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!

 

Heather Locklear - Hormone Imbalance?

 

 

Heather Locklear was arrested yesterday for driving under the influence of a controlled substance, presumably the pharmaceutical medication she is taking for anxiety and depression.

 

In July, she spent a month in a spa-like treatment facility in Arizona for anxiety and depression. Articles implied she was already on medication and needed it adjusted. Certainly her recent public divorce is a reason for situational depression.

 

With all due respect, I have one question. Has Heather had her hormones checked?  Now this might bring a collective groan, but think about it. Locklear is almost 47, well into the perimenopause and hormone loss. She looks young and beautiful, but our bodies have a relentless “biological clock” that cannot be ignored. We know that testosterone and progesterone are the first hormones to decline. Testosterone is linked to maintaining emotional shield and may prevent panic attacks. Progesterone deficiency causes irritability, mood swings, depression, and insomnia. Progesterone has a calming effect on the body by stimulating the calming GABA receptors in the brain. Add a little loss of estrogen which stimulates calming serotonin production (the same as those antidepressants are supposed to be doing), and emotional lability, weepiness, and depression can follow.

 

The FDA has warned that anti-depressants may increase depression and suicidality.

 

Medications like hormonal birth control or Prempro only make matters worse because progestins in these medications inhibit the production of the body’s progesterone and occupy progesterone receptors. I have had several patients lately on hormonal birth control come in with depression. They are on things like Mirena and Nuvaring, both of which secrete potent progestins (not progesterone) in the circulation that occupy progesterone receptors and deplete progesterone thereby preventing the calming effect of progesterone and natural hormonal balance. This effect may be more pronounced as we get older, since we are also losing our progesterone by our ovaries beginning to shut down. Post-partum depression is associated with a drop in progesterone after childbirth. Giving progesterone post-partum can prevent this depression.

 

Stress makes matters worse. When we have stress our adrenal glands increase our production of cortisol which is our hormone that controls our daily sleep-wake cycle and our fight or flight response. The body will use all its resources to make cortisol, a hormone we cannot live without.  The body uses progesterone to help make cortisol, so stress situations may make progesterone levels lower. This may be the connection between stress and infertility. Chronic stress gives way to fatigue as the body struggles to keep up with the stress demand. Both adrenal stress and fatigue can further intensify depression through fluctuations in cortisol and progesterone. Relaxation may allow temporary improvement, but the perimenopausal body still continues its relentless progesterone and estrogen decline.

 

Suzanne Somers’s has called anti-depressants, sleeping pills, and pain medicine, the “menopause cocktail”. As a former member of that club, I can attest to the truth of it. Initially, being uninformed and thinking I was still “young”, I did not put it together. It was only through proactive seeking that I found what was missing and that was my hormones. I recommend a good reading of Suzanne Somers’s “Breakthrough”. With bioidentical hormone replacement we can treat the underlying cause of our mid-life perimenopausal emotional changes and be ourselves again.

 

I have treated women who were able to throw their antidepressants and sleeping pills away and say “bye-bye” to their therapists once their hormone were replaced and balanced with bioidentical hormones.

 

Heather, check it out. Your body is changing and yes, you are getting older and losing your hormones. It happens to all of us. Replace and balance your hormones with bioidenticals and you might be able to get off all that pharmaceutical, controlled substance stuff, save yourself the embarrassment of negative publicity and mug shots, and be your lovely self again. What have you got to lose?

 

 

 

 

 

Suzanne Somers’ New Book “Breakthrough”

     I must admit, I have always been a big fan of Suzanne Somers! I watched her religiously on “Three’s Company” as she delighted viewers with her comic talent and endeared herself to America. She was sorely missed when no longer on the show, and I for one, didn’t continue watching without her. Suzanne continued to be loved by her fans, and make greater contributions. She alone among celebrities has had the intelligence and courage to step up and openly question current healthcare and advocate for a better way.  

     It’s more than that for me. Quite  honestly, Suzanne saved my life! Retired with insomnia, fatigue, pain, depression, chronic sinusitis, and you-name-it, I didn’t want to live another 30+ years feeling that way. My docotr said, “You’re healthy, you’re just getting old!”, but I couldn’t accept that. I had heard about Suzanne’s health books and picked up a copy of “The Sexy Years”, and my life was transformed. I started taking and studying biodentical hormones and nutritional supplements and began a new life!

    Suzanne Somers has always been on the cutting edge of healthcare! She has a tremendous grasp of the subject, but her truly great gift is being able to transmit that knowledge in an easy to understand fashion. Her latest book, “Breakthrough” continues that tradition, while greatly expanding on important health information. 

    This book is the most advanced book Suzanne has written yet because she is keeping up with a rapidly advancing field. She adeptly covers every aspect of anti-aging medicine and features expert mentors at the forefront of the field including giants like Dr. Ron Rothenberg, Dr. Thirerry Hertoghe, Dr. Eric Braverman and Dr. Jonathan Wright. These doctors have years of experience in addition to basing all their practice on information in current medical studies published in peer-reviewed medical literature.

     A very useful aspect of the book is that Ms. Somers organizes the information into eight steps to wellness and then elaborates on each one. She tells you exactly what it takes and what you have to do to maintain vibrant health! Then she goes beyond this information to give additional insurance for longevity like stem cell banking. As she elaborates on each step, she uses interviews with the experts in this field. I have attended many lectures by many of these doctors and continue to be impressed with their knowledge, integrity, and scientific approach to the subject.

    It is very valuable that Suzanne represents wellness as a group of things you have to do on a consistent basis instead of a quick fix. We are too oriented to taking a pharmaceutical that will cure all our problems. Health is a process and a journey that requires a set of consistent actions and attention. It is telling that bioidentical hormone replacement (BHRT) is her first step, because it is basic to all good health by telling our cells what to do and keeping them healthy.

     The information in this book is advanced medical knowledge that is not commonly know by the usual medical practitioner. Most of the information in this book is not taught in medical school and must be sought out by the medical practitioner who currently barely has time to see patients. Remember most of modern medical practice is disease based, so if you do not have a disease, but do not feel well, there is nothing your doctor knows to do for you. If you have a disease, medicine has tunnel vision of treating only the disorder without regards to the underlying cause or healthy options.  Thank goodness for the medical vanguard in this book who are leading the way to a new concept of health and wellness. 

     If you are experiencing symptoms of hormone loss and aging or just want to maintain the best health you can, then “Breakthrough” is essential information to be read carefully and completely.