Alzheimer’s Disease, Memory, and Hormones

It is predicted that by the year 2050, 14 million people in the United States will have Alzheimer’s disease. It is a type of dementia with cognitive decline.

        

The exact cause of Alzheimer’s is unknown. It may be a combination of factors, different for every individual, that contribute to the disease. During your lifetime, you lose approximately 20% of your brain cells, but in Alzheimer’s Disease brain cell death is so extensive that the brain can no longer direct the your bodily activities.

           

The chances of acquiring Alzheimer’s disease increases with age. Two to six percent of the population over age 65 is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Half of the population over age 85 has Alzheimer’s, and it is responsible for half the nursing home admissions in the United States.

           

Alzheimer’s is more common in women, and is four times greater if someone in your family has the disease.  In the early stages, a person becomes increasingly forgetful and has difficulty carrying out complex thought processes. The onset can take one to ten years with severe and continual decline for which no other cause can be identified.

           

Contributing factors to the disease may be genetic predisposition, abnormal calcium regulation in the brain cells, or toxic levels of aluminum, lead, iron, or some other heavy metal in the body. Malnutrition, decreased blood flow to the brain, extensive free radical damage, and environmental toxins also can have an effect.

           

Alzheimer’s patients have abnormal fibrils surrounding the brain cells eventually ensnarling the brain cells until they die. There are also dead cellular waste products called senile plaques composed of beta-amyloid.

           

Cognitive decline is not hopeless or inevitable. You can improve the circuitry in your brain by eating wisely, taking appropriate vitamins, minerals, and smart medications, exercising your body and mind, balancing your hormones, and controlling your response to stress in your life.  Certain pharmaceuticals (sedatives, painkillers, and anti-depressants like Valium, Darvon, Percodan, and Elavil), alcohol, cigarette smoking, environmental toxins, and allergic substances can harm the brain and should be avoided. Keep your brain busy and active to improve memory, awareness, alertness, and concentration.

 

Hormone replacement is important in preventing Alzheimer’s disease.

 

Hormones That Prevent and Improve Alzheimer’s Disease

 

Growth Hormone improves memory, mood, anxiety, tension, vigor, and cognitive performance. Growth hormone improves memory in Alzheimer’s disease.

 

It increases glucose utilization, neurogenesis, and blood vessels in brain. It decreases beta-amyloid neurotoxicity, especially in hippocampus.

 

The first improvement is in 2-4 months. The last improvement is in the next 3 years.

 

 

Melatonin deficiency can cause memory loss. Deficiency in melatonin produces reduced anti-oxidant activity in the brain. It protects the brain against toxic free radical damage.

 

 

Pregnenolone is a neurosteroid synthesized in the brain, neurons, and peripheral nerves by the neurons. Deficiency causes decreased memory and attention. Alzheimer’s patients have low pregnenolone.

 

Pregnenolone increases memory, increases spatial memory, decreases alcohol amnesia, and benzodiazepam (Valium, Versed, triazolam) amnesia.

 

It increases acetylcholine in the hippocampus, and decreases beta amyloid and glutamate neurotoxicity.

 

 

Thyroid Hormone – decreased thyroid hormone causes increased memory loss. Deficiency can also slow down mood reaction, fatigue, depression, excessive nervousness, decreased IQ, decreased attention, decreased space orientation, slow thinking, short and long memory loss, and decreased cognitive function. Alzheimer’s patients have low thyroid hormone.

 

Characteristics of thyroid memory loss are worse in the morning or inactivity, better in the evening, and slow to find word.

 

Mechanisms of memory enhancement with thyroid hormone are increased brain blood flow, increased brain excitability, increased dendrites and synapses.

 

With treatment, first improvement is in 2-4 months, and last improvement is in the next 8-12 months.

 

 

DHEA  - decreased serum DHEA causes increased memory loss. Alzheimer’s disease patients have decreased DHEA. DHEA therapy increases memory. It improves mood in depression and may protect against Alzheimer’s disease.

 

Mechanism of protection is that it enhances the survival and differentiation of neurons and glial cells by increasing the expression of protein.

 

It takes 4-6 months to get the first memory improvement. The last improvement is in the next 8 months.

 

 

Cortisol – decreased or increased cortisol can cause memory loss.

 

There is more memory loss during stress, especially at the end of the day. Memory is paralyzed or confused in stress situations, especially short term memory when you feel overwhelmed by what is happening and may have dramatized reactions. Improvement may occur in 24 hours with cortisone supplementation. The last improvement is in 2-3 months.

 

Chronic stress and increased cortisol can rob the brain cells and neurotransmitters of glucose causing brain cell death. Too much cortisol can damage your neuro-endocrine system which is the connection between your mind and body.

 

 

Estrogen – Decreased estrogen causes increased memory loss, disturbances of mood (depression, fatigue, poor libido), poor concentration.

Estrogen deficiency decreases the blood supply to the brain and reduces EEG electrical activity. Estrogen replacement reduces the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease. Estrogen increases memory in women, increases visual memory in men.

 

Characteristics of memory loss is short and long term memory poor throughout the day, permanent memory loss,  and talks less.

 

Estrogen increases brain blood flow, increases neuron connections, decreases  beta-amyloid production and neurotoxicity, decreases brain ischemia.

 

After treatment first improvement is in 2-4 months, last improvement occurs in the next 8-12 months.

 

Testosterone – memory loss is a frequent complaint of decreased testosterone. Alzheimer patients have decreased testosterone.  People with higher free testosterone have a lower incidence of Alzheimer’s. Testosterone improves memory in normal and Alzheimer patients. Testosterone improves learning, memory, spatial memory, mathematical performance.

 

Mechanism – increases neuron connections, increases the size and numbers of dendrites, increases the numbers of connections between neurons. Decreased testosterone causes decreased estrogen which produces cognitive complaints. Testosterone increases brain blood perfusion, decreases beta-amyloid secretion, and decreases beta-amyloid toxicity.

 

Memory loss from testosterone deficiency is worse in the second half of the day and after physical activity.  Memory is better in the morning. Hesitation with words is a characteristic of testosterone loss.

 

First improvement with treatment is 2-4 months. Last improvement is in the next 8-12 months.

 

If you are having memory problems or fear Alzheimer’s disease, it is crucial to have your hormones checked, and replaced if deficient.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Women to Women - Not Hormone Help, Just Vitamins

 

When you search Google for “bioidentical hormones”, what’s the first site to come up? It’s Women to Women. I find this astounding because Women to Women has nothing to do with bioidentical hormones.

“Women to Women” is a vitamin sales website that proclaims it’s devoted to women’s health. They say they use phytotherapy to achieve natural hormone balance. So what is phytotherapy? It’s vitamins and herbs. On Women to Women, they are basically saying you can rebalance your hormones with vitamins.

Hormones decline in women because our ovaries shut down with age. There is no vitamin in the universe that will bring back ovarian function or hormones once in the process of menopause.   Some vitamins may improve your symptoms and improve health, but no vitamin can replace the beneficial functions of estradiol, progesterone, or testosterone. As far as balancing your hormones, eventually they will all be balanced by being gone, and no vitamin will prevent that!

Don’t get me wrong. I am a devoted believer in using vitamins to help treat many problems including adrenal fatigue, adrenal stress, thyroid problems, hypertension, high cholesterol, osteoporosis and a number of other disorders. Vitamins and herbs can overall improve our general health.  But without hormones to direct your cells functioning, vitamins are limited in what they can do.  The fact is that you need both hormones and vitamins, and the way you get hormones just like with vitamins, is with replacement! Hormones can totally relieve your symptoms and keep you healthy. Vitamins, even with diet and exercise, cannot do this.

Women to Women has an extensive library of many legitimate disorders and there is a lot of good information there. However, most every conclusion is that there is no good hormonal treatment and the best treatment is to use their vitamins. Admittedly, those writing the articles are very skillful in coming round to this conclusion, but be aware that  the people writing the articles are nurses without any specialized hormone training, not doctors with bioidentical hormone training.

The fact is Women to Women is basically a site dedicated to making money by selling vitamins to women who are suffering from menopause. Granted vitamins may mildly and usually temporarily improve some symptoms of menopause like hot flashes, but they falsely claim that women can “rebalance women’s hormones without the use of drugs”.  O.K. I agree with balancing your hormone without the use of drugs; that is, without the use of pharmaceutical drugs like the synthetic hormones Premarin and Provera (HRT), but bioidentical hormones (BHRT) are not drugs. They are natural hormones with the exact same molecular structure as in the human body.

Women to Women goes on to say “We have found that about 85% can find relief through an approach that combines medical-grade nutritional supplements, gentle endocrine support, and dietary and lifestyle changes.” Relief of what and for how long? This is a fundamental misunderstanding or misrepresentation of menopause and hormone imbalance.

Menopause is a hormone deficiency of estrogen and progesterone caused by ovarian failure and cessation of ovulation that is genetically dictated by our life cycle. How can you balance hormones that are not there? Vitamins will not put back your hormones or keep you ovulating until you are 90. The symptoms, aging, and decline of menopause are due to losing your hormones. As you become deficient, the only remedy is to replace your hormones.

Estrogen is the woman’s hormone for health. It has 400 functions in the human female body. It is responsible for heart health, eye health, brain health, and bone health. When estrogen is started early (at least in your 50’s) the medical literature has shown it can help prevent heart disease, osteoporosis, cataracts, macular degeneration (blindness), Alzheimer’s disease, depression, colon cancer, wasting of our genital tissues, urinary leakage, cholesterol problems, loss of sexual desire, loss of skin beauty, loss of memory and other things. (Estrogen-Natural Bioidentical Hormone Replacement) The current medical literature has shown that bioidentical hormones are safe. They do not cause breast cancer. To prevent disease, bioidentical hormones need to be used on a long terms basis. At least 10 years use is needed to prevent Alzheimer’s. Current bioidentical experts recommend lifelong use to stay healthy and vital.

Women to Women has said bioidentical hormones are not the fountain of youth. Well that may be. None of us will get younger with hormones (except maybe with growth hormone), but we don’t have to experience the disorders of aging either that are more likely to occur without our sex hormones. Progesterone has its very own functions (Progesterone Deficiency) and is necessary to balance estrogen.

Women to Women staff  comes from a sect of alternative medicine that believes in aging naturally by allowing your hormones to decline and only alleviating, if necessary,  the symptoms (hot flashes, night sweats, etc.) of this slow and painful decline. But what about the diseases that occur due to hormone loss like Alzheimer’s, osteoporosis, and colon cancer? Why not try to prevent these diseases by replacing our hormones?

Women to Women recommends using vitamins first to treat the symptoms of menopause (remember vitamins don’t put hormone back). Why? Well maybe because they sell vitamins…that’s their business. They do not recommend bioidentical hormones. Why? Well, because they can’t sell a pharmacy product online with the click of a button and a charge of the card, and that would put their vitamin business out of business. Their articles minimize Suzanne Somers’s writings and claim that she is in the minority of women needing replacement. Why? Maybe because she writes about bioidentical hormones as the basis of health, and again, they can’t sell hormones online.

Let the buyer beware. The formula used by Women to Women is not anything special and can be easily duplicated at a lower cost. Their lifestyle coaching might prove beneficial if personal support is your goal

What’s my problem with all this? The vitamins won’t hurt, right? Wrong. It shakes confidence in real medical treatment, deters seeking treatment, and is a financial drain. I have had several patients that have come to me after trying Women to Women’s program which did not work. They spent a large amount of money with Women to Women without relief (of course you have to do the 3 month program). This financial loss discouraged and inhibited them from seeking medical advice from doctors trained in hormone replacement therapy. For about the same price of their premium plan you can get bioidentical hormones for replacement from a pharmacy.

So how does Women to Women get to the top of Google search for bioidentical hormones? They spend huge amounts of money on advertising with Google Adwords for one thing. In addition they have a large amount of content on their website which pushes them up in the page rankings.

There is a way to actually balance and replace your hormones that really works and has immediate and long term benefits – and that is natural bioidentical hormone replacement!

 

The Sciton Laser - Get Gorgeous Skin

There are many lasers to choose from today like Fraxel, Active Fx, Palomar’s Starluxe, CoolTouch, and many others. The Sciton Laser, which has various wavelengths for skin tightening, pore refinement, redness and pigmentation,can be used to combine and overlap treatments, producing superior, unparalleled results.

Now you can have younger looking, healthier feeling skin with a popular new treatment – the Contour™ MicroLaserPeel™.

 

Does this sound like you?” I’ve always been active. Years ago I was

unaware of the effects of sun and wind on my skin. Although I don’t feel as old as I

sometimes look I’m not ready for surgery or a long recovery process, but I’d love to look as young as I feel!”

 

The “weekend” skin peel, the MicroLaserPeel, treats skin conditions associated with aging and an active lifestyle. You can see real improvements in just a few days.

 

What is the MicroLaserPeel? It is an intra-epidermal laser peel that precisely ablates the outermost layers of the skin. The procedure is individually tailored to the nature of the condition to be corrected. Skin conditions such as: wrinkles, scars, acne scars, keratoses, or pigmentary problems have been very successfully treated with a MicroLaserPeel.

 

Who Should Consider a MicroLaserPeel? If you are looking for more than microdermabrasion or light chemical peels, and have little time for a prolonged healing process, then the MicroLaserPeel was designed for you.

 

How is the MicroLaserPeel different from Microdermabrasion? Generally, microdermabrasion only removes the stratum corneum (10 microns).The MicroLaserPeel is a partial- to-full epidermal peel (20-50 microns) and is performed with topical anesthetic. Because this procedure ablates deeper into the epidermis, it is the perfect step between microdermabrasion and full skin resurfacing like the well known CO2 laser which requires general anesthesia and causes months of redness, loss of pigment, and sometimes gives a waxy look to the skin. None of these problems are present with the MicroLaserPeel, and it can be performed of the face, neck, chest, and hands unlike the CO2 laser.

 

How many MicroLaserPeels can be done? Typically, the procedure is repeated 2-4 times, spaced 6-8 weeks apart, but many peels may be done to achieve the desired result.

 

What can you expect? You will experience smoother, healthier, more vibrant skin, with a significant, immediate change in skin texture and tightness as compared to microdermabrasion.

 

How long is the healing process? Healing takes 3-4 days. The procedure can be performed on a Thursday or Friday, so you can return to work the following Monday. Symptoms immediately following the procedure resemble a sunburn, with minor peeling on the second day.Redness will begin to fade by the third day, and be easily covered by makeup on the fourth day.

 

What can MicroLaserPeel do for you? “My skin is softer, smoother and more supple after my MicroLaserPeel.”says R.L., CALIFORNIA. “I love the subtle improvements instead of a radical change,” says C.M., FLORIDA. “My friends have noticed a difference after just one MLP!” remarks D.C., VIRGINIA. “The improvement in the tone and texture of my skin is obvious!” exclaims L.D., TEXAS.

 

A Sciton Laser is the most advanced and versatile laser technology currently available. One laser can do many different procedures under topical anesthesia. Combining procedures can accelerate improvement and produce fantastic results.

 

For a better look, we combine a MicroLaserPeel with an intense pulse light treatment called photorejuvenation or photofacial done with broad band light or BBL. This is great for people with brown or red spots who want to get rid of this pigment and get a fantastic finish to their skin. BBL is also a great stand alone treatment for brown spots or redness.

 

For those with wrinkles we combine the MicroLaserPeel with our advanced Fraxyl technology called Profractional. This is especially effective for lines and wrinkles around the mouth and eyes.

           

Remember, the skin of your face is like the canvas of a painting. Improve the quality of your skin to accentuate the beauty of your face. You can do it with Sciton laser procedures!

 

 

MicroLaserPeel and Profractional Under Eyes

 

Botox

Botox is the most widely used facial injectable. A lifetime of facial expressions keeps some facial muscles in a more contracted state and wears down the collagen in overlying skin creating lines. Botox is used to relax and temporarily remove  hyper-dynamic facial wrinkles. These appear where there is the most facial movement of expression: above the nose between the eyes (glabella), around he lower outer eyes (crow’s feet), forehead lines, peri-oral lines around the lips, bunny lines at the bridge of the nose, and squint lines at the inner corners of the eyes. A Botox injection relaxes the underlying muscle and virtually eliminates the line. Studies have shown that with continued use, there is new formation

of collagen in the crease and elimination of the lines.

 

Another great use of Botox is to relax hyper-contracted muscle that give the face and neck an aged look. Marionette lines and creases at the corners of the mouth can give it a down-turned, angry look with creases at the corners reminiscent of a marionette’s mouth. Well placed injections of Botox releases the muscles pulling down on the corners of the mouth, reversing the down-turned mouth look, and giving a more youthful appearance. Remember, in youth, features are generally pointing up not down. Facial filler may also be necessary to correct marionette lines.

 

Neck cords appear as sinew-like, vertical tissue in the neck. They are usually most prominent with smiling, facial expression, and neck movement. They appear as cords of tissue from the base of the jaw down the neck. These are neck muscles in a hyper-contracted state. Botox can erase this unsightly, aged look without weakness or change in function, producing a smooth, youthful neck.

 

“Jelly rolls” under the eyes are caused by increased muscle mass in the lower lid. This can be relaxed with Boot creating a smoother look.

 

Dimpled chins with an orange peel look can easily be relaxed and smoothed with Botox as well.

 

Custom effects, such as a mini –brow lift can be achieved with Botox, and can achieve a more feminine arched brow. Well-placed Botox around the mouth can enhance lip fullness. It can also be used in a dilute form to firm the skin.

  

Facial imperfections and asymmetries such as “gummy” smiles that show too much teeth and gums can be corrected with Botox.  In addition, it can be used to correct asymmetrical smiles, eyebrows, jaws, and facial movements.

 

 Botox is also used to treat excessive underarm or hand sweating by injecting it into the troublesome area.

 

The approved indication for Botox is for frown lines. Other uses are advanced applications and should be administered by health care professionals well-trained in the use of Botox.

 

Botox lasts from 3-6 months, and needs to be repeated to maintain the desired effect, but the results are well worth it.

 

Glabella