Ageless: The Naked Truth About Bioidentical Hormones (46 page)

Do sugar and processed foods really take enough of a toll on our bodies to have created the mess in which we now find our country? The answer is a resounding yes!

You must understand that eating badly negatively affects your hormones. You can’t expect bioidentical hormones to do their job if you’re eating junk and processed foods. Sugary foods and trans fats disrupt your hormones, so they can no longer keep your body on an even keel to give you the youthful energy and health that you want.

One of the major hormones in the body is insulin. Too much insulin throws off your body’s hormonal balance. If one hormone is off, they are all off. It’s like dominoes. All hormones work in concert and speak to one another. So if you are eating a diet loaded with sugar, chemicals, and fake food, your insulin will rise. The internal concert is off. Weight gain is the result, along with increased cholesterol and diabetes, which has reached epidemic proportions. Diabetes raises cortisol, and among many other destructive effects, it makes sleeping difficult. If you can’t sleep, your insulin has no chance of going down, and the effect is continued high cortisol, which can eventually lead to heart attack and/or stroke—that is, if diabetes doesn’t get you first.

Remember that insulin and cortisol are major hormones. When they are not working in concert, your minor hormones (estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, and others) don’t have a chance. With obesity as the number one problem in this country, it’s no wonder diminished health accelerates when hormonal decline begins. The body is already in bad shape!

Giving up sugar is a good start. By doing so, you can prevent your pancreas from oversecreting insulin, which will keep your blood sugar and hormones balanced. With balance comes weight loss, lowered cholesterol levels, a decreased risk of heart disease and cancer, and longevity. In healing insulin resistance, the body will unload the stored sugar in the cells, and your body fat will melt away. After the body releases the stored sugar, it then turns to your fat reserves to break down and use as an energy source. The result? You get thinner while your body is being fed a constant source of energy.

Here’s something else: You can balance your hormones with good dietary habits. We go into hormonal decline very early in this country because of the poor choices we make when it comes to eating. Food is the building block of all cells in our body. Every cell requires protein, fat, and carbohydrates to reproduce. But with all the chemicals, trans fats, hydrogenated oils, fake food, and junk food that are a major part of the American diet, cellular reproduction becomes difficult, which is why we now have an epidemic of obesity not only in adults, but in children as well. Children are now getting fat because they eat very little real food.

It is a sad fact that in the poorer segments of this country people do not have access to real food. The bulk of their food comes from convenience markets, and there is very little real food available in these stores. Consequently, the fattest people in the country are also the poorest and in the worst health. This is a tragedy. Sadly, this is the first generation not expected to live as long as the present one, because of lifetime exposure to harmful chemicals and food additives.

Eating real food helps your body rebuild your biochemicals. Yet fake food, junk food, excessive sugar, excessive alcohol, and nutrient-empty foods like white-flour buns are doing just the opposite; they are a road map to bad health and premature aging down the road. We are youth obsessed in this country, but we can stay younger looking and have a more youthful interior if we eat real food and avoid sugar and chemicals. It’s difficult to make young people understand this because they feel invincible. “Down the road” seems so far away from a young person’s perspective. It’s not until you reach middle age that you realize the harm done to yourself, but now the road ahead
seems daunting. The good news is that it’s not impossible to reverse the bad effects and poor choices we made earlier in life.

A good example of someone who did this is Dr. Paul Savage, whose wonderful story you’ll read in
chapter 26
. Yes, even a smart doctor can get off track when it comes to eating. His dietary and lifestyle habits made him hormonally imbalanced at an early age. Yet he was able to reverse the damage and restore his body to youthful levels of hormones and energy. What’s more, he lost a tremendous amount of weight. His story is inspirational, and he now passes on what he has learned to his patients.

S
UPPLEMENTATION

Unfortunately, today’s foods are not as rich as they once were in vitamins and minerals. This is why supplementation is an important component of your daily diet. Vitamins are crucial in maximizing the number of years you can continue to enjoy good health.

The dietary reference intakes (DRIs) are values established by the Institute of Medicine for recommended daily nutrient intake.

The United States government has published recommended dietary allowances (RDAs) for nutrients, vitamins, and minerals—but these are based upon amounts needed to prevent deficiencies and are hardly enough to keep you alive. The recommended daily allowances are not enough to prevent the degenerative changes associated with aging. At least we now have the DRIs for nutrients. These include levels that may reduce the risk of heart disease, osteoporosis, certain cancers, and other diseases that have to do with diet. But these levels usually aren’t enough to counteract the environment and its negative effects.

There seems to be a resistance to taking supplements, even though the published medical data on the benefits of vitamins are overwhelming. According to Dr. Ron Rothenberg, “We do not understand why the government and the media appear to be so opposed to supporting and promoting the benefits of vitamins. We do know, however, that vitamins, like many other supplements, are natural and therefore
cannot be patented by the pharmaceutical companies. The pharmaceutical companies cannot make the types of profits they are accustomed to making with drugs for which they hold the patent. Drugs are big business!”

Both my husband, Alan, and I believe in supplementation. We originally started by recommendation from our internist, Dr. Soram Khalsa in Beverly Hills. At the time, I had not realized the extent of the damage to our food supply and that supplementation was necessary to achieve proper nutrition. Within a few weeks of taking vitamins and supplements, I noticed a profound increase in my energy and vitality. It’s a lot to ingest twenty or thirty vitamins a day, and at times it can get pretty “gaggy.” At one point, Alan got discouraged and stopped taking his supplements about six months into the program. He hadn’t mentioned it to me; I simply noticed that he was dragging. He wanted to take a lot of naps. One day I asked, “Are you taking your vitamins?” This was when we realized the profound difference between his energy and mine. That was enough to make him a believer. With the environment in such a fragile state, it is crucial to augment your diet nutritionally. Until things change, this is the way it has got to be.

As for my regimen, I am sure to include

calcium, to keep my bones strong

vitamin C, 1,000 mg daily

Saint-John’s-wort for its calming effect

vitamin E

glucosamine for joints and cartilage

selenium

CoQ10 for heart health

phosphatidylcholine

zinc

rhodiola

Zyflamend

white tea extract

LycoPom, a combination of lycopene and pomegranate (from New Chapter)

Smoke Shield, to protect against environmental pollution (from New Chapter)

reishi mushroom

cinnamon

multivitamin

These supplements change according to my stresses and traveling. But this should give you an idea of the way I augment my daily diet. I try to buy most of my supplements from my friend Paul Schulick at New Chapter (website in Resources section), because I know him and know how deeply he cares about the purity and wholesomeness of his products. But many other companies offer fine products. Another good place to purchase supplements is through
Life Extension
magazine. They tend to do an article on the latest supplement, explaining its features and benefits, and then it is possible to order through the form in the magazine.

A good, qualified antiaging doctor is your best bet to finding the right fit for your personal needs. Unfortunately, acid rain and pollution are a part of the environment we can’t avoid until our behaviors and habits change drastically. The best defense for each of us is supplementation. Many people pass off supplementation as “expensive urine,” but I have seen and felt the results since my husband and I embraced this regimen. For us it’s working; I believe it’s worth looking into.

In addition to supplements, Dr. Galitzer, my antiaging doctor, gives me tinctures and drops to stimulate my major hormones along with my minor hormones. He also gives me formulas to regenerate my weakest organs.

He explains that when a patient comes in with numerous physical complaints, he realizes that many of the important organs are toxic and sluggish. He uses herbal drainage formulas to cleanse the body by stimulating the excretion systems of the liver, kidney, and lymph glands to rid the body of toxins that have accumulated over time.

The process of drainage reduces toxicity in the body, but organ function may still remain sluggish and susceptible to future physical, emotional, and nutritional stressors. These organs now need to be
toned and strengthened in the same way you would build muscles at the gym. These formulas are homeopathic, derived from the plant (herb), mineral, and animal kingdoms. According to Dr. Galitzer, each organ is a unique bioenergy system. An imbalance in the organs frequently slows the process of doing what it knows to do naturally—that is, regenerate and renew itself. Several regeneration formulas can be taken together and used to complement bioidentical hormone therapy. These regenerative formulas support thyroid, adrenal, pancreas, and liver function. When used in combination with bioidentical hormones, they create an optimal result.

I never would have known this type of medicine and treatment was available had I not searched for it on my own. The effects are startling. For instance, if I drink a couple of glasses of wine the night before, the next day my liver tinctures do their daily work and let me know that my body does not tolerate alcohol well. For a few hours, I feel bloated and uncomfortable. That is my liver ridding itself of toxins. It makes me feel good knowing that the discomfort is short-lived and mildly unpleasant, that my body is detoxing itself of substances it does not want or need for function. This is how this new medicine works, and it is fantastic. It allows me to believe that a healthy life is available even under the negative environmental assault, if I am willing to put in the effort.

CHAPTER 25
W
ENDY:
A V
EGETARIAN
N
O
L
ONGER

Wendy was a vegetarian for many years, and to her surprise, that was a large part of her health problems. I met Wendy at a party at a friend’s house and was impressed with her knowledge of hormones and how the body works. After spending ten years in great pain and ten years of medical doctors and the “standard of care” with no results, Wendy decided to take charge of her own health. Had she not done this, I fear she would have suffered the inevitable course that so many women endure: antidepressants, painkillers, weight gain, osteoporosis. She was on that path, but because she put forth the effort, she is now enjoying a quality of life she thought had passed her by. This is a woman who cares deeply about her health and the quality of her life. Today she is living a life she once only dreamed of
.

SS:
Your story fascinates me. What has been going on with you?

WF:
For ten years, I had seen every doctor known to man, from New York to California. I was complaining of back pain and just overall body pain, and it was exhausting me. Basically, these doctors took lots of tests, and it didn’t matter who I saw, their answers were always the same: “You’re in great health. You just need to slow down a little bit. You need to relax and not be so type A.”

SS:
Did they offer you any kind of relief, such as prescription drugs?

WF:
Yes, and I was told that if it got really bad, I could just take
some anti-inflammatories to help get me through the really bad times. But it was bad every day.

SS:
When you say “anti-inflammatory,” do you mean Advil or ibuprofen?

WF:
No. Vioxx—heavy-duty prescription. You know, the one they took off the market. These doctors were not prescribing Tylenol or anything over the counter. In the beginning, I took Vioxx, figuring if that’s all that’s wrong with me, that’s what I’ll do. I’m a good little girl.

SS:
Did anyone suggest bone density tests?

WF:
In the very beginning, my doctors would have me touch my toes, lay me on a table, and take my leg and bring it over my head. They told me that I was incredibly flexible, that I couldn’t possibly be in that much pain if I was that flexible. I would look at them, not knowing what to say.

SS:
Describe the pain.

WF:
It was all lower back pain, with a burning in my upper back, shoulders, and neck. Just burning, burning constantly.

SS:
Did it make sleeping difficult?