About this episode

This episode discusses the impact of menopause on weight loss and the nervous system, highlighting overlooked factors in women's health during this transition.

When your labs look normal but you still can't lose weight, the missing piece isn't usually more supplements or another protocol. It's often what's happening in your nervous system and how your body responds to years of accumulated stress. If you're a woman in your 40s or 50s who has optimized everything (sleep, diet, exercise, stress management) and still feel stuck, perimenopause and menopause can look like the finish line. Instead, for many, it becomes the moment when fatigue, weight gain, and brain fog hit differently than before. What most providers miss is that menopause is often a trigger point for long COVID and ME/CFS, and the standard functional medicine approach doesn't always account for what's actually driving the fatigue at this stage of life. In this episode, you'll learn: Why menopause becomes a trigger point for long COVID and ME/CFS, and what standard functional medicine misses about this transition How the nervous system's amygdala gets stuck in survival mode after decades of stress, shutting down immunity, digestion, and hormone production simultaneously The testing approach that includes Dutch Plus hormonal panels, GI mapping, and heavy metal screening Two…

People in this episode

Host: Evan H. Hirsch, MD

Guest: Maraya Brown

Topics covered

• menopause
• weight loss
• nervous system
• long COVID
• ME/CFS
• stress management
• functional medicine

Keywords

• menopause
• weight loss
• nervous system
• long COVID
• ME/CFS
• stress
• functional medicine
• fatigue
• hormones

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