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Hormones, Health, and Happiness
A Natural Medical Formula for Rediscovering Youth with Bioidentical Hormones
By Steven F. Hotze Warner Wellness
Copyright © 2005 Steven F. Hotze
All right reserved. ISBN: 978-0-446-69930-3
Chapter One
Creating Hormonal Harmony
Are you sick and tired of being sick and tired?
Are you weary of doctors who won't listen to you, don't understand you, and offer only prescription drugs as the solution to your health problems?
Are you frustrated with being told that your blood tests are normal and there is nothing wrong with you?
I understand how you feel. Daily at my clinic, I see women who have sought the care of numerous physicians for fatigue, weight gain, mood swings, menstrual irregularities, headaches, joint and muscle pain, loss of libido, and numerous other problems. They have had their blood drawn and their hormone levels measured, only to be told that no physical cause of their symptoms can be found.
A woman who is repeatedly told by her doctor that everything is normal even though she does not feel well is unlikely to get the personal attention and compassionate treatment that she deserves. Instead, she will be categorized as a hypochondriac, prescribed an antidepressant, or referred to a psychiatrist.
Initially, she may reject the idea of using antidepressants, because she is still convinced that something within her body is not functioning correctly. But eventually, as her condition persists, she will comply with herdoctor's wishes and take the drugs. When these provide no relief, she may begin to believe that the doctor is right and that her problems are all in her head. Even worse, she may conclude, as some women have revealed to me, that God is punishing her for her past sins.
If this is the way you feel, then please take note. Your health problems are not all in your head. Your symptoms are very real and have a physical cause. You are not being punished by God. You may, however, be suffering needlessly at the hands of unsympathetic physicians who do not have the time, the interest, or the training to determine the root cause of your problems.
The problems experienced by women during midlife commonly result from an imbalance in the female hormones and an overall decline in hormone production. The negative effects of this hormonal imbalance are not limited to the reproductive system. The female hormones play important roles throughout the body: in the heart, brain, muscles, bones, and other major organs and tissues.
The female hormones also interact with hormones produced by other glands, and an imbalance in levels of estrogen and progesterone adversely affects the production and use of these hormones. Fatigue, weight gain, mood and memory problems, insomnia, headaches, and menstrual disorders can all be traced back to various hormonal imbalances and deficiencies. One common result of female hormonal imbalance is hypothyroidism, or low thyroid function, which weakens the immune system and can trigger allergies, chemical sensitivities, and recurrent infections during midlife. Adrenal insufficiency often accompanies low thyroid function, worsening the problems of low energy, impaired immunity, and allergies.
Blood testing, which is a standard diagnostic tool of conventional medicine, is not the best way to diagnose hormonal problems or to assess whether the treatment of these problems is working. The most reliable indication of a hormonal problem is how a patient feels physically, mentally, and emotionally. Likewise, the most important criteria for evaluating the benefits of treatment are the resolution of symptoms and the overall improvement in a patient's well-being.
This approach, which entails listening to the patient's description of her problems and making a diagnosis based on this description, is a lost art in current medical practice. Today's physicians rely almost exclusively on laboratory tests in making diagnoses. While this may be necessary for certain diseases, it is not an effective or appropriate way to evaluate and treat the problems caused by hormonal imbalances and deficiencies that occur in midlife among both women and men.
From Treating Illness to Promoting Wellness
Between 1976 and 1988, I practiced medicine conventionally, the way most physicians in this country do: I prescribed drugs. When a patient came into my office with allergies, I prescribed an antihistamine. For a patient who had high blood pressure, I prescribed an antihypertensive drug. If a patient suffered from anxiety, I prescribed an antianxiety medication. There was no end to the number of "antidotes" that could be prescribed to address one or another of my patients' symptoms. When the drugs I prescribed had bothersome side effects, other drugs could be prescribed to take care of those symptoms.
For an acute illness, such as strep throat or a sinus infection, the drug approach may be appropriate. However, few patients with chronic ailments ever really get well by taking drugs. How can they? Chronic illness and disease are not caused by deficiencies of prescription drugs. The causes are complex, relating to poor nutrition, lack of exercise, a stressful lifestyle, a weakened immune system, and declines in levels of hormones, to name only a few of the key contributing factors.
By the time I reached my thirteenth year as a practicing physician, I had lost my enthusiasm for my chosen profession. It was obvious that the drugs I had been prescribing for my patients' health problems were not making them feel better. In fact, in many cases the drugs were making them feel worse. Yet prescribing drugs is what I had been trained to do.
I simply didn't know another way to help my patients.
At this crucial juncture, when I was seriously contemplating walking away from medicine altogether, I had a seemingly chance encounter with an allergist. After hearing him talk with passion about the profession I no longer found gratifying, and listening to his successful case stories, I was inspired to seek training and education in the diagnosis and treatment of allergies. Although I didn't know it at the time, this was the beginning of a new phase of my career. From that point onward, medicine became an immensely enjoyable vocation for me. Finally, I was able to get to the root causes of many of my patients' illnesses and enable them to obtain and maintain optimal health.
The book you hold in your hands is actually two books in one. First, it is the story of my journey down the road less traveled, from mainstream physician to wellness practitioner. Second, and more important, it is a guidebook designed to help you begin your own journey down the road to optimal health and wellness.
In this book, you will learn about an eight-point treatment program developed to address the underlying causes of the most common health problems that occur in midlife. The components of this comprehensive program are:
1. Treatment of airborne allergies (chapter 4)
2. Treatment of food allergies (chapter 4)
3. Treatment of yeast overgrowth (candida) (chapter 5)
4. Treatment of low thyroid function (hypothyroidism) (chapter 6)
5. Natural hormone replacement in women and men (chapters 7 and 8)
6. Treatment of adrenal fatigue (chapter 9)
7. Nutritionally balanced eating program (chapter 10; appendices B and D)
8. Vitamin and mineral supplementation (chapter 11 and appendix C)
All eight of the elements listed above are important to the optimal functioning of your cells, tissues, and organs and to how you feel physically, mentally, and emotionally. For example, consuming the right kinds and amounts of protein, carbohydrates, and fats can keep your energy levels steady throughout the day while helping you avoid the serious diseases that result from a lifetime of unhealthy food choices.
Nutritional supplements are much more than an insurance policy against deficiency diseases such as scurvy and rickets. Studies have shown that taking optimal amounts of key nutrients-amounts that in some cases are much higher than the recommended daily allowance (RDA)-can actually reduce your risk of cancer, heart disease, and a host of other illnesses and maladies.
Treating food and airborne allergies and eradicating yeast from the body can help rejuvenate the immune system, restore energy, and alleviate seemingly unrelated conditions such as headaches, sinus and respiratory infections, asthma, digestive problems, and skin disorders.
Of all the elements outlined above, however, I have come to believe that the three that involve replenishing and balancing levels of key hormones are the most important to obtaining and maintaining optimal health and well-being.
Why are hormones so important? Quite simply, the aging process is the result of declining hormone levels. Levels of most hormones peak in our twenties and begin a slow, inexorable decline thereafter. As levels drop below their youthful peaks, you may begin to lose energy and gain weight. You may experience mood problems or have difficulty with thinking, concentration, and short-term memory. Your immune system is likely to become less efficient, leaving you vulnerable to infectious diseases. Restoring hormones to their optimal levels using natural, biologically identical hormones is a safe, effective way to preserve vitality as you mature.
The key term in that sentence is biologically identical. I am no fan of the counterfeit hormones manufactured by drug companies. These drugs are not identical to the hormones that are present naturally in the human body. In fact, in order to be patented, these drugs cannot be identical to the body's own hormones or to any other molecule that exists in nature. They must be chemically unique. This gives drug companies proprietary use of the drugs without competition and subsequently allows them to reap huge profits. Women who take these artificial hormones pay the price, not just with their pocketbooks, but also with their health and well-being.
Because counterfeit hormones are not identical to those produced by your body, they do not fit perfectly into the receptor sites in your body's cells. That is why these drugs can never restore optimal health. In fact, a wealth of research conducted over the past several decades clearly shows that, far from being age-defying wonder drugs, counterfeit female hormones such as Premarin, Provera, and Prempro may cause serious disease. Major studies, including the Women's Health Initiative in the United States and the Million Women Study in Great Britain, have documented that these drugs increase the risk of life-threatening ailments such as breast cancer, heart attack, stroke, pulmonary embolism, and Alzheimer's disease.
Women today who are experiencing symptoms of hormonal imbalance or deficiency are given few options by conventional physicians. Some physicians continue to prescribe counterfeit hormones, despite their known dangers, insisting that the benefits outweigh the risks. Others have begun to prescribe antidepressants as an alternative, as if mind-altering drugs are the solution to declining hormone levels. Still others have given up on the treatment of female hormone problems altogether and tell patients that they simply must learn to live with their symptoms.
And yet, there is a remarkably simple and safe alternative that has received relatively little attention in the mainstream press: the use of bioidentical hormones, formulated from plants and identical to the estrogens, progesterone, and testosterone produced in the human body. Unlike counterfeit hormones, bioidentical hormones fit perfectly into the hormone receptors found in the cells of the body and have natural, biological results without undesirable side effects.
Unfortunately, the major drug companies have no interest in biologically identical hormones, which cannot be patented. Because drug companies have no financial incentive to produce or market bioidentical hormones, most doctors have not been trained in their use and are unaware of the benefits of this type of therapy. After all, most physicians receive their continuing medical education at seminars and conferences sponsored by drug companies.
My staff and I have seen thousands of our patients get their lives back by following the comprehensive program outlined in this book. Because we have witnessed firsthand the dramatic improvement in health and wellness that can be obtained with the proper use of natural, bioidentical hormones, along with a healthy diet, nutritional supplementation, and the treatment of allergies and yeast, we believe it is our moral imperative to widely disseminate the information about our program.
I have written this book to give you information that you will not receive from the mainstream media, the medical establishment, or conventional physicians who are steeped in the disease-and-drug model of medicine. My hope is that once you have a better understanding of the root causes of your health problems, you will be inspired to find a doctor who can guide you onto the path to wellness. Most important, my deepest desire is to help you obtain and maintain health and wellness naturally so that you enjoy a better quality of life.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Hormones, Health, and Happiness by Steven F. Hotze Copyright © 2005 by Steven F. Hotze. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
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