By Dr. Michael Wald
Who wants to live longer with impaired memory, loss of sex drive, heart disease and diabetes? Optimizing one’s hormone levels has been shown to improve sex drive, increase ones overall sense of wellbeing, burn fat, strengthen bones, help maintain muscle throughout the body, lower cholesterol levels, improve memory and help ward off almost every major killer of modern living…and that’s not all!
Human beings age and die largely because our hormone levels diminish or fade away completely, resulting in loss of quality of life and shorter life span. Women are outliving men in part because of estrogen levels. Estrogens signal longevity genes in the body that reduce the formation of molecules I like to call “cell-killers”, otherwise known as free radicals. Free radicals cause genetic damage, resulting in shorter lifespan from disease. Studies of men demonstrate similar health promoting effects of testosterone, but in both men and women, it is the combined effects of many dozens of hormones that get the job done! My research has demonstrated that every single thing you eat has an effect, either positive or negative, upon hormonal levels. Because of this, it is possible to “turn the hormonal tide” in your favor – live better!
How do you get the hormone balance right? Endocrinologists, or hormone doctors, are seemingly not interested in longevity approaches. Their education is focused on correcting obvious hormone deficiencies in children that fail to thrive (largely by giving them growth hormone), providing people with low thyroid hormones, synthetic hormone replacement, and similar approaches in other deficiency conditions. Hormone-blockers are used if hormone levels are too excessive. Beyond just these patients who are “obviously deficient” in hormone levels, there are also those who can potentially benefit from “optimal hormone levels” and not merely “average hormone levels”. In longevity health care, we utilize different laboratory measurements to determine where “optimal” hormone levels should be. (see – intmedny.com).
As you age and experience disability and disease your hormone levels are declining. Doctors say that the decline in hormone levels are natural, but longevity doctors say that they are contributing to your loss of of life. Lifestyle factors such as exercise, stress reduction, sleep and diet can help keep hormones at “optimal” levels for far longer than what normally occurs in our fast-paced, stressed society. It cannot be claimed that the loss of quality of life and disease experienced today by so many of us is “normal,” or to be expected. Why? Simply because we are aging unnaturally and inappropriately due to too much stress, bad food, air pollution, radiation and other adverse environmental factors.
Laboratory testing by a longevity practitioner, careful consultation, and questionnaires are used to discover how to best balance hormone levels. After all, do you want to have the average heath of a person your age? Look around – it’s not so fantastic! Obesity, overweight, poor memory, loss of aerobic capacity, high cholesterol, arthritis and bone loss are just a few of the problems resulting in part from a decline in our hormone levels throughout our lives. However, with the use of what are known as bioidentical hormones (hormones that are exactly identical to those made in the human body naturally), scientific studies suggest that we can stay biologically younger for far longer than was ever expected.
Health issues including anxiety, weight gain, depression, pain, memory loss, loss of libido, sleep disturbances, acne, muscle strength and tone, and pre-and postmenopausal are often helped when one supplements with natural hormones, makes improvements to his or her diet, and takes the right nutritional supplements.
– Dr. Michael Wald, aka The Blood Detective, is the director of nutritional services at Integrated Medicine of Mount Kisco, located in Westchester New York. He has appeared on ABC World News Tonight with Diane Sawyer, Channel 11 PIX, Channel 12 News, CNN, The Food Network and other media outlets. Dr. Wald earned the name Blood Detective for his reputation to find problems that are often missed by other doctors. He earned an MD degree, is a doctor of chiropractic and a certified dietician-nutritionist. He is also double-board certified in nutrition. He has published over a dozen books with three additional titles due for release late 2013 including: Frankenfoods – Genetically Modified Foods: Controversies, Lies & Your Health and Gluten-A-Holic: How to Live Gluten Free and the Blood Detective’s Longevity Secrets. Dr. Wald can be reached at: www.intmedny.com or www.blooddetective.com or by calling: 914-242-8844.