BETTER! with Dr. Stephanie Estima | Strength, Body Composition & Perimenopause

If you've ever felt like your body stopped cooperating in your 40s — the recovery that takes days instead of hours, the muscle that seems to disappear no matter what you do, the fitness advice that just doesn't land anymore — this conversation is your explanation. Dr. Stephanie and Dr. Andy Galpin cover why fast-twitch muscle fiber loss is the real aging problem nobody's talking about, what perime...

You've been training consistently for years. You know your way around a gym. And then, out of nowhere, a shoulder gives out on a weight you've pressed a thousand times. Or your knees start complaining on the stairs. Or your hips talk back on leg day — and nobody can find anything wrong on imaging. This isn't aging. This isn't bad form. This is what happens when one system gets all the attention, a...

If you've tried therapy, medication, journaling, and every mindset tool available — and you're still anxious — this episode is for you. Dr. Russell Kennedy, physician, neuroscientist, and certified trauma therapist, makes the case that anxiety doesn't start in your mind. It starts in your body, as a physiological alarm that's likely been there since childhood. And until you address the alarm direc...

If you’ve been eating less, exercising more, and still experiencing unwanted body changes, this episode is for you. Natalie Jill, a Licensed Master Sports Nutritionist and functional fitness trainer, joins Dr. Stephanie for a peer-to-peer conversation between two women in the fitness industry who have seen the same broken patterns and concluded that the plan most women follow is not suitable for t...

Esther Blum, integrative dietitian and menopause expert, unpacks the estrogen supply chain crisis, leaving women without basic hormone care, while there are 25 erectile dysfunction medications on the market with zero shortages. But the conversation goes deeper: if your gut and liver detox pathways aren't functioning first, HRT may not work the way you're hoping. Esther breaks down the gut-liver-ho...

Dr. Rachel Zoffness is a pain psychologist, neuroscientist, and author of Tell Me Where It Hurts -- and she's here to dismantle the biggest lie medicine has sold us: that pain is a purely biomedical problem requiring a purely biomedical solution. Dr. Rachel unpacks how trauma turns the nervous system into a pain megaphone, why the brain literally gets better at producing pain the longer it practic...

If you have been getting your skincare advice from 60-second reels and 18-year-old influencers, this episode is your reset. Dr. Mamina Turegano is not your average dermatologist. Triple board-certified in dermatology, internal medicine, and dermatopathology, she has spent 16 years in practice connecting what shows up on the surface to what is happening inside the body. Today, she is here to de-inf...

Dr. Stephanie Estima gives a masterclass on the often-overlooked role of lactate in how our bodies work during exercise. She’s redefining lactate as a key metabolic signal that can help us get stronger, age better and think sharper. In this solo episode, Dr. Stephanie gets into how lactate is made, how it fuels our energy and why it’s so important when we push ourselves hard. Dr. Stephanie is a bi...

The single biggest lie women have been told about perimenopause? That it's a gynecological problem. Dr. Heather Hirsch — board-certified internist, Harvard faculty, and founder of one of the first hospital-based menopause clinics in the US — is done with that framing. In this episode, Dr. Hirsch joins Stephanie to dismantle the assumption that perimenopause begins and ends with a reproductive doct...

If you've written creatine off as a supplement for guys at the gym, Dr. Dan Pardi, sleep researcher, neuroscientist, and Chief Health Officer at Qualia Life, will change your mind. Dan has spent decades studying what creatine actually does in the body — and what the research reveals for midlife women is genuinely surprising. It's not about muscle. It's about energy. And energy is foundational to e...

Your gut doesn't lie — and in perimenopause, it's sending distress signals most doctors completely ignore. Nurse practitioner, two-time TEDx speaker, and Everyday Wellness podcast host Cynthia Thurlow joins Dr. Stephanie for a conversation that starts in Morocco (food poisoning, a hospitalization, and a perimenopause wake-up call nobody saw coming) and ends with a clear-eyed framework for supporti...

What if your sexual health was as important as your heart rate? What if understanding your sexuality was the final frontier of truly knowing yourself? In this groundbreaking conversation, Dr. Juliana Hauser—sex therapist, author of A New Position on Sex, and expert in sexual agency—challenges everything we've been taught about sexuality, pleasure, and desire. Dr. Hauser explains why sexual wellnes...

Leslie Kenny was told in her 30s that she had five years to live. Diagnosed simultaneously with lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis — and told to give up her dream of having children — she did what true Betties do: she refused the prognosis, threw everything she had at it, and got to work. Now 60 years old, Leslie reports a biological age of 21. She is autoimmune disease-free....

You've been lied to. Not by your body — by the system that profits from you believing it's broken. Dr. Stephanie names the real villain behind decades of failed diets, shrinking goals, and body distrust: the wellness industrial complex that told you skinny equals healthy. You're not broken - you were just given the wrong map. Here is the right one! Episode Overview (timestamps are approximate): (0...

If you've ever sat in a doctor's office describing brain fog, mood swings, terrible sleep, and a body that no longer responds to anything you try — only to be sent home with a shrug and maybe an antidepressant — this one's for you. Dr. Mary Claire Haver, Board-Certified OBGYN and Certified Menopause Specialist, is back for round two, and she came prepared.  In this episode, she breaks down the hor...

This episode is essential for millions of women who’ve been on antidepressants for years or even decades. Dr. Mark Horowitz https://www.outro.com/about/outro, a British-Australian psychiatry researcher, neuroscientist, and lead author of clinical deprescribing guidelines, offers an honest conversation about the science, marketing myths, and long-term effects of antidepressants, including emotional...

Neuroscientist Dr. Tommy Wood breaks down what it actually takes to keep your brain sharp as you age. Drawing from his new book The Stimulated Mind, Tommy makes the case that movement is non-negotiable for brain health — and that even small amounts make a meaningful difference. From walking and resistance training to dancing and pickleball, different types of exercise protect different parts of th...

You can't watch a single sporting event without being hit with an Ozempic commercial — but did you know that those GLP-1s everyone's talking about are actually peptides? Kyal Van Der Leest — nutritionist, naturopath, and the formulator behind LvLUp Health — breaks down which peptides actually work, which ones are all hype, and why the Swiss Army knife of peptides (BPC-157) might be exactly what yo...

Your keys aren't lost. Your mind isn't going. And no, that's not Alzheimer's. Dr. Majid Fotuhi, Adjunct Professor, Johns Hopkins University & author of The Invincible Brain, busts the biggest myth in women's brain health: that the fog, the forgetfulness, and the "wait, why did I walk in here?" moments of perimenopause are a sign of something sinister. Spoiler: they're not. And your brain? It can l...

Dr. Stephanie covers tendon anatomy, how they respond to mechanical loading, why "stiffness" is actually desirable, and the evidence-based rehab hierarchy: load management, isometrics, heavy slow resistance training, and elastic recoil progressions. She addresses common issues for women over 40—lateral hip pain, rotator cuff problems, tennis elbow, patellar tendinopathy—and explains how perimenopa...

Dr. Maria Sophocles examines the “bedroom gap,” the disparity in sexual expectations and challenges between men and women in midlife. In this episode, she explains how menopausal hormonal changes, together with psychological and cultural pressures, affect women’s sexual agency. Many women internalize norms that prioritize a partner’s needs over their own, leading to shame about reduced libido. Thi...

Ready for the breast health conversation nobody's having? Harvard-trained breast radiologist Dr. Lilian Ebuoma gives a masterclass that covers everything from why your daughter might be developing breast buds at 7 (spoiler: it's not just you) to the real deal on mammograms, dense breasts, and that one lifestyle change that drops breast cancer risk by 25%. Whether you're navigating perimenopause, w...

Dr. Doug Lucas, a double board-certified orthopedic surgeon and osteoporosis specialist, who dives into the secrets of maintaining optimal bone health. In this episode, you will discover why bone health is vital for women of all ages and learn actionable tips to build and maintain strong bones from your teens to your golden years. Brace yourself for intriguing insights, such as the surprising bene...

"Estrogen is not a hormone; it's a family of hormones,” says Dr. Felice Gersh. “You can't say fat does this or fat does that—you have to say which fat. The same with estrogen.” That’s right, she is back to challenge the conventional "lowest dose for the shortest time" approach to menopausal hormone therapy, explore why menopause creates a default pro-inflammatory state, how different estrogens act...

Award-winning health journalist Meghan Rabbitt discusses her groundbreaking book, "The New Rules of Women's Health.” This conversation tackles what's broken in women's healthcare—from outdated anatomical terminology named after "pale, male, and stale" doctors to the dangerous myth that women are just "small men." They explore why heart disease (not breast cancer) is women's #1 killer, the clitoris...