Intermittent Fasting, Fertility Tracking, and more.
Intermittent Fasting, Fertility Tracking, and more.
Technology and research transforming women’s health and wellness.
Hi there,
Natasha here. It has been a while, but it is Thursday again, which means we are saying hello to a new edition of the HealthyHer newsletter. The goal of this newsletter is to bring you into the world of technology for women, covering innovations and research to better women’s health and wellbeing.
If you like this edition, I would appreciate your support through sharing it with your friends and liking ♥ it on the top of the page!
Now into the world of technology…
Bringing Your Attention To… Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fasting (a type of diet where food intake is time-restricted) has been on the tip of any health enthusiast’s tongue for a while now. But we know very little about how fasting affects women.
A new study came out this week looking at the impact of fasting on women’s hormones. Twelve premenopausal and eleven postmenopausal women were put on a time-restricted food-intake schedule with a four to six hour window per day for 8 weeks. Participants’ hormones were measured before and after - the researchers found that intermittent fasting did not affect the majority of the sex hormones, such as oestrogen and testosterone. Fasting did lead to a reduction of DHEA, which is a steroid hormone responsible for the production of sex hormones.
One caveat to keep in mind here is a small sample size. Larger studies are needed for greater confidence in these results. Still, it’s super cool to see more research on women’s health and fasting!
Technology I’m Learning About
Mira Fertility Tracker is an at home lab-quality device that tracks your hormones (LH, estrogen, and progesterone) to give you accurate insights into the menstrual cycle and the times when you are more likely to conceive. The tracker consists of test wands, a small device, and an app. The test wand is dipped into a urine sample and then inserted into the device. An algorithm then magically calculates your ovulation window! Insta, Twitter
A Podcast for Your Walk
Dr. Kyle Gillett: How to Optimize Your Hormones for Health & Vitality from the Huberman Lab Podcast - this conversation with Dr. Kyle Gillet revolves on the relationship between testosterone and estrogen levels and fertility, mood, aging, diseases, relationships, mental and physical health, and much more. I’ve selected this specific episode because a lot of the discussion focuses on female bodies.
Shout-outs!
🚀 Shout out to Valentina Milanova, the founder of Daye, for sharing the story about her company’s mission, starting with the CBD-infused tampons and moving into the next company’s innovation - a tampon-based at-home vaginal microbiome screening kit.
🚀 Shout out to Cofedelity for raising $5M seed round for making egg freezing more accessible and affordable.
🚀 Shout out to Dr Khushi Vyas and his colleagues from Imperial College London for developing an endo-microscope, a device less than 1mm in diameter, that can track potential early breast cancer cells forming.
Suggestions
If there is a topic or a technology you’d like to learn about or share with us, please lease a us below! We would love to hear from you!
That’s it for now. Till the next time!
Yours,
Natasha, HealthyHer Founder