Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy

BHRT

 

There is strong opinion that if bioidentical hormone replacement therapy BHRT and saliva testing, seen in the picture of the saliva collection tubes, as we know it today, were available 50 years ago that today there would be very little endometrial, uterine or breast cancer, certainly not running rampant it is today. Bio-identical Hormone Replacement Therapy is available today and yet many doctors are unaware and still others are unwilling to alter their medical training and therefore, are very slow to adapt to new technologies.

The doctors that have used BHRT or natural hormone therapy are doing so by the seat of their pants; without proper training. They are still utilizing blood testing, which is incorrect, to determine a woman’s hormonal needs and then they are prescribing a cream, in most cases, that is unpredictable for its delivery and collects in the muscle and fat over time, and exponentially increasing the PMS problems.

Do I Need Hormone Therapy?

Blood vs Saliva: When blood is drawn from a vein, it contains plasma and red and white blood cells. To analyze the blood, the plasma is separated from the blood cells by centrifugation. Since the plasma still contains clotting factors, an anticoagulant is added. This is the plasma used for blood analysis. If the blood is allowed to coagulate, which is the cell-depleted fluid phase, devoid of fibrinogen; it is called “serum.” The serum may also be used for analysis. In either case, the blood being analyzed does not contain the red blood cells that bind the free hormones for the delivery to the receptor sites. What is being analyzed, with blood, are hormones that are attached to binding proteins from the liver and are not bio-available.

What Is The Hormone Pathway?

When hormones are tested via saliva the free hormones are part of the equation as being present in the body. When the correct BHRT dosage is established with saliva collected over the course of one month and that dosage is taken as a sublingual lozenge, they are absorbed into the bloodstream as “free” hormones. They have not been packaged with a binding protein by the liver, because the liver did not have access to the hormones. Most of the “free” hormones are taken up by the red blood cell membranes, which are not analyzed by a common blood test.

You might ask, “If there are hormones available that are natural to my body, why do doctors prescribe synthetic hormones?”  The explanation involves the mindset of physicians to traditional pharmaceutical medicine and the powerful pharmaceutical industry in the United States; as well as politics and money.

The molecule of the natural bio identical hormone is identical in structure to the hormone naturally found in the body. Pharmaceutical companies cannot patent natural or bio-identical compounds. However, they can patent chemically altered compounds creating different molecules that are highly profitable, and often rejected by the body with side effects and even cancer. A patent on a man-made product will guarantee that a pharmaceutical company will have an exclusive right to manufacture and profit from their product. After the tremendous monetary investment that goes into developing and studying a pharmaceutical product, it is logical that the pharmaceutical companies would want their investment protected with an exclusive, patented product. There would be no huge profits with anything natural, because it is not patentable. Therefore there is little interest in research of anything natural and the minimal marketing of natural hormones is from our natural wellness industry. Bio identical Hormone Replacement Therapy is not well cemented in the psyche of the general public, as a synthetic pharmaceutical drug is apt to be, due to the huge amount of money spent on advertising to a public that cannot purchase their drugs.

A large part of marketing a drug involves the education and instruction of a public on features and benefits, as well as to talk about the side effects. Because when the side effects claim lives, the drug company can state: We told you it could happen; and be not held accountable. If the cigarette companies would have offered up the damaging information about what cigarettes can do to your health, when they first came out, they might not have had to pay the millions of dollars to families who lost members to lung cancer.

Much of what physicians are taught about pharmacologically comes from pharmaceutical company representatives who visit their offices on occasion; we refer to them as the pretty young girls who drag the roller bag who get to the doctor easier than one of his patients.  Because pharmaceutical companies don’t manufacture natural hormones, most physicians do not learn about them, unless they do personal research. Also, change is motivated when they read the headlines of side effects that someone experienced from a particular drug they had been prescribing. This formed the basis for most doctors who are dabbling in the Bio identical Hormone Replacement Therapy today.

The women’s health initiative released the finding of their research study of synthetic hormones in 2002, and determined that they were causing breast and uterine cancer.  Overnight 13-million women were taken off the synthetic hormones and most were then prescribed, SSRI’s. Selective Serotonin Re-uptake Inhibitors like Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Welbutrin and similar medications that can destroy your life; these SSRI antidepressant medications are a serious threat to your life.  If you, or anyone you know,  is using one of these medications, please pay close attention.

We have had personal experience with the SSRI medications that some of our clients were on for a time— enough to convince us that these are dangerous medications.

We had a client who had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Fibromyalgia.  Part of that symptom complex is depression.  Although it wasn’t a significant depression and had little real impact on our client’s life, his doctor passed out Welbutrin like it was candy to him. It was supposed to be really safe, and his doctor thought it would give him more pep, among other things.  He was supposed to feel a lot better. He didn’t and worse still, he became despondent and at one point, could not recognize his own wife. This is when his wife brought him to see us, to offer different suggestions for a solution to his real problem and to recover from his fog, which he was in due to these dangerous drugs. To fast forward a little, our client is a school crossing guard at 78 years of age today, completely recovered and doing great.

Back to all natural hormones: Where do these natural hormones come from? The pure bio-identical (human identical) hormone is extracted from plants, like wild Mexican yams for example. What is most important is that the end product is a molecule identical to the hormone molecule found naturally in the body. This applies to all hormones — such as thyroid, estrogen, progesterone, testosterone and DHEA.

The Anti-Aging Clinic must adapt to other procedures as well.  Most doctors are not familiar with Natural Bio identical Hormone Replacement Therapy and are slow to acclimate to anything natural. In our natural Wellness Clinic we must have a doctor sign the prescription, which is formulated by our compounding pharmacist after he has received the saliva test results and reviewed our questionnaire we have each client engage in.

We had to face that challenge and educate local doctors, which we intended to use for the hands on exam required by the FDA to prescribe anything compounded in a pharmacy, even if it is natural, as is the case with bio identical hormone replacement therapy. The way we accomplished that is by researching and teaming up with compounding Pharmacist’s, Clinical Nutritionist and a time honored laboratory that processes our 30-day saliva sample testing. We are among the leaders in research as well as the study of Bio identical Hormone Replacement Therapy with those who teach and have had thousands of clients and now our huge client base who owe their good health and balanced hormone system to our study, due diligence and success rate of application.

                                                              WHAT STRESS INFLUENCES

A key is the connection between serotonin and cortisol levels, which are directly influenced by serotonin and stress. One proven way to boost levels of DHEA naturally is to find ways to cultivate happiness in your life. Some very good ways are the treatments and products for the face and body we describe herein, with emphasis on good health, naturally as you may remember as well as treatments of biofeedback, more about this further on.

SUGGESTIONS,
Combating stress!

Connecting with family and friends is healthy, loving another person is one way and is one of the best joy-makers around; or think long and hard about what you like to do for pleasure and reach out for it mentally first, then strive for it physically. Some people set daily goals and don’t make them so grand they are unattainable then reward themselves when they reach them.

Still others choose friends or groups that share their interests. Try to think about ways you can get out of relationships that are causing you to have the dangerous stress or seek help to assist you in coping with it, if that is not possible.

Receiving lymphatic drainage treatments along with moving your body by swimming, walking or other exercise, even deep breathing and stretching reduces stress because it oxygenates your cells and boosts mood-elevating substances in your bloodstream called endorphins. This process can actually change your body chemistry for the better. Meditation added to the above, is also useful such as sitting in a low light room thinking pleasant thoughts or a quiet walk in the woods.

Also; please read below: Do I need Hormone Therapy?

You know your body, and you can feel when your hormones are not in balance.  Do you suffer from any of the following: PMS, frustration, anxiety, insomnia, low sex drive, decreased energy, head hair loss, hair growing on the face, dry mouth, vaginal dryness, hot flashes, night sweats, mild depression or severe depression, headaches, mood swings, breast tenderness, etc..  Are these issues affecting your quality of life and your precious relationships?  Have you had a hysterectomy and been told you no longer cycle as a result?  We will teach you that you cycle until you die, no matter what a doctor removes from your body. Do your symptoms vary throughout your menstrual cycle if you still have your period or, if your periods have stopped, do you notice certain symptoms more at a certain time of the month more than others?  If you are entering perimenopause, are you experiencing new or different symptoms?  Perimenopause is the period of hormonal imbalance that leads up to menopause. It can start at almost any age and create a myriad of symptoms that may appear unrelated. Are the hormones or hormone related medications you are currently taking not providing you with the relief you expected? Did you know that even if you are not taking Hormones you are being exposed to them daily, from the food you eat, products you use to the environment?

The way to look at BHRT, Bio-identical Hormone Replacement Therapy is from puberty until death, a healthy woman’s body is making its own natural hormones in synchrony and balance, without giving her cancer, heart disease or strokes. What the Anti-Aging Clinic professionals are attempting to regain is this natural balance as closely as possible, using Mother Nature and not harsh synthetic drugs.

Conventional HRT in the medical sickness industry not only failed in the matter of improving hormonal balance and health, but also by causing cancer. The sickness industry fails to measure hormones correctly and they fail to prescribe physiologic doses of hormones and by prescribing synthetics hormone drugs, foreign to the human body, not hormones found-in-nature, that cause a long list of unwanted side effects, up to, and including death.

What we recommend is to first measure the complete one-month cycle, utilizing 11-saliva panels taken over the course of one-month to test for hormone levels that will indicate what the hormonal imbalances are. Then we begin correcting those imbalances, using natural to the body hormones in physiologic doses, which means ordinary doses that the body would naturally produce itself, placed under the tongue in micronized lozenge form,  which was compounded by our compounding pharmacist.

The Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) study brought attention to the dangers of synthetic hormone replacement drugs and was canceled because of a high risk of breast cancer, heart disease and stroke associated with using synthetic HRT (hormone replacement therapy). The study analyzed the health of 16,000 women ages from 50 to 79 years. After five years, those using HRT (Premarin and Provera or PremPro) had a 29 percent higher risk of breast cancer, a 26 percent higher risk of heart disease, and a 41 percent higher risk of stroke.

To emphasize a bit more, nearly 40,000 women were harmed by taking these drugs. That’s an epidemic and doesn’t include all the women who suffered from weight gain, fatigue, depression, irritability, headaches, insomnia, bloating, low thyroid, low libido, and gallbladder disease and blood clots.

One of the most disturbing aspects of this scenario is that it was created due to the carelessness of conventional medical sickness industry practice, which dictated – without good supporting evidence of safety and efficacy – that dictated any woman over 50 complaining about anything remotely related to menopause, to be put on a one size fit all HRT drug. Their hormones weren’t measured improperly with blood sample, which did not lead the doctor to find out which ones the woman needed or how much, and they were subjected to the mentality of one-dose-fits-all mindset that created estrogen levels to rise dangerously high, for millions of women. Hormonal measurement in the medical sickness industry community is typically: blood tests, which only measure the serum, the watery part of the blood and progesterone is carried in the red blood cells, not in the serum. Then taking one sample of blood would give only a snapshot of the cycle. The cycle that is up and down all month long, which, depending on the time during the 30-day cycle that the blood was taken, could only indicate what it was for that one day. The most accurate way to measure hormonal levels is with an 11-saliva panel test, where samples are collected on various days set by the document provide with the test of the month, which measures your active, or bio-available hormones throughout the complete female cycle.

Furthermore, the efficacy of natural progesterone in hormone replacement has been totally ignored in favor of the synthetic patentable (and therefore more profitable) counterparts known as progestins. Natural estrogen in the body stimulates cells to grow in the first 14 days and progesterone stimulates the cells toward differentiation, which is an anti-cancer property. Cancer cells are undifferentiated, and thus grow without control. Progesterone, which is natural to our body, encourages cells to die when they’re supposed to (which cancer cells don’t do).

It is easier to see why testing is vital when you examine estrogen dominance, which describes a condition where a woman can have deficient, normal or excessive estrogen, but has little or no progesterone to balance its effects in the body. Even a woman with low estrogen levels can have estrogen dominance symptoms if she doesn’t have enough progesterone.  Without prior knowledge reveled by our thorough questionnaire and 30-day saliva testing, giving her a “ one-size-fits all “ hormone, could prove devastating.

Some Symptoms, which accompany estrogen dominance, are: Water retention, bloating, Dry eyes, Sluggish metabolism, Thyroid dysfunction mimicking hypothyroidism, Hair Loss,  Fatigue, Headaches, Infertility, Fat gain, especially around the abdomen, hips and thighs, Cold hands and feet as a symptom of thyroid dysfunction, Irregular menstrual periods, Early onset of menstruation, Decreased sex drive, Foggy thinking, Insomnia, Memory loss, Mood swings, Depression with anxiety or agitation, Autoimmune disorders, Acceleration of the aging process, Osteoporosis, Polycystic ovaries, Pre-menopausal bone loss, PMS, Allergies, Mineral deficiencies, Gallbladder disease, Fibrocystic breasts, Breast tenderness, Breast cancer, Cervical dysplasia, Uterine cancer, Uterine fibroids, Endometrial (uterine) cancer, Increased blood clotting (increasing risk of strokes).

The environment, chemicals and some food affect estrogen. Clarification & “Disclaimer”: As a result of various science-planning activities (within and outside government), confusion often develops with regard to the relationship between Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products (PPCPs) and “endocrine disrupting compounds”. Only a small subset of Pharmaceuticals and (PPCPs) are known, or suspected of being direct-acting Endocrine Disrupting Compounds (EDCs) (primarily synthetic steroids and other synthetic hormones, acting as a hormone or anti-hormone modulating mimics — agonists or antagonists, respectively). While many xenobiotics can have a wide range of ultimate, indirect effects on the endocrine system, few have direct effects (i.e., serve as immediate endocrine agonists/antagonists at the hormone-receptor level). As an example, the inhibition or induction (such as by triazine herbicides) of P450 aromatase can effect changes in androgen/estrogen ratios; this effect is not at the receptor level. It is important to note that PPCPs and direct-acting EDCs are NOT synonymous, and the toxicological concerns are usually totally different also known as environmental estrogens. Environmental estrogens, are endocrine-disruptors, endocrine-modulators, estrogenic mimics, eco-estrogens, environmental hormones, xenoestrogens, hormone-related toxicants, and hormonally active agents (phytoestrogens being a subset). Please review Soy below.

We want to explain to you the reason you must learn for yourself what is good for you and what is bad. I mentioned the consumption of soy and in short; soy is an estrogen. a phyto-estrogen. Estrogen is a hormone in three parts; Estradiol, Estrone and Estriol.  This estrogen pool is in a delicate balance, 80% Estradiol, 10% Estrone and 10% Estriol. When you apply a product to the skin or consume something with a plant estrogen in it, it upsets the balance of Estrogen and have too much Estriol equates to uterine and breast cancer. Thousands of studies link soy to malnutrition, digestive distress, immune-system breakdown, thyroid dysfunction, cognitive decline, reproductive disorders and infertility-even cancer and heart disease.  Soy and Tofu form are both plane estrogens and have the same affect in the body.

Americans rarely hear anything negative about soy. Thanks to the shrewd public relations campaigns waged by the American Soybean Association, and other soy interests, as well as the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA). In 1999 the FDA approval of the health claim that soy protein lowers cholesterol, helps soy maintains a “healthy” image. We try to educate people to the contrary.  We help my clients to become healthy, first, by empowering them with knowledge. Soy is a danger to the body! ; Soy is an estrogen.

Estrogen is a hormone and when you have too much estrogen, it can cause breast cancer or uterine cancer. Thousands of studies link soy to malnutrition, digestive distress, immune-system breakdown, thyroid dysfunction, cognitive decline, reproductive disorders and infertility-even cancer and heart disease.

Furthermore, the endocrine system (and its interconnected signaling pathways) is extraordinarily complex and cannot be easily distilled to a simple issue of “disruption” or “modulation”. While “disruptors” can act directly at the hormone-receptor level, they can also act indirectly via a plethora of alternative routes (e.g., nervous system, immune system, specific cellular transporter systems), most of which are not always considered in the scope of many of the current definitions of EDCs. Endocrine disruption, in general, is narrowly viewed as a reproductive/developmental issue.  Whether EDCs represent a meaningful way to classify toxicants with respect to environmental risk — whether they play a significant toxicological role in environmental exposure (especially for humans) — continues to be actively debated.

WHY ARE OMEGA-3’s and ANTIOXIDANTS important?

They are required to produce healthy cell walls and every single hormone in the body. When we take in too little Omega’3’s, the Brain has to help the body survive, so it must make something to take the place of the long chain fatty acid Omega’3’s; and it sends a message to the liver;  it makes HDL and LDL cholesterol, which are short chain of Trans Fatty Acids.

Omega-3’s feed and fuel the brain and without them disease states can occur. Omega-3’s play an important role in your general overall health and in the health of your skin, nails and hair, they boost immunity and they can play a significant role in preventing inflammation in the body. Omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids are considered essential fatty acids (EFAs) because they are critical for good health. Your body cannot make them on its own—for this reason they must be obtained from food; it is extremely critical for pregnant women feeding their un-born baby. Both omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids stimulate the formation of prostaglandin. Prostaglandins are produced by every cell in the body, and control such things as reproduction and fertility, inflammation, immunity and communication between cells. These fats that heal, play an important role in their anti-inflammatory functions and other benefits for vascular and degenerative disease. The new process of stabilizing and fortifying our omega healthy oils also helps to preserve the nutritional benefits of these very important natural extracts. Improving the oxidative stability of these products is a big breakthrough for the nutraceutical industry.

Nutraceuticals (often referred to as phytochemicals or functional foods) are natural, bioactive chemical compounds that have health promoting, disease preventing or medicinal properties.

Once this country’s food processors figured out how to use solvents to extract oil from soybeans and seeds, American consumers have been swimming (or drowning) in omega-6 polyunsaturates. They make up more than three-quarters of the oils and fats we eat.

French fries, bottled salad dressings and all types of processed foods are full of omega-6’s. Our main proteins are full of omega-6’s as well, now that livestock, chickens and even farmed fish are raised on corn and soy and genetically modified food instead of the naturally omega-3-rich grasses or algae.

Omega-3s and -6s are the body’s yin and yang so to speak, to quote Chinese Medicine. The two vie for space in our cells, brains, nerve endings, and they produce different hormone messengers. They compete for the same enzymes, so consuming a food containing -6s can keep the Omega-3s from doing their job.

For example: Omega-6s stimulate inflammation; omega-3s put out the flames. Omega-6s raise blood pressure; omega-3s lower it. Omega-6s makes your blood clot; omega- 3s keep it from clotting. Omega-6s oxidize the cholesterol in your arteries and clog them; 3s are anti-oxidants.

The more omega-6s we eat, the more they dominate our cells. Consuming more omega-3s has been associated with preventing heart disease and fatal heart attacks; improving brain and vision development (so much so that infant formulas have been changed to add omega-3s); lowering blood pressure and fighting inflammation, arthritis and asthma, maybe even cancer; helping the body use insulin and fend off obesity; relieving depression and maybe reducing violent behavior.

However I should point out that 59 countries added omega-3s to infant formula before the United States came around, despite studies showing that formula with only omega-6s impaired brain and vision development. Our products are designed to improve your health

[disclaimer] “These statements have not been evaluated by FDA.  Treatments or products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.”