Ep. 49: The Surprising Power of Reversing Diet and Lifestyle Habits After 50 — with Terry Tateossian, Founder of The House of Rose

Insulin resistance can quietly build for years — even decades — before conventional bloodwork tells the full story. Terry Tateossian learned that firsthand: after building a tech company with twelve offices, she hit burnout, gained 80 pounds, had panic attacks, and landed in the hospital twice for symptoms she feared were a heart attack — all while unknowingly entering perimenopause at just 37. In this episode, Dr. Regina Druz talks with Terry Tateossian, founder of The House of Rose, about the years she spent chasing weight loss through 33 different diets before anything actually worked, and what finally shifted when she stopped restricting and started tracking her food in grams. They dig into why so many women eat inconsistently — 700 calories one day, thousands the next — and how that pattern drives insulin resistance and blocks metabolic health long before an A1c budges. They break down “reverse dieting,” why strength training does more for metabolic flexibility than endless cardio, the role (and limits) of GLP-1 medications like tirzepatide, and Dr. Druz’s framing of hormones, “food noise,” and the hallmarks of aging. It’s a candid, myth-busting conversation for anyone who feels like their body stopped listening to them. This episode is educational only and is not medical advice.

Watch on YouTube: A video version of this episode is available on the Own Your Heart Health YouTube channel. Subscribe to be notified of new episodes.

Episode Chapters

[00:00] Welcome to Own Your Heart Health with Terry Tateossian
[01:21] From Communist Eastern Europe to New York Immigrant Life
[05:17] Walking Away From Law School Into the Dot-Com Era
[09:44] Twelve Offices, Burnout, and a Perimenopause Diagnosis at 37
[16:30] Thirty-Three Failed Diets and Losing Control of Her Body
[22:22] The Coach Who Refused to Enable Her — and What Changed
[32:38] Why Insulin Resistance Hides for Years Before Bloodwork Shows It
[38:05] Deregulated Nutrient Sensing and the Hallmarks of Aging
[40:59] The Food Audit That Reveals What Women Are Really Eating
[47:50] Reverse Dieting and Escaping the Metabolic “Bermuda Triangle”
[54:55] Using GLP-1 Medications as a Bridge, Not a Magic Solution
[1:00:07] Inside The House of Rose Retreat and Its Philosophy
[1:03:25] Terry’s Top Three Rules for Women Turning 50

Transcript

[00:00] Welcome to Own Your Heart Health with Terry Tateossian

Dr. Regina Druz (00:02): Welcome to Own Your Heart Health. I’m Dr. Regina Druz, your holistic cardiologist. This week we’ll dive into common heart health concerns, uncovering root causes and unpacking scientific discoveries and controversies. The information provided does not constitute medical advice. Please contact your healthcare practitioner before making any changes that may impact your health.

Dr. Regina Druz (00:40): Hi, my wonderful listeners — it’s another Friday fun day. I have a really special guest today. I was thrilled that her team reached out wanting to have this conversation: Terry Tateossian, who represents The House of Rose. Most importantly to me, she’s one of the sisters in entrepreneurship I joined when I became an entrepreneur and launched my practice and platform. Terry is a power woman whose focus is women’s health, and I’m absolutely thrilled to have her. So, Terry — how did you grow up to be who you are today? What was your journey?

Terry Tateossian (01:21): Well, thank you, Dr. Druz, for having me on. I am ready to get all powered up.

Dr. Regina Druz (01:29): Let’s power up — no sleepy Friday afternoons.

[01:21] From Communist Eastern Europe to New York Immigrant Life

Terry Tateossian (01:35): It’s a fifty-year history, so I’ll start at the beginning. I was born in Eastern Europe during communism and defected right before the wall fell — I got out in ’87, and in ’89 the wall came down. Then I came to New York and got really busy. I’m not even a first-generation immigrant — I’m a “zero generation” immigrant. My parents, my brother, my sister, and I lived in New York for years, just grinding it out, living the American dream.

Dr. Regina Druz (03:46): I relate to your story so much, because I’m also an immigrant from Eastern Europe, and I also got here right before the wall fell. For anyone unsure which wall we mean — the Berlin Wall, right in the middle of Berlin, separating East and West. Those of us unlucky enough to be east of it always thought we’d never get to the west. I came to New York in 1987 too, and I remember watching on TV as the wall came down. That moment formed who I became. But you’re right about the immigrant philosophy — you grind until you succeed, because in the countries we came from, it didn’t matter how much you ground, you’d never succeed. At least in the US there’s an opportunity. So how did that take you into entrepreneurship focused on women’s health and wellness?

[05:17] Walking Away From Law School Into the Dot-Com Era

Terry Tateossian (05:17): I had big swings. Initially my goal was law school — I studied political science. But by twenty I was living on my own in Queens, supporting myself with three jobs and going to school full-time. I finally realized that even finishing a poli-sci degree, I couldn’t afford law school on my own. Meanwhile the dot-com era was taking off. A lot of my friends — mostly immigrants from Eastern Europe — were getting into computer science, and the salaries were through the roof. A first-year lawyer’s salary was about the same as what my friends were making at twenty in tech, without law school. So I jumped on that wagon, and I loved it — you never stop learning. I took software-engineering courses and got hired in the IT department of one of the biggest law firms in New York. Great benefits, a month of vacation, 401(k) matching — I had it made. And I walked away from it to become an entrepreneur, out of stupidity.

Dr. Regina Druz (09:44): What did you walk away to do, exactly?

Terry Tateossian (09:51): The irony of being an entrepreneur is you leave your corporate job thinking you’ll work four hours a week — no, you get four hours of sleep a week. I’d just had my first child, my daughter, and the commute was too much; I couldn’t bear leaving her in daycare, so I quit in the middle of a recession. I started doing software and web-development consulting, got so much work I had to hire and train people — and then I discovered e-commerce. That’s when the lightbulbs went off, because Google was still in its infancy and you could rank an e-commerce store for almost anything. I reverse-engineered the Google algorithm and at one point had nine different niche e-commerce stores, drop-shipping without carrying inventory.

Terry Tateossian (11:44): That morphed into consulting — “can you help this company, can you help that company?” — and it exploded. I found myself with twelve offices across the United States, traveling nonstop, working 18- and 19-hour days with two kids. By 37 I had gained 80 pounds. I was burned out, having panic attacks and anxiety. I ended up in the hospital twice because I thought I was having a heart attack, and they said, “Here’s the Xanax, go home — you’re just super stressed.” And unbeknownst to me, I’d entered perimenopause at 37. Nobody even thought of it because of my age. I only figured out I was perimenopausal because I thought I was pregnant — and I wasn’t.

[09:44] Twelve Offices, Burnout, and a Perimenopause Diagnosis at 37

Dr. Regina Druz (12:58): Let’s stop here, because this doesn’t get discussed often enough: women are expected to burn the candle at both ends — present at work and present for our families — and it takes an extraordinary toll on our health. I lived that. I literally went into labor with my son — my firstborn — while I was on call for the coronary care unit as a cardiology fellow, carrying the acute-MI beeper. I came in Saturday morning in my civilian clothes, and the attending’s eyes popped open: “Are you rounding dressed like that?” I said, “No, I’m here to hand you the beeper — I’m going to labor and delivery.” His jaw dropped. Honestly, I felt like going into labor was God answering my prayers, because I was so sleep-deprived that facing the pain and uncertainty of my first labor felt better than one more night on call. We have a structure in this country that systematically wears down women’s health from a very young age.

Dr. Regina Druz (15:20): And it’s more than expectations — it’s the infrastructure. You and I are both Gen X; part-time employment wasn’t really an option for women in the professions back then. There was no dedicated maternity leave. When I came back after giving birth to my son — at what’s now the largest health system in New York — there were no facilities for new moms returning in a professional capacity. My fellowship did right by me and restructured some rotations so I finished on time, but I remember living at the very top of the stress scale, not even knowing what it was like to relax. It sounds like you went through the same thing.

Terry Tateossian (16:30): It blows my mind what I did — how did I even survive? I was working while I was in labor. I had my BlackBerry, answering emails, telling the nurse, “Come back, give me five more minutes, I’ve got to finish this email,” and they’re looking at me like, what is wrong with you? And think about what we do to residents and doctors — sleep-deprived, overwhelmed, burning the candle at both ends, yet responsible for people’s lives. It makes no sense. The only way it makes sense is that it’s all about money. It’s not a medical care system; it’s a financial care system.

Dr. Regina Druz (18:00): A hundred percent — it is a financial care system. I have three kids, all young adults now, and none went into medicine. Part of me was a little sad about that, because I still love what I do. But I realized I was actually happy, because they have freedoms I haven’t had for decades due to how medicine is structured. Eventually that system wrecked my health — and that’s how I became an integrative cardiologist and longevity doctor. I left promising academic positions, with people telling me it was “career suicide.” I said, well, it’s either career suicide or my body’s demise — which one is it going to be? So how did you deal with the weight, the burnout, and your hormones shutting down so young?

Terry Tateossian (19:35): Perimenopause was a living hell, because I didn’t know what was happening. I’d completely lost control of my body — I wouldn’t eat for days and still gain weight, I couldn’t sleep, everything was upside down. I attributed all of it to being overweight, so — type-A, overachiever, immigrant — I went on all the diets. At one point I counted 33 of them. And by the way, last I checked there were something like 30,000 diet books on Amazon, so clearly this isn’t working out well for us. I felt so stupid that I couldn’t figure out my own body. If you’ve been around entrepreneurs, you know we’re overconfident with big egos — we think we’ll figure it all out. I couldn’t.

[16:30] Thirty-Three Failed Diets and Losing Control of Her Body

Dr. Regina Druz (22:17): So what tipped the needle for you? What made the difference?

Terry Tateossian (22:22): I had to ask for help outside of the system. Everything the system offered wasn’t working, because I had a perfect storm — perimenopause, overstress, burnout, overwork, family, huge responsibility, no time. And in the regular system, things aren’t put to you as “do this now” — it’s much softer, or there’s not even a suggestion. “Your A1c is 5.9, you’re kind of…”

Dr. Regina Druz (23:12): “We’ll wait until it crosses the diabetic threshold, and then we’ll give you meds.”

Terry Tateossian (23:17): Right. Nobody says, “You’re 37 — what’s wrong with you? Get control of your nutrition, start moving.” Honestly, I think a lot of people in the system are just exhausted too, so they’re not going to expend energy fighting you. You have to take radical, honest, painful responsibility — stop lying to yourself, stop being delusional, and don’t expect anyone to come save you. So I asked for help outside the system, and I got very lucky: I found a coach who did not lie to me. There are a lot of charlatans who grift you — “just take this supplement, it’s easy.” She was different. She told me, “If you don’t do what I say, you’re fired. I don’t need your money. Come back when you’re ready.” And I thought — whoa, there’s something here. I started taking it seriously, and the weight dropped so fast; my body was so ready to get rid of that dead weight. My blood pressure had been through the roof at 38, and all of that quieted down — even the perimenopause symptoms subsided. I’m turning 50 this year, eight years postmenopause, and I feel fantastic.

Terry Tateossian (26:21): Now I have the information and education to determine whether I need HRT, and when — whether I need more protein or less, and so on. I didn’t get this from a school, a class, or a doctor. It’s very nuanced and bioindividual, and it takes time to get to this place. At fifty, I feel great — no complaints.

[22:22] The Coach Who Refused to Enable Her — and What Changed

Dr. Regina Druz (27:36): This is so important, and I see it in both men and women. For women especially — because we go through perimenopause (technically not even a recognized reproductive stage), menopause, and the post-menopausal transition — one thing frustrates me: patients often think they can address these complex issues entirely by themselves, with no help or support, because there’s so much information out there. I saw a diabetic patient just yesterday whose vascular age is about 15 years ahead of his chronological age, with known coronary disease — dry tinder waiting for a match. His doctor started appropriate medications and we’re working on lifestyle and supplements, and somehow he refilled a peptide prescription from a prior practitioner without supervision, because the pharmacist just dispensed the refill. I told him that’s not what you should be doing — you’re going to hurt yourself. There’s this preconceived notion that because resources are abundant, applying them to yourself will translate into a good outcome.

Dr. Regina Druz (29:52): You grew up in a communist country, and I grew up in the USSR, so you’ll appreciate this: the communists had a mantra that “eventually quantity becomes quality.” If you grew up there, you know quantity never became quality — that’s not how it works. And that’s what we’re seeing here. People make a difference when there’s a structured, planned intervention — with a health coach, a physician, someone who understands the root causes. By the time these chronic issues arise, simple measures often just aren’t enough. You need a structure; you need a path.

Terry Tateossian (31:24): You mentioned something important — the core driver underneath the symptoms. From what I’ve observed, it often begins with insulin resistance and metabolic issues, and it might take ten, twenty, twenty-five years before it manifests as something you have to take serious action on. But it starts much earlier. That’s the phase I was in, where everything got rocky and shaky and I knew something was wrong — it was pre-diabetes, but “not that serious,” so no action was taken, plus my age.

[32:38] Why Insulin Resistance Hides for Years Before Bloodwork Shows It

Dr. Regina Druz (32:38): You’re young — and we know women who go into menopause at a young age unfortunately have a much higher risk of cardiovascular disease, because that estrogen protection wears off too soon: the vasculature doesn’t get estrogen’s nitric-oxide, vasodilation, and anti-inflammatory benefits. Insulin resistance is tricky, because most people wait for conventional tests like hemoglobin A1c — but that’s a late development. In functional medicine we teach that the liver, muscle, and fat can become insulin resistant decades before anything shows in the bloodstream. There are subtle early signals: a triglyceride-to-HDL ratio of two or greater (a rule-of-thumb “atherogenic index”), or ApoB and LDL particles trending up with LDL size becoming smaller. That’s how insulin resistance presents before A1c even rises — and people have symptoms: fluctuating blood pressure, fluctuating weight, sleep disruption, infections, rising inflammation. The symptoms are there; they just don’t fit neatly in medicine’s box. And then someone says, “She’s too young, she’s 37, she’s not supposed to have that.” But you are having it. So much of medicine tries to fit a person into a box instead of looking at them holistically and asking what we need to unwind and rebalance to restore metabolic flexibility. It sounds like you’ve been successful at reversing it.

Terry Tateossian (35:15): So far, no issues — though I feel I have a predisposition; my grandmother developed type 2 diabetes and eventually had congestive heart failure. For me, proper nutrition and strength training specifically were lifesavers, because it’s incredible how quickly the body responds to the right stimulus — day and night, and fast. I see this all the time with women at my retreats. I changed career paths — I’m a workaholic, so instead of pouring that energy into AI and software, I’d rather pour it into lifestyle, health, movement, and strength. I tell women starting this process they’ll see a 20–25 pound drop just by changing their nutrition, and they’ll say, “Really? At this age?” And I say, yes, at any age, because your metabolic function doesn’t really change with age.

Terry Tateossian (37:39): There’s very little difference between how a twenty-year-old and a fifty-year-old body respond to strength training and proper nutrition. So this whole idea that “my metabolism is slow because I’m fifty” is, in my experience, a myth.

[38:05] Deregulated Nutrient Sensing and the Hallmarks of Aging

Dr. Regina Druz (38:05): That’s actually what the science says — there’s no remarkable slowing of metabolism with age. What changes is tissue sensitivity to what’s happening metabolically. It’s funny — I’m in the revision stage of my first book, Longevity Switches, and I just finished the chapter on the hallmarks of aging. One of them is “deregulated nutrient sensing.” Our bodies have a molecular switch: when nutrients are plentiful, it says “build things up”; when nutrients are low — through calorie restriction or intermittent fasting — it flips the other way and says “time to clean up,” triggering autophagy: digesting cellular debris, clearing misfolded proteins, removing senescent “zombie” cells. We use interventional nutrition like fasting-mimicking diets with patients all the time, because they’re insulin-sensitizing and promote autophagy. The problem in developed countries, where food (often junk food) is always accessible, is that the switch never flips to “off.” It’s always “build, build, build,” and the cell becomes like one of those hoarder houses — stuffed to capacity, burning energy without cleaning anything out. That, in a real sense, is what aging is.

Dr. Regina Druz (40:11): A lot of women who come to your retreats may not realize they’re stuck in that surplus “build” mode — fat piling up, pounds piling up — because they’ve never gotten into the zone where they flip the switch off and let the body do some cleaning.

[40:59] The Food Audit That Reveals What Women Are Really Eating

Terry Tateossian (40:59): The first thing I do with women is a full audit of their food — I want everything they eat tracked in grams, using one of the many tracking apps. Over four to five hundred women, the trend I see is striking. On average, women are eating fifty to sixty grams of protein a day, with carbs and fat through the roof. And the eating patterns are wildly inconsistent — 700 calories one day, 2,000 the next, 600 the day after, then 5,000 — no consistency in the amount or quality of fuel. Just by changing the quality of the calories — not even reducing them — plus adding a little walking and strength training, women’s bodies start to change, and the feedback within a month is, “I feel five years younger, stronger, more regulated.” Another thing I notice: often it’s not that we don’t know how to eat — it’s that our nervous system is dysregulated, the circadian rhythm is off, and the body is never in rest-and-digest.

Terry Tateossian (44:16): Eating 700 calories a day is for a nine-year-old, maybe. Just being conscious of whether you’re eating enough and eating consistently matters — and giving women permission to actually eat 1,800–1,900 calories a day is a big deal. There’s a conditioning and societal expectation that we’re supposed to be really small and tiny. When I was finally taught that I needed to eat every single day — I started around 1,850 calories, roughly 140 grams of protein, 150 of carbs, 45–50 of fat — the first month, I couldn’t get that food in. Can you believe that?

Dr. Regina Druz (45:49): I believe it. I’ve seen the pattern you described with restrictive diets, and I actually have a name for it — the “three O’s”: over-restrict, over-fast, and over-train. Women start noticing perimenopausal changes and over-restrict, taking things out; one day is successful, the next they’re ravenous and bad food sneaks in. They over-fast for 16 or 18 hours, which often raises their stress — cortisol jumps, insulin resistance rises, because they’re not in what I call the Goldilocks zone; they’re in catabolism, burning, but not the right stuff. And they over-train — pounding the treadmill without recovery, when what they need is resistance or strength training, because muscle is the sink for sugar and can make you insulin sensitive even without much insulin around. Metabolically they trap themselves in what I call a “Bermuda Triangle,” angled by those three O’s, and the only way out is to reverse almost everything they’re doing — which is psychologically tough, because it’s societally conditioned. So tell us about The House of Rose and the retreats.

[47:50] Reverse Dieting and Escaping the Metabolic “Bermuda Triangle”

Terry Tateossian (47:50): I love that you said “reverse,” because I call it reverse dieting. It’s a scary thing for a lot of women, but when someone’s averaging 700 to 900 calories and still gaining weight, there’s nowhere to go from there — you’ve cornered yourself. No good coach or nutritionist can help you “lose weight” from that place, because you’re perpetuating the problem and putting yourself in a worse metabolic state. The only way out is to reverse diet: cut the excess cardio and HIIT, focus on slow, strength, and resistance training with progressive overload, and increase your calories correctly. People say, “I don’t eat much,” and then you do an audit and it’s, “Whoa — you had four things and they were 3,000 calories.” It doesn’t look like much, but it was a lot.

Dr. Regina Druz (49:15): That’s another truth — as much as people resist tracking, we must track, because that’s where the biggest surprises happen. We do three-day food diaries, and you look at the log and think, “This is not what this person told us.” They say, “I’m a healthy eater, mostly plants, emphasizing protein,” and the log says, nope — that’s not what the body is seeing.

Terry Tateossian (50:09): Exactly. People say, “I can’t.” Really? You don’t have five minutes? The app I use with clients is Chronometer — it’s more reliable than the user-generated databases in a lot of apps, and you can even voice-note into it: “I had three ounces of chicken and a cup of broccoli,” and it enters it for you. If you can’t find time in the day to do this for yourself, it’s time to evaluate more than just the food.

Dr. Regina Druz (51:22): I agree so much. We use Chronometer too, plus continuous glucose monitors and a little device called Lumen. Patients fall into two groups: the ones who say “I tried your device, it doesn’t work for me” — well, it doesn’t work because you didn’t work for it; we asked you to do it for ten days and you didn’t. And the ones who say, “That’s been such an eye-opener — it gives me the visibility I’ve been missing.” It’s not about finding time; it’s about making time, because there always will be kids, trips, work, family. When you prioritize your health, it’s the small, consistent things — five minutes a day — that are the key. No expensive peptide or peptide stack will do it for you if you’re not consistent.

Terry Tateossian (53:20): The peptide thing drives me nuts. People will spend $500 a month on peptides and avoid measuring, weighing, or planning their food. You think a peptide is going to override what you put in your mouth every day?

[54:55] Using GLP-1 Medications as a Bridge, Not a Magic Solution

Dr. Regina Druz (53:47): Some of them do quiet the appetite — the ones we use are FDA-approved, and we only use FDA-approved ones. But you’re right, because we build the foundation before these medications are applied. If you don’t build that metabolic foundation, the moment the medication is withdrawn or tapered, the pounds come back — the research shows over 70% of patients regain within a year. What makes the difference is that once metabolism becomes balanced and flexible, then adding something to fine-tune it pays dividends. But if you just throw those powerful drugs in, they’ll work — and the moment you stop, your body stops working.

Terry Tateossian (54:55): I have a lot of clients on GLP-1s — tirzepatide specifically — and I hear directly, “I was on it for a while and wasn’t getting results, then I started working with you and suddenly I saw results.” It’s not a magic worker. Your habits, your behavior, your mindset have to change. But it does give people a bridge. Some of us are always hungry — I used to be hungry all the time — and I feel medications like tirzepatide give people the opportunity to begin to rewire.

Dr. Regina Druz (56:06): You’re right that it quiets the “food noise,” and that buys you time. When I first started these medications, I didn’t think of myself as an overeater, but I noticed I’d finish eating and not feel full, so I’d go for more. I’m a big fan of microdosing — we usually start patients at a microdose to prime the system — because chemically these are peptides, but they function as hormones. A peptide is a chemical structure; a hormone is what that structure does. In my mind these are a type of hormonal support, and I see women in perimenopause and menopause jump straight into estradiol, progesterone, and testosterone thinking hormones will solve every problem. That’s not true — if you’re not metabolically flexible, if inflammation is burning you, if you’re stuck in that Bermuda Triangle, HRT alone can’t deliver that, and the research supports that. So we reverse the paradigm: use fewer medications and actually build the foundation you’ll be building on for the rest of your life.

Dr. Regina Druz (59:20): The triple agonist is coming — about to get FDA approved, likely in ’27. But we have to ask: what’s the end goal? Is it to create a healthy metabolism, restore cellular signaling, and rejuvenate yourself — or just achieve weight loss at whatever number, which may not be restorative from a health perspective? So, Terry — what is The House of Rose?

[1:00:07] Inside The House of Rose Retreat and Its Philosophy

Terry Tateossian (01:00:07): The House of Rose is my love-child project — once an entrepreneur, always an entrepreneur. It’s a 50-acre property on a mountaintop in the Smoky Mountains, with 360-degree views — a restorative experience. Women arrive and we do yoga on the mountaintop every morning, eat healthy meals, hike, walk, and swim in waterfalls. We talk about the very things you and I just discussed, and about “muscle as medicine” — muscle is the first sink for insulin, the first place you can stop insulin resistance from taking over. We talk about why resistance training matters, macronutrition and how to structure meals, how to get from 60 grams of protein to 140 grams progressively without digestion issues, and sleep — because if we’re not sleeping, forget about everything else. And nervous-system regulation, vagus-nerve regulation, restorative and yin yoga, the fascia, and the lymphatic system — that’s my new obsession.

Dr. Regina Druz (01:02:02): Those are important areas — the fascia and lymphatic system don’t get nearly enough prime time, because everyone jumps to bone health and muscle health. Those are rightly important, but don’t forget the support structures. I always tell my patients: muscle is considered the currency of aging, but it’s your vascular system that sets the interest rate. If your vascular system is taxing you at a high interest rate — because you’re hypertensive, or have heart failure, coronary disease, structural, or arrhythmic heart disease — the exchange won’t be in your favor. So remember: muscle is the currency of aging, but the vascular system sets the interest rate. How can our listeners learn more about The House of Rose?

Terry Tateossian (01:03:25): Visit thehouseofrose.com — all the information is there: retreats, coaching, courses. And you can find me on Instagram at “how good can it get.” Those are really the only two places — I have all the channels, but two is enough.

[1:03:25] Terry’s Top Three Rules for Women Turning 50

Dr. Regina Druz (01:03:55): I’m trying to become a recovering entrepreneur myself — not stopping projects, just the opposite, but making sure they’re aligned around holistic and integrative cardiovascular health, wellness, and longevity. Terry, one recovering entrepreneur to another, this has been a blast. Before we break — your top three things you wish every woman did as she crosses fifty?

Terry Tateossian (01:05:31): One — have an absolutely mind-blowing, crazy love affair.

Dr. Regina Druz (01:05:40): You can do that with your husband or boyfriend, by the way — that qualifies.

Terry Tateossian (01:05:47): Two — travel to a place you never in your wildest dreams thought you’d visit. Go outside your comfort zone. And three — say no as many times as you want.

Dr. Regina Druz (01:06:06): I love that — say no as many times as you want. And when you’re fifty or older, you no longer have the trepidation about saying it. Thank you for being my guest, for bringing this awareness about metabolism and insulin resistance to women, and for building The House of Rose. We’ll drop the links for our listeners.

Terry Tateossian (01:06:38): Thank you, Dr. Druz — you are absolutely amazing. I loved this conversation. I hope everyone who finds you tells everyone they know about your podcast, because it’s absolutely critical.

Dr. Regina Druz (01:07:08): Thank you for tuning in to Own Your Heart Health with Dr. Regina Druz. This podcast is powered by Holistic Heart Centers. If you enjoyed the show, please rate and review us on your favorite podcast platform. To learn more about our services, visit holisticheartcenters.com and subscribe to our YouTube channel — the link is in the show notes. See you next week.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why can insulin resistance hide for years before bloodwork shows it?

Dr. Druz explains that conventional tests like hemoglobin A1c reflect a relatively late stage of metabolic dysfunction. The body’s tissues — liver, muscle, and fat — can become insulin resistant years or even decades before glucose numbers cross a diagnostic threshold. She points to earlier, subtler signals sometimes seen on labs, such as a rising triglyceride-to-HDL ratio, increasing ApoB or LDL particle number, and smaller LDL size, alongside symptoms like fluctuating weight and blood pressure, poor sleep, and inflammation. This is a general educational discussion, not a diagnosis — talk with your own clinician about appropriate testing.

Can perimenopause really start in your late 30s?

Terry Tateossian shares that she unknowingly entered perimenopause at 37 — a diagnosis nobody considered at the time because of her age. Dr. Druz notes that women who enter menopause at a younger age may lose estrogen’s cardiovascular protection sooner, which can raise long-term risk. Both emphasize that symptoms are often dismissed as stress or anxiety. This reflects their experience and general education, not medical advice; anyone with concerning symptoms should be evaluated by a clinician.

What is “reverse dieting”?

Terry describes reverse dieting as gradually and correctly increasing calories for someone stuck eating very little (e.g., 700–900 calories) yet still gaining or unable to lose weight — while shifting from excessive cardio/HIIT toward slow, resistance, and strength training. The idea is to move out of a chronically under-fueled, high-stress metabolic state. Dr. Druz frames the trap as the “three O’s” — over-restrict, over-fast, over-train. This is educational information about a coaching approach, not a personalized prescription.

Why does strength training matter more than cardio for metabolic health?

Both speakers describe muscle as the body’s primary “sink” for blood sugar. Dr. Druz explains that resistance/strength training conditions muscle to take up glucose and can improve insulin sensitivity — even without much insulin present — whereas endless cardio without recovery can raise stress hormones. Terry calls muscle “the first place you can stop insulin resistance from taking over.” This is general education; start any new exercise program in consultation with your own clinician.

Are GLP-1 medications like tirzepatide a cure for weight and metabolic issues?

No — both frame GLP-1 medications as a bridge, not a magic solution. Terry hears from clients that the medication only “worked” once they also changed habits, behavior, and mindset. Dr. Druz notes these drugs quiet “food noise” and buy time, but says that without building a metabolic foundation first, most people regain the weight after stopping (she cites over 70% regaining within a year). She uses only FDA-approved agents, often microdosed. Nothing here is a recommendation to start, stop, or change any medication — those decisions must be made with your own clinician.

What is The House of Rose?

The House of Rose (THOR) is Terry Tateossian’s women’s wellness retreat — a 50-acre mountaintop property in the Smoky Mountains. Programming centers on nutrition (including protein and macronutrient structure), strength and resistance training, sleep, time in nature, and nervous-system regulation (restorative and yin yoga, vagus-nerve work, fascia and lymphatic focus). You can learn more at thehouseofrose.com. This is shared for general interest, not as a medical or treatment recommendation.

Show Notes & Resources

Guest: Terry Tateossian, Founder of The House of Rose

Terry Tateossian is the founder of The House of Rose (THOR), a women’s wellness retreat in the Smoky Mountains. A “zero-generation” immigrant from Eastern Europe, she built a career in tech and e-commerce, scaling to twelve offices before burnout, an 80-pound weight gain, panic attacks, and an unrecognized perimenopause at 37 forced a reckoning. After 33 failed diets, she reversed course with the help of a no-nonsense coach — focusing on adequate, consistent nutrition, strength training, sleep, and nervous-system regulation — and now guides other women through the same transformation via retreats and coaching. Terry is an entrepreneur and wellness coach, not a physician; she shares her lived experience and coaching philosophy, offered for educational purposes and not as medical advice.

Topics & Resources Mentioned in This Episode

Insulin resistance & metabolic health — the “core driver” that can build silently for 10–25 years before bloodwork shows it
Perimenopause & early menopause — often missed at younger ages; estrogen’s protective role
The “three O’s” — over-restrict, over-fast, over-train — and the metabolic “Bermuda Triangle”
Reverse dieting — increasing calories correctly while shifting to strength/resistance training
Muscle as an insulin “sink” — strength training and metabolic flexibility
Food tracking — Chronometer app; three-day food diaries; continuous glucose monitors; Lumen
GLP-1 medications (e.g., tirzepatide) — used as a bridge, microdosing, “food noise,” and regain after stopping
Deregulated nutrient sensing & autophagy — a hallmark of aging; fasting-mimicking diets
Triglyceride-to-HDL ratio, ApoB, LDL particle size — early markers of insulin resistance
Longevity Switches — Dr. Druz’s forthcoming first book
The House of Rose (THOR) — women’s wellness retreats; Terry on Instagram: “how good can it get”
Holistic Heart University — Holistic Heart Centers’ patient education platform
Heartwell AI (heartwell.ai) — Holistic Heart Centers’ personalized cardiovascular-risk tool

Holistic Heart Centers

holisticheartcenters.com
HeartWell.ai — AI-powered cardiovascular risk assessment
Address: 55 Bryant Avenue, Suite #6, Roslyn, NY 11576
Phone: 877-511-5166
YouTube: @reginadruzmd
Instagram: @dr.reginadruz
Podcast: Own Your Heart Health — available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major platforms

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