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Summary
On episode 381 of 40+ Fitness, Coach Allan sits down with Dr. Anna Cabeca, a triple board certified physician in gynecology and obstetrics, integrative medicine, and anti-aging and regenerative medicine, with special certifications in functional medicine, sexual health, and bioidentical hormone replacement therapy, known for treating menopause with natural alternatives, and author of The Hormone Fix.
Anna argues that the hormone conversation people expect (estrogen, testosterone, thyroid) misses the real underlying players: insulin, cortisol, and oxytocin. She explains why oxytocin, the connection and bonding hormone, matters as much as any lab value, and why she built her Keto Green approach around combining ketosis with an alkaline diet after a purely ketogenic diet left her irritable.
The conversation also covers cheap, self-measured ways to track wellness beyond blood work, why she is skeptical of the carnivore trend, and why men and women often need different versions of the same plan.
Links
- https://dranna.com/book
- Episode 433 – Keto-green 16 with Dr. Anna Cabeca
- Episode 533 – How to use food to manage your menopause symptoms with Dr. Anna Cabeca
Key Takeaways
- The real hormones to manage are insulin, cortisol, and oxytocin. Rather than fixating on estrogen, testosterone, and thyroid, Anna says these three underlying players drive most of the hormone imbalance people experience, especially through menopause.
- Oxytocin is the “happy” hormone, and it depends on real connection. She argues a glass of red wine or square of dark chocolate is only medicinal in the company and laughter it comes with; drunk alone, you lose the oxytocin benefit that makes it work.
- Blood pH barely moves, but urine pH is a useful daily signal. The body defends blood pH at about 7.4 no matter what you eat, but urine pH (healthy range 7 to 8) reflects stress, inflammation, and diet, and drops after workouts and inflammatory foods.
- Normal lab results are not the same as optimal. Anna treats the patient, not just the labs, and built simple, low-cost self-assessment checklists (sleep, energy, mood) so people can track how they actually feel, not just what a seven-minute appointment catches.
- A pure ketogenic diet left her irritable, so she added alkaline greens. She calls it going “keto crazy”: her urine pH dropped to its lowest reading, and adding alkalizing, mineral-rich greens back into a ketogenic diet resolved it, which became her Keto Green method.
- She is skeptical of strict carnivore diets. Nearly every traditional diet throughout history has had a strong plant-based component; even Inuit populations eating mostly fatty fish relied on mineral-rich bone broth to get what plants would otherwise provide.
- Men and women often need different versions of the same program. Anna says men following her Keto Green plan alongside their partner frequently lose weight and feel better two to three times faster, which is why she built the plan specifically around women’s hormonal differences.
- Anna’s three strategies to get and stay well: pause, take a moment to stop and be fully present; pray, meditate or listen to your inner voice; and prioritize the people and things that matter most in your life.
“Normal is not optimal.”
Dr. Anna Cabeca