If You Want to Gain More Hormone Intelligence, You Should: Incorporate foods and detoxification practices that help form the building blocks of healthy hormones Pay attention to your menstrual cycle and take the time to learn your body's patterns Empower yourself with the knowledge necessary to listen to your body's signals Take action and be your own health advocate to gain hormone intelligence   The sad truth is that most women don't really understand what is going on with their bodies, especially when it comes to their hormones. And unfortunately, conventional medical doctors are more often than not lacking the knowledge necessary to help you with your hormone issues. This is why it is so important to take back control of your health by increasing your hormone intelligence and hormone literacy.   Bridging the Gap in Medicine With Dr. Aviva Romm Aviva Romm MD is both a midwife and a Yale-trained MD and Board Certified Family Physician with specialties in Integrative Gynecology, Obstetric, and Pediatrics, with a focus on women’s endocrinology. She is a world-renowned herbalist, and author of 8 books, including her new book, Hormone Intelligence, which explores the impact of the world we live in on women’s hormones and health. She promotes a combination of holistic and natural medicine that is grounded in science and has been bridging the gap between traditional medicine, total health ecology, and good science for over three decades.   How to Gain Body Literacy As a doctor, Aviva has seen firsthand the cracks that a lot of women's hormonal issues can fall through in the conventional medical system. Too often doctors jump to the ‘big guns’ of pharmaceuticals and chemicals before looking at the natural and simple solutions that are out there.  Our modern world creates a perfect storm of factors that play out in our bodies, which is why it is up to us to tune into the self-reporting system that is built into women’s bodies through our hormones, stress, menstrual cycle, and more. By understanding what is going on in our bodies, we can learn our own patterns and create health outside of the doctor’s office.   Becoming Your Own Healer When it comes down to it, being healthy shouldn't be as hard as it is. The misinformation, dismissal, and refusal to listen to women have been deeply entrenched in conventional medicine, and it's time that came to an end.  Dr. Aviva’s life mission, and her new book, are all about empowering you with the knowledge you need to listen to your body, understand your hormones, and pay attention to the signs so that you can maintain or reclaim your hormone health. It's all about taking actionable tools and turning them into at-home remedies so that you can allow your body to heal itself. Are you resonating with a need for more hormone intelligence and literacy? Let me know what you loved most about Dr. Aviva’s wisdom with me in the comments section of the episode page.   Quotes: “That's exactly what I have been doing. Bridging both worlds, really bringing the natural into medicine. But also helping women who may need medicine to understand when they need it, what they need, how-to DIY what they can but also how to advocate for themselves when they do need to go into conventional medicine.” (9:26) “For me, deeply rooted in my being is this philosophical approach that nature comes first, that we can trust women's bodies, that we should be listening to women.” (26:24) “There are these deep biases that basically say that most women's conditions have some psychological origin. And the problem is, a lot of these conditions don't have ‘you can put your finger on it’ labs or symptoms that can be born out immediately. But many do, and doctors just refuse to do the testing.” (32:44) “Hormone intelligence. It's about knowing.” (39:29) “We can't go to the hardware store for milk and then get mad at the hardware store for not selling milk. You have to know where to go to get the milk, and it's the same with the medical