Truth about Bio-Identical Hormones

Introduction to Bioidentical Hormones 0:00

Hey, ladies, it's Doctor Stills here with my little class for the day. For you all. Before you get into day two interviews. And what I want to talk with you about today is probably one of the main reasons I created this summit is the truth about bioidentical hormones. There are so many myths and misconceptions out there, and I just want to clear them up for you because once you get them cleared, you can invite them into your life and your health and your experience day to day, year to year is going to be like, it's going to blow your mind.

So first of all, everything you hear for the most part about hormones that may sound scary or is a bad study. Or maybe you remember the Women's Health Initiative back from the early 2000. All of these studies and data that comes out is all on synthetic hormones, not on bioidentical hormones. And synthetic hormones and bioidentical hormones are comparing apples and oranges. They are totally different things. So yes, I am very much in favor of you

Synthetic vs. Bioidentical Hormones 1:24

avoiding all synthetic hormones because they are dangerous. Because your body doesn't recognize them, it doesn't know what to do with them, and they cause a laundry list of side effects. So no synthetics, no pharmaceutical hormones. That is correct. However, bioidentical hormones are so amazing and they don't get a lot of press because they're made from compounding pharmacies. So the whole thing with pharmaceuticals is you can't patent a pharmaceutical if it's just natural. You have to have done something to it.

The pharmaceutical companies have to have altered it so they can make it their own. And so they can't do that with bioidentical hormones because bioidentical hormones are that they're identical to the natural hormones that our body creates. So they are made from compounding pharmacies. And maybe you have heard compounding pharmacies aren't regulated. They're dangerous. You can't trust them. And maybe there's some truth to that. If there's some shady compounding pharmacies. But I can tell you that the compounding pharmacies I work with are have to go through FDA approval and visit, and they are quality, and they take pride in what they do.

And we check them and we assay them and they are safe and they are effective. I would never be involved with anything that I thought wasn't safe. And I've been prescribing bioidentical hormones for close to 20 years now. And my mom, when she was alive, she just passed this year, she was 85. I had her on bioidentical hormones. I have myself on bioidentical hormones. There's often a question that we are asked as health care physicians. If you were stuck on a desert island, what's the one or 2 or 3 things

Why Natural Doesn't Always Mean Better 3:30

you would bring with you out of all the things you do for health? And I always say my hormones. I always say that when I die, hopefully a long, long time from now. But when I die, I'm going to be buried with them just in case I need them in the afterlife. That's how game changing and that's how important they are to me. And so what I see with so many patients who have come to see me, that their hormones have been improperly measured, improperly monitored, improperly dosed, whether it be how much they're taking or the form they're taking it and or how they're applying it.

And so it's a passion of mine to help these women because they come in struggling and they come in thinking that bioidentical hormones are not going to be a piece of the puzzle to help them feeling better. And that is false. The other thing is that there is a school of thought out there, even among other natural ethics physicians, other health care practitioners, that I want to do things naturally. And so I don't need to take hormones. And I just want to say that, again, 20 plus years clinical experience.

I have seen a number of those patients, including other physicians in my office who had that thought, and they're just not sleeping. They're still sweating, they're cranky, they have no sex drive. Their hair is the whole gamut of things that we suffer with. As our hormones drop. And when I have to talk with them about bioidentical hormones are natural, we have to remember we live a lot longer than our ancestors who didn't spend a lot of time in menopause because they were dying in their 30s and 40s.

And I truly believe if we live healthy, 120 is not out of the question. It's reasonable. It's what we are biologically designed to live to. And so that means we're living almost two thirds of our lives in menopause. And if we don't have those hormones to support our brain, to support our bones, to support our our moods, to support our sex drives, to support our cardiovascular system, to help our breast, to support our blood sugar, on and on and on to decrease inflammation, to support our immune system, then we're just not doing ourselves injustice.

We are doing an injustice to ourselves. And so by giving our bodies back some natural identical hormones, I don't think that's any different than saying, well, I'm going to do it naturally, so I'm going to take an herb that will increase my progesterone. So let's talk about say, vortex. Vortex is a commonly used herb that can increase progesterone production. So you're not deficient in Vitek. So why is that a better option than taking the actual progesterone.

Personal Story and Breast Reduction Lesson 6:30

It's not. And I can tell you time and time again because what matters to me, yes, studies matter to me, but matters to me is my clinical experience. It's what I have seen with thousands and thousands of women like you. What works? I want what works. I want our work together to make your life better, to make you feel better because when you feel better, you can go out and enjoy your life and participate in the world in a brighter, stronger way. And it's a win win. We all win. So I can tell you that taking an herb is not the same.

And I love herbs. I'm an herbalist, but it's not the same as taking the hormone. So if you still feel like it's not natural, I'd love to have this conversation with you because I I'll tell you, I I'll tell you a private, personal story. So I was in practice and I had a patient come in and I am a neutropenic physician. I walk the walk that I talk. I live a very organic, natural life. I practice what I preach, and that's because I had my own health issues. So one day this is, oh my gosh, at least 15 years ago, I'm sitting in my office and a patient comes in and she tells me she's going to have a breast reduction.

Now, a breast reduction is when you have very large breasts and you are removing some of the tissue. It is not the same as an augmentation where you are putting in implants, which that's a whole nother topic that we'll have to get to. I'm going to do a little talk on breast, so we'll get there. But so she tells me she's going to have a breast reduction. And my first, my first response was to be a little judgy. And I was like, oh, you're having surgery. And then my second response was, oh, I'm kind of jealous because I've got big boobs and they hurt my back.

And they never, you know, I breastfed two kids and wow. And she was so excited. And then I helped her get prepped for surgery, recover from surgery. She came back in and she was thrilled. I don't have to wear bra, I can exercise. She just my back doesn't hurt. I feel better and it was a really good lesson for me because I thought, you know what? We have to be balanced. We have to make choices that are going to be for the best outcome for ourselves. And so, yes, did she go under the knife and go through anesthesia? Yes.

But did I help her clear the anesthesia, get ready? Yes. And did she feel better in her life and herself after that? Yes. So guess what yours truly did? I made an appointment and I had my own breast reduction. And I learned a very valuable lesson that having to be all natural can be detrimental. And that's not that. I'm saying I want you to do things that are not natural because I don't. I'm just trying to give you the, the, the mental process.

Hormone Benefits and Longevity 9:30

And so that's a vulnerable share for me. But yes, these boobs have been reduced and they're still huge. And I still feel like I could go for another one. That's that's another topic. So but what I'm trying to say is sometimes when we're like, I'm going to do things all naturally and we take bioidentical hormones out of the equation, we suffer, our brains suffer, our overall well-being suffers. And there is a study in PubMed showing women who use bioidentical hormones have a higher level of mortality.

It means we live longer, we live healthier. And so I just really from the bottom my heart, I want you to, if you're not already on them, to open your mind to having this be a part because there is no magic bullet. And so as I teach my other classes, we're going to talk about your breasts and mindfulness and your lymphatic system and your liver and detoxing and your gut and your emotions, and all of these things are important. In my clinic, patients are not allowed to get refills of their hormones unless they're doing all these other pieces, because health happens.

It's the whole gestalt. It's the full catastrophe of living and what we need to do to enhance our health. And so but bioidentical hormones take you from here to there. There's nothing that quite can replace them so they are safe. They are effective. They are game changers. And I want you to fall in love with them. So now that being said, there are a lot of bioidentical hormone experiences out there that are like run, run, run. This is not safe. So I'm going to give you a couple of pointers. If someone is just measuring your hormones in blood, run, run, run, because that is not an accurate way to look at your hormones, especially once you are on hormones.

How to Test and Monitor Hormones 11:30

It can look falsely elevated. I see this all the time. Patients come in, they're like, oh, my doctor took me off my progesterone because it was too high in my blood. And I'm like, ooh. And now you know. And then they're complaining. Now I'm not sleeping and now I'm cranky. And now I have water retention, and now I'm anxious. And it's because blood is not a safe way to follow. So 24 hour urine testing. That's the way to go. You can see the metabolites. It gives you an idea of what's happening over 24 hour period.

And that being said, there are some levels in blood DHT, which is dihydrotestosterone, and even testosterone and free testosterone can be somewhat accurate in blood and okay to look, as long as you know when you have taken it and when you're getting your testing done so you don't get misled. But the only way to look at the metabolites and see if your hormones are metabolizing safely is through 24 hour urine. So how it's tested is crucial. How it is given is also crucial. I use the majority of what I do is use creams and we apply them to mucosal tissue.

If your doctor has you putting them here on your breasts or on your belly, then that is a good way to get dermal fatigue, where the hormones start getting stuck in fat tissue and you don't get the results that you're looking for. So where you apply them is also super important. How you take them is also important. They're a symphony. Don't let someone just give you estrogen. Don't let someone just give you testosterone. Don't let someone just give you progesterone. All of your levels. Testosterone. Progesterone.

Estrogen DHEA. Pregnant alone. Oxytocin. Melatonin. Aldosterone. Thyroid. Cortisol. It's a symphony. And so someone needs to be looking at everything to make sure you are getting the right pieces of the symphony. So it's just a little snippet. We're going to talk much more about this in the summit, and I'll be speaking more about it in the nine week class and teaching. So I just want to kind of expand your brains if you are not on hormones for you to think about, well, this is going to be a really important piece of my pro longevity.

Proper Delivery and Final Advice 14:00

My healthy aging program. If you are on hormones and you're not having good results, I want you to think about how are they being monitored? What form are you taking in them in? How are you applying them? Are you getting the right amount of each one? And if you are not feeling good on your hormones because I see this all the time with patients, they come in and things that make you go, oh, this happens all the time in my office because patients come, come, patients come in. And I just can't believe the way they've been given hormones from people who say they are hormone experts.

So I just want you to know, there's always hope. There's always options. And if you had a not so good experience with hormones, with bioidentical hormones, that's okay. You can have a new experience. I promise you that the right way of receiving them will be a game changer, I promise, I promise you can ask my thousands of patients who have had the experience and are like, we love our bioidentical hormones, so I hope this was helpful in changing the conversation in your brain and giving you some ideas of what you can be asking your doctor, who you're working with if you are not having a good experience, etc., etc.

so sending you all so much love and I'll see you soon. Real soon. Enjoy the day.