Monthly Archives: February 2009

A complete hysterectomy (one that includes removal of the ovaries) obviously causes changes in hormone production.  Most women are fully aware that they will need some type of hormone supplementation to make up for the hormones that the ovaries produced.  A problem occurs though when many doctors apparently forget some basic facts about what hormones the ovaries produce.

I just finished answering an email from a nice lady who had a hysterectomy about 10 years ago.  She was prescribed estrogen-based hormone replacement. In addition to being concerned about the potential health risks of the prescribed hormones, she (and her husband) were also upset by her lack of sex drive.

A lack of sex drive can be due to a number of factors, both physical and mental, but when it occurs following a hysterectomy, there is a pretty obvious cause to consider first, but for some reason, it gets by many doctors.

You see, the ovaries produce other hormones besides estrogen, most notably progesterone and testosterone.  It is testosterone that is of most concern with regards to libido and sexual arousal. 

Prior to menopause, the ovaries produce about half of a woman’s testosterone.  Of course, women produce much less testoterone than men, but it is still important in maintaining sex drive and also in maintaining muscle mass and bone density.  So, following a complete hysterectomy, a woman’s testosterone levels are cut in half.  But that’s only part of the problem.

 In most cases, women are prescribed estrogen and/or progesterone following a hysterectomy.  Independent hormone levels are important, but oftentimes it’s the BALANCE of hormones that is the big issue.  In a post-hysterectomy case, not only is the testosterone production cut in half, but the woman is supplementing with estrogen and/or progesterone, so the balance between estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone can be severely altered. 

But wait, there’s more…

I mentioned that prior to menopause the ovaries produce about half a woman’s testosterone.  The other half (and the testosterone produced after menopause) comes from the adrenal glands.  The adrenal glands produce many different hormones, and they are particularly involved in the body’s reactions to stress.  Chronic stress over time can result in overwork and fatigue of the adrenal glands, resulting in a decrease of their hormone production.  This can include the production of testosterone. 

Fortunately, women who have had hysterectomies rarely have any significant stress in their lives (well, maybe just a little).  

 Anyway, between the loss of testosterone production from the removal of the ovaries, the imbalance between testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone caused by the hormone replacement, and the potential reduction in testosterone from stress-related adrenal fatigue, you can bet that most women who have a complete hysterectomy will have very low testosterone function.  Very low testosterone function usually results in very low interest in sex, as well as decreased levels of sexual arousal when participating in sexual activity.

The bottom line here is that following a hysterectomy, women really should be checked (initially and periodically) as to their hormone levels and prescribed the appropriate hormone supplementation that includes testosterone – not just given a standard prescription for estrogen.

In my experience as a holistic health practitioner and in researching some of the self-help methods recommended on this site, I sometimes come across negative attitudes or opinions about the effectiveness of treatment methods that I know to be very effective and beneficial.  

Now, no treatment works for everyone, and perhaps these negative opinions were from people who really gave these techniques a good try and they just did not work.   But I often get the sense that the negative opinions are actually coming from individuals who have a “been there, done that” attitude and they never actually did what was recommended.  Instead, they took a brief look at the information, or tried one or two doses of a product, or did one or two tries at an exercise, or whatever it was.  At best, they gave it a half-hearted try and when it failed to produce immediate, dramatic effects, they gave up and dismissed it as being worthless.

As a health care practitioner, I have seen the “been there, done that” attitude numerous times in patients.  For that matter, I’ve HAD the “been there, done that” attitude myself from time to time.  It’s very much a part of human nature to search for something new and different rather than simply employ time-tested, effective methods.  For many of us, there’s always a part of us looking for a new and better way.  There’s certainly nothing wrong with that, unless in our search for that new and better way, we fail to utilize previously established techniques, boring though they might be, that would bring us the outcome we are seeking. 

So what happens with the “been there, done that” attitude is we either dismiss the “tried and true” treatment altogether without even trying it, or only give it a half-hearted effort.  I have seen this many times over the years when I prescribe physical or mental exercises or recommend  supplements or remedies to patients. 

For example, I might prescribe a given exercise to be done twice per day, every day.  When I follow-up with the patient a week or so later, I always ask how they’ve been doing with the exercises.  The majority of the time, the patient will say something nondescriptive like “OK” or “alright” (which usually means they haven’t done them at all).  A few will proudly proclaim that they’ve done the exercise “at least 5 or 6 times” since the last time I saw them (which might sound good, but since they were instructed to do them twice per day for a week, they should have done them 14 times!). 

To make a long story short, very few patients actually follow-through on self-treatment recommendations and rather than take responsibility for not following the recommendations, most will tell themselves that the exercises, diet, supplements, etc. didn’t work – and look for something new and better.  I can’t tell you how many times patients will ask me for additional exercises to do or new supplements to take when they haven’t consistently used the first ones I’ve prescribed.

My point here is that if you suffer from any of the vast majority of health problems, there are usually effective natural treatments and techniques for handling the problem, but the it usually takes some time and consistent use to get good long-term results.  You can’t just do an exercise or use a supplement or herb (or for that matter, take a medication) once or twice and expect to be “cured” for life.

Repetition and consistency are key to getting good results from any health intervention.

The following video discusses the use of cinnamon and vinegar for helping type II diabetics control blood sugar levels.  Both cinnamon and vinegar are helpful for lowering blood sugar, but I think the reporter (shockingly, she’s a dietician!) on this video is missing a key point.  Just because cinnamon helps lower blood sugar doesn’t mean you want to use it on oatmeal, toast, and other high-carbohydrate foods as a means of controlling diabetes.  That’s kind of like sprinkling vitamins on ice cream and thinking the vitamins make it healthy. 

By all means, use cinnamon and vinegar for reducing blood sugar naturally, but you still need to make good meal choices.  It would be nice if you could control your blood sugar by getting breakfast at Cinnabon, but it just doesn’t work that way.

The following is a brief video with some excellent tips on simple things to avoid in order to prevent headaches and neck pain.

The following video from “Nutrition By Natalie” explains some of the most common nutritional problems that can produce mental health symptoms that we might not always associate with nutrition. 

If you’re a regular visitor to this site, you probably noticed the new header graphic.  In the next few days I’ll be launching my health coaching and nutrition product site, and the new header here is made to match the new site.

Members to this brand new site (membership is free) will have the opportunity to set up an account and use questionnaires designed personally by me to allow me to make specific recommendations for your specific needs. 

My recommendations will be available to you free of charge and, depending on your particular health concerns, will include suggestions for diet, exercise, and various professional services, as well as specific recommendations for supplements and/or other products to help you achieve your health goals.  The site also gives you ready access to top quality nutrition, homeopathic, and other products that I have personally found to be among the highest quality and best value on the market. 

The new site launches very soon, so be looking for the announcement here in the next few days.

Whether ’tis nobler to urinate…  er, sorry, got carried away with the Shakespeare reference!  Anyway, I have received some questions about hormone testing using 24 hour urine tests versus salivary hormone testing. 

There seems to be a misconception about salivary hormone testing being more accurate than 24 hour urine, and that’s not the case.  If anything, the 24 hour urine test typically gives the most reliable information about hormone status.  Assuming full patient compliance with the specimen collection, it’s a top-notch test. 

The problem with 24 hour urine testing is not one of accuracy and reliability, it’s one of convenience and compliance.  It’s not a big problem for a patient who doesn’t have to work or take care of a family.  Collecting a sample every time you urinate in a 24 hour period if you don’t have a lot of other things going on would probably not be that difficult. 

But for someone who is trying to collect samples while at work, or while trying to run errands, fix meals, take care of kids, etc., collecting urine samples can be a tough task to add in and be consistent for a full 24 hours.  I know some working moms who have told me that they have trouble finding time to go pee at all, let alone to take the care and time to collect a sample. 

In my opinion, salivary hormone testing (using a reputable lab) provides reliable results in most cases with what is generally an easier to accomplish method of sample collection than 24 hour urine testing. 

Typically, salivary testing is done using 4 samples taken over the course of a day from the time you wake up to the time you go to sleep, and the samples can be collected just about anywhere – you simply collect a small tube of saliva and put the cap on it.  The labs request that the samples be frozen overnight before being mailed (this has nothing to do with the accuracy of the test, but it reduces the odor of the sample when it is opened at the lab), but otherwise requires no special handling.  Saliva sample tubes are small enough that they easily fit in a pocket, and are pretty safe to carry around with you all day.  Even in the worst case scenario of one of the tubes opening up in your pocket, you’d just get some saliva on your clothes.  Yeah, you might get teased about the wet spot by coworkers, but ultimately, not much harm done.

Contrast this with trying to collect urine over a 24 hour period.  You have to take the time to collect a specimen if you get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom.  If you work or run errands away from home, you have to find a restroom to collect the samples in (it’s usually frowned upon by the authorities to collect a urine sample in public), and then you have to carry the samples around with you (possibly spilling on you or in your purse, car, office, etc.).  The option to carrying the samples around is to find a secure place to keep them.  The fridge at work is NOT recommended – at best, you’ll gross out your co-workers and at worst, the office fridge-raider could wind up taking a swig thinking it’s juice and then all kinds of trouble could result (besides the issue with your co-worker, you’d have to start the test over again!). 

So, while 24 hour urine testing for hormones is a very good test, and may be a necessary step in a few cases, the inconvenience makes it less than ideal.  For this reason alone, I usually recommend saliva testing for hormones. 

See my article on salivary hormone testing for more information.

Upon reading the title of today’s post, you may be wondering what a medication deficiency is.  Actually, I don’t know myself, but judging from the way the majority of doctors practice and the way the majority of people live their lives, apparently any symptom you can name is a sure indication of a medication deficiency.

While there are exceptions, if you visit almost any medical doctor these days and report any kind of symptoms, you are almost guaranteed to walk out of the doctor’s office with a prescription for one or more medications.  Generally the medications are directed at symptom suppression as opposed to actually assisting the body in healing itself, so I must assume that most medical doctors believe that all health problems are simply a matter of medication deficiency.

This belief appears to now have carried over to the beliefs of many people.  When they experience symptoms of any kind, the “normal” thing to do is grab some over the counter medication, go to the doctor to get prescription medication, or obtain prescription medication that a friend or family member has leftover from when he or she suffered from the same “deficiency”. 

Give the right medication to alleviate the deficiency (suppress the symptoms) and all will be well.  Or will it?

Most medications have side-effects.  But wait a minute!  Side-effects are just symptoms.  We’ve been talking about how doctors believe symptoms are just an indication of a medication deficiency.  All you have to do is take OTHER medication to fix those medication deficiencies that the first medication produced.

For example, let’s say you have arthritis.  This obviously means you must have a deficiency of anti-inflammatory medication.  But the anti-inflammatory medication produces stomach problems.  Now worries, this just means you now have a deficiency of acid-blocking medication.  Get yourself some purple pills, and you’re all set.  Uh-oh, the purple pills caused you to develop high blood pressure.  Well, then all you have to do is get some blood pressure medication to fix that deficiency.  No problem!

Wow, it’s a good thing we have all these medications available to fix all those deficiencies we get, isn’t it?

The forgoing was of course written “tongue in cheek”, but all too often it is exactly how people manage their health.  It is time that people become more aware of how to maintain health naturally, rather than using one toxic medication to cover up the side-effects of another. 

The chain reaction of using one medication to counter the side-effects of another builds as people get older and develop more and more symptoms so that by the time they are in their 60′s and older, most people have a shopping bag full of medications that they take on a daily basis.  Despite (or actually because of) taking 10, 15, and sometimes 20 or more different medications each day, these people still feel terrible!  In my experience, many of these people can start feeling much better within a few days simply by eliminating (using appropriate withdrawl precautions) all non-essential medications (and with few exceptions, most medication is non-essential).

Medications are necessary in some cases, but the vast majority of medication used is not healthy when used as a long-term fix.  With resonably good lifestyle habits, the vast majority of people can live in comfort and health (at least the vast majority of the time) with no medication at all.

Imagine that!