What I Use and Why
You think it's one problem. It's four root causes feeding each other.
Stress. Hormones. Collagen. Metabolism. Most women are taking a cabinet full of random supplements and wondering why nothing works. It's because nothing is targeted enough for the specific root cause they're actually dealing with. Let me show you how all four connect, what's happening in your body, and what I use for each piece.
All natural · Science-backed · What I actually use
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Why I use these
It worked for me. Then I wanted the science.
I'm an ICU nurse by training, which means I'm the skeptic in the room.
And I'll be honest. I didn't look at the science before I put these in my body. I tried them, and they worked.
Then I wanted to understand how. I needed to see that it wasn't just me, that the research was showing the same thing. Because if it only works for me, that's not enough. I want to know it can work for you too.
Years of chronic stress had me snapping at my kids, unable to focus or concentrate, and just not feeling like myself anymore.
Then I started addressing the root causes every single day.
I stopped yelling. I could focus on my work. The belly fat finally started budging, and I started feeling more like myself.
I stopped escaping to Target. I started laughing with my kids again.
I'm not telling you that to brag about where I am now. I'm telling you so you know where I'm coming from, and where I've made it to.
There are four root causes, and each one gets its own section. Read the one that sounds like you, or read them all. Most of us find a bit of ourselves in every one.
Karla
Root cause 1 · Your stress response
You think it's who you are now. It's not. It's a body stuck in fight or flight.
Your body has a stress response built to keep you alive. When that stress response gets triggered, cortisol goes up, your heart rate climbs, and you're ready to run or fight.
Great, if there's a bear. Not so great when it's your kid asking what's for dinner for the third time.
Think of it like a guard dog at your front door. Its job is to bark at threats. But if that dog barks at every single noise, whether it's an intruder or Chuck the Amazon guy, it becomes a problem.
When stress turns chronic, the alarm never shuts off. Cortisol stays high. And when cortisol stays high, your feel-good hormones — serotonin, dopamine, and GABA — go down.
Stress hormones up. Feel-good hormones down. That's the hormone gap.
Right in the middle of that gap is where the 3am wakeups, the anxiety, the irritability, the brain fog and the burnout live.
And your gut is command central here. About 90% of your serotonin is made in your gut, and serotonin is one of the things that helps calm your stress response.
Your gut is also responsible for sending those signals up to your brain. When the two stop talking to each other, your brain isn't getting what it needs, and your stress response goes into overdrive.
You can't positive-mindset your way out of that. It's a physiological issue.
This might be you
- Wired but tired, with no in-between
- Snapping at the smallest things
- Anxious even when everything is "fine"
- Wide awake between 2 and 4am
- Mood swings that come out of nowhere
When chronic stress keeps you in fight-or-flight
Illustration to show the concept, not lab data.
Happy Juice
Best for feeling wired, short-fused and flat all at once. The mood swings, the on-edge feeling, and the “I can't focus and I don't care” days.
This is where I start most women. If your nervous system is still on high alert, everything else is fighting uphill.
- Support for stress resilience, so the small stuff stops feeling like a five alarm fire
- A steadier, more balanced mood
- Better energy, because you're not burning it all on stress
- The motivation and focus that stress steals
What's inside: MentaBiotics (gut) + EDGE+ (brain). How I use it: I mix one packet of each into 16 to 20 ounces of water.
When it's worse around your cycle
If PMDD makes you feel like a different person for half the month, you're not imagining it.
If you feel like it's PMS on steroids... the rage, the despair, the feeling of losing yourself for weeks at a time... this part is for you.
PMDD isn't just "bad PMS." It's your brain being extra sensitive to normal hormone shifts. And it can steal weeks of your life every single month.
You might notice
- Sudden rage and mood swings that feel completely out of your control
- Deep hopelessness that disappears the moment your period starts
- Feeling totally alone because the people around you don't get why you "can't just deal with it"
- Brain fog, exhaustion and insomnia, like a stranger took over your body
- Watching it strain your relationships and feeling like you're failing as a partner, a mom, a friend
Root cause 2 · Hormone imbalance
You think your hormone levels are the problem. It's the chaos between them.
Perimenopause isn't just hot flashes and irregular periods. It's so much more than that. It's really about the chaos your hormones go through as they decline.
Yes, your estrogen, progesterone and testosterone are declining overall. But your estrogen and progesterone especially don't decline in a nice straight line. They swing wildly. And those wild, chaotic swings are what lead to so many of the symptoms.
This is what most people never hear: it's not just the levels causing the symptoms. It's also the imbalance between them.
Estrogen helps regulate serotonin, your mood stabilizer. When it dips, your mood dips with it. Progesterone calms your nervous system. When it drops, anxiety climbs and sleep goes sideways. Testosterone supports muscle, energy and motivation. When it drops, you feel tired and flat.
During our reproductive years, estrogen and progesterone are kept very tightly in balance with each other. So when they get out of balance, that's often where so many symptoms pop up. It's why we have to help bring balance back between those two.
Now stack chronic stress on top of that.
Your reproductive hormones and your stress response are tangled together. They don't operate in silos. So when your stress hormones are through the roof while your reproductive hormones are swinging, it compounds, and it makes that imbalance even worse.
That's why so many symptoms overlap. Weight gain, mood swings, exhaustion and bad sleep can come from stress or from perimenopause. Often, it's both.
This might be you
- Hot flashes and night sweats
- Mood swings that feel out of proportion
- Irritability that scares you a little
- Low libido
- Trouble falling asleep
- Waking up frequently during the night
Perimenopause is not a straight line
Illustration to show the concept, not lab data. The swings are unpredictable, and the two hormones don't always move together.
Ever Balance
Best for hot flashes, night sweats, mood swings, low libido and sleep that has gone sideways.
I use this to support my body through the transition. Not to replace anything. Just to help my hormones stop fighting each other.
- A daily blend of plant-based ingredients designed to support healthy hormone balance and mood in perimenopause and beyond
- Backed by clinical studies
- In a 42 day study of 48 women in perimenopause: a 26% reduction in hot flashes and night sweats, and a 31.8% decrease in negative mood
- In a study of post-menopausal women: hot flashes down 47.8%, night sweats down 53%, mood swings down 69%, sleeplessness down 71%, irritability down 76%
- In a study of 24 women: irritability down 40%
How I use it: 2 capsules a day (I suggest before bed, because it can help with sleep).
Root cause 3 · Collagen loss
You think it's just aging. It's your body's scaffolding wearing down.
The brain fog. The achy joints. The saggy skin. The muscle you can't hold onto. We write all of it off as "I'm just getting old."
And aging is real. But part of what's going on is collagen loss, and that part you can support.
Collagen is about so much more than your skin. It's the structural foundation (or scaffolding) of your joints, your muscles, your skin, your nails and your hair. It's what lets you build, repair and recover.
Starting around age 25, we lose about 1% of our collagen every year. And in the first five years of menopause, women can lose up to 30% of their skin collagen.
Thirty percent of your skin's collagen. That's not a slow decline. That's a cliff.
Less collagen means less support for your joints, your muscles, your skin, your hair and your nails. And less muscle affects your metabolism, your insulin sensitivity and your bone density. It's all connected.
And what nobody mentions is that chronic stress makes it worse. Elevated cortisol breaks collagen down faster than your body can replace it. So you're getting hit from both directions at the same time.
This might be you
- Achy joints that slow you down
- Thinning hair, brittle or peeling nails
- Dull, dry, saggy skin and breakouts
- Working out hard with nothing to show for it
- Brain fog and feeling physically depleted
Hit from both directions
NeuCollagen
Best for stress, brain fog, achy joints, slow muscle recovery, and skin, hair and nail changes.
Most collagen supplements support one, maybe two areas. This one gives you six dimensions of support, including the cortisol piece.
- A blend of premium ingredients that each do a different job
- Collavant n2 supports joint mobility and comfort, and helps you recover faster
- GPX-4 is one of Korea's top selling collagen technologies, and we have the exclusive rights to it here
- Mobilee supports muscle strength and function, and boosts your body's own hyaluronic acid
- Cerebiome supports healthy cortisol levels and everyday stress
- Backed by a combined 25 clinical studies
How I use it: mix one stick into 4 ounces of water and take it like a shot.
Root cause 4 · Metabolism
You think your metabolism quit on you. It's stress, declining estrogen and a hunger signal that isn't getting through.
This one made me so mad when I figured it out. I was exercising most days, eating clean, and the weight still kept coming. I felt like a donut stuffed in a sock. So I found myself in these damn elastic waisted pants and oversized t-shirts.
It wasn't a motivation problem. It was a stress problem.
When cortisol stays high, your body keeps releasing sugar into your blood. Your pancreas answers with more insulin, and over time your cells stop listening as well. That's insulin resistance. Insulin is also a fat-storage signal, which is part of why it lands right in your midsection.
Stress isn't the only piece. As your estrogen declines in perimenopause, that can slow your metabolism down too. Your insulin sensitivity drops as well, so all of it hits harder.
There's one more piece. CCK is a hormone your gut makes to tell your brain you're full. When your gut-brain connection is stressed and your blood sugar keeps bouncing around, that signal can get disrupted. So you're hungry, your cravings can feel out of control, and that "okay, I'm done" message isn't getting through.
Eating less and exercising harder doesn't fix a signaling problem.
This might be you
- Weight that won't budge no matter what you do
- Energy crashes in the afternoon
- Cravings and an appetite that feels out of control
- Blood sugar swings that leave you shaky or foggy
How stress ends up at your midsection
- Chronic stress keeps cortisol high
- Blood sugar stays elevated
- Insulin spikes, cells listen less
- Fat gets stored around your middle
CCK, the gut hormone that tells your brain "I'm full," gets disrupted. More hunger. More cravings.
Slim2Fit
Best for blood sugar crashes, cravings, a sluggish metabolism, low energy and appetite swings.
Your metabolism isn't broken. It's reacting to cortisol and hormone chaos the only way it knows how. This supports the signal your body has been missing.
- Supports your natural "I'm full" signal (CCK), so cravings and appetite swings can settle down
- Supports healthy blood sugar and glucose levels
- Supports healthy metabolism and your body's natural thermogenesis, to get your metabolism going
- Supports steady energy and a resilient gut-brain connection
- Supports healthy weight management*
- Comes with a free AI-powered 8-week program to help you reach your goals
How I use it: 1 capsule twice a day with 8 oz of water, 30 minutes before your two largest meals.
*Use alongside a healthy diet and exercise.
Where to start
Match your symptoms to your starting point.
Find the row that sounds most like you and start there. When you address the root, that's where you actually start moving the needle.
Bundles
Start with the pack, or pick a pair.
Most women I work with need more than one thing, because it's rarely just one root cause. So I put the combinations together.
Outside the US? Click here for buying options.
The Perimenopause Power Pack
Happy Juice + Ever Balance + NeuCollagen.
Your stress response, your hormones and your collagen, all covered. Those are the three that show up first for most of us.
$371.85 if you bought these separately. $294.95 as the bundle on subscribe and save. That's $76.90 back in your pocket.
The Perimenopause 360 Pack
Happy Juice + Ever Balance + NeuCollagen + Slim2Fit.
Your stress response, your hormones, your collagen and your metabolism. All encompassing. A full 360.
$467.80 if you bought these separately. $354.95 as the 360 Pack on subscribe and save. That's $112.85 back in your pocket.
NeuCollagen + Happy Juice
For when stress and brain fog are running the show, and your joints, skin and hair are showing it.
Get This PairNeuCollagen + Ever Balance
For hormone symptoms along with the achy joints, thinning hair and slow recovery.
Get This PairHappy Juice + Ever Balance
For when your stress response and your hormones are tangled together. Which is a lot of us.
Get This PairI want you to know you're not failing. You've just been solving the wrong problem.
Take the quiz and I'll pull out your root causes, then we'll build your starting point together. Or grab the free playbook and start closing the hormone gap on your own.