8: How Your Hormones, Stress, and Lifestyle Affect Biological Age with Dr. Kara Fitzgerald

Women are often told that aging is something that simply happens to them, especially once hormones begin to shift. But Dr. Kara Fitzgerald explains that stress, poor sleep, hormone changes, extreme dieting, and lifestyle patterns can all affect how fast your body ages. That means your biological age may be older than the number of birthdays you have had. But if your daily choices can push your body to age faster, could they also help you slow that process down?

In this episode of The Ovary Club, Alisa sits down with Dr. Kara Fitzgerald to unpack what biological age actually means and why it matters for your hormones, ovaries, mitochondria, stress response, and long-term health. You'll learn how DNA methylation reflects the way your body is aging, why menopause is not the starting line for women's aging, and how food, sleep, movement, stress reduction, and lifestyle changes can help shift your biology in a better direction.

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald is a naturopathic physician, functional medicine practitioner, researcher, and author of Younger You: Reduce Your Bio Age and Live Longer, Better. Her clinical research showed that an eight-week diet and lifestyle intervention reduced biological age by over three years on average, and she later replicated that work specifically in women. She is also a faculty member at the Institute for Functional Medicine and host of New Frontiers in Functional Medicine®.

What's Discussed:

(01:12) Why biological age may matter more than chronological age for women.

(05:22) How hormone shifts can affect how fast your body ages.

(08:23) What DNA methylation is and why it matters for biological aging.

(21:28) Why mitochondrial health is deeply connected to ovarian function.

(24:08) How stress, sleep, cortisol, trauma, pregnancy, and recovery affect biological age.

(32:23) Why extreme fasting, over-exercising, and restrictive eating can be pro-aging for women.

(37:09) How food, polyphenols, sleep, supplements, and lifestyle can help slow biological aging.

Listen to this episode of The Ovary Club to understand what your biological age may be telling you, why your hormones and ovaries are connected to how fast your body is aging, and what you can start doing now to support a slower, healthier aging process.

 

Thank You to Our Sponsors: 

Ovary Club Insiders: Ovary Club: Join us at alisavitti.kit.com/products/the-ovary-club 

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Learn more about Alisa Vitti: 

Instagram: @alisa.vitti 

Website: alisavitti.kit.com/ 

 

Learn more about Dr. Kara Fitzgerald: 

Website: drkarafitzgerald.com/ 

Podcast: drkarafitzgerald.com/fxmed-podcast/

Webinars: drkarafitzgerald.com/webinars/

Instagram: @drkarafitzgerald 

Facebook: DrKaraFitzgerald

YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UC7jYgG7WMnqPeC4uwslqdfQ

X: x.com/kfitzgeraldnd

Podcast: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33844651/

Potential reversal of epigenetic age using a diet and lifestyle intervention: a pilot randomized clinical trial: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36947707/

Dietary associations with reduced epigenetic age: a secondary data analysis of the methylation diet and lifestyle study: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40266024/