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EP 782

782: Your Eyes Are Fine. So Why Is Your Brain So Exhausted? with Dr. Bryce Applebaum

October 15, 2026 in Podcast, Women’s Health 0

Listen to the Episode Here

Or, listen on your favorite app: YouTube | iTunes (Apple Podcasts) | Spotify | Amazon Music | iHeartRadio | Pocketcasts

Episode Summary

Have you ever gotten to the end of a long day on your computer and felt like your brain was simply done?

Your eyes are tired. You can’t focus. Light feels irritating. Reading takes more effort. Maybe you even start avoiding your phone because you cannot look at another screen.

Most of us assume that means our eyesight is getting worse.

But in this episode, Dr. Mariza sits down with neuro-optometrist Dr. Bryce Applebaum to explain why eyesight and vision are not the same thing.

Eyesight describes how clearly you see. Vision involves how your brain receives, filters, processes, coordinates, and responds to the information coming through your eyes. And when that eye-brain connection isn’t functioning efficiently, symptoms can show up as headaches, motion sickness, dizziness, trouble focusing, sensory overload, brain fatigue, and even ADHD-like behaviors.

Dr. Bryce also explains why screens place such unusual demands on the visual system, why functional vision issues can become more noticeable during midlife, and how concussion and other brain injuries can disrupt vision even when standard eye exams look normal.

The encouraging part?

The brain remains adaptable.

Through targeted vision training and the right evaluation, Dr. Bryce explains that the eye-brain connection can often be retrained and strengthened at almost any age.

DR. BRYCE APPLEBAUM

Dr. Bryce Applebaum is a neuro-optometrist specializing in vision performance and helping people improve how their eyes, brain, and body work together.

His work focuses on functional vision, visual processing, traumatic brain injury, concussion recovery, learning challenges, screen-related visual stress, and vision performance training.

In this conversation, Dr. Bryce explains why a traditional eye exam may miss important functional vision problems and why improving vision can involve far more than simply changing a glasses or contact lens prescription.

IN THIS EPISODE

  1. Why eyesight and vision are two very different things
  2. How functional vision problems can cause brain fog, headaches, motion sickness, and sensory overload
  3. Why visual processing problems can sometimes look like ADHD
  4. How changing hormones and screen exposure can increase visual strain in midlife
  5. Why screen time places unusual demands on the eye-brain connection
  6. The childhood signs that may point to an undiagnosed functional vision problem
  7. Why concussion and traumatic brain injury can affect vision even when eyesight appears normal
  8. How vision performance training uses neuroplasticity to retrain the brain
  9. Practical ways to reduce screen strain and support healthier visual development

QUOTES

“Any brain at any age has the opportunity to be trained and rewired.”

“There’s neuroplasticity for vision at every age.”

“If we’re testing, we’re not guessing.”

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Stop surviving and start thriving, join Midlife on Fire Collective now

Dr. Bryce Applebaum Website

ScreenFit online vision training program

Dr. Bryce Applebaum Instagram

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769: Is It Perimenopause or Something Else? How to Finally Connect the Dots with Dr. Mariza

Free Download: Easy, Practical Tips to Get More Energy!

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EP 781

781: What If It’s Not Anxiety, Burnout, or “Just Your Hormones”? The Hidden Signs of ADHD in Women with Dr. Jolene Brighten

October 13, 2026 in Podcast, Women’s Health 0

Listen to the Episode Here

Or, listen on your favorite app: YouTube | iTunes (Apple Podcasts) | Spotify | Amazon Music | iHeartRadio | Pocketcasts

Episode Summary

What if the brain fog, overwhelm, time blindness, racing thoughts, and shorter emotional fuse showing up in your 40s aren’t just perimenopause?

For many women, ADHD has been hiding in plain sight for decades.

In this episode, Dr. Mariza sits down with women’s hormone expert and author Dr. Jolene Brighten to unpack why ADHD looks so different in women, why so many girls learn to mask their symptoms, and why changing estrogen levels during perimenopause can make those coping strategies suddenly stop working.

Dr. Brighten explains how ADHD in women may look less like the stereotypical hyperactive child and more like people-pleasing, perfectionism, constantly running mental lists, interrupting because you’re afraid you’ll forget your thought, chronic overwhelm, and appearing completely put together while internally struggling.

They also dive into the fascinating overlap between ADHD, perimenopause, PMDD, sleep, mitochondrial function, glucose metabolism, neuroinflammation, and emotional regulation.

And perhaps most importantly, they discuss what women can actually do: how movement can support brain energy, why sleep matters so much for the ADHD brain, how to build habits that work with your executive function instead of against it, and exactly how to advocate for a proper evaluation when your concerns are dismissed.

Because if your brain suddenly feels harder to manage in midlife, there may be more going on than “just hormones.”

DR. JOLENE BRIGHTEN

Dr. Jolene Brighten is a board-certified naturopathic endocrinologist, women’s hormone expert, educator, and bestselling author whose work focuses on helping women better understand the relationship between their hormones, brain, and overall health.

Her newest book, ADHD and Women: A Guide to Optimizing Your Hormones and Thriving with ADHD, explores how female hormones can influence ADHD symptoms throughout puberty, the menstrual cycle, pregnancy, postpartum, and perimenopause.

In this conversation, Dr. Brighten brings both clinical expertise and personal experience to the complicated intersection of ADHD, hormonal transitions, PMDD, emotional regulation, sleep, and women finally receiving answers after decades of believing they simply needed to try harder.

IN THIS EPISODE

  1. Why ADHD in women can hide behind people-pleasing, perfectionism, and looking “high-functioning”
  2. How declining estrogen in perimenopause can make masking ADHD symptoms much harder
  3. Why girls with ADHD are often diagnosed with anxiety or depression instead
  4. The connection between ADHD, mitochondrial function, brain glucose metabolism, and neuroinflammation
  5. Why movement can temporarily improve focus and cognitive performance in the ADHD brain
  6. How sleep disruption can compound brain fog, emotional dysregulation, and ADHD symptoms
  7. Why ADHD and PMDD so often overlap and may worsen during perimenopause
  8. How hormones may influence impulsivity, mood, executive function, and premenstrual ADHD symptoms
  9. What to track and say to your doctor if you suspect ADHD but keep getting dismissed

QUOTES

“Build pleasure into your day.”

“It is not just a hormone story.”

“High functioning is the label that society puts on women so that they can feel comfortable asking for more from her.”

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Stop surviving and start thriving, join Midlife on Fire Collective now

Join my brand-new Substack: for the woman everyone depends on who is wondering why everything feels harder in midlife:

ADHD and Women by Dr. Jolene Brighten

Dr. Jolene Brighten Website

Dr. Jolene Brighten Substack

Dr. Jolene Brighten Instagram

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Free Download: Easy, Practical Tips to Get More Energy!

Download the free Energy-Boosting Cheat Sheet now to learn how to unlock abundant health and energy that lasts—in only seconds every day!

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EP 780

780: The New Rules of Resilience: Energy, Recovery & Thriving in a Full Life with Angela Foster

October 8, 2026 in Podcast, Women’s Health 0

Listen to the Episode Here

Or, listen on your favorite app: iTunes (Apple Podcasts) | Stitcher | Spotify | Pocketcasts

Episode Summary

What if you’re not burned out?

You’re still working. Still exercising. Still taking care of your family. Still getting everything done.

From the outside, you look like you’re handling it all.

But underneath that competence, your body may be keeping a very different score through your sleep, recovery, energy, mood, stress tolerance, and heart rate variability.

In this episode, Dr. Mariza sits down with nutritionist, health and performance coach, and High Performance Health podcast host Angela Foster to unpack the difference between true resilience and simply becoming incredibly good at pushing through.

Angela explains why changing hormones in midlife can expose the cost of years of chronic under-recovery, how HRV can offer clues about whether your training and lifestyle actually match your capacity, and why the workout that once energized you may now leave you depleted for days.

They also share practical ways to build more recovery into a full life without abandoning your ambition, including walking, strength training, strategic HIIT, box breathing, the physiological sigh, morning light, intentional pauses, boundaries, and what Dr. Mariza calls “mindfulness snacks.”

Because the goal isn’t to build a smaller life.

It’s to build the energy, resilience, and capacity to keep living the big life you’ve worked so hard to create.

ANGELA FOSTER

Angela Foster is a nutritionist, health and performance coach, and host of the High Performance Health podcast. Her work focuses on helping ambitious women optimize their energy, hormones, resilience, and longevity without sacrificing the full lives they love.

Drawing from her own journey through major depressive disorder and perimenopause, Angela combines lifestyle medicine, exercise, recovery, nervous system regulation, and performance data such as HRV to help women understand their individual capacity and build greater resilience.

IN THIS EPISODE

  1. How to distinguish true resilience from simply getting really good at pushing through
  2. Why hormonal changes in midlife can expose years of chronic under-recovery
  3. How HRV can reveal whether your training load actually matches your recovery capacity
  4. Why HIIT may energize some women while leaving others depleted for days
  5. How walking, strength training, box breathing, and intentional recovery can support resilience
  6. Why small “mindfulness snacks” throughout the day can help regulate your nervous system
  7. What to investigate when you’re doing everything right but your HRV still isn’t improving
  8. How boundaries, asking for help, and taking things off your plate can actually expand your future capacity
  9. Why sustainable ambition doesn’t require giving up the career or life you’ve worked hard to build

QUOTES

“The biggest stress for us is when we don’t feel that sense of self-agency.”

“When you put intentional pauses into your day, you can slow that down and be present.”

“Where in your life can you put an anchor in your day that just grounds you back to what’s important?”

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Find inspiration, connection, and meaningful reads. Join the Book Club now!

Join my brand-new Substack: for the woman everyone depends on who is wondering why everything feels harder in midlife

High Performance Health Podcast

Angela Foster Website

Angela Foster Instagram

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772: The Cost of Holding It All Together: How Overfunctioning Changes Your Hormones, Brain & Metabolism with Dr. Mariza

776: What Changes When Your Body Can’t Keep Pushing Like It Used To? with Dr. Taz Bhatia

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758: Why Your Body Can’t Heal Until It Feels Safe: The Nervous System Shift That Changes Everything with Dr. Dave Rabin

Free Download: Easy, Practical Tips to Get More Energy!

Download the free Energy-Boosting Cheat Sheet now to learn how to unlock abundant health and energy that lasts—in only seconds every day!

Read More
EP 779

779: How Did We Get Hormones So Wrong? The HRT Story Every Woman Should Know with Dr. Louise Newson

October 6, 2026 in Podcast, Women’s Health 0

Listen to the Episode Here

Or, listen on your favorite app: iTunes (Apple Podcasts) | Stitcher | Spotify | Pocketcasts

Episode Summary

How did hormones become something women were taught to fear?

For decades, hormone therapy has been surrounded by confusion, conflicting recommendations, and sweeping assumptions that lump very different hormones and formulations together. Meanwhile, women continue walking into doctors’ offices saying, “I don’t feel like myself anymore,” and too often leave without answers or options.

In this episode, Dr. Mariza sits down in London with physician, women’s hormone specialist, educator, bestselling author, and advocate Dr. Louise Newson for a powerful conversation about how women’s hormone care got here and what needs to change.

They unpack why menopause has been reduced to hot flashes and night sweats, why estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone need far more nuance, and why Dr. Newson believes hormones deserve a place in the conversation about long-term health, not simply symptom relief.

They also go deep into one of the most controversial areas of women’s hormone care: testosterone, why the conversation so often begins and ends with libido, and what Dr. Newson has observed in women taking it for broader symptoms.

Most importantly, this episode is about informed choice: giving women accurate information, acknowledging where evidence is strong or still evolving, and creating healthcare relationships where women can participate fully in decisions about their own bodies.

DR. LOUISE NEWSON

Dr. Louise Newson is a physician, women’s hormone specialist, educator, bestselling author, and advocate working to transform the way women understand and access hormone care.

Her newest book, The Power of Hormones, explores the history of estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, hormone therapy, inflammation, and the medical decisions that have shaped women’s healthcare. Dr. Newson also focuses heavily on helping women understand their options and participate more actively in decisions about their health.

IN THIS EPISODE

  1. Why menopause and hormone loss need to be viewed as more than hot flashes and night sweats
  2. How decades of medical history shaped today’s fear and confusion around hormone therapy
  3. Why lifestyle and hormone therapy should not be treated as an either-or decision
  4. The controversy around testosterone for women and why the conversation extends beyond libido
  5. Why the specific hormone and formulation matter when discussing benefits and risks
  6. How hormone changes may influence metabolic health, inflammation, and healthy aging
  7. The differences Dr. Newson draws between bioidentical hormones and synthetic hormone formulations
  8. Why younger women with hormonal conditions such as PMDD deserve a deeper hormone conversation
  9. How women can use knowledge, evidence, and informed choice to advocate for better healthcare

QUOTES

“You can only decide when you’ve got knowledge.”

“It’s all about choice based on evidence and fact.”

“We really need to grow up and think we need to prevent disease.”

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Order my newest book: The Perimenopause Revolution

Stop surviving and start thriving, join Midlife on Fire Collective now

Join my brand-new Substack: for the woman everyone depends on who is wondering why everything feels harder in midlife:

Stop guessing, start testing. Explore Joi & Blokes personalized labs with code DRMARIZA.

Use code ENERGIZED and get 10% off on your MitoQ Order

The Power of Hormones by Dr. Louise Newson

Dr. Louise Newson Website

Dr. Louise Newson Instagram

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656: The Dangers Of NOT Prescribing Bioidentical HRT + Migraines, Testosterone and Mitigating Inflammation with Dr. Louise Newson

680: You Are Not Broken: Why Women Need Testosterone to Feel Strong, Sexy & Energized with Dr. Kelly Casperson

605: Breaking the HRT Confusion: The Truth Behind Hormone Replacement Therapy for Perimenopausal Women with Karen Martel

592: Menopause, HRT, and Breast Cancer + How to Advocate for Yourself with Dr. Suzanne Gilberg-Lenz

Free Download: Easy, Practical Tips to Get More Energy!

Download the free Energy-Boosting Cheat Sheet now to learn how to unlock abundant health and energy that lasts—in only seconds every day!

Read More
EP 778

778: The Fatigue Problem No One Is Solving for Women Over 40 (And The Labs I Order First)

October 1, 2026 in Podcast, Women’s Health 0

Listen to the Episode Here

Or, listen on your favorite app: iTunes (Apple Podcasts) | Stitcher | Spotify | Pocketcasts

Episode Summary

You’re exhausted by 2 or 3 PM. Your workouts suddenly wipe you out. Your hair is shedding, your brain feels foggy, and even climbing a flight of stairs leaves you more winded than it used to.

Then you finally ask for help and hear: “Your labs are normal.”

In this solo episode, Dr. Mariza breaks down one of the most commonly missed contributors to persistent fatigue in women: iron deficiency, even before anemia develops. She explains newly released American Society of Hematology ferritin thresholds and why women who were previously told their iron was “normal” may deserve a closer look.

But iron is only one part of the conversation.

Dr. Mariza walks through the bigger clinical picture she considers when a woman says, “I don’t feel like myself anymore,” including thyroid function, mitochondrial energy production, blood sugar, sleep, nutrition, stress physiology, and HPA-axis regulation.

Most importantly, she explains why fatigue is a symptom, not a diagnosis and why neither stress, aging, nor perimenopause should automatically become the explanation for everything you’re experiencing.

Listen now to learn what may be hiding behind your exhaustion and how to have a more productive conversation with your healthcare provider.

IN THIS EPISODE

  1. Why iron deficiency can exist before you become anemic
  2. The new ferritin thresholds women should know about
  3. Why a lab’s reference range and a diagnostic threshold are not always the same thing
  4. Why heavy perimenopausal periods can increase your risk of depleted iron stores
  5. The fatigue, brain fog, headaches, hair shedding, and exercise intolerance that can overlap with perimenopause
  6. How iron, thyroid hormones, nutrition, blood sugar, sleep, and recovery influence mitochondrial energy production
  7. Why “adrenal fatigue” oversimplifies what may actually be happening with the HPA axis
  8. How under-fueling, over-training, poor sleep, circadian disruption, illness, and caffeine can add to the body’s total stress load
  9. The questions to ask when you know something has changed but your labs keep coming back “normal”

QUOTES

“You can be iron deficient before you ever become anemic.”

“Two things can be true at once.”

“I don’t want mitochondrial dysfunction to become another vague label we give an exhausted woman.”

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Find inspiration, connection, and meaningful reads. Join the Book Club now!

Order my newest book: The Perimenopause Revolution

Stop surviving and start thriving, join Midlife on Fire Collective now

RELATED EPISODES 

769: Is It Perimenopause or Something Else? How to Finally Connect the Dots with Dr. Mariza

664: The Hidden Reason You’re Exhausted: How to Fix Cortisol and Boost Stress Resilience in Perimenopause

661: When “Normal” Isn’t Normal: How to Be Heard (and Taken Seriously) at the Doctor’s Office

755: What If Your Body Isn’t Broken, Just Undernourished? The Missing Link Between Nutrients, Hormones & Energy with Ryan Woodbury

Free Download: Easy, Practical Tips to Get More Energy!

Download the free Energy-Boosting Cheat Sheet now to learn how to unlock abundant health and energy that lasts—in only seconds every day!

Read More

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