Dr Stephanie Estima

 

Hey all K.J. SIMPSON You’re welcome to the all inclusive live special I have a very special guest. Her name is Dr. Stephanie Estima Dr. Steffanie is a big hearted energetic and compassionate healer dedicated to changing lives through chiropractic. She studied that I guess is a University of Toronto. Yes university in our backyard here she studied neuroscience in psychology and she went on to complete her Doctorate of chiropractic at the Canadian Memorial chiropractic college. I love this part. She’s a former fitness champion placing third in the New York regional division of the prestigious NPC or the national physique committee. I recognize that committee by the goat was there too at one point. We have so much in common Dr. Stephanie is also the owner and the clinical director of the health loft here in Toronto and she really understands how stress if left untreated can integrate into the body and have devastating effects on the quality of our lives. And it is her aim to educate and practice the members that she is serving in the surrounding community on how to reach their true health potential. Dr. Stephanie how are you today. Thanks for coming on the show.

 

Thank you so much for having me Chris. It’s an honor to be here.

 

Amazing. A little back story so I met Dr. Steffanie at the prestigious art Angel event in L.A. and it must have been two or three years ago I can’t recall but it’s been some time since we’ve known each other and met this amazing conversation.

 

We broke for dinner we sat down and we spoke about health worries about business if you recall and we also spoke about kids and in particular our children. Dr. Stephanie has two children and so do I as you know and the only thing that we didn’t really get around to talking about is something that I’ve become absolutely obsessed with fascinated with which is neuroscience in hormonal health and I really want to dive deep into that with you. Today Dr. Stephanie but before we do that I want our listeners to get to know you on a personal level so I’ve got three questions to dig deep here. Question number one is what is the biggest challenge you’ve had to overcome in your life.

 

Oh my goodness. Ha. I love it. The body diving it deep.

 

Yeah. God how much time do you have.

 

I have no I am the one and probably the the one that really pops into my head is saying that is in 2016 actually after you and I met Chris at the 2016 Archangel Masters event sitting with you then. And so that was in January of that year. And then two months later I actually was less than two months. It’s like maybe six seven weeks later my clinic complete where I was faxing completely burned down to the ground. Wow. So yeah everything was gone. Tables are gone now. It is just all ashes. Wow. I had to do is really you know dig deep and there is a multifaceted approach to that. So I really build up a new clinic from scratch I really designed and found a space to build out my dream clinic in them. Yeah I mean along with that you know along with like dealing with like the annoying thing with contractors and not showing up and getting behind schedule is also being able to continue to serve the practice members that patients that I was caring for at the time. So I was running a practice kind of out of a temporary office space and then at the same time building at this clinic. So I would probably say you know in a nutshell that’s one of the most difficult. You know you can label was like a tragedy or you know sort of an adverse event. I’ve had to deal with that. Yeah.

 

You know in terms of positive events I think becoming a parent has been you know two times over has become one of the biggest teachers and one of the biggest humbling lessons that I’ve had as a as a human. And you know they’ve taught me about humility and patience and forgiveness. And you know all the things that come along with surrendering to becoming a parent now you know I’ve been to your health clinic.

 

It’s absolutely beautiful. It’s you just got a class act over there. Very professional. Very well done very comfortable. Really cozy actually.

 

Now you know if I didn’t know you and I didn’t know your story and I didn’t know about the fire you know I’m only seeing what you created. And quite honestly all those things you mentioned about the contractors not showing up and you know basically running a temporary clinic for some time doesn’t sound like much fun. But I want to go right back to sort of you know before you decided to open up a new clinic and maybe the first day you found out that you know what you had invested in people maybe you’ve been considering it your your third child your business had burned down. So what did you do at that certain point in time you break down. Did you have the answers right away like when you bring us back to that point in time and it just really showed people you know what are the steps are or what were your steps any ways to to build what you have rebuilt essentially with this new clinic.

 

Sure. I actually remember the day very very well it’s one of those like flashbulb memories that I don’t think he can ever forget.

 

I was I was a Saturday evening and I was sitting and doing some arts like some construction and you know we are coloring books with my with my sons and my office manager at the time called me and was like you know I’m I’m getting am are actually what happened first before she called me. As I was getting from our alarm system I was getting motion sensors were going off so the alarm company called me and said Do you want to kind of go in and further investigate. And I said Yeah sure. Because the way that it sounded was that there was someone breaking into that clinic. So I said yes and the police over and then I said My office manager with them and then my office manager called me and was like you got to get down here right now. It’s not it’s not a break and there’s been a fire. So had my head someone watch the kids come you know came downtown to the clinic. And like the front window had been blown out there was glass everywhere. There is such and like black smoke kind of coming out of the front window of the clinic.

 

And then I had you know the firefighters and the policemen they sort of walk me through the space and prior to that night you know I had been kind of flirting with the idea for a couple of months you know looking for a larger space that the clinic where the fire was there was about you know call it eight fifty nine hundred square feet in total which we were you know very quickly outgrowing so I was already thinking about expanding and I called my my partner at the time and Giovanni who you know and I. I said yeah the clinic is gone like there’s no there’s nothing left. He like oh my god like are you OK with Leinonen you know when I was walking through the clinic like for sure you walked past areas where you know you cared for you know babies and you help moms you know get their needs to breastfeed and you have people you know like you know headaches are gone and people all they see you kind of walk through that and see you get like I was a little tear easier walking through and seeing all the love and the time and energy and focus and money that you had put into that space gone. But what actually said Giovanni that night was this is an awesome opportunity.

 

Like I see now. You said that.

 

Yeah. And he was like what. And I’m like this. You’re crazy.

 

Yeah but it was my I honestly felt like it was my chance you know like if the universe had kind of said OK girl you think you think you got some you know I think he got it like show me what you got.

 

So you know after that experience did you start to think that sometimes you know we really need to have our boats rocked or we need to have our businesses burned down and we need to have some sort of of know turbulence in our life to get us to the place that you know we were already looking to go for.

 

Anyways yeah I don’t I don’t think you need to have a clinic burning down to really ever hope that for anyone.

 

But I do think that pattern and pattern interrupts are important. So yeah it would really mean by that pattern interrupt what I mean by that is just for things to change. Sometimes we get so used to the everyday and we get so used to doing the same thing over and over we almost become like automatons like on autopilot Rizla pattern interrupt just you know even very simply sometimes in the clinic now I’ll change around the tables in the clinic or I’ll change something if you like Oh did you do something here and it’s like a pattern entrap you know you’re used to a space you’re used to the orientation of it but you physically change it you’re like Oh different. You know he’s almost become more awake or more conscious. So I think there’s some value to to changing things up. You know by a pattern intrepid that can be you know a ritual or a habit that you that you employ that can be you know different foods that you eat it can be different mindset strategies that you that you undergo and or it could also be things like you know a divorce or you know a new job or a new you know you know what have you.

 

Yeah you know I’m a believer in trends from the transformation I’m a believer in miracles you know that’s why you you see me on Instagram chasing butterflies around you know that that is basically what in my opinion anyways the most you know transformative natural from an insect perspective transformation that’s out there and that’s why I’m just fascinated to watch you know that metamorphosis as they call it. But you know in my life I went through a divorce. You know I’ve recovered from alcohol and drug addiction and you know my business almost went bankrupt. It didn’t earn down but you know it was at the point where it wasn’t good to be there anymore and it was those three pivotal moments where I had to respond and I guess you could call those like severe pattern interrupts and you know without those I wouldn’t be here on this call with you literally and I definitely wouldn’t be the man that I am today. So I totally agree with you that it’s these kinds of events that can really shape us. And I just love the fact that you know you immediately responded versus reacting you know the initial reaction of a you know some some loss some sadness as you’re walking through the place. But you know you went home and you talked to what to do Giovanni.

 

And right away said wow maybe this is meant to happen maybe this is what needs to happen in order for me to you know go into that space which I bet you it was a little scary I would assume like I’ve expanded my businesses twice over and those were you know scary times right where you’re investing money and you’re faced with a lot of uncertainty. You know did this really accelerate that process.

 

Well I always like to I’ve always said this you know fear and excitement are the same energy just on different ends of the same continuum.

 

So for sure it can be scary but I think if you reframe the way that you look at it you know you get the opportunity to expand your business twice over you get the opportunity to serve more people and that is really exciting. Yeah really exciting and it’s the same it’s the same energy. It’s just the way that we feel threatened the way that we process it.

 

Yeah. I want to ask you a more personal question in regards to you know what you do in your personal life what do you do for fun. You know I know what you do professionally. We’re going to get to that in a minute but I just want to know you know what you do recreationally what you do to get that warm fuzzy feeling what you do for you essentially.

 

That’s such a good question.

 

Thank you for asking and hamper.

 

There’s a lot of I mean for me I find a lot of joy in movement.

 

So Giovanni and I have just recently started taking South the death cell for lessons which are Yeah like if there’s something that gets you like warm and fuzzy like giggling and laughing but you also get an awesome workout like I’m really into salsa. And I also just like to I really enjoy working out. For me that’s a way for me to process any negative distress that I’ve you know I’ve been dealing with so I love to do high intensity interval training. I love to do you know restorative I’d like to do yoga and rebounder and like you know a whole host of different ways to move my body because that really helps me stay sharp. It calms me down it brings me to my Paris of effects you know and I it’s just lovely. So for me most sources of fun tend to be move movement or you know you and I are traveling like we’re like race each other. Like like who can get to the next you know light pole for me and that kind of thing. So

 

it’s amazing. That’s a segue into really why I wanted to get you on the call here to talk about neuroscience and hormonal health and you’re talking about activity and obviously we’re stimulating a lot of hormones in our body and maybe you can tell everyone you know what you’re famous for.

 

You know what your specialty is what you are an expert in.

 

Sir I would say very simply I’m an expert and getting people from subhuman to superhuman. They’re really just bringing people who are not either neurologically mechanically physiologically emotionally working the way that we are designed to.

 

And giving them you know strategies tools tax interventions in order to achieve some of the goals and the dreams that they have for their house.

 

Tolka well said. Now how does our hormones in our body play out in regards to our quality of life.

 

Oh it’s like everything. It’s like everything is a story of your hormones hormones and if we can even just take it one step further you know your brain which directs the release of certain hormones is you know where the.

 

For me everything it’s a brain game. So if I see a patient that has no metabolic syndrome or insulin resistance or what have you I’ll look at you know some of the challenges that they have at the armourer level but also pull it back and say OK where is the brain. Why is the brain not functioning the way that it should. Why are we having you know this and or again why are we having these changes at the end or along always sort of look a couple of levels up which is usually at the brain or their neurological level. OK. And then apply functional neurology movement protocols mindset metabolic protocols to help change some of the hormonal presentation. You know if it’s a hormonal dysfunction patient.

 

OK so maybe an example for our listeners. You know we’ll talk about the current epidemic of Type 2 diabetes for example. Obviously it’s a hormone that’s involved it’s insulin insulin resistance.

 

So you know how can you. You know as you call it. I believe a functional neuro or Pote approach or modality to help these people can you sort that out for us.

 

Sure. So when we when we use the example of type 2 diabetes you know one of the things that if you’ve done any research on it at all one of the things that will come up is that it’s a lifestyle disease.

 

Right so this is something that is usually completely preventable completely treatable and completely reversible through lifestyle modifications. So how that person you know a lot of there’s a lot of the reasons why the person got to where they are is through poor choices. So for me as an ER as a functional neurologist I’m going to look at why that person was making those poor choices to begin with. So part of it can be you know they’re uneducated and they don’t know any better. So there’s an education component to their care. But a lot of it comes down to some of the executive function in the frontal lobe and specifically in the prefrontal cortex which is where you know we make cognitive decisions where we know the prefrontal cortex specifically the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex controls our emotional behavior helps us make good decisions. It helps us you know goal set and visualize the future etc. So if somebody has lost sight of that then we will apply neurological neuro muscular and neurological rehabilitation to help bring that frontal lobe back online so that a person can be more motivated and the wiring is there for them to make better decisions which then leads to you know a hormonal rebalancing of their. You know we’re talking about guys you know diabetes we’re talking about insulin are talking about you know Breland and you know now and all the and all the hormones that are involved in a type 2 diabetes.

 

Yeah. I just love what you said there where insulin. You know or some resistance or diabetes type 2 diabetes is a lifestyle problem and not so much a hormonal problem.

 

Now what examples could you have. Like I heard some really cool words or neuro muscular for example creating better pathways. You know I’m assuming you’re talking about exercise. You know what kind of specific examples can you give that you know you how you would treat a patient with type 2 diabetes.

 

I love it. So I usually will take a three pronged approach.

 

One is metabolic so changing the food that the person is eating is creating some of the creating some of the I put it the hormonal level but we’re also going to look at stress management roles are going to look at physical physical management as well. So neuro muscular reeducation is really looking at particular’s and posture it’s looking at balance proprioception the vestibular system and again working trying to you know if you think about the brain as a muscle I’m trying to flex the frontal lobe like I’m trying to get the front the front part of our brain which is kind of what makes us human. If you ever like you have you have kids. Chris you know that when your kids were younger you know two or three you know the terrible twos as they like to call them or the terror aha when they don’t get something that they when they don’t get something that they want they completely lose it. They there’s temper tantrums and behavioral issues. And if you just looked at disciplining the behavior you’re kind of missing the point that behavior is not the problem. It’s because you know a 2 year old or a 3 year old doesn’t have a fully functional online frontal lobe yet. OK. So you know that’s part of the reason why you don’t see a 25 year old or a 30 year old if you tell them you know I’m sorry you can’t have that they don’t dissolve in a puddle of tears and they don’t start kicking and screaming in the grocery store right.

 

I have seen that before. She’s lucky just to be clear for the most part although you won’t see a 25 year old having a temper tantrum that a toddler would.

 

Right. That’s what I do I only do online shopping I’m free to go to the supermarket. After that experience. But here’s a question for you. Why do we go off line like why do we become dormant and not part of our brain.

 

Oh my god. Good question Chris. I mean this is such a this is a long. There’s a lot of different reasons why but I think that there’s a couple of them a couple of reasons so one when the reason one of the more kind of famous sayings that you know sort of here and there neurological circles is like you know neurons that wire together fire together. Right. So you know a few have we can even think about this in a muscular like an exercise perspective. You start doing a certain movement that you haven’t done before a calm movement or you know even if it’s something like a plyometrics you know jumping squad or something. You know the first couple of times that you do it you’re going to be incredibly sore because you are either wiring that neuro muscular wiring is not used to it. Right. So there’s an adaptation that has to happen. The seven the eight the ten time that you do it you’re like oh yeah. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. Let’s do something else right here. The same is true for when we are when we are talking about when we are talking about the brain. So neurons that wired together fire together those connections become stronger. The opposite is also true of neurons that wire apart fire apart. So if you don’t create those essential pathways in the brain where the frontal lobe is talking to lower areas like a more primitive emotional kind of you know desire primitive human behavior then those connections will never be strong and you’ll never be able to modulate that behavior. So there are.

 

A lot of protocols to help bring that frontal lobe to help bring those firing you know those firing pathways back online.

 

Now when I went through my recovery program which basically was rehab we had a stream for education where it was all cognitive behavioral studying essentially and practicing.

 

So is that something you integrate into your clinic as well into your practice.

 

Absolutely. There’s a real nice intersection or a nice marriage between CBT and functional neurology because what we’re essentially trying to do is we’re trying to get the person to think about the future again.

 

Right the frontal lobe thinks about the future. So we want to get them you know journaling and setting goals. And we also want them to engage in things like gratitude practices that we know activates the prefrontal memory. You know visualization and some. And then the other piece to this is also managing their stress is one of the biggest things that we know about the frontal lobe is it’s very susceptible to you know or it can tend to deteriorate with lack of sleep with too much technology or too much stress or lack of coping mechanisms for stress.

 

Well and then we are off line scenario which I guess is a degrading process essentially of our brain does our brain actually change under those conditions under you know last leap or high Heister.

 

Yeah it gets smaller. Wow. Now here’s another question for you. I’ve seen raw research in the last few years and I guess they call neuroplasticity that the brain can actually grow as adults. So can you tell us a little bit about that.

 

Yeah I mean that’s really the great news in all of this is that your brain is super adaptable.

 

So whether you’re five or 55 or 65 you can still start a new program to help regenerate and make your brain Thick and Full and juicy the way that it’s supposed to and it’s implementing some of the things we’ve been talking about like physiological or Asare physical considerations like exercise which you know we know that exercise and particularly spinal movement stimulates things like 90 percent of the brain’s motor court stimulation to the brain comes from the spine. So compound movements big movements where you’re doing like pushups and squats and like lateral movements like these are all really really great for getting the brain thicker and then some of the other mindset things that we’ve been talking about like gratitude and journaling and thinking about the future and you know taking electronic fast like not using technology excessively in the evening developing good sleep habits these are all things that help with neuroplasticity.

 

But here’s a question for you. With everyone being I guess you could it addicted to their phones you know. How is that affecting our brains or are we seeing any evidence of of brain problems because of the amount that we spend with technology.

 

I would honestly categorize like technology addiction with up there with drug addiction and porn and gambling and like they’re all one and the same what you’re essentially doing is you’re going into your and if you’re on you know whatever it is like Facebook or Instagram or Snapchat or whatever it is what you’re looking for is a hit of dopamine.

 

Right. So every time someone likes a picture or makes a comment you know there’s a neurotransmitter in the brain called dopamine which is involved in you know being passionate and motivated and engaged. So the more dopamine hits you get from people liking your picture the more likely you are to post another picture and check obsessively for the likes and the comments on the you know whatever from there. So what you know the problem that we have I think as a. We never going to get rid of phones right. So that’s the first thing we’re never going to get rid of the technology. I think it’s the it’s the way that we apply the technology which is really important so figuring out ways for the technology to bring us closer together rather than isolating us because at the end of the day you know an addiction whether it’s you know technology or food or you know drugs or whatever it is is it’s replacing you know our our basic primitive need for human connection.

 

And I see I see and there’s more hormones that are stimulated by human connection with you know sharing space with somebody to physical touch with somebody. What are some of these other hormones that are important with this physical illness humanness. I guess that you’re talking about there.

 

I mean we have dopamine we have serotonin we have some of the neurotransmitters that are involved in relaxation some of the AC H and that Gabbar neurotransmitters we also have oxytocin which is our you know we hear about this with like moms and their babies this is like the bonding hormone.

 

This is what you know this is what makes us feel bonded and close and nurtured and feeling safe. Now how would you know if you’ve got adequate amounts or if there’s any imbalances in any of these hormones.

 

You will see it. These are you know you’ll see it in a lot of different ways.

 

So people who are I think you can see it through behavior. You know when we see for example I were to take that for example that you and I were talking about like someone who’s a workaholic. Right. They are they will at the expense of you know it and workaholics tend to be are going to use a pronoun he that doesn’t mean that a female cannot be a workaholic but you know he will go to work. And you know we’ll be on his phone in like trying to get the next sale or whatever it is you know the next hit of dopamine really at the expense of you know being present for his family. Right now you can see it in behavioral in the behaviors of the individual like even things like moodiness who poor sleep and you know when we’re talking about this workaholic when he is with you know his family he’s agitated and wants to know where his phone is and you know is distracted. These are all symptoms of someone who is wanting to get their next hit. It’s very similar to the drug addict right who is at the expense of the no relation relationship that with his family will try to go out and get whatever drug that’s going to give him the you know the chemical and you know the neurochemical hits.

 

Yeah you know addiction can be summed up just by simply saying that when you can’t manage your life anymore when whatever it is that you need if it’s sex if it’s food it’s drugs if it’s alcohol when that begins to manage or even own you or rule your life.

 

That essentially sums up her addiction which like you said it’s there’s a full spectrum. You know I mean from the least obvious maybe you know the phone that everyone has in their pocket right now to something that’s very obvious which is maybe drug addiction and the problem there too is that there’s a socially.

 

It’s not really socially accepted to be a drug addict but it’s super promoted and socially accepted to be a workaholic. So there’s there’s a whole host of like social or social factors at play as well and the addict whether like you know candidate parent what you’re saying about whether they’re a drug addict or a food addict or whatever addict. You know when we look at them neurologically we also see that their brain has like their frontal lobe has gone off line their brain has stopped developing and some of the connections that are there are disintegrating.

 

Now would you see that on the brain scan for example can you actually see evidence of that.

 

It depends on what type like. You know there I know Dr. Daniel Amen does a lot of spect scanning so he can probably pick it up in terms of like the activity and whether or not those areas are online.

 

But yeah you can see those on the onset and brain scans yes.

 

But the most obvious way to detect I guess a neural imbalance would just be by someone’s behavior.

 

Yeah I mean we don’t all have the funds to get SPECT scans and brain scans right. So if there is a persistent behavior that is causing detriment to one’s social circle.

 

You know and some of the goals and the dreams of that person has like it’s basically self sabotage because the consequences of sabotage then yeah there’s probably something going on there some emotional issues but also some physical and physiological changes as well.

 

So aside from you know brain scanning which as you said there is a certain cost component to that that might not be affordable for certain people. What about if it’s urine testing and if it’s blood testing or are there other tests that people can do to find out if there is imbalances or do you not even advocate that at all.

 

You know it on a patient to patient basis it will always vary because if you know it there’s a different presentation you know someone who were looking at you know addictive type behaviors or a different presentation whether it’s like an early stage behavior versus you know late the early stages of addiction are very different and the later stages of addiction.

 

I think that you can you know really just sit down with them. You know human in front of you and figure out what it is they want and what is the you know what are some of the factors that are that are getting in the way of them achieving the things that they want and you know come up with a game plan that way because the brain like we were saying before is super adaptable. So if we start putting in you know. Protocols and you know strategies for that person then we will also start to see the brain will heal. We know that the brain will heal because we can look at the behavior is also changing too.

 

Yeah. And you know my brain had to heal after 10 years of being an alcoholic and an addict. And what you just said there makes so much sense to me because I owe my recovery to a support group a 12 step group.

 

And it was you know interacting with other people that you know shared a common struggle and also wanted a way out. And basically keeping our behaviors in check and sort of the core accountability I had a sponsor throw it as well. That’s what turned me around. But I’ll tell you Stephanie I went through so much self research and so many you know psychologists psychiatrists so on and so forth you know trying to figure my brain out. I remember this book that I read it was my mother’s house on a summer vacation and I was trying to get clean and sober. And I was reading this book about all the different neurochemicals and hormones and all the supplements that I could take. Dr. Stephanie I must of bought I would say six hundred dollars worth of supplements. You know all these different types of amino acids that would you know curb my cravings and you know and balance my brain and all this stuff and I’ll tell you you know after experimenting with probably a whole year with all those supplements I was no better at all. I really wasn’t and not to say that those wouldn’t work for someone else. But you know I really had a spiritual malady and I really needed you know to be around other people that were suffering. You know the same that I was I needed that humanness you know and that’s what really I believe you know balance my brain and regulated my hormones and neurotransmitters you know to the point that I am clean and sober today.

 

That’s often why people fall into addiction anyway. It’s a lack of connection with other human beings like addiction is really just replacing our neurological need for connection.

 

So I love that you know you found success with those 12 step programs and they do it right. Like you have an accountability partner. There’s another human that’s invested and cares about your about your outcome right. Yeah.

 

That’s amazing. I wanted to know from you. You know where where is your research going right now. I know you’re a research junkie just like me we had this amazing conversation.

 

Show just about a book that I recently read that had basically a source note every paragraph which would probably drive everyone freaking crazy. But you know we love this kind of stuff so you know what. Where are your interests right now and what are you up to.

 

Yeah thank you for asking. So part of it is really in food addiction. So it’s really serendipitous that that’s how this conversation has sort of rolled out.

 

I’m really interested in how the brain changes when we have when we have faulty wiring whether that comes from our childhood and experiences that we’ve had growing up or just poor frontal lobe development and functioning control. And the other area that I am very interested in I get asked about it all the time is the differences between the male and the female brain and how those differences are changes change the way that we interact with each other. And with you know like feel like female to female bonding and you know you know how guys sort of bond as friends and then also the entire you know the delicate dance of of relationships. I

 

think you’re referring to a bromance.

 

Yeah bromance Yeah yeah.

 

You know you said this this thing and I should have taken notes. This was at the L.A. event. Actually it might have even been last year and it just it was so interesting. You were commenting on both the male brain the female brain you were talking about bonding you were talking about sex. You’re talking about frequency of sex and I wanted to. That was the first question when I knew you’re going to come on the show I said I got to ask you that because I forget what she said. It really made sense. So could you share that with us.

 

Sure. So just you know quickly by way of background you know the male and the female brain are similar in terms of anatomy but not fairly similar similar in terms of narrow connectivity and in terms of the neurotransmitters like the amounts of transmitters that we have in the mail versus the brain.

 

So you know men you know and I’m generalizing here a little bit. So obviously there can be any and all variations to this but as a general trend we tend to find that men are very good. You know if you ever give a guy a to do list he can like bang them off like no problem. Because that’s just how men are generally wired we they tend to have their more dopaminergic or more left brained in nature. So dopamine is an arrow transmitter that kind of hangs out in the left side of the brain and the dopamine neurotransmitters involved in keeping us like motivated. Right. So the more you know you take off the to do list the more you want to do. So we see this very very often in men and women. You know we certainly have the ability to be left brain and to be strategic and linear and analytical. But we do tend to be more right brained in nature which tends to be more what we call serotonergic or there’s the neurotransmitter serotonin tends to be we tend to be more creative more emotional or passionate as I think. So when we’re talking about sex one of the things that you know I think is really not talked about enough in in any and all communities is how important and how healthy a regular sex life is to the brain because again it’s a brain game you know the ability to reach climax and to orgasm is the balance between your sympathetic and your parasympathetic nervous systems.

 

And when you are having you know regular sex and regular you know connection and intimacy and trust and bonding with with you know your partner your brain lights up like all of your brain is way more active it’s way more engage this way more online versus someone who’s not engaging in regular sex so you know the research suggests it’s three to four times a week is like for a healthy regular sex life. A research led by females or was it.

 

Four times a week.

 

Wow yeah guys you better step up I think you know when we were run that event you were up on stage and you were addressing this you know you probably got a lot of applause from the females in the audience and I think big guys were looking for the exits you know because we’ve got to step up her game over here because that’s that’s quite common. That’s almost like a typical exercise routine. Three to four times a week. That’s right. Everyone can keep up with that so here’s a question for you so if somebody perhaps is engaging sex and maybe engaging in sex for the other person is not getting the enjoyment that perhaps they could you know why would you think that could happen is it again sort of this as you call it the parasympathetic in the sympathetic nervous system that is out of order maybe you know one of the things that you know I mean sex is one of the most intimate of right like this is where we are at our most vulnerable.

 

You know we’re exposed and there’s a lot of trust and you know sometimes you know one of the one of the best markers of a relationship is the frequency of sex because if you have if you are engaging in a relationship where you have a relationship or you do feel safe know especially for women is the big thing for men to feel like they’re safe to feel like they can trust their partner and that they’re taken care of. For women sex doesn’t just happen in the evening once the kids have gone to sleep right like sex happens like that foreplay for women happens all day long how you know you know gave her a hug when you came home or how you like gave her a kiss or the way you spoke to her or the decision that you came up to get her how you guys interact is really really important for women. So if someone if a woman for example I’m using you know FEMA the example here if a female is not getting you know enjoyment out of her you know her sexual encounter with her partner you know unfortunately and I know this is a hard pill to swallow but it says more about men and their relationship than it does the woman because the woman’s neurochemistry she has less serotonin than her male counterpart.

 

So she’s really reliant on her on her male partner to help bring up her levels of serotonin in the brain that’s a really interesting if I could just interject there because you know I always associate serotonin with females. No I guess I could do that but you’re telling me that they actually have less serotonin than us. MILLS Yeah.

 

So even though we’re more serotonergic females are tend to be more right brained in nature we have about half of the amount of serotonin receptors in our brain than our male counterparts do.

 

So we need the positive reinforcement from our partner to help activate those pathways. And if we. And that’s why you see women tend to be more susceptible to things like depression disorder anxiety mood disorders because those are all very intimately related to serotonin and on the on the flipside you see men they tend to have more things like dementia and they have more Parkinson’s and these are more disease of dopamine.

 

Interesting interesting so. Case in point here men were not going to be able to use our hands we’re going to have to use our our hearts and our brains I guess throughout the day because I guess human indication just you know you mentioned you know positive reinforcement you know that can actually stimulate serotonin in a woman.

 

Is that true. Yes absolutely. OK. OK. Right. So it’s not just about the touch.

 

Guys you got a step up your game a little better. And I say that forever from a place of love I like you have to think about your woman and think about the way that she needs to be cared for and not the way that you want to care for her because you because for a guy you have ever seen that video Chris that Sam I got to send you the link it’s like the woman has like a nail in her head and oh heavens you know what.

 

My gosh it’s so funny. She’s like You know I just want to talk about this nail and like it’s really hurting and he’s like well why don’t I just like take it out and then the problem will be gone. And then the one was like. But you don’t understand how it feels to have a nail on my head. So like the way they like men really want to fix the problem they’re like OK this is what we do here that to do list pull the nail out the problems Don. Whereas the women want to verbalize want to talk about how she feels she want to talk about how the nail on her head makes her feel needling it’s hilarious.

 

Yeah and I guess that’s the healing process right. That’s that’s what the men you know would just like to pull the nail out and have it heal on its own. But I guess you know females it’s it’s more of you know getting what they need to heal themselves.

 

And I guess what they need is is something that we can give them which is all of this positive reinforcement and touch not just you know after the kids go to bed but throughout the day. OK. Wow. Yeah. So guys get to work. This is training. This is Dr. Stephanie Estima and you’re listening to the all inclusive lifestyle show. I want to thank you all for being here. Before we get off this call I want Dr. Stephanie to let all of us know where you can find out more of this super interesting information about you know just improving your health your neural health your physical health your quality of life. So how can people get a hold of you Dr. Stephanie.

 

Yes so they can go to if you’re in the Toronto area you can go to our website tripple w the health loft that’s the Anut to name the clinic. The health laws.

 

You can find me on like you can find us on Instagram and on Facebook and all the regular you know kind of social media ways and if you we are actually we run a metabolic physical program we tend to run it once a quarter it’s called the know clean diet. Check out your diet.

 

Perfect. Again Dr. seventieth thanks for coming on the show. So much valuable information that we can actually go out and apply. With that said you’re out there.

 

I’d love you to do is take care of your brains take care of your bodies and most importantly take care of the people that you love and not just when it feels good. I’m talking about from the time that we wake up to the time that we go to bed to give that positive reinforcement to share our feelings to connect with others. That is where we’re going to get this brain balance. This serotonin and dopamine and all these great doses we’ve been talking about with Dr. Stephanie today. So it’s all the next show my friend. You just keep on inspiring to inspire.