Our founder, Julie Katerine recently sat in on a menopause masterclass led by Dr. Olga Morton, a lifestyle medicine doctor whose work focuses on supporting women through menopause and the years beyond it.
What stayed with us wasn’t a single protocol. It was a question from the audience: “What’s the difference between lifestyle medicine and functional medicine?” And close behind it, another: “I’m post-menopausal, in my early sixties, will the same advice still help me?”
Both questions get to the heart of something we think about constantly at Global Glow. So we wanted to share where that conversation, and the current research, has landed.
Lifestyle medicine and functional medicine, explained
The two get used interchangeably, but they aren’t the same thing.
Lifestyle medicine is an evidence-based medical field that uses daily habits to prevent, manage and sometimes reverse chronic conditions. It rests on a set of foundations: nutrition, movement, sleep, stress management, avoiding risky substances, and social connection. Its evidence base is strong, built on randomised trials and meta-analyses.
Functional medicine goes a step further. It looks harder for the individual “why,” leaning on more extensive testing and more targeted, personalised supplementation. There’s real value in that depth. But as Dr. Morton put it, the testing and the supplements are expensive, and if the lifestyle foundations aren’t sorted first, functional medicine becomes much harder to do well.
The most sensible approach isn’t one or the other. It’s integrating the two: establish the foundations, then personalise from there.
Why the foundations come first
There’s a reason lifestyle sits underneath everything else. In the research literature, lifestyle medicine is described as the foundation on which fields like functional and integrative medicine build their therapies, because you can’t construct a meaningful plan for someone without first establishing the basics.
Put simply: advanced testing and targeted supplements have far more to work with when sleep, nutrition, movement, stress and connection are already in place. Skip the foundations, and you’re often paying to personalise on top of a base that isn’t there yet.
It’s the same principle that runs through everything in longevity. The unglamorous basics, done consistently, are what hold.
The HRT conversation
For many women, hormone therapy is a valuable, effective option for managing menopausal symptoms. Whether it’s right for any individual is a decision to make with a doctor, weighing personal history, symptoms and preferences.
But one point from the masterclass is worth stating clearly, because it’s often misunderstood: on current evidence, HRT is not indicated as a way to prevent dementia. A large 2025 systematic review found no evidence that hormone therapy either increases or decreases dementia risk in post-menopausal women, and earlier expert reviews reached the same cautious conclusion.
So HRT, where it’s the right choice, supports symptoms, it is not a cognitive insurance policy. And it was never meant to carry the whole load. As Dr. Morton framed it, HRT doesn’t give you a free pass. It works best alongside the foundations, not instead of them.
“I’m already post-menopausal, will this still help?”
This was one of the audience’s questions, and it’s an important one. The answer is yes.
The habits with the most solid evidence behind them, regular movement and strength, social connection, a sense of purpose, good nutrition, protected sleep and stress regulation, continue to benefit women well after menopause. These aren’t interventions with an expiry date. They support how you feel, function and age at every stage.
Menopause is a natural transition, not a personal failure. And the support that helps through it keeps helping long after.
Where supplements fit
Supplements have a place, but the order matters. As the masterclass put it: start with your plate first, then consider targeted supplements.
Common considerations for women’s health include vitamin D, vitamin B12 and omega-3, particularly depending on diet, location and individual needs. But food comes first, quality matters, and the most useful approach is targeted and personalised rather than a large, generic stack.
Supplements are amplifiers, not saviours. They support the engine. They aren’t the engine.
The Global Glow perspective
This is exactly the space we work in. Global Glow provides non-clinical, lifestyle-based support that runs alongside a woman’s medical team, helping her put the foundations in place and keep them consistent, so that whatever comes next, whether HRT, functional testing or targeted supplements, has something solid to build on.
We don’t replace clinical care. We support the everyday layer around it.
The real takeaway
The more of these principles you apply to your health, the smoother the sail, with or without HRT.
Hormone therapy, where it’s right for someone, is a decision made with a doctor, and it can help a great deal. But it isn’t a free pass, and it isn’t a dementia-prevention strategy. The foundations still do the quiet, daily work.
And it’s never too early, or too late, to start.
Disclaimer
This article is for educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Global Glow provides non-clinical health optimisation and lifestyle support alongside medical teams and does not replace care from a doctor, gynaecologist, endocrinologist or other qualified healthcare professional. Decisions about hormone therapy, testing, supplements or any medical treatment should always be made with a qualified clinician.
References
1. Melville M, He L, Desai R, et al. Menopause hormone therapy and risk of mild cognitive impairment or dementia: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet Healthy Longevity, 2025; 6(12): 100803.
2. Livingston G, et al. Dementia prevention, intervention, and care: 2024 report of the Lancet standing Commission. The Lancet, 2024.
3. American College of Lifestyle Medicine. The six pillars of lifestyle medicine, 2023.
4. Foundations of Lifestyle Medicine and its Evolution. Mayo Clinic Proceedings: Innovations, Quality & Outcomes, 2024.
