Ep. 23 REVIEW OF THE INSTITUTE FOR INTEGRATIVE NUTRITION’S ADVANCE COURSE - HORMONE HEALTH
Enroll in IIN’s Hormone Health Class today to find balance using my code for 45% off!
〰️
MEGANMCCRORY20
〰️
Enroll in IIN’s Hormone Health Class today to find balance using my code for 45% off! 〰️ MEGANMCCRORY20 〰️
In this episode, I’m reviewing one of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition’s Advanced courses, Hormone Health. I just completed the 7-month course and I am excited to tell you all about it.
The text below is a transcript of my spoken words. I’ve edited and rewritten a few sentences to help someone who is just reading and not listening. Please keep in mind that this is a transcript and not a written piece of work.
INTRO (00:54)
COST (01:51)
WHEN CAN YOU TAKE IT? (02:51)
MY REASONS (03:54)
COURSE LOGISTICS(05:59)
MODULE TIMING (07:02)
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
HANDOUTS, HOMEWORK, AND REFERENCES (08:06)
HOW MUCH TIME DOES IT TAKE? (09:19)
LECTURES (10:15)
ALL THE MODULES - A WALKTHROUGH (11:31)
PROS & CONS (26:15)
WRAP-UP (30:48)
Hello and welcome to the podcast all about becoming a health coach. I'm Megan McCrory, a Certified International Health Coach. I received my training from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition.
In each episode, I recap what I've learned and how I’m using it in my Health Coaching practice.
If this is your first time tuning in, I'm happy you've found the podcast, and a very special welcome to you. You may want to go back and listen from the beginning to hear more about my journey to becoming a health coach.
For episode 23, I am going to review one of IIN's advanced course series. They have several advanced courses that are only offered to students that have completed or have started the Health Coach Training Program (HCTP), that's the first program you need to complete. I'm going to review the Hormone Health Course (HHC).
INTRO (00:54)
I also have done the gut health course and I'll be reviewing the Gut Health Course (GHC) in another episode. I wanted to review the Hormone Health Course (HHC) first because I just finished it. So it's very fresh in my brain. I'm very excited to inform you guys about is it really worth it to take this course? What do you get? What do you don't get? So let's get right into this. First I'm going to tell you why I decided to enroll in the Hormone Health Course (HHC).
COST (01:51)
I purchased two courses in a special offering last year when I was in the Health Coach Training Program (HCTP) to buy one advanced course and get one half off. And that is what I did. So I actually purchased the Gut Health Course (GHC) and the Hormone Health Course (HHC) at the same time. And the combined special cost me $1,492 US dollars. So it was off from the normal price of $995 per course, I saved about $500. Both courses really interested me. I really took the courses to understand better gut health for myself and also for hormone health.
WHEN CAN YOU TAKE IT? (02:51)
That's another thing someone asked me, can you do an advanced course at the same time as you're doing the Health Coach Training Program (HCTP)? And the answer is yes, you can start it. So I started my Health Coach Training Program (HCTP) in January 2018 and I started the Gut Health Course (GHC) in April of 2018 and I started the Hormone Health Course (HHC) in March 2019.
MY REASONS (03:54)
I chose to do the Hormone Health Course (HHC) to really understand my hormones better. I had learned at quite an early age that I did not care for hormonal birth control. There was quite some time when I was not on any birth control at all. When I moved to Europe, I got the copper IUD, the intrauterine device, and this is the only form of birth control that I saw that was really, let's say, reasonable and didn’t have hormones.
There's a long story behind this but essentially I had fibroids in my uterus. Now I realize that I had what was called estrogen dominance, mostly probably developed because of my coffee habit and consumption. When I stopped drinking caffeine and my fibroids stopped growing. So I really think that any female that's drinking a lot of caffeine throughout the day has a really, let's say you're potentially putting yourself in a position for estrogen dominance, which is really what feeds those fibroids that are in your uterus. I ended up getting a hysterectomy in December of 2018, you can let me know if you’re interested in my story about the hysterectomy. I do still have my ovaries and that's very important because that's actually where most of your sex hormones come from as a female.
I also became very interested in the hormone health course because now I no longer had any menses to mark my hormone cycle. It was kind of tricky to understand what was going on in my body. Is this kind of feeling that I'm having mood swings and aches and pains? Is it because of my hormones that are still going through their normal cycle? or is it because of something else? So I become very religious about tracking my cycles. I tracked my cycles before I had the hysterectomy. I had a very good legacy of my menstrual cycle and I've just kept that going in my app to keep me aware of what my hormone cycle is. So that's a little bit why I decided to enroll in the Hormone Health Course (HHC).
COURSE LOGISTICS (05:59)
So here are some more details about the course. It takes about seven months. I started in March 2019, I ended in October 2019. If you've taken the Health Coach Training Program (HCTP), the structure is very similar to that in terms of how each of the modules is released and the structure within the learning system that they use called edlumina. I'm just gonna walk you through what it looks like.
MODULE TIMING (07:02)
The modules open every week except for in case of holidays or tests. The modules are, let's say, far less content than the modules with the Health Coach Training Program (HCTP). However, the content that is there is way more intense. I spent just as much time in every module with the Hormone Health Course (HHC) then I did with the Health Coach Training Program (HCTP). And the same was true for the Gut Health Course (GHC) as well.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
At the beginning of every module, you'll have the Learning Objectives, this is a couple of bullet points on what you're gonna learn in that module. Here is an example from Module 10 - All About the Adrenals, Part 3
Learning Objectives
By the end of Module 10, I’ll be able to:
Describe the impact of chronic stress and HPA-axis dysfunction on the brain and nervous system
Apply the step-by-step Adrenal Health Protocol with clients while taking their bio-individuality into account
Identify four ways to preserve and improve brain neuroplasticity
Discuss the importance of identifying the right kinds of exercise for a client based on their adrenal function
Understand and work within my scope of practice as an IIN Health Coach when supporting clients who have adrenal fatigue and stress-related health conditions
Then there are anywhere between one to three videos, which range between about 20 to 50 minutes worth of content to watch. And that is heavy content, lots of data, and lots of information.
HANDOUTS, HOMEWORK, AND REFERENCES (08:06)
One of the things that they do differently in these two advanced courses is they give you a Recap Handout that summarizes all of the key points. I typically always wrote my own notes, but in the second half of the Hormone Health Course (HHC) I was a little behind so I used only the recaps for studying for the exam and I did fine. In addition to the videos, there are also anywhere between one to three handouts that you should review. They always provide also a Reference Handout, which is literally just a page of links that reference all of the information that they use to build this particular module. We have also Homework Assignments and then a Quiz. That is the structure of each module. There are 24 modules in the course. There are two tests, and it says in the syllabus that the tests are 50 questions long but there are actually only 30 questions in the test and these tests are multiple-choice. You have two hours to take the test you get two chances.
HOW MUCH TIME DOES IT TAKE? (09:19)
You have a minimum amount of time just to watch the videos, but the total time could range anywhere from about an hour and a half to two and a half hours per module. And I would say that's doing the bare minimum. I didn't really do a lot of the homework assignments. I didn't really read through a lot of the handouts simply because the course was running over the summer and I was quite busy. I would say I did the bare minimum. You could do a lot better than I did. With that said, I still passed the course, the test questions. You do need to have watched the material to understand the questions. I printed out all of the recaps which made it a little bit easier to study. I still missed three questions out of 30, but I passed. So that's my experience with the actual course.
LECTURES (10:15)
The lectures are almost 100% done by the learning center staff. That’s a big difference from the Health Coach Training Program (HCTP) where there's a lot of guest lecturers and guest speakers. And in this program specifically, there was only one guest lecturer and that was Christa Orrechio. Another nice thing that they do for you in these courses is these kinds of ‘done for you’ handouts in the business toolkit. So for example, in the Hormone Health Course (HHC), there's a module on adrenal health, thyroid health, and menopause and in all of these cases they give you also some done for you handouts, protocols even, that you can use with your clients. That's very, very handy to have something to start with.
EXAMPLE 'DONE FOR YOU' HANDOUT
ALL THE MODULES - A WALKTHROUGH (11:31)
Now I'm going to just run through all 24 modules and just give you kind of a title and a few words about each module so you'll know what's in it. So they do give you a pre-course bonus module, which you can take I don't think it counts towards anything, but it's kind of like something they give you while you're waiting for the course to start.
Module 1 is the introduction to the endocrine system. The endocrine system is your hormonal system. That's the medical term for your hormonal system. You might have heard the term endocrinologist, which is a doctor who specializes in hormones and hormone type problems. So you're going to get an overview of the endocrine system. That first module is pretty heavy with a lot of technical detail.
Module 2 is understanding basic hormone imbalances. This is where I really knew that hormones were super tricky because when they talk about the hormone imbalances, it's really like if one hormone is off a little bit, let's say your cortisol, let's say you're stressed out, which means you have a lot more cortisol going through your body, which means that you're not producing as much progesterone, which means, you know what I mean? Like there's like this knock-on effect that goes through your body with one thing out and then, and then it kind of cycles back and it feeds the cycle to break the cycle I think is pretty hard. You have to find the first root cause and get that back on track. And then the next thing and the next thing. After I watched that module, I realized how impactful hormone imbalances can be in your life. How many people probably have imbalanced hormones, and then also how hard it is to get them back in balance.
Module 3 is the conditions that are associated with hormonal imbalance. A lot of this course is about female hormones. That's pretty much just because female hormones are a little more complicated than men's. But they do go into the fact that men can also have hormone imbalances.
Module 4 talks about maximizing nutrition to balance hormones. I think this is incredibly powerful to understand that it’s not about giving your client a specific diet but to tell them that this specific food will help that specific hormone or this specific food will help your liver do its detoxification process, which will help to process out all of the extra estrogens. There is some really interesting stuff there with the nutrition. So module four is really good, actually, all the modules are pretty good. That's one of the things I do like about these courses is that I don't think any of the modules was a waste of time.
Module 5 is a special diet for balancing hormones. They talk about specific foods that you can recommend for balancing hormones.
Module 6 is mighty micronutrients and they explain how vitamins, minerals, and trace elements. What do we need, why do we need them, where do we get them from? and how to supplement in case they don't get enough.
Module 7 is balancing blood sugar for optimal hormone health. Blood sugar is super, super important. I've been working in the diabetes care industry for about 15 years now, so I know a lot about blood sugar and blood sugar management. And this is probably one of the things that I think, obviously with the rate of type two diabetes, people need to know more about. I don't think people realize that insulin is a hormone and that hormone is created with the other hormones. When you're talking about hormone health, blood sugar is an important topic to talk about as well.
Modules 8, 9, and 10 are all about the adrenals and how they work, what they do, and talking about the HPA axis dysfunction. That's these types of connections between the different parts of your body. There is a lot of these axes and in the course, they go through and explain them, there are a lot of acronyms. There are a lot of complex words in these modules. I think that's another reason why it takes a little bit more time to go through. There's a lot of information about that and they also provide you with one of those done for you adrenal health protocols. If you have a client that has symptoms of kind of adrenal fatigue or you know that they need more support for their adrenals, then they do provide a health protocol for that.
ADRENAL SUPPORT ‘DONE FOR YOU’ PROTOCOL
The last two modules in the first test, 11 and 12 are both covering the connection between gut health and hormones. The fact that I took the Gut Health Course (GHC) first and then the Hormone Health Course (HHC), was very helpful for me, to see both working sides by side. Then the course reviews how when the gut is dysfunctional, that affects your hormone health and vice versa.
After Module 12, we had the first test.
Module 13 is a crash course in men's hormonal health with Dr. Susie Gronski. She talks about men and sexual function, and the negative effects of stress on men's hormones. I think this was the only module that was really focused on men's health.
Modules 14 and 15 are all about thyroid health. The thyroid is one of those things that I think maybe a lot of people are imbalanced in. They don't necessarily have a disease or a problem that is so noticeable that a doctor's going to pick up on it, but maybe it's not optimal. The course reviews tests and what you should look for and how conventional medicine will have a range for a thyroid test and that range may be normal, but it may not be optimal. That's also something that you should always bear in mind when a client might show you some of their blood tests and how you look at those. Of course, you know, you're not supposed to really be doing any kind of diagnosis or anything like that. But my clients send me their blood work and I can just look at it and see an overall picture of what's going on. It's very helpful.
Module 16 is all about menstruation and the course talks about the four phases of the menstrual cycle, what a normal cycle should look like. They talk about what it looks like when there are problems.
Module 17 we had another guest speaker, Christa Orecchio, a healthy fertility and pregnancy coach. She talks about how to support fertility and conception. She also talks about the hurdles that couples together face because a lot of times of course people think it's maybe necessarily the woman, but a man can also have problems with hormones that are also affecting his part of the job.
Module 18 is about the female reproductive system. This is one of the modules that if you watch on your iPad, you shouldn't be watching on the bus or a train because there are lots of pictures. So it's quite graphic which is good. I mean, let's say I'm not embarrassed, I would just think that somebody glancing at it might be a little like, it might make someone blush.
Module 19 is all about low libido and pelvic pain conditions and they do also give you a Six Ways to Boost your Sex Drive handout that you can give to your client's number.
Module 20 is on menopause. This for me is very, very interesting to hear. I have a lot of women in my life that I know they've gone through menopause and some of them it's really hard and other people, they like basically don't have any symptoms at all. I really want to dive more into menopause. I just started with a new client who is going through menopause and the reason she's reached out to me specifically is to work on hormone health. So I think that that's fascinating. And, and again, one of those universal things where I'm done just done with my hormone health course and she wants to talk about menopause and how she can balance her hormones. So I'm really excited to be working with someone on that to kind of reinforce everything that I just learned.
Module 21 is how to detox to balance hormones. I mentioned a little bit at the top of the show about how I believe that my liver function was not at its peak because of my overconsumption of caffeine, which did not allow for the estrogen to be processed out of my body and therefore produced some estrogen dominance because the estrogen was being recycled back through my body. I think this is probably one of the first places I'll start with any client is to reinforce their liver function and get them eating a few extra foods that will help with liver function, decreasing a little bit of caffeine. And then there are some supplements that you can use that support healthy liver function.
Module 22 is toxin identification and genetic mutations. This one was super important for me because I have a couple of people in my life who probably should have been tested for some genetic mutations. There's a specific one, MTHFR genetic mutation that affects the methylation cycle in your body, which is part of your detoxification processes. I think everybody has heard about folic acid and folate for pregnant women who are trying to get pregnant or are pregnant and about the functionality of folate and folic acid, in the development of the fetus’s brain and brainstem.
Actually, that same genetic mutation just because of the pathways that it hits can also be linked to things like fibromyalgia. I have a friend with fibromyalgia and I asked her, have you been checked for this mutation because the mutation is quite common. And then there are things you can do. Supplements like methylated folate that she could take to support that part of the detoxification and that might support her symptoms with fibromyalgia. It the same thing for a lady I know who has been trying to get pregnant. And if you've had several miscarriages, they should check for this mutation because it could be similarly affecting the implantation or the fetus’s growth. So that was something I'd never heard about before.
And neither one of these ladies had heard about that mutation or knew if their doctors had tested them. So this is exactly the type of thing that I try to keep in my toolbox when I'm talking with clients. Obviously, I can't say that that mutation is affected either one of them, but I can say that I know already what the symptoms are here and the kinds of things that are affected by this mutation and offer them some advice to work with their doctor and to get that tested for if it comes back negative you know that there's no problem, fine. That's one less, you know, one thing you can check off. Okay.
Module 23 is understanding test options and results. And this one was interesting. They talked through several tests.
And the last module is all about supplements.
Module 24 for supplementing for balanced hormones and what different supplements you can take and so on. That's the overview of the course modules and syllabus.
PROS & CONS (26:15)
Now I would go a little bit into the pros and cons. So I was trying to think through what would I say here. The pros are that the program is very comprehensive in covering a lot of different areas of hormone health. They do give you a ton of information, a ton of resources. It's a seven-month course and a very easy course to manage you, even if you are late, you can catch up.
There's no reason why I wouldn't recommend this course. The only con is the price, I guess if you can't afford the cost of the course, which again, without any kind of discount is $995, if you can't afford it, I think that's probably the biggest con. Can you research hormones on your own, of course, you can probably buy a textbook with a lot of this stuff in it and there's information of course on the internet, but at least with IIN, they frame it in the way of how to use this information with your clients. I don't really see any cons other than price if you can't afford it. So if you can afford it and you have the time, I think it's a very valuable course to take.
So I think as a coach if you want to add something like hormone health to your toolkit and use it as a promotional thing, I think it's definitely a very wide-open field. There are a lot of people that have problems with this, a lot of females that have problems with this. I see it as a valuable marketing tool as well. I feel very comfortable now writing more blog posts, maybe doing a couple of podcast episodes. The course has given me a lot more content. It also helped me feel more comfortable talking about that and also gives me a resource where I can go back and kind of re-watch something or reread something if I'm not sure.
With the references that they provide, I can do more research on my own at this point.
WRAP-UP (30:48)
That about wraps it up for the review of the hormone health course. I would like to remind you that I do have a Facebook group for my podcast called Becoming a Health Coach.
I’d like to do a lot more on my Facebook page, maybe some live videos, let me know how much interaction can we have. You can message me through the Facebook page I respond as quickly as I can.
