480: Why Your Body Keeps the Score: The Biology Behind Chronic Pain and Autoimmune Issues with Dr. Aimie Apigian
Midlife Conversations with Natalie Jill
Release Date: 09/23/2025
493: She Beat Leukemia By Building Muscle: The Truth About Building Muscle After 50 with Helen Fritsch
Midlife Conversations with Natalie Jill
What happens when a 56-year-old woman who's never lifted weights walks into a gym and decides to compete in bodybuilding, and then were diagnosed with leukemia at 57? Most people would scale back, play it safe, maybe give up entirely. But Helen Fritsch did the opposite – she doubled down on building muscle. Helen never entered a weight room until her late 50s - she thought it was "for boys only." As a flight attendant and certified wine specialist, she spent decades doing cardio and avoiding heavy weights. At 56, she gave herself one month to prep for her first competition (most people take...
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492: Leaky Gut, Histamine Nightmare, and Your Nervous System: The Hidden Connection Making You Sick with The Gut Genie Laura Frontiero
Midlife Conversations with Natalie Jill
Join us for our free masterclass Is your gut secretly controlling your brain, sabotaging your weight loss, and destroying your health – all while conventional medicine tells you it's "just stress"? After diving deep into the research on histamine, mast cells, and the gut-brain connection (and texting Laura Frontiero approximately a million questions), I discovered why so many midlife women are struggling with mysterious symptoms that doctors can't explain. Laura reveals the shocking truth about leaky gut that has nothing to do with digestive symptoms, why fermented foods and bone...
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491: Hidden Nail Salon Dangers, Risks of Gel Nails, and What To Do About It with Lanna Dang
Midlife Conversations with Natalie Jill
Did you know that the paraffin wax from your last pedicure might have been peeled off someone else's feet and reused on yours? Gross, and…the health surprises lurking in the nail salon go FAR beyond that. Lanna Dang, owner of Pampr'd Soul in Scottsdale, completely transformed how I think about nail salons. Growing up inside her parents' nail salon, Lanna witnessed practices that would make your skin crawl: from tools that are barely sanitized between clients to name-brand polish bottles being secretly refilled with toxic knockoffs. She reveals why that "healthy" dip powder is actually...
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490: When Your Body Won’t Calm Down: What I Learned About Histamine, Mast Cells, and the Hidden Cause Behind My Mysterious Reactions
Midlife Conversations with Natalie Jill
You know how they say "what happens in Bali stays in Bali"? Yeah… not so much. Mine came home with me in the form of hives, food reactions, and what I now call my PhD in histamine. In this episode, I'm sharing the wild story of how a little post-Bali "food poisoning" turned into a full-blown case of histamine intolerance and mast cell activation syndrome. Think: red blotches, racing heart, and me Googling every bite before eating it. I'll walk you through the chaos of misdiagnosis, the "aha!" moment when we figured out it was actually Scombroid poisoning (yes, that's a real thing from bad...
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489: Histamine Intolerances, Mast Cells, Our Nervous System, and Liver with Dr. Jess Peatross
Midlife Conversations with Natalie Jill
Could your racing thoughts and underlying anxiety be causing your mysterious hives, heart palpitations, and unexplained allergic reactions? After my own shocking hive outbreak following surgery and Bali belly, I dove deep into the world of histamine and mast cells. Dr. Jessica Peatross, the MD who's become known as the "surgeon of figuring out what's really going on," reveals why your nervous system might be the hidden trigger behind your mystery symptoms. She explains why midlife women suddenly develop histamine issues out of nowhere, the shocking connection between anxiety and mast cell...
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488: How To Fix Your Finances So You Don’t Have To Work Forever with Bret Johnson
Midlife Conversations with Natalie Jill
Is everyone around you planning dream retirements while you're wondering if you'll be working forever? If you're lying awake at night worried about finances, feeling like you're the only one who didn't figure out this money thing, you’re not alone, and this episode is your wake-up call + your action plan rolled into one. I invited my friend, an accomplished investor and financial savvy expert, Bret Johnson to share the exact strategies he used to transform his financial future later in life. From being behind the eight-ball to traveling abundantly and living without money stress, Bret breaks...
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487: Zombie Cells: How Cellular Senescence Is Secretly Aging You From Within with Dan Pardi
Midlife Conversations with Natalie Jill
What if the reason you can't lose weight, feel exhausted, and struggle with inflammation has nothing to do with your diet or exercise routine – but with zombie cells lurking in your body? In this game-changing episode, I sit down with Dan Pardi, Chief Health Officer at Qualia Life, to uncover the hidden world of cellular senescence and why these "zombie cells" might be sabotaging your health without you even knowing it. We dive deep into how damaged cells that refuse to die are creating chronic inflammation, accelerating aging, and potentially blocking your body's ability to heal itself. Dan...
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486: Why Breathwork is the Missing Piece in Your Midlife Wellness Journey with Samantha Skelly
Midlife Conversations with Natalie Jill
What if the secret to calming your nervous system, improving your sleep, and even slowing down aging was as simple as changing how you breathe? Today's conversation with breath work expert Samantha Skelly reveals why most of us are only using 30% of our lung capacity and how this impacts everything from our stress levels to our cellular health. Learn the exact technique that can shift your nervous system from fight-or-flight to rest-and-repair in just 3-5 minutes. Samantha shares her personal transformation story and breaks down the science of why breath work works where other practices fail -...
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485: Perimenopause vs Menopause: Understanding Your Hormone Changes and What Actually Works with Mariza Snyder
Midlife Conversations with Natalie Jill
You're exhausted, can't sleep, gaining weight despite doing "all the right things," and your doctor hands you an antidepressant or birth control pills. Sound familiar? In this raw and revealing conversation, integrative doctor and perimenopause expert Dr. Mariza Snyder pulls back the curtain on what's really happening to your hormones during this massive transition—and why the standard medical approach is leaving millions of women struggling unnecessarily. We're breaking down the confusion between perimenopause and menopause, revealing why your progesterone tanks first (and what that means...
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484: Bali Broke My Gut (and what I learned) with the Gut Genie Laura Frontiero
Midlife Conversations with Natalie Jill
I found out the hard way that Bali Belly is no joke. What started as a bucket-list dream vacation turned into a battle with my gut health that I'm still fighting as we record this. And the kicker - I thought I was prepared to dodge it: I had my enzymes, my probiotics, I was careful with food and water. But what I didn't know about environmental exposure through skin contact, contaminated water sources, and the reality of underdeveloped infrastructure cost me my normally great health. In this conversation, I'm joined by functional nurse practitioner Laura Frontiero (aka "The Gut Genie") to...
info_outlineDid you know that by the time you reach midlife, your nervous system has been storing trauma responses for decades - even if you can't identify a single "traumatic" event?
What if the chronic back pain, autoimmune issues, and stubborn weight gain plaguing so many midlife women aren't just random health problems, but your nervous system's way of expressing stored survival responses from years past?
In this insightful conversation, Dr. Aimie Apigian reveals how seemingly normal childhood experiences - from crying yourself to sleep as a baby in the 1970s to being a latchkey kid - can create lasting biological changes that show up as health issues decades later through stored trauma in your nervous system.
We dive into the science behind trauma, its long-term biological effects, and the importance of addressing trauma at different levels – mind, body, and biology and how accumulative, often unrecognized trauma can impact our health, aging, emotional regulation, and relationships.
Discover why your nervous system might still be stuck in survival mode, keeping you vulnerable to injuries, illnesses, and that constant underlying anxiety. Dr. Aimie explains the science behind why some people seem immune to health issues while others collect diagnoses, and most importantly, what nervous system healing can actually do about stored trauma.
Catch the full episode on YOUTUBE HERE: https://bit.ly/MidlifeConversationsYouTube
Learn More About Dr. Aimie Apigian:
Instagram ➜ https://www.instagram.com/draimie
Website ➜ https://biologyoftrauma.com/
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Disclaimer: Information provided in the Midlife Conversations podcast is for informational purposes only. This information is NOT intended as a substitute for the advice provided by your physician or other healthcare professional. Do not use the information provided in this podcast for diagnosing or treating a health problem or disease, or prescribing medication or other treatment. Always speak with your physician or other healthcare professional before making any changes to your current regimen.
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