496: Reading Glasses, Dry Eyes, and Cataracts – What's Really Happening to Your Eyes with Dr. Rudrani Banik
Midlife Conversations with Natalie Jill: Fat Loss, Hormones & Health for Women Over 40
Release Date: 12/09/2025
525: Most Thyroid Medications Fail: The Thyroid–Menopause Collision Destroying Women in Midlife with Dr. Amie Hornaman
Midlife Conversations with Natalie Jill: Fat Loss, Hormones & Health for Women Over 40
Save your seat in the free Thyroid and Hormone class If you are a woman in midlife who has been told everything is fine when you know in your body that something is NOT fine, this episode is going to change everything. I have Dr. Amie Hornaman, The Thyroid Fixer, back on the show, and we are going somewhere we have never gone before. One in eight women will develop a thyroid condition in her lifetime. Eighty-eight percent of us are metabolically unhealthy. And yet most doctors run ONE test, look at one number, tell us we are normal, and send us home with an antidepressant. Meanwhile we...
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524: 95% of Women Are Nutritionally Depleted - No Wonder Women in Midlife Feel Terrible with Julie Sawaya
Midlife Conversations with Natalie Jill: Fat Loss, Hormones & Health for Women Over 40
If you are a woman in midlife who is exhausted, foggy, losing your hair, and being told it is just aging — this episode is going to change how you look at your body forever. I sat down with Julie Sawaya, the co-founder of Needed, and what I learned blew my mind. Julie is a trained nutritionist with a Stanford MBA. She was doing EVERYTHING right — farmer's market every Sunday, nutrition certifications, incredibly intentional about every bite. And then she tested herself. Almost every nutrient came back in the red zone. If two trained nutritionists were massively depleted, what is happening...
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523: Your Mouth Is Making You Sick: What Biological Dentistry Reveals About Root Canals, Cavitations, and Chronic Disease with Dr. Dominik Nischwitz
Midlife Conversations with Natalie Jill: Fat Loss, Hormones & Health for Women Over 40
What if everything you've been doing to heal your body has been quietly undermined by something inside your mouth? Natalie sits down with Dr. Dominik Nischwitz, widely regarded as the world's leading biological dentist, who has spent over two decades revealing the connection between dental health and chronic disease. People with gum disease face an 86% higher risk of stroke, a 36% higher risk of heart attack, and if tooth loss conditions are present, the risk of Alzheimer's triples. And almost nobody is connecting these dots. Dr. Dominik explains why root canals become silent, chronic...
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522: The Protein Lie Midlife Women Have Been Told (And What to Do Instead) with Angelo Keely
Midlife Conversations with Natalie Jill: Fat Loss, Hormones & Health for Women Over 40
What if the protein you've been so carefully tracking is giving you a fraction of the muscle-building benefit you think it is? That question stopped me in my tracks, and I think it's going to stop you too. I brought Angelo Keely back to the show for exactly this conversation. Angelo is the CEO and co-founder of Kion, and he works alongside the top scientists in protein and amino acid research. Our last episode together changed how I think about protein entirely, and this one went deeper. Here's what we get into: your protein needs don't decrease as you age, they actually go up, and most of us...
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521: The Truth About Statins, LDL, and Heart Disease Risk That Most Cardiologists Won't Tell You with Dr. Philip Ovadia
Midlife Conversations with Natalie Jill: Fat Loss, Hormones & Health for Women Over 40
What if the cholesterol medication your doctor insists could save your life is actually increasing your risk of the very disease it's supposed to prevent? A board-certified cardiothoracic surgeon who has personally performed over 3,000 open-heart surgeries joins us this week with a message he says most cardiologists will not say out loud: the majority of his patients should never have ended up on his table. Dr. Philip Ovadia lost nearly 100 pounds while operating on other people's hearts, reversed his own prediabetes, and spent the last decade asking a question his colleagues are not...
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520: S-Equol - The Natural Estrogen Support System Most Women Abandoned for No Reason with Dr. Siobhan Mitchell
Midlife Conversations with Natalie Jill: Fat Loss, Hormones & Health for Women Over 40
What if the belly fat, the exhaustion, and the 3 a.m. wake-ups were never about willpower or effort at all? In this episode, Dr. Siobhan Mitchell, a neuroscientist with 25 years of nutrition and cellular health research behind her, breaks down exactly what is happening inside the body during midlife and why the same habits that worked at 35 stop working at 45. Dr. Mitchell is currently the Chief Science Officer at MitoQ, a cellular health company with over $60 million in research, and she brings a level of scientific depth to this conversation that is genuinely rare. What unfolds is not the...
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519: The Menopause Gut: What Your Doctor Never Told You About Hormones, Your Estrobolome, and Midlife Health with Cynthia Thurlow
Midlife Conversations with Natalie Jill: Fat Loss, Hormones & Health for Women Over 40
What if the bloating, brain fog, sleepless nights, and stubborn weight you've been blaming on menopause are actually a gut problem in disguise? Nurse practitioner Cynthia Thurlow has 25 years of clinical experience, a TEDx talk with over 15 million views, and the number four nutrition podcast in the country. But it wasn't until a near-death experience in 2018 — a ruptured appendix, 13 days in the hospital, and a perimenopause nobody had caught — that she truly understood what declining estrogen does to a woman's gut, immune system, and entire body. That experience became the foundation of...
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518: Why Most People Stay Broke (And What They Were Never Taught About Money) with Hannah Hammond
Midlife Conversations with Natalie Jill: Fat Loss, Hormones & Health for Women Over 40
What if everything you were taught about building wealth was designed to keep you exactly where you are? Hannah Hammond became a self-made millionaire before 30, not because she had a head start, but because she stumbled onto a completely different framework for money at age 13 and refused to let go of it. In this episode, she breaks down the asset vs. liability distinction that most of us were never taught, why your house probably isn't building your wealth the way you think it is, and how compound interest can still work powerfully in your favor no matter where you're starting from in...
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517: Is Biohacking the New Diet Culture? What Midlife Women Need to Know About Peptides, Hormones, and Body Image with Karen Martel
Midlife Conversations with Natalie Jill: Fat Loss, Hormones & Health for Women Over 40
What if the thing you thought was finally going to free you from a lifetime of food obsession is actually feeding the very cycle you have been trying to escape? This week on Midlife Conversations, I sat down with hormone expert and host of The Hormone Solution podcast, Karen Martel, for one of the most unexpectedly layered conversations I have had in a long time. Karen grew up with a mother who ran a Nutrisystem weight loss center, which meant that food restriction and body scrutiny were not just things she observed but the constant backdrop of her entire childhood. That early environment...
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516: The Hidden Reason Your Home Is Keeping You Stuck in Midlife with Feng Shui Expert Marie Diamond
Midlife Conversations with Natalie Jill: Fat Loss, Hormones & Health for Women Over 40
What if the reason you cannot sleep, cannot relax, and cannot seem to get unstuck in midlife has nothing to do with your hormones, your diet, or your effort... and everything to do with the four walls around you? This conversation with Marie Diamond stopped me in my tracks. Marie is one of the world's most recognized feng shui masters, a featured teacher in The Secret, and someone who has spent decades helping people understand how their physical environments are quietly shaping their subconscious minds, their brain waves, their stress levels, and their ability to attract health, love, and...
info_outlineCan you remember the last time you could read a menu without squinting, holding it at arm's length, or borrowing someone's reading glasses?
If you're wondering why your vision suddenly betrayed you in midlife (along with everything else changing in your body) this episode delivers answers you won't get at your typical eye exam. Dr. Rudrani Banik, a neuro-ophthalmologist with 20+ years of experience, reveals why our eyes go haywire during perimenopause and menopause, exposing the hormone connection your eye doctor probably never mentioned.
Discover why dry eye isn't actually about tear production but about tiny glands with testosterone receptors, why those trendy eyelash extensions might be destroying your eye health, and the truth about whether sunglasses are really "endocrine disruptors" (spoiler: Dr. Banik tested it with a light meter). Learn the three-step eyelid hygiene routine that could save your vision, which eye drops actually work for presbyopia, and why that migraine aura isn't a stroke, even though it feels like one.
Plus, get the insider truth about cataract surgery, when vision changes signal diabetes or serious neurological issues, and why you absolutely need a dilated eye exam (not just a glasses check). Dr. Banik shares her personal story of thinking she had a brain tumor at 54, only to discover it was her spine affecting her vision – proving everything really is connected in midlife.
Catch the full episode on YOUTUBE HERE: https://bit.ly/MidlifeConversationsYouTube
Learn More About Dr. Rudrani Banik
Instagram ➜ https://www.instagram.com/dr.ranibanik
Website ➜ https://www.drranibanik.com/
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