The Equinox Women’s Health Advisory Board member answers your FAQs.
Discussions surrounding women’s health rarely get the care they deserve. Social media is flooded with long-disproved myths and baseless hacks meant to go viral. Meanwhile, artificial intelligence chatbots — which roughly one third of adults use for health information and advice — offer tips that can be inaccurate or, worse, put your health at risk.
It’s time to cut through the noise. Each month, the Equinox Women’s Health Advisory Board is opening up its inbox and addressing your most pressing wellness questions. Consider this your direct line to a group of leading women’s health experts across specialties.
In this installment, Advisory Board Member Robin Berzin, M.D., the founder of Parsley Health and a leading voice in functional medicine, answers your FAQs.
Have a wellness question for the Women's Health Advisory Board? Submit your query here.
What are three energy-enhancing practices worth baking into your daily routine?
Dr. Berzin: The biggest payoff comes from focusing on the habits that improve how your body produces and uses energy.
I suggest starting your day with at least 25 to 30 grams of protein. A protein-rich first meal can help stabilize blood sugar, support muscle maintenance, and reduce cravings later in the day.
Then, build in "exercise snacks." Research shows that even short bursts of movement can improve glucose regulation. I often recommend a 10-minute walk after meals, a few flights of stairs, or 20 bodyweight squats before sitting back down at your desk. These small movement breaks help improve metabolic flexibility and can have an outsized impact on energy throughout the day.
Finally, spend at least one hour each day in a parasympathetic state. Many people experience chronic, low-grade stress. Activities like yoga, meditation, breathwork, walking outside, cooking, reading, or non-sleep deep rest (NSDR) help activate the body's "rest, digest, and repair" system. This supports healthier cortisol patterns, better recovery, improved sleep, and more stable energy. In the summer, I encourage women to use the longer daylight hours to build more of these restorative practices into their routines.
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What habits do you wish more women would implement now to support their longevity?
Dr. Berzin: The first is strength training. It’s one of the most powerful interventions we have for healthspan optimization. Muscle isn't just about appearance — it supports bone density and cognitive function as we age. It even regulates blood sugar; skeletal muscle is responsible for roughly 80 percent of glucose uptake after a meal, making it one of the most important organs for metabolic health.
Number two: meaningful protein intake. Muscles need protein to repair and rebuild. Protein becomes increasingly important in midlife because women naturally lose muscle mass with age. Adults lose approximately 3 to 8 percent of muscle mass per decade after age 30, and that rate accelerates during menopause. I suggest getting at least 0.7 grams of protein per pound of ideal body weight daily.
And finally, sleep consistency. Sleep impacts nearly everything: metabolism, recovery, mood, cognitive function, cardiovascular health, you name it. Just one night of poor sleep can impair insulin sensitivity the next day, affecting energy, cravings, and metabolic health. Consistency matters, too. People with the most irregular sleep schedules have more than twice the risk of cardiovascular disease compared to those with the most consistent sleep patterns. In my opinion, if there’s one sleep habit with an outsized impact on longevity, it’s maintaining a consistent bedtime and wake time, ideally within a 30-minute window every day.
There’s a lot of noise surrounding hormonal health. What are people getting wrong?
Dr. Berzin: That hormones matter only during menopause. Hormones influence nearly every system in the body throughout a woman's life, including metabolism, sleep, mood, cognition, and recovery. Perimenopause (the transitional phase leading up to your final menstrual period) lasts four to seven years on average — but it can persist for up to 14 years. You might experience symptoms long before your periods become irregular.
People also think that weight gain in your 40s is inevitable. Yes, hormonal changes can influence body composition, but they're only one piece of the equation. Loss of muscle mass, poor sleep, elevated stress, and metabolic dysfunction often play a significant role.
Another misconception: If your labs are "normal," your hormones are fine. The truth is that hormone testing is often just a snapshot of a much bigger story. Hormones fluctuate throughout the month, symptoms can appear years before values fall outside standard reference ranges, and many "normal" ranges are based on broad population averages. Hormonal health is about patterns, symptoms, and trends over time — not a single lab result.
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What do women need to pay more attention to during perimenopause?
Dr. Berzin: Most women focus on the perimenopause symptoms they can feel, like weight gain, sleep disruption, mood changes, or hot flashes.
But one of the most important changes is happening silently in the background: bone loss. Women can lose 10 to 20 percent of their total bone mass during their 40s and 50s, yet standard bone density screening often doesn't begin until age 65.
That’s why the menopause transition is one of the most important windows to invest in your bones. Strength training, impact exercise, adequate protein, calcium-rich foods, and, for some women, hormone replacement therapy can all help preserve bone density before significant losses occur.
I often remind patients that osteoporosis isn't an aging problem — it's a decades-in-the-making problem. The habits you build during perimenopause can determine how strong, mobile, and resilient you are for the next 30 years.
Editor’s note: Responses have been lightly edited for length, clarity, and accuracy. The views expressed are those of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent.