Root Causes of Slow Metabolism and Cravings with Dr. Jessie Hehmeyer [Ep. 120]

0:00 This is the eat well. Well live well podcast. I'm Lisa Salsbury, and this is episode 120. Root causes of slow metabolism and cravings with Dr. Jesse. Hey Meyer. Dr. Haimer. Meyer is here with me today for a conversation on metabolism and cravings. She is passionate about guiding you and creating the health and vitality that transforms your experience of life and alters what is possible. Dr. H takes a root cause. Natural medicine approach that Mary's heart and science. And I think you'll really see how she does that today. Before we go any farther. Let me just apologize for my slightly croaky voice. I am struggling with a chest cold of some sort this week. So I'm sorry. My voice sounds a little off ear in this intro, as well as during the interview, bear with me.

0:49 Welcome to Eat Well, Think Well, Live Well; the podcast for women who want to lose weight, but are tired of counting and calculating all the food. I'm your host, Lisa Salsbury. I'm a certified health and weight loss coach and life coach, and most importantly a recovered chronic dieter. I'll teach you to figure out why you are eating when you aren't hungry, instead of worrying so much about what you are eating. Welcome back to the eat well, think well, live well podcast. I'm delighted to have Dr. Jesse Haymeier here, Dr. H or Dr. Jesse, lots of names. So welcome to the podcast. We have a great conversation planned. So I'm going to let you introduce yourself, let us know a little bit about what you do, and then we will get going.

1:33 Awesome. Thank you so much, Lisa. It's such a pleasure to be here with you and your community. And yes, I am Dr. H. Jessie Hemeyer, and I practice heart centered, data driven, functional medicine. And, uh, you might also call that heart centered, data driven, natural medicine. And really, the people who I partner with, we are working together to Solve health mysteries to resolve conundrums, whether it's around weight or around hormones or around digestion or skin.

2:13 And ultimately through identifying the root cause, facilitate the body's healing. And to me, all of this work that we do is really in service of one thing. And that is. People thriving, people thriving and inspiring others to do the same. And I see our health and vitality is the foundation that makes that possible. I love thinking about our healthcare system as helping us live better rather than just helping us avoid sickness. And of course, like our, You know, our sort of quote unquote, regular doctors are a little bit overwhelmed. Our primary care doctors is really the word they're overwhelmed with, you know, managing illness, of course.

2:56 And so I love that you are in this space, helping people to just live better, taking their health up to, you know, a higher notch and to really just attack those, Those niggling things, the kind of mysteries that were just like, is there something wrong with me? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I know there's something wrong, but no one can figure it out. So I'm glad we have people like you out there doing this work. So we are going to talk a little bit about metabolism today. So jumping into your work with, um, some weight loss, probably some mysteries there for your clients. What, what is going on there? So one of the things that you are. Really expert at is slow metabolism and root cause of what's going on there So, can you tell us a little bit more about?

3:43 The top three root causes of a slow metabolism Yeah, absolutely. And one thing I will lead with, because if I don't say something about this, Many of you listening will have like a big like what the heck in your mind, right? And so to speak to what the heck right the you'll hear that in these top three Commonly most commonly overlooked causes of a slow metabolism. You will hear The absence of the thyroid, the thyroid will not be mentioned. And I want to say a little bit more about why that is because, um, you know, what is very true when I'm working with someone who, who comes to me and says, listen, I'm doing everything I know to do and the scale is not budging.

4:26 I don't feel great in my clothes. I don't feel great in my body. I just want to handle this. Right. Of course, I'm going to thoroughly assess their thyroid and by thoroughly I mean more than just one number, which is the most typical way of assessing the thyroid. We're going to look at least five at at least five different things around thyroid health and function. And If the thyroid requires support, we are definitely going to make that happen, right? Sometimes it's natural, sometimes it is using prescriptions, but whatever the case is, we are going to make that happen. That being said, the reason why it's not on the top three overlooked, it's because because even if it is handled, it's very rarely the solution.

5:09 So absolutely we need to support our thyroid. We need to have this foundation of a metabolic health, which the thyroid provides. And It's hardly, I, I've honestly Lisa, I've never seen it be the answer. In other words, I've never worked with the thyroid and someone drops the weight immediately I haven't seen it. I just haven't. So yeah, so the top three most overly commonly overlooked reasons. People have a slow metabolism is, you know, firstly is elevated inflammation. And this is actually number one on the list because it is number one. And, um, you know, sometimes I'll be working with people in, in, and they'll tell me, you know, I feel inflamed and I'll ask a little bit more about what do you mean by that?

5:55 They'll say, Oh, my joints hurt or my skin's red or I'm bloated or however they feel like that inflammation is showing up for them. But more often than not, inflammation is elevated with no obvious connection, right? No obvious sign, no obvious symptom, So is there a blood test for that yeah, exactly. A hundred percent. Yes. So that is why we, we want to get the data, right? I call it data driven for a reason. So yes, we want to, if someone comes to me and they're struggling to lose weight, looking at inflammation is always going to be on my to do list. And so we can do that in a variety of ways. But the two ways I most commonly test are through testing something called H S C R P for people who like to know what acronyms mean.

6:45 That means high sensitivity C reactive protein. And it's like a conductor of inflammation that the liver. produces. So it's a master conductor. And if it's elevated you, there is long term chronic inflammation going on. Assuming you're not sick or have an injury that then that HSCRP, we would call that acute inflammation. And that's an appropriate response. It's an appropriate response to healing. But for what we really care about is this long term chronically elevated inflammation. When it's elevated, it's going to put your body into fat storage mode. It's just what it does. It slows down the metabolism.

7:26 And you know, we can go into like the biological purpose of that. but really you just want to know that Elevated inflammation leads to a slow metabolism. And often I work with people who, when we find this as one, this as a key missing puzzle piece, it's almost like, it's so interesting, like, you know, we'll start to do the work we need to do. nutrition, supplementation, lifestyle to start to bring down that inflammation. And maybe they won't see the scale move. They won't see the scale move. They won't see the scale move for a few weeks, even though they are really doing all of the work to crack this inflammatory code.

8:07 And then all of a sudden, boom, it's like, if only we could just test, you know, do an instant blood test. I, you know, it's like, we would see it. Coming down in their numbers, but takes time to come down. You can't just be like, Oh, there it is. Let's treat that immediately. exactly exactly in different bodies require different amounts of time, you know, so, uh, and we do always go back and retest, right? If inflammation is elevated, we're going to circle back and test it again after we do the work, uh, beyond just seeing the scale move, but it's definitely something we want to address in a very targeted manner. And just to say a little bit more about that HSCRP.

8:49 In the way of where I like to see it, I like to see it under 1. 5. So over 1. 5, it's playing a role over, I would say 3. 5. It's playing a pretty significant role. And then I mentioned another marker in the way of inflammation that I would look at and that inflammate inflammatory markers called homocysteine and homocysteine. Um, I like to see that between six and eight. So HSCRP under 1. 5 homocysteine between six and eight, Let me just interrupt you here, Jesse, for a second. I think this is a really good point when people are looking at their blood work.

9:30 Um, even if you don't have this specialty blood work, just kind of standard here, what she's saying is I like to see it in these ranges. That's different than what a normal ranges. There's a difference between optimal range. and normal range. Normal range comes from a sample of the population and see what most people are at. And I would venture to say there is probably more inflammation in most people's blood today than 40 or 50 years ago. I don't know when blood marker standards were set, but just know that when you're looking at your blood work, if you are having someone Who is a specialist in functional medicine root cause or just helping you be well if they're just looking for you to be at different numbers, so you could see these numbers on regular blood work and have your primary care physician say, everything's normal, which could be true.

10:24 Right. absolutely. No. So well said. And a great thing to highlight. Lab normal is not the same as optimal. And oftentimes it's a far cry from it. Mm hmm. Okay. Keep going with those Yeah. No, absolutely. No, you totally got it right there. Yeah. So HSCRP, we like to see it under 1. 5, almost 16, between 6 and 8. Then, you know, to turn our attention to the second most commonly, Overlooked cause of a slow metabolism. You're, you're pointing to that lab range conversation. A difference between optimal and lab normal is perfect for this one because it's, it's suboptimal insulin sensitivity and fasting insulin.

11:07 When we have that done via just a simple blood test, there's a huge range for normal, right? Like lab normal, It depends on what lab you're looking at can go up to 18, 20, even 22 is normal for some. I want to see that under 8. You know, if, if you're at eight, I'm starting to hear, I see a yellow flag there. It's a, you know, a metabolic yellow flag that your body is starting to not hear the message of insulin as well, which then means your body's going to produce more insulin because it's really important. to insulin that it be heard. Rightfully so. It has important things to say. Um, but you know, when that insulin starts to creep up, it's going to fundamentally slow your metabolism down.

11:53 Because one of the things that insulin communicates to your body is You have been fed. Store the fuel. Don't burn it. So when our insulin starts to increase, that is the metabolic impact. Store, store, store. Don't burn, burn, burn. How does that relate to your hemoglobin A1c? Because that's a measure, I think, also of insulin. It's related. So it is definitely in the same family that we would look at around diabetes or pre diabetes. But it's, it's, it's, Sometimes can happen that insulin starts to go up before hemoglobin A1c, or the other number we would be looking at in this world would be fasting glucose, goes up.

12:39 So it's kind of like the canary in the coal mine. Once your insulin starts creeping up, then even if your hemoglobin A1c and your fasting glucose is normal, it's time, I mean, you want to get on it before then, but it's just a sign that. Metabolically speaking, you're not moving in the right direction. You're not moving in a direction you want to continue heading. And that, you know, that's a great time to see it. If your insulin's at eight or nine or 12, it's like, okay, perfect timing. Let's get on this right now because it gets more and more difficult as it gets higher. You're working like almost like against physiological inertia.

13:19 Yeah. Yeah. And again, and I don't mean to attack primary care physicians. I actually love mine. So I don't mean to throw any shade there, but a lot of times they just can't do anything until you're clinical. And so they're just going to wait and tell, you know, they'll tell you to address your diet and exercise. Obviously they're going to tell you that, but they're not going to do a lot of interventions as they're seeing it creep up until you actually have clinical prediabetes or diabetes. Right. And part of that is because, you know, simply put, they don't have that tool in their toolkit. Yeah. Right. It's actually not included in their medical training unless they went out of their way to get that medical training.

14:01 It's not contained in standard medical training. Um, what people are taught, people are taught the science, right? The very, very important of understanding physiology and disease pathology and, and, you know, anatomy, all these things are very important. And they are taught to treat using medication or surgeries. Those are the interventions, right? So I think one thing that would be helpful is to remember that is the tool they have. And just like you, I still go for my annual exam. I still go see my OB guy for my annual pap smear, right? I do all of the, the, these things that I believe are really valid and important to assess our health.

14:47 Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So it's not an either or conundrum. You know, it's really what we're looking at is who has the tool that would be useful for me in this moment. And we're using that tool. We don't need to discard any tool in the toolkit. We want to use the right ones for the right moment. Yeah. Perfect. All right. And number three on this. Yep. gunked up to detox pathways, gunked up and Um, you know, to step back and say a little bit more about that, um, the word detoxification, right? It's very, very chic and, um, I often think that if we just like put it on a supplement, we're going to sell a lot because people like the word detox.

15:31 I got it. Right. But let's step back and talk a little bit. What about what it is, you know? So our detoxification pathways or processes, they are designed to take toxins. Which are naturally fat soluble, that means they get stored in fat, and turn those toxins into things that are water soluble. And why is that so important? Because we can't get fat soluble things, mostly, out of our body very well. Fat soluble things mostly get reabsorbed. But when we turn them into things in that are water soluble, we can get rid of those toxins via our urine or our bowel movements in particular, our sweat and our breath to some extent, but mostly our urine and our bowel movements.

16:20 So let's just start with like, okay, that is, that is the, that is the process of detoxification fat soluble to water soluble to kick it out of the body in our urine or our bowel movements. Now, what can happen over time is. Either we have more toxins going into our body than optimal than our, those pathways can handle, or for a variety of reasons those pathways might be a little slower. The processing plant might just not be working very well, or the exit routes not working very well. So it's kind of in through, out one of those three things, and usually it's a combination.

17:01 So you know, how does that impact our metabolism? Well, when we talk about toxins, we commonly think about microplastics and, um, heavy metals and, um, pesticides, right? And yes, it's true. Those are all toxins that go through that process. But So to do our hormones, so the hormones we produce inside our body naturally are estrogens in particular, but estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, right, all these things. Go through our detoxification processes as well And also if you are on the pill or taking hormone replacement therapy, those will go through also but it's just to say that when our detox pathways aren't working at the speed we'd like them to Or they're a little overwhelmed.

17:53 Whatever the case may be We're just not processing and get ridding getting rid of toxins at the rate We'd like to it will have an impact on our metabolism You Um, oftentimes I think about that more in the hormonal way, uh, but it can be a, there can be a few different ways that impacts our metabolism. how do you get, your fat soluble into water soluble? Is that also something in the detox pathways? yeah, it's in the detox pathways. And so. There are two phases of detoxification. Phase one is oxidation. Phase two is conjugation. And both of those phases have different cofactors.

18:34 So, if someone is low in the nutrients required to run those processes, their detox pathways will be a little sluggish. So, or even if, you know, like phase two, especially phase one, a little bit, but phase two, especially requires amino acids. What are amino acids building blocks of protein? So if someone is like eking away on 20 grams of protein per day, I'm like, Oh, well, your detox pathways are just crying for your help. Quick break here with the holiday season around the corner. I have to share about a gift idea that brings comfort. Every single day, cozy Earth's bamboo sheet set. These sheets are incredibly soft, breathable and perfect for helping you or someone special.

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19:56 Outcast. Give comfort this holiday season And make every night feel like an escape. That gives us a lot to think about with our metabolism. A lot of times we're just like, I'm old, right? And there's, you know, there's usually other things going on. Typically we see with Scientific studies is we're not really seeing the dramatic decrease due to age and metabolism that was once thought and once just sort of blamed. It's actually very little due to age. Um, mostly due to age is what we have with, um, some of our muscle wasting when we get quite a bit older. So, um, it's nice to just hear some root causes that are meaningful to, You know things in blood work and things that we can actually see that aren't just like well There's nothing I can do because the that you know, the clock is ticking Yeah.

20:49 No, I'm so glad you pointed to that too, Lisa. Cause that's totally spot on. Yeah. Both of those in the way of our metabolism really, uh, remains fairly constant. There's an, a huge shift as well as, you know, muscle. Yeah. That, that is more of a thing as we age. Yeah. So, um, a lot of this with metabolism can also lead into, cravings, things may not really be serving us and yet our bodies are really wanting them. We're just coming off, last night was Halloween. So, you know, there's lots of treats around. We're entering in the holiday season. Just going to be, a lot of different foods, foods that our brain is telling us are scarce because we only get them at this time of year, that's going to ramp up your cravings.

21:37 I talked about that last week on the podcast. by the way, don't believe it because, uh, Reese's. Pumpkin is the same as a Reese's Christmas tree. It's just in a different package and it's available in the Easter season as well. So, um, they're tricking you that these foods are scarce at the holiday time, but the truth is our cravings are going to be ramped up. A lot of times because we feel that scarcity, we feel that like, Oh, these holiday foods are special or meaningful. And we want to eat the things that are meaningful and, you know, in quantities that serve us, but then we just get the regular old cravings that we just don't know what to do with.

22:17 Right. So what do you think is, is going on there. Why do you think people struggle with cravings outside of the holidays, maybe inside the holidays? Yeah, totally. Totally. Well, you know, firstly, to just kind of talk about it as a high level thing, you know, why do people struggle with cravings? One is they get on the blood sugar roller coaster and they don't know how to get off. Right. And by that, I mean, when we eat something that is high in sugar or high in simple carbs, whether it's rice or potatoes or pasta or bread, all of those things have the same impact on our blood sugar. Our blood sugar goes up and it goes up high and it goes up quickly and our body doesn't like that.

23:04 So we talked about insulin before one of insulin's many jobs is to come to the rescue, right? Our blood sugar goes up super duper high. Insulin's there to save the day. We produce that insulin. Insulin grabs that glucose by sticky little hands and walks it over to a cell door and it knocks on the cell door and the cell door opens up and absorbs the glucose. because our body doesn't like it when our blood sugar is super high. But the thing that happens is when our blood sugar shoots up super high and we produce that insulin to save the day, the next thing that happens is our blood sugar is super low. And it's in that state that we tend to experience cravings.

23:46 We tend to get grouchy, we tend to experience cravings, we have difficulty focusing, you know, those, those are the different symptoms of low blood sugar. And so that blood sugar rollercoaster is, is really can be a tricky one for people to get off. And, you know, if you hear yourself, if you as a listener hear yourself in this, you know, what I would encourage you to practice. It's really to begin by no matter what happened yesterday, starting each day by stabilizing your blood sugar. Just start there. Just start there. Don't try to be heroic. Just start by stabilizing your blood sugar out of the gate.

24:27 How might you do that? Well, by really prioritizing proteins and nutrient dense fats as well as some nutrient dense carbs, right? So something like 20 grams of protein, at least 10 grams of heart healthy fat. Um, if you are bringing in some of those carbs, making sure they're, they're teaming with nutrients, teaming with fiber, you know, berries is a great example of something that would check both those boxes. So, you know, no matter what happened yesterday, how you can reset that blood sugar rollercoaster right now is by starting your day with these protein, fat centric, nutrient dense carbs, carb options.

25:09 I love that idea. In fact, I have the dumbest name for it, but, um, I've never come up with a better, but my clients know I just call that the very next bite strategy. I love it. No matter what you ate yesterday, even if you overate, usually I use this, um, in response to an overeat. We don't need to spiral out of control for the rest of the weekend. We don't need to throw our hands up in the air in the might as well eats, right? Instead, it's just the very next bite is right on plan. And right on plan looks just like that. Something high in protein, prioritize the fiber, get your water in. You, you know, like. It's not lack of knowledge, right?

25:49 You, you know, what serves your body best. I'm always saying, you know, tap into your own wisdom. You know, what feels good in your body. That's on plan. That's what I mean by right on plan. And so, yes, I love that reset in the morning. And the other part about that is I typically have a breakfast, just like what you're describing. My favorite thing. Is a protein oatmeal that I make. So it's got lots of protein has egg yolk, lots of good stuff in it. If I don't have that or something very similar. I have my kids all home. My adult kids all home for the weekend. They wanted sourdough waffles. Fine. I made sourdough waffles. No big deal. Um, that doesn't have as much protein and I can feel it.

26:30 I can feel during the day I'm hungrier. I'm cravier. I'm like when I don't start my day with something high fiber and high protein, it really does. Kind of throw me and I, I do notice it. My daughter teases me. She's like, how can you eat that same oatmeal every single day? I'm like, cause it serves me, it serves me so well. Yeah. And I bet you really enjoy it too. Yeah, absolutely. I love that. And I love what you're encouraging, you know, all of you listening out there, you know, yes, tap into your wisdom. And also like, you know, the high protein oatmeal, maybe you're like, Oh, not my thing. That's fine.

27:11 Come up with another solution, right? There are, there are other ways to skin the cat. And part of this journey is solving for yourself. What works with the amount of time you're, willing to give and your taste buds and you know, your checkbook, like all these things, right? We all have to figure these things out. I have clients that like to pre prep like egg, casseroles or egg bites, you know, and muffin. So they're like egg and turkey sausage and vegetables. That's awesome. With a side of fruit or berries. So yeah, tons of ideas out there. What's your favorite breakfast Um, well, so Monday through Friday, I love my smoothie.

27:51 Um, yes. And I will typically do like kind of a combo of whey and collagen protein in there. berries, chia seeds, coconut. you know, unsweetened coconut milk. That's kind of pretty commonly my go to. Sometimes I'll throw some greens in there or some greens powder, you know, just playing around with it like that. Um, also I do love eggs and avocado, just simple eggs and avocado for me. I'm like, Oh, that, that goes a long way on the weekends. It usually is eggs and avocado on, you know, like kind of a, yeah, exactly. Perfect. Okay. This has been so great. Um, I know that you like to talk about super powers.

28:33 So if you could give every listener one superpower that you think would transform their health, what would that be? I would give everyone the superpower to be able to tap into what I like to call playing your best game right now. And it's very much, you know, it's, it's joined at the hip with your very next fight, right? And so, I would expand it to other areas of your life as well. But. Um, asking yourself the question, what is the best game I'm able to play right now? And that could be, I'm going to have two pieces of pizza instead of five.

29:19 It could be, you know what? I'm going to take a pass on alcohol tonight, but on another night, maybe it's, I'm going to have two instead of four, right? It could be, I intended to get a full 45 minute workout in and. My work and my family needed me in a way I didn't anticipate. Now I, all I have is 10 minutes and I'm going to use them, right? Rather than I didn't get the 45, so forget it. I'm going to use the 10 that I have. Right. So really just looking, my, my invitation is start to cultivate the superpower in yourself. And begin to ask yourself, what is the best game I can play right now and bring that with you throughout your day?

30:05 I love that. And I love that you're also incorporating like some grace there with, you know, if I, if I didn't get in 45 minutes, 10 is great too. And I think that is so important not to just, you know, again, that throw your hands up in the air. Might as well just sit on the couch instead kind of attitude. So that is perfect. So lovely. Okay. I would love for you to tell people how they can find you online. And I know you're in Switzerland a lot, so not exactly available in person. I'm not available in person, but I like to say I am where you are, right? So all of my work is remote and you can find me at well empowered.

30:46 com and a few things you can do there One is if you feel called to schedule a consultation Whether you're someone who might like to explore working together or you just like to connect And toss some things at me, please do whatever the case may be. It would be a pleasure to connect with you Also at well empowered. com forward slash dare. You can sign up to receive our weekly dares where we dare you to take on a micro habit for the week and just simply notice, just simply notice what unfolds for you. and then you can also find me on Instagram at well empowered. Perfect. We'll put all those links in the show notes as well.

31:28 Thank you so much. Thank you, Lisa. It's been such a treat to be here with you and your community. Dr. Hay Myer and I had such a great conversation. We just kept talking after I hit stop. And so I said, Hey, let's record a little bonus. So if you want to hear about how to specifically address some of the inflammation, you might be experiencing grab that bonus audio. I asked her what are some of the steps that we can do to bring the inflammation down on our own, if we're not able to get to a root cause practitioner and she had some great ideas. The link to get that short bonus audio is in the show notes. I'm so glad you tuned in today. If today's insights resonated with you and you're ready to make lasting changes in your health journey, I'd love to help.

32:12 Book a free coaching session with me to dive into personalized strategies for sustainable weight loss and a balanced relationship with food. You can schedule it at the link in the show notes. Remember, it's not just about the food. It's about empowering yourself with the choices that truly serve you. Have a great week and as always, thanks for listening to the eat. Well think, well live well podcast.