Special Episode: The Body's Whispers: Preventive Wellness for Young Women - Episode 265

Note:  There is mention about sadness and feelings that are not meant to provide medical advice, and it's simply a discussion.  This podcast is for informational and discussion purposes only.  See your own practitioner on what's right for you.

This special episode is dedicated to young women, though mothers with daughters will want to share this valuable conversation with them. Prevention isn't about fear or perfectionism—it's about tuning into your body's intelligence and responding with balance and awareness.

Have you considered how your body sometimes whispers warnings before health issues become serious problems? As someone who ignored those whispers until thyroid cancer forced me to listen, I'm passionate about helping young women develop health awareness and midlife women and beyond.

I explore the rise in autoimmune conditions among women, how 80% of diagnoses are women, and how modern lifestyle factors contribute to this trend. Your body gives subtle signs long before serious illness develops, but only if you're paying attention. From disrupted circadian rhythms to constant digital stimulation, from highly processed foods to toxic personal care products, young women today face unprecedented challenges to their well-being.

I share practical wisdom about reconnecting with your body's signals: eating whole foods when possible, setting healthy boundaries with technology, prioritizing restorative sleep, maintaining healthy vitamin D levels, and addressing emotional wellbeing. I also discuss the profound mind-body connection, particularly how unprocessed emotions and self-criticism can manifest physically.

This conversation isn't about scolding or restriction—it's about empowerment through awareness. When you're truly in your body and listening to its wisdom, you naturally make choices that support balance and vibrant health. Share this episode with a young woman in your life who could benefit from these insights, and remember—balanced living works!

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Preventative Health
• 3:42 The Warning Signs Your Body Gives
• 11:17 Modern Threats to Women's Health
• 16:53 Circadian Rhythm and Hormone Health
• 21:40 Emotional Health and Autoimmune Connection
• 29:28 Living in Balance and Final Thoughts

Transcript

Sandy Kruse: 0:02

Hi everyone, it's me, Sandy Kruse of Sandy K Nutrition, health and Lifestyle Queen.

Sandy Kruse: 0:09

For years now, I've been bringing to you conversations about wellness from incredible guests from all over the world. Discover a fresh take on healthy living for midlife and beyond, one that embraces balance and reason, without letting only science dictate every aspect of our wellness, and my guests as we explore ways that we can age gracefully, with in-depth conversations about the thyroid, about hormones and other alternative wellness options for you and your family. True Wellness nurtures a healthy body, mind, spirit and soul, and we cover all of these essential aspects to help you live a balanced, joyful life. Be sure to follow my show, rate it, review it and share it. Always remember my friends balanced living works. Friends, balanced Living Works. Hi everyone, welcome to Sandy Kay Nutrition, health and Lifestyle Queen.

Sandy Kruse: 1:34

Today it is me, myself and I, in a very special episode that is dedicated to young women. I talk all about prevention, preventative health, and I am inspired by this every single day because, of course, I have a daughter and many of you who listen to my podcast have daughters as well. I felt inspired to have a podcast dedicated specifically for young women. For a reason, I was thinking about this and I'm thinking my gosh prevention starts way before midlife, which is why we got to start young. We talk to our daughters about so many things, but how often do we talk to our daughters about how to be preventative with our health? Probably not that often, and a lot of times when we do that, it falls upon deaf ears or we give blanket advice like you need to sleep more. I mean, who doesn't say that Stop partying, those kinds of things, and, of course, I'm speaking about adult daughters. So I thought I would record an episode that you can simply share with your daughter so that she doesn't think that you're just preaching. I really hope that this helps to inspire some young women to be more in their bodies. I think that that is. A big part of this recording is that, more than ever, we are looking outward instead of turning inward, as it relates to our wellness, and that is body, mind, spirit, soul. We got to learn how to turn inward, and I think that that is a big part of being preventative with our health, of being preventative with our health. So I'm going to ask you to share this with your daughter. Share this with one of your friends who can share it with their daughter. I would love for this to help as many young women as possible. Please follow me on all of my social media channels. Sandy K Nutrition everywhere. My podcast is available everywhere. Be sure that you're following and engage with my content so that more can see it. Thank you, hi everyone.

Sandy Kruse: 4:21

My name is Sandy Cruz of Sandy K Nutrition, health and Lifestyle Queen. Nutrition, health and lifestyle queen. This is a special episode, and this episode is specifically for young women. Now I know I have a lot of moms who follow me who have daughters daughters. This isn't exactly for you, although I welcome you to listen to it, and what I ask because I'm a mom, too, of a daughter and a son is that you share this it to your daughter. The reason I say this is because mothers and daughters have such a unique relationship. Often it's one of push and pull. Often the daughter doesn't want to get the advice from the mom, but it all depends on the age and the stage that she's in, and so I think it would probably be better received if your daughter listened to it herself, and this episode is specifically geared to listening to the signs of your body.

Sandy Kruse: 5:49

I myself am the queen of not listening. The reason I had thyroid cancer. Yes, there are many other things that are going on. There are many other things that are going on, but the reason I ended up having thyroid cancer and having my thyroid removed is because I chose to ignore the signs. Our bodies are so beyond intelligent and our bodies will give us a chance, over and over and over again, to say hey, I've got something to tell you. Girl, pay attention. How often do we ignore it? Do we ignore it?

Sandy Kruse: 6:42

I come to you with this episode not as an episode to instill fear. It is an episode to help open up your heart and your senses to what your body is telling you and then giving your body what it needs. So this isn't an episode to scold you and tell you to stop partying, and tell you to stop having fun and tell you to stop, you know, staying up late. This isn't what this episode is about, because I always believe in balance. This episode is more to be in touch with your senses, to say, hmm, okay, I'm feeling a little bit off balance. I'm going to scale it back a little bit and give my body what it needs. Yes, I am a registered holistic nutritionist. Yes, I am a podcast host. Yes, I am a voice in this industry of wellness, but I'm not here to preach on what's good for you in this industry of wellness. But I'm not here to preach on what's good for you. I'm here to help you, teach you resonance with your own body so that you don't end up in a situation like I did. And again, I'm not bringing this information to you to instill fear. So, please, I just want you to be aware of that.

Sandy Kruse: 8:26

Now I am going to start with a stat. 80% of autoimmune disease are autoimmune diseases diagnosed in women. There is some increasing research to show that autoimmune disease in women is increasing. Some of you will say, okay, well, yeah, I kind of heard of autoimmune disease, but I don't really know what it is. The best way for me to describe it in the simplest form is your body just starts to attack itself, and there are different forms of autoimmune disease. I think there's over a hundred different types. Some of the more common ones you might have heard of are lupus, rheumatoid arthritis there's a few here that they talk about systemic sclerosis, psoriasis, srogens, srogens I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing that right syndrome.

Sandy Kruse: 9:29

So the interesting thing is that the body gives you signs all along and I've recorded episodes you can go back. I think I've recorded a couple on autoimmune diseases and it's almost like your body will give you a touch of autoimmune disease before it says, all right, now you're in it. So we get a lot of these warning signs. Maybe these warning signs might be extreme exhaustion, just not feeling right in your body. You might have blood work that just seems a little off, and it might not be completely off, and your doctor may dismiss it as nothing because it's not yet something, it's not yet full-blown, so you might get some symptoms. You might have symptoms in your skin. You might have symptoms in your hair. Your hair isn't growing, your hair isn't healthy, your hair is falling out. You might have symptoms in your body like body aches. You might have extremely heavy periods. You might have a number of these little symptoms that you slough off as nothing, and so the last thing I would want is for you to be scared if you have any of these symptoms. That's the last thing. So that's not why I'm coming to you.

Sandy Kruse: 11:06

What I'm coming to you on this episode for is to simply say I am in my body and I feel all of my senses. What does that mean we are born with this innate intuition of our body. When your body doesn't feel right, when you don't feel right, that could be your intuition, that could be your body talking to you. That could be many different things that will say something just doesn't feel right, and so when we are in our bodies, we can feel it when something is off and that's when we can do something about it.

Sandy Kruse: 11:54

If you're constantly partying, if you're constantly drinking, if you're taking a lot of medications to numb mind you, this is not a podcast that is giving you any kind of medical advice. If you are on any mood altering or numbing medications, these are conversations for you and your practitioner. So I'm not giving you any medical advice here. I just want to make that clear. However, often some of the things we do, such as partying to excess, those are choices sometimes.

Sandy Kruse: 12:33

Listen, I was a smoker for 20 years. What did I do? Every time I felt stress, I would go and have a cigarette. Well, now you see everybody vaping. Jesus, like what is in that? I'm not saying smoking is good, but I'm saying this was tobacco. Now you're smoking some sort of electronic vapor that who the hell knows what's in it.

Sandy Kruse: 13:04

So one of the things that I say often to young women is that your McDonald's is not the same as what my McDonald's was. Let me explain what that means. When I was going to McDonald's all the time and eating fast food, I was 20. I was going out after the bar having a bite to eat. Well, the fries that I had back then, okay. So when I was 20, that would have been 1990. Mcdonald's, I believe at that time, was still using beef tallow to fry their French fries. Things have gotten a lot more toxic and that may be one of the major reasons why we have more incidents of, and diagnoses of, autoimmune disease. Another reason is probably because we've gotten better at diagnosing these diseases. Often, maybe in the past, they were these mysterious illnesses, but you cannot dismiss food.

Sandy Kruse: 14:21

I have done so many posts about the sugar in one Starbucks drink. Now, what is the fad right now? Going and having a Starbucks specialty drink. The maximum daily allowance for sugar for a woman? Something like 25 grams. So if you're thinking about that, I think a Coke was our poison back in the day. If you had a Coca-Cola, and I think it was about 25 grams. You had a Coca-Cola and I think it was about 25 grams and you're looking at some Starbucks drinks that can be upwards of 75 grams in one drink. So sugar alone in excess. I will never say don't have a treat. I will never say don't have that occasional coffee. It's when everything gets out of balance and I feel like the world has become very out of balance.

Sandy Kruse: 15:24

So the other thing to consider is your personal care products. I mean, it's a big fad. You go on TikTok. You see some women going there painting their entire face with the layers and layers and layers of makeup. It's like you're wearing this mask and it's like, wow, like how healthy is that? And are you aware of what is in your personal care products? I know this might sound overwhelming, but what everybody can do is just take a look. It's not saying throw out everything you own. It's being cognizant and then making a better choice the next time you go to buy something. Or maybe saying, jesus, why am I putting all those layers of makeup on my face? What am I hiding? Why do I need this, those layers of makeup on my face? What am I hiding? Why do I need this? So the way that I try and do things is not to take away all the joy in my life, because we get a lot of joy out of making ourselves feel good. But if it doesn't start inside, good, but if it doesn't start inside, then the outside is simply a mask.

Sandy Kruse: 16:43

Another thing that may be exacerbating autoimmune disease in young women is just social media. If you believe that being constantly on Snapchat and snapping that friend and getting like 20 in you know 15 minutes that you have to respond to, if you think that that is not actually contributing to stress in your body, then maybe you're not really in touch with your senses, like I said at the beginning beginning. So, being aware of what's actually taking peace away from you is really important, and maybe a good way to begin is to simply take a few breaks a day or maybe delete one of the apps. That doesn't really mean anything. How much meaning is in a photo of yourself just being sent to somebody? Like it's kind of weird. It's like why Pick up the phone and call that person Cortisol?

Sandy Kruse: 17:57

So, for those of you who are not aware, cortisol is our major stress hormone and it's good to have healthy levels of cortisol. It goes up and it comes down, and it goes up and it comes down. I mean, when you have cortisol that's at a healthy level. It helps wake you up in the morning and it's supposed to have this beautiful slide that slowly goes down and, once it gets to a certain level, it enables you to be able to fall asleep. It also enables you to wake up. So, cortisol, if it's up here all the time, which if you've got your phone beside your bed and you're constantly checking everything, that's going to actually disable your ability to sleep well. That's going to disable your ability to even produce healthy hormones, because it disrupts your circadian rhythm.

Sandy Kruse: 18:46

Okay, we can't go back in time. However, we can do our best to emulate how things used to be. Emulate how things used to be, and that will support a healthy circadian rhythm and healthier hormones, healthier cortisol levels. So think about it If you were a farmer back in 1930, you probably didn't have electricity. You lived and breathed by the daylight, so you woke up when the sun rose. You would go to bed when the sun went down. You wouldn't have your face in a device that actually disrupts your circadian rhythm. You wouldn't be watching TV late at night, you wouldn't be doing any of these things.

Sandy Kruse: 19:34

And now there are so many assaults on our circadian rhythm that it affects everything. We are humans that actually live and breathe by the seasons, by the daylight, by the moon. If you think that all of these things in our atmosphere don't have an effect on our health, I would love for you to consider this. So the best way to do that is to set some boundaries for yourself in order to have a healthier circadian rhythm, and I promise you there will be a trajectory of positive things that happen with your hormones, with your periods, with your stress levels, if you set these boundaries for yourself and gain more, get more in touch with those senses that are really important to know and feel when something is off. The other thing is grounding. When was the last time you took a walk in nature? When was the last time you just sat there without anything else and gazed at that moon? When was the last time you did not allow anything else to destroy your peace and just sit with how you feel? Getting quiet is another thing that we just don't do enough, so being intentional about it is the way that we can achieve this.

Sandy Kruse: 21:10

So I'm going to give you the usual now to help support your health Do your best to eat whole, real foods as often as you can, if you're a university student, go shopping and buy your food and cook it at home, because then at least you're going to have some idea of what's in it. Buy foods that you know what it is and cook at home. Sleep, so I want you to look at what's disturbing your peace and causing you to not sleep as well as you really want to. So think about the devices. Think about all the things that we mentioned. I mentioned about the devices. Think about all the things that we mentioned. I mentioned Exercise and movement. Pick something that resonates with you. This doesn't mean you have to be a gym rat, but do something to move your body every single day.

Sandy Kruse: 22:12

And here is a very, very important thing that a lot of people don't talk about enough important thing that a lot of people don't talk about enough Ensure that your vitamin D levels are at a healthy level. So there are many things that can contribute to autoimmune disease. I will get into one last one, which is the emotional aspect. But I talked about a lot of these other things, like the toxins, the foods, the not sleeping, the circadian rhythm, all of these things, but vitamin D can often be that last thing that pulls the trigger on a diagnosis. So I'm not saying low vitamin D causes autoimmune disease, because there are many contributing factors including genetics, by the way including genetics but low vitamin D can often be the last thing that pulls the trigger to that diagnosis. So I would love for you to ensure that you go get tested, that you fall within not the bottom end of the range but the middle of that range. I want to get into a little bit of the emotional, okay, because I'm a big believer that without looking at the emotional aspect to any illness, you're missing a big piece. And remember, unless you're in touch with those senses, you will not be in touch with that emotional aspect that might be causing you to feel not so great. There are tons of theories on how emotions, trauma, blocked chakras, all of those things can affect our health.

Sandy Kruse: 24:19

You know, if you're looking at chakras, I had thyroid cancer, so the throat chakra. So I grew up and I have no ill will. I love my childhood, I love my parents. I am so grateful for everything about it. I don't blame anyone, but it was just my upbringing that I don't blame anyone, but it was just my upbringing that you know, I was not allowed to say no, it was a sign of disrespect. I know a lot of people probably grew up that way. I'm a 1970 baby. It was very, very common. And there's nothing wrong with having respect for your elders, which I think we've gone to the other end of the extreme now where we just want to throw them into a home and pretend they don't exist because they're old and they're not worthy anymore. So we've kind of. You know that's a whole other conversation, but my point is you know the throat chakra speaking your truth, being able to express yourself. So chakras are energetic centers in our body.

Sandy Kruse: 25:24

I've done a ton of research here and I think that we can never forget the emotional side. So if you're numbing and you're disconnected to how you feel, it is more likely that disease or illness can sneak up on you, because having that awareness to how you're feeling and moving through those feelings are really important. Now I'm not speaking about anybody who may have issues with mental health issues or anything like that, but if you move through how you feel, you will get on the other side, whether it is feelings of depression, sadness, anger, whatever it is. I have a couple of really interesting books here and I want to talk a little bit about how emotions actually relate to autoimmune. I'm going to read this to you. So I've actually interviewed Yvette Rose. This is her book, metaphysical Anatomy. I love this book.

Sandy Kruse: 26:43

I've done a few recordings. I've also interviewed Julia Cannon about emotions and how they impact our health. I've also interviewed Dr Bradley Nelson the emotion code, the body code. Our bodies can hold a lot, whether it's through trauma or experiences. You know, like I was saying, I had a great childhood. That doesn't mean that I'm not storing or holding emotions from the past. In my recording with Julia Cannon, remember, it's the body attacking itself. So if you look at that in a literal sense, it's like a self-loathing. There's something about yourself emotionally that either you're not accepting or that you don't love, or a piece of you that just you feel is not worthy. So that was something that Julia Cannon talked about in my podcast recording.

Sandy Kruse: 27:48

Your emotional landscape is something to explore your whole life before you get sick, before you have problems. So the numbing and the masking and all of that contributes to not being able to really feel and sense and know your emotional landscape as a young woman. Your health is in your hands. It's not to say that you're never going to get sick or you're never going to have problems. But when you have those little clues that something is off, those are breadcrumbs for you to follow.

Sandy Kruse: 28:36

And I'm not speaking about getting obsessive over things or becoming a hypochondriac. These are not things that you want. It's more about maintaining a life of balance, where you kind of look at all aspects of your health and wellness body. So that refers to you know the little clues in your blood work, how your body's feeling. Are you exhausted all the time? Are you sad all the time? You know. And then the mind like, what are you doing to support a healthy mind? And then there's spirit, something that I didn't really get into. But by spirit I am not speaking of religion. I Is it. You know, drawing Is it? There's always got to be a creative outlet to everything and it's up to you to figure out what makes you feel good inside. So I hope that's helpful.

Sandy Kruse: 29:59

I see so much on social media. I see a lot of the blame game, blaming parents for your trauma. I see a lot of self-labeling. I see a lot of spiritual bypassing that you know if you concoct this magic potion, it's going to make all your problems go poof and disappear. I see a lot of self-worth that comes only through social media. I see a lot of just ignoring what really makes you feel alive and good in your body and I think when you start as a young woman, that's your chance to just keep living a vibrant life and growing healthy and feeling alive in this world.

Sandy Kruse: 30:51

Anyway, I hope that helps and please do share this with a friend. This episode is specifically for you, young women, just because sometimes us you know midlife women we've got a little wisdom to share with you. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Be sure to share it with someone you know might benefit and always remember when you rate, review, subscribe. You help to support my content and help me to keep going and bringing these conversations to you each and every week. Join me next week for a new topic, new guest, new exciting conversations to help you live your best life.