The Benefits of Hormone Replacement Therapy
Tuesday 09/21/2021
Hormone replacement brings your body to optimal levels.
Written by Dr. Greg Brannon | 3 min read
What happens when a person’s hormone levels return to normal? It is incredible—almost miraculous—to see the difference in your body when testosterone levels are abundant due to hormone replacement.
Research has shown that people with normal to high testosterone levels have:
- Fewer heart attacks
- Fewer blood Clots
- Fewer Strokes
- Reduced risk of diabetes
- Reduced incidence of dementia
- Reduced risk of Alzheimer’s
- Lower rates of depression
- Reduced risk of cancer
- More energy
- Greater sex drive
- A greater ability to think clearly
In addition to the above list, many patients report reduced inflammation, reduced LDL (bad) cholesterol, improved mood, relief from dry eye syndrome, lower blood pressure, relief from the pain of arthritis, elimination of excess body fat, and the absence of chronic lumbar back pain.
Look through that list, and ask yourself, “Who wouldn’t want that?” I sure do. Those are the results I’ve seen in the lives of my patients at Optimal Bio for the last few years.
BHRT Protects Against Osteoporosis
One of the most widespread and crippling diseases is osteoporosis. Worldwide, osteoporosis causes more than 8.9 million fractures annually—that’s an osteoporotic fracture every three seconds. Do we also want to call this a new normal? No! It might be a new average, but it is unacceptable.
Osteoporosis is estimated to affect 200 million women worldwide.
- 10% of women aged sixty
- 20% of women aged seventy
- 40% of women aged eighty
- 66% of women aged ninety
Osteoporosis affects an estimated seventy-five million people in Europe, the United States, and Japan. During the year 2000, there were an estimated nine million new osteoporotic fractures, of which 1.6 million were at the hip, 1.7 million were at the forearm, and 1.4 million were clinical vertebral fractures. Europe and the Americas accounted for 51% of all those fractures, while most of the remainder occurred in the Western Pacific region and Southeast Asia. Worldwide, one in three women over age fifty will experience an osteoporotic fracture, as will one in five men over fifty. Needless to say, it’s a big problem.
So, what can we do? How can you take charge of your health to ensure you have the highest chance of success in keeping your bone structure strong?
Hormone treatment has been proven to increase bone density significantly. But it matters what type of hormone treatment you use. The American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology has demonstrated the four-fold increase in bone density with bioidentical hormones over oral estrogen and a two and a half times greater increase in bone density than with hormone patches. The details of those increases for women are:
- 1-2% increase in bone density per year with oral estrogen
- 3.5% increase in bone density per year with patches
- 8.3% increase in bone density per year with pellet therapy
In short, pellet BHRT has been shown to increase bone density significantly and to lessen the threat of osteoporosis.
The above is just some of the evidence that is available in thousands of articles and studies published in medical journals. The weight of the evidence is overwhelming.
Again, I encourage you to study and research. I believe you will come to the same conclusions I have about the efficacy of hormone replacement therapy.
BHRT and Sexual Performance
Although the health benefits of hormone replacement therapy are far-reaching, what is most often asked about is the dramatic improvement of libido and sexual performance. Many of my patients—both men and women—are interested in enhancing enjoyment in their sex lives. The changes are so profound that I have seen failing marriages saved because one or both partners started BHRT and suddenly had a renewed interest in a healthy, active sex life. It is well-documented that there is a direct correlation between normal to high hormone levels and increased libido, sexual interest, sexual performance, and sexual fulfillment. You can certainly expect to feel heightened sexual pleasure and interest if you begin BHRT. Expect it to improve and strengthen your relationship with your life partner in a compelling way!
Safety
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. Sex hormones do not increase the risk of prostate cancer—or any other kind of cancer.
Pellets Will Not Interact with Other Drugs
One of the clear advantages of using pellets—as opposed to other forms of bioidentical replacement hormones—is that there are no drug-to-drug interactions. Pellets are inserted into the fatty tissue of the hip and are absorbed over time directly into the bloodstream. They do not pass through the digestive system like most prescription drugs, and the liver does not metabolize them. It is an extremely safe method of delivery and most closely mimics your own body’s natural process of secreting hormones. For this reason, pellets are ideal for people on oral medications or people with clotting disorders.
Supportive Medical Literature
I have on my computer and in my office thousands of articles on hormone therapy and its benefits. I wholeheartedly encourage you to study, to do research, and to investigate what modern, progressive doctors and researchers are finding.
These documented studies show the positive effects of hormone treatment on our cardiovascular systems, our nervous systems, and our metabolic systems. They demonstrate how the overall effects of aging can prevent your body from performing optimally. They also prove that BHRT is a kind of age reversal therapy that has numerous positive effects on our health and sexual performance.
When your body is optimally balanced, you will not be as susceptible to disease. As I have said before, nothing is a panacea, but we all want our bodies to be functioning as efficiently as possible, as they were designed to do.
The following are the most compelling reasons to begin BHRT:
- There is an abundance of evidence that replacing lost hormones is essential to good health.
- Replacing low and declining hormones is best done with bioidentical hormones. Bioidentical hormones are identical—atom for atom—to the hormones your body produces naturally, which makes them completely safe without any of the adverse side effects.
Contact our office today or visit us at one of our five office locations: Cary, Southern Pines, Wilmington, Charlotte, and Charlottesville.