[00:00:00] Welcome back to episode of the Hormone Hub Podcast, where we talk all things perimenopause, menopause, and have the conversations no one else is having. Sit back, relax, and enjoy this episode. 

Kylie: Good morning. Good morning, ladies. It is Kylie Pinwill here, your host of the Hormone Hub podcast. And today on the podcast, we’ve got a very special guest. So we’ve got Dr. Prudence Hall joining us. Now, Dr. Prudence Hall or Dr. Hall started as a traditional gynecological surgeon, and transitioned her career to focus on regenerative and integrated medicine as the founder of the Hall Center in Santa Monica, California. She saw a critical need to address the problems confronting women and men experiencing the stubborn and often debilitating symptoms associated with aeging.

Her practice is focused exclusively [00:01:00] on regenerative medicine, looking at the root cause of conditions and diseases rather than simply treating symptoms, which I absolutely love. She strives to help clients achieve optimal health and actively prevent disease. Without the use of pharmaceutical drugs, when appropriate Prudence Hall, welcome to the show.

It is great to have you here.

Dr Hall: Oh, thank you so much. I’m really delighted to talk about hormones and anything, anything you have on your agenda today. 

Kylie: Amazing. So obviously as a, OBGYN, and transitioning into sort of more of a holistic practice, what was it that sort of, trend triggered that transformation?

Dr Hall: Well, that’s a good question. I had two big transformations. One was the transformation right when I got out of my, finished my obstetrics and gynecology residency, and it was a tough residency. We took care of the poorest and sickest women in Los Angeles. So there [00:02:00] was tons of surgical experience, tons of dealing with people on the verge of death in terms of gynecological problems.

And I went out into my private practice and thought, I can do this. I got this. And when I started working with my menopausal women, I realised Kylie that I didn’t know practically anything about menopause. I was not taught much beyond the check a couple of hormones. Put them on Premarin and Provera, which is a pregnant horses

and, and see them in a year. And I, I, I have to say that that was shocking to me when I realized after really doing so much, gynecology, work in consulting in, in, at USC. That I didn’t know what to do. And women were telling me, Prudence, we feel terrible. We’re crying. We hate our husbands. We’re sweating all night, please.

We’re going to, we’re going to off ourselves. We feel so depressed. And I, I, Kylie, I [00:03:00] almost quit at that point. I thought, . I’m here to serve women. I’m here to, to, , make an impact and to help create suffering. And so that was the first time when I went into a huge relearning about what menopause was.

And I traveled to different countries that had bioidentical hormones, and I started using them really in 1983. Wow. Little bits by little bits. And then I kept realising, well, menopause is not just a lack of estrogen and ovarian hormones, it’s also the thyroid deficiency, it’s also adrenal deficiency, those are the stress glands.

And so I kept adding. And then came Jeffrey Bland, PhD, Dr. Bland, and he is the father of regenerative medicine, of functional medicine. And I love this guy. I mean, I took, I had to take his class, [00:04:00] week long class several times because I just was so in love with the way the material was presented. And that’s when, it’s, it’s a long time ago now, it’s, it’s been a long time.

13 years, maybe longer than I started bringing in. Let’s treat the core root causes. Yes. Let’s not paint the leaves, the leaves green. If the tree is dying, let’s fertilize the root. That’s all those like, and some of it is what you do counseling and lifestyle and I’ve so important. Yeah. Oh my God. I practise that change.

Absolutely. I practised. 

Kylie: Oh, that’s amazing and we’re totally singing the right, the same language for sure. And that’s the thing. And it’s, I always talk to women as, your hormones are, cause you, I get asked all the time, what supplement should I take? What, what HRT should I take?

And I’m like, okay, well, it’s not just one thing. I always sort of explain our hormones work together like an orchestra, they all work beautifully together, [00:05:00] but then when one is off, it drags the whole thing out. So I’m so glad you mentioned thyroid and adrenals because it is, it’s a, they all work together.

And, if one part is out, they all tend to be out. So we need to, address everything. Absolutely. That’s great. So what sort of bio identical hormones, , back in the eighties, were you working with? 

Dr Hall: Well, they, so the traditional hormone that came in, in the mid 1940s was Premarin.

So, , the researchers were pretty desperate to help women and they were trying all kinds of different methods and they put these little catheters into the horses that were pregnant, drained their urine and basically made this very crude, hormone. And those were basically horse hormones. Yes.

Also combined it with a very dangerous progesterone. So natural progesterone, that’s our bioidentical, the same progesterone that we have, is, is very safe. [00:06:00] And our natural estrogens are very safe. But the, this initial voyage into, into helping women with menopause was not very successful. And Germany and France were using the bioidentical hormones, which I’m sure your listeners know about.

They’re the hormones, they’re exactly the same hormones that you’re making that I’m making. And, those hormones not only treat the, the symptoms of menopause, which are hot flashes, night flashes. I mean, night sweats, waking up all night, feeling depressed and anxious and worried and, OCD and brain fog, all of your people know about already, but it treats the diseases that arise as we age.

Yeah, so bio identical hormones will help to decrease heart disease dramatically. Which is the primary cause of death in women and they [00:07:00] decrease diabetes and dementia. All you have to do is listen to Dr. Bredesen talk to understand and I just love that guy. He’s told me, I’m sorry you’re putting women on estrogen.

It’s so good for their brains and it helps to prevent. The, the neurodegenerative decline of the brain. So, (Kylie) absolutely. I use hormones in every different modality. I mean, the way, there are creams, there’s patches, there’s drops, there’s vaginal inserts, there are trokes. I use everything.

Yeah. Menopause is individualised, right? 

Kylie: 100%. And I was just about to say that too, and every woman is different and every woman presents differently has, I’m sure you’ve seen in your practise, there’s no two coming in with the same sort of set of symptoms and the same also level of, of what’s okay for her and what’s not.

Dr Hall: Exactly. , because if we don’t address the thoughts and the hearts and the, the spiritual connection of [00:08:00] the woman and really honor her for what, who she is, , say, well, I know you don’t like that, but we’re going to do it anyway. Something like that. That’s very disrespectful and we are not going to get the results that Like to get when we really listen to who she is and what’s important to her.

Kylie: Yeah, absolutely. And likewise, when a woman goes to the doctor, looking for, that magic pill, that’s going to fix everything. She still needs to address those foundations of nutrition and lifestyle. And, because it’s also, you, you need those good foundations regardless.

of where you’re at in life, I think, and regardless of, we’re setting ourselves up now for our future health. So yeah, so to sort of like take that holistic approach, I think is, is amazing. So talk to me a bit about, you talk about regenerative medicine. So can you sort of explain sort of a bit how that works?

Dr Hall: Well, when you look at the core root [00:09:00] causes of aging, I would say that that would be hormonal imbalance, unhealthy lifestyles, and that includes diet, sleep, exercise, absolutely critically important. It includes toxicity. We’re living in a toxic world and we all have a lot of toxicity, whether it be the chemicals, for example, in Roundup or whether it be mould, black mould, or, there’s just so many chemicals that we’re exposed to sprays, creams and preservatives and all of that.

So toxicity, and, there’s also the whole gut. I mean, this has come into functional medicine, really reduced in Jeff Bland really introduced the gut as a primary organ that affects. Every cell in the body, the brain, the skin, the bones, everything. So, , gut health and what is the microbiome of your GI tract?

And do you have parasites? And do you have yeast? And [00:10:00] are you digesting your food? Yes. So, not necessarily the food you eat, but the food you’re able to ingest. Yes. And you’re able to absorb. So, functional medicine looks at all of those core root causes. That cause future aging and current aging and gets rid of them all.

Basically, rebalance the gut. We’re going to detoxify you. We’re going to deal with stress. Oh, stress. We’re going to deal with stress is a huge underlying cause. We’re going to correct your diet and your sleep and your balance.

Kylie: Yeah. Yeah. And that’s the thing, you fix those underlying things and all of the symptoms that are presenting. resolve themselves. So I sort of see women all the time, who want weight loss, I can’t lose weight. I can’t lose weight. I can’t lose weight. My diet’s perfect. I can’t lose weight. I’m exercising. I’m going to the gym, eating really well, but I keep putting on weight.

And that’s the thing is, exactly sort of how we work as well. As we look at those underlying causes, are you absorbing the nutrients from your food? Are [00:11:00] you eliminating correctly? Are you, your detox pathways? Are they working? if you’re stressed to the eyeballs. Your diet can be perfect on paper, but it’s, it’s, we’re missing the mark because those stress hormones are out of control. So. 

Dr Hall: And what you said about the detox pathways, that’s genetic. And so we’re, I mean, this is once again, Jeff Bland, but we’re in the, in the era of genetics medicine. So looking to see what you’re doing with your B12 and folate in terms of, downstream markers of what happens when those are lower adequate.

And yeah, the detoxification pathways are very. Very important, especially with, taking antibiotics or pharmaceuticals or, or hormones, anything, , we toxify everything. 

Kylie: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And, and like you said, that toxic load that we’re all just exposed to on a daily basis. So, it’s, I think it’s, we all sort of think of, Oh yeah, I need to go on a detox after a big girl’s weekend or a big girl’s trip to Bali, but it’s, but it’s not, it’s, [00:12:00] it’s what we do. I think day to day, how to, I guess, limit our exposure on a day to day basis as well. 

Dr Hall: Yes. It’s, it’s kind of like what you do 90 percent of the time is really the critical, the, the, the critical.

Part of your health, what you do, maybe 5 to 10 percent of the time is much less important, but 90 percent clean, healthy and organic and sleeping eight, nine hours and exercising and good stuff. Good stuff. 

Kylie: We are speaking the same language. All right. So Prudence, is there sort of anything that you can tell us about the, the Hall center and how you work with clients?

Dr Hall: Well, at this point, I only do hormones and I work with my daughter, Dr. Britten, who’s a naturopathic doctor, and she does the gut and diet. And I talk to people about diet all the time, but really when people really need a more in depth analysis, which I think is very important for everybody, then [00:13:00] they, they go to her and she does, kind of the naturopathic stuff as well as is I’ve got her hormones for probably eight or nine years now before she even went to medical school because she knew she wanted to do that. And so you, you’re given a lap slip, you call the center, you make an appointment, you’re given a lap slip, either to, go to a traditional lab, normally lab core quest or wherever you are, whatever is covered by your insurance.

And you get your blood drawn. And then I sit down, for example, I saw a new patient today at nine o’clock in California time, and I have another one a little bit later, and then one at the end of the day, and I sit and I say, well, tell me about yourself. What’s happening. Things not going right, and I just listen.

Really listen to them. Yeah. Stuff comes up that I would never have the insight to ask, but generally I ask about stress and I ask about now your [00:14:00] menopause started at age 44 because menopause is like 44 to 48 or 49 but it can hormones start to decline. So for our younger listeners I want you to know that really ovarian hormones start to decline at age 35.

And so, human growth hormone, which is a very important hormone. So I listened to what the problems are and what they consider to be, the main reasons why they’re seeking my attention. And a lot of times, Kylie, really it’s weight loss. That happens to be a lot. For example, the new patient that I saw today, I mean, she, she told me that she had been on some hormones, but not on adrenals. Not on thyroid, and her hormones were borderline, low in terms of her thyroid hormones, and 

Kylie: That’s it, they can be normal, and then there’s optimal, I always talk about, yeah. 

Dr Hall: Especially for the, I mean, the thyroid, 60 percent of the time, thyroid is diagnosed [00:15:00] correctly, but 40 percent it’s not, and I just she’d been struggling with exercise, but she was too tired to exercise really with the menopausal symptoms that she was having and, having terrible sugar cravings even though she was doing a good job with her diet.

Kylie: I’ve been there. 

Dr Hall: Yeah. So, all of these problems will get addressed in the first visit. And, then we call them in, in three weeks to see how they’re doing. And then I see them again at two months and see, okay, we started here and now we’re here. How are you doing with symptoms? And at the same time, I’m looking for, high ApoBs.

Now that’s part of the cholesterol fragment that is very responsible for heart disease. So the second time when I see him, I’m doing a lot more of these markers for inflammation and homocysteine. Yeah. And and then I just correct it again. And then it’s like, okay, now [00:16:00] I can see you in four months. And then it’s twice a year, twice a year.

And people fine and happy and losing weight. 

Kylie: And I think that’s important to just to sort of make those like micro adjustments as you go, because, we’re not robots. And I think the way as we, as we transition through menopause and post menopause, we’re never, stagnant. So, things are always changing, things are always going on.

So I think that ongoing care is is, so important, I think, is missed in a lot of, medical, traditional medical care practices. So 

Dr Hall: 40 percent of thyroid is missed. Yes. It’s just tragic because women will be struggling with their weight and with depression and with dry skin and hair loss.

Kylie: And that’s the thing. So as a nutritionist, I can’t die. I can’t. Give someone a clinical diagnosis, but I can [00:17:00] see on the paper that’s come back that blood work. And, I can see that those thyroid conversions just aren’t happening, or I can see that there’s anti, so, there’s something going on, but Where, I sort of, and, I have to tread a very careful path, but I can sort of help women with the questions to ask their, their doctor, , just to sort of get them on that path.

So their, their thyroid is actually, it’s acknowledged that their thyroid is underactive or, some clinical. So it’s, but it’s, yeah, it’s really hard because it’s missed so many times because a, the right. Markers aren’t tested for in the first place and be that normal range is so wide that if you’re sitting on the low or the high end, you can feel like rubbish and you’re told that everything’s normal, but you’re not feeling anything, but , even close to normal.

Dr Hall: That’s right. In our, in our normal levels are not ideal levels. For example, you take the thyroid stimulating hormone. That’s a brain hormone that calls right down [00:18:00] to the thyroid and says, I need more thyroid or I have enough. That marker in the United States is considered normal under 4. 4, but in Europe, one to two is considered much more normal in terms of that level.

And I can see when people are above 2, I start to say, well, the reverse T3, the free T3, the free T4, the thyroid antibodies and, and there’s symptoms. So important. 

Kylie: Oh, absolutely. And that’s where it comes back to that conversation and, sitting down and, you can sort of get such a better picture of what’s going on for a woman by having that conversation.

And, and I think you obviously have very skilled at answering, asking the right questions to get that information out from that client. And, that gives us a good picture, I think, of where they’re at in their menopausal journey. Where their stress levels are at, where they’re, how they’re feeling and what potentially is going on.

, sometimes even more so than I said [00:19:00] of blood work. 

Dr Hall: I, oh, I absolutely agree. I love blood work because it’s just so exciting to see the follicle stimulating hormones falling and rising and the T3s, that’s their thyroid hormone rising. But right away, if you’re, if your listeners and my listeners want to correct or help enhance their thyroid, you can have three to four Brazil nuts a day.

It’s had good amounts of selenium in it, about 200 micrograms, and you can take some iodine drops or some iodine food substances, and right away that’s going to help with your , your thyroid to function better on, on its own without, without even needing to see me. 

Kylie: Exactly right. And that’s the thing, it’s just those little gems that we’re never taught along the way.

All right. Well, Prudence, it has been absolutely wonderful having you on the show today. I’ve really enjoyed our conversation. You and I are very much on the same page. And I think that your clients and your patients [00:20:00] in Santa Monica are very happy to have you. And I know we do have a lot of ladies listening from California. So, ladies, if you are looking for , someone generally interested in helping you as a whole person, not just as a symptom, I could highly recommend, , Dr. Prudence Hall from the Hall Center. Now you’ve also got, I think you had a little giveaway for our clients. 

Dr Hall: Oh, if you go to the center, site, website is the hallcenter. com, there’s a an area that you can hit where you put your email in, and my book, Radiant Again and Forever, immediately downloads to your email. And Suzanne, Suzanne Summers told me to write this book. She interviewed me widely in her books on, on hormones and health. And I, I just absolutely have loved her over the years.

And she said, look, each chapter choose a different. Medical condition, choose one of your patients who’s in menopause, one who’s in perimenopause, [00:21:00] one who only has a thyroid disorder. So I wrote this book and bless her, bless her, bless her for guiding me with that. 

Kylie: She just recently passed away, didn’t she?

Yeah, like a two weeks ago, three weeks ago. Yes. Yes, she did. 

Dr Hall: Yes. Bless her, bless her, because she contributed so much to, the health of all of us. And, anyway, she inspired that book and, wrote my book. And so it’s for free. I just want to give it away. 

Kylie: Thank you so much. That’s very generous. I will make sure that the link to that goes in our show notes as well.

So we’ll share it with our audience.

so much for being on the show. Thank you everyone for listening and we will see you in the next episode. Excellent.

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See you there. . ​Thank you for taking the time to listen today. You can head on over to the show notes at kyliepinwill.com/podcast where you’ll find all the links. Now, before we [00:23:00] go, it would mean the world to me if you’d head on over to your favorite podcast channel, subscribe and leave a review. Don’t forget to share it with your friends.

Then stay tuned for next week’s episode and I can’t wait to see you then.