FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
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WHY “BIOIDENTICAL” HORMONE REPLACEMENT THERAPY?
Optimal Bio medical experts use all-natural hormones that are identical to the hormones made by your body. Because their structure is identical to the hormones made by your body, they are easily metabolized with no harsh side effects. Ease the degenerative side effects of aging and other medical issues with BHRT.
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WHY ARE HORMONES IMPORTANT?
Hormones are designed to strengthen our bodies at the cellular level. Therefore, we must get to the root causes of hormonal disruption to find out what goes wrong when hormone levels drop. The endocrine system is made up of glands that produce and secrete hormones, chemical substances produced in the body that regulate the activity of cells or organs. These hormones regulate the body’s growth, metabolism (the physical and chemical processes of the body), and sexual development and function in our bodies. Please note: The purpose of sex hormones in your body is by no means limited to sexual activity. Sex hormones control most bodily functions—everything from your appetite, your energy level, your emotions, and your ability to heal—as the result of a properly functioning endocrine system. Hormonal balance creates a solid foundation for your health, in the same manner that a brick house is solid because it’s made of bricks. A backbone of the twenty-seven-carbon structure in your body is cholesterol. From that cholesterol, your cortisol, your testosterone, your estrogen, your progesterone, and all the precursors to those hormones are formed. Unfortunately, endocrine-disrupting chemicals are found everywhere—in plastics, pesticides, heavy metals, food additives, cleaning products, cash register receipts, and personal care products, to name a few. When these EDCs enter our bloodstreams, either orally or transdermally (absorbed through the skin), our very structures are compromised. Why? These estrogen mimickers hide in various places in our bodies. They affect your overall physiology—the hypothalamus, the pituitary gland, the testes, the ovaries, and the adrenal glands. EDCs are associated with altered reproductive function in both genders, abnormal growth phenomena, and neurocognitive problems in children, breast cancer, and compromised immune systems. When your hormone levels are low, that deficiency affects many parts of your body. • You feel tired, drained, and sapped of energy. • You are susceptible to depression and despair. • You are at higher risk for heart attacks, blood clots and strokes. • You are more prone to diseases such as diabetes, dementia, and Alzheimer’s. • You are more likely to get breast cancer, prostate cancer, and other types of cancer. • Your sex drive and sexual endurance will wane. Hormone Replacement Therapy begins with Replacing deficient levels of hormones and bringing you back to normalcy. When your testosterone levels are replenished, you restore vitality to each cell. It continues with Repairing. Once those hormones are in your system and operating correctly, they will bring health on the cellular level, then to the organs of your body, and then to the various systems of your body. A replenished testosterone level can defend against harmful elements, viruses, and toxins. Then, the much-needed hormones Restore health and vitality to your entire body. When hormone levels are restored to optimal levels, health spreads. Finally, after only a few months on BHRT, you will feel Revitalized! Refer to The Hormone Handbook, chapter 2 & chapter 4
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WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BIO AND SYNTHETIC (HORMONES)?
Bioidentical – body recognizes BHRT as the same that the body produces. Atom by atom, molecule by molecule, so the body knows how to: utilize, metabolism and eliminate. Bioidentical hormones are the safest and most natural form of hormone replacement available because they are created using familiar, plant-based ingredients like yams, soy, or olive oil. The Mayo Clinic has defined bioidentical hormones as “compounds that have the same chemical and molecular structure as hormones that are produced in the human body.” That means the body recognizes bioidentical hormones as its own, which is critical. Conventional hormone replacement therapy uses drugs that are dangerous chemical compounds, and their structure is likely to have adverse consequences on the human organism. Hormones are not drugs. Hormones are regulatory substances created in the endocrine glands and transported in the blood to stimulate specific tissues into action. They are made up of signaling molecules that target organs to regulate physiology and behavior. Bioidenticals do not come with the undesirable side effects of traditional hormone drugs because they are identical, chemically speaking, to those made by your own body. Bioidentical hormones are infinitely safer because they are the structural duplicates to the hormones your body produced a lot of when you were young. Hence, the term bioidentical as in identical to your biology. What about the long-term implications of BHRT? Cheerleaders for synthetic hormone treatments sometimes assert that there are long-term dangers to bioidenticals, when, in fact, the reality is the opposite. A collaborative analysis published in The Journal of the National Cancer Institute in 2008 found that there was no association between the risk of prostate cancer and any bioidentical hormone measured, including testosterone, DHT, estradiol, and others. This conclusion was reached after pooling data from eighteen separate studies that included 3,886 men with prostate cancer and 6,438 control subjects.38 Sex hormones do not increase the risk of prostate cancer—or any other kind of cancer! Pellet BHRT has been shown to increase bone density significantly and to lessen the threat of osteoporosis - The Hormone Handbook discusses this on page 35
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WHY AM I GAINING WEIGHT?
Reasons Hormones Cause Weight Gain Hormones are responsible for a multitude of things in the body; however, weight gain is the most obvious when it comes to looking in the mirror. Hormonal imbalance might be the cause of weight gain for a variety of reasons. How unbalanced hormones can lead to weight gain: Testosterone Testosterone burns fat, so it helps you change your body composition by burning fat and increasing lean muscle. Testosterone also helps insulin sensitivity and fights insulin resistance, which will help your body make less fat and burn more fat – primarily visceral fat, which kills us. Estrogen Estrogen imbalance will affect the gut bacteria called gut dysbiosis, which will increase this beta-glucuronidase enzyme and cause the recirculation of estrogen (enterohepatic rotation), resulting in weight gain. You want to eliminate this type of estrogen in your body. A Problematic Thyroid The thyroid gland orchestrates all your bodily functions, including body temperature, metabolism, digestion, cholesterol levels, heart rate, breathing, muscle development, appetite, and the release of your sex hormones. Your thyroid is continually communicating with your brain, your hypothalamus, and your pituitary gland to make all these complicated hormonal changes happen throughout the day, every single day. Hypothyroidism is strongly associated with weight gain; in fact, weight gain is the most common symptom of hypothyroidism. Additionally, an under-active thyroid (Hoshimoto’s thyroiditis) can make it challenging to manage weight. The two most active thyroid hormones, thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3), circulate in the body, and they affect your metabolism through their interaction with your:
- Fat cells
- Muscle
- Liver
- Pancreas
- Hypothalamus