Hormones, Health & Holistic Healing with Dr. Ashley Cham

Jennifer Norman:
What if the key to feeling radiant, energized and emotionally grounded wasn't another quick fix supplement or fad diet, but a deep understanding of your own hormones. Today's guest, Dr. Ashley Cham, invites us into that conversation with the kind of warmth, intellect and insight that only a true healer can bring. She's a women's health leader, entrepreneur and speaker whose mission is to help women thrive, not just survive in their hormonal, emotional and spiritual well being. As the founder of a pioneering Women's Health platform, Dr. Cham combines evidence based medicine with holistic practices to restore balance naturally. A certified essential emotions coach and former beauty queen turned wellness mentor, she inspires women to embrace both their science and their sparkle to live with confidence, authenticity and purpose.

Jennifer Norman:
In this episode, we'll explore the deeper layers of hormonal health, far beyond what most doctors discuss. You'll learn the everyday habits that quietly sabotage hormonal balance and how to fix them. How chronic stress, poor sleep and digital overload wreak havoc on our hormones. The surprising impact of diet, toxins and over exercising on your emotional and physical state. State natural evidence based strategies to restore equilibrium, from essential oils to mindful movement. And most importantly, how to reclaim your energy, mood and sense of feminine power through simple, sustainable lifestyle shifts. If you've ever wondered why your energy crashes, moods fluctuate, or your body just feels off, this conversation will help you connect the dots. With compassion and clarity.

Jennifer Norman:
We're going to uncover the jewels of wisdom in Dr. Ashley Chan's approach to holistic hormonal harmony. So now let's bring her in. Hi, Ashley, how are you today?

Dr. Ashley Cham:
I am doing wonderful. How are you?

Jennifer Norman:
I'm doing great. Welcome to the show. Oh, hormones. Omg.

Dr. Ashley Cham:
Right? I feel like that about hormones in general.

Jennifer Norman:
When you get to a certain age, it's like, okay, this is the bane of my existence. But they are so important. But before we dive into all of that, I would love to start with your story because you are a women's health leader, an entrepreneur, essential emotions coach, and even a former beauty queen. We got to talk about that. We have to talk about what inspired your journey. From the world of beauty to the world of holistic health and hormones.

Dr. Ashley Cham:
Yeah. Yeah. So I've been practicing as a women's health provider for the last 17 years. And after three degrees, I didn't realize how little I knew about hormonal health until I found myself in my own little hormonal crisis. So my first one, I was diagnosed with fibroid tumors. Actually, I was 26 years old was, I think my mom had... And I knew it was kind of a matter of time, but at that point, the only knowledge I had was that it was genetic. And I went from worrying that I would never have children or they would be preterm low birth weight, to finding some natural solutions that got rid of those tumors and put me on a path to now have two babies.

Dr. Ashley Cham:
They were very large and on time, so they were 9 pounds and 9 pounds, 15 ounces. Right? Right, yeah. And so the whole time I was going through the thing with the fibroids, no one ever told me. They told me what to do or have a surgery or hurry up and get pregnant, but they never mentioned that it was an estrogen dominant issue. Like so many problems that a lot of women have, like fibroid tumors, endometriosis, pcos, breast pain, heavy, painful cycles. All of those things are really caused by having too much estrogen in our bodies. And so I didn't understand that until years later when I was really studying and trying to understand what was going on within my body. After my second son, Ace, was born, I went through this horrible season where I was like bleeding through my clothes, my skin was breaking out, I was super emotional, cried all the time.

Dr. Ashley Cham:
Like, it was just bad. And that was like, right before COVID hit too. And everyone wanted to just put me on a birth control pill. And I just felt like with breastfeeding there had to be another option. And so the things I'd use for my fibroids worked. So I'm like, there has to be a natural way. I'm sure there is. So I did a lot of research into herbs and essential oils, and I just kept trying little protocols on myself until I found something that worked.

Dr. Ashley Cham:
And then I shared with some of my friends and patients and it worked for them. And so I realized through the process, how many women navigate these changes alone or think something's wrong with them? Because we don't talk about it openly. We don't talk about, my cycles are super heavy and I'm flooding my clothes. And we don't talk about the fact that our moods are all over the place. And I just. And I see more women, especially celebrities, using their platform to talk about women's health issues, especially menopause lately. And I think that's so beautiful because it gives freedom to women to really realize, like, I'm not by myself and it's not a me problem. This is a hormonal thing, and then we can fix it.

Dr. Ashley Cham:
So that's basically how I got here, I was having my own problems and figured out how to fix it and then shared with other women and really have found it is the most impactful and empowering work I've ever done in my career.

Jennifer Norman:
Oh my gosh. Wow. That's incredible. And you're exactly right. I know. Growing up, I just, there were some things that you just didn't talk about. And even with your mom, it just was almost like you were embarrassed to even mention anything or say anything. And then when it came to a lot of these things, it was just like suffering in silence.

Jennifer Norman:
And it did feel very lonely. And it is nice that now finally, yeah, it is starting to become a little bit more open. We are trying to reduce shame in our culture and letting it be okay. I'm a proud member of the We Do Not Care club. I am a card carrying member. And I think that it's wonderful that we can build a sense of humor out of it. But your ancestor actually was raised on a reservation, is that right?

Dr. Ashley Cham:
My maternal grandmother was born on a reservation, so it was not uncommon, not hard to imagine using herbals to fix a sore throat or a cold.

Jennifer Norman:
Right.

Dr. Ashley Cham:
Something like that. But I just never thought, oh, there's something natural that I can use to help with my hormones or there are things in the environment that I'm using that causing problems for me and my hormones. Just because I would say in all of the schooling that I did combined, maybe one day of conversations about hormones and menopause, and it was always prescriptive like, okay, they're having this symptom. We're going to do an estrogen cream or a birth control pill or something like that, which I have found in the last 10 years in my holistic career. That's just like putting a band aid over a bullet wound and expecting it to heal. It's just, it's masking the symptoms. And then at some point you'll go off of that treatment and then you're like, back to the drawing board. So I believe in root cause healing for that reason.

Jennifer Norman:
It's so fascinating how all of these beautiful holistic ways of trying to actually resolve or soothe symptoms, if you will, have really gotten to this point in our society of we just don't have time to deal with all of that. So we look for that quick fix. That's what those prescriptions, I suppose, are for. It's like, okay, either cover it up or resolve it so quickly. And we don't necessarily recognize what it might be doing to our nature. And also how it almost takes us away from the way that we, like nature, intended for us to be.

Jennifer Norman:
And it's almost funny because I remember when I had my son when I was in the hospital. I was just talking about this yesterday. I had these idyllic visions of what it would be like as a woman to give birth, but I was stuck in this cold, clinical maternity ward. It was nothing like what I thought that it would be like in my head.

Dr. Ashley Cham:
That's traumatic.

Jennifer Norman:
It really was. It was just so stark. Like, everything was just so problem solution. Like treat us as a number rather than really grounding and getting down into the essence of womanhood. I feel like in many ways we've lost that, and I think that the pace of life almost causes us to lose that in some way. What do you think?

Dr. Ashley Cham:
Sure. Yeah, I agree with you. I think everyone is looking for a quick fix. Like you said, we're a problem solution type of society. I would love us to get more into a preventative space where we can really look at, okay, what am I eating? What types of chemicals am I using in my environment? Am I hydrated? Am I stressed? Am I getting enough rest at night for my body to heal and detoxify? Like, can we look at those things so that we don't have to get to the prescription? And sometimes I'm not an all or nothing type of person. Like, I do believe that western medicine has its place, but I do believe that is a large percentage, probably close to 90% of things that we can manage with holistic treatment.

Jennifer Norman:
Yeah, I think it's a wonderful balance because we are in this extraordinary time where medicine is so amazing and it helps save lives and certainly it is very beneficial. Yet I think that balance between remembering... I think a lot of that is remembering... It's like remembering our nature and our humanness and the way that we are in touch with this earth and the grounding versus hustle culture and then just push it down. Let's just suck it up and course through the pain and don't let anybody know. Like, all of those facades and things that we do in order to try to get ahead in life may end up causing this burnout and causing even more hormone disruption and such.

Dr. Ashley Cham:
Right.

Jennifer Norman:
You're such an expert on what happens in our modern life and what we have in our rooms and whatnot. What are some of the biggest offenders when it comes to the things that we use, the things that we surround ourselves that could be causing issues that we don't even know about?

Dr. Ashley Cham:
Yeah, so I feel like women hate when I start here. But probably the biggest offender is fragrance. And a lot of that to do with products and things that are synthetically added into our fragrance in this country. I actually received a perfume from my sister in law and I looked on the back and it was like linalool. And that's like a natural chemical constituent that's in lavender. And I'm like, you would never see that in perfumes here in this country. But fragrance is a big one because any thing that is synthetically made that we're breathing in ends up in our bloodstream in less than a minute. So you can imagine that we're breathing these, what we call endocrine disruptors.

Dr. Ashley Cham:
They come into our system all day long. They mimic estrogen. So of course our body thinks, oh, I'm being inundated with this estrogen, the synthetic estrogen, I don't need to make anymore. So then we build up to inflammation and that can cause other issues. Which is a lot of the reason why I think women have so many more diagnoses like autoimmune disorders than men do. We use more products. So I think fragrance is a big one. Whether it's perfume that we put on our bodies, whether it's in our lotion, whether it's plug ins or candles, or the Febreze and little trees.

Dr. Ashley Cham:
Like, I love a house to smell good. I have diffusers literally in every room of my house because I like it to smell nice. But we have to be able to do that in a way that's not taxing our hormone system. So that would probably be the first thing, because I think if women could trust that they could fragrance themselves so lovely with something natural, like essential oils that can also give you therapeutic benefits in the same time. That would cut so much of the endocrine disruption that we have just fragrance alone. So I love oils to match my mood so I can smell good. But if I'm feeling like I need a bit more of a boost, I might get a citrus oil and apply that. If I'm feeling more worked up or anxious, I would probably go like with a grounding oil, like a frankincense with lavender and just use that to perfume because it's going to smell good, but also give my body the calm that it needs.

Dr. Ashley Cham:
So fragrance would be. It's enemy number one. I would say probably two would be plastics. Bottles. They're everywhere. Right. And it's really hard. It's almost like the world has made it more difficult for us to be healthy.

Dr. Ashley Cham:
So, like trading out those Tupperware for like, from plastic to glass and water bottles, doing a stainless steel or glass water bottle, I think those are two things that you can do really simply and then just cleaning products and other beauty products. So I'm going to go there.

Jennifer Norman:
Yeah, go there.

Dr. Ashley Cham:
I think the statistics say there's that women in America use or apply over 160 different chemicals to their bodies before they leave the house in the morning. So if you really think about every product that we use from the time we wake up, your toothpaste, your mouthwash, shampoo and conditioner, your soap, your deodorant, the perfume, whatever you washed your clothes in that's laying against your skin all day, any cleaning products that you have in your home, any fragrance in the house. Any of those things, they add up. Right? And our bodies were designed to detoxify. That's why we have our kidneys and our liver and all of that. But our body cannot keep up with that amount. And that's before we went outside and breathed the pollution in the air. Right.

Dr. Ashley Cham:
So it's so important that we can control what we can control. Like you probably when you leave your house, you can't control what's in the environment that you smell, most likely, but you can control what's in your house. You can control a lot of what you eat, you can control your hydration and that type of thing. So I think toxins are probably the biggest issue when it comes to our hormones.

Jennifer Norman:
Oh, my goodness. Well, you've just, yeah, you've just unveiled. You've let the cat out of the bag, certainly. And I know that, like, there are some companies now that are coming out with more natural fragrances. I think Michelle Pfeiffer has a line that is supposed to be like phthalate free. It's more natural.

Jennifer Norman:
And certainly there has been some controversy about essential oils going on the skin. The founder of Drunk Elephant said, if I see essential oils on my skincare label, I throw it in the trash. And I was like, whoa, that's like a bit harsh.

Dr. Ashley Cham:
It is a bit harsh but it's real because there's no... The FDA doesn't regulate the essential oil industry, so it's really difficult to find a brand that is pure and is not filled with fillers and things that make it also toxic. So just like any other industry, when people try to monetize it and stretch it, there are folks that essential oils can be commercialized as well. So it is really important to have a clean brand that you know you can trust, because that's huge. That's very important.

Jennifer Norman:
It absolutely is. And even with the fragrance labeling in this country, it's not necessarily something that is required of all of the companies, is to label all the excipients.

Dr. Ashley Cham:
Right.

Jennifer Norman:
But if you go over to Europe now, like, they're very strict on a lot of different aspects of products and disclosures. You will see the linalools, you'll see it, you'll see all of the different ingredients that could potentially be irritants to the skin or toxic to the skin. And so they're, they're making a little bit more informed decisions over in Europe than we are. And so a lot of the bigger companies, the Febrezes and everything, I mean, they. It's just so easy. And it's cheap to buy these sorts of. And it seems like a convenience to just buy this cheap bleach or the cleaning products or the things like the antiperspirants or whatnot that are going to make you smell good. And there's just so many things.

Jennifer Norman:
I actually spent so many years myself in the beauty industry, and I remember sitting in meetings where we would hear market research about global trends and whatnot, and they'd say, the average Korean woman doesn't step out of the house without at least 15 products on her face. And the executives would be like, what can we do to get American women to buy and use 15 products before they leave the house? And I mean, it's just that capitalism for you. And it's marketing and it's, you know, they're going to make money and profits and the churn. It's a little bit of a sad case that we just have these consumer minds like, oh, I've got to have this, I've got to have that, where, you know, stripping down and looking at things and saying, you know, what, you know, less is more, and getting back to just like, yes, a wholesomeness of water, sleep, exercise, good whole food, all of those sorts of things. It's, it's easy, but it's not, you know.

Dr. Ashley Cham:
Yeah, yeah, it's the basics. But to your point, it's really just. It's a departure from the norm. Right. And I think that's why it feels so overwhelming because it's like, these are the products that I grew up on. I've always used these things. This is what everyone else is using. This is what I'm seeing on TV and reading in magazine and social media and such.

Dr. Ashley Cham:
So it is hard to take a step back and say, okay, this is not good for me long term. Right. And it's, I think having to get out of the right now nature of America that is also an issue. It's like we want what's going to fix us immediately. We're not thinking about, oh, me using this product long term could cause me to have this anti or autoimmune disorder in my 40s or 50s. It's not, we're not thinking, oh, this can cause me to have breast cancer later on in my life. So I think it's, I tell people to go one room at a time in their home to try to ditch products that we see are not very healthy for us and replace them with something that is plant based and more natural. Just finding those alternatives and getting them into your habit.

Dr. Ashley Cham:
Right. Because once they're in your daily routine, it's easy to continue. But the hard part is like hard stop. Let me change all of this stuff so that I think that's the key is just trying to do it in small pockets. It's not really about perfection. It's about making some progress.

Jennifer Norman:
Yeah, yeah. It's just the awareness. The mindfulness is not just about meditating and all that. It's like, am I being mindful about what I'm surrounding myself with? Am I being conscientious of the things that I have in my house which might not necessarily be serving me? And what can we do to transition that to something that is more of a helpful, holistic mindset potentially? And it's not like you have to go and, you know, be a hippie and run to the woods and shut down everything. It really is about balance and what's right for you and your lifestyle. But there are certain things that you could probably make easy swaps in and then you'll be potentially saving yourself from an allergy or an autoimmune disorder later on or the next generation.

Dr. Ashley Cham:
Right?

Jennifer Norman:
Yeah, yeah, right.

Dr. Ashley Cham:
For sure. That's so true.

Jennifer Norman:
Oh my goodness. Now I think because we both have come from the beauty industry, we had focused more on and you were more of like a beauty pageant and all of that. And so you definitely have lived experience from a presentation angle. I'm more from a product development and marketing angle. How is it that you found making that transition from thinking about beauty and yourself as beauty to focusing on, like, your wellness and your holistic nature from within. What was that like?

Dr. Ashley Cham:
It has. And I. I will say, still continue sometime to be difficult because I think I'm 41 now. I still innately compare myself to the body that stood on stage when I was 21. And so I had to realize as I've gotten older that beauty is fleeting. What we see on the outside is going to change. But at this point, I think for me, beauty is about longevity. And what's important to me is being 60 and not on medications or, like, not having a kitchen cabinet full of meds because I can't live without it, or I've been unhealthy.

Dr. Ashley Cham:
So I would say what I learned in the pageant world was about, I would really say female empowerment, but also teaching me how to take care of myself in a way where I could present myself in a swimsuit and look healthy and fit. That made me learn how to eat healthy and exercise and be confident and the same for evening gown and then speaking and learning how to advocate for myself. So I think all of those things really have transitioned well into womanhood or adulthood, I guess you could say, because it's because of those speaking skills, that I could advocate for myself in the doctor's office and say, no, something is wrong. This is not normal for me. And, no, I don't like any of these options. There's something else, but I think it's really transitioned more. Yes, I want to look good on the outside, but I realized that what I put in and on my body really determined how I look and then how I feel, too.

Jennifer Norman:
That's so great. And it's so funny because I think we spend all this time in our younger years developing skills, learning how to kind of be one and be confident in our bodies. We get the jobs, and we feel like we're doing it, we're doing our thing, and then, boom, it's like perimenopause and menopause hits, and your life is shook. It's like all of a sudden, you feel brain fog. You're getting these crazy hot flashes.

Jennifer Norman:
You're feeling like you just aren't...like your body is changing all of these different things and you're almost like, losing your sense of being feminine to a certain degree.

Dr. Ashley Cham:
I think, because, you know, it's an identity shift. For sure.

Jennifer Norman:
It really is. And there have been statistics where like to 50% of women during this time of life will quit their jobs because they feel like the stress and the emotional toll and just the their abilities. They just don't feel as confident as they used to. And that's a shame. That's a lot of business that could otherwise be saved if we could figure out how to necessarily ease into this part of life with grace and manage it in a better way. So what is your take on the hormone changes and navigating through this time of life?

Dr. Ashley Cham:
Yeah, I think to your point, everything that you said is real. And I think it often takes those things to happen before women realize, oh, I am at that age where things might be shifting and something isn't right. I need to find out, like get my hormones tested and see where I'm at. But I think also to your point, a lot of women internalize what they're experiencing and they don't talk about it to their colleagues or friends or even their provider. They just think, oh, something's wrong with me. And so I think one of the best things that we can do as women is continue the conversation, continue talking about these hormone shifts and all of those things, because that's how we create community and we transition together and learn what's normal. What have you been suffering with that is not normal? And you've just been thinking that culture has taught you that you have to experience this as like a rite of passage into womanhood or into menopause or whatever. And a lot of those things just aren't true.

Dr. Ashley Cham:
So I think the more that we have open dialogue like this and use our platforms to let women know it's safe to talk about how you're feeling and that there are solutions that you don't have to suffer, I think the better it is for all of us, long term.

Jennifer Norman:
So how do you help women navigate through this time of life? I think part of it is just saying, it's okay, you're not alone. Right? And then what?

Dr. Ashley Cham:
Yeah, yeah. So one of the big things that I do, whether it's in like my one on one consultations with women, or I do like a almost monthly hormone challenge, it's like a 21 day rip the band aid off of all the things you're doing in your life and let's fix it real quick. But the first thing that I really hone in on is lifestyle things and nutrition. So from the lifestyle standpoint, how much water are you drinking? Are you getting 7 to 9 hours? Of sleep per night. Are you managing your stress? Are you just pushing through and just kind of ignoring it, thinking that nothing's going to happen? So those are some of the main core things. And then we use some supplements, some herbal supplements and some essential oils as well to help your body excrete extra excess estrogen so that it can balance and do so naturally without all of the chemicals and toxins. So it's fun. It's fun.

Dr. Ashley Cham:
It's definitely, I think, enlightenment frightening for women to start looking around their home and saying, oh my gosh, I've been using this thing for so long. I didn't realize it was so bad for me and seeing them be empowered to find other solutions that can help them create sustainable change. Because I don't want, I always tell people I don't want repeat customers. Like I want women to get unlike some medics, but heal, you know, I want them to heal then yeah, yeah, I want them to heal and I want them to have sustainable. Create a sustainable lifestyle that is good for them, that work so that they don't have to keep coming back. Like, I want them like not one and done, but maybe we work together for six months and that's it. Like you can go forth and be amazing.

Jennifer Norman:
Amazing. So I know that like when you're going through menopause, your estrogen is depleting and a lot of times doctors will recommend taking estrogen progesterone together because of the risk of cancer with just straight estrogen. Yeah. What other kinds of supplements are you a fan of? Like a soy isoflavones or black cohosh or things like that?

Dr. Ashley Cham:
So two I use in the majority of my protocols, depending on what's going on, are milk thistle and maca root or black maca. Both of them are amazing for energy. They are really wonderful for removing excess hormone from your body. And so those two I pretty much use all the time. The other that I really love is in the Doterra family. It's called phytoestrogen complex. It has pomegranate extract, a fermented soy that does not play on your estrogen receptors, and flax. And it pretty much does the same thing.

Dr. Ashley Cham:
It's wonderful for hormonal regulation and just balance, which is really what it's all about is finding that balance.

Jennifer Norman:
Oh, interesting. I thought that Doterra was just essential oils. They also make supplements too?

Dr. Ashley Cham:
Oh yeah, they make really awesome supplements too. They're actually my favorite supplement from Doterra is Vitamins. So it they have a little sachet that it's vitamins, minerals, and a serving of greens in one little packet. And it tastes good. So me and my kids swear by that. I probably buy that more than I buy the oils. I have a ton of oils in my house, but the supplements we do not go without.

Jennifer Norman:
I do, too. I've got a diffuser in my bedroom and one out in the living room. And for some reason I'm like, I'm a fan of lavender eucalyptus. It just reminds me of a spa. And so I feel like it just makes me feel very relaxed when I use that. And sometimes I'll like drop in a little bit of orange or lemon, but seem to be the essential oil scents that I go for.

Dr. Ashley Cham:
That's an awesome combo.

Jennifer Norman:
Yeah, definitely. So now, as far as other aspects of a holistic lifestyle, lifestyle, nutrition, sleep. What about our phones? We are always on our phones. What is your take on that?

Dr. Ashley Cham:
Yeah, so I am also on my phone often a lot. Too much, if you ask my children. But I do think the phones are often connected with our stress levels because it's almost like we took work and connected it to our cell phone. So then we've got our emails, our texts, the calls. I recommend women and just anyone in general to the first hour when you wake up and the last hour before you go to bed, to no phones as much as possible. To just be able to disconnect and be fully present. I think it's so important, but, man. It is hard.

Jennifer Norman:
And I know so many people love to do the games before bed. That's almost like their new bedtime ritual. They'll play one of those and then they go to sleep.

Dr. Ashley Cham:
Yeah, the blue lights cause some problems.

Jennifer Norman:
What's your take on melatonin or magnesium for sleep?

Dr. Ashley Cham:
I like magnesium more so than melatonin because I think there's a difference between restful sleep and medicated sleep. A lot of times I think when people wake up after they've been medicated and often like the dose of melatonin that people take, it causes that medicated hibernation, I guess you could say. So I prefer something that's more gentle. I really do like magnesium.

Dr. Ashley Cham:
Valerian root is amazing. Lavender, frankincense as well. There's a serenity stick I use on my children. It's got lavender and copaiba. It's the nervous system relaxant. They just rub it on their feet at night, see them in the morning. It works for grownups as well. But I think natural, anything that you can use that, that's more natural is ideal.

Dr. Ashley Cham:
Tart cherry is another good one. That is a natural thing that causes your body to produce more melatonin. So I think things like that are wonderful because you can actually get restful sleep. You're not just waking up feeling groggy and such.

Jennifer Norman:
Wow, I didn't know that about tart cherry. That's so interesting. Yeah, you are full of tidbits! A lot of people know like lavender or chamomile, things like that can help to induce restfulness or a sense of sleep and calm. But there are some other interesting ones that are out there. Are there any that are like little known secrets that you like to share?

Dr. Ashley Cham:
So one of my favorites, and I will tell you this, I don't actually like the smell of this. It's an essential oil. It's called vetiver. It is magical for people, myself included, that have a hard time turning their brains off before they go to bed. Like people that just sit and kind of like ruminate in their thoughts and like, like going through your to do list and such. It helps especially just rubbing that on the bottom of your big toe. That's a reflexology point for the brain. So if you rub that on your big toe, we will see you tomorrow.

Dr. Ashley Cham:
So good.

Jennifer Norman:
Wow. I never even thought about that. I know that a lot of people talk about detoxifying through their feet, but I didn't really think about actually applying like essential oils to. Yes. Pulse points but not necessarily places on your feet. Like reflexology points. Yeah, we talk about listening to the body's whispers before they become screams. Right.

Jennifer Norman:
So what do you think are some of those subtle signs that our hormones might be out of balance before they become your issues?

Dr. Ashley Cham:
That's a great question. I think one of them is fatigue and a lot of women just push through that. So I think you're getting the amount of sleep that you should be, but you're still feeling tired in the morning or halfway through the day. You feel like you need a nap. That's a sign. It's a very subtle whisper. I think bloating, especially after you eat gas, those things. Especially if it's not just, oh, I ate beans and I have gas, but I have gas every day no matter what I eat.

Dr. Ashley Cham:
That's a sign of hormones. Acne. So just cystic acne especially, that's a hormonal sign. Even like low grade headaches that don't. They come back all the time. It doesn't matter how much water you're drinking or if you're eating consistently throughout the day. Those are some, especially in the menopausal years, joint pain can be a subtle note that something's not quite right with your hormonal balance. And even like for menstruating women, the mood shifting, mid cycle, the breakouts, and then for sure, heavy, heavy cycles.

Dr. Ashley Cham:
It's just like your body telling you that something is a little bit off that we should pay attention to.

Jennifer Norman:
Oh, that's really great advice. I remember when I was starting to go through perimenopause. I got the frozen shoulder and I thought it was because I always carry heavy bags over my right shoulder. I had no idea until after I went to physical therapy and I worked through it. Then I started hearing, on podcasts and stuff, people talking about how so many women who are going through menopause get frozen shoulders. I was like, I didn't know, I had no idea. Yeah, I was really grateful that I was able to work through it, though, because it was a bother for years. I would say, yeah, for sure.

Jennifer Norman:
Truly, truly listen to your body. Okay, Ashley. Okay. So this is the part of the podcast where I ask three constant questions of every guest. And these are a reminder of what connects us. It's our beauty, our humanity, and the truths that we live by. So, Ashley, I ask you, what makes you beautiful?

Dr. Ashley Cham:
Wow. So I would say my genuine nature to want to help people and to want to heal them. I think I've always, I think especially as I've gotten older, realized how much my dad used to call people a dressed up mess that like, looked nice on the outside but were really, like, hateful on the inside. And so I think if I...

Jennifer Norman:
That is a really good phrase.

Dr. Ashley Cham:
It is. Dressed up mess. Yeah. I would definitely...

Jennifer Norman:
I could have called myself a dressed up mess for many years.

Dr. Ashley Cham:
For sure.

Jennifer Norman:
Okay, my second question. What does it mean to be human?

Dr. Ashley Cham:
Wow. I think to be human just means that, you being human to me is that you allow yourself to feel the gamut of emotions, to experience all aspects of life, giving yourself permission to be happy, to be sad, to not have a good day to say, yeah, I don't feel good today. I'm not happy. I want to just rest today and lay on the couch and veg out with Netflix. I think being human is really allowing yourself permission to trust your body and to trust the process of life as well.

Jennifer Norman:
What a great answer. So many times we feel that we shouldn't feel this way. We shouldn't feel bad, we shouldn't feel negative, we shouldn't feel sad. You're exactly right. Going through those makes us human. Yeah. Not fighting with ourselves at every angle and just kind of like letting it happen, letting it pass and then moving on. What a great answer.

Jennifer Norman:
And my third question to you is, what is one truth that you live by?

Dr. Ashley Cham:
Wow. Just one. Jennifer. These are hard questions.

Jennifer Norman:
The first one that comes to mind.

Dr. Ashley Cham:
The truth for me, I would say that I live by, is life is always better if you surrender to the plan of God. Because I think a lot of times we spend so much time and energy trying to move and shift and create what we want, but if it's not in his will, it's a waste of time. So it's so much easier to surrender to the will and allow yourself to be led and trust that process is always going to turn out in a beautiful way.

Jennifer Norman:
I love that answer. Absolutely. And I concur. I concur. Dr. Ashley Cham where can people find you if they wanted to learn more about you, how can they connect with you?

Dr. Ashley Cham:
So my website is www.ashleydcham.com and I am on social media. My name is Dr. Ashley Cham on Facebook and Instagram and that's probably the best way to find me there.

Jennifer Norman:
Great. Thank you so much Dr. Ashley Cham. Beautiful humans. Please connect with Dr. Ashley Cham if you are interested in learning more about your hormone health, doing a 21 day challenge – I'm going to put a link in the show notes to that which I think is really exciting, as well as learning a little bit more about essential oils and what they can do for your holistic well being. Thank you so much Ashley for being my guest on the podcast today. It was so much fun.

Jennifer Norman:
Thank you for listening to The Human Beauty Movement podcast. Be sure to follow, rate and review us wherever you stream podcasts. The Human Beauty Movement is a community based platform that cultivates the beauty of humankind. Check out our workshops, find us on social media and share our inspiration with all the beautiful humans in your life. Learn more at thehumanbeautymovement.com. Thank you so much for being a beautiful human.