Hormone Replenishment, Digestive Rest, & Creatine: A Fresh Approach to Women’s Longevity | Ep #336

About this video

Nurse practitioner Cynthia Thurlow joins Niddam for a women’s longevity conversation centered on perimenopause and menopause. Thurlow reframes hormone therapy as replenishment of what was lost, addresses lingering fears around it, and argues gut health and autoimmunity are underappreciated players in midlife symptoms. She renames intermittent fasting ‘digestive rest’ and explains how, in her practice, fasting and training should flex with the menstrual cycle and with life stage — and why many midlife women she sees need less fasting, less high-intensity cardio, more food, and more resistance training, not more restriction. Creatine’s role for women is also discussed. Throughout, she pushes flexibility over rigidity, arguing women in this transition are less stress-resilient and must recover as deliberately as they train.

Key takeaways

• Thurlow treats ‘more is better’ — more fasting, more cardio, more restriction — as the central midlife mistake she corrects in practice.
• Fasting tolerance is presented as phase-dependent: what works in the follicular phase may backfire in the luteal phase or in perimenopause.
• Hormone ‘replenishment’ language is deliberate, meant to counter fear-based narratives she says keep women from discussing options with clinicians.
• Self-care is framed as physiology, not indulgence: poor sleep and unmanaged stress surface quickly and measurably in this life stage.
• Rigidity itself is the target — she argues dietary and training needs legitimately change across seasons of life.

Episode details: published May 20, 2025 · 1.6K views · 1:12:54 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. The longevity and peptide concepts described are Nathalie Niddam’s or her guests’, presented for education — not medical advice. Consult a qualified professional before changing your own health practices. Disclosure: Niddam promotes peptide products through affiliate arrangements with peptide vendors, a commercial conflict; Self Growth Videos reproduces none of her codes.

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