Ageless: The Naked Truth About Bioidentical Hormones (11 page)

To date, according to Dr. Miller, there is no conclusive data that connects the use of low-dose synthetic growth hormone with an increased risk of cancer. “The positive effect of growth hormone on overall health of the body, including the function of the immune system and other organs, is far more likely to decrease your chances of cancer and other diseases as you age,” he emphasizes. “However, it remains an unanswered question that must be carefully considered by each potential user.”

HGH can be prescribed only by a doctor under certain conditions—namely, that you are deficient. That stands to reason. Remember that with any hormone, you never replace a hormone that isn’t low or missing, nor do you ever take more than your body needs.

Some of the negative side effects that have been reported from supplementing with HGH include carpal tunnel syndrome, arthritis, water retention, and the growth of precancerous cells. Some men whose hormonal activity has been reawakened by HGH supplements find themselves growing small breasts. Finally, long-term HGH use in higher than physiological amounts has been known to cause enlargement of the bones of the hands and feet, particularly in bodybuilders who overdose. Recent studies have indicated that most, if not all, of the undesirable side effects are reversed when the patient stops taking HGH or the doses are reduced.

For antiaging purposes, however, HGH is prescribed in small, regular doses to mimic the body’s natural secretions. Doctors have discovered that this protocol cuts out most of the risks associated with taking excessive amounts.

Normally healthy young people under thirty should not receive HGH injections. However, they can ensure maximum production levels through diet, exercise, vitamins, minerals, and natural hormone supplements.

For more information on HGH, read Dr. Ron Rothenberg’s interview in
chapter 28
.

M
ELATONIN

WHAT IT IS
:
I first learned of melatonin when friends of mine started flying back and forth to Europe and were using it to help them with jet lag and to get them back on regular sleep cycles. It was then hailed as the wonder drug for sleep, although it was actually a hormone available as an over-the-counter sleep aid, but without the side effects of sleeping pills. At the time, it seemed to me that a glass of wine might be a better solution. How wrong I was!

Melatonin is the hormone of sleep. It is secreted from the pineal gland located in the brain. (Very small amounts of melatonin are also produced in the retina and gastrointestinal tract.) The main function of the pineal gland is to help govern those of our biological rhythms that take place over the day, such as the sleep-wake cycle. Researchers see this gland as important in coordinating and controlling our other hormone-release and immune responses. The pineal gland communicates with these other systems through its messenger, melatonin. The pineal gland knows “how old we are” and when we are past our prime. It responds by producing lower levels of melatonin, signaling our other systems to break down, and causes us to age. If we can keep melatonin raised to optimal levels as they begin to fall, we would once again be tricking our bodies into believing that we are still young. With optimal levels of melatonin, we can continue to produce high levels of sex hormones and keep our bodies operating with a well-functioning immune system to fight off disease. Chronologically we would be older, but biologically we would be younger.

Melatonin is synthesized from an amino acid called tryptophan, which in turn is converted into the brain chemical serotonin. Ultimately, serotonin is turned into melatonin. See how all hormones speak to one another? With adequate amounts of melatonin, you sleep soundly and deeply, and you dream and wake up rested in the morning. Melatonin is also responsible for making you yawn. As
night falls, melatonin release induces sleep; dawn shuts it off, waking you up in the morning.

HOW IT WORKS:
It is important to understand that melatonin is produced naturally in the body. Aging, work, travel, and stress can cause changes in sleep patterns and are likely to have adverse effects on melatonin secretion. However, you can achieve optimum release of melatonin by going to bed three hours before midnight and coupling this practice with BHRT if you are in hormonal decline. These three hours of melatonin production reset prolactin production. Three hours of melatonin production is always followed by six hours of prolactin production at night to rev up the defensive arm of your immune system. If you do not go to bed three hours before midnight, you only provoke one and a half hours of prolactin production, possibly suppressing your immune system.

Changes in melatonin set off a range of responses, such as puberty, menstruation, and sleep. Melatonin also alerts our bodies to produce antibodies to combat disease. So you can see how important the presence and maintenance of the correct level of this hormone are for the optimal functioning of our bodies throughout our lives.

Melatonin is known as a wonder drug because of all its other incredible effects. In fact, melatonin may extend our life span by 25 percent or more, possibly because it acts as a powerful antioxidant, keeping the body young by doing battle with free radicals—those toxic agents that pummel and mutilate DNA. It is the only antioxidant capable of penetrating every cell of the body and is the most active and effective of all naturally occurring compounds. For example, in certain tests melatonin proved to be five times more powerful than glutathione and at least twice as effective as vitamin E, another potent antioxidant.

In 1995, an Italian researcher demonstrated that melatonin boosted the immune system of people under extreme stress. Not only that, melatonin helps prevent cancer and improves sexual functioning. Additionally, it helps prevent heart disease by lowering blood cholesterol. It also combats AIDS, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, asthma, diabetes, and cataracts. Melatonin can also extend
your youth, enabling you to enjoy work, sex, and social activities with the same zest and vigor that marked your life in your twenties. Author T. S. Wiley says that with less melatonin in your system, you accelerate aging by four years for every one you live.

SUPPLEMENTING WITH MELATONIN:
There are plenty of reasons to supplement your hormonal system with melatonin. Because melatonin production drops off sharply around age forty-five, supplementation should begin then and not before. The idea is to start taking melatonin when your levels drop.

To find out how much you need, have your melatonin levels checked with a saliva test. Melatonin in the range of 0.5 mg to 12 mg is usually effective. It’s best to start on low doses such as 0.5 mg to 2 mg; increase this dosage if you find it does not help. With melatonin, less is more. Although melatonin plays an extremely important role in our bodies, it is present in only tiny amounts, even at our youthful peak. Larger doses of melatonin won’t help. You can find melatonin in your local health food store, or your doctor can recommend or prescribe the type he or she feels best.

Take melatonin supplements only at night, since the production of this hormone is initiated by darkness. If you take them during the day, you confuse your brain. You don’t want to do that, since there is more to this hormone than sleep regulation. Melatonin also governs which other hormones are released and when. Additionally, taking melatonin generally makes you sleepy, so you definitely want to take it prior to bedtime.

SAFETY AND SIDE EFFECTS:
There are no harmful side effects with melatonin and no long-term dangers because it is not a drug, but a substance that occurs naturally in your body. Even so, people with autoimmune diseases, leukemia, or lymphoma should consult a doctor before use. Melatonin can also interfere with fertility and should not be taken by those who are pregnant or nursing. On the other hand, women on BHRT can take melatonin without fear of any ill effects.

CHAPTER 3
T
RANSITIONS

Three old guys are out walking.

First one says, “Windy, isn’t it?”

Second one says, “No, it’s Thursday!”

Third one says, “So am I. Let’s go get a beer.”

W
e women go through a lot. Our bodies are constantly changing and in transition owing to the hormone balance that shifts with age and with the environment to which we are exposed. We are chemical beings, and we live in a world that is environmentally hazardous. We have chemicals in our water. Our food supply is damaged from the soil in which it grows and from the acid rain that falls from the sky. Our food is loaded with preservatives and chemicals that our bodies were never meant to assimilate. When you factor in the daily stress we are all coping with—noise pollution, traffic, airplanes, angry drivers—along with major stresses like a death in the family, serious illness, and accidents, it’s no wonder we have so many problems associated with our changing bodies, from PMS to perimenopause to menopause and beyond.

They say in today’s world we experience more stress in a single day than a person in Elizabethan times experienced in their entire lives. Think about that … this is why these transitions have become so difficult. Transitions are a part of aging, and each passage that occurs
involves changing hormone levels. How you get through these transitions, or passages—successfully, with your health intact—has to do primarily with balancing your hormones. That’s what we’ll look at in this chapter.

P
REMENSTRUAL
S
YNDROME

PMS is real. The dictionary description is as follows: “a disorder causing a range of symptoms such as nervousness, irritability, bloating, depression, headache, fatigue, tenderness of the breasts and acne, that occur each month following ovulation and leading up to menstruation: usually five to fourteen days before.” The very existence of this definition in the dictionary proves PMS is a real syndrome!

We are not given sympathy for this syndrome, either, because we are so difficult to be around while experiencing its symptoms. We know inside that we can’t help it when we fly off the handle, but it takes so much effort and maturity to try to cope with it.

If you suffer from PMS, there are two things you can do: The first is to find a doctor who understands bioidentical hormone replacement therapy. So often a blood test will reveal that your “chemical imbalance” is hormonal in origin. This finding makes the syndrome easily rectified.

You have to understand that hormone replacement is not the sole domain of older women. Teenagers with “raging hormones” can feel and act crazy from hormonal imbalances. Additionally, in teenagers with PMS, painful periods and cramps are often a result of a progesterone deficiency. Add to that scenario that they do not yet possess all of their “common sense,” and parents have a recipe for disaster. Getting a blood test to determine the existence of an imbalance and then a prescription for real progesterone, short-term, until the girl is balanced, can save a lot of heartache. If she needs it for a deficiency, then it cannot be harmful, only helpful.

Perimenopausal women experiencing PMS may be suffering from an estrogen deficiency that makes them feel crazy and irritable. This
can start in the early thirties and continue for years. Again, a blood test to identify the imbalance and then replacement with real hormones for what is needed can change a person’s life and outlook.

PMS can be so serious that it can ruin relationships and marriages. No one understands it, least of all the woman herself. This brings me to the second thing you can do about PMS: You have to get a handle on yourself. Understand that your hormones are acting up and that the feelings you are experiencing are magnified by the chemical imbalance. Right before your period is usually the worst and most dangerous time. You can experience true rage; then two days later when your chemicals have calmed down, you feel so bad for all the terrible things you have said and done.

I remember being terribly PMS-y in my early thirties. When I think about it now, I was definitely hormonally imbalanced. Remember, I was also on those original birth control pills, and they could make you feel crazy. I wonder how much of my craziness was chemically induced by those harmful pills I was taking. I would do terrible things: throw a beautiful vase across the room, try to jump out of a moving car, cry, or scream, all of which was truly embarrassing behavior. My anger at my husband and kids felt real.

I was extremely stressed dealing with my newfound and tremendous fame and blending our two families. My schedule was crazy. My eating habits had not been formed. I drank a lot of champagne and ate too much sugar. I went out too much, didn’t sleep enough, and prided myself on the tiny amount of sleep I got each night, as though outworking everyone were something to be proud of. In other words, I had zero understanding of my body as a temple to be revered and taken care of. I abused my body and mind during those years, and the craziness the week before my period was always inevitable. I am extremely lucky that my husband tried his best to understand what I was going through. But the truth is, I did not understand it myself, and as a result, I could have lost everything.

Yes, PMS
is
real, but you have to accept that your lifestyle and diet choices can affect it, good or bad. Poor sleeping habits, poor diet, consumption of chemicals and preservatives, and other bad choices will have a negative effect on your quality of life. Have your
doctor order a hormone panel to see if it is imbalance that is making you this way. See a therapist to try to unravel the confusion of your life. I did this because I was in anguish from leftover childhood issues and new issues relative to putting a family together that didn’t want to be together. My therapist helped me change my life and attitudes. I also changed my diet and reprioritized my life.