81:: 10 health & wellness jump scares (Halloween special!)

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It's spooky season, so welcome

to a little Halloween special

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health and wellness jump scares

things about your body that

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might actually surprise you.

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Welcome back to Wellness Fixes the Pod.

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I'm your host, Dr.

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Kelsey Vick, a board certified

orthopedic doctor, physical therapy,

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and a pelvic floor physical therapist.

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And I figured it's a little bit of a

themed episode today, but I thought

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it'd be fun to chat about, maybe not

jump scares, but just surprising.

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Things about our bodies as women

primarily, but there's actually a

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few male fertility facts in here too,

because they do affect us as women.

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So I thought it'd be fun to talk

about 10 of the most surprising facts

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about our bodies and how they work.

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So it'll be a fun casual,

little spooky, fun fact episode.

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Number one, sperm aren't

just built for fertilization.

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This one isn't about our bodies as women,

but it's more of a male fertility fact.

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The minority of sperm released

are actually for fertilization.

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The majority of sperm that are released

are for creating the right environment

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for sperm to thrive, helping attack

some of the female immune response

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so that sperm can actually thrive and

flourish and fertilization can happen.

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So most sperm are actually

not related to fertilization.

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The female reproductive system is

extremely acidic, so it's very poor

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for sperm life and sperm movement.

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So some sperm helped to

neutralize the acidity.

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The female reproductive system is very

viscous, so it's like thick mucusy and

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it's very poor for sperm traveling.

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Of course.

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Just logistically it's harder to move

through a more viscous substance,

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so some sperm helps to liquefy the

environment a little bit more to

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help with the general motion of sperm

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And the female reproductive system

has a very strong immune response,

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which is good to ward off invaders,

but some sperm are actually in charge

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of distracting the guards, basically

to allow for fertilization to occur.

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Number two, this one's one of my

favorites, but creatine loading has

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been shown to help decrease some of

the more negative symptoms we have

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during the luteal phases of our cycles.

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And honestly all phases, but a lot of the.

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Negative side effects of our cycles

and the negative things that we go

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through happen in our luteal phase, and

creatine can help offset some of that.

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So there's a few recommendations.

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The normal recommendations are five

grams of creatine per day, but in

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your luteal phase, there's a potential

switch, and it's called creatine loading.

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It's five grams for four times a

day, so 20 grams a day total, but

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split into increments for five days,

followed by five grams twice a day.

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So you're moving from 20 grams a

day for five days to 10 grams a day

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For five days, and then you

can slowly titrate back down

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to five grams one time a day.

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But you still one serving is

still that five grams a day.

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It's not like you can just load up

20 grams at once and call it good.

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You do have to time it,

which can get tricky.

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I've been doing that over

the last few months since Dr.

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Katie Hirsh talked about it on her

episode, so I'll link that episode below.

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But yes, it is a little bit hard to

time it right to get the five grams

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just throughout the day, but it

has significantly helped with some

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of my symptoms during my luteal.

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So in our luteal phases, our

basal metabolic rate increases,

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meaning we require more a TP, more

energy for cellular functions.

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Hormonal shifts can lead to water

retention, bloating, breast tenderness,

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and there's neurotransmitter shifts that

can lead to mood changes, irritability,

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anxiety, and sleep disturbances.

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So creatine benefits us by

helping to reduce fatigue and

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improving our energy levels.

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Enhancing our cognitive function,

mood stabilization, and overall

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less bloating because it transitions

water from extracellularly, like

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where we might feel a little bit

more puffy to intracellularly,

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like in the muscle tissues.

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So I'll link that episode

that we did with Dr.

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Katie where she mentions this

below, but it's been a nice little

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tool in my toolbox, let's say,

to help her in the luteal phase.

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Number three, pain is not

a signal sent to our brain.

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We have no pain messengers, but

it is the response our brain comes

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up with if it feels we need to

be protected, if there's danger,

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And it doesn't just rely on the tissues.

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Damaged pain can be amplified by

other things, external circumstances.

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Our mental state, different

hormonal fluctuations, different

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chemicals within the brain.

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It's not just the tissue

damage that causes pain.

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There's actually been a study done.

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That pain can be amplified based on the

color that we see at the time of paint.

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So if we're seeing red light

and our hand touches an

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extremely cold surface, we will.

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Register that as more painful

than touching the exact same cold

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plate with a blue visual light.

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So there's different factors that

help our bodies to register Pain.

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Pain can also be amplified

based on past experiences.

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For example, neck pain is worse in

the general population and last longer

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compared to demolition derby drivers

who go through high impact collisions

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for their job all the time, so neck

pain in the general population who

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might not undergo this sort of job

or career is usually more intense

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and lasts longer compared to the neck

pain of demolition derby drivers.

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Number four.

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We have differences in motivation and risk

tolerance throughout our menstrual cycles.

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In the late follicular phase,

just before ovulation, we

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approach opportunities quicker.

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So we approach rewarding stimuli

quicker, especially as it relates

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to money or social rewards.

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And we overall have a

focus on opportunity.

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In this phase, in the mid

luteal phase, we have a quicker

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avoidance of negative stimuli.

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A lot of it has to do with.

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Evolution or there's a theory that

the reason we avoid these negative

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stimuli quicker in the luteal phase

is because should fertilization

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have occurred, our body wants

to protect that developing baby.

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So that's one of those evolutionary

theories for why this happens throughout

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our cycle, but we have a quicker

avoidance of negative stimuli, and

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there's a focus on threat avoidance

versus approaching opportunity.

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I can't even remember

what number we're on.

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I think five.

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But you need a certain amount of

body fat to even have a period.

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We need about 17% body fat in order

to start getting our periods and about

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22 to 28% to maintain our periods.

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This is why gymnasts, youth

runners, ballerinas, Their sport

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either promotes or has a tendency

towards lower body fat percentages.

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A lot of those girls get their periods a

little bit later because they don't quite

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have the body fat percentage minimum to

even get their periods in the first place.

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Another fun fact, fat is actually a

molecule that helps with our hormonal

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regulation from estrogen to leptin.

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So fat is definitely necessary.

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Number six, breastfeeding is

endocrine or hormonally driven

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for the first four to six weeks.

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Then it becomes baby driven.

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So when we talk about regulating milk

supply and different things, that four

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to six week mark is where that regulation

can start to occur, where it becomes

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baby driven and more pump driven.

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But those first four to six weeks, it

is hormonally and endocrine driven,

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which I learned this past May, when we

interviewed Sina, who's an international

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board certified lactation consultant,

and she actually told me that, and I

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thought that was so cool that our bodies

just know how to do that hormonally

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immediately after we have a baby.

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And then it becomes baby driven.

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Number seven, we cannot

spot treat fat loss.

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Fat loss is a systemic process.

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I feel like a lot of people are

starting to understand this,

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especially if you are listening

to a health and wellness podcast.

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You probably already realize this,

but when people say, lose your fat

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in your lower belly by doing more ab

workouts, lose that inner thigh fat

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by doing more inner thigh workouts

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It's not actually true.

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fat loss is systemic.

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We can't choose where we lose fat

from within our body or where we

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utilize fat for fuel within our bodies

through the exercises that we do.

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It just doesn't work like that.

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Number eight.

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Another male fertility fact that

actually affects us as women

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revolves around preeclampsia or high

blood pressure during pregnancy.

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the chance of preeclampsia in the female

was significantly higher with paternal.

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So father obesity compared

to the normal BMI group.

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As paternal BMI increases, the

rate of preeclampsia rises.

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13 to 19% of the development

of preeclampsia can be

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attributed to the male.

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We've done an entire male fertility

episode, so I'll link that below.

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That was during our Mama Palooza

Women's Health Podcast Festival event.

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Back in May, but I thought it was

interesting to start to look at

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the other side of the equation.

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Since oftentimes we focus on

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The female side of fertility, but

there's an entire male side of it too,

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obviously, that I feel like needs to

be talked about a little bit more.

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And what better way than to introduce

it to a bunch of girls and women who

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might be able to introduce it to their

significant others or partners, especially

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if they wanna get pregnant one day.

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Number nine, the initial

increase in strength.

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The first four-ish weeks of a new

strength training program actually

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has nothing to do with actually

increasing the size of your muscle.

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It has more to do with the

connectivity between your brain

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and your motor units, so it's more.

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About neuromuscular connections

versus actually just skeletal muscle.

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If you have better communication

from your brain to your muscles,

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you have better recruitment and

therefore increased strength.

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So that's in the first four-ish weeks.

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After that, then a lot of the strength

improvements start to come from actually

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increased muscle size or hypertrophy.

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And then lastly, female

specific skeletal muscle fact.

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So this is jump scare number 10.

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Women have more slow twitch fibers

than men, so we have better endurance

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overall, but slightly less power.

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Women's skeletal muscles, because we

have more type one fibers are also more

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fatigue resistant, Women's skeletal

muscle resists fatigue for longer than

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men during sub maximal tasks, even though

our overall strength is lower than men's.

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So just different sort of fun facts.

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We all have skeletal muscle tissue,

but the distribution between type one,

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which are those like slow twitch, more

endurance based muscle fibers, and

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type two, which are more of the fast

twitch speed, power-based fibers, the

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ratios differ between men and women.

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I'll link that episode where we chat

more in depth on that below if you're

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curious and wanna get a little bit

deeper into the science behind it and

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why women might need to prioritize

certain sprinting power-based activities

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more so than men, because we don't

necessarily have as many of those fibers.

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So we have to train it to improve it,

but then train it to also maintain.

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So happy Halloween to all

of those who celebrate.

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It's not my favorite holiday necessarily.

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, I'm a scaredy cat, honestly, but

I feel like it's a fun little

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Halloween special episode.

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My look is a little Halloween togo's

joining me right here for He, he

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wanted to make a little appearance

on this Halloween episode too.

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So I hope you guys enjoyed these 10 health

and wellness jump scares in honor ofs.

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Spooky season and I'll see you

guys again on the next episode

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of Wellness Exists, the pod.