• 18May

  The Thyroid

  Andropause, Anti-aging, Bioidentical Hormones, Estradiol, Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT), Menopause, Pellets, Progesterone, Research, Symptoms, Testosterone, Thyroid, Treatment No Comments

  How the Thyroid effects the aging process.

  

  This episode of the Biobalance Healthcast discusses what the thyroid is and how it effects men and women as they age. Defined terms are Hypo-thyroidism which is a low thyroid and causes conditions such as swelling, constipation, a low basal temperature and infertility. Hyper-thyroidism is the opposite, and causes conditions like rapid weight gain, anxiety, nervousness, and increased heart rate. These both play an important role in diagnosing and treating the aging process in men and women.

  Tags: estrogen, hormone, HRT, Menopause, testosterone, Thyroid

• 10May

  Incontinence Part 2

  Andropause, Anti-aging, Bioidentical Hormones, Estradiol, Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT), Menopause, Pellets, Progesterone, Symptoms, Testosterone, Treatment No Comments

  Telling the difference between stress incontinence and irritable bladder.

  

  In this episode I continue our discussion about stress incontinence in women who have had vaginal births. Brett and I talk about the differences between other types of incontinence and how to treat them.

  Tags: estrodial, estrogen, hormone replacement therapy, incontinence, Pellets, stress, testosterone

• 23Apr

  The Cost of Hormone Replacement Therapy

  Andropause, Anti-aging, Bioidentical Hormones, Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT), Medical Care, Pellets, Testosterone, Treatment No Comments

  Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) compares favorably to other anti-aging treatments.

  

  Episode 75 of the BioBalance Healthcast covers the cost of bioidentical hormone replacement therapy for both men and women. Brett Newcomb and I compare the cost of hormone pellets with the cost of treatments for age-related health problems that occur when you don’t have your hormones balanced. The truth is that the difference is minimal, and often, HRT is less than the total cost of traditional medicines and treatments.
• 13Apr

  Progesterone and the Cascade of Aging

  Bioidentical Hormones, Depression, Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT), Menopause, Pellets, Progesterone, Research, Symptoms, Testosterone, Treatment No Comments

  How the loss of progesterone can affect your health.

  

  As women age, hormone levels—including progesterone—begins to decrease. In this episode of the BioBalance Healthcast we talk about this decrease which causes an imbalance in the estrogen levels. Without progesterone, estrogen increases and leads to fibroid tumors. These tumors lead to heavy bleeding and often, hysterectomies in peri-menopausal women. Progesterone is not needed by our bodies post-menopause with the drop of estrogen levels. We cover the role progesterone plays in our body and how it effects us when it begins to decrease.

  Tags: biobalance, Bioidentical Hormones, estrogen, fibroids, history pellets, hormone, hormones, HRT, Menopause, PMS, progesterone, testosterone, therapy, women

• 06Apr

  Memory Loss, Dementia and Alzheimer’s

  Bioidentical Hormones, Dementia and Alzheimer's, Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT), Menopause, Pellets, Progesterone, Testosterone, Treatment No Comments

  With Age comes Cognitive Impairment.

  
   
  This podcast discusses memory loss, cognitive impairment, dementia and Alzheimer’s. There are some specific things that differentiate these conditions and some are more noticeable than others.

  Cognitive impairment is when you can’t remember names of people and places. You get confused, lost, often someone else has to end your sentences. It’s a problem with not being able to focus and concentrate. Often times it looks similar to A.D.D. It’s normal for married people to not notice this change in their memory because they have a partner that is able to remember things, finish thoughts and remind them of common information.

  When your memory loss gets to be so bad that you have trouble functioning, you need to be tested with MRI’s for Alzheimer’s and/or dementia. If your scans show brain shrinkage, then you have Alzheimer’s. Common symptoms of memory loss are exhaustion, lack of energy, diminished social relationships and problems with sexual relations because of diminished energy or desire.

  Often people are afraid to talk to a doctor about these symptoms because they don’t want to be told that they have Alzheimer’s and need to be institutionalized However, it is important to be tested. In women, with the replacement of testosterone, dementia can be offset for 10 years. In addition, with the replacement of estrogen dementia can be offset another 10 years. This equals 20 years that dementia can be offset by replacing testosterone and estrogen in women.

  For this reason it is important to have the early stages of memory loss examined in order to evaluate the best method of treatment and hormone therapy.
• 30Mar

  Research and the Aging Process

  Bioidentical Hormones, Medical Care, Research, Symptoms, Testosterone No Comments

  Research and the Aging Process

  
   
  This podcast discusses the proper way to sort through the enormous amount of information available to consumers. It’s important to know how to determine whether or not a study is reliable. In the world of medicine, research yields reports that are then publicized. Quite often, consumers can’t tell what should and shouldn’t be taken seriously.

  The steps to investigating research information begin with making sure you’re looking at it retrospectively; understanding that you are often looking at data that has already been created. Many published studies are using information that has been collected for an entirely different study and applying it to meet their own hypothesis.

  A common term in research is “data mining”. This is when a source working to create a study, searches data that has already been created. A database that is commonly used is the census bureau. Scientists create a thesis based on information that they collect. This doesn’t make a study less reliable. It does however mean you need to be careful and read closely. Usually when health studies are published, the results apply to a very small window of people. There are many factors that cancel out individuals and change the results.

  An article in the Journal of the American Medical Association published a study about men getting mild cognitive impairment during middle age. The article stated that men are more likely to get it than women. I however don’t agree with this as I have research that says 62% of midlife women have this condition. In investigating this study further I saw that the women they studied were 70 years old and had no cognitive impairment. The problem is that by 70, women have already had MCI 30-40 years prior, so of course in testing, almost all of their subjects are going to present as not having MCI. The study is working with the wrong age group of women.

  Situations like this are why it’s important to have a skeptic mind when taking studies at face value. It’s important to ask questions and find all the facts before you assume that what you’re reading not only applies to you and your health but is even accurate information for anyone.
• 12Mar

  Breast Cancer and HRT

  Bioidentical Hormones, Breast Cancer, Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT), Menopause, Pellets, Testosterone No Comments

  How HRT can be used safely on breast cancer patients

  

  Many people question about the balance between HRT and Breast Cancer treatment and prevention. A study has shown that testosterone pellets are effective at decreasing symptoms that can’t be treated with estrogen in most breast cancers. The study used testosterone and arimdidex which is an aromatase inhibitor. It stops the aromatization (testosterone converting to estrogen and estrone.)

  Estrogen is a hormone that stimulates breast cancer. It is important to stop that process in breast cancer patients. In menopausal women that have a history of breast cancer, there is a concern of taking testosterone in fear of it creating more estrogen that may lead to the onset of cancer. However just like most things, there is a way to offer this treatment so as to control the outcomes. Testosterone can be administered to women without risking breast cancer.

  Pellets are the safest method of delivery because they create the least amount of estrogen. When this is combined with arimidex, there is no estrogen converted from testosterone. The results of the aforementioned study showed improvement in women’s menopausal symptoms. Also, none of the women had side effects from treatments or re-occurrence of breast cancer, and the cancer didn’t grow in three of the four women that had advanced stage breast cancer.

  If someone with a family or personal history of breast cancer gets this combined treatment early, they will significantly decrease their chances of getting breast cancer.

  Tags: breast cancer, estrogen, hormone replacement therapy, Pellets, testosterone

• 28Feb

  Steroids and Testosterone

  Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT), Testosterone No Comments

  There is a difference between anabolic steroids and testosterone.

  

  Three million Americans have admitted to using anabolic steroids. Most of them were professional athletes or teenagers. The use of anabolic steroids is completely different from the replacement of pure testosterone in HRT. Below I list ways to tell the difference.

  Definition: prescription drugs with the anabolic (growth stimulating) characteristics of testosterone.

  Differences between Testosterone Replacement and Anabolic steroids

  Reason for use

  • You can use almost any object of drug for good or for evil
  • Similar to the use of a knife: In one hand it can be used to cut up vegetables, fruit or meat for a meal, but when used for evil it can be used to murder another human being.

  Age of user

  • Anabolic steroids are used by young healthy men to be MORE than they are normally, and replacement testosterone is used to replace pure testosterone to generally older men who have lost their natural testosterone.

  Not doctor prescribed

  • ANABOLIC STEROIDS are usually acquired on the internet from foreign countries. They are not difficult to obtain, or expensive
  • 2% of all doctors may not be ethical, and obtain anabolic steroids for patients who will pay them, without regard to the future health of the patient
  • Dosages are exceeded.

  Types of steroid used

  • Anadrol (Oxymetholone)—meant to treat anemias
  • Oxandrin (oxandrolone)—meant to promote weight gain in frail patients
  • Dianabol (methandrostenolone)—no indications
  • Winstrol (Stanozol)—treatment of hereditary anemias
  • Deca-Durbolin (Nandrolone decanote)—treatment of anemia with renal insufficiency
  • Equipose (Boldenone undecylenate) –Veterinary (horse) steroid
  • THG (Tetrahydrogestrinone)—banned

  Side effects of the anabolic steroids that are permanent and severe, and not seen with pure testosterone is

  • Increased heart attack
  • High blood pressure
  • Liver cancer (oral anabolic steroids)
  • Tumors
  • Infertility
  • Breast development
  • Severe acne and cysts
  • Rage aggression
  • Mania
  • Delusions
  • Adrenal impairment
• 24Feb

  Sarcopenia (Muscle Loss)

  Anti-aging, Medical Care, Symptoms, Testosterone No Comments

  Sarcopenia—the loss of muscle mass—occurs as testosterone drops.

  

  In episode 67 of the BioBalance Healthcast we cover Sarcopenia (loss of muscle mass) which leads to frailty and nursing home care after long-term testosterone deprivation. This discussion is based on a chapter in my book title I Want What She’s Having, to be released later this year. The following text is an except from the draft manuscript.

  This is a tough concept for most of us who are currently healthy and independent, however we women, the caretakers of ourselves and most of society, will have to give this problem consideration when deciding whether testosterone replacement is for us, long before we have the signs of “sarcopenia” and “frailty”. I suggest you consider an investment in testosterone replacement, beginning after 40, as an investment much like “long-term-care-insurance”.

  Here’s the order of failing health related to muscle loss that occurs as we age:

  1. Loss of Testosterone
  2. Loss of muscle mass and strength
  3. Frailty, Poor Posture
  4. Fatigue and Imbalance
  5. Falls, Fractures, Poor Healing
  6. Inability for women to live independently
  7. Nursing Home Admission

  I was like most of my patients, the caretaker of my mother while her body deteriorated. Her experience followed the timeline above, and frailty was the final and last blow. Following her journey inspired me to investigate what I could do to avoid the same disintegration of muscles, bones, and mind, and to insure that I can live independently, for as long as I live. Frailty stole her independence. She never anticipated living as long as she did (92), and expected to die before her body withered away.

  This perspective made me realize that life should be lived as if we will live for a long time, saving our bodies liveliness we save our money, to support us for the long run. The one way I have found that will protect us from the future of our mothers is the replacement of testosterone, at the least, and all of our missing hormones (estrogen, thyroid, and possibly Growth Hormone) at the most!
• 14Feb

  Progesterone and PMS

  Bioidentical Hormones, Pellets, Progesterone, Symptoms, Testosterone, Treatment No Comments

  Progesterone: The Second Domino to Fall after Testosterone

  

  Premenstrual Syndrome

  PMS is the butt of many jokes but for those of us who have had this condition, it is no laughing matter. It has been ignored for years by the medical community, and is currently treated by prescribing the treatment of only one of the multiple symptoms, depression. This prescription is one of various anti-depressants, which has minimal effect on most patients with PMS.

  Because of the ineffectiveness of the standard, anti-depressant therapy, there are multiple therapies that have partial effect on most patients when they have a very effective treatment at hand—bio-identical progesterone given in the second half of the cycle.

  Option for PMS treatment can be any or all of the following:

  • Natural progesterone during days 14–28 of the menstrual cycle;
  • Progesterone pellets that give a constant low dose of progesterone
  • Oral contraceptives;
  • Testosterone treatment—non-oral, or pellet
  • Antidepressants such as Sarafem, Wellbutrin, Effexor, Prozac

  Sidebar: it is amazing to experience the relief that women feel when they are told that there is a natural cause and an effective treatment for this disorder. They are so happy to hear that they are not crazy and that being emotional wrecks is not due to some character flaw in women but rather is due to a chemical or hormonal imbalance that is treatable. Success is beautiful!

  Progesterone Therapy with Bioidentical Progesterone

  The most effective PMS treatment or progesterone deficiency, treatment is non-oral dosing of bio-identical progesterone. There are several important guidelines that make progesterone more effective and have fewer side-effects.

  Premenstrual Syndrome

  PMS is the butt of many jokes but for those of us who have had this condition, it is no laughing matter. It has been ignored for years by the medical community, and is currently treated by prescribing the treatment of only one of the multiple symptoms, depression. This prescription is one of various anti-depressants, which has minimal effect on most patients with PMS.

  Because of the ineffectiveness of the standard, anti-depressant therapy, there are multiple therapies that have partial effect on most patients when they have a very effective treatment at hand—bio-identical progesterone given in the second half of the cycle.

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