Ageless: The Naked Truth About Bioidentical Hormones (43 page)

We know that testosterone gets converted to estrogen by an enzyme called aromatase, especially in men who are overweight. We try to block aromatase with chrysin in a cream form and also with zinc
and vitamin C. By doing so, we are maximizing testosterone, preventing its conversion to estrogen, and at the same time treating the prostate.

SS:
What does the future hold for antiaging medicine?

MG:
The big hope is stem cell therapy, in which stem cells (cells that are capable of becoming all or many of the different kinds of tissues in the human body) can be injected into the brain, the heart cells, or other parts of the body in order to get them to repair damaged cells.

As far as patients are concerned, I believe we can all live to be a hundred. When I ask my patients if they want that, they all say yes, but not if they are in a wheelchair or nursing home. People are now starting to realize that they are going to live longer. They are not going to be able to retire at sixty-five anymore. All insurance, including life insurance, is going to have to change drastically. In addition, there will be greater use of growth hormone in the future. Growth hormone enhances body proteins. It uses up fat storage, and it conserves carbohydrates. Growth hormone scares people, because they think it might fuel cancer growth, but it is really a metabolic hormone.

SS:
But shouldn’t you take growth hormone if it is low or missing?

MG:
Yes, but you should have a fasting blood test first. Growth hormone tapers off naturally with age, so most people’s growth hormones are low. When in range, it is at 130 to 350.

SS:
What else do growth hormones do for you? My son, Bruce, injects HGH every day because his blood tests showed that his levels were very low. He loves the way he feels on it, and he also has a six-pack abdomen since he’s been injecting.

MG:
Growth hormone has many benefits. It promotes wound healing, improves vitality and energy, reduces body fat, increases lean body mass, strengthens muscles, and improves skin elasticity.

SS:
Isn’t it in a state of hormonal imbalance that disease can take hold?

MG:
Yes, definitely, and also, if you look at the progression of disease as you grow older, you’re exposed to more toxins. Your liver, kidneys, and lymph system no longer have the strength to pull out the toxins. Consequently, toxins start to accumulate in your body. Then
your liver, kidneys, and lymph system call out to the glands for reinforcement. And they say to the glands, Come on, secrete more hormones and make us a little stronger.

Then the glands acquiesce and start secreting more adrenal hormones and thyroid hormones, but eventually the glands get tired. Ultimately, what happens is that you get a toxic body with very weak hormonal glands. And that’s your setup for chronic illness.

SS:
So it goes all the way back to where we started. By detoxifying the body of heavy metals, lead, mercury, and others, by strengthening the weakest major hormones and organs, whether they be adrenal, thyroid, the kidneys, or the pancreas, by replacing lost minor hormones, we can cut off at the pass the inevitable chronic illnesses that we were destined to have. That’s how antiaging medicine works. We don’t have to be sick just because we are old.

MG:
Correct. It takes effort and a knowledgeable doctor, but the results are fantastic. But you have to start as soon as you recognize the validity of all of this. We want to feel good. We want to have energy. We want to jump out of bed in the morning. We want to see our kids and our grandkids. This kind of medicine can give you what you really want. Just stay open and find a physician who can really help you.

SS:
I agree. Thank you.

DR. GALITZER’S TOP FIVE ANTIAGING RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Effective ways to increase energy are through intravenous vitamin C or intravenous glutathione.

2. One of the ways we ingest mercury (a harmful toxin) is by eating tuna and swordfish. You can help move mercury out of your system by eating chlorella prior to eating fish. Chlorella is a type of algae that is the world’s richest natural source of chlorophyll and is sold as a food supplement. Another way to neutralize mercury in the body is to supplement with selenium, 200 to 400 mcg a day.

3. An easy way to detoxify your liver is to take a lemon and squeeze the juice out of both halves in eight ounces of water every
morning. Other natural ways to detoxify the liver include consuming carrots, beets, zucchini, squash, watercress, and artichokes.

4. Choose organic foods for your diet. These includes meat, free-range chicken, and fish—proteins raised without antibiotics and hormones.

5. Prostate problems can be treated with herbs, including saw palmetto and the extract of giant redwoods. Redwood trees live forever, and redwood extract seems to be a male tonic that helps the prostate. Other nutrients also recommended for the prostate include vitamin E, selenium, fish oils, and zinc.

CHAPTER 22
D
R
. R
OBERT
G
REENE:
T
HE
E
NVIRONMENT AND
B
IOIDENTICAL
H
ORMONE
R
EPLACEMENT
T
HERAPY

Dr. Greene is one of the country’s leading hormone specialists and founder of the medical clinic Specialty Care for Women in Redding, California, which caters to the unique needs of women with hormonal imbalance. His research has been published in prestigious medical journals, including
Fertility and Sterility, The Female Patient, OB/GYN Clinics of North America,
and
The Aging Male.
He wrote the foreword to my book
The Sexy Years
and is the author of
Perfect Balance,
a book on hormone health. He is assistant professor at the University of California, Davis, School of Medicine and a genuinely nice guy. Dr. Greene’s website is
www.specialtycare4women.com
.

SS:
You are always on the forefront of cutting-edge medical information. What’s new?

RG:
One issue that is new is the rise in breast cancer in China: A 40 percent increase has been reported. This amazes me because in this country everyone points to synthetic hormones as the cause of breast cancer. In China, they don’t use those things.

SS:
But to what do they attribute this rise in breast cancer? Pollution?

RG:
Exactly. They have a big pollution problem. Their air is foul, and they are not conscious about chemicals and their effects on the body. Nor do these countries want to accept responsibility.

I don’t think we have made it clear that all pesticides, preservatives, and fake food (I call these “biomutagens”) are hormone-disrupting agents. They get into our bodies and do damage. Do you realize that in this country we actually consume about ten to twelve pounds of preservatives a year?

SS:
How can a body tolerate that?

RG:
The reality, Suzanne, is that we don’t. That’s why we have so many of the health problems that we have. It’s also an issue with the cosmetics we are using. A lot of chemicals and preservatives have slipped into these products when there are much safer and healthier cosmetics available.

SS:
I agree with you. I have started a line of organic cosmetics under my name. The skin is transdermal, it just makes sense; if we care about what we put into our bodies, we should be equally vigilant about what we put on our skin.

RG:
That’s wonderful. In my next book, I make the same point for my pregnant women, trying to impress upon them the effects of what they consume not only internally, but what they are putting on their skin.

When something is presented to the FDA as a new chemical or preservative to be added to food or to a cosmetic, the average time it takes to get that approval is three months. They accept these things under a category called GRAS (generally recognized as safe), meaning that it is safe until it is proven to be unsafe. That is scary.

Look at cigarettes, for example. They contain fifty-five different toxins, yet they are legal to sell. Did you know that when we consume a significant amount of nicotine, our bodies convert a lot of our estrogen into an antiestrogen? Called catechol estrogen, it has been shown to damage DNA and promote cancer. When I treat a smoker, even thin smokers typically, I need to give them a higher dosage of a bioidentical estrogen to relieve their symptoms, because their habit is converting into an antiestrogen.

SS:
Does this apply to marijuana? Let’s not kid ourselves; a lot of
the baby boomers are potheads. They are of menopausal age when sleep is all but impossible, and marijuana is putting a lot of people to sleep.

RG:
The biggest problem with marijuana is that because it is not regulated, there is no incentive to grow organic marijuana. So what are these people ingesting? In Mexico, where a lot of it comes from, it is sprayed with paraquat, a highly toxic chemical.

And then there is the smoking aspect. Smoking anything is not good for you because smoking is an irritant.

SS:
So let’s get specific about hormone therapy. We know that stress, chemicals, fake food, preservatives, and the environment are wreaking havoc on our hormonal systems. What was once simply the domain of menopausal women is now affecting everyone from their thirties on. How are you treating your patients these days?

RG:
I use a lot of estrogen gels because they are absorbed very quickly. I encourage my patients to not increase their dose the first month, and I always have them track their symptoms using a calendar. After the first month, if they show symptoms, I have them dose up a little bit according to an amount I give them. Then I schedule them to return in three months. That way, they have a record from their calendar of their symptoms. I can tell by their symptoms and what day on the calendar those symptoms occurred whether the problem is estrogen or progesterone. Realizing that we all have busy schedules and we have to charge for every visit, doing it this way cuts down on the number of office visits. It also empowers my patients to feel comfortable increasing or decreasing. Every man and woman has different needs. I am not worried about anyone taking too much because if they take too much, they won’t feel well, and the same goes for too little. The object is “just right.”

People often ask me: “Why are you such a big fan of bioidentical hormones?” It is because there is nothing our body makes in the way of a hormone that makes us feel better and at the same time does not harm us. There are a lot of drugs that can make you feel great, but all the while they are killing you. Bioidentical hormones are the safer route.

SS:
You are also a fertility specialist?

RG:
Yes, it is another of my hats. The doses you describe in this
book on rhythmic cycling are comparable to the doses we give. When we are dealing with women who have lost their ovaries or are given hormones because they are using a donated embryo, we give them large doses of hormones. It’s obviously safe enough to get pregnant, since pregnant women aren’t dying and getting cancer. In fact, most cancer occurs in women who are in their seventies and eighties, not when they are pregnant.

SS:
It is interesting that you mention this age group. I gave a talk in Wyoming to a group of older women, all of whom felt that hormone replacement was not for them—that they were too old. I tend to differ. I think replacing hormones in an older woman or man helps prevent them from getting sick. What do you think?

RG:
Most older people say they don’t have symptoms, but they don’t realize that they do indeed have symptoms. They have accepted that they don’t sleep well, that their bones ache, and that their memory fails them. They feel that these conditions are normal because all their friends are in the same boat. With an older patient, I always try to consider replacement unless they have symptoms they don’t want treated. That is different. Then I must respect their wishes.

But certainly hormone replacement can be protective. Take Alzheimer’s disease, for example. Several studies done on both men and women show if someone has an estradiol level of less than 20 pg/mL (picograms per milliliter), they are at highest risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive disturbances. Even if one of my patients feels good with an estradiol level of 10 or 15 pg/mL, I am concerned. Studies have been done on a variety of populations, and it always seems that less than a level of 20 pg/mL is definitely a problem. The brain functions better at higher levels of estradiol.

SS:
If this issue came up in a man or woman’s blood testing, regardless of their age, would you strongly urge him or her to go on bioidentical hormone replacement therapy?

RG:
Absolutely. So many people have learned to settle and live with their symptoms. A blood test provides proof and often gives them a reason to try BHRT. Something else I have encountered—particularly among people in their sixties and seventies—is a vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D is the only vitamin that is a hormone. It regulates
calcium and bone metabolism. It has been nicknamed the “sunshine vitamin,” because it is made in the body from exposure to sunlight. When a cholesterol derivative in your skin is exposed to sunlight, a chemical change occurs; it is converted into vitamin D, absorbed into the bloodstream, and taken into cells like a hormone through vitamin D receptors located throughout the body. Enough sunlight a day—around fifteen minutes—is sufficient for vitamin D production. However, when people have a low vitamin D level, not only do they lose bones, but they also lose strength and stability. Consequently, they are at risk for falls and dizziness if their vitamin D levels are low. Vitamin D deficiency in the elderly is more prevalent than we once believed. One reason is that vitamin D production declines in the elderly, usually because they stay indoors more and have less sun exposure. Older people also tend to eat fewer vitamin D–rich foods, such as dairy products. Research indicates that nearly half the women in this country who are being treated for osteoporosis are deficient in vitamin D.