healing from injuries and stress and chronic alcohol exposure. Even if chronic alcohol exposure for you is once a week actually impacts your.

Hormone levels. So it's going to have a decrease in testosterone and progesterone and an increase in estrogen and FSH. So to put that into perspective, you're decreasing testosterone and progesterone. So testosterone I feel like we often think about that in terms of men, but like women have testosterone, we need testosterone.

Think about that as libido. Drive as in like your actual will drive, like to get things done. Progesterone, that's like your rest. Think about your rest and digest hormone. If you have a ton of hormonal issues right before your period, you're most likely linked to not having enough progesterone.

Um, we are just so chronically stressed as a society that a lot of people have issues with progesterone. Um, an increase in FSH and estrogen. So estrogen. If we aren't metabolizing that really, really well, you can be having a lot of symptoms like tender breasts before your period. You can be getting a ton of PMS symptoms.

You can be having really heavy periods. You can be getting really cranky before your period, or really cranky your own ovulation. FSH actually goes up as you get closer to menopause, so the higher the FSH, the closer you are to menopause. So it's kind of creepy how like chronic alcohol starts creeping up that FSH, right?

So when we have all this dysregulation and it's alcohol induced, this is affecting every aspect of your body now, and then we start having reproductive issues. Body growth issues, thyroid issues, immune dysfunction big issues with stress. And it may not start just with the alcohol, but we have realized that alcohol affects all of these different aspects.

And you wanna think about your toxicity bucket. So, oh, I was gonna use a cup, but I was like, they can't see me. So imagine a cup. And that's you. You pour in a little water from your water glass, and that's like toxins from the outside environment. And then another water glass is like, hormone disruptors, and those are in your personal care products.

And then another one is maybe you don't sleep really great all the time, so your body's not getting able to rest and heal. There's some more water and then we have alcohol over here. It's a little bit more water, and then, oh, there's stress from your job. There's more water. Oh my goodness, your cups over flowing.

And it's not necessarily one thing, but it's like if we have all of these other issues and then you bring in alcohol over here that's affecting all of these things in your body and how your body can actually handle the other things, it's really easy to just be the thing that overflows the bucket. But I also know that one of the big things that people feel like they get from alcohol is anxiety.

Mm-hmm. And but if you only have it with alcohol, but you're using alcohol because you wanna have more fun at a party, you're like, but you know, like the side effects, like, I don't know. You kind of have to, sometimes you just have to get to a point where you're like, wow, I just really don't like how I feel.

And. I literally have to decide and make a plan for how I'm not going to, um, have that anymore, which you help people with. Because if you go in without a plan and you've relied on alcohol for so many different reasons, it's really, really hard to come off of because of how it affects your dopamine.

Um. So when you first drink alcohol, it brings up your dopamine, but you have, when the side care, I feel amazing, I feel great, I feel relaxed. And then you have chronic, um, alcohol. I keep saying chronic, like people are like these massive drinkers. Chronic, by chronic I mean like you regularly have alcohol like once a week.

Like that's, that's chronic as in you have it regularly. And basically if you think about. Dopamine and alcohol. It's kind of, I just, whenever I say this, I'm like, wow, I hope this really hits home. When you regularly are having alcohol, your neurotransmitters respond by producing less dopamine.

So this is why like when you have alcohol and it increases that your body's linking it to, I don't wanna stop after a few drinks because like, that is how your body is now getting dopamine is through alcohol because overall it's not producing as much anymore. Mm-hmm. And dopamine acts on areas of the brain to give you feelings of pleasure, satisfaction, motivation.

So, of course you're like, I feel better when I drink it. But it also has a role to play in controlling your memory, your mood, sleep, learning concentration, movement and digestion, your gut microbiome. And it's gonna take at least three months, three months. For your body to get back to like a homeostasis of producing its levels of dopamine.

And so that's why I say if you just give it up for a short amount of time and be like it definitely wasn't the alcohol. 'cause I don't notice a difference. You didn't give it long enough because your body has not even come back to its normal levels of creating dopamine yet. And low dopamine. It's not just.

It just happens with alcohol. It's not like, maybe it doesn't, or maybe it does, it just, it happens like that is the side effect of it. Um, and alcohol can modify the function of your dopamine neurons more directly by literally entering your brain as well. And what I think is really interesting is that as women, we actually process alcohol differently than men.

And women basically absorb more alcohol into our bloodstream, increasing intoxication. Age actually influences the impact of alcohol detoxification in women due to estrogen levels. So like as you get closer to menopause and maybe you have lower estrogen levels you're actually going to have more issues with alcohol consumption.

You are gonna be more vulnerable to it because, um, you can't detox it as well. So it's interesting, a lot of times, you know, people are like, oh, I'm just getting old. I can't handle it. But your toxicity level's getting bigger and bigger, and if your estrogen levels are getting lower and lower and liver function isn't keeping up you're gonna have a lot of issues there, right?

Mm-hmm. So, I mean, that's just a little bit on how it affects like your dopamine. And your mood, and your energy and your hormones, but because it affects every single one of those things, then you're gonna be noticing maybe heavier periods, maybe you're gonna be noticing more mood swings, maybe you're gonna be noticing more anxiety tender breasts before your period.

And then that just, that continues. And then the next layer is. Maybe you're heading towards, and I, maybe I'm being extreme here, but when we constantly have this blood sugar rollercoaster because of alcohol, that's a great way to set yourself up for type two diabetes. It's because of that blood sugar rollercoaster.

And sometimes I think we don't think about it 'cause we're like, well, we're not drinking a sugary drink. I'm just drinking alcohol. But alcohol does bring up your glucose. And you'll often see, um, I have people who wear, uh, CGMs, which is a continuous glucose monitor, and your body recognizes alcohol as a toxin.

And so when they first drink the alcohol especially if it's on an empty stomach, you'll actually see glucose go down. Their body because their body's trying to clear it. Like the liver's like, get this out of me. And then later you'll see this massive glucose spike and then we'll see that effect on blood sugar for days after they had that alcohol drink.

And you know, your fasting glucose is a little bit higher. Your body's just not being as stable as it needs to be. And when you constantly are on this blood sugar rollercoaster that's causing inflammation in your body, and we have all this inflammation, inflammation is going to be affecting, all these other aspects.

And when we constantly are on a blood sugar rollercoaster, that is how we set ourselves up to be pre-diabetic. And we're like, I don't know how I got here. But it's just those little choices that compound over time. You know, you have alcohol and it brings up your blood sugar and then it comes crashing down and your body wants something to bring it back up.

So it's gonna crave like carbs because your body's smart and it knows that carbs are gonna bring the blood sugar up really fast. Simple carbs like. Bread. I was gonna say blood and I don't know why that came out. Bread and pastries and. That just goes right into glucose. And then you're on this rollercoaster and we wonder why our sleep isn't that good and we wonder why we can't lose weight and we wonder why we feel puffy all the time.

And it's not just one thing, it's kind of like the cascade of things that happens from the alcohol. And I'm not saying that you can't ever have a drink every now and then and not have these issues. Because I think that when. Like I said, it's your toxicity bucket. So if you have emptied your toxicity bucket and your cellular vitality is good, having a drink now and then isn't going to be that big of a deal.

But I would say if you are regularly consuming alcohol, your toxicity bucket probably isn't that great, which means that you, it cascades into all of these other things. Oh my goodness. That is so. So much good and helpful information. I was taking notes like crazy, but you know, I've said these things and you know, you can read them, you can, you can research them, but to hear it from someone like you who works with women day in and day out on these hormone levels, like we don't.

We just don't think about that. Like I had no idea. I will say about like all the ways, like you were saying, the depletion of estrogen, the depletion of testosterone, the increase in the, is it FSH? Yeah. And then, yeah, and then you're already increased because as you age, and that's just stuff. People are not talking about, and I feel like so many of my clients are doing all the right things, like they're exercising, they're maybe intermittent fasting, they've done elimination diets, they're drinking green juices, they're doing all these things.

And I've heard it. I've heard other people, other sobriety people say it's, they get in this detox to retox loop, so they're. Detoxing during the day, like trying to detox with like sweating it out and doing all this and drinking the green juices and that. But then five o'clock, six o'clock, eight o'clock rolls around and they're reaching for that nightly glass of wine or whatever alcohol it is.

And it's just that vicious cycle. And I also loved, because we hear so often for some reason, and I don't really know why. It takes 28 days to change a habit. And so I think a lot of times people come to me thinking, well, in 30 days I'll, you know, if I stop drinking for 30 days or I cut back for 30 days then I'm gonna be good. But I am really glad that you brought up that to truly detox your body out of it, you have to give it three months that way. And if I'm, and please correct me if I'm wrong. Mm-hmm. Are you saying that if you do that for three months, then that will level out? Your hormones as well providing that everything else is going, or does that take even longer?

Yeah, so that's strictly with, uh, dopamine with your body's ability to kind of regulate its dopamine again. Mm-hmm. Um, 'cause you aren't constantly stimulating it there. But also, I mean, that's not keeping into account like the dopamine hits we get from social media, right. And um. You know, there's just so many things and factors.

It does take about 90 days to reset your hormones because of that's how long the follicle journey is from when you have the follicle to when it releases that mature egg is about 90 days in development. So. Um, it does, it can take that long. I would say though, you a lot of people, it's like I cut out alcohol and all of a sudden, like my periods got better and my I didn't have tender breast before my period anymore.

It can be that simple. Um, for some women, depending on how long this has been going on, you may need a lot more support than simply just not, you know, 'cause I will have a lot of women that come to me with, um, elevated liver enzymes and not necessarily. Because of alcohol. Like maybe they're like, I have one once a week, but it's just elevated liver enzymes.

Um, non fatty, al non-alcoholic fatty liver diseases, 100% on the rise because of blood sugar. IMB bounces. Um. So it just, it kind of is all connected. And I totally, go a little bit against the grain here, but I wanna touch on like the re you said the detox to retox. Mm-hmm. And you were giving some examples.

The other reason why I see a lot of women cut out alcohol and not see a difference is because they are following a lot of mainstream bad diets. Which I feel like people get so triggered when I say that they're like, I'm not following a fat diet. But so I'm so sorry. I hope you hear this with an open mind, but like, juicing is like the worst thing that you can do for your liver.

Because one thing that your liver needs is, uh, protein for phase two liver detox, and there is absolutely no protein in juicing. And a lot of times people are like, oh, I'm having a juice. And I'm like, yeah, if you were literally just having like juiced. Kale that will be so disgusting. But they put apples, you know, and they put all this other fruit in there.

And then we have this great cocktail to spike our blood sugar with no fiber. Like I love vegetables and I love fruit. Let's just eat them in their actual forms so you can have all that amazing fiber and get all those nutrients and not just spike our blood sugar. So that's another reason why you may feel like you're doing all of the things and not noticing the differences.

You might not be doing the things that are optimal for a woman. So a lot of times we have all of these diets out there that are studied on men because men respond the same. Women respond differently depending on which phase of their cycle they're in. So whether you're in menses, follicular, ovulatory, or lute.

You're gonna respond differently because of the fluctuation of hormones. So what do they say? Like, instead of doing this study four different times, because that's expensive, they'll study it on men and postmenopausal women. Then go, oh, this applies to all women. And it's like, no, it does not. So we are sorely underrepresented in the studies and so that's why I'll see a lot of women try intermittent fasting or they'll try cold plunging or they try whatever and they don't actually see a benefit.

They actually see the opposite, right? Because they're not working with their hormones, they're working against them. And so it's just constantly this uphill battle. Yeah, that's interesting that you say that. 'cause I do like to do intermittent fasting and I get, I get very regimented. I think it's partially my background of being in recovery, like it's mm-hmm.

Kind of all or nothing for me sometimes. Yeah. And so when I was doing intermittent fasting, it's like, it has to be this like 16 eight, like every day. 16 eight every day. And then I. Was doing research. 'cause that's what I do and that's what I love. And I, they were like, this woman was like, no, like you need to take into consideration your cycles and there are times when you should not be fasting and there are times when you need to vary your fast or you know, so here I am thinking like I'm doing this so good.

Yeah. And doing this great things, but then I could have been messing up like. What my hormones levels are and, and all of those other things. And then I'm like, well, why do I feel like this? Or why am I so tired? Or why, you know, so I'm so glad that you mentioned that because again, I think what I was doing was probably based on what men do.

Yeah. Um, or even those longer. And she's like, no, no, no. Like you need to vary it and you need to. Like figure that out as well. So I'm so glad that you said that. And you're right, we just don't hear a lot about it. I mean, like when I was growing up and I'm old, and so it's like, it's like you get your period and then you're of the age when you can have kids and then you're gonna have menopause and then you're gonna be done.

And it's not like that. Like we're learning so much and that's why I'm so glad that you're, you're here to just like enlighten all of us on this. Yeah, I talk about fasting a lot, mostly mm-hmm. Because I just get a lot of women that come in like having tried fasting or, you know, feel like that's the only way.

And it's really, I think it's really, really hard and you have to walk this very fine line. When it comes to. Women's health of, there's so many benefits to fasting in terms of like insulin and recovery and inflammation and all of these kinds of things, but then there's also this side effect, okay, if you're a menstruating woman.

And you start messing with cortisol too much, then you're really affecting your progesterone production. And, and then you have all these other issues of your body feeding off of the adrenaline and the cortisol. So it's like you have to walk this really fine line of how can I optimize my inflammation but not mess with my sex hormones, right.

Because mm-hmm. Fertility is not just about having babies. Like fertility is your fifth vital sign. It is a sign of your health. Um, and so it's your period and how the quality of your period is, is so important. So I get it. I'm like, not just acknowledging the fact that it's just confusing as heck.

Um, you know, if you. You're just walking in and you're like, somebody says this and somebody says that, I don't know what to do. I get it. Yeah. Yeah. And that's why just keep researching and finding those reputable sources is so important because if you just take it like I did at first and be like, okay, well this is how you do it and it's so good.

Mm-hmm. And I actually did not have my period for a long time and I'm pretty regular. And I was like, oh no, what's going on? Am I menopause now? And then. When I came across her, and then I was like, oh, okay. So I need to be more careful about when I do it and when I don't do it. And then everything went back to normal and I was like, oh.

So that was just like light bulb, like, oh, so that's not, that's not good for me, for me. Yeah, exactly. So yeah. So thank you for, for talking about that too. And then, so you touched on a little bit. Uh, you did talk quite a bit about liver health, but with alcohol consumption, like you said, the first thing our body wants to do when we take it in is get rid of it.

Right. Do I understand correctly that like before anything, like before we digest food, before anything else happens in our body, it's working to get rid of that and then if, and most of us. Drink like at night, like that's like our nightly wind down routine. So can you talk a little bit about how alcohol consumption affects our liver in, in like that yeah.

Perspective. So it's kind of like. Think about when your body is trying to get rid of the alcohol first. It's like order of priority. Your body is not dumb. You know? So, when you think about it in terms of like the timing of when you are drinking though I, so something I incorporate a lot of with my clients is what I call brain rewiring for health because.

You can take all of the right supplements, you can do the right protocols, but if literally the neuro connection is not there, you just have like really expensive pee and really expensive poop because you aren't utilizing those things. Like we have to actually make that connection. And the reason why I say that is.

When we start off with having alcohol as our nightly wind down, my first instinct is actually not, let's not talk about the health implications of it. Let's figure out why we need to have alcohol for our nightly wind down. Because there's probably something else going on in your day or in your life where a need is not being met.

Because we don't do things because they're bad for us. We do things because they are in some way serving us. It's a second. Think about it as like a secondary goal. So that alcohol is serving you like it is literally serving a purpose. So when we can figure that out and then, you know, trace backwards to where can that need be met in a way that maybe is not harming my health.

That is where you can start because I really don't think you can, for a lot of people just saying all the negative side effects is not enough for them. Mm-hmm. Because I feel like everybody knows that alcohol isn't like healthy for you. Or maybe they don't, I don't know. But I think that's, you know, very important to kind of realize.

And then secondly. The time when your body detoxes and heals and regenerates and rests and your brain heals is when you're sleeping. If you're drinking alcohol, which is a neurotoxin, when your brain's supposed to be healing at nighttime in that deep sleep, if you. Any way track like with an Apple Watch or an Aura ring or Ring Con or anything, I can 100% guarantee you, you will see a difference in your REM and your deep sleep, like your recovery.

Like I, I can guarantee you will see that because it is affecting your rest and recovery. So I don't think there's any ideal time to have alcohol, but I feel like before bed's probably high up there with. The worst priority. Yeah. Well, and you know, when we are trying to like lose weight or like manage our weight, a lot of times we hear like, don't eat after like mm-hmm.

The sun goes down or after 8:00 PM or, you know, whatever it is. Yeah. And yet. So many people like follow that, but yet they'll drink, have a glass of wine or two, or you know, however many, like right before bed. And it's like, no. Yeah. Yeah. So the other thing, so I just wanna bring this up. 'cause you talked about health and I, I feel like we've gotten some bad messaging like.

Red wine is good for you, like it's good for your heart, or it's good for this to have pressed vettra. Yes. Yeah. And it's like, no, you can get that from other things and like antioxidants, like, ha, like you were saying, just have like a handful of grapes. Like you don't need to have the The grape juice. The fermented grape juice.

Yeah. With the alcohol in it. Um. Red wine doesn't even have it. The, so the resveratrol, the benefit, everyone isn't, it's not even resveratrol, it's trans resveratrol. So it has to be converted already. So wine isn't even trans resveratrol, it's just resveratrol. And you would need a lot higher amounts than you're getting in the wine to actually see any benefits.

So I don't think there's really any benefits there. Alcohol. I mean, alcohol is a lot of issues, but some other issues that are in alcoholic drains have nothing to do with alcohol. It's the fact that you'll notice on your wine labels, there's no nutrition label. That's because like lobbyists have worked really, really, really hard because they don't wanna tell you what's in that wine.

And there's a reason why like a lot of wines are not vegan actually. 'cause they have like. Things like egg whites in them and, and if that astounds you, like, you don't wanna know the other things that are in there, right? There's so many things and they have so many pesticides, so many toxins, so many chemicals outside of like the toxin of actual alcohol.

So I know that there's a lot of alcoholic brands out there. Well, actually there's not a lot, but I do know of one off the top of my head, dry Farm Wine, which is much, much lower alcohol content, and they actually have like screenings, like they'll tell you what's actually in their wine, so it doesn't have all of those issues.

But I mean, the best option is really still no alcohol, but mm-hmm. There's just so many other things in the wine, like there's a reason why there's no nutrition label on there. I think you know that. I didn't even realize that till I heard someone educating on that and I said, there's no nutrition label on wine.

That's so weird. I went to go grab a wine bottle. I'm like, let me see. Yeah, I had no idea about that either at all. Because I don't have wine in the house, but I do, every once in a while I'll get like a non-alcoholic wine. Mm-hmm. 'cause they do have those now. But I mean, just from what you're saying, it still has, probably has all that stuff in it.

It just doesn't have the the alcohol in it, the ethanol in it, yeah. Is so that brings me to like, I've seen it comes up in my feed. Sometimes I'm like, do you even know your audience? Because I don't drink it all, but it's still fine. So like these healthy wines, yeah, Gwyneth Paltrow like has this yes wine line that's like organic and no sugar or low sugar or you know, whatever it is.

And so they'll say like, I feel so good about having this because it's organic and it's like low sugar, but. Is that still, is, I guess it's a better alternative to regular, but it's still not gonna be great free, right? It's like one of those things. Marketing is just so fun because people will say, I feel so good about, drinking X, Y, Z, and it's like, lots of things can be organic and still be bad for you, you know, like it doesn't necessarily, I did have someone one time.

That had said, I, everything's organic. Everything that I eat is organic. And I'm like, okay, but if you have celiac disease, eating organic bread isn't gonna make it any better for you. You know, it's like mm-hmm. And I'll have people will bring in different types of foods and they're like it's organic, so it's good for me.

And I'm like you are removing a lot of. Pesticides, which is nice. So you're removing some chemicals, which is nice, but just because it's organic doesn't inherently make it good for you. So I think that's something that's kind of important to kind of realize. I definitely think it's a better option.

If you're someone that's like, I'm going to. Like slowly wean off, or maybe I will get something like Dry Farms wine. I don't actually drink. I think alcohol's gross. I'm a weird person. I totally acknowledge that fact. I just think it's gross. But that's what I got for family members for for presents because like they.

Love wine. I was like, here is a better option for you. You could have this. Mm-hmm. Um, so I do think that maybe stepping in that direction is definitely better. But I would say the best option is just, you know, having a magnesium tart cherry mocktail. That's the first one that comes to my mind.

It'll help you sleep. Yes. That's so good. So actually I do have a question about that too, because the other thing that keeps coming up in my feed are all these, because it's dried January right now as we're recording. Oh, okay. And all these things keep coming up in my feed of like calming, like have this instead of wine and have the like substitute this.

Yeah. And it'll have things in it that I've seen that are like supposed likes, uh, supplements that are good to take, like to promote sleep. Um, yeah. One of them is like kava or something, which I haven't really Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Heard of. Yeah. So yeah, if someone wants to still get that relaxation because we know mm-hmm.

Like you were saying. Alcohol is terrible for sleep, it disrupts it. But a lot of women, people in general will drink it just so that to help them fall asleep quicker. Mm-hmm. Which it does do that 'cause it's sedating you basically. Right. And so it helps you fall asleep but doesn't help your sleep.

But this alternative, these alternatives, and I know you can't speak to them specifically, but if you can find a reputable one, do you feel like that is a good alternative or is it best just to let your. Natural. I can speak to Kava. Okay. Kava is actually an herb that for some people does give them that kind of high, that alcohol gives them without the alcohol.

I'm just gonna put out really big warning, like you cannot consume kava at the same time that you're having alcohol. Like you couldn't do kava next day. Alcohol kava like you are murdering your liver. Do not do that. But. I don't think I would use kava in this instance, but I would say that using things that actually, um, help your body produce melatonin would actually probably be quite useful as you are learning your new diurnal pattern of sleep.

If you've really struggled with sleep, do realize that like. You're gonna have to make a ritual with your sleep. Um, because, if you've relied on I've, past clients who use THC. And so then starting to learn to sleep without that was, it's like, it's hard and I'm not, mm-hmm. I'm not disowning that, like, it's very, very hard.

Um, so really having a regimented, you get up at the same time and you go to bed at the same time, like literally. Like clockwork. Even if you're like, I'm going to go to bed and I'm not going to sleep for five hours. You still have to be on top of that. And also, again, reframing that like. Literally visualize a very positive sleep experience and falling asleep, you know, at least you're resting and relaxing.

But then I would incorporate, I do like magnesium. Magnesium is one of my favorite supplements. It's your rest and relax. Rest and relax, mineral. Um, and then tart cherry juice actually helps your body produce melatonin. Be careful of your sugar content there. So just mm-hmm. Pure tart cherry juice, like.

Two tablespoons. Um, maybe you're mixing that with some sparkling water and that's what you have. Mm-hmm. Maybe with your magnesium. Some, I sometimes really like magnesium with L-theanine because that's help helpful and relaxing and can really set you up for Oh, wonderful. Sleep. But yeah. Um, I definitely would incorporate those if you need to.

That's great. Yeah, and put it in a pretty glass, like put it in a beautiful glass and just make it a fun ritual. I think that, I think a lot of times it is just that ritual of like our bodies saying, okay, I'm winding down. I now, this is my relaxed time. Especially if you had like a really hectic day, so mm-hmm.

I, I think that would help so much. And I love that you. S you gave that recommendation. 'cause I think that would be so helpful for many people. And actually I'm gonna try it 'cause I think, yeah. 'cause then I can recommend it. I don't really have trouble falling asleep, but I think it's nice to, sometimes when I'm a little bit jazzed up from the day or whatever it is nice to have something like that.

And you know, I always say, as I tell clients, I'm like, as soon as you. When you stop drinking, you're gonna notice that you get so much better sleep. But as you noted, it doesn't happen overnight because we are still, it takes time to get in that habit. Um, having something like this, or like you were saying, something to promote melatonin will be so helpful in being able to get your body used to.

Going to bed and waking up at the same time every day. And sleep is so important. It's in general that I think a lot of times we backburner it, especially if we're coming out of that stage of where our kids, you know, we've had to be getting up with kids and stuff like that, and we don't. And then we don't have to as much, but we, our bodies are still kind of in that like yeah.

Stage of it and then we think that we can't. So I love all of that. I could talk to you for hours seriously, but I know you don't have time and you're a busy lady. But I would love it if you could just let people know, like where they can get ahold of you if you have anything that you're promoting now, and definitely to check out your po, your podcast as well.

Yeah, we do have weekly episodes on the podcast bouncing hormones naturally. Um, you can find me on Instagram or TikTok or pretty much any social media with Leah, L-E-A-H-B-R-U-E-G. I am semi-active. No, I mean, we're pretty active on them as much as our time allows and all of that. I do have a group program, the Hormone Reset program, which we, uh, do enrollments for once a month.

So, as long as we have space. But so we, if you are needing help in that area, you can, you know, definitely reach out. But I would say 100%. Check out the podcast. We have free trainings on there, and. Lots of good episodes. Great. Oh, thank you so much. I am definitely gonna be checking it out because like I said, I'm getting into a different stage of my hormonal journey, and so I think that having all the information that you can get is great.

And I will leave links to where you can find Leah in the show notes. So thank you so much for being here and for sharing. So much. Great information's like people need this awareness because it's just not out there. You don't see it in the commercials. You don't see it on a catchy meme or a t-shirt about your hormones, so you have to go looking for this information and don't let it scare you.

Let it empower you 100%. Thanks for having me.

 that does it for this episode of the Catholic Sobriety Podcast. I hope you enjoyed this episode and I would invite you to share it with a friend who might also get value from it as well, and make sure you subscribe so you don't miss a thing. I am the Catholic sobriety coach, and if you would like to learn how to work with me or learn more about.

The coaching that I offer, visit my website, the Catholic sobriety coach.com. Follow me on Instagram at the Catholic Sobriety Coach. I look forward to speaking to you next. Time and remember, I am here for you. I am praying for you.