HealthBeat News

Category: Hormones

  • Bio-Identical Hormone Therapy – Dr. Myatt Brings You The Truth

    Bio-Identical Hormone Replacement Therapy Is A Complicated Subject.

     

    Because it is so complicated it is a subject surrounded by half-truths, urban legends, and outright B.S. (that’s Bad Science…)

     

    Bio-Identical hormone replacement isn’t just for women any more. Men benefit as well.

     

    But whether you are a man or a woman, how can you know what is real, and what is hype? What is safe, and how can you know that you are receiving the best advice from your doctor on this important subject?

    Dr. Myatt has done the deep research on this issue and has combined cutting-edge findings with her more than two decades of clinical experience in Bio-Identical Hormone Therapy to create a balanced and heavily referenced position paper that discusses Bio-Identical Hormone Therapy treatment modalities, hormone testing, and the pros and cons of Bio-Identical Hormone Therapy and conventional hormone therapy.

    As HealthBeat News Readers, you have access to this paper – click here to read Dr. Myatt’s paper Bio-identical (Natural) Hormone Replacement Therapy and Other Natural Hormone-Balancing Therapies

  • We Get Questions! How To Become Female?

    We Get Questions – Wow, Do We Get Questions!

    A writer asks us by email:

    please advise on initial hormones i can buy to become female

     

    Whoo-ee! What a question!  Not because it is an unusual request – after all, “gender re-assignment” therapies and treatments are not all that uncommon these days, thanks to the miracles of modern medicine – but because of the degree of complication involved.

    We have written before about hormones – sex hormones, neuro hormones, hormones that control and regulate everything from our blood pressure to our blood sugar to our feeling of satiety after we eat. Whenever we write about hormones it becomes painfully obvious that the endrocrine system – the body’s chemical messenger and control system – is an incredibly, exquisitely complicated, delicate, and important part of our physiology.

    Almost every time we write about hormones it is in response to a question like this – someone asking for a simple, easy answer to very complicated problems. Invariably the writer is asking for an easy, quick, “take these two herbal supplements” kind of answer.

    This is somewhat akin to asking how to drive a car blindfolded – on unfamiliar roads in heavy traffic no less!

    This writer knows where he wants to be: he wants to be a she.

    He understands that a large part of being female is in having a full compliment of female hormones.

    But he doesn’t know where he is right now in terms of his current hormone balance.

    You see, we all – male and female – have both male and female hormones in our bodies; just in different ratios and balances.

    In order to safely and meaningfully effect the desired change, this person will need to know where he is starting from and more importantly, how he will get to where he wants to be without putting his health at serious risk or wasting massive sums of money on things that don’t work – no matter how easy it might sound on the internet forums.

    For those that want a small sample of how “simple” sex hormone analysis and regulation can be please see the following simplified diagram: Metabolism of Select Steroids – this is one of the worksheets that Dr. Myatt uses when she is doing hormone replacement or balancing work with a patient.

    As you look at this chart you can see that cholesterol (yes, that evil substance that Big Pharma wants to medicate out of existence with their statin drugs!) becomes pregnenolone (which most folks think of as a female hormone) which goes on to become any number of other hormones, including that most male of hormones, testosterone!

    So you can see that it is not quite as easy as just “taking a female hormone” in order to become female – it just won’t work.

    My first suggestion to the person who sent us the inquiry would be to start out by performing a Comprehensive Hormone Analysis to see where he is at in terms of a start point. Then he will want to consult Dr. Myatt to get an idea what might be involved in making the hormonal changes that he desires.

    This will be a long, difficult, and trying road for this person to travel – and unless this person is very-well trained and experienced in working with hormones, it could be filled with risk if he chooses to travel it alone.

    My second suggestion to this person is that he should evaluate carefully his nutritional status and overall health and begin using the basic healthy optimal-dose supplementation using things like Maxi Multi, Maxi Greens, CoQ10, and Maxi Marine to ensure that his body is as healthy as possible to undergo what may well be some stressful times to come.

    Fortunately most of Dr. Myatt’s patients are satisfied with the gender that has been assigned to them, and her work with them is much easier – though no less complicated – when she works with them to optimize and balance their hormones for optimal health and well-being.

    If you feel like your hormones “just aren’t right” – if you are easily fatigued, easy to cry or become emotional, have inappropriate anger or sadness, are overweight and unable to lose weight, losing hair or having unwanted hair, or having hot flashes or other symptoms of hormonal imbalance you may want to consider performing a hormone analysis and consulting with Dr. Myatt too.

    Hormone balancing is a small investment in good health that has a huge payoff!

  • The Importance Of Rhythm – Have You Got Rhythm?

    Dr. Myatt’s Advice for Healthy Circadian Rhythms

     

    Well, so sorry to hear that your energy isn’t up to what you think it should be. However, before we go looking for some complicated explanation, or simply chalk it up to “old age,” let’s correct one obvious and easy potential cause of this problem: Circadian Rhythm disturbance.

    Short course: get to bed by 10 p.m.! Here’s why.

    The Importance of “Early to Bed, Early to Rise”

    The 24-hour sleep/wake, light/dark cycle, also called the Circadian Rhythm Cycle, sets the pace for the entire endocrine system. This is big. HUGE, in fact.

    Humans evolved sleeping when it was dark and being active by daylight. Our circadian rhythms, including natural melatonin production, respond to this cycle.

    Melatonin, a hormone and antioxidant, is produced primarily between the hours of 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. when our eyes are closed and we are not exposed to light.

    Any time that we are awake during this critical period decreases melatonin production and serves to de-stabilize our circadian rhythms.

    Many people think that if they go to bed later and simply sleep in later in the morning, everything is fine. This belief recognizes only the total number of hours that we need to sleep but ignores the importance of sleeping (or at least having eyes closed in the dark) between the hours of 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. It’s not just the total number of hours we sleep, but the times and light/dark conditions under which we sleep, that determine the health of our 24-hour Circadian cycle.

    Importance of the Circadian Rhythm in Humans

    Hormones affected by Circadian Rhythm disturbances include cortisol, thyrotropin, prolactin, growth hormone, and melatonin.

    Disruption of the human “Circadian Clock” is associated with fatigue, disorientation, insomnia, impaired detoxification and liver function, blood pressure dysregulation, altered heart rate, cardiovascular disease, mood disorders (depression, anger, inattention, irritability), bipolar and unipolar disorder, seasonal affective disorder and neurological diseases including dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and stroke.

    Given the far-reaching importance of a normal circadian rhythm to overall health, I recommend that you alter your “pre-bed routine” and do whatever it takes to establish a health sleep/wake cycle.

    Here are my “get your circadian rhythms right” recommendations.

    1. Get to bed by 10 p.m. with lights out.
    2. Expose yourself to daylight (preferably sunlight) in the morning, even if this means stepping out on the porch to face East and take a few deep breaths.
    3. Low-dose melatonin (3mg) between 9 p.m. and bedtime may help sleep and boost levels of this important hormone (which declines with age).
    4. No lights in the bedroom. If you need a nightlight, keep a flashlight near the bed. Try to sleep in darkness.
    5. Daytime napping does NOT interfere with Circadian rhythms as long as bedtimes are held constant.

     

    References

    Dallaspezia S, Benedetti F. Chronobiological therapy for mood disorders. Expert Rev Neurother. 2011 Jul;11(7):961-70.

    Esposito E, Cuzzocrea S. Antiinflammatory activity of melatonin in central nervous system. Curr Neuropharmacol. 2010 Sep;8(3):228-42.

    Heiler S, Legenbauer T, Bogen T, Jensch T, Holtmann M. Severe mood dysregulation: In the “light” of circadian functioning. Med Hypotheses. 2011 Aug 9. [Epub ahead of print]

    Lemmer B. Importance of circadian rhythms for regulation of the cardiovascular system–studies in animal and man. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2006;1:168-70.

    Lewy AJ. Circadian misalignment in mood disturbances. Curr Psychiatry Rep. 2009 Dec;11(6):459-65.

    Lewy AJ, Emens JS, Songer JB, Sims N, Laurie AL, Fiala SC, Buti AL. Winter Depression: Integrating mood, circadian rhythms, and the sleep/wake and light/dark cycles into a bio-psycho-social-environmental model. Sleep Med Clin. 2009 Jun 1;4(2):285-299.

    Portaluppi F, Tiseo R, Smolensky MH, Hermida RC, Ayala DE, Fabbian F. Circadian rhythms and cardiovascular health. Sleep Med Rev. 2011 Jun 3. [Epub ahead of print]

    Takeda N, Maemura K. Circadian clock and cardiovascular disease. J Cardiol. 2011 May;57(3):249-56. Epub 2011 Mar 26.

    Willis GL. Parkinson’s disease as a neuroendocrine disorder of circadian function: dopamine-melatonin imbalance and the visual system in the genesis and progression of the degenerative process. Rev Neurosci. 2008;19(4-5):245-316.

    Willis GL, Kelly AM, Kennedy GA. Compromised circadian function in Parkinson’s disease: enucleation augments disease severity in the unilateral model. Behav Brain Res. 2008 Nov 3;193(1):37-47. Epub 2008 Apr 26.

  • Neurotransmitters: Not So Simple…

    Neurotransmitters: Not So Simple…

    There’s a reason doctors go to school for so long!

     

    By Nurse Mark

     

    There’s a very good reason why people like Dr. Myatt have studied for years and continue to study every day – the human body is an incredibly complex and subtle organism.

    No one lay book, no matter how popular or compellingly written, and no amount of internet searching when done by someone without a very solid knowledge of biochemistry, organic chemistry, physics, normal anatomy and physiology, neurology, endocrinology, psychophysiology and pathophysiology is going to provide much more than confusion for most lay-people.

    Without such knowledge a “Ph.D from the University of google” is more of a hindrance than a help – for remember; just because it is written does not mean it is accurate or true, and just because some author uses seventy-five-cent words and pseudo-scientific terms liberally in his or her writing doesn’t mean that he or she really understands what they mean or is actually qualified to use them!

    Neurotransmitters are an excellent example of this complexity: Your gut and your brain are more intimately intertwined than you might imagine. 80% of a normal person’s serotonin is found in the gut, and any pathology that affects the gut can easily upset the delicate balances of serotonin in the gut, in the platelets of the blood (where it plays an important role in hemostasis and blood clotting), and in the serotonergic neurons of the nervous system.

    So, as you can see, even the most apparently simple question about neurotransmitters quickly becomes complicated – this one ties together three complex systems!

    Lori has been doing her very best to learn all she can about the neuroendocrine system as well as the digestive system – each no small feat by itself – and then to apply her new knowledge to herself and her maladies. She wrote recently to ask:

    When I take the 5-htp, I get very sleepy.  Great right before bed, but I bought it to raise my serotonin levels, and I cannot take it during the day. I am only taking less than 50 mg of the 5-htp. Should I take tryptophan instead? I need to raise my serotonin levels PLEASE HELP!!

    Dr. Myatt replied:

    Hi Lori,

    Congratulations! If L-5-HTP is making you sleepy, then this means it is working for you.

    HTP is the direct precursor to serotonin, endorphin, melatonin, nor-epinephrine and dopamine production.

    Click here to learn more about it’s effects: http://www.drmyattswellnessclub.com/l5htp.htm

    Tryptophan converts to L-5-HTP which converts to the above-listed hormones. This means that tryptophan would also make you sleepy.

    Continue to use your L-5-HTP but take it in the evening. That way, your “sleepy” effect will just help you
    get a better night’s sleep while you continue to enjoy the other neurotransmitter benefits!

    In Health,
    Dr. Myatt

  • When Supplements Are Marketed Like Drugs

    When Supplements Are Marketed Like Drugs

     

    By Nurse Mark

     

    Everyone is constantly bombarded being with advertising and it is often difficult to separate the fact from the fiction and from the hype which can be either. While the Big Pharma marketing departments are the unquestioned masters at this, the natural supplement industries are not immune to the siren song of the advertising and marketing consultancies and agencies either.

    Ethel wrote recently to ask:

    What is your opinion of Amberen, that promotes to be the choice for women experiencing menopause?

    Here are some of my thoughts on this new product:

    This is a supplement that is being given the look of a drug, complete with a Big-Pharma-style website and “free trial” offer. While I respect the right of this supplement maker to market this supplement in any way they like, the amount of “hype” involved makes the B.S. warning lights on my dashboard begin to glow…

    The website relies heavily on the power of the “testimonial” as “proof” of the value and effectiveness of this supplement – and while it is always great to hear of these “success stories” they are not proof of anything other than that these women claim that they feel better. Testimonials are not scientific proof of anything – and my B.S. warning lights are glowing brighter…

    Speaking of scientific proof, the website offers a page detailing “clinical trials”. There they present their one human trial and two lab rat studies. They offer 3 links to journals which have published the human study. Here is the kicker though: the human study was relatively small at 70 women and brief – lasting only 35 days, and it was sponsored (paid for) by the company that makes Ambren. Here is the acknowledgement at the end of the paper:

    The authors’ research in this paper was supported by Mikhail L. Uchitel, The Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Biophysics of RAS (Pushchino, Russia), and The Scientific-Production Company “Biophysics, Ltd.” (Moscow, Russia). The publication of this article was initiated and supported by “Lunada Biomedical, Ltd” (USA).

    Now my B.S. light is not just glowing brightly – it’s actually beginning to flash. This is a standard technique used by Big Pharma: create a product, pay for a study or trial, and publish the positive results of that trial so that there are “Clinical Trials Proving The Effectiveness” that you can use in your advertising materials.

    They mention a second human trial of 32 women studied over 5 years, but provide no reference where one might actually see the study. I guess we just have to take their word on that one…

    Then there is the classic marketing technique of the “free sample.” Big Pharma has a harder time with this one since their offerings usually require a prescription – so they handle it with ads that encourage you to “Ask your doctor if this drug is right for you!”

    Your local street drug dealer has it a little easier – the pusher can simply say “go on kid, try a hit – it’s free, it’s on the house, and you’ll like it!” He knows you’ll be back for more as soon as you are hooked… The Ambren people have settled on a compromise: they offer to have you “Try Amberen free for 30 days”. But it’s not actually free – they will send you a 90 day supply if you will pay the shipping up front, and they will not charge your credit card for that 90 day supply until the 31st day. Is that a warning horn that I hear along with my flashing B.S. warning light?

    So much for their marketing practices – what about the product?

    Their theory sounds intriguing: Stimulate an aging hypothalamus and encourage it to produce signals that will tell the endocrine glands to produce more youthful hormone levels. And indeed, if their studies are to be believed, this does in fact occur. They claim that Amberen use results in increased estrogen production. This is wonderful if decreased estrogen is the sole cause of a woman’s symptoms.

    I have some concern about some of the ingredients: since this is a “proprietary blend” and is not a drug they are not required to list specifics but one of the ingredients is Monosodium L-Glutamate – good old MSG. This is a substance that can have some not-so-good effects on the nervous system as anyone who is sensitive to it will quickly tell you. Even in those who do not show a “sensitivity” (think “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome”) are affected neurologically by this substance – it functions as an excitatory neurotransmitter which, if taken in excess, can become neurotoxic. (This is what happens when the chef at the local Chinese buffet goes a little too heavy on the MSG and you end up with symptoms like numbness, burning sensations, tingling, facial pressure or tightness, chest pain, headache, nausea, rapid heartbeat, drowsiness, weakness, or difficulty breathing for asthmatics – the MSG becomes an excitatory neurotoxin.)

    Now, I’m not suggesting that the amounts of MSG in Amberen are problematic – their website claims that the product is well-tolerated and that “Animal studies, toxicology and clinical trials with Amberen did not reveal any significant side-effects.”

    I also have some concern any time someone suggests a “shotgun” approach to any health concern, where they’ll just throw something at it, based on the success of someone else, and hope it works for them.

    Unfortunately, while decreasing levels of estrogen can indeed be a part of menopause, this is often not the whole story. Our bodies, both male and female, are a veritable stew of different hormones, none of which work in isolation – they are all interdependent and inter-related. Hormones can be deficient, excessive, or relatively deficient or excessive in that there may be too much or too little of one hormone in relation to another hormone that counteracts or balances it.

    When Dr. Myatt works with menopausal women (and men!) she doesn’t guess – she performs detailed hormone testing and analysis and this allows her to make precise corrections using herbs, nutrition, bio-identical hormones, or more likely, a combination of these. Her patients won’t stand for guess-work – they want results, and they want those results to be provable with lab testing, not just by subjective symptoms.

    You see, Dr. Myatt’s patients are very well-educated about their health – Dr. Myatt insists on that. They know that, to use the now-discredited drug Premarin as an example, it is possible to give a single substance (i.e.: to make an isolated correction) that will improve symptoms – and Premarin was very effective at improving symptoms – but that can result in multiple other problems and even dangers, as Premarin was eventually shown to do.

    So, Ethel, should menopausal women try Aberen?

    Well, maybe: The product looks like it should be safe. The theory behind it looks good. There are limited studies suggesting that it is effective and generally well-tolerated. It is not excessively expensive.

    For me however, the jury is still out. Until I see some additional scientifically-conducted, peer-reviewed studies my advice would be to wait – there are plenty of women out there who will be the testers for this product – the guinea-pigs. Let’s wait until there is some history behind this product and there are no unforeseen or even nasty surprises with it’s use.

    I can tell you with certainty that Dr. Myatt will not likely recommend this to her patients until there is more evidence of it’s safety and effectiveness. She will continue to work with her menopause patients the “old-fashioned” way – one person at a time, individually, uniquely, and based on hormone testing lab results, not guess-work. If a patient were to say to Dr. Myatt “I want to use Ambren” I’m sure she would say “fine – let’s follow your lab results to be sure that it is doing what we want it to, and let’s not forget all the other supportive measures that go along with this too.”

    You see, we firmly believe that in anything as complicated as the human organism there are no one-pill, one-size-fits-all answers or remedies. Every woman is different, and every woman’s menopause will benefit from an approach tailored just for her, based on her own unique needs.

    And that’s our Bottom Line!