Brain Fog

Last week I had the honor of representing Bondi Blyss at @Newtopia Now in Denver — and it left me thinking about something I don't say often enough: bringing a product to life is one of the hardest things a founder can do. I watched this Australian company move from an idea to a shelf-ready product, and every step took real grit. Sourcing quality ingredients. Testing formulations. Navigating regulatory hurdles. Building something that actually works — not just something that sounds good on a label. That kind of rigor deserves more recognition than it usually gets. Bondi Blyss builds around functional mushroom blends, including lion's mane, shiitake, and maitake. As a functional medicine practitioner, this is exactly the kind of ingredient thinking I get excited about, because the mechanisms are specific: Lion's mane has research behind it for supporting cognitive function and nerve growth factor production — which matters enormously to me given how many of my perimenopausal clients name brain fog as their most frustrating symptom. Shiitake contains beta-glucans studied for immune function, with compounds researched for their role in gut and cardiovascular health — both central to the digestive work I do. Maitake is another beta-glucan-rich mushroom studied for immune modulation and blood sugar balance, which ties directly into the metabolic and longevity work I focus on. None of these mushrooms are a cure for anything. And ingredients like these are never a replacement for real clinical care. But as part of a broader approach to supporting the body's own resilience, this is the kind of formulation I want to see more companies invest in — because the body is intelligent, and it responds to the quality of what we give it. Congratulations to the Bondi Blyss team on bringing something this thoughtful into the world. You can learn more about them - link in the comments. If you care about the science behind midlife energy, cognition, and hormonal health, follow along here — I share this kind of thinking every week. …more

A few years ago, no one I asked for help explained what was actually happening in the body during perimenopause — it was a mystery even though I had been working in the medical system for 25 years. That's exactly the conversation I wanted to create. I'm joined Stephanie Doty, my nutrition partner, for a free webinar on navigating perimenopause and menopause: real strategies on hormone balance, nutrition, stress, and longevity. This is the conversation I wish someone had had with me. I've reversed all of my symptoms through diligent attention to what my body was asking for. The link is in the comments …more

You run through your mental checklist before the meeting. Notes are on your desktop. Coffee is fresh. You rehearsed your talking points this morning. And yet — halfway through, you lose your thread. A colleague asks you a question and you blank. You know the answer, but the retrieval is slow. Labored. Like trying to pull a file from a server that keeps timing out. This is not imposter syndrome. This is not burnout. This is not you needing to get more sleep or manage your stress better. This is your brain sending a very clear signal that something in your biology has shifted — and the signal is often loudest in professional women in their 40s and 50s who have been running at full capacity for years. The brain fog that shows up during perimenopause is not a character flaw. It is a physiological response to fluctuating estrogen, declining mitochondrial efficiency, cortisol dysregulation, and nutrient depletions that standard lab panels are not designed to catch. Your clinician may tell you your labs are normal. They may tell you this is just stress. They may tell you this is what aging looks like. But what they are not telling you is that there are functional labs that tell a completely different story — labs that measure your biological age, your mitochondrial function, your cortisol rhythm, your nutrient status, and your hormonal patterns with precision that goes far beyond what a standard panel can see. And when you run the right tests, you stop guessing. You stop wondering if this is just in your head. You stop accepting that this is simply what midlife looks like. You start seeing exactly what is driving your symptoms — and what is possible when you address the root cause instead of managing the surface. If you are a high-achieving professional woman who has been told your labs are normal but you know something is off, I want you to know that you are not imagining this. Your body is not broken. It is asking for something it has not yet received. And there is a way to find out what that is. Book a discovery call. We will look at what is actually driving your symptoms and find out if my approach is the right fit for you. https://lizgreenfield.kartra.com/calendar/book-with-liz …more