What if I told you that there is something you can do to improve your sex life, help you lose weight, reduce your total cholesterol, increase your HDL, reduce your risk for chronic illnesses such as cancers, heart disease, diabetes, stroke, osteoporosis and Alzheimers would you be interested? How about if it also improves your memory, sleep, skin tone, the appearance of wrinkles and helps your body recover from injury more quickly? How would you feel now? Pretty exciting isn’t it? There is a good body of research that supports the use of natural or bioidentical estrogen, progesterone, thyroid, testosterone, DHEA and or growth hormone to help you achieve the mind and body of your late 20’s. Why aren’t more people doing it? Well, they are but you haven’t heard about it until now.

The first question I get after suggesting natural HRT to my patients is the question, “Isn’t that dangerous?” The short answer is “no”, not if we use natural hormones and not synthetics, something chemically identical to your body’s own hormones. Yes, the synthetics are dangerous, lead to an increased risk of cancer and stroke. The Women’s Health Initiative tried this and with the use of synthetic estrogens much older women developed a marked increase in stroke risk. Low testosterone in men has been clearly shown to increase their risk of heart disease. Low growth hormone in men is related to and increased risk of prostate cancer. High serum testosterone predicted a reduced 5-year risk of cardiovascular disease in elderly men.

According to the Journal Menopause Management in March 2008 estrogen therapy safely and effectively reduces total mortality and coronary heart disease in recently menopausal women. Estrogen therapy reduces coronary calcium artery.  Estrogen replacement therapy is associated with improvement of cognitive deficits and reduced incidence of Alzheimer’s disease. In April 1995, the Journal of the National Cancer Institute found that estrogen replacement was associated with substantial decreases in risk of fatal colon cancer. These results were consistent with several published studies suggesting a protective role of exogenous estrogens in the development of colorectal cancer.  Natural progesterone therapy was related to a lowered risk of breast cancer than synthetic progestins. According to The Journal of Gender-Specific Medicine: JGSM: the Official Journal of the Partnership for Women’s Health at Columbia in October 2000, estrogen as a possible preventive agent for Alzheimer’s disease is an issue of overwhelming importance when the public health impact is considered.

I could go on and on with research findings but suffice it to say if you are over 40, whether male or female you should consider having your sex hormones checked along with your thyroid, adrenal and growth hormones and get them adjusted to help you maintain an optimun quality of life. Maintaining your hormones at an optimum level will allow you to attain a lifestyle full of vigor and vitality well into your 80’s.  Don’t wait too long since the research indicates that the protection from these hormones are only present when you start them close to menopause or andropause in men. For more information, read on.