The Real Foundations of Women's Health: Rethinking Longevity, Hormones, and Aging

Dr. Monisha Bhanote, MD (00:00)

as a physician, doing this for you know the last couple decades, I have looked at

Thousands and hundreds of thousands, close to millions of cells under the microscope. And this is where I've noticed that disease is really starting long before a person ever feels a symptom. And it's starting at the cellular level.

Natalie Tysdal (00:21)

Ever feel like your energy just vanished overnight? Or you wake up one morning and suddenly your skin, your mood, your body, everything just feels different. We spend so much time chasing the next trend or quick fix, but half the time it doesn't actually work for us. And we're left wondering, what's wrong with me? Do you know what I'm talking about? Hi everyone, I'm Natalie Tisdell. Welcome to the podcast today. We are getting honest today about our health, the kind of honest that goes

Beneath the surface, there's so much noise telling us what we should eat, how we should move, which pill or powder or routine is going to be the one that finally works. But not enough people talk about what is actually going inside. Not enough people talk about what's actually going on inside of our bodies at a cellular level, or how to tune out all of that outside chatter and really listen to what we need, especially in these midlife years.

All the changes are happening at once. Today I'm joined by Dr. Monisha Benoit, an integrative pathologist, gut health and longevity expert, and Quintuple board certified physician, who's not only spent decades studying bodies under a microscope, but actually believes in making health personal, practical, and maybe most of all doable for real life. If you're tired of being told that's just aging.

Or you want to know what you can actually do to feel better, well, you're in the right spot today. This is about taking the confusion and the frustration out of the process so you can make some choices with confidence. That's what I believe in. Be sure to go to my website for more resources that I recommend. It's NatalieTisdall.com forward slash trusted resources. And if this episode today resonates with you, I hope you'll subscribe so you don't miss future episodes. I'm covering new health topics every single week.

And be sure you're getting my weekly newsletter too. You can find everything you need at Natalie Tysdaldot com. All right, let's get started today with Dr. Bhanote

Natalie Tysdal (02:28)

Let's talk longevity medicine today. As women, we want to feel good, we wanna look good, and we wanna live a long time, but it it feels like we've got things coming at us from every direction. And it's one of the things that I focus on the most here on the podcast is just boiling it down to what really matters.

Dr. Monisha Bhanote, MD (02:46)

Yeah, absolutely. you know, here's the thing is we've gotten so far away from what is health and like just by following, you know, trends we might see on social media or listening to what somebody else is doing without actually understanding the process in itself. So for me as a physician, doing this for you know the last couple decades, I have looked at

Thousands and hundreds of thousands, close to millions of cells under the microscope. And this is where I've noticed that okay, disease is really starting long before a person ever feels a symptom. And it's starting at the cellular level. And I always like to pull up my model here, right? So we've got these trillions of cells, and mind you, no, they're not this big, they're microscopic. I've been looking at them under a microscope, right? But what it is is these cells have a way of you know communicating.

Communicating

with each other, making our hormones, making our neurotransmitters, digesting our food, helping make our vitamins, basically helping our body function. And these cells need support.

What often happens is we stop listening to the way the body is functioning because we spend so much time listening to the periphery because somebody's telling us to do this and do that. And we've almost, in a way, dampened understanding how our own body works. So I always like to bring people back to well, this is how you're gonna manage aging, is to start listening to what signals your body is sending you. And I teach a lot about this in my book, The Anatomy of Well-Being, but it's

It's really I I like to put my patients through like med school in their six months of hanging out with me for their appointments because it's very important for them to understand how their individual body functions so then they can be like, this is why, you know, maybe

I can eat a salad and digest it really well, but my friend eats it and she's like bloated from all the greens, right? Because we're trying to do the same thing as somebody else without knowing our own biology.

Natalie Tysdal (04:57)

Yeah,

I I I think that is so important. We have so much coming at us today with social media and so many forms of media that we're all trying to do what someone else influencer is doing and then wondering why it's not working. So where do we start with that? What what do you tell people how do you listen to your body so that you know what's right for you?

Dr. Monisha Bhanote, MD (05:18)

Yeah, absolutely.

Where we start with that is really understanding how our body works, right? So with my patients, I do do in-depth testing and I always like to say, all right, we're gonna rebuild the structure of your body and like kind of like how we're rebuilding a house.

All right, so you wouldn't go in and just fix the hormones in the bedroom without looking at what is like are the frames up on the house? Is the flooring up, you know, is the roof on the house, right? You wouldn't go into the the kitchen and start cooking or work just on your your nutrition without going, all right, do my cells have what they need to function? So I always like to start with a foundation. And that foundation is really looking at what is the status of your cellular health, where

Are the vitamins, the minerals, the antioxidants? you know, where are what is the status of, say, your mitochondria, which you know, for the audience listening, the mitochondria are the little organelles inside each and every one of your cells that produces energy for you through the food you eat and the air you breathe, right? So

When I'm working with women, which I I also mostly work with women, I do have some men patients, but like women in their 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, they're like, Dr. B, I just don't have energy. And I'm like, Well, that's your mitochondria. Let's talk about why your mitochondria does not have support. Or they're like, I feel like I hit a certain age and all of sudden I woke up the next day and I have all these wrinkles. And I'm like, okay, well, you know, the collagen powder is not going to work unless we're looking at the whole.

foundation of the body.

Oxidative stress, which is, if I go back to my cell, it is all the stress that we get, and we can avoid it. Now, here's the thing: we can't avoid it in the sense of it's you know environmental factors, all this kind of stuff. But what we can do is we can provide the cells antioxidants. So antioxidants will combat this. So what happens is when you are not living the best lifestyle, not eating the cleanest foods, you're not producing antioxidants.

Oxidant, so that oxidative stress

That you're exposed to is going to make you age faster.

And we

Natalie Tysdal (07:40)

Yeah.

Dr. Monisha Bhanote, MD (07:41)

can technically now measure your oxidative stress from blood tests, from urine tests, from plasma tests, and really see all right, how is this functioning? And this is where, you longevity medicine even if we we don't hit longevity medicine, we look at it from more of a preventative medicine, right? let's not wait until we get there, because when we get there, about 70%.

percent of our organs and tissues are damaged and then you get prescribed a medication. What if we can look more upstream before all of this develops? And that's where what I really like to empower individuals to do is all right, let's go build your house, your structure, your body back up.

From this cellular level. Then let's go talk about what's going on in your gut microbiome, because we know in the kitchen, the kitchen can either nourish you or it can do the complete opposite. And then we work upstream to the hormones and what's going on. So I always like to think of the body almost like in these rooms and when I'm working with my patients, where like if somebody comes to me and they're like they want to be fixed in like in like a month, and I'm like, darling.

This has been going on for the last 30 years. We you know, we're this is not gonna happen in a month. So let's be realistic because every single thing we do every day is influencing the communication and functionality of our cells. And I actually call that like cellular consciousness. How awake and in tune are your cells to communicating?

Natalie Tysdal (09:06)

And some of that is a mindset shift because we are we want things instantly, the instant gratification of I just want to be fixed, give me a pill. And and there might be some things that help in the immediate, but overall it is a mindset shift. It's a lifestyle that we have to have and accepting that and then being willing, and that's why I'm here, being willing to keep learning and to make changes. Yeah.

Dr. Monisha Bhanote, MD (09:27)

Absolutely. I'm still learning after all this time.

I mean, I have five medical board certifications. I I think at this point I'm the only one in the US who has five specialties. And I am still learning every single day that, all right, there is this way to do it, and this actually works. And maybe what we thought 20 years ago was the right thing is not actually the right thing because now we have more tools and more data to actually evaluate it.

Natalie Tysdal (09:53)

Well, one thing that I appreciate in reading through your background is you have the medical background, but you believe in and embrace the natural side of things. And that's speaking

Dr. Monisha Bhanote, MD (10:03)

Absolutely.

Natalie Tysdal (10:04)

that's speaking my language, where we can do both and we're not just treating. Tell me about that and with all the medical training that you have, what your belief is how

Dr. Monisha Bhanote, MD (10:12)

Yeah.

Natalie Tysdal (10:13)

you

Dr. Monisha Bhanote, MD (10:13)

So my medical background spans from three. So as I mentioned, I have five medical board certifications. Three of them are really from the diagnostic side. So anatomic pathology, clinical pathology, cytopathology. This is where I literally can stick a needle in your thyroid, pull out a few cells, and see the state of them. Like, is it like Hashimoto's? Is it you know, papillary thyroid cancer? Or I can look at a breast biopsy from maybe.

You had a mammogram and they showed some calcifications, and I can look at the breast biopsy and be like, okay, is this something benign or is it a typical hyperplasia or is it cancer? You know, so I've been diagnosing diseases at this microscopic level for decades now. And

One of the things I was noticing was, okay, great. I can give them the diagnosis, and then it gets passed on to the clinician, and the clinician will go, you have reflux, let me give you a medication for your reflux, or you have you know, cancer, let's do surgery, let's do chemo, let's do radiation. But nobody was really talking or looking at the patient and going, all right.

These things have happened, but why did they happen and how can we help this individual not make what I call angry cells because we want happy cells, we want functioning cells, right? So how can I help these individuals learn to protect their cells to as they age? Because a lot of these diseases are lifestyle-related diseases.

So with that, I then trained further in integrative medicine from the Andrew Wheel Center for Integrative Medicine and in culinary medicine, how to use food as medicine. So now I've taken all these kind of two two ends of the spectrum and put it together for all right, what do I know is going to help your cellular health that can help you function? And really a a big part of my practice is educating people on all right, we we've got this data, we we've taken

These tests, we have this information, this is how we can now apply it. Because I never want to do testing just for the fun of it. There's so much testing on the market, and not all of it's actionable. We want the stuff that we can actually act on and change the trajectory of our health. And that's where epigenetics really comes in, right? Because it's about what we do every day can change your environment inside your ecosystem inside your body.

Natalie Tysdal (12:45)

Yeah, absolutely. Epigenetics, I'm I'm fascinated by that right now. So I love it that you just said that. How can people so if they're not there, they're not in Florida where you are, how can they get started on learning like like you're talking about and just educating themselves?

Dr. Monisha Bhanote, MD (13:00)

Yeah. So as we started, we're like there's a lot of misinformation out there in the media and the public and you know everybody's trying to you know, influence you in this direction or that direction. I d I definitely think one of the easiest ways,

You know, I always say like my book is the book you read before you read other health books because I'm not selling you anything in my book except for a medical education, but it's written for consumers in the sense of when it comes to mindset, I want you to understand what where are you in your journey on mindset? Do you have a growth mindset? Do you have fixed mindset? What are some of the things that have influenced you as a being to get to where you are? Then then we go into nutrition.

And I want you to understand why your cells need certain nutrition because as women, we have been taught to fear, you pick a decade, we have been taught to fear certain foods throughout the decade, right? Like there was a there was a point where we are eating like cardboard, and then there's a point where we're not eating, you know, like it it has been so interesting to watch. And I'm like,

Natalie Tysdal (14:10)

no fat was

growing up for me, like absolutely no fat and fake fats and it's like no our bodies need fat. Remember that was at the 80s

Dr. Monisha Bhanote, MD (14:17)

Absolutely.

Natalie Tysdal (14:18)

or the 90s? Yeah.

Dr. Monisha Bhanote, MD (14:19)

Our our bodies

need fat. Our bodies need carbs too, right? So we've been taught to fear carbs, but it's it's the confusion in what kind of carbs, right? Because yes, we don't need pastries and you know, cookies. The carbs we need are the ones that come from legumes, from lentils, from whole grains, because guess what? That goes back to feeding the gut microbiome. And since I have been testing people's microbiomes for so long, I can tell you they are very unhealthy, right? And

So I think and then, you know, I talk a lot about all right, understanding nutrition from the point of what do your bot what do your cells need in order to function. But then I go into, you know, from an exercise perspective, what

Exercise do you need now? Not everybody needs to be going to Orange Theory every day to have their best exercise routine. And I and I see women just killing themselves, going, I need to wake up at six in the morning and go do this, and they're just miserable about it, you know. So I I I do add a blend of Ayurveda in my book and in my practice when I'm working with patients because.

In Ayurveda, we believe everybody has a different constitution. Like, I know my constitution. I am not built for like endurance running. Like telling me to go do like a 5K is pure torture. But if you asked me to do like a hundred or two hundred meter, I would be winning that race, right? Because that's just the way my body is built. And because we

As women, there's no way around it. We compare ourselves to other people and we're like, we should be able to do this and we should be able to do that. But if you understand your body, and it's not that there's a limitation on it, it's like

How can you optimize what your inherent body is able to do? And that's really creating the best health for you. so

Natalie Tysdal (16:12)

Yeah.

Dr. Monisha Bhanote, MD (16:13)

I talk a lot about that in my book, and I and I and I go in through, you know, how to remove toxins and how to address your emotional well-being. So there's a lot in there. So it's it's the book you read before because then you go, all right, now I know because now if I go read a book that tells me how to fix my thyroid and tells me to go do this and

why it makes sense and why it doesn't make sense. and I also like to take things from a place of creating intentional practices or rituals in your life because I think we go through seasons where we've all been through it, where it's like we have bad habits. Everybody has a bad habit. You know, you you you name it, everyone has a bad habit.

And then we get in this place and then we we see it often happen around New Year's, but sometimes it can happen anytime, right? Where it's like, I'm gonna get the gym routine, I'm gonna get the meal prep routine, I'm gonna go do this routine. Those routines never, never last, right? And so I like to teach people from a way of like, okay, here's the things that make you feel good. Create lif rituals around them because rituals come with the most self-awareness and the most intentionality behind them.

So now you're waking up every day going, hey, what does my body and mind need today? And I know that I can go do this and have a great day, you know? and and

Natalie Tysdal (17:31)

Yeah, yeah.

Dr. Monisha Bhanote, MD (17:33)

I I like to change people's mindset around like, you have to go do this, because nobody feels good when they have to go to the gym. It's like, what do I get to do today?

Natalie Tysdal (17:43)

Yeah, yeah, it's it's definitely a mindset. What are the th give me like if we just give it a number, I'm sure you could come up with more. The three biggest mistakes women are making today.

their health. I mean obviously we gotta start with the platform, but the three big ones. Give me three big ones.

Dr. Monisha Bhanote, MD (17:56)

Three biggest Okay Three

big ones. I think the three biggest mistakes is

Number one would be

Staying so busy that they don't have time to listen to their body. We are definitely in hustle mode, right? Whether it's family or work or whatever, and the body cannot heal in a sympathetic state.

It it simply can't. It it's like bi it's like physiologically, biologically not possible. So I believe that the body requires stillness. Like stillness is a biologic need and that's when you're in the parasympathetic state and

Rest and digest so you're able to eat your food, digest it, and your body is able to heal. So I think that's one thing that this hustle culture is so like 2000 and it needs to like just disappear because it's not helping anybody. I think that would be mistake number one. mistake number two, we kind of touched upon already is

Listening to other people and just trying things because it was on TikTok or it was on, you know, social media without understanding is this going to influence my body in in in the right way? So

In the play. So I think that would be mistake number two is

It's just going, I'm doing this because somebody told me to. Same thing happens with, you know, I see very often with supplements because when I'm working with patients who want to stay more in the natural holistic space, then they come to my office, they'll bring all their supplements and beauty products with them and we'll line them up and I'll be like, well, why are you taking this? And they'll be like, well, somebody told me magnesium would be really good for my sleep. And I'm like,

Okay, but do you know how much magnesium in is in this? You would have to take this bottle times a hundred of it in order to get any dosage effect because they don't actually know how things work, right? So doing things because somebody else kind of is doing it, I think is another big mistake. and it all comes back to

Hey, how does my body work? And I and I wish this was taught more in I you know, I honestly I don't know nowadays what's being taught in elementary and middle school and high school anymore. But I really think we need to go back to the days of like home and like understanding all these different things because I have patients that

don't know many of my patients don't know how to cook. So I even do cooking classes with them. I think that would be my third mistake is seeing people outsourcing everything and not knowing like the most basic things of

How do I prepare a nutritious meal for myself if if I'm in a pinch and I, you know, have to do something? how like those basic needs, I think, is the third mistake because we've gotten so used to this instant gratification. Like I live in a neighborhood full of professionals and doctors, and the amount of Uber Eats deliveries that I see every single day, I'm like, okay, guys, like.

And it's not like you're healthy. I mean, y you're healthcare providers and I know you're I can see you're not healthy. so I think having those basic skills is one mistake. Like you're almost like giving it up in a way. Like I know we can be like feminist and still cook, you know? Like w it it's more about how can you nourish yourself. So I think those

Natalie Tysdal (21:44)

Right.

Dr. Monisha Bhanote, MD (21:45)

would be my immediate that came to mind because

It's these skills that I think would really make a difference for individuals and empower them more because we're handing away the control of our health.

to other people. And it's really in our power to go, all right, this this is the way, you know, I'm gonna live my healthiest, longest life. Because it doesn't matter if you live to a hundred, if you live to a hundred and you're stuck in a a nursing home and you're not mobile and you can't do the things that you wanted to, right? So it's it's about how can we age gracefully where our cells and everything in our body is still functioning.

Natalie Tysdal (22:26)

Yeah, I th such great tips and those are three big mistakes that people make. So what about on the other side, the top thing that a woman could do today to feel better? Obviously you gotta

ask yourself, but what's your what's your favorite thing?

Dr. Monisha Bhanote, MD (22:42)

Okay, top three things that women can do today to feel better is I would say number one is have a community of other women.

I know I do I do retreats, I do longevity retreats and we get to go to all these beautiful destinations. We're headed to Tuscany this fall, and and I just finished a meeting with the host and we were looking at the pictures of like all the different places we're going to the thermal springs to the top of the mountain and where we're gonna do a whole meditation and surrounded by the the Tuscan mountains and and

I think that leads into having that community, allows you to have that space to then have that stillness because in my retreats we do a lot of breath work and meditation and and really tuning into our bodies. And it goes back to one of the things I think we're not doing, which is we're not allowing our body to heal. Right. So I would say that would be number one.

Be something that people can do right now. And I'm and I'm saying go out with your friend for a walk in your neighborhood. You do not need to go to Tuscany. You can do it anywhere. But don't bring everything around like alcohol or like eating out, you know, like because we know alcohol is is completely damaging to the brain cells and all that stuff. So let let's start with what we can do. So I would say one is find your community and

If there is a Karen or a negative Nancy in there, remove them because our com our the five people we surround ourselves with is the way our cells are going to communicate with each other. the next thing I would say,

Natalie Tysdal (24:25)

And

Dr. Monisha Bhanote, MD (24:26)

I'm sorry. Okay. I

Natalie Tysdal (24:27)

Yes, keep going. Number two.

Dr. Monisha Bhanote, MD (24:29)

would say the next thing I would say women can do, and I highly recommend it, is to

Change the mindset from health just happens to me to being more proactive and preventative. And in that I think doing advanced testing, because the testing where you go like, you know, once a year to your doctors and you're just doing your blood work and they're like, it's fine, I'll see you next year is not the type of testing I'm talking about because that is not going to give you enough information. And the last thing I want is you hitting your 50s or 60s and going,

My doctor's been telling me everything's fine and now I've got high blood pressure, and now I have high cholesterol when that develops decades earlier. And it's so I think really kind of getting your baseline and understanding that testing and building from there is number two.

Third thing I would say is I think we live in a world now where you know our food supply is just not as good as it's going to be, even if we are eating the cleanest food. Because I have plenty of people who have great diets and they are still nutritionally deficient, or there's something going on. So with that testing, you can kind of see: all right, how can I protect my cells? So I always like to do targeted supplementation.

Which means, you know, based on your cells, like and where they are at that state, what does your body need support with? So I would say those are the three that, you know, if you really want to look at your health in a in a deeper lens and understand a little bit better, I would start with.

Natalie Tysdal (26:13)

That's great, such great tips. Well, I want to be sure that you tell people where they can find you. great information and it start it has to start somewhere and I think everything you've given is

Dr. Monisha Bhanote, MD (26:24)

Yeah.

Natalie Tysdal (26:25)

a great place.

Dr. Monisha Bhanote, MD (26:26)

so I'm easy to find. My website is drbenote.com, so drb a n o t e dot com. from there, I recommend you sign up for my newsletter. Every week I send you some science deep dives and how to protect your cells, as well as I always send out a recipe. It's super easy, under 15 minutes of cooking. Nobody's got time to be in the kitchen all day, but we like to eat healthy. you can also check out my book, The Anatomy of Well Being. It's available.

On every platform, also available now in audiobook, on social media, on all the platforms, Dr. Benoit, so on Instagram, Facebook, even Pinterest, and YouTube, Dr. Benoit. And then our latest launch is because I've seen the status of everybody's cells for decades, and there was not something available. I created a custom formula, first physician formulated

travel wellness and longevity supplement for our busy lives that combines 5,000 year old botanical intelligence, so botanicals with the longevity science ingredients. And I've I personally have been taking it for two years and we just started to release it to the general public in the last month. So I'm super excited about sharing that.

Natalie Tysdal (27:40)

Doctor Bhanote, it's been a pleasure. I appreciate your time and I look forward to talking again and meeting in person sometime soon.

Dr. Monisha Bhanote, MD (27:46)

Yes, absolutely. Thank you so much, Natalie