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Tag : dhea
Getting it Right: Estrogen Replacement in Women
I’ve written about this before, but it bears repeating. In spite of what people often say, estrogen is not a hormone – estrogen is a class of hormones. When a female patient comes to Longevity Medical Clinic and we start discussing Hormone Replacement Therapy, it’s critically important that we use the right type of hormones to accomplish our goal. Women can benefit dramatically from Hormone Replacement Therapy. But they need to receive human type hormone, in doses that maximize benefits while minimizing risks, and the hormones should never be given by mouth.
Restoring Your Passion Really is Possible
Do you remember how you felt and thought when you were 17 or 18? No, I’m not just talking about your adolescent obsession with your sexuality – I mean the feeling that the world was yours to conquer! Don't you remember that drive and ambition you had, that feeling that you could do just about anything? We all felt invincible and immortal at that age.
Your youthful optimism was not born merely out of naiveté and inexperience. In fact, that energetic, optimistic drive to conquer the world was largely a product of hormones – yes, those same raging hormones that drove your newly discovered sexuality. Most of the important hormones in our bodies were at their peak in our late teens: Testosterone, DHEA, Estrogen, Progesterone, Pregnenolone, Dopamine, Vasopressin, Oxytocin, Growth Hormone and Thyroid. High levels of these hormones were responsible for much of the passion as well as the emotional and physical energy of our youth.
Take Mice Studies with a Grain of Salt
Are clinical trials using animal studies always valid for humans? Consider me a skeptic.
I frequently see advertisements and newsletters (even some written by physicians) that promote lab tests and treatments based entirely on studies done using rodents. These “experts” frequently draw conclusions from these studies that their lab test or product is a breakthrough of vital importance to humanity. While it may be true, all too often it’s not.
Let me give you a recent example of a study done in mice that could lead to the conclusion that every woman with breast cancer should be taking very robust doses of the adrenal hormone DHEA. This study should serve both as an encouragement and as a caution, an example of the care we must exercise when we use animal studies to draw conclusions about humans.
The Wrong Way to Do Testosterone
Over the last 25 years, the testosterone level of the average American man has decreased by about 24%. This is almost a 1% per year average decline. We are not just becoming a feminist nation; we are becoming a feminized nation. The reason for this overall decline in male hormone levels is poorly understood, but I suspect that it is related to the widespread presence of estrogenic compounds in our society. Many of the plastics and preservatives used in our day-to-day products and foods have an estrogen like effect on the body.
As the medical profession is becoming more cognizant of the consequences stemming from a diminished testosterone load, an ever increasing number of doctors are starting to use testosterone therapies of one sort or
Are You a Pregnant Horse?
I came across a news item the other day that irritated me. It was another one of those stories about how dangerous estrogen therapy is for post-menopausal women. It contained the usual tsking and finger-wagging over doctors who felt it necessary to interfere with the ‘natural process of aging and menopause’ and the horrible risks of cancer they cause while doing it.
There’s so much wrong with that position I scarcely know where to begin. First off, we scarcely need to discuss my opinion of the ‘the natural process of aging’. Suffice it to say, the natural process of aging is one of slow decline into a pitiable, crippled, wretched shell of a human being. My opinion: we don’t have to just give up like that.
The medical community started giving estrogen to post-menopausal women nearly 50 years ago for excellent reasons. Without it the health and quality of life of post-menopausal women was declining so precipitously, it became apparent that