Rewriting Midlife: Menopause, Longevity & Beautyspan - Dr Sofia Din

Menopause And The All-System Pause

One of my passion projects is to help women lift themselves out of their menopause and that pause, that uh period of time when it's not just your fertility that's pausing, it's like everything is pausing, it's an all-system pause. So, how to lift it, uh lift different organs out of its pause and put you back into the flow of things, and then stay there, recreate that flow for yourself every day, every week, every month.

Welcome to the Midlife Rebel Podcast. It's time to rewrite the midlife story for women who refuse to be put in a box. Because maybe midlife isn't a crisis, maybe it's an awakening.

Why is it that there have been no female prophets? And one of the things that we talk, we uh we were like wondering that why, I mean, there have been so many male pro men prophets, but why not women? And uh then uh the thing that came to after the with that discussion was that maybe the thing is that when women are younger, there is so much uh uh this bustle of hormone that uh the we cannot just, you know, because we are creators, so we uh the hormones uh are like so misaligned and we're like in the throes of creating new life forms. So then what ends up happening is that we cannot download the messages and then put it together for people. However, uh after menopause, when the woman the when the hormones have kind of tempered down and you're no longer, you know, creating uh and that fertility uh question is over. At that point, when it is time to do something and your brain has like that space, uh the brain goes dead because of the hormones. Directly because we now for you know, so uh post-menopausality women have like brain fog and uh you know stuff is just not working as uh much as before.

That is partly, I mean, I know you're a doctor, so you've got it from a scientific point of view, but I and a medical point of view, but I feel like part of that is misalignment, and it's not learning in those younger years, we're not taught how to trust our intuition, and we're not taught to believe in ourselves. We're you know, we're we're told to follow the rules and um and calm down if we're you know so and so and like brands are appealing, yeah, and also there's that lifestyle stuff that you know where we're pushing, pushing, pushing because we're trying to keep up, we're trying to do all of the things, and we don't have room for that flow.

Intuition As A Suppressed Skill

But there's I feel like there are you know women in their later years that have a lot of wisdom to share 100%, and that's actually one of my passion projects is to help women lift themselves out of their menopause and that pause, that uh period of time when it's not just your fertility that's pausing, it's like everything is pausing, it's an all-system pause. So, how to lift it, uh lift different organs out of its pause and put you back into the flow of things and then stay there, recreate that flow for yourself every day, every week, every month. And that's the uh point of uh, you know, uh basically what I uh do for uh these days for ladies. But I I think that you're you're you're you're catching the right thing with intuition because when you're young, um people suppress your intuition. They they teach us to suppress it, keep your mouth closed, keep your fears to yourself, keep your internal intelligence, which is the highest form of intelligence. Your intuition is the highest form of intuition because uh of intelligence, because it's not just rationality, because sometimes your intuition will be completely irrational. However, that'll be the right thing for you to do because that's the that's the path that you have to take as your genetic code. It's your code, your DNA, your genetic code that is aligning itself and tells you where, and however, you know, finding that which voice is the voice of intuition, yeah, and which voice is just your fear or just your bias or something is the thing that you need to learn throughout your life. Yeah, and then you know, by the time you're menopausal, by the time you're in the fifth or sixth decade of life, you have accumulated enough experience with yourself to know which voice was right, which voice was not, and to discern the the between the two, and then to find the path that it that you're supposed to take next, find the steps that you have to take next. So I 100% agree with that. I think this is gonna be a great conversation. Um but yeah, I I uh I would uh love to someday also have exercise and uh other modalities also uh included in a wellness trip because without exercise, wellness is incomplete.

Yeah, it's um it's really trying to get a balance of all of it, isn't it?

Longevity As A Daily Tightrope

It is. It is like uh, you know, that that uh tightrope walk. I sometimes feel that you know that longevity is like that tightrope walk, and then if you're disciplined and you do it every day, you just get very good at it because it just that's the way you are. It's like you know, that straight path, and you do not become you don't get distracted with you know uh the zings of life, yeah, slings and arrows of life, and you keep at it. Uh, how young are you, Nadine?

How young am I? I love that. 52. Just turned 52 last year.

Oh, you are young. That is not even the pediatrics of geriatrics. You are completely young.

And how about you? Am I allowed to ask?

Well, I am older than you. How's that? Let's leave it at that. You know, age is just a number, it's an illusion. Yeah, I know. I I tell uh uh everybody that you know uh age is uh your chronological age is just a number. Yeah, and uh the only thing you need to know is that you don't have to age helplessly, you have to age with agency, you have to age with uh sources and resources which are actually available to you. And you uh in the 21st century you have you should actively seek to not age as if you were in the 18th century because you're not.

Hormones And The Testing Problem

Yes, we are not. No, I I'm totally with you. I've I I love all longevity lifestyle stuff. You know, I do all of the things I try and get premium sleep, track my sleep, sauna, cold plunge, be careful with my nutrition, well, you know, like do a little bit of intermittent fasting, making sure I'm getting enough protein at the moment is a big one for me. Exercise, time in nature, meditation. I'm trying to do yeah, so there's yeah, I'm really into all of that stuff, so I'm yeah, I'm super keen to oh that's great. That's great, yeah. So are you on any hormones? No, no, not yet. Hopefully never.

Listen, that that uh there's my midlife revolution's changing. Yeah, mid-rife. You know that that idea. So one of the things that's happening, uh, that's been happening over the past uh few years is that the understanding of menopause is like uh leading us to places into places and spaces where we find bio things that are biosimilar, identical to what your body used to produce. Or so or create paths where your body starts reproducing those same elements that it used to produce all these years, or else wherever it is lacking, or wherever it is low or deep in the state of depletion, then what you can do is that as biosimilar as possible, it has be is exists out here out here. Yeah. Imagine that, you know. Isn't that an amazing and then to utilize it into your system?

Yeah. I had a a really great guest on a few weeks ago, and she was talking about that. She works with women and um does a lot of testing. She starts with gut health, um, but you know, she was sort of saying that some like you need to test, retest, um, and you know, really be on top of it because sometimes you might need it, sometimes you might not. And um I think that the biggest issue I have with it right now, and I've heard you talk about this on other podcasts that I've listened to, I've listened to a couple of different episodes that you did. And the biggest issue I have with it right now is that doc I hear from friends that doctors aren't testing and they're just prescribing. Women go in, they say that they're you know, experiencing whether it's um mood swings, lack of um lack of sleep, um you know, whatever it might be, and they just get given a prescription without any testing to see what is actually out of balance. And so I'm kind of like I'm I I'm all about education. I love learning things. I feel yeah, if I found the right person and I felt like I was lacking in something, then I would definitely go down an alternative route rather than going to um a doctor. You know. I I had difficulty a few years ago even getting a blood test for my vitamin D when I was when I went to a regular GP, you know, it was a it was like a battle to just try and get that blood work done. Taking, you know, taking some um giving me some empowerment to make some choices for myself. It was a it was a it was a difficult um yeah, yeah. That's kind of where I'm sitting with it. Like I understand that it there will be some benefits, but I also think that there's not enough uh there's not enough people out there that are teaching it in the right way. Should we carry on or should we um change it happen a little bit? Okay, so we were just talking about it kind of all fits together, doesn't it? What we were talking about before.

Yes.

Um yeah.

But mostly women when they come to me, or men when they come to me, they are experiencing some form kind of a problem, uh, where with their either skin or hair or just energy or just like the way they are feeling in their system. It's like your body is a vessel that is carrying your consciousness through time and gravity and hormonal imbalance. And then what ends up happening is that suddenly when you enter into your 40s and your uh especially your late 40s and and early 50s, it seems to many people as if this check engine light has just turned on. Where whatever you do, your normal routines, when first of all, I hope that all your routines are healthy. I hope that the there are no toxic substances entering your system on a daily routinely basis. However, even if you're leading your life really uh in an undistracted, healthy uh way, and you're taking care of your exercise and the food and sleep and hydration and uh uh you know, friends and environment, you would still find that there's a check engine light that is on, that uh that there is a metabolic sluggishness that has taken over your system. And no matter how hard you push against it, it is just like a mountain that never moves. So that is the point where people start noticeing finding somebody around them who can assist them. Um, in the United States, at least, so I don't know about Australia where you're at and how the medical system is created because I've never been to Australia yet. But looks like I may have to come and see you. But what and what ends up happening in the United States is that there are two systems of management. There is a healthcare system, which is an insurance-led system, that is just a disease management system. It is a sickness-based system. So it is like if you were a car, uh your health insurance system is just like your car insurance system. And what ends up happening is that it only gets triggered and activated if you are in an accident. So your insurance system only gets activated if you're in a disease or a sickness. So uh how for health and wellness, it's always your own problem. Beauty is for definitely your own problem. All cosmetics is out-of-pocket cost. So uh, you know, so I I believe that wherever this system is created, yeah, the first world countries they were very good. They helped their uh uh citizens with the fact that if you get sick, you have the insurance system activates. In the third world country, even that is out of pocket for people because there is no insurance. So uh so in uh third world countries, people try to stay healthy because they're like, oh God, if I get sick, I'll have to pay for everything and for all that uh you know uh sickness management. But aging itself is uh a disease. And however, aging is not considered a disease in itself. And then the other thing that happens is that um aging rapidly accelerates after the pause. So if you're a female, it's menopause. You have something called menopause. If you're a man, you your body also goes through a pause. However, that pause is not even recognized as uh, you know, uh a phase or as a problem because menopause or andropause, which men go through, are just considered normal phases of aging. And since aging is not considered a problem in itself, none of these uh problems that occur as a result of aging are really not covered. So that's where you know a new uh uh parallel system of health and wellness is being created. I mean, I am one of those people who went into that parallel system of uh of work and healing where we're like we're gonna take care of healthy people or people who want to stay healthy or who wanna proactively make sure that they are uh you know uh vibrant and you know, their systems, all systems are go, and um uh to take care of them and to find them ways to you know keep themselves healthy. And yes, beauty is just the tip of the iceberg. So I always like to point out to the fact that when you find somebody who's looking vibrant and young and healthy and beautiful, just know that there are uh behind that person are probably not only just great genes, but also a lot of practices, daily habits and uh systems that they have they're probably doing, which you may not see. And you always have to uh put that, keep that in mind when you find somebody. Like, for example, I'm looking at you. I know you without with you with without even saying anything to me, I can tell that you're somebody who has looked after herself and who is routinely looking after herself. And on a Sunday, why would why else would you even be talking to somebody like me? And that is, you know, so you know it's a journey. So understanding that there is a sickness management system and there is a health management system, and you have to pick the two because otherwise you'll just fall into one of them because you won't fall into just health by chance. Your health is a choice that you make, and however, falling into disease and sickness is always the consequence of indecision and inaction towards uh a proactive, healthy being. You know, it's a journey that you make for yourself. And in the 21st century, that journey means something else. And you definitely have to find practitioners and people who are actually doing these things around you. And people like me exist in every town. Uh and uh uh because I was not the only person who went into this. A lot of doctors, a lot of nurses, a lot of people who had uh trained in the I call it the dark side of medicine where you you know you have to go through that dark side of uh disease and sickness management to even value the uh the uh your health. Because if you if you if your doctor is not trained in what happens to somebody when they're aging and when sicknesses just take hold of you and refuse to leave you, then how else is this person gonna just heal you uh or keep you healthy? Or tell you what are the things that you know if you do, you will just, you know, it's just an exit to that uh uh uh to that system. Because there are several exits that you can take to go to the sickness system, because sickness is right around the corner. Death is human life is so fragile. The only reason we are have prolonged our lifespans is because of science, because of technology, because of us being in these protective systems. Um, and and you know, so but uh now what our next um uh uh obstacle and the next learning and the next awakening that is in front of us is how to align our health span to match our extended lifespan because it's all about health, it's all about energy, and how you lead your life will lead you to those points.

Wow. Well, firstly, uh it feels like this is um a movement. Um, we were talking before we started the official conversation, um, and you were saying I think women need to lead the world. And you're a prime example of what we need in the health system right now is more people, more doctors who are ready to stand up and say we need to make a change with the way that we approach our health and our life. Can you break down for us the difference between lifespan, health span, and beauty span?

Well, that's that's uh an excellent question. And the the thing is that your lifespan is chronologically whatever amount of life that you're gonna live. It it uh mostly depends upon your genetics, but your environment also uh you know counts in it because if you are in a first world country, you there is a possibility that you will outlive your sicknesses and diseases and will prolong your uh lifespan. However, health span is different. Health span is the span of time when you're naturally healthy and you have energy and you are you don't have different chronic diseases, whether they are diseases of environmental diseases like diabetes or and uh you know obesity or uh you know addictions, different addictions, or whatever else, or you have genetic disease, whatever health span is what when you're healthy. Usually people in a longer lifespan, the last 10-20 years of their life is spent, even though they're alive, is spent basically battling different diseases. So that is not, I do not consider that uh health span, you know. So that I feel that, you know, when your health ends, your span of life after that, uh life after health, after losing health is not really that great because you're basically suffering, you're living in suffering. Um, what what I realized during my work in uh learning as I went into uh uh learning about how to preserve skin and uh beauty, I realized that health span is intimately tied with beauty because if when if you're not health. Your beauty is gone like this in a snap. And that's why I tell people that if you go to the hospital, you won't find anybody who's beautiful. If you find somebody in a hospital bed looking very beautiful, most likely you're watching a movie. Because it doesn't happen in real life. I work there. I know it's like, you know, even beautiful people don't look beautiful when they're sick. And uh it's it just health, you're actually uh beauty is like the epitome of uh all the health that you can accumulate for yourself. So I do think that uh if somebody wants to stay in touch with their uh you know, connected with their versions of self that they consider that beautiful, then um uh it is uh and you know we can go later into what is culturally beautiful and what is like what was beautiful in the 18th century and what is beautiful in the 21st century. That culture may change, but beauty is always tied with health, it's always tied with energy, it is always tied with creativity, it is always tied with um, you know, all the uh all the good stuff that makes you feel um happy and satisfied with yourself. And it's always beauty. I in my uh world, I always say that you have to be your own best beholder. No matter where you are in the realm of things, the fact that you exist, the fact that you are here in the 21st century and you made it, mean it means that thousands of people before you, your ancestors, happened to make you come into being. So you're no less than a miracle. And accepting yourself in whatever form you are is number one. You know, that is number one. And no matter who else thinks whatever else for about you, you must consider yourself beautiful. And the thing is that beauty is something that is uh yeah, personally, I feel it is a genetic code, it is a DNA, it is, it comes into your uh, you know, in you you express it, you manifest it, and it kind of evolves as you evolve. And that's it, you know. And uh when somebody looks at you and they think that you're beautiful, that means that you know you you are projecting it, and that's how you're you know, you're you're uh being viewed. So I I say that chronologically, wherever you are, for if the first thing that order of business should always be to remain healthy, and then we can always find you know versions of self that we consider beautiful, and do not look for or seek beauty in the land of aesthetics, because aesthetics is nothing but a preservative. That is, you know, we what like I one of the things I like to say is like you know, don't if a doctor, if you go to a doctor and the doctor says, Come here, I will make you beautiful, please run away as fast as you can. Because nobody can make you beautiful. The only person who could make you beautiful is your mother, and that's it. And a healthy lifestyle fight with your mother if you don't feel beautiful, you know. But uh a doctor can preserve your beauty. A doctor can may be able to help you figure out what are the things, features that you really love and how to keep them the longest, what to eat, what not to eat, how to sleep, how to uh, you know, or uh uh uh after a certain point, uh, you know, what skin care to do, what hair care to do. I mean, maybe, maybe, you know, your doctor may be able to assist you in preserving it, preserving your connection with it. And menopause is that phase in life where your connection with your beauty is becomes loose and and then you get disconnected from it. And then one of the things that I like to say is that after menopause, consider uh the uh medical grade skincare, which is which will help you stay connected with your versions of self. And uh these preservatives are not made to change you, they're not made uh made to, they should not alter your perception of self, they should just keep it there. That's it. And you know, the high the better trained person you will find, that's exactly what they're gonna tell you. If you if somebody's telling you something else, it's because they have not completed their training. They need to train more.

Skin Failure And The Brain Link

Okay, that's good, good to know. And I want to get more into that and just to hear your insights around um those what do you call them? Beauty preser preservation activities. Let's say I'm not gonna say anything. Um, but I was really interested. I listened to your TED TED talk um about um vanity is not a dirty word, and you were relating beauty screen um and our perception of self with our health span or lifespan, there's there are some correlations, and I was very surprised. It it makes sense, but can you share a little bit about that with us?

So, one of the things that I always also like to you know uh educate my uh uh patients and clients uh is uh something called chronic skin failure and it's um its impact on the uh human psyche and your brain and how these two things are related. So one of the things that um is becoming um evident to people like us is that uh the the your brain cells and your skin cells are very intimately related. And the reason is that when you are uh a small embryonic tissue, at that point, the outermost layer of that tissue, which is the ectoderm, it half of it turns into your brain cells and half of it turns into your skin cells. So basically, these two cells are intimately related, you're quantum entangled at birth, and then they have an impact on each other. Your brain, so your body is made for your brain, so your brain looks at yourself, subversions of self, and that's how it aligns and it knows where it is through time. So, one of my uh hypotheses uh on this is that when you have skin failure accumulating in different parts of your visible uh face, which is your which is your public-facing face, where how people uh see you as you, how you recognize you as you, uh, when that those features change, and when those features start uh showing signs of degradation and failure, um uh that is that has an impact on the brain. And we see that people who are in the nursing homes, they um they can't recognize themselves, they don't like themselves, when they see themselves, they can't understand what's happening to them, why is their skin failing? And this is chronic skin failure that is accumulating on your uh face. And um unfortunately, anything, any degradation that uh happens to your skin is considered a cosmetic uh problem. And it is just uh uh brushed aside that you know, either it is vanity, if you look after your skin, or if you're like worrying that, oh, why why my skin is used to be like this and now it is like hanging on my uh uh breath, you know, chest, and you know, or why you have like uh you know engine hanging over here, like what's going on. And the nobody, nobody will uh will address that because they say that it's part of routine aging, but uh and they just uh leave skin completely uh unprotected, or you know, we don't address any of these uh uh initial signs and symptoms, or even later signs and symptoms, um, for for whatever reason. And I disagree with that because I think that skin failure has an impact on your brain, and vice versa. And uh, you know, these things, there are things that are, you know, now available to us that help us prevent uh these uh, you know, the chronic failing of skin. Because remember, again, skin is an organ. Just like your heart fails or your kidneys fail or your other systems fail, your skin also fails. And when your skin fails, it falls. So uh how to keep this tissue alive, how to keep it vibrant and healthy is not just uh uh through the gut. There are other means of keeping this tissue alive. And um, you know, one of the my life's purposes is also to work more, learn more, and bring it to uh in into focus for others.

But and there's actually um a a correlation between living longer if you have yeah, uh if you feel better about the way that you look. Yes.

AI As A Longevity Tool

Yes, one hundred percent. It's it isn't it uh and we we feel it. Like even now I feel like I if I go and look at myself, and if I'm feeling like, oh, I'm looking tired, or I'm like my my skin doesn't have its like cluster that it used to have, it makes me feel tired. Yeah, you know, and uh it does exactly because that's how you perceive yourself. Yeah, that's why my uh uh podcast is called Bathroom Diaries, because that's where you face off with yourself. Yeah, and the first person that you have to align with is you your own self. So you look at yourself and you say, Okay, what is it that you know I have today that I need to focus on? And the thing is, mostly it should be nothing. You should be in a habit of taking care of yourself and it should be a routine and the skin care and whatever care, because you know, there are so many cares that we have, but I believe that um the advent of uh artificial superintelligence is only gonna bring us closer to uh helping ourselves because I think that I don't know, I mean, uh I don't know why mankind went into weaponizing uh artificial intelligence before we used it for healthcare, because I think it is best use its best utility will be in health and wellness and longevity. But however, we're using it instead in killing each other currently. But uh basically what it should do is you know help us live longer and know our bodies better and know our uh skins better, uh, because it has it is a large language model, so it can it can keep all the data and figure out which is fake news and which is real and uh you know help us and become the conduit with our uh doctors and uh you know our healthcare manager uh you know management people who can come and uh you know help us align with our health. And that I think will help us bring our health spans in uh accordance with our lifespans and extend them, extend both. Because, you know, why should humans, which we which are we consider ourselves more intelligent than trees, then why should humans live you know much less than the trees? An average human lives much less uh than uh an average tree.

Yeah. And they don't fight with each other. And you see, and you see different species, you know, even if it's not native to the area, they don't like fight each other for it, they just grow together. Yeah, I always think that way. Yeah, they grow together.

They protect each other, they share their nutrients, yeah, yeah. They they have internal uh networks of nutrients, they have these pipes, their roots attached to each other, they they protect their young, they protect each other, they try to, you know, it's it's it's uh they they recycle.

But we're smarter than them.

Botox As Anti-Ageing Medicine

Meanwhile, because we can because we can do and we we call ourselves smarter than them. But we're we're we're just a blip in time. And uh and yes, now we have uh brains that are functioning a little better, but uh every time our brains start functioning better and we get somewhere uh our our men start fighting, fighting about it, yeah. Doesn't make any sense, you know, fighting about resources, which is like I don't know. I hope I I I don't have audience. So you know that's a different thing about another time. I'm really curious. That's a that's a different Sunday.

That's a different Sunday, yeah. When we're changing the world, one conversation yeah, women will change, yeah.

Prophets of the future are gonna come through women. That's what that's what my one of the things that I like to say these days. Good.

We need to hear more of that. I I'm really curious. I was when I was sort of doing some research on on your work and um preparing for this conversation. One of the things that came up for me is this it's a real it's really tricky, and I'm sure you can help us unpack this is this idea of like um delaying the way that we look, yeah, anti-aging for our for our um skin, for example. And you um have written a book called Um Do we Really Need Botox? And you use Botox, don't you? Yes, yeah. So this is just as an example, but we it's like how do we determine if we actually need it, or if it's low self-esteem compared to wanting to feel better about ourselves? Like that's a very fine line. Plus, we say see so much stuff on the internet about um you know women in particular who are having surgeries, changing the way that they look, um, uh distorting the way that they are supposed to look naturally. Um, so like how do we unpack all of that? I I remember um when I in our gym in Sydney, we had a dermatologist that worked for us, uh not worked for us, trained with us, and he told me about Botox parties and these women that you know, these affluent women who um had parties and they all had their Botox done, you know, it was all a bit of a thing. Um, but that there was some that he had to like limit the amount of times that they could come because there were women that were getting addicted to having Botox treatments. Um and so there's this negative, there are these negative connotations about doing these sorts of things to ourselves. But you've got a different lens. How do we how do we break it down and know whether it's something we need really do we really want it, or are we just think we need it because someone said that we should look a certain way? Like how do we tackle of that?

Yeah, yeah, no, there this is this is real, and this is that this is like real conversation. Your podcast should be real conversations or something. So you ask so many questions all in more, and this is this is where I this is where I you know it is it is perfect, but this is a question of our time, is that how to understand the the seeking, you know, it's like what are you seeking? So if you're seeking beauty through Botox, just know that Botox is not gonna make you beautiful. It is a preservative.

Okay.

Beauty is a genetic code. You get it from your mother, either you have it or you don't. And if there are some people who are beautiful, but they were raised by people who did not think of them as beautiful, so they internalized that, and so they are they have body dysmorphia. So a lot of beautiful people could be very pretty, but they have bought they have internalized where their brain cannot perceive them as beautiful, and body dysmorphia also should not be treated in the halls of a Botox injector, and because nobody can give you beauty again. So, you know, come to that point. So if you have body dysmorphia and you think that Botox will make you beautiful, I'm sorry, that doesn't happen. If you think that you don't have beauty and I can give you beauty, I'm sorry, you go, you gotta go talk to your mommy or your daddy, whatever, whatever issue you have, that's that that's that. It's not ours. So these treatments, first of all, do not make you beautiful. The reason, the purpose of Botox is anti-aging. It is it stops your skin from aging in the areas that we inject it. So it's an anti-aging treatment. Sometimes it's treated, uh uh injected medicinally for certain disorders, also. And that actually, Botox for beauty treatments was by accident, it was an accidental discovery. It was basically some ophthalmologists were trying to relax the muscle spasms around the eye, and they realized that wherever they inject it, the skin started becoming looking younger. The people who were using it, they started looking younger because what ends up happening is that it's a muscle relaxer. And what it does is that it stays in your system only for four or five days. We inject it in certain muscle groups, and as it stops, as it relaxes the muscle, it repairs the flow of blood and the flow of lymphatics to the skin, anti-aging the skin and turning back time for skin. So it's a very useful treatment.

It's not a temporary, it's not a temporary get rid of the crow's feet or the you know, frown lines. The frown lines and stuff.

It is temporary because it is a medication. It is a medication, so it goes into your system just like a medicine, it is injected under the skin, and then it lasts in your body maybe two and a half to three months. If you're very fortunate and young, it may last for four or five months. But as you get older, you know, the the medication lasts, you know, almost two to three months. And then it is time to get it again, just like any other medication, and it's an anti-aging medication. It's one of the fastest-acting anti-aging medications for skin in the world. And uh within 10 days, you can see that the skin has visibly gone back in time. Now, it's not for beauty. Beauty is a different subject altogether. However, if you thought of yourself as beautiful, it will bring you back to that version of self. If you, when you were for the first time in your 20s or for the first time when you were in your 30s, if you didn't think uh of yourself as beautiful, and then suddenly now you are 40 and 50, and we bring you back maybe 10 years, suddenly women start finding themselves beautiful again. Why? Because the first time that they were going through time, they didn't appreciate their beauty as much. But now, because more time had accumulated and other people's opinions did not matter to them anymore in their in that particular decade of life, and they are reconnected back to a prior version of self, they suddenly find themselves beauty, beautiful because their consciousness has developed and grown to find themselves, the find the beauty in their own existence. So that's what I feel that where you know we people mix up this thing that, oh, they they may think that the Botox is making it beautiful. No, honey. You were always beautiful, probably. You just didn't know it back then because you had other issues that you had daddy issues to conquer, you had mommy issues to conquer, you had other issues to conquer, you had partner issues to conquer. However, now the that you have conquered them and we are bringing you back in time, you can appreciate yourself a little more. It's not Botox that's connecting you to beauty. It is perhaps, but it is not that it is going to make you beautiful. It's only connecting to you to a beauty that was already present in you. That version of self existed. We are not creating it out of nowhere. And that is why that when body dyspomorphia occurs in women, it is very painful to watch them because you would find like this is this completely drop-dead, gorgeous person saying that I can't see myself as pretty. What's wrong with me? You know, so that that that uh is the thing. So uh however, I do think that it's an anti-aging medication, it's wonderful and uh it needs to be done in a very um aesthetically pleasing way, it should look natural, it shouldn't alter your perception of self, it shouldn't alter your movement of face because sometimes you know, and people do get addicted to everything, including Botox. So, I mean, just like you can, I but however I tell people that if if you have to choose your toxic substances that you're gonna get addicted to, Botox is not such a bad toxic substance. You know, it stays in your if you know you first of all you'll do it every three months or something, you know, and it is like something that stays in your system for four days, four to five days, it does what it does, and then it's exits your system, and you enjoy the results of that work for the next two, three months. So uh some uh sometimes I joke with my friends that the only toxic substance that you should let enter your system is Botox.

Nothing else. You know, there are any are there any side effects, long-term side effects?

Yes. So again, it is uh uh very technical, it's a very skilled kind of a professional that you have to go to. So uh because it is a toxic substance, you know, it's a toxin. So you need to go to somebody. You want to know that the product being is genuinely used, somebody is trained to do it. And then, yes, you know, just like any tool, any medication has side effects, this has side effects too. However, if done judiciously under the care of somebody who is trained well, uh, you will find that it brings you benefits and you will m escape the side effects. It's just like imagine again, I'm gonna give you a car analogy that you know, uh driving a car, what are the side effects of driving a car? You can die, you can kill someone, you can break a leg, you can break your hair. However, do you drive a car? Yes. From do if you want to get to from point A to point B, in quick, quickly, you should get in a car. Um, and uh it's okay to walk too, but like, you know, you will get there by walking also, but like it's better to go and uh get into a car because you're get guess what, you're in the 21st century now. So uh similarly, uh I think that these medications, if you go to the right practitioner, they will bring you benefit and they will not guide you wrong. Uh so do your research for that matter. But exploring these medications, especially after menopause or during perimenopause or post-menopausally, is very important for women because it it does help. Now it's not gonna make you healthy, it's just gonna make your skin healthy in certain areas of your public facing face. That's really it. So it's not all of the elements of uh healthy and uh vibrant life, but it is a very good element because your appearance of self to yourself will impact your brain and your psyche and how you lead your days.

Yeah. And I guess uh it's like the icing on the cake, isn't it? Like if you've got all of the other things lined up and you're doing all of the other right things and taking care of the body.

Stem Cells Hair Restoration IV Infusions

Yeah, these things are not mutually exclusive. You know, these things are not mutually exclusive. So if somebody's doing Botox, that doesn't mean that they shouldn't eat well and they should not sleep well and they shouldn't exercise and they shouldn't like do. You need to do all of those things. And actually, people who really take good internal and external care of themselves, they are the only ones who actually are uh uh see they see the value of just this because it's not just appearing some like someone, it's also like health is like a uh it's like a full package, it's not like you know, this is just a little tiny slither of uh, you know, icing, as you mentioned, it is uh icing on the cake of your life and your existence, that yes, you also do not have frown lines. Even it doesn't mean that your life is not uh uh it doesn't have chaos in it or you're not facing obstacles in your journey. It just means that you're not wearing your obstacles on your face.

Yeah, yeah. And do you um have you in recent times started to use stem cell therapy? I've heard of the the vampire facial, is it, where the stem cells are injected into this um specifically? Yes.

Yes. So I I I I do I believe in stem cells. So stem cells are stell cells that we draw from your blood. These are cells that have not, these are baby cells that can uh convert into any kind of cells wherever you place them, they're very um uh restoring, and this is like a restorative and uh you know you it will in rejuvenating measure that you can do. However, um before we before in my practice, before we give you stem cells, we also give you a lot of infusions, intravenous infusions, nutrients and elements that make your blood young, because stem cells are derived from usually your own blood. So if your blood is old and is depleted in certain nutrients and minerals and uh uh whatnot, then what will end up happening is that you may not experience the youthfulness that you're seeking with your stem cells. So, because the blood won't be able to yield uh what you're seeking. So you have to first, you know, get your blood uh to that level where it when you when they draw it and they spin it and take out uh the growth factors in stem cells, it has the the power to restore your skin. So, yes, I do believe in, and actually, stem cells let we use them very routinely for hair restoration because one of the earliest symptoms of menopause and perimenopause is hair loss and um uh the repairing hair, because hair is just an extension of your skin. So the when skin chronic skin failure starts happening, um, it shows uh uh in your hair. So stem cells do great wonders for hair uh repair and restoration, and especially anybody who has had a hair transplant, whether it's a man or a woman, they definitely benefit from routine stem cell treatments for the hair. Okay. It's like feeding your hair, yeah, but through the scalp. Yeah, you know, that's it.

Yeah. Well, you mentioned the IV um vitamins and whatnot. What sort of things do you what are those? Are they like um anti-aging supplements that you um deliver intravenously?

Top At-Home Anti-Ageing Protocols

Yes. So intravenous, so basically what ends up happening is again, this is also like something that uh for menopause or andropause people uh uh use it. But uh they were intravenous supplements were first made famous by sports people because uh sports people because they're constantly on the go, they're very health conscious, they're also very weight conscious. Uh so uh in between their strenuous exercise schedules and uh you know work and games, they need uh quick recovery from that work. So sports medicine uh just popularized these uh methods of supplementing yourself. So they were the first ones now. So there are treatments, the intravenous treatments and formulas for sports medicine people, then there are treatments and formulas. So these are basically formulas of different elements and nutrients that we uh procure, and then we put it together. So for sports medicine, these formulas are distinctly different because they require different things. Aesthetics, where we are doing skincare and hair care, is like a slightly bit more complex. We put some more stuff in it. Then we have like infusions for fertility, and uh, you know, so that way where the uh the combinations of nutrients and minerals are completely different and it's a lot more complex. And uh that is that's the that's the you know, so there are various kinds of uh infusion formulas that you would find throughout the world. And uh I have dabbled in all of them, and I love to prepare, so I have my own set of formulas because I've been working on it in uh um for uh almost a decade now. However, uh my favorite formulations are aesthetic formulations and fertility formulations. I don't do as much sports uh um um formulations because they are very simple. Because people who are in sports, they are already super healthy, they're already super energetic, they're basically looking for a little recovery and some hydration. So those are very simple formulations that are like so easily available everywhere. However, beauty is a little more complex, fertility is like totally uh complex, and these days, women, uh girls, we tell them to go and you know, uh freeze their eggs and store their eggs for later use. So that brings us to like really helping them produce better quality eggs. Because listen, your body is gonna, you're the creator, you are going to create these, uh, you're gonna lay these eggs, you know. That's it. So we want to give you the right nutrients. And why do we want people to have the nutrients? Because sometimes what ends up happening is that especially for aesthetics and menopause, your when the uh fertility is pausing, your gut is also pausing. So it's not absorbing all the nourishment that you used to be able to absorb very easily when you were in your 20s and 30s. So we need to bypass the gut and just supply the nutrients to your skin and hair directly. Um, and for fertility, we just want to give you extra nourishment because many times when women are trying to, you know, produce uh good eggs, they are also trying to not gain too much weight because you can't eat your way to all these uh all this nourishment. So I think that uh you know the future of uh mankind is bright because of all this knowledge that we're accumulating at this point.

As long as women are leading and the men don't kill everyone.

Yes, yes, we have to we have to produce better men. Yes, maybe this will help. You know, you have to raise better men, I guess. Yeah, you know. Well, I don't know. I mean, less boring, less, less destructive men would be just the right thing to do for the world at this point.

Yeah, as we come to a close, because we are um we have kind of reached our hour. It just didn't get through it. I know, I didn't get through half of the things, but that's all right. Um everything that you shared has been yeah, really insightful. Can you share with us your top five anti-aging practices or protocols that we can do at home?

Where To Learn More

Have you got top five? So the idea, so yeah. So I have I uh so I actually wrote like this really big article. You can find it in my sub stack also, where it's called DIY, which is do it yourself at home. And there were things that you do it uh yourself, which is like your sleep, your food, your moving your body, meditating. Uh, I also uh recommend women to keep their pelvic uh floor active uh via sex, via whatever stimulation if you sex is not possible. And uh, you know, all those things will allow your body to stay healthy and you know uh energetic. And then beyond uh do it yourself, and there's some supplements that you can purchase um over-the-counter, um, uh some stuff that we you know essentially some um uh brain protective supplements and some uh gut protective supplements, and also for your bone bone health, you know, take your adequate amounts of protein. So those things aside, there are beyond DIY things for which you need to find a doctor. So that is like a uh, you know, will please follow me on Substack, Sophia D. And then um my podcast, yes, my podcast is Bathroom Diaries, where I go on, like I try to go in at least twice a month, and we um go in depth uh in deep dives into different things and we demystify some of these wellness and longevity protocols and uh procedures and treatments uh for people. And uh I would welcome your audience to uh come and give it a listen. And I hope, you know, even if you uh we're able to um, you know, help one person, I feel that I've done my work, but you know, the more the merrier.

Amazing. We're gonna share your links in the show notes, and we've also got a guest directory, so we'll put your profile into the guest directory and the links will be there as well. Um, as I mentioned earlier in the conversation, I think this is a movement, and with people uh like you at the forefront, um yeah, it the future sounds bright. Thank you so much for joining us. Um yeah, it's been a really great conversation. Loved it. Thank you so much. Hey there, Rebel. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Midlife Rebel Podcast. If you'd like to support the show, you can buy me a coffee by going to Buy MeACoffee forward slash Midlife Rebel Podcast. Thanks for listening.