I’m beyond excited to kick off my new series, “Time To Understand Your Hormones, Ladies”!

And what a powerful way to begin.

I met Lara in Nicole Jardim’s Fix Your Period Apprenticeship program. She impressed me immediately as a scientific researcher – currently working on her PhD at the Institute for Infectious Diseases and Infection Control at Jena University Hospital, Germany – who understands both worlds: one where everything is proven in a lab, and one where food is our best medicine.

Personally, I think it’s important that we have more people that are bridging that gap, and even better, have that be women! Allopathic medicine is wonderful when it comes to acute care, and I live on PubMed reading all the latest in nutrition and hormonal research. But as Lara notes in the interview, this side of medicine is limited due to a variety of issues including – you guessed it – money. So a most of the healing of chronic issues comes from “alternative” approaches.

Lara has experienced this personally – after being diagnosed at a young age with endometriosis (much younger than women get diagnosed in the US, for sure!), her doctors went with the traditional route of birth control. Years later, Lara decided to step off that train, and work with her body via food and supplementation. She currently controls her endo that way.

In this interview we cover:

• Her area of expertise: Biofilms (very important for those of you who face candida or antibiotic resistance!) (starts around 11:43)
• The underlying issues that cause or activate endometriosis (starts at around 8:52)
• New testing on the horizon for endo (around 20:01)
• Why your microbiome and genes are so important when it comes to endometriosis and autoimmune issues (starts around 14:29)
• Why scientific research has not caught up with nutraceuticals and food as medicine (47:02)

This interview is packed full of amazing information for any of you ladies who suffer from endometriosis or want to help someone in your life that does. Hope you enjoy it!

You can contact Lara via email Lara.Thieme [at] med.uni-jena.de or feel free to comment below with your questions! She also recommends reading these articles by Dr. Lara Briden to learn more about endometriosis: Endometriosis? Treat the Immune System, Endometriosis: 5 Natural Treatments That Really Work and Endometriosis is and Autoimmune Disease.

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The “Time To Understand Your Hormones, Ladies” series is one where I interview women who are on the cutting edge when it comes to balancing your hormones naturally. After my fibroid-removal-surgery-gone-wrong, I want women to know it *is* possible to heal your hormones and not always have to choose surgery. Even if surgery isn’t on the horizon, you can feel a whole lot better than you do right now. Each session, we’ll cover topics and tips to get you on track and feeling better quick!