Full Transcript Hormone Controversy and Myths 0:04 So, you know, seeing how the news shapes our views is part of why we're here tonight talking about hormone controversy. 0:13 Because, really, there is no controversy about hormones. 0:18 We have very clear understanding of what part of hormones are dangerous and what parts of hormone are safe and how to make utilization of the hormones 0:27 safe for you and without risk, without any increased risk. 0:31 Do women get breast cancer? 0:33 Oh, yes. 0:34 One in seven, one in eight women will get cancer. 0:37 Is it because she's on estrogen? 0:40 No. 0:41 toxins in the environment, excess body fat, poor diet, no exercise, all of those things. 0:49 Those are the reasons that feed into it. 0:52 And so something like that happens very frequently. 0:56 The question is, does the hormone cause it? 0:58 That's the issue, not whether it happens or not. 1:01 So we're going to talk tonight about some of the other confusions that people have about hormones and where they come from. 1:13 So what we're gonna do is I'm gonna tell you some about hormones, and some of you have already found your hormone truth or myth quiz that's in your folder, 1:22 we'll be doing that later. 1:24 And having a little like truth, or, truth? 1:28 Or myth? 1:29 Truth or Myth? 1:34 And this is myth versus reality, but it's really myth vs. 1:37 truth. 1:38 So I want to tell you a little bit about what hormones are, because that's fundamental to understanding why we talk about them. 1:47 The only way to get information from one part of your body to another is to send a messenger. 1:53 And this was the messenger that ran the first marathon to, you know, to the tell the troops what was going on.
What Hormones Do in the Body 2:02 He was a Messenger. 2:04 We have Messengers all over our bodies, so how does A gland in our brain tell our thyroid to make more thyroid hormones. 2:13 How does the gland of our brains tell the adrenal glands to create hormones? 2:17 And how does our Thyroid gland tell every cell in the body to speed up metabolism? 2:25 With messengers. 2:26 And the messangers are the hormones So there are many different types of hormones. 2:32 We're gonna talk particularly about a few hormones tonight, the ones that are controversial. 2:37 I don't think anybody has a big controversy about thyroid. 2:40 You know, we all know we need it and there hasn't been all this stuff in the media about it, but I wanna talk about the one that bring up questions and 2:51 doubt in your mind. 2:54 So hormones also function, am I standing in front of the screen for people? 2:59 Can you see better now? 3:01 Hormones also function as our thermostat and metabolism regulator. 3:08 So that would be a lot thyroid. 3:11 Also insulin, the hormone, controls metabolism of sugar. 3:21 Hormones regulate aging, and this is the most important thing. 3:26 And starting with when we're about 25, when were hormonally at our optimal, begins the downward So by the time we're in our mid-40s, 3:39 one of the most important energy and vitality hormones, DHEA, is about half of what it was when we were 25. By the you're 60, it's a quarter. 3:49 So a lot of things that are felt to be changes due to age, you know, what do you expect at your age? 4:01 Are really hormonal declines. 4:04 And this is the other thing, you know, people say, well, we don't have like 20 or 30 year studies. 4:08 Well, really, it's just been in the last 20 to 25 years that we've really started utilizing hormones for maintenance of health, 4:15 slowing down the aging process, and aging what I call successfully, having healthy longevity. 4:22 This is a new thing. 4:23 You know, in 1900, the expected lifespan was about 45 to 50 years old. 4:29 Nobody ever lived in the latter part of their lives. 4:31 Women didn't live in menopause. 4:34 Men didn' t live during a time of life when their testosterone levels went down. 4:38 And when people say, well, I think we should just let nature take its course, Well, you know before insulin, diabetics used to let Nature take it's course. 4:46 It didn t have a very good outcome for them. 4:50 Diabetes is basically a disease of premature aging. 4:53 The sugar ages your blood vessels, ages you brain. 4:56 Diabetics have accelerated heart attacks and strokes at a much younger age than the general population, and they have a higher rate of Alzheimer's disease. 5:07 So that's an example of accelerated aging, so if we can slow down the aging process, we will age more healthfully.
Hormones and Healthy Aging 5:16 We've done a whole lot to expand our lifespan, right? 5:21 So it went from age 45 or 50 in 1900 to here we are 200 years later. 5:23 No, 114 years. 5:24 I'm not good at subtracting. 5:25 And we've added another 30 years But we haven't improved the quality of the last part of those years at all. 5:45 And that's come from academic centers that have looked at it. 5:49 So people are living longer, but not better. 5:52 The real question is how can we live better? 5:54 And really, the baby boom generation is the first generation to have the opportunity to do something about their aging. 6:03 Because it's only like I said in the 25 years that we have an understanding of why we decline as we get older. 6:10 And with that knowledge, you can do something about it. 6:13 A large part of it is hormones. 6:15 There are other things. 6:16 there's oxidation, rusting from the inside out. 6:21 It's diet dependent and exercise dependent. 6:25 You know, there are a whole lot of different processes. 6:28 Sugar abnormalities, like with diabetes. 6:31 you don't have to be a diabetic. 6:34 to undergo adverse effects from too much sugar. 6:37 Don't wait till they call you a diabetic to control your sugar, even if your sugars elevated but not diabetic, you have a higher risk of dementia. 6:47 So we have this understanding about the aging process and that's allowed us to develop programs and supplements and approaches to slowing down that process, 6:58 and decreasing our risk serious chronic illness. 7:02 We know that all chronic illnesses, and what do I mean by chronic illness? 7:08 Cancer, heart disease, including strokes, Alzheimer's disease. 7:13 Parkinson's Disease. 7:14 Those are all Chronic Illnesses. 7:16 And they are caused by inflammation. 7:20 What modulates inflammation? 7:22 What you eat, your exercise, Your mental, emotional, spiritual part of you, And your hormones. 7:31 So all of those things modulate inflammation and you want to be on an anti-inflammatory path in everything you do. 7:42 So that's what we're about and tonight we are going to talk about the hormone part of things. 7:46 Hormones do regulate aging. 7:48 Our wrinkling, sagging skin comes from diminished estrogen levels and growth hormone levels. 7:56 our loss of muscle comes form diminishing testosterone levels Dementia, we have great evidence that estrogen and testosterone in women and in men decreases 8:10 risk of Alzheimer's disease and dementia. 8:15 Depression. 8:16 is very much hormonal in men as well as women and has other causes aswell. 8:21 It's a really complex one. 8:23 And cardiovascular disease can be looked at as a hormonal disease. 8:27 Hormones like testosterone and estrogen help to keep the linings of your blood vessels in healthy condition. 8:35 The linens of you arteries is where cardiovascular diseases start. 8:39 That's where plaque starts. 8:41 And you want that lining kept velvety and soft and supple. 8:45 You don't want it stiff and hard like a pipe with calcium deposits. 8:50 Hormones help to keep it like that. 8:53 So hormones definitely regulate our aging, not to mention Symptoms, you know, low libido, mood, energy, a whole variety of things that we're aware of. 9:07 There's a lot that goes on that were not aware, but there's lot we know about in ways that don't feel well that is hormone related. 9:16 So when we have somebody on a hormone restoration program here, we use a number of different products, eight of them.
Menopause, Andropause, and Environmental Toxins 9:28 We're going to talk about testosterone, progesterone, and estrogen, because like I said, that's where the controversy is. 9:34 The other hormones that we use, pregnenolone which is a hormone that converts into a lot of these other hormone, but it also acts as a neurotransmitter 9:46 in the memory center of your brain. 9:47 So some of that diminishing of cognitive ability, of thinking ability as we age, oh well, it's just your age is diminishing pregnenolone level, 9:59 something that can be restored. 10:02 Thyroid is a whole other topic but huge numbers of people have low functioning thyroid that contributes to weight problems, 10:10 energy problems mood problems thinking problems. 10:13 DHEA I talked about is this tremendous energy and vitality hormone. 10:18 Melatonin levels diminish as we age and so people tend to have more sleep difficulties as they get older and sleep is absolutely foundational to your good health. 10:29 And vitamin D, I talked about, which functions more like a hormone. 10:32 And like thyroid, there is a receptor or a spot on every cell in your body for it to have an action. 10:40 So a receptors like, a lock. 10:43 Vitamin D is the key, or thyroid is key that goes into the lock, turns the locked, and causes something to happen inside the cell. 10:51 If vitamin is everywhere in you body, thyroid's everywhere you're body. 10:55 Some of the other hormones are more targeted. 10:58 They're not everywhere. 10:59 They don't have actions everywhere, so we're going to talk about these three because that's where the big controversy is. 11:07 Like I mentioned, hormones decline as we age. 11:14 We're at our best at about age 25 to 30. You know, that when people are too young to know how good they have it, right? 11:23 decline in midlife and continue declining and then of course women have this really abrupt change when they go through menopause and lose a bunch of hormones 11:36 like all of a sudden, which is a very tumultuous thing to have happen for many women. 11:43 So, menopause, the average age is age 51, and there is this period that we call perimenopaus, which, when I got started in OBGYN, 11:53 you know, 30 some years ago, there wasn't even a term. 11:56 That didn't exist, perimanopau. 12:00 And it's traditionally said to last two to five years, but quite honestly, the changes start happening to women in about their mid-30s. 12:08 So women, in their 30s, their periods start changing, things start change. 12:14 It gets more and more apparent in the 40s but it is probably more like a 15 year lead up. 12:23 In men, testosterone declines little bit by little every year. 12:27 The young men growing up now particularly have a problem. 12:33 Sperm counts are going down worldwide. 12:37 Toxins in the environment have hormonal actions in our body, but not in a good way. 12:43 And we think one of the reasons why young men have lowered sperm counts is because of these what are called endocrine disruptors. 12:52 They disrupt proper endocrine function. 12:55 All the things that are in plastic. 12:56 The adhesive that's used to lay the carpet. 13:04 The organic solvents that are in paint, all of that, are doing horrible damage to us. 13:11 So, best thing is eliminate plastics from your life. 13:19 And then as far as men go, looking at who's affected, because a lot of times people think it's only very old men who have low testosterone levels, 13:29 this chart shows about 2% to 3% of men in their 20s even have lower testosterone. 13:38 20%-30% percent of the men between 30 and 40, and more than 50% men of their 60s and 70s have a low of testosterone, so it is very prevalent. 13:51 So in men, there's this new term that was developed called andropause, because andro is the Greek name for the male hormones. 14:00 Testosterone and some of the other male hormone are called Androgens. 14:03 So this was called endropaus in man and menopause in women. 14:08 And sometimes we call it manopaus. 14:12 But we're going to talk about menopaths and manopath. 14:15 It probably should be womanopas and manual pause, but anyhow. 14:21 So these are a list of things, a partial list, and it's in your handout of symptoms. 14:27 Remember I talked about symptoms? 14:28 There are things that go on that you're not aware of in you body, but then there are symptoms you are aware. 14:33 And, you know, I know I see a skewed part of the population because people that come to see me come because they have a problem by and large.
Symptoms of Hormone Decline 14:41 Occasionally people come cause they want to maintain good health and they're feeling pretty good, But most people comes because their feeling terrible. 14:48 and have any number of these problems with energy, sex drive, moods, they're not sleeping well, not as strong, thinking not clear, 15:01 higher body fat, you know what happens is you get older is even if you don't gain weight you Shapeshifting, where you get more fat around the middle and 15:13 your muscles start going away. 15:14 So your body fat increases and then your muscle mass decreases. 15:17 And it is really, it's part of healthy longevity. 15:21 You must exercise and maintain your Muscle mass. 15:25 Low muscle Mass, there's a medical name for it. 15:28 It's called Sarcopenia. 15:30 And people who are sarcopenic, who don't have enough muscle mass, have much higher mortality. 15:37 So you will die earlier if you don''t maintain your muscle math. 15:44 Elderly people that are kind of bird-like looking, they're very tiny. 15:49 For the most part, the have skin and they have bones. 15:51 They may not have that much fat, but they don' have muscle, and you need the muscle. 15:58 And exercise performance, people notice, men a lot notice this, they can't do what they've been accustomed to doing as far as exercise on the racquetball 16:07 court or playing tennis, you know, really active sports. 16:09 They're not able to perform as well. 16:11 And some women too, women that are more vigorous exercises will start seeing that they cant lift weights as heavy, it takes them longer to recover when 16:21 they do exercise. 16:23 A lot of this is hormonal, some of it is nutrient deficiencies aswell. 16:28 So this is the reality of manopause, and it's pretty much the same thing for women in menopausal. 16:40 The risk of being in manapause with low testosterone is premature aging, Higher incidence of heart attacks and strokes. 16:51 I think you guys will be able to answer this quiz really well by the time we get there. 16:56 Increased dementia if you have low testosterone. 17:02 Higher body fat. 17:03 Like I mentioned, testosterone helps you maintain your muscle. 17:06 Your muscle is the tissue in your body that metabolizes the nutrients that you take in, the calories that Fat is not metabolically active. 17:15 So if you lose muscle and gain fat, what you eat is going to get converted to fat rather than getting used sufficiently by your muscle. 17:27 Is that clear? 17:27 I think I didn't say it clearly. 17:30 I'll say it again. 17:32 Your muscle is your metabolically active tissue. 17:35 So if you have lost muscle because you're not physically active, you can eat the same thing. 17:44 You know, people say I'm eating the thing thing I've been, I always eat same amount, same kind of foods for the last three years and I keep gaining, 17:49 gaining gaining because your losing muscle that would be metabolizing those calories. 17:56 if you're not physically active.
Estrogen, Stress, and Cardiovascular Protection 17:58 And more of those calories are going to go on your body and get stored as fat rather than getting used by your muscles for energy. 18:09 What you eat either goes, you know, some of it goes to your brain because your brains needs a lot of calories to function. 18:16 But other than that, it either go to you muscles to provide energy or it gets stored here. 18:26 And men also have risks of bone thinning. 18:29 So men with low testosterone get into problems with osteoporosis just like women do with their low estrogen. 18:38 And Menopause risks are essentially the same. 18:43 You'll age more quickly. 18:44 We know that women before menopause have a relatively low amount of cardiovascular disease, and shortly after menoppause, 18:52 we catch up with men. 19:02 Estrogen is important in terms of people. 19:04 For a long time, it's not so much anymore, but people used to say, I'm worried about being on estrogen because I am afraid it is going to make me fat, 19:10 because they think about the chickens that are, you know, goosed up with hormones to makes them fat. 19:17 And in fact, estrogen helps you keep from laying on this mid-abdomen fat and estrogen also very importantly helps make you more resilient to stress. 19:29 So all the changes that go on when you become stressed that make you store more fat are mitigated by estrogen, which keeps you from suffering those physiologic 19:40 effects of stress severely. 19:44 Estrogen is anti-inflammatory, like I said, in your arteries.
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