The Energy Blueprint Podcast

Today's podcast guest, Dr. Sonya Jensen, is a first-generation immigrant who grew up navigating two very different cultures and the rules imposed on her about how she should look, who she should be friends with, and how she should perform in school. Around age 13, she developed anorexia as a way of gaining control of her own life. Ultimately, her experiences with anorexia, processing childhood trauma, and working with patients led her to put the pieces together between emotions, trauma, and physical health. In this episode, we discuss the deep work she does with women, where she focuses on the well-researched links between emotions and physical health. In this podcast, Dr. Jensen and I discuss: A 66,000-woman study over 16 years found every single woman with a fibroid had childhood abuse, whether physical, sexual, or emotional (this is when Dr. Jensen started piecing together trauma and physical health) When progesterone is low, GABA is low - so you may feel anxious - when estrogen is low, dopamine and serotonin are low, so you're not accessing joy as quickly Constant production of the stress hormone cortisol creates more pronounced estrogen dominance; one woman manifests tender breasts or cysts, another manifests fibroids, but all have low progesterone Fibroids can become worse by pseudo-estrogen from environmental toxins (pesticides, phthalates, plastics)...if your body can't detoxify them, they recirculate and create estrogen dominance Dr. Jensen was previously against bioidentical hormones, but she then realized women go into midlife very depleted, and physiological dosing helps them feel like themselves again Progesterone dosing is nuanced: One of Dr. Jensen's patients went into psychosis on progesterone because her OB-GYN doubled the dose - not everyone can be on the same dose or same kind of hormone Holocaust studies show infants born to survivors have adrenal insufficiency; their ability to adapt to stress isn't as optimal due to generational trauma If mom was stressed during pregnancy, her preteen will have more anxiety, if mom had really low cortisol, the child's nervous system regulation isn't as efficient Women who use hormones along with lifestyle changes and emotional work thrive on minimal doses, and some can even take breaks; women who only do hormones hit plateaus and cycle back

Today, I'm excited to introduce you to Zora Benhamou, a gerontologist who studies aging and has some unique ideas about menopause, based on research and her gerontology background. In this episode, we discuss her take on menopause, including the fact that it's technically a one-day event! 12 consecutive months without a period lead to your "meno birth date." But perimenopause - the stage just before menopause - lasts 5 to 7 years on average (10-15 years for some women!), and that's where the most difficult symptoms can happen. The biggest menopause myth is that it's a concern for older women, that it's something you don't need to worry about until you're 50. But research shows women start losing progesterone around age 35, the calming, relaxing hormone that makes you feel good. The reality is that women should ideally begin thinking about menopause decades earlier, in their 40s and 50s.

Dr. Shivani Gupta comes from a family of people with diabetes, generation by generation, where she's seen the after-effects of suffering with chronic metabolic disease. Her new book, The Inflammation Code (launching, distills 20 years of studying Ayurveda into simple pillars you can apply to prevent the level of inflammation and disease we see today. When people tell her, "I have brain fog, I'm tired, my sleep is off, my digestion's off, I have stubborn weight gain…I guess this is just aging," her reply is, "No, it's not aging, it's inflammaging." We had a really excellent, in-depth conversation that covered a lot of ground, from black pepper and the blood-brain-barrier to our detox experiences in India. I hope you enjoy the podcast! In this podcast, Dr. Gupta and I discuss: Her study of Ayurveda, a 5,000-year-old system from India that taught us the circadian clock, modern science discovered what Ayurveda taught 5,000 years ago about living in rhythm with nature The three doshas or constitutions of Vata (air/ether), Pitta (fire/water), and Kapha (earth/water)—understanding your constitution helps customize your self-care practices and diet The circadian clock in Ayurveda teaches that 10:00 to 2:00 PM is Pitta (fire) time, when you're most focused and energetic, and meant to eat your biggest meal 10:00 PM to 2:00 AM is the most important time to be asleep, when Pitta fire cleans and clears inflammation, the lymphatic system, and the glymphatic system (lymphatic system of the brain) Vata people are always in motion and prefer jobs where they don't sit still—they're endurance athletes who can run through the day on coffee, green juice, and crackers (but their homework is three square meals) Pitta people are fiery, passionate leaders who tend to crave hot, oily, spicy fried food…but that's the one thing they shouldn't eat because their digestive fire is already like a bonfire! Kapha people are sturdy, strong, and very grounded, but can struggle with sluggish metabolism, low mood or depression, getting stuck, or not wanting to create change Black pepper increases curcumin absorption by 2,000%—scientists at MD Anderson Cancer Center discovered this, which is why traditional Indian cooking always uses turmeric with black pepper What it feels like to experience a Panchakarma detox in India: "massage that feels like abuse" with paper thongs—Dr. Gupta says, "I can't believe you're allowed to do this to me and I'm paying for it" (both she and I had this experience!) Mental inflammation is the stress we create when forcing ourselves to be healthy; if you force workouts, force protein, force intermittent fasting, the stress alone causes the inflammation you're trying to prevent

Dr. Gabrielle Lyon argues we've been focusing on the wrong idea for 50 years…the problem isn't that we're over-fat, it's that we're under-muscled. Skeletal muscle makes up 40% or more of your body and is an underrecognized endocrine organ that secretes myokines (signaling molecules) when contracted, impacting the brain, liver, pancreas, and truly every body system. Yet skeletal muscle wasn't even considered an organ system until about 25 years ago! The diseases we think of as obesity-related—type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer's, cardiovascular disease—are actually diseases of skeletal muscle first, decades before symptoms appear. When Dr. Lyon asked a PCOS expert what body fat percentage contributes to infertility, the answer shocked her: "It has nothing to do with body fat percentage—it has everything to do with the fat infiltrated into the muscle, the intermuscular adipose tissue (IMAT)." The new US Dietary Guidelines (which Dr. Lyon witnessed being announced on stage) recommend 1.2 to 1.6 grams of protein per kg for the first time in history, a tremendous change based on randomized controlled trials instead of epidemiology. Her mentor, Dr. Donald Layman, wrote the protein portion of the guidelines, and 90% of those guidelines are reflected in her new book, Forever Strong Playbook, released on January 27th of this year.

Over 30 million women in the US deal with some form of pelvic floor dysfunction…nearly 1 in 4 women. In this episode, I speak with Jana Danielson, founder of Lead Pilates and creator of the Cooch Ball (and no, that's not a typo!), who reveals shocking realities about the urinary incontinence product industry. Even though they'll top $24 billion in profit this year, 9 out of 10 people could fix incontinence if they learned to breathe correctly and stopped being such literal "tight asses" (her words, not mine). Listen to the podcast to hear all of Jana's insights. In this podcast, Jana and I discuss: Why over 30 million US women deal with pelvic floor dysfunction—nearly 1 in 4 women—and the urinary incontinence product industry will top $24 billion this year The pelvic floor can be too tight (hypertonic) or too loose (hypotonic)—too tight causes one set of symptoms, while too loose causes another About 90% of erectile dysfunction is actually a fitness/movement issue, not medical…when pelvic floor muscles get too tight, blood flow to the penis cannot happen There are four grades of prolapse; some grades can be completely reversed, while others require surgery. Jana explains the anatomical and energetic underpinnings of prolapse The diaphragm is the "roof" and the pelvic floor is the "floor" of your core—doing 10-12 diaphragmatic breaths daily will wake up the pelvic floor tissues, like giving it CPR The pudendal nerve's Latin root means "ashamed"—it's the main sensory and motor nerve from your brain to your genitals/pelvic floor in both men and women You can do all the fancy medical spa pelvic floor contractions, but without proper breathing, your results won't last—you have to create the environment for the solution to work When you inhale into your diaphragm, the pelvic floor is in its restful/descension phase—when you exhale, it's in its lift phase, a key distinction for pelvic floor health Posture plays a considerable role in pelvic floor health: mechanically holding weight in an optimal position takes unnecessary stress off your pelvic floor If you chug water rapidly, your body will excrete more of it. Sip tiny amounts throughout the day so cells absorb hydration properly and your bladder functions optimally

Periodontist Dr. Al Danenberg was diagnosed with incurable bone marrow cancer (multiple myeloma) in September 2018 and given 3 to 6 months to live. His oncologist wanted to start chemotherapy the next day, but Dr. Al rejected chemo and instead focused on natural methods to help his body heal. While Dr. Danenberg has since passed on, he survived most of his remaining years with an outstanding quality of life, shocking his oncologist and maintaining such good health that his gut microbiome diversity was in the 97th percentile. In this episode, filmed in March 2023, Dr. Al discusses his diagnosis and why he believed his cancer stemmed from toxic exposures in dental school in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He emphasizes that all cancers are diseases of lifestyle, and that there are very few wild animals with cancer and very few primal societies with gum disease, tooth decay, chronic diseases, or cancer. Dr. Al also explores a few somewhat shocking oral health ideas, including why dental plaque is actually healthy! He backs this surprising claim with three critical roles plaque plays in the mouth: it acts as a gatekeeper, allowing minerals from saliva to remineralize teeth; it contains chemical buffers that keep pH at ~5.5 to prevent decay; and it produces hydrogen peroxide that kills pathogenic bacteria trying to invade. I know you'll enjoy this episode with the late Dr. Al Danenberg.

Dr. Izabella Wentz is a renowned pharmacist focused on thyroid health. In this episode, she reveals a shocking pattern: about 90% of people with Hashimoto's have alterations in how much cortisol they release throughout the day. They struggle with brain fog, chronic fatigue, and sleep issues—tired all day, wired at night—even when they're on thyroid medications. She's discovered something fascinating about "adrenal fatigue" that challenges both the old naturopathic model and the skeptics. Your adrenals aren't damaged or lazy…they're perfectly capable of producing hormones. "Adrenal fatigue" is an intelligent adaptive response where your body down-regulates cortisol production to protect itself from chronic stress, essentially saying, "This is unrealistic, we can't pump out high amounts of cortisol all the time." After being forced to find solutions during years of severe sleep deprivation with her son, Dr. Wentz developed a 4-week protocol that has now helped thousands of people. By week two, people report their anxiety dropping from an 8 to a 2. By week four, their libido returns and they feel transformed, all without hormones, complicated testing, or bags full of supplements.

In this episode, Dr. Bonnie Kaplan shares a statistic that should stop everyone in their tracks: 50% of people will be diagnosed with a mental disorder at some point in their lifetime. When she was a kid in the 1950s, that rate was 1% or less. As a professor emeritus at the University of Calgary and co-author of The Better Brain, Dr. Kaplan has spent decades researching what went wrong. She shares the case of "Andrew," a 10-year-old with childhood psychosis who recovered on micronutrients when six months of psychiatric care failed…yet his doctor refused to try it with other patients because "it's not part of clinical practice guidelines." This episode was initially released in July 2022

This interview took place on a historic day: the FDA removed the black box warning for HRT (hormone replacement therapy) after 20 years. My guest, Dr. Mariza Snyder, author of The Perimenopause Revolution, explains why this matters and why women have been suffering needlessly for decades while doctors dismissed their symptoms as "just aging" or "just stress." Perimenopause is the 4 to 10-year transition where hormones wildly fluctuate before menopause, and Dr. Snyder calls it "the window of vulnerability." She uses a powerful metaphor: imagine estrogen as your brain's master CEO who shows up like clockwork from 9 AM to 6 PM for 30 years. Then, suddenly, without warning, it shows up at 2 PM one day and leaves at 11 PM, then shows up at 6 AM the next day and leaves at 11 AM. Your brain scrambles trying to regulate energy, neurotransmitters, sleep, mood, and cravings. The most compelling insight of our conversation is a Mayo Clinic study that found 84% of menopausal women don't seek care. Why? Because they feel judged in the doctor's office. Dr. Snyder wrote her book as the roadmap she desperately needed when she started her own perimenopause journey, connecting symptoms to future health outcomes and providing practical solutions beyond just "you're getting older."

What if the popular narrative about trauma is incomplete? What if trauma isn't just a psychological phenomenon, but a fundamentally biological process that gets encoded in your cells, mitochondria, and nervous system? Dr. Aimie Apigian is a double board-certified physician in preventive and addiction medicine who's revolutionizing how we understand and treat trauma. Her groundbreaking new book, "The Biology of Trauma," reveals the hidden physiological mechanisms behind trauma responses. In this conversation, she explains where traditional talk therapy falls short, how trauma creates a feedback loop of oxidative stress and cellular shutdown, and her innovative approach to healing trauma from the inside out, starting with cellular safety before diving into the emotional work.

In this episode, Dr. Mike T. Nelson pulls back the curtain on some common keto myths, including how it’s connected to fat loss, athletic performance, and even ancestral eating patterns. You might be surprised to learn that smart athletes will do anything to win—except go keto. In this myth-busting conversation, you'll discover why the high-fat-eating Inuit peoples probably weren't in ketosis, how keto can slash your power output by up to 8%, and why metabolic flexibility—not extreme diets—is the real key to optimal health. After 20-plus years in the field, Dr. Nelson shares his unfiltered take on everything from exogenous ketones to the carbohydrate hypothesis of obesity, delivering the nuanced truth that diet influencers won't tell you.

Your mitochondria and responses to stress are more connected than you think. In this episode, Dr. Scott Sherr is back to tell us about why 94% of US adults have mitochondrial dysfunction and how chronic stress and inflammation deplete GABA, your brain's primary calming neurotransmitter. We also discuss why methylene blue has exploded from an obscure mitochondrial enhancer to a controversial biohacking trend, how GABA deficiency masquerades as anxiety and depression, and why healing requires shifting from sympathetic dominance to parasympathetic activation. Dr. Sherr shares his 20 years of clinical experience, demonstrating that within 30 seconds to 2 minutes, he can determine if someone can heal; it all comes down to the state of their nervous system.

In this episode, I’m speaking with Steven Sashen, who founded minimalist shoe company Xero Shoes with his wife Lena Phoenix in 2009. His philosophy? Modern footwear is actively hurting you. In this discussion (which was so fun and informative thanks to Steven’s lighthearted approach to his work), we explore what the shoe industry has been hiding about arch support, cushioning, and elevated heels, all while knowing these features actually increase injury rates. Steven's company exists because he wants to change people’s lives, and after 16 years of challenging the footwear industry's biggest myths, he's revealing how traditional shoes weaken your feet, destabilize your balance, and even contribute to falls that kill older adults. Get ready to rethink everything you thought you knew about what to put on your feet. This conversation could literally save you from decades of unnecessary pain, injury, and disability.

After 25 years of being "Superman on the outside but a train wreck on the inside," John A. Mollenhauer has discovered the missing piece between high achievement and sustainable health. John is an entrepreneur who started his first gym at 19 and worked with Tony Robbins in his 20s—he learned the hard way that our culture rewards the very behaviors that lead to burnout. In this episode, John reveals how he developed the Performance Lifestyle framework after checking himself into a hospital from complete exhaustion. His method isn't about work-life balance—it's about knowing what to do, why, how, and when at the right intensity for sustainable results in both health and achievement. This conversation offers a practical pathway to break free from the hidden lifestyle challenges keeping you stuck in the energy-debt cycle.

I’m back again for my fourth conversation with Dr. Mark Cronshaw, an expert in the world of photobiomodulation (PBM), aka red light therapy. You know that when I have multiple conversations with a guest, I highly value their knowledge and want to go deeper with what they have to share. If you want to get VERY technical and go deep with the topic of PBM, this episode is for you, and I recommend you listen to the prior 3 episodes we’ve recorded together. In this conversation, Dr. Cronshaw presents what he calls his "philosophy of care" for using photobiomodulation to enhance healing, manage pain, and prevent injury. His approach focuses on a few fundamental questions: Are you treating surface or deep tissues? Are you seeking to stimulate healing/tissue repair or provide pain relief? His multi-dimensional approach explains why different devices produce different results, enabling more strategic use of both professional and at-home light therapy tools.

In this episode, I’m back for a third installment of my conversation with Dr. Mark Cronshaw, one of the world’s foremost photobiomodulation (PBM) experts...what most people commonly refer to as red light therapy. He’s particularly one of the top experts when it comes to dosimetry (the details of how to properly “dose” light therapy). Have you invested in red light therapy but feel confused by contradicting information? You're certainly not alone. In this conversation, Dr. Cronshaw challenges conventional wisdom about photobiomodulation with some insights that surprised even me! I deeply appreciate his highly informed and logical, yet relaxed, approach to this complex topic. WARNING: My conversations with Dr. Cronshaw are NOT a simple or practical how-to guide of “go buy this device and use it this way.” This podcast series intends to go deep into the scientific, technical, and theoretical nuances of PBM science. So it’s NOT for everyone. These podcasts are for people who want to nerd out on PBM science. So please don’t say I didn’t warn you! :)

In this episode of The Energy Blueprint podcast, I’m speaking with Dr. Melissa Sonners, host of the Be Inspired Mama podcast and creator of a movement that's transforming how women approach self-care. After battling Lyme disease and mold toxicity while juggling motherhood, a chiropractic practice, and the pressure to "do it all," Dr. Sonners discovered that traditional self-care wasn't the answer—it was self-CONNECTION. Her practical approach helps busy women transform their relationship with themselves without adding more to their overflowing plates. This conversation is essential for any woman feeling overwhelmed by life's demands.

In this episode, I’m speaking with Nadine Artemis, author of Renegade Beauty and Holistic Dental Care. But most personally impactful to me is that she’s the woman behind Living Libations, an obsessively natural skincare line that has been creating and promoting pure products for over 30 years. My family and I really love and frequently use her products.

In this episode, I’m speaking with Julie Matthews, a Certified Nutrition Consultant and published researcher specializing in personalized nutrition for complex neurological conditions, particularly autism spectrum disorder and ADHD.

In this episode, I’m speaking with Dr. Scott Sherr, a board-certified internal medicine physician certified to practice Health Optimization Medicine (HOMe) and a specialist in Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT).