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Hormonally Challenged
Stressed, tired, grumpy? Weight issues, skin problems, brain fog? Here the hormonally challenged gather to partake of the wisdom of the Hormone Queen.
Editor's note: This is a P-I Reader Blog. P-I Reader Blogs are not written or edited by the P-I. They are written by readers, for readers. The authors are solely responsible for content. If you see any posts you consider inappropriate, please send us a note at newmedia@seattlepi.com.
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May 15, 2008
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Everyone is so concerned about high cholesterol, but did you know that very low levels of cholesterol are unhealthy. Death rates related to cholesterol levels are a J curve--over 250ng/dl and under 150ng/dl --mortality rates rise. Why?

Cholesterol is manufactured by the liver in response to the body's need for two things: bandaids and hormones.

Cholesterol is nature's bandaid, providing the necessary materials to shore up damaged tissues and support cells.

Cholesterol is also at the center of every steroid hormone: estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, cortisol, DHEA, aldosterone. The word steroid comes from "sterol"--the cholesterol molecule at the root of every steroid hormone.

When your body produces less hormones in times of stress or with the natural aging process, the hypothalamus which orchestrates the symphony of hormones alerts the liver --"get some cholesterol to the gonads and adrenals, pronto!!" Now the tired, declining glands cannot always use the cholesterol resources so generously provided by the liver, so it floats around in the bloodstream. High cholesterol is not a dis-ease but a symptom of something deeper.

If you keep hormones in harmony by supporting the ovaries, testes and adrenals, cholesterol will be made into necessary steroid hormones. Whenever cholesterol is elevated, I look for steroid hormone imbalances. The liver is not trying to clog up your arteries, but just responding to the hypothalamus' cry for help.

I recently got an email from one of my readers about cholesterol. She's menopausal and in spite of a healthy diet and exercise, her cholesterol is rising. Would Genesis Gold® help?

I created Genesis Gold® to balance the hormones and the hypothalamus. Clinical studies showed that within three months the HDL rose (HDL is the good or Happy cholesterol) and within six months the LDL lowered, (LDL is the bad or Lousy cholesterol) lowering the total cholesterol to healthy levels.

Usually after three to six months of using Genesis Gold®, the cholesterol levels normalize as the hormones come into balance.

If symptoms of hormonal decline are severe--unmitigated hot flashes, night sweats, severe mental fog, depression, anxiety--I recommend natural bio-identical hormone replacement.  

If you are over fifty and menopausal (or andropausal for aging men), it is normal for cholesterol levels to rise up to 200-250 ng/dl, even if you exercise and eat well. Over 250, I treat with natural cholesterol lowering agents, because statins have the ominous side effect of suppressing protective CoQ10 production leading to neurological damage. But I never treat high cholesterol until I get to the root of the problem.   

So, yes I think Genesis Gold will help balance the neuro-immune-endocrine system which in turn will lower the liver's production of LDL cholesterol.

Since cholesterol is the root of steroid hormones, then doesn't it make sense to treat hormonal imbalances first?

Posted by at 9:52 a.m. | Permalink | Comments (0)
May 6, 2008
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Hello, my Hormonally Challenged friends!

It seems that some of you are getting the connection between the hormones and health.

I recently received an email from a reader. She wrote: "I have read several of your articles and was impressed with your improvement in heath with whatever you found to drink…" after explaining a myriad of symptoms she suffered, including imbalances in: "circadian rhythm, mood, appetite, thirst, fluid balance, sleep…, pain control, and much more" all under the orchestration of the hypothalamus, she asked "So, do you think a nutrition drink could activate the hypothalamus?"

Yes.

I believe that if you feed the body what it needs to heal, it will heal. Since the hypothalamus controls the hormones, neurotransmitters, immune factors as well as all the basic aspects of life, supporting the hypothalamus is key to health.

She was very interested to know what was the nutritional formula I was referring to in my articles and when I explained it was my own formulation--Genesis Gold®--she wanted to know what personal health experiences influenced me to develop a nutritional hypothalamic support and what were my spiritual beliefs.

So I shared my story with her and now with you, dear readers:

My story begins with the birth of my first child. In January 1984, I had a dream that I was to bear a blond baby boy. I'm Italian, my husband Greek. Blond is not in our genes, but that's what I saw. In spite of amenorrhea due to a 9 year eating disorder, I conceived. The pregnancy was great, but I never "showed". I developed HEELP syndrome years before it was recognized as such and my baby was born at UCLA, ten weeks premature 2# 7oz with ambiguous genitalia. It took ten days for the chromosome studies to come back and the docs to tell me what I already knew. My baby was an XY female. We were advised by the top pediatric endocrinologists on both the west and east coasts to raise our child as a girl. I strongly disagreed. My intuition told me that the high level of androgens my baby's brain had been exposed to in its attempt to overcome the androgen insensitivity affected development.

So we raised our child as a boy, found a pediatric urologist to perform the necessary corrective surgeries, and I went back to grad school. I became a family nurse practitioner and learned everything I could inside and outside of traditional medicine to guide my son through the medical maze. In the 90's documentaries were aired on children like my son, all raised as girls, all psychologically confused by the time they reached young adulthood. Research now shows I was right. If I would have listened to the medical experts instead of my intuitive guidance which at the time felt very divinely given, what harm would my child have suffered?

Overtime I became an expert in hormones and their effect on behavior. In 1997, I went out on my own to practice holistic family medicine. I started to see the most challenging cases related to neuro-immune-endocrinology. I searched for a single nutritional supplement to treat what I believed was the root cause---a dysfunctional hypothalamus...That is when I had the dreams that became Genesis Gold®.

As for my health, I too was hormonally challenged. My bulimia and obsessive exercise kept my body fat so low that at 37 I still had no menstrual cycles without using exogenous hormones. I used bio-identical botanically derived estrogen and progesterone with great results, but once I began researching the Genesis Gold® prototype in 2000, I took myself off everything---hormones and supplements---and joined my 50 plus research subjects. Within two months, I had gained five pounds, my hair and skin improved in texture and moisture, and I got my first un-induced menses. I've had normal cycles ever since and I am aging very slowly compared to my younger sisters--same genetics, the only difference, I'm taking Genesis Gold®.

Truth be told, I have had few patients who have not benefited from consuming Genesis Gold®. I have treated panpituitury syndrome, multiple endocrine disorders, neurological disorders and immune disorders over the past five years since Genesis Gold® has been available and the majority of my patients have been able to get off their other supplements, hormone replacement therapies, and medications. I believe if you feed the body what it needs, it will heal. Genesis Gold® and Sacred Seven™ amino acids were specifically developed to support optimal hypothalamic function.

With surgically induced hypothalamic failure, I believe it will take time to heal. I find as many months as years of dis-ease to build a foundation of healing. I would suspect you would notice improvement in the first month, but complete healing will take time.

As to my spiritual beliefs. I am not religious...I do not follow any particular dogma. I am very spiritual, intimately connected to this earth and its inhabitants. I respect all belief systems and have studied many finding pearls of truth in each. In 2003, after much pressure from colleagues and patients to share my healing lore, I struggled to organize all the content I had collected over the years. So I prayed for what it was I should write. My debut novel, LoveDance came to me in dreams and visions and I wrote prolifically for eight months. Readers report amazing healings while reading LoveDance, which has woven into the fabric of the story my beliefs about healing, how every dis-ease has a spiritual root and thus a lesson and yes, even a gift for those willing to open and receive.

Now I am busy doing healing work with patients who seek my intuitive integrative approach. I am speaking to the public and teaching my colleagues about the unique model I have developed in 20 years of treating the hormonally challenged. My healing vibration is within the book and my nutritional products. I feed Genesis Gold® to my animals who outlive their natural life spans and many of my patients have used Genesis Gold® with their pets as well. No belief systems there, just healing. I have had infertile patients conceive while taking Genesis Gold®. I've treated Reyes syndrome as well as multiple autistic and learning disabled children using Genesis Gold® as their foundational support. As you can testify, the hypothalamus affects so much of our existence. Treating the maestro of the orchestra of ligands produced by the neuro-immune-endocrine system so that the "hormones" can sing harmoniously to the DNA and the DNA can dance beautifully is the secret to health and happiness.

While I researched each and every ingredient, I did not adulterate the formula that came in my dreams. It was given to me for a reason and the universe saw fit to provide the resources to allow me to get it into the world. It has been a lovely synchronicity of events that led to the birth of Genesis Gold® from the gift of my hormonally challenged son to meeting you, dear reader.

Blessings,

Deborah


Newsflash!!! Scientists discover genes that affect gender determination

More information on Genesis Gold®

Posted by at 5:18 p.m. | Permalink | Comments (0)
April 29, 2008
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I spent this past weekend at the Southern California Women's Herbal Symposium. What a glorious time with sisters young and old, none by blood, all united by the song of our hormones. A chance to celebrate our femininity.

Over fifty women gathered to partake of each other's wisdom. We began the retreat in sacred ceremony. How beautiful to witness the chakras revered with plants and stones in a transcending rainbow. I was very attracted to a polished stone the color of dried blood--jasper.

Jasper is a healing gemstone. Red-brown jasper specifically influences the root chakra, provides grounding, and healing of gynecological problems. Hmmm. The gemstone of the ovaries!

Remember the chakra lady?
Picture 7 Chakras ~ 7 Endocrine Glands

7 ~ crown ~ pineal ~ rhythm

6 ~ third eye ~ pituitary ~ rejuvenation

5 ~ throat ~ thyroid ~ metabolism

4 ~ heart ~ thymus ~ protection

3 ~ solar plexus ~ adrenals ~ response

2 ~ umbilicus ~ pancreas ~ nurturance

1 ~ root ~ ovary ~ creation

Well, the ovaries lie in the root chakra--our power of creation is what grounds us. And this weekend was all about grounding into the healing energies of the earth in the presence of "sisters". Now I have three blood sisters of my own, but finding soul sisters out in the world is a very healing experience.

At the symposium, I taught two classes: The Sacred Feminine Way of Healing and Hormones in Harmony™. The women were ripe to receive me, so open to the information I had to share. The healing seemed to take "root" before my eyes. It was amazing. As a speaker, I have addressed many groups from my colleagues to high school students, but this by far was the most receptive.

Perhaps the tiny polished jasper helped. My research on the healing properties of gemstones reveals that jasper heals over a long period of time. Even so I felt its effects the very next day. As if being held in the lap of the Divine Mother herself. Thank goodness for sisters.

More information on Jasper

Posted by at 9:17 p.m. | Permalink | Comments (0)
April 24, 2008
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Of course! Any woman knows that. Men are as affected by their hormones as we women are affected by ours. Yet it takes a study from Cambridge University to prove to the world of powerful men that indeed, their behavior is affected by hormones.

What's most interesting is that this recent study looked at not male athletic or sexual performance, but how testosterone levels affect financial decisions.

In today's world where the alpha male is not judged as much by his brawn but by his brains (or at least his ability to make money), these findings are quite significant. The study found that higher the morning levels of testosterone were, the more money made that day.

Testosterone is the hormone of assertion, confidence and when in excess--aggression.

So is risk taking influenced by testosterone? Yes. High levels may drive men to take risks like aggressive trading of stocks, but in andropausal men declining testosterone forces them to seek ways to find that "high". Middle aged wives will attest to the fact that their husbands' flagging hormones are the motivating factor behind the need to engage in high risk behaviors like sports cars, sky-diving, and very young women.

Middle aged men who seek hormonal help come to me in two forms--those dragged in by their wives or those concerned with their sexual performance. But I have found that many men who are put on cholesterol lowering agents are in fact hormonally declining. Cholesterol is needed to make testosterone. As the testes produce less testosterone with age, the liver responds by producing more cholesterol.

I have also noticed an interesting trend of middle aged men on anti-anxiety or antidepressant medications. I say interesting for treating them with bio-identical testosterone often relieves the symptoms, improves their outlook, and helps them function better at work and at home.

In long married couples, their hormones flow as one. Male testosterone mimics the cyclic surges of female estrogen increasing likelihood of mating behavior at ovulation. When I prescribe hormone replacement therapy for my hypogonadal male patients, I ask that they take a three day break every month--the first three days of their spouse's menstrual cycle.

Why? Because that is when her hormones are at their lowest and his will naturally follow. Plus it takes 72 hours to clear the cell receptor sites, averting hormone resistance. By taking a natural break, the cells remain responsive to the exogenous hormones, so it doesn't take higher doses to get the same effect.

Many of my perimenopausal women who seek hormone balancing often end up bringing in their spouses to get balanced. And it works both ways. One of my male patients in his early forties was concerned he needed testosterone. When I explained that he would need to take a break from the bio-identical hormone replacement when his wife was menstruating, he said that would be difficult. Over the last year her cycles had been irregular, in fact she even skipped a couple of periods. Hmmm. Perhaps it's his wife who needs hormonal support. His flagging hormones are responding to hers.

Male behavior, like female behavior is affected by hormones.

The original Cambridge study as published in Neuroscience

Or check out this article in the Washington Post

Posted by at 12:00 a.m. | Permalink | Comments (0)
April 21, 2008
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Just hang out with a woman about a couple of days before her menses and witness the power of hormones. As her sex steroids plummet so does her demeanor. Not all women suffer from PMS but most will admit to feeling different, less tolerant, more emotional than the rest of the month.

Not just female hormones, but male hormones affect the brain. Believe me, I see many middle aged men prescribed antidepressants or anti-anxiety drugs when in fact their moods are related to declining testosterone. Both the male and female brain is affected by hormones.

But we actually have three brains. Yes, three. One in our head, one in our chest and one in our gut. The heart is the really number one brain. The aboriginals knew this truth and today science is proving that the heart gets first preference of resources for neurotransmitters.

Neurotransmitters are the hormones of the nervous system. And they're produced by the gut as well as the heart. Ever been nervous before a big event? While you're brain fusses over possible outcomes, your heart races and your stomach rumbles. Neurotransmitters. In fact, conventional medicine often treats irritable bowel syndrome with antidepressants and everyone knows that you can die of a broken heart (really severe depression means very little serotonin for the heart to function.)

You can live without a functional brain (coma) but not without a functional heart. And if your digestive tract cannot absorb nutrients, you'll starve to death without medical intervention.

Now let's explore the immune system. You know when you're under a lot of stress and you become sick. You catch a common cold virus or break out in cold sores (the herpes virus). Stress affects the adrenal glands which in turn affects the immune system.

In the heart chakra lies the thymus--an endocrine gland responsible for programming the white blood cells to know the difference between you and other. Other what? Germs: viruses, bacteria, fungi, even weird cells like cancer. White blood cells (WBC) attack other and spare you. They do so best when you are asleep. Under the influence of melatonin produced by the pineal gland in the crown chakra the body shuts down normal daytime function and switches into nocturnal mode. The adrenals stop producing the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol and begin to produce metakephalins that stimulate the thymus to program the WBC's. All hormones, all the time!

High stress means high adrenalin and cortisol production interfering with sleep and effectively turning off the immune system making you vulnerable to infection and over a very long period of time, cancer.

Think of the WBC as the pony express. The WBC can travel anywhere in the body, even pass the blood brain barrier delivering messages called cytokines. Cytokines are the tiniest of the "hormones". These minute messengers instigate the immune response whether that be hives in response to an allergen or the attack of an invading virus. The amazing WBC carry on its cell membranes information about all the hormones, all the neurotransmitters, and all the cytokines in the body during its lifetime.

The neuro-immune-endocrine system is a massive communication network that makes the global internet look like child's play.

So if the neuro-immune-endocrine system is the software for the human computer, what's the operating system?

The hypothalamus.

In the center of the brain, the hypothalamus lies vastly unappreciated. Part neurological tissue and part endocrine tissue, the hypothalamus is largely ignored by neurologists as a primitive brain structure. Endocrinologists pay it little heed because they cannot measure its hormones without sacrificing the lab animal. But the hypothalamus is crucial to life.

The hypothalamus orchestrates the entire symphony of hormones.

If the hormones are harmonious, you are healthy, vital, youthful, vibrant.

If the hormones are out of harmony, you are sick, tired, aging, stressed, and eventually dis-eased!

So to help the Hormonally Challenged, I focus on the maestro--the hypothalamus.

Posted by at 12:00 a.m. | Permalink | Comments (0)
April 17, 2008
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The other day I was illustrating the connection between the body and the environment for a new patient. On my little stick figure person, I placed seven dots.

"Those are the chakras!" The patient exclaimed.

"Yes, and they're also where the endocrine glands lie."

From the gonads in the root to the pineal in the crown, the endocrine glands correspond beautifully with the seven chakras. Chakra is a Sanskrit word meaning little wheels of energy. Remember how hormones are the interface between the energy of the environment and the matter of your body, well the glands that produce the hormones are the power points. East meets West in the endocrine system!

So from crown to root the endocrine glands are as follows:

Picture

Hormones affect everything--our nervous system, our immune system, even digestion and detoxification. These tiny messengers communicate to the DNA within our cells what's happening in the rest of our body as well as in our environment.

Imagine that health is a pyramid. There are four sides on the Pyramid of Health: the environment, our anatomy or structure of the body, and the physiology or biochemistry of our system. The fourth side is our beliefs. What we think becomes. Our thoughts influence our biochemistry which runs the entire system.

At the top of the biochemical face of the pyramid are the hormones--specifically the neuro-immune-endocrine system.

The hormones are bio-chemicals with physical molecular structure, but they also are vibrational. Hormones each have unique vibrations. Hormones literally sing to the DNA and the DNA dances accordingly.

It is ironic how many physicians will become afflicted with the dis-ease in which they specialize. I just accompanied a dear friend of mine to a gynecological oncologist--a doctor specializing in cancer who still suffered the effects of radiation therapy twelve years after a bout with cancer.

Being a hormone specialist, I am very attuned to my own hormones as well as my patients. I can "feel" when hormones are out of balance. Like an internal symphony, each hormone has its own rhythm, its own sound, its own vibration.

Years ago, a young woman came to see me. She had been a patient of mine since her adolescence and just six month earlier had a complete physical with me. She had no complaints and when I asked what prompted her visit, she said, "I just need to sit in your vibration and I stay well for about six months."

She was describing resonance. How her hormones were attuning to mine. And how vitally important it is that I stay well. My patients remind of this all the time.

Healer heal thyself.

Posted by at 12:00 a.m. | Permalink | Comments (0)
April 14, 2008
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Sunday I was blessed by the Grandmothers. In the center of a circle of beloved women, I received an ancient empowerment. Afterwards in tears of gratitude, I addressed the Council of Grandmothers in Ojai, California.

A memory awakened of time when these sacred rites of passage welcomed the infant into her earth family, the girl into womanhood, the woman into the council of sages, the elder into the spirit world.

Without these rites of passage, we have lost the sacred. Struggling to find our way in the world, we search in dark places risking our health and our wellbeing then spend years recovering.

Hold your hands in the prayer position, then open them to create an inverted V. That is the blade, a masculine symbol. Now turn your hands down placing the point of the V in your lap. That is the chalice, the symbol of the feminine.

How many of us women have had to turn their chalices upside down to use them as a blade and fend off the world?

Even modern medicine seeks to masculinize us. We are encouraged to take the birth control pill all year round to avoid those messy periods. What will happen in a few generations when the menstrual cycle becomes the "curse" again, like in the dark ages?

There was a time when women revered their bodies. And men respected our power. Women's sacred bodies transformed blood into life and food into milk. During their monthly cycles, women sought respite away from men and the labors of life. In the amazing resonance of hormones, women would menstruate at the same time and came together in the red tent, the menstrual hut, or the chamam to cherish themselves.

When the food supply is poor like during the famine months, aboriginal women live off stored body fat and cease menstruating until there is enough food to conceive. Women need at least 16% body fat to have enough reserve to make hormones.

Years ago, I suffered from runner's amenorrhea. No periods secondary to very low body fat. I say suffered, because without adequate estrogen, my testosterone was unbound and free to wreak havoc on my skin. Adult acne isn't pretty or pleasant. Without adequate estrogen, my hair was dry, lifeless; my nails brittle; my nerves fragile. Without estrogen to balance my hypothalamic circadian rhythms, I suffered somambulance--sleep walking. Moody and sleep deprived, I was nearly manic in my approach to life. I could not accomplish enough, fast enough, or perfect enough to be satisfied.

So I tried bio-identical hormones. Natural botanical transdermal estrogen and progesterone relieved all my symptoms and brought my periods back. After a few years I had been treating many patients with natural hormones and they loved it, but I wondered if the body couldn't make hormones on its own.

So I did some research on how to stimulate the hypothalamus nutritionally. Since there wasn't a product available at the time, I formulated one. Actually, I dreamt of a nutritional formula and prepared a batch in my kitchen. Then discontinuing all hormone replacement therapy and other nutritional supports, I began taking my creation. Within in two months, I had gained five pounds and had my first period not induced by exogenous hormones! I've had periods ever since and kept on the five pounds, stopped exercising obsessively, and pretty much eat what ever I desire.

Although I do not have access to a chamam, I do celebrate my cycles every month, joyfully rediscovering my womanhood.

Thank you, Grandmothers, for reminding me of my Sacred Feminine nature.

Posted by at 5:14 p.m. | Permalink | Comments (0)
April 11, 2008
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I proposed this blog to the paper months ago then after some lost emails--who knows what really happens in cyberspace, sort of like the one missing sock after each load of laundry--Hormonally Challenged was ready to go. But was I? Well, not then. Not until I reached peak hormonal tension could I get into character and write from the perspective of the Hormonally Challenged.

Funny thing--hormones--just as I try and take a professional perspective on neuro-immune-endocrinology, my "hormones" remind me that I too am under their influence. So under the crescent moon, I head to the local grocers for a chocolate fix. It's two maybe three days before my period and my brain is starving for serotonin--chocolate works wonders.

So I'm wandering through the store when a nice looking man smiles at me. Although I am happily married and very well aware of y sacred feminine powers, I am not feeling particularity attractive tonight dressed in a light blue oversized hoodie over sweat pants.

After much deliberation in the candy aisle--chocolate has become as seductive a commodity as wine--I make my choice and check out. But in the parking lot I find myself just behind the same man who turns to me and says, "You are just as cute as you can be."

Hmmm…I'm a 47 year old mother of two college students, a graduate from a prominent university and a leader in my field…cute is not how I would describe myself.

Yet it does seem as my hormones decline this time of month, my emotional vulnerability is a potent attractant. So I thank him and go home to placate my serotonin receptors with dark chocolate.

The night before at belly dance class, we discussed premenstrual syndrome. Ever since my first book came to me in a dream, I have indulged my fantasies in Middle Eastern dance. My belly dance class has become a modern day chamam--a gathering place for women during their moon cycles where we celebrate life's transitions.

One woman claimed that she never had PMS. I explained that while PMS sounds like a dis-ease, all women experience shifting hormones, although some are not very sensitive to the changes. Once I described the symptoms of moodiness, impatience, clumsiness, irritability, increased sensitivity as being relieved by chocolate, the woman admitted that she did crave chocolate during right before her menses. Laughing, the teacher shared some leftover chocolate Easter eggs as we settled into the sweetness of Hormones in Harmony.

Posted by at 12:00 a.m. | Permalink | Comments (0)
April 8, 2008
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As the biochemical interface between the energy of the environment and the matter of your body, hormones affect everything. Your moods, your memory, your metabolism. Your appearance, your aging, your appetite. Your sleep patterns, your stress response, your sex drive. Everything.

When I refer to hormones, I mean all the body's biochemical messengers--the traditional hormones of the endocrine system, the neurotransmitters of the neurological system and the cytokines of the immune system. All of these act as hormones affecting everything we do, everything we feel, everything we think.

Living in today's fast paced, high stressed world of the interminable electric light and too many manmade carbohydrates creates havoc with our hormones.

Think of the hormones as the software program of the human computer. Many of us are so Hormonally Challenged--sick, aging, tired, or just plain stressed out that we need a software update.

Picture

Being a woman entering the thrills of the perimenopausal rollercoaster does not make me an expert. It does make me genuinely empathetic with my Hormonally Challenged readers.

Being a neuro-immune-endocrine specialist for the past twenty years…well, that contributes to my expertise regarding the Hormonally Challenged.

Yet as I receive more and more Hormonally Challenged patients into my holistic health care practice, my expertise becomes more and more refined. Like good wine, it takes years to reach the peak flavor of healing.

When I told my patients I would have a weblog on the Hormonally Challenged, they were excited. Very excited. Reminding me not to forget about…

"the challenges of puberty…"
"and menopause…"
"and male menopause."

"Fatigue! Blog about how hormones affect energy."

"What about the challenges of mothering the raging hormones of teenage boys?"

"What about infertility?"
"Sexuality?"
"Insomnia?"

"Blog about how hormones affect cholesterol and blood pressure and heart disease."

"Don't forget about hormones and cancer!"

"What about hormones and aging?"

"How about hormones and beauty?"

"Tell 'em about hormones and depression."

"Don't forget how hormones affect arthritis and allergies…"

Well, the list goes on with each patient reflecting back to me how getting to the root of their dis-ease meant treating them as Hormonally Challenged.

In 1997, I broke away from a conventional medical setting to practice Intuitive Integrative Medicine. My specialty of natural hormones grew to encompass the gamut of endocrine disorders (diabetes, thyroid disease, adrenal deficiency, growth hormone deficiency, low metabolism, insomnia, fatigue, infertility, andropause, PMS, anti-aging therapeutics). Still the majority of my patients were women going through the change of life.

One day I got a call from a local gynecological surgeon.

"Deborah, I'm sending you all my weird hormone patients."

I thanked him and asked what was so "weird" about them.

"Well, in medical school," he answered, "you learn that A leads to B and occasionally C, but I get to Z and still can't figure out these weird hormone cases."

"That's because, Dr G," I explained, "endocrinology is not an exact science. It's an art."

"I'm a surgeon" he sighed. "and since you're the artist, you take care of them."

That's when I came up with the term--Hormonally Challenged. Health care providers are as challenged by hormonal issues as their patients.

I gladly invite your comments.

I'll share with you my Pearls of Healing Wisdom in understanding the woes of the Hormonally Challenged as well as how to keep Hormones in Harmony.

Yours in Health,

Deborah

Deborah Maragopoulos MN FNP
The Hormone Queen
www.lovedance.com

Posted by at 9:33 p.m. | Permalink | Comments (0)
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Deborah Maragopoulos (Deborah Maragopoulos MN FNP): Author, family nurse practitioner
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