Archive | Podcast

784: How to Feel Like Yourself Again When Life Won’t Let Up, Or Slow Down with Mona Sharma

October 22, 2026 in Podcast, Women’s Health 0

Listen to the Episode Here

Episode Summary

What happens when the version of you who could always push harder suddenly isn’t available anymore?

For Mona Sharma, perimenopause arrived in a way she never expected. After navigating mold exposure, long COVID, gut issues, disrupted sleep, hair loss, and an experience with testosterone pellet therapy, an unexpected frozen shoulder became one of the clues that made her finally consider declining estrogen and perimenopause.

But this conversation goes much deeper than hormones.

Mona and Dr. Mariza explore the emotional reckoning that can happen when your old capacity changes, the routines that once worked stop working, and the high-functioning woman you’ve known for decades starts asking for a completely different way of living.

They talk about HRT, stress, gut health, morning rituals, embodiment, intuition, sisterhood, aging, self-criticism, and the grief that can come with letting go of an earlier version of yourself.

Most importantly, Mona reframes perimenopause as a metamorphosis: a season that asks for more grace, deeper self-trust, and the courage to come home to the body you’re in now.

MONA SHARMA

Mona Sharma is a nutritionist, wellness practitioner, entrepreneur, and host of the Rooted in Wellness podcast.

Her approach blends nutrition and lifestyle practices with mindfulness, embodiment, Eastern traditions, and a deeply personalized approach to healing.

In this conversation, Mona shares her own experience navigating perimenopause while raising children, growing businesses, supporting aging parents, healing her gut, managing significant stress, and learning how to listen to a body that no longer responds the way it once did.

IN THIS EPISODE

The unexpected symptoms that first made Mona realize she might be in perimenopause
What her experience with testosterone pellet therapy taught her about individualized hormone care
Why HRT is not a cookie-cutter solution and may require patience, experimentation, and self-awareness
How chronic stress and gut health can complicate the way you feel during perimenopause
Why protecting one grounding ritual can matter more than creating a perfect wellness routine
How to approach prevention from possibility and purpose instead of fear
Why embodiment and intuition can become powerful tools when your mind feels scattered or overwhelmed
The grief of letting go of the high-capacity woman you used to be
How perimenopause can become a rite of passage into deeper wisdom, self-trust, and a new identity

QUOTES

“Finding the practice or the ritual every day that brings you home to your body is key.”

“This transition is metamorphosis.”

“It’s okay to drift, it’s part of life, but you always have to remember how to anchor yourself home in your body.”

RESOURCES MENTIONED

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

Mona Sharma Website

Rooted in Wellness Podcast

Join Rooted Academy with Mona Sharma

Mona Sharma Instagram

RELATED EPISODES

777: What We Know Now: The Midlife Lessons No One Taught Us with Jenn Pike

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

774: Training for Your Grandma Self: How to Build a Body That Lasts with Dr. Stephanie Estima

717: “I Don’t Feel Like Myself Anymore”: The Mental & Emotional Reality of Perimenopause

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!

783: Why Your Vaginal Health Changes After 40 (And What You’re Missing) with Wendy Strgar

October 20, 2026 in Podcast, Women’s Health 0

Listen to the Episode Here

Episode Summary

Recurring UTIs. Vaginal dryness. Burning. Painful sex. BV that comes back again and again.

So many women are dealing with these symptoms, especially during perimenopause and menopause, yet vaginal health remains one of the least discussed areas of women’s healthcare.

In this episode, Dr. Mariza sits down with Good Clean Love founder Wendy Strgar for a candid conversation about the vaginal microbiome, what can disrupt it, and why declining estrogen can leave vaginal and urinary tissues more vulnerable to dryness, irritation, pain, and recurrent symptoms.

Wendy shares how her own experience with painful sex and severe irritation after pelvic surgery led her to begin investigating the ingredients in common personal care products and eventually build Good Clean Love.

They unpack the importance of vaginal pH, protective bacteria, the vaginal epithelial barrier, and why simply treating every recurrence as another yeast infection or prescribing the same medication repeatedly may not address what is actually happening.

They also explore what happens as estrogen declines, why symptoms can become especially severe after cancer treatment or chemical menopause, and why women deserve better language, education, testing, treatment options, and clinicians willing to take vaginal pain seriously.

Because vaginal discomfort, recurrent infections, painful sex, and dryness should never simply be dismissed as the inevitable price of getting older.

WENDY STRGAR

Wendy Strgar is the founder of Good Clean Love, a women’s intimate and vaginal health company that grew out of her own search for products she could comfortably use after experiencing significant pain and irritation following childbirth and pelvic surgery.

Over the years, Wendy has focused her work on vaginal microbiome health, product formulation, education, clinical research, and expanding access to vaginal healthcare.

In this conversation, she shares what she has learned from working with researchers, clinicians, and women struggling with chronic vaginal symptoms and why she believes vaginal microbiome health deserves a much larger role in women’s healthcare.

IN THIS EPISODE

How Wendy’s own experience with painful sex and irritation led to the creation of Good Clean Love
Why the vaginal microbiome deserves the same attention we increasingly give the gut microbiome
How declining estrogen can contribute to dryness, irritation, pain, and changes in vaginal and urinary health
Why recurrent BV, yeast symptoms, and UTIs may require a deeper look at what organisms are actually present
The role vaginal pH and the epithelial barrier play in maintaining a healthy vaginal environment
Why some personal lubricants and vaginal products may aggravate already-sensitive tissue
What women should know about vaginal changes during perimenopause, postpartum, and chemical menopause
Why recurrent symptoms deserve more than another round of the same treatment
How better language, testing, and access to knowledgeable clinicians could transform vaginal healthcare

QUOTES

“The problem is that you need to create the environment for that healthy bacteria to survive.”

“We like to say restore and maintain.”

“Quality of life after you go through something like that, we deserve that.”

RESOURCES MENTIONED

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

Use code DRMARIZA and get 10% off on your Womeness Order

Improve your Vaginal Health: Subscribe to Wendy Strgar Substack

Good Clean Clinical Care

Good Clean Love Pages

Good Clean Love Instagram

Wendy Strgar Instagram

RELATED EPISODES

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

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

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

572: How to Know You Are in Perimenopause Including the 40+ Symptoms Associated with Declining Hormones

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!

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

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

Listen to the Episode Here

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 Appelbaum 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 APPELBAUM

Dr. Bryce Appelbaum 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

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

Get $200 off ScreenFit™ with code DRMARIZA

Get 10% off Digital Performance Lenses™ and more in the MyVisionFirst™ Shop with code DRMARIZA

Try ScreenFit™ for free: https://www.screenfit.com/preview

Take the free online vision assessment: https://www.myvisionfirst.com/quiz

Get the free guide, 5 Steps to Better Vision: https://www.screenfit.com/5-proven-secrets-to-relieve-eye-strain

Learn more about MyVisionFirst™: https://www.myvisionfirst.com

Learn more about ScreenFit™: https://www.screenfit.com

Follow Dr. Bryce Appelbaum on Instagram and YouTube: @drbryceappelbaum

RELATED EPISODES

744: The Midlife Brain Reset: How to Protect Your Memory, Focus, and Mental Sharpness Starting Now

668: Your Brain on Perimenopause: The Hidden Neurological Transition No One Warns You About

728: Why Brain Fog Isn’t Random: The Hormone Shift Behind It

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!

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

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

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

Why ADHD in women can hide behind people-pleasing, perfectionism, and looking “high-functioning”
How declining estrogen in perimenopause can make masking ADHD symptoms much harder
Why girls with ADHD are often diagnosed with anxiety or depression instead
The connection between ADHD, mitochondrial function, brain glucose metabolism, and neuroinflammation
Why movement can temporarily improve focus and cognitive performance in the ADHD brain
How sleep disruption can compound brain fog, emotional dysregulation, and ADHD symptoms
Why ADHD and PMDD so often overlap and may worsen during perimenopause
How hormones may influence impulsivity, mood, executive function, and premenstrual ADHD symptoms
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

RELATED EPISODES

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

763: Why So Many High-Functing and Achieving Women Miss the Signs of Hormone Imbalance with Anastasia Sartan

744: The Midlife Brain Reset: How to Protect Your Memory, Focus, and Mental Sharpness Starting Now

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

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!

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

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