About 1 in 10 people in the US now suffer from some sort of autoimmune disease. And this level has been rising fast over the last couple of decades.

It’s rising fastest amongst adolescents, where the number has tripled in the last 3 decades.

In 1988-1991 an estimated 22 million people between 12 and 19 years old had an autoimmune disease, and in 2011-2012 it rose to 41 million.

But it affects adults as well, generally manifesting somewhere between the ages of 15-45. And about 75% of those affected are female.

These are conditions such as Lupus, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Crohn's disease, Fibromyalgia, Hashimoto’s, Ulcerative Colitis and a host of some 80 others.

And other conditions, such as Lyme disease, can trigger autoimmune conditions.

These can cause low thyroid, muscle pain or fatigue, stiff or painful joints, and exhaustion and lethargy. Or they can attack specific organs or nerve cells, and even the skin.

But what is an autoimmune disease? What's happening in the body when someone has one?

Perimenopause and Menopause are two parts of a transition a woman goes through when their body comes to the end of its reproductive ability.

It usually occurs sometime in a woman’s 40’s or 50s, but can occur earlier.

Perimenopause is the start of this transition, when her menstrual cycle starts to fluctuate as the amount of eggs she has in her ovaries starts coming to an end.

Then, when she has not had a menstrual cycle in 12 months, we say menopause has begun.

This whole transition is a period of somewhat intense hormonal fluctuations, somewhat different for everyone, that ends with very low production of key hormones, and generally lasts around 7 years. Though it can be as long as 14 years.

During this transition a woman can experience extreme hot flashes and sweats as hormone levels fluctuate erratically, poor sleep, poor mood, brain fog or inability to make decisions, weight gain to one degree or another, headaches, bone loss and muscle loss, reduced libido, low energy and much more.

So understanding exactly what is occurring here, what causes it, what can make it worse and what we can do about it is quite important.

Let’s dive in.

Before we cover exactly how menopause and perimenopause work in the Menopause Series, I want to cover something that affects this area significantly due to the amount of false information currently existing on the subject.

This is information that leads to choices which can make menopause worse, or harder to deal with, as well as lower our overall longevity.

I'm talking about the subject of cholesterol.

As perimenopause and menopause have everything to do with a lowering of key  hormones that occurs, this becomes quite important. Because cholesterol is what these key hormones are made from.

Electrolytes are necessary for hydration, energy, recovery, and mental clarity.

They power our nervous system, regulate our water levels, allow our cells to function, and are key to protein synthesis, recovery, and even brain function.

And they're vital for fat loss.

Lack of electrolytes can cause dizziness, cramps, headaches, exhaustion, mental confusion, and even affect our heartbeat.

But they are exact minerals and they're needed by the body in exact ratios.

Too much of one and not enough of another can actually exacerbate the problems they're supposed to address.

In fact, the wrong ratio can even cause dehydration and bloating, not to mention weight gain and slower recoveries.

When we look at the fact of aging, or getting older, we often measure it in two ways:

The number of years we’ve been on this earth, chronologically.

And the amount of decay that’s set in: fatigue, lower energy, poor fitness levels, poor sleep, loss of muscle, worsening vision and hearing, digestive problems, memory loss, etc.

But, while we’ve come to see the second as the inevitable result of the first, it’s actually not. It’s the result of getting biologically older, accelerated aging before our time.

We don’t realize this because our view is obviously based on what we’ve seen for decades now. And what we’ve seen is not good.

But this isn’t a natural situation. It’s a created situation.

Today, 90 percent of the money spent on health care in the US, almost $4.1 trillion, is spent on preventable chronic disease.

And a 2018 study found that 88 percent of Americans are in poor metabolic health—meaning they are on the road to the above diseases.

That’s not 88% of the elderly, that’s 88% of the population of the US.

This is despite the US spending nearly double the amount on healthcare and medicine as any other country.

But in the Blue Zones of the world, where they don’t have access to either our medicine or our toxins and very poor foods, they live quite healthily to 100 or more.

This is accelerated aging. And we don't need it.

So sit tight, because we’re about to get sciencey.

Did you know that factors such as diet, exercise, toxins, sleep, stress and more can affect how able our DNA are to make new, healthy cells?

This is a huge factor in aging.

If our DNA can't make new cells properly, but instead makes "faulty" cells, then, as our body is nothing but cells, over time our body begins to slowly degrade.

We see it in our skin, our strength, our energy levels and our overall health.

This is half of what we call "aging."

But it doesn't have to be this way. This is a created situation.

And we can reverse it.

If we want to actually increase longevity, increase lifespan and increase overall health and ability during the entirety of that lifespan, then we need to define what we’re talking about. 

Even more, we need to compare the current “norm” we’ve become accustomed to… to what not only can exist, but does exist in other places today.

A person should be able to live past 100 years old, with high energy levels, strength and mental ability, doing what they want without the need of twenty different drugs to keep them going, and then pass away peacefully.

And not only should that be the case, but in places outside of our “modern world” — called Blue Zones — it is the case. Quite routinely.

Let's dive in.

Everyone wants soft, healthy, firm skin. Especially as we get older.

This is so much the case that about $17 Billion is spent on skin care products yearly.

But much of these products, while providing results in the short term, actually cause worsening conditions over time, increasing the "need" to use them.

This is due, in many cases, to some very toxic ingredients used in many of them.

These include hormone disruptors, formaldehyde, chemicals also used as plastic softeners, carcinogens, allergens, solvents and even neurotoxins.

So, while these products may contain ingredients that seem to help on an immediate basis, over time many of them are causing the issues they claim to address.

Let’s see what's actually happening here and what we can do about it.

Today, approximately one in three Americans experience skin issues of various sorts: clogged pores, breakouts, redness, and irritation of different kinds.

And while this number has been growing for the last few decades, it’s sped up in recent years.

Even more, accelerated aging of the skin: fine lines, wrinkles, dryness or flakiness, and skin sagging is occurring earlier than normal, with many in their twenties now experiencing it.

While there are several factors involved, and some include the skin care products being used today, there is a much larger factor bringing this on: the health of our gut.

When we have harmful bacteria or candida in our body, or toxins and even gluten coming in, our immune system produces what’s called an inflammatory response.

And this, when it gets to our skin, can cause all sorts of trouble.

It can cause breakouts by increasing oil production and clogging pores.

It breaks down collagen and elastin, the proteins responsible for keeping our skin firm and smooth. 

Then, as these proteins degrade, the skin begins to sag, and wrinkles or fine lines appear.

It also causes skin to lose its ability to retain moisture effectively, leading to dryness, flakiness, and irritation.

But, as much of this is caused by the health of our gut, no amount of skin creams, oils or regimens will be able to fix it as they’re addressing the end result, not the cause.

And the cause, if not itself addressed, will just continue the problem.

If we want healthy, radiant skin that stays clear, soft and firm for the longest amount of time, then we need to address our gut.

So let’s dive in.

When our digestive ability is weak, we don’t get all of the nutrition contained in the foods we eat. This is because food, including proteins and minerals, must be fully broken down by stomach acid in order for our body to be able to use it.

In fact, poor digestion of protein is one of the largest causes of muscle loss as we age: our digestive system isn’t working as well as it was when we were younger, and so not enough protein is being broken down for our body to use.

But it’s not just our cells that need this nutrition.

Specific bacteria in our colon are responsible, in whole or in part, for the creation of the neurotransmitters serotonin and GABA, the happy, calming neurotransmitters.

We know that toxins are harmful.

They stress our nervous system, create inflammatory responses in our body, raise cortisol levels, disrupt our hormones, accelerate our aging, contribute to many conditions we see in society today, and even cause trouble for our unborn children, disrupting the process by which both their nervous systems and immune systems form.

In short, they cause our bodies a great deal of stress.

And this stress passes on to us, to our anxiety levels and our mood, whether we know it or not. 

As of 2022 there were an estimated 350,000 chemicals used in the world, most of which get into our water supply.

That’s a fifty-fold increase since 1950.

And, according to the CDC, less than 100 of them are regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act.

But how do these toxins stress our body?

How do they affect our stress levels and mood?

How do they create inflammatory responses?

And how can we prevent this?

We've spoken a lot about hormones on the Lean Body/Lean Bulk Program, but not how toxins affect these.

Testosterone levels have been dropping for decades and the largest lab testing company, Lab Corp, actually lowered the standard of what “acceptable” testosterone levels are.

At the same time, estrogen levels have risen sharply in both women and men, and thyroid has become a growing issue. 

All of this affects our ability to build lean muscle, lose body fat, and maintain heathy levels of lean muscle and fat. And it lowers our overall mood and health.

But while we've covered individual factors that can cause specific hormones to go too high or too low, there is another factor that affects them more broadly, and significantly.

There are exact chemicals in the environment (in our food, air, and water) which didn't exist before.

And these chemicals can do several things in the body:

They can block certain hormones from being created.

They can block them from being able to communicate their instructions to a cell, or disrupt the cell's normal actions.

Or they can impersonate certain hormones entirely, giving our cells the message a hormone normally would, but not when the brain says to.

And while this affects muscle-building and fat loss significantly, its effect goes far beyond this. 

It isn't a small issue. And every year its effects grow.

In this article we cover what's happening and what you can do about it.