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 Hormone
SUPPLEMENTATION
What
are hormones?
What is hormone supplementation?
How does it enhance vitality even as we age?
Hormones are chemicals
within our bodies responsible for many things including
the regulation of our metabolism, immune function, blood
pressure, sugar levels, body temperature as well as a
host of other things including regrowth and repair of
damaged tissue. They are produced by our glands, namely
the Thyroid (Thyroid), Adrenals (DHEA, Pregnenolone),
Pituitary (Human Growth Hormone (HGH)), Ovaries
(Estrogen, Progesterone, Testosterone) or Testes
(Testosterone), and Pineal (Melatonin). After about the
age of 30, our body's hormone levels start to decline.
Many cite this decline with the "normal" aspect of aging
and its familiar characteristics of fatigue and loss of
energy, problems of memory and mood, lack of ambition,
loss of libido, weight gain and muscle loss and much
more that add up to a sense of poor health. This
hormonal decline continues as we age, and usually
becomes problematic in our 40’s and 50’s, although, it
can create issues at an even younger age. An example are
the statin drugs that can cause a dramatic decrease in
testosterone even at a young age. With testosterone
decline, we find incidence of erectile dysfunction.
Giving “pause” to thought We have all heard of and
embraced the term menopause to describe a decline in the
female sex hormones, but there are other “pauses” that
are becoming more recognizable as house-hold names.
Doctors have coined the terms “andro-pause” to describe
the decline of male sex hormones in men, “somatopause”
to describe the decrease in human growth hormone,
“adrenalpause” to describe a decline in DHEA, and
“pinealpause” to describe a decline in melatonin.
In the opinion of many doctors, maintaining optimal
hormonal balance is our best opportunity to enhance
vitality into “old age” and overcome these “pauses” in
life. Some doctors however believe that aging is
inevitable and that nothing can be done about it except
to accept it gracefully. This is a stigma of modern
medicine. On one hand, medicine is proud, and rightfully
so, of enormous jumps in life expectancy ages, but on
the other hand, they are skeptical about enhancements in
quality of life. Therefore some doctors may be reluctant
to treat hormonally deficient patients because they see
this as a normal result of aging, and something they
can't do anything about.
In other words a 70 year-old man presents himself to the
doctor's office with complaints of loss of sex drive,
fatigue, and inability to lose weight. It is likely that
his doctor will say, "You are 70 years old, and this is
normal for your age!", rather than take blood tests of
hormone levels. If the patient was insistent about
getting his hormones checked the doctor may see "normal"
results, that are the normal ranges for a man 70 years
old and tell the patient that he is normal. But the
patient isn't "normal," that is why he went to his
doctor! He doesn't want the hormones of a 70 year-old
man, he wants the hormones necessary to have sex drive, muscle tone, strength,
ambition, joy, and his vitality back. He also wants a
good chance to be free of heart disease, diabetes mellitis, and other diseases of aging. Why not check his
c-reactive protein, fasting insulin, and homocysteine
levels, along with many other markers of hidden disease?
Hormone Supplementation
Parts 1 2
3
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