Speaker 1: You're listening to I'm on the MEA podcast. What if
Speaker 1: I need to pooh? I'm all right for now, but
Speaker 1: I might because I've had to coffee early, just letting
Speaker 1: you know, But right now I'm okay. Have we sun
Speaker 1: a record?
Speaker 2: Hello there, I am Doctor Ginny Mansburg and welcome to
Speaker 2: the brand new era of Well, the podcast for Your
Speaker 2: Health and Body Explained. I am the new resident doctor
Speaker 2: for will WHO. I'm a general practitioner, I'm a women's
Speaker 2: health expert, and I'm basically here to talk about the annoying,
Speaker 2: the embarrassing, and the scary when it comes to women's health,
Speaker 2: basically all of my absolute favorite topics.
Speaker 1: Hello, and I'm Caath Mahoney. I am a comedian. I'm
Speaker 1: an author and a podcaster. You might be wondering why
Speaker 1: a comedian is on a health podcast. Well, let me
Speaker 1: tell you the very most important thing you need to
Speaker 1: know about me before a comedian, I am actually a hypochondriac.
Speaker 1: So being on this podcast is like a dream. I
Speaker 1: get to sit here with Dr Ginny once a week
Speaker 1: and just ask her all the things that are going
Speaker 1: through my head. And I can also ask the questions
Speaker 1: that you might want to ask, And if you've listened
Speaker 1: to Unleash, the podcast for Women who need a laugh,
Speaker 1: you know that I will go there with the questions,
Speaker 1: warning and apologies ahead. You're in for a ride because
Speaker 1: nothing is off limits? Am I right? Doctor Ginny?
Speaker 2: You are right, cav because the chances are certainly in
Speaker 2: my case, I've heard it, I've seen it, I've probably
Speaker 2: smelt it and touched it and traded it all before.
Speaker 2: So here's what you can expect from the brand new Well,
Speaker 2: What the Health? What's happening in health news and the
Speaker 2: latest trends popping up on your feed?
Speaker 1: Are You Well?
Speaker 2: A deep dive into two topics the hottest health subjects
Speaker 2: that women don't just ask enough about. So this week
Speaker 2: we've got hydration and pre diabetes, let's face it, both
Speaker 2: of our favorite segment of Well It is asking for
Speaker 2: a Friend, which is your anonymous, probably very awkward health
Speaker 2: questions that you can leave us as a voice note,
Speaker 2: very very anonymous right there, and they're going to be
Speaker 2: answered by me.
Speaker 1: I might just be sliding a few asking for a
Speaker 1: friend on behalf of myself.
Speaker 2: One's in this season, who knows anyway. But first it's
Speaker 2: time for What the health. Which is your quick dose
Speaker 2: of women's health headlines? What? Oh what? I don't understand
Speaker 2: what the health?
Speaker 1: So what have you got frustrated? Okay?
Speaker 2: First of all, I wanted to talk about HRT because
Speaker 2: caath it is still not that available. Patches are just
Speaker 2: dripping into the country. A lot of women are turning
Speaker 2: to the gels. There is also a spray that has
Speaker 2: been around in the UK. My whole periposse has been
Speaker 2: onto it in the UK for ages. It is now
Speaker 2: here in Australia.
Speaker 1: Oh spray. Okay, what's the difference between the gel and
Speaker 1: the spray?
Speaker 2: Exactly what it says on the tin ones you have
Speaker 2: to rub it in that No, you have to not
Speaker 2: rub it in. You have to like stand with your
Speaker 2: legs apart on your inner thighs and just wait for
Speaker 2: it to try it.
Speaker 1: Good luck doing that in the hottest parts of summer. Right,
Speaker 1: What have you got next, doctor, Jenny so Cat.
Speaker 2: I always love a big study, especially one with one
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty thousand people that goes for thirty years.
Speaker 1: Holy moly, that is a big study.
Speaker 2: It is a big study and it basically confirmed that
Speaker 2: between ninety and one hundred and twenty minutes of my
Speaker 2: worst thing in the entire planet. Strength training is not
Speaker 2: only really good for your muscles, but it also seems
Speaker 2: to lower your risk of death as well as things
Speaker 2: like diabetes and certain cancers as well. So I'm just
Speaker 2: going to have to pull my finger out and do it.
Speaker 1: So how many minutes were talking?
Speaker 2: Did you say? Half and half to two hours per week?
Speaker 2: What I loved about this study was that for all
Speaker 2: of us who just dread that whole process, more than
Speaker 2: one hundred and twenty minutes did not add anything to
Speaker 2: your life expectancy. So in good news, you can.
Speaker 1: Top out there. Okay, so you and I both need
Speaker 1: to literally pull our finger out and start lifting. So,
Speaker 1: as you know, my algorithm serves me up a lot
Speaker 1: of medical and beauty advice at three am when I'm scrolling.
Speaker 1: The latest thing I'm seeing a lot of is testosterone
Speaker 1: cream being used as part of people's facials. So testosterone is,
Speaker 1: you know, is a hormone replacement therapy, isn't it?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Full libido?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Is this a new thing, doctor Ginny or are
Speaker 1: they bonkers?
Speaker 2: They're bonkers? But I've been seeing this as well, so
Speaker 2: I think the thought is that you know, testosterone is
Speaker 2: the latest hippist like everything for anti aging. By the way,
Speaker 2: hint hint, don't really have evidence for that, and so
Speaker 2: people are thinking that that if they stick it straight
Speaker 2: on their face, they'll grow more collagen and it will
Speaker 2: be an awesome anti aging treatment. So basically, it's really
Speaker 2: really good for growing massive zits and really great for
Speaker 2: growing a mustache and a nice thick beard if that's
Speaker 2: the look you're going.
Speaker 1: For, or wow it to you.
Speaker 2: For the rest of us who just want to get
Speaker 2: our glow on, I'm saying no.
Speaker 1: You're saying no. Yeah, yeah, I'm saying no to the
Speaker 1: beard and the acne for my new Tinder profile. So
Speaker 1: that's so I'll just stick with my normal nighttime routine.
Speaker 1: That's what I'd do, right, thanks to to Jenny.
Speaker 3: Up.
Speaker 1: Next, it's time for are you Well? And what we
Speaker 1: really really need to act is water. We will be
Speaker 1: unpacking my adequate hydration is doing way more for your
Speaker 1: hormonal health, energy and skin than you might think. How
Speaker 1: are you well?
Speaker 2: How are you feeling?
Speaker 1: Are you well? Are you well?
Speaker 2: Alrighty, it is time for are you Well, where we
Speaker 2: discuss the most important things that you need to know
Speaker 2: that are happening in women's health right now, and today
Speaker 2: we're going to do something that seems like a bit
Speaker 2: of a no brainer but can actually be a lot
Speaker 2: more important than people realize, and that is your basic water.
Speaker 2: So grab hold of that emotional support water bottle. Kath
Speaker 2: currently has a three later one sitting in front of her,
Speaker 2: that one that you've been carrying absolutely everywhere, because today
Speaker 2: we are chatting about why adequate hydration is doing way
Speaker 2: more for your health, your energy, and even your skin
Speaker 2: than you think. And it's time for the science of hydration.
Speaker 2: I'm very excited about this. As a two liter guzzler,
Speaker 2: I want to feel smug at the end of this segment.
Speaker 2: I want to know it all hit me with that. Well,
Speaker 2: now to just decrease your smugness, we have a quiz,
Speaker 2: and my quiz question for you is this, cas how
Speaker 2: much of your body is made.
Speaker 1: Up of water? Two literas? Are you on a percentage forty?
Speaker 2: There's actually sixty percent. I've actually dread up to like
Speaker 2: higher than that, like even up to eighty percent of
Speaker 2: your body in some calculations is made of water. Wow,
Speaker 2: you're basically bluid, which explains why you spend half your
Speaker 2: life running to the toilet every time. She just says,
Speaker 2: I'll just pop to the.
Speaker 1: Low Ginnie's like you're going again. I do go the
Speaker 1: toilet a lot. So yeah, that.
Speaker 2: Sixty percent is quite an interesting figure. And what the
Speaker 2: National Health of Medical Research Council has told us, and
Speaker 2: they are like the Grand poo Bars of all things science,
Speaker 2: they have said that as little as two percent of
Speaker 2: dehydration in your body, you're going to feel it, and
Speaker 2: you're going to feel sluggish, You're going to feel tired.
Speaker 2: Your brain performance is going to go down like it's
Speaker 2: going to really impact you. And we know that look
Speaker 2: like you hadn't get away with a little bit of
Speaker 2: dehydration from time to time, but if it happens chronically,
Speaker 2: one thing for sure we know is that you definitely
Speaker 2: get more. Kidney stones can be really quite rough on
Speaker 2: your kidneys. It's linked to higher cancer rates like urinary
Speaker 2: track cancers and bowel cancer. And then this condition in
Speaker 2: the heart called mitral valve prolapse, which gives you lots
Speaker 2: of palpitations, doesn't feel too good, as well as just
Speaker 2: generally reduced physical and mental performance. Cath You are not
Speaker 2: at risk.
Speaker 1: No, but I used to be Hans. Now I've got
Speaker 1: my big bottle.
Speaker 2: What made you stop?
Speaker 1: I ended up getting a thing called dive particulitis. So
Speaker 1: the specialist was like two elitists from now on, because
Speaker 1: I literally I feel very embarrassed to say this was
Speaker 1: a was really like I drank coffee and maybe a
Speaker 1: little small glass of water. I just didn't.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but that's not bad. Like I think a lot
Speaker 2: of people think that coffee dehydrates you, which is a
Speaker 2: bit of an old school idea, and that when we
Speaker 2: talk about fluid a day, because women need two point
Speaker 2: one leaders of fluid a day unless they're pregnant, and
Speaker 2: he goes up to two point three then, which is
Speaker 2: not bad three leads for breastfeeding women, people think that
Speaker 2: that has to be water, like obviously for calories purposes,
Speaker 2: we don't want you having too much our cold cordy
Speaker 2: or fruit juice, coke, things like that. But from a
Speaker 2: pure fluid perspective.
Speaker 1: Fluid is fluid. Okay, So I've got a fair idea
Speaker 1: of what two point one liters is because me and
Speaker 1: a big bottle go everywhere. But for those listening, what
Speaker 1: is that? And say water bowls Mount Franklin water balls.
Speaker 2: A Mount Franklin water bottle about three seventy five, so
Speaker 2: maybe four and a cup of coffee for two hundred
Speaker 2: and fifty meals.
Speaker 1: For a cup of coffee, takeaway coffee is probably.
Speaker 2: Two hundred meals, thinking about like a glass of wine
Speaker 2: is meant to be one hundred meals. That's a standard
Speaker 2: glass of wine. If you think that you or getting
Speaker 2: the mid afternoon slumps because your hydration is starting to
Speaker 2: catch up with you, then maybe at the beginning, measure
Speaker 2: out two point one leaders and actually just see what
Speaker 2: it looks like in cups, and then you'll have a
Speaker 2: fair idea of what you need to be doing in
Speaker 2: your life to actually get your hydration up to speed.
Speaker 1: Dehydration, like that word just makes me think of somebody
Speaker 1: in the Desertah kind of crawling towards a mirage of water.
Speaker 1: What does dehydration actually mean? Like what is considered as dehydration?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's hard, Like it's not like I can do
Speaker 2: a blood test on you and go, oh, you're dehydrated.
Speaker 2: Probably you'll know because you'll be thirsty, and even if
Speaker 2: you're not aware of your thirst, you might just feel
Speaker 2: like a bit sluggish, like you might have that mid
Speaker 2: afternoon slump and you think you need a sneaker's bar,
Speaker 2: but probably you'd be better off grabbing your emotional support
Speaker 2: water bottle.
Speaker 1: I mean, look, as a hypochondriac, I would be going
Speaker 1: on to doctor Google presuming some of these symptoms with
Speaker 1: something far worse. I mean, do women even think that
Speaker 1: maybe it's dehydration that's the problem.
Speaker 2: Think so the women that I who are often dehydrated,
Speaker 2: and I often work it out when I ask for
Speaker 2: a urine sample and I see this brown sludge going no,
Speaker 2: you know, kind of dark you're an instead of pale yellow.
Speaker 2: A lot of the women that I see are worried
Speaker 2: about incontinents, and they're worried about not being able to
Speaker 2: make it to the toilet. So if they're going to
Speaker 2: be on a bus, or if they're going to be
Speaker 2: in a long meeting, or if they're going to be
Speaker 2: going out for drinks with the girls, and they don't
Speaker 2: want to have to sit on the toilet all the time,
Speaker 2: they start with holding their own fluid in the hope
Speaker 2: that they don't need to wet their pants. And that's huge.
Speaker 2: That happens way more than people talk about because no
Speaker 2: one talks about incontinent and so I think women have
Speaker 2: got to come up with a solution to their incontinents
Speaker 2: and start drinking again so they feel more energetic.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and there are actually toilets everywhere I know. All right,
Speaker 1: So you mentioned like a scludgy color, and then we
Speaker 1: talked about like a deeper yellow on the color wheel.
Speaker 1: Where would we want to be in a hydrated points
Speaker 1: of view.
Speaker 2: So let's talk about what you're going to see in
Speaker 2: the toilet bowl, which is going to be dialed in
Speaker 2: a whole lot of water.
Speaker 1: Do you know I never even thought of that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So what you wi is going to go much
Speaker 2: paler in the toilet, So it already should be a
Speaker 2: fairly pale yellow, okay, and be not water colored but
Speaker 2: not far off water. Like a very pale yellow is
Speaker 2: well hydrated. If you do a wee in the toilet,
Speaker 2: mind you, your first way of the morning is always
Speaker 2: more concentrated, because your body does that by design overnight
Speaker 2: to stop you from having to wee every two minutes.
Speaker 2: So the first one of the morning can be a
Speaker 2: darker orange, but for the rest of the day, we're
Speaker 2: talking pale, pale yellow in the toilet is ideal.
Speaker 1: Okay, unless you've had a bronka, because I get a shock.
Speaker 1: All right, Jinny, so on, behalf of women everywhere confused
Speaker 1: at how much water we should be drinking. I'm so
Speaker 1: excited to do this. I have some rapid fire myth
Speaker 1: busters for you. Are you ready?
Speaker 2: I'mlimbering up here.
Speaker 1: Number one, is it really eight glasses a day? And
Speaker 1: are we talking tumblers or schooners here?
Speaker 2: Two point one leaders? However, that comes more if you're pregnant,
Speaker 2: more if you're exercising a lot and doing a lot
Speaker 2: of sweating.
Speaker 1: Number two, I mean, I love carrying around my giant
Speaker 1: drink bottle. As we've discussed, But is it possible to
Speaker 1: drink too much water?
Speaker 2: In theory, you got to drink a lot, like You've
Speaker 2: got to be sculling about a liter an hour for many,
Speaker 2: many hours to wash the sodium out of your bloodstream altogether.
Speaker 2: That tends to happen when people are very own well.
Speaker 1: Because you tend to stop yourself.
Speaker 2: You feel sick drinking that much water, and you tend
Speaker 2: to put a stop on yourself.
Speaker 1: Number three, Can you be hydrated by liquids other than water.
Speaker 2: Yes, I will take like any liquid counts towards your
Speaker 2: your total amount. The thing is, though, it's often laden
Speaker 2: with calories and a lot of sugar, bad for your teeth.
Speaker 2: So the best thing is water or tea or coffee.
Speaker 2: But if you really want to contribute a coke to that,
Speaker 2: that's fine. It's okay, great. No taken number four. Does
Speaker 2: coffee really dehydrate you?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 1: Doesn't. No, that's a myth.
Speaker 2: That's a myth.
Speaker 1: That is a myth. Okay, we're getting rid of that one.
Speaker 1: And number five, if you wait until you're thirsty to drink,
Speaker 1: is it too late?
Speaker 2: No, that's a myth too. That's fine.
Speaker 1: Up next, are you well? We need to talk about
Speaker 1: something else that is really important. It's a condition that
Speaker 1: affects one in three adults, but a massive eighty percent
Speaker 1: of them have no idea it's even happening.
Speaker 2: For our next are you well, we're going to take
Speaker 2: a slightly doom and gloom turn because it's about something
Speaker 2: affecting a staggering one in four assie adults, which is
Speaker 2: pre diabetes one in four. Yeah, it's crazy. Now the
Speaker 2: thing that is really mad, here's a stat for you.
Speaker 2: Eighty percent of people with pre diabetes have got no
Speaker 2: idea that they've got it, and off the twenty percent
Speaker 2: who know, most don't realize it's a problem. So, Cath,
Speaker 2: we're going to talk about what pre diabetes is, why
Speaker 2: so many people have got no idea that they've got it,
Speaker 2: and whether there's anything you can do about it and
Speaker 2: even reverse it altogether.
Speaker 1: Okay, Okay, So doctor Jenny, I feel like I know
Speaker 1: the term pre diabetes, but I don't actually know what
Speaker 1: it means.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so it sounds like it's the thing that comes
Speaker 2: before diabetes, which is a generally there's two types of diabetes.
Speaker 2: There's one where you don't make enough insulin. That's an
Speaker 2: autoimmune condition that tends to start in your teens or
Speaker 2: even in early childhood, and then the more common type
Speaker 2: two diabetes, where you make enough insulin at least in
Speaker 2: the early parts, but your cells don't respond to it,
Speaker 2: and as a result of that, your sugar levels in
Speaker 2: your blood go up, and those high sugar levels drive
Speaker 2: a whole lot of changes in your body that increase
Speaker 2: your risk of chronic conditions like having a heart attack,
Speaker 2: a stroke, destroying the arteries that actually supply your legs,
Speaker 2: but other things as well, causing cataracts. So diabetes, if
Speaker 2: it's not well controlled, is a major contributor to poor
Speaker 2: health in Australia. So pre diabetes is what comes before
Speaker 2: you get to diabetes. It's not inevitable, but it is
Speaker 2: diagnosed based on numbers. So if you wake up in
Speaker 2: the morning and take a sugar level and your sugar
Speaker 2: is over seven consistently, that probably means that you have diabetes.
Speaker 2: There are other blood tests we can do to confirm that.
Speaker 2: But if you wake up with a blood sugar level
Speaker 2: of five point five or below, we call that normal.
Speaker 2: Well what about that gray zone of people who are
Speaker 2: maybe six or six point two or five point seven.
Speaker 2: They've always been in this gray zone that we didn't
Speaker 2: know what to call it, and now we call it
Speaker 2: pre diabetes. With the higher that sugar level, the closer
Speaker 2: you are to diabetes, the worse it is, and the
Speaker 2: more likely you are to eventually go on to get diabetes.
Speaker 1: Okay, So with pre diabetes, what symptoms might somebody be showing.
Speaker 2: They're probably not going to have any and you won't
Speaker 2: know it until you have a blood test per se.
Speaker 2: And that's a problem because not everybody just routinely goes
Speaker 2: and gets a blood test, You've got to think about it.
Speaker 2: Go to your doctor, book in for a checkup. And
Speaker 2: what gps do generally is every few years we run
Speaker 2: this thing called the os D Risk Score, and we
Speaker 2: put into an algorithm a whole lot of things like
Speaker 2: your height, your weight, your family history, if you've got
Speaker 2: gestational diabetes when you're pregnant. We put those into a
Speaker 2: calculator that spits out a number of that says, yet
Speaker 2: you need a blood sugar test. The thing is that
Speaker 2: a lot of us don't go to the doctor for
Speaker 2: just to check up. We go when we've got a
Speaker 2: cold or we've got a sprained ankle, and the GP
Speaker 2: runs out of time to actually do those preventive things
Speaker 2: as well. So too few of us are getting the
Speaker 2: os D risk check and getting a sugar level. So
Speaker 2: by the time we find out we've got pre diabetes,
Speaker 2: we might have had it for years.
Speaker 1: Is there an age where we're more likely to have
Speaker 1: it or is it not age related?
Speaker 2: It used to be one of those things that you
Speaker 2: only ever got sort of in midlife, in your fifties,
Speaker 2: that kind of thing. But we're seeing with maybe more
Speaker 2: processed foods with more sedentary kind of lifestyle, so you
Speaker 2: sitting around like a couch potato and not doing as
Speaker 2: much running as you used to do. It's starting earlier
Speaker 2: and earlier, And so we're meant to screen women who
Speaker 2: have ever had gestational diabetes regularly for it with that
Speaker 2: oral glucose tolerance test. Remember that test that you had
Speaker 2: when you're pregnant. So you have a little bit of
Speaker 2: a sugary drink and then they do a few blood
Speaker 2: tests to see how your body handles sugar. You're meant
Speaker 2: to do that regularly forever after after you've had a
Speaker 2: gestational diabetes. But again, a lot of women are falling
Speaker 2: off the radar and we're not doing the testing we're
Speaker 2: meant to do.
Speaker 1: What about being tested for pre diabetes? Like how often
Speaker 1: should people, potentially in an ideal world be getting a test.
Speaker 2: So if you score high on an osdi risk, we
Speaker 2: would do that at least every three years, But if
Speaker 2: we find that you've got pre diabetes, then we're going
Speaker 2: to do it every year while we rapidly try to
Speaker 2: reverse course.
Speaker 1: Is it reversible?
Speaker 2: It's totally reversible, Like there is not an inevitability that
Speaker 2: you're going to go on to get diabetes. But we
Speaker 2: do need to do certain changes to your lifestyle, and
Speaker 2: it's mainly going to be around diet.
Speaker 1: Okay, So what sort of stuff would we be changing because.
Speaker 2: The boring the others that we say for pretty much
Speaker 2: every single you.
Speaker 1: To tell me I can't do any of the good stuff,
Speaker 1: aren't you?
Speaker 2: There are good carbs out there, like a whole grain
Speaker 2: bread or a lentil is a good carb, right, But
Speaker 2: like a packaged lolly chocolate, he's a bad cup. Well,
Speaker 2: that's a bad cup. Unfortunately, Katha and I are big
Speaker 2: fans of the lollies. We generally can't record any podcast
Speaker 2: without a bowl of lollies between us. But unfortunately they're
Speaker 2: now off the agenda for any kind of pre diabetics.
Speaker 2: But even things like a lot of my patients think
Speaker 2: that like sushi is really really good for you. It's
Speaker 2: a health food sushi. No sure grain rice, especially when
Speaker 2: it's covered in sugar, which is part of the like
Speaker 2: the sushi rice treatment is really not good for you.
Speaker 2: I'm happy for you to go and have some sashimi
Speaker 2: and some otamami beans. We've got to really slow down
Speaker 2: on the white rice, sushi potatoes. Big potatoes are really
Speaker 2: bad as well as I love a jacket potato.
Speaker 1: How do you sushi? Not once a week with my son? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you don't have to diabetes, You're okay, but I could.
Speaker 1: I've not a tag. I might have to cut this short.
Speaker 2: But yeah, unfortunately, chips like the enemy even so, like hot.
Speaker 1: Chips or a bag of crisps both.
Speaker 2: So well, if you're going to have potato, the small
Speaker 2: little mini potatoes are the better ones. But it's actually
Speaker 2: not the enemy. Actually when it comes to this sort
Speaker 2: of case, really it's your processed cards in your high
Speaker 2: glycemic index cards. Iscemic index refers to how quickly sugar
Speaker 2: goes from your guts into your bloodstream, right, and so
Speaker 2: the quicker that is the worst it is for you. Okay,
Speaker 2: So sadly, you've got to do a major diet overhaul.
Speaker 2: We've got to put way more fruit and veggies in,
Speaker 2: way more fiber into your diet. Got to do the protein,
Speaker 2: you know, all the boring stuff like it's not it's
Speaker 2: not your caprioscars.
Speaker 1: Let's just put it that way.
Speaker 2: I'd prefer you to have. You got to have something
Speaker 2: we can do like a vodka and soda. But we're
Speaker 2: not going to be doing all your your high.
Speaker 1: Sugary cocktails either, Okay.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And then we're going to do some exercise caf.
Speaker 2: We're going to do some regular we're going to do walks,
Speaker 2: we're going to do some weights. Hello, we'll throw in
Speaker 2: for free less can so we're going to throw in
Speaker 2: you know, better longevity, less chance of getting all the
Speaker 2: big diseases. So like that's a bargain. That's a bargain
Speaker 2: for you. We take it. Yeah, And they're going to
Speaker 2: be the major things that we're going to do to
Speaker 2: actually head this off at the past, because that's really
Speaker 2: important at this stage.
Speaker 1: Wow, Okay, came into your podcast leaving having to rethink
Speaker 1: my entire week's food for me and my son. That's
Speaker 1: a lot to take in, isn't it.
Speaker 2: It is? And I wish I could say eat what
Speaker 2: you want and just take this vitamin and it will
Speaker 2: all be okay. I think we've sold a lot of
Speaker 2: crap on TikTok that is like, don't worry about it.
Speaker 2: There are simple solutions. They just cost a bomb. Unfortunately,
Speaker 2: the evidence for good diet and exercise is just getting stronger.
Speaker 2: For absolutely everything from mental health to disease prevention to
Speaker 2: just feeling better day to day. And I would like
Speaker 2: to tell you don't need to eat a salad, but
Speaker 2: you do, so your best way of doing this. You
Speaker 2: want to know my absolute gold star, gold plated idea,
Speaker 2: Please go to a chatbot. I know you're in love
Speaker 2: with Claude, so Claude in your case might be Chatters
Speaker 2: in my case, and you just put in there. I'm
Speaker 2: not good at eating salad. I don't like this, that and
Speaker 2: the other. I don't have a lot of time. Here's
Speaker 2: what I can do, Here's what I like. Can you
Speaker 2: design me a menu and let chat GPT or Claude
Speaker 2: or Gemini design a doable but healthy lifestyle for you
Speaker 2: that is not going to make you freak out?
Speaker 1: Ope. Next, asking for a friend your awkward house questions
Speaker 1: answered by doctor Ginny that we all know aren't actually
Speaker 1: about your friend, but we pretend they are Anyway. I
Speaker 1: love this bit. Oh it's time for my favorite.
Speaker 2: I'm just asking for a friend, so my friend they
Speaker 2: want to know it's not for me chat just asking
Speaker 2: for a friend.
Speaker 1: Okay, we got two this week. The first question comes
Speaker 1: from Sarah, who's forty one.
Speaker 3: My friend had a marina put in a while ago.
Speaker 3: It's helped with really heavy periods in the iron. Good
Speaker 3: news is her iron levels of filing about normal. But
Speaker 3: now she's spotting every few days. The bleeding isn't heavy,
Speaker 3: but it can last anywhere from one to five days,
Speaker 3: and she feels like she's constantly dealing with it. She's
Speaker 3: also noticed quite a strong smell whenever she's bleeding.
Speaker 1: She's not sure what to do.
Speaker 3: The marina has fixed one problem, but it feels like
Speaker 3: it's created another. Is this normal or should she get
Speaker 3: it checked out?
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 2: First of all, what's a marina? For those that don't know,
Speaker 2: it's an intra uterine contraceptive device. It's about like three
Speaker 2: centimeters long and it gets inserted via the vagina inside
Speaker 2: the uterus as a long acting contraceptive. Unlike a copper tea,
Speaker 2: for example, which is another intro uterine device, it actually
Speaker 2: secretes a little bit of progesterone every single day, a
Speaker 2: small amount that thins the lining of the uterus and
Speaker 2: actually helps stop heavy bleeding.
Speaker 1: Didn't work for May to go into the copper one?
Speaker 2: Really, yes, because a couple one can make you hit
Speaker 2: your periods heavier, which it did, I wouldn't have it.
Speaker 2: We're out of that section. Yeah, I mean Sarah, it
Speaker 2: wouldn't have been good for her.
Speaker 1: So what are you saying to Sarah?
Speaker 2: Look, I think for Sarah's friend, because it's definitely not Sarah. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I would say, I would say Sarah's friend that the
Speaker 2: spotting is pretty much expected. I mean, it's part of
Speaker 2: the course for at least two to three months. And
Speaker 2: what is the difference between like a bleed and spotting? So,
Speaker 2: I mean it's a really like war thing. But I
Speaker 2: think for most people, if it's brown blood, which kind
Speaker 2: of tells us it's old, and it's not enough to
Speaker 2: wear a tampon, but just like enough for a panty liner,
Speaker 2: we'll call that spotting, okay. Whereas if it feels like
Speaker 2: a period, that's a full blown blade. That's less common
Speaker 2: on a Marina, way less common. But if you're just
Speaker 2: getting a bit of spotting for the first two to
Speaker 2: three months, I wouldn't even go and see your GP.
Speaker 2: They should have told you to expect that, and that
Speaker 2: is completely normal. If it's going on at the three
Speaker 2: month mark, maybe.
Speaker 1: Do a telehealth.
Speaker 2: Probably your GP will say let's wait for another three
Speaker 2: months before we start investigating anything, and it usually has
Speaker 2: settled down by that time, and then you've got five
Speaker 2: years of practically no bleeding, which is bargain for me.
Speaker 2: The other thing, though, is she mentioned a funny smell
Speaker 2: and she could have bacterial vaginosis, so.
Speaker 1: It might not be connected to towards the marina.
Speaker 2: It might not be atal, but there are also some
Speaker 2: smelly sexually transmitted infection. So I always think, with a
Speaker 2: bad smell, probably go to a GP and get that
Speaker 2: checked out. I don't. I'm not aware of that being
Speaker 2: associated with a marina at all.
Speaker 1: So Sarah's friend it should potentially go and see a doctor.
Speaker 2: Yeah about the smell only?
Speaker 1: Yes, Okay, all right, I've got another dilemma for you, Ginny.
Speaker 1: The question comes from Ange Ange is forty nine yep,
Speaker 1: asking for a friend how much forgetfulness is actually normal?
Speaker 1: They swear they're fine, but they're constantly losing their keys,
Speaker 1: forgetting why they walked into a room, and blanking on
Speaker 1: people's names. At what point does forgetfulness go from being
Speaker 1: a normal part of life to something that should be
Speaker 1: by a doctor. And are there any signs that suggest
Speaker 1: it could be more than just being busy, stressed or
Speaker 1: getting older.
Speaker 2: So and your friend is forty nine and she's in
Speaker 2: plum perry age, and everything that you have described your
Speaker 2: friend going through is pretty much out of the textbook.
Speaker 1: For the eighty.
Speaker 2: Percent of women who report getting brain fog around Perry menopause,
Speaker 2: and that is made worse by any hot flushes, insomnia
Speaker 2: which is really ubiquitous around Perry, and any moody shoes,
Speaker 2: which is one in three women get a moody shoe
Speaker 2: around Perry, and those three seem to be the drivers
Speaker 2: of your brain fog. Having said all of which, it
Speaker 2: is always going to be worse if you are drinking
Speaker 2: more so, try.
Speaker 1: Cutting out our chi Lisa, the water. We're talking alcohol.
Speaker 2: No, we're talking about your ALCOHOLA I would tell your
Speaker 2: friend maybe to go dry July, Augus, September, October, November
Speaker 2: and see how that goes for her, maybe eating a
Speaker 2: bit better. A lot of us turn to a lot
Speaker 2: more jelly snakes, beavars around that period time because you
Speaker 2: just feel so dreadful. So I would just give that
Speaker 2: a shot. See if exercise helps, because that does seem
Speaker 2: to help a lot with brain fog. Whether it's come
Speaker 2: from chemo brain or post COVID brain. Everybody, everything seems
Speaker 2: to respond quite well to exercise. And just to reassure
Speaker 2: your friend, to get dementia before the age of sixty
Speaker 2: five is exceptionally rare. I mean, it tends to happen
Speaker 2: more with these particular genetic conditions that you'll probably know
Speaker 2: about because maybe mum had dementia at like fifty seven
Speaker 2: fifty eight and you got told that it could be
Speaker 2: in your future. But it's it's so rare, and brain
Speaker 2: fog is so common. I would tell your friend not
Speaker 2: to worry, but do those couple of lifestyle tweaks to
Speaker 2: see if we can help it along.
Speaker 1: Perfect.
Speaker 2: Okay, that is it from us. Gosh, that went quickly.
Speaker 1: Guys, don't forget.
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Speaker 1: And if you want to hear your asking for a
Speaker 1: friend question, send us an email or voice note to
Speaker 1: well at mammamea dot com dot au and we When
Speaker 1: I say we, I mean Dr Ginny. We'll get to
Speaker 1: the bottom of it. And please remember information discussed in
Speaker 1: this podcast is for education purposes only and is not
Speaker 1: intended to provide professional medical advice. Please seek your own
Speaker 1: medical advice specific to your circumstances from your healthcare professional.
Speaker 1: See you next time, Stay well.
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