So just what is the straight skinny on Reproductive Hormone Balance, anyway? And does this subject apply just to women, or do men need concern themselves with it, as well?
In this post I will cover all of the critical points that you need to know to manage this aspect of your health. And yes, guys, this applies to you too. Particularly as we age, us guys are increasigly likely to need this information in order to stay healthy, prevent lots of problems, and even fix a few that may arise.
In fact, for both men and women, this information may well be the most important that I ever cover on this site.
Before we dig into the critical points that you need to know, let’s do some debunking: Hormone Replacment Therapy, (HRT), causes cancer and it otherwise very dangerous to your health, right? Well, if you read the mainstream reports that have come out over the last few years, you’ll quickly answer, Yes! And the way that the mainstream medical practioners mostly practiced HRT, it did lead to increases in cancer and other serious health problems. However, that is because it was not done properly. In fact, while the mainstream in the U.S. were practicing HRT and doing it all wrong, Dr. John Lee, M.D. was doing it right, proving that it is an extremely beneficial element of health care, and that done properly it prevents cancer, greatly enhances health, improves the lives of those who take advantage of it, and even in some cases reverses reproductive cancers. Not only was he doing it right, but he was teaching other health care providers to do the same, writing a number of very important books on the subject, and leaving behind a wonderful legacy for those of us wise enough to follow.
So what is wrong with the conventional approach? In a nutshell 3 things:
1. They relied on blood testing, and often no testing at all, just a patient’s age, to establish that hormone balance was needed. Then they adopted a one-size-fits all approach to prescribing the “balancing” hormones. Most reporductive hormones cannot be accurately measured by blood testing. The problem is that our blood is a complex fluid, containing many organic molecules and protiens. Reproductive hormones have a tendancy to bind to these molecules and protiens in our blood. This renders them unavailable for their normal regulatory function in controlling the cells they were designed to control. AAnd yet, they still show up in the blood testing. Naturally, prescribing “balancing” replacement hormones without first accurately measuring the existing hormone levels leads to disaster. The answer is to measure the existing hormones in olur saliva, which is a fair less complex fluid, that contains almost no protiens and very few organic molecules. Hence, in contrast the hormones that are measured in our saliva are active and available. We call these “bio-available”. So saliva testing is the accurate and best way to measure the hormones to determine which need balancing and how to balance them.
2. Once it was decided to prescribe HRT to replace missing hormones, depleted hormones or otherwise achieve balance, synthetic or molecularly altered hormone compounds were used. There are complex economic reasons why synthetic hormones became the norm. These reasons are beyond the scope of this article. Suffice it to say that synthetic hormones do not behave the same way in our bodies as the natural, original hormones do, and they are not safe and should not be used. Period!
3. Problem 2 was compounded by gross over-dosing. The doses of HRT were often so large that they imbalanced the hormones at least as badly as they were with no intervention, if not worse. Early in his brilliant work in this field, Dr. Lee discovered that very small doses of natural hormones quickly achieved the desired results. And, of course, in the conventional practice no ongoing accurate testing or monitoring was done. so these problems were not detected until widespread harm had been done.
As a result of these 3 problems, HRT got a very bad rep, and most people shun it now, particularly patients who favor holistic approaches. And, there is even a good deal of misunderstanding and plain bad information on this subject in the holistic community, among both patients and practitioners.
Here’s what Dr. John Lee came up with and then proceeded to demonstrate as both extremely beneficial and very safe:
1. Use saliva testing to determine the existing balance. Monitor on a periodic basis so that appropriate adjustments can be made.
2. Use only natural, bioidentical hormones. That is, hormones that are identical to those found naturally in the human body, down to the atomic structure.
3. Use what Dr. John Lee calls “physiologic” doses. These are small doses that roughly equate to the amount of hormone that is missing that the body would put out when functioning optimally.
Now let’s look at some of the common problems that this proper hormone balancing addresses:
First we need to understand a little of the basics involved in their function in the human body.