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There is considerable controversy regarding the use of hormone supplementation as a means of anti-aging and for reducing the symptoms of hormone deficiency or imbalance.  Certainly, the use of synthetic female hormones in the form of birth control pills and hormone replacement therapy for menopausal women has had less than ideal effects.  There is also no disputing the damaging effects of using testosterone and growth hormone for the purpose of enhancing muscle growth and athletic performance.  But what about the “new age” use of hormones, including bioidentical hormones for treating PMS, the symptoms of menopause, and for countering the effects of decreasing hormone levels that occur with aging in both women and men?

First, what are “bioidentical” hormones?  These are hormones that supposedly are identical to the hormones your body produces naturally, as opposed to synthetic hormones that are similar to, but somewhat different chemically from your natural hormones.  I say supposedly, because bioidentical hormones may be much more like your body’s natural hormones than synthetic hormones made in a laboratory, but because they are usually derived from plant sources, I have my doubts that they are exactly the same (there may be subtle differences that we are not able to detect with our current methods of chemical analysis). 

Bioidentical hormones are also supposedly much safer than their synthetic hormone counterparts.  Here I say supposedly because this has yet to really be proven conclusively.  I would say that because they are much more chemically similar to the body’s natural hormones, bioidentical hormones are probably much safer than synthetics and probably much less likely to cause problems such as cancer and cardiovascular disease - at least when they are used properly.  Even so, there really has not been much study on the safety of using bioidentical hormones, especially long-term.

But beyond the question of the relative safety of bioidentical hormones as compared to synthetics, I take issue with how hormones of all kinds are often used.  Commonly, what I see happening is hormones are being prescribed in such a way as to create unnatural hormone levels in the person taking them.  It seems that many practitioners who prescribe hormones think it’s a good idea to produce hormone levels in their patients that would be normal for people in their 20’s or 30’s.  This is of course fine if the patient happens to be in their 20’s or 30’s, but what if the patient is in their 50’s, 60’s, or older?  Is this really healthy? 

The body is designed to go through certain changes as we age.  In childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood, the body is rapidly growing and developing, and hormones are an important part of these processes.  During one’s 20’s and 30’s the stage is set in the body for reproduction, which requires a slightly different hormone balance.  As we get older, many of the body processes that required high levels of certain hormones are no longer of major importance, and so the hormones that supported those processes begin to decrease.  How much they decrease depends on several factors, including genetics, but in large part depends on the individual’s diet, sleep, and activity and exercise levels.  To put it simply, the “younger” your lifestyle, the younger you tend to stay in terms of hormones. 

But now along comes hormone supplementation and we can artificially (whether we are using “natural” or synthetic hormones) alter our hormone levels.  We now can effectively cheat the system.  We don’t have to watch our diets, get regular exercise, and get plenty of good quality sleep to keep our youth-promoting hormone levels up.  To many, hormone replacement, especially with the assumed to be safe bioidenticals, is the fountain of youth.  To me, the question remains as to whether this fountain of youth may be poisoned in some way, and that question probably will not be answered for at least several years.

Now, I can certainly appreciate that many people use hormone supplementation to control certain unpleasant symptoms.  If they are getting good symptom relief from taking hormones, whether they be bioidentical or synthetic, it is unlikely that the person will change what he or she is doing unless some specific serious risk to them is identified.  So, while I think there is still much we need to investigate regarding the long-term safety of using hormone supplementation, this may be the best option currently available for improving symptoms and quality of life for some people. 

What I am proposing though is to give consideration to another approach first, before resorting to taking hormones for the rest of your life.  What I have found is that in many cases, unpleasant symptoms arise because of an imbalance in hormones, as opposed to an actual deficiency of one or more hormones.  For example, a common scenario in women who experience a lot of PMS symptoms and/or menopausal symptoms (some women transition from PMS to menopausal symptoms as they age), is the pattern of estrogen dominance.  Estrogen dominance means that they have more estrogen relative to progesterone than they should have.  Typically this is treated through some sort of progesterone supplementation, and this may in fact be necessary in some cases.  But in many cases of estrogen dominance, the progesterone level is not low, per se, just low relative to estrogen. 

My premise is that it is preferable to balance the two by helping the body modify its relative production of estrogen and progesterone.  In other words, instead of simply giving the patient progesterone to compensate for the excess estrogen, I prefer to try to get the body to stop producing the excess estrogen. 

In the long run, I believe that it is better (whenever possible) to bring the hormone that is too high down to a normal range rather than to artificially increase a hormone that is at a normal level into an abnormal range to compensate for the hormone that is too high.  So how do we do that?  Visit my follow-up to this post, “Hormone Balancing Without Hormones” to find out! 

Stay tuned to my natural remedies blog for more on hormones and anti-aging.

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A common thing I hear from both my patients and from people in general is that they are trying to lose weight to get healthier.  Of course, for many “get healthier” is code for “look better and be more attractive”, but that’s a whole different issue.  Most people are under the impression that being overweight is causing their arthritis, their high blood pressure, their diabetes, and a host of other health problems.  Many doctors reinforce this concept and may say things like, “Mr. Jones, you simly MUST lose weight to get that blood pressure of yours under control”.  But is being overweight the CAUSE of health problems, or is it just another SYMPTOM?

Yes, numerous research studies have shown an association between being overweight/obese and having other health problems.  But an association simply means that they are commonly seen together.  It does not prove that one causes the other.

Think about it for a minute, do ALL overweight people have high blood pressure, diabetes, etc.?  I can tell you that from 15 years of experience as a health care provider, the answer is “No”.  Let’s look at the opposite side of the coin.  Do normal weight or skinny people EVER get high blood pressure, diabetes, etc.?  The answer is absolutely “Yes”.  So, obviously, being overweight in and of itself is NOT the cause of high blood pressure, diabetes, and other conditions commonly associated with being overweight. 

In fact, as I mentioned before, being overweight or obese is actually just another symptom of some other underlying problem.  Now, that problem may be physical or emotional, or some combination of he two.  It may even be a conscious choice for some people who, for one reason or another, prefer being overweight.

For the purposes of this article, I won’t be discussing emotional and personal choice reasons for someone being overweight any further, but I wanted to acknowledge those factors.

The physical causes of being overweight usually come down to the interactions and balances of various hormones.  Most people who are overweight due to physical causes will have one or more of four basic underlying problems.  These can be categorized as the thyroid pattern, the adrenal pattern, the liver pattern, and the estrogen pattern.  These basic patterns were first described by Dr. Eric Berg.  Dr. Berg references the last pattern as the “Ovary” pattern, but I have found that it is primarily related to excess estrogen, and it can occur in males (who have no ovaries, but do have some estrogen), so I feel it is more correct to refer to it as the estrogen pattern (with all due respect to Dr. Berg).  More information is available on these patterns on other posts on this blog, and more will be added in the future. For this article though, I simply want to make you aware of these basic patterns.

This brings me back to the concept of losing weight to get healthy.  In actuality, most people would do better to focus on getting healthy to lose weight.  For example, someone with a liver pattern will typically have an extremely difficult time losing weight because their excess weight is largely in the form of water retention. You can’t exercise away water retention and while diet is important to help the liver pattern, the wrong diet can actually make things worse.  Specifically, a high-protein program like the Atkins diet will almost always make someone with the liver pattern GAIN weight.  It will also tend to give them elevated cholesterol and triglyceride levels and increase their blood pressure.  This is not to say that the Atkins diet is a bad diet.  It’s just completely wrong for someone with the liver pattern.

Diet isn’t the only factor though that determines whether someone becomes healthy enough to lose weight.  Exercise is another big factor.  For example, the best type of exercise for someone with the thyroid pattern (high intensity, short duration exercise) would be the worst type of exercise for someone with the adrenal pattern.

When you know what to look for, the body will give you signs to tell you what’s wrong and what needs to be done to restore balance and health.  Once balance and health are restored, losing weight becomes a much easier process.

Stay tuned to my natural remedies blog for more on getting healthy to lose weight.

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As discussed in a previous post on fibromyalgia, it is my opinion based on over 15 years of clinical practice that fibromyalgia is not a single condition, but is in fact a set of symptoms that can be caused by one or more underlying problems.  With this in mind, it might seem strange that I am recommending a “fibromyalgia diet” if I don’t  think that fibromyalgia exists as a single condition.  What I am about to discuss is a “shotgun” approach to diet that will help alleviate many of the underlying causes for fibromyalgia symptoms, as well as provide an overall healthy diet that will help correct or prevent a host of other health problems.

The fibromyalgia diet comes down to controlling blood sugar, avoiding toxins and “endocrine disruptors”, and getting adequate nutrients.  Although it canbe difficult to change eating habits and follow the recommendations consistently, the rewards of making the effort can be well worth it to someone who suffers from the chronic pain and other symptoms of fibromyalgia. 

For some people, changing to this type of diet all at once is the most effective way to get the job done, but for many people, the changes are too overwhelming to do all at once.  For those of you in the second group, this is not an “all or nothing” situation.  ANY improvements you can make are worthwhile and will be helpful.  So if you need to take some time to gradually shift over to the recommended diet, that’s OK.  And even if you can’t ever switch completely over to the eating recommendations that follow, I think you’ll find that what improvements you do make will help your condition.

Controlling blood sugar is accomplished by means of two main things:  avoiding excess carbohydrates (particularly refined carbohydrates like sweets, bread, cereal, pasta, etc.) and eating smaller, more frequent meals.  So, what is excess carbohydrates?  As a general rule, I recommend keeping the intake of refined carbohydrates to a maximum of about 25 grams per day (Yes - per DAY, not per meal!).  That’s about the amount in a single slice of bread, and less than what you would get in just a couple of ounces of pasta or cereal.  In fact, it’s a lot less than what you get in a single 12-ounce soda!  To keep things simple, it’s best to just avoid anything made with sugar or flour altogether.  This can take a lot of getting used to for some people, and some people just can’t stop themselves from eating carbs.  Again, do what you can to decrease the refined carbs in your diet, and every little bit counts!  Carbohydrates from fresh or frozen vegetables can be eaten in unlimited amounts and fresh (or unsweetened frozen) fruits can be eaten in moderation (no more than a single piece of fruit or a cup of sliced fruit in one sitting).

Eating smaller amounts more frequently will help keep your blood sugar more level and prevent “crashes” which can make you feel fatigued and increase the perception of pain.  A solid breakfast, lunch, and dinner with a couple of snacks thrown in will be much better for blood sugar control than skipping breakfast and then eating a large meal at lunch and/or dinner. 

The second major aspect of the fibromyalgia diet is to avoid toxins and “endocrine disruptors”.  “Endocrine disruptors” are various chemicals and toxins that interfere with the normal function of your body’s hormones.  Many of these endocrine disruptors have effects similar to estrogen in the body, and can promote generalized inflammation and weight gain by interfering with the effects of important hormones, such as those from the thyroid and adrenal glands.  Most of these chemicals are eaten as either artificial ingredients in prepared food products, pesticides and other chemicals on fresh produce, and synthetic hormones contained in meat and dairy products. 

In general, the more foods you eat that are as close to possible to their natural, unprocessed state, and grown/raised with organic methods, the lower your exposure to these toxins will be, and the better your body will function.  The basic recommendations here are to avoid processed foods (particularly those with artificial flavors and/or colors), eat primarily organically-grown vegetables and fruits, and to eat “natural” (raised without hormones) meats (”free-range” or grass-fed is even better), and if you consume dairy, choose organic dairy products which are produced without r-BGH (recombinant bovine growth hormone).

If you are following the first two steps, you are already well on your way to satisfying the third part of the fibromyalgia diet.  By eating mostly fresh vegetables and fruits, and eating naturally-produced meats and dairy products, you will already be consuming a diet that is high in vitamins, minerals, and fiber.  Some people may need to use nutritional supplementation as well, especially if they are having difficulty following the above recommendations, but that is a topic for a future post. 

Fo those who are unable to follow all of the recommendations for one reason or another, I think the biggest priorities are to reduce refined carbohydrate intake and avoid artificial ingredients as much as possible.  By simply removing a lot of the processed foods from the diet, great improvements in fibromyalgia symptoms can be seen.

One final word on the fibromyalgia diet:  No matter how much or how little you follow the recommendations that have been given, it will probably take some time to notice a positive change in your fibromyalgia symptoms.  In fact, some people may actually feel WORSE when they first switch to a healthier diet for a couple of reasons.  First, because most people will begin to lose weight and burn fat when they begin eating better, toxins may be released from the fat tissues as they are burned.  Second, many food additives are thought to have addictive qualities and can produce withdrawl symptoms for a short time after you stop consuming them.  Finally, it may take a few days for your body’s blood sugar control to balance out if you suddenly switch from a mostly-carbohydrate diet to a very low carbohydrate diet.  Once your body adapts to the changes, things will improve, but it may take a couple of months to notice a big reduction in the symptoms of fibromyalgia.

Stay tuned to my natural remedies blog for more natural fibromyalgia treatment tips.

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