I have saved this module on hormone replacement therapy until last … and for good reason. Every technique you have learned in this course should improve your hormone panels to some extent. Some people respond very well to nutritional protocols to enhance their hormones. Others may have amazing success with exercise that helps solve some of their hormone imbalances. While others can get back to normal with improved sleeping methods. And many people who get in the sun and jump in an ice bath will see immediate reduction of inflammation and experience better hormone balancing.
Unfortunately, when it comes to addressing hormonal issues, most anti-aging doctors start with hormone replacement. I prefer a PATHWAY where we start with lifestyle (which includes nutrition, exercise, sleep, mindfulness, sun, etc.) approaches. After this, we would recommend you work with a new functional medical doctor to add hormone replacement to your arsenal of anti-aging modalities. Keep in mind that your primary care physician may not have a clue as to what you are looking for. There are very few primary care physicians who are prescribing hormones as it is a very specialized field.
Take a moment to take this self quiz to see where you may be at hormonally.
Let’s take a closer look at hormones and how they work.
Based on your findings, you may see some room for improvement and may want to consider visiting an anti-aging doctor to do further testing to determine if hormone replacement therapy is right for you.
Now, that you have had a brief introduction to bio-identical hormone replacement therapy, I would like to encourage to find two kinds of doctors in your area to support your program going forth.
- Functional Medicine Doctor
- Anti-Aging Doctor
A functional medicine doctor would be the first to visit in my opinion and may be all you need. Many functional medicine doctors can do hormone replacement therapy. Please understand that hormone replacement therapy is a specialty. It requires a very dedicated healthcare professional who knows how to intermingle lifestyle treatments. You don’t want to place your hormone care to any old doctor who thinks that he or she knows about hormones. This is not OK. I recommend anti-aging doctors because they specialize in bio-identical hormone replacement therapies. Your gynecologist has a wide array of specialties. Many of these physicians may know some of this field, but a specialist who keeps up with the latest in anti-aging is a safer, and better bet. Your gynecologist may give you progesterone and estrogen and even testosterone, but that may the extent of what they do.
*We will do our best over the coming months and years to create a list of the best anti-aging doctors around the globe.
A functional medicine doctor will look at your lab work and see where you may need a little tweaking and fine tuning. They are like mechanics. If you went to a mechanic because you had a leak somewhere in your vehicle, s/he would search until the leak is found. A functional medicine doctor will do the same.
For example, if a functional medicine doctor hears you are a bit tired, s/he will run a number of tests to determine if there are any:
- infections
- gut health issues
- nutritional deficiencies
- and so on…
After these tests are performed and analyzed, your new doctor may start treatments with foods, herbs, and new lifestyle strategies to help you become more optimal. Healing any infections (and most of us have them) will naturally improve your hormone panel. Healing nutritional deficiencies or, let’s say, detoxing heavy metals will do the same. Once these issues are treated or while being treated, your doctor may want you to get started on hormone replacement therapy.
If your functional medicine doctor is not an expert on bio-identical hormone replacement therapy, ask him/her who is — and set up your next appointment.
Once you start the therapy, the results can be very good, and in some cases, miraculous. You must monitor the results through urine tests and other measures. Say, for example, you are taking DHEA or testosterone, your doctor will want to test your urine to see how your body is utilizing the supplemental hormones. DHEA or testosterone could be converted to estrogen which could create a challenge for the body. Your doctor would then need to tweak your prescription.
It is very important that you view a good hormone replacement doctor as a partner in your anti-aging treatment.
When you are at Phuket Cleanse, we can recommend a local anti-aging doctor to get you started. However, you will need to find your functional medicine doctor and hormone replacement therapy doctor when you get home.
You really want to go to the best expert. Some of the best experts can practice online by meeting you for the first time and then you send your regular labs to him/her to maintain your prescription. You may even want to travel every three months where the doctor is located. Having a great doctor is worth this effort.
Working with Your Functional Medicine Doctor
Your functional medicine doctor will continue to guide you down the road to optimal health and wellbeing. A good functional medicine doctor, or a great naturopath, will look into your gut health and look for any system stressors such as heavy metal toxicity, detoxification status, and any genetic challenges you may have. It does not all happen in a day. A good functional medicine doctor will work with you over a period of time helping you optimize your system.
If you are not able to find a functional medicine doctor in your area, you may be able to find a good naturopath who can work with you in the same way.
I do want to ask you over the course of the year to do a comprehensive stool test such as the famous one called “GI Effects.” Please ask your doctor for that one or for one that is comparable.
You may want to ask your doctor to test you for heavy metals to determine if you need to do a detoxification protocol for this.
You can test yourself and do your own heavy metal detox if you use the products from this company.
You may have heard a lot of controversy over HGH (Human Growth Hormone). It is the hormone everyone wants in their anti aging protocol as it gets the best results for people physically. HGH supplementation improves hair, skin, nails, body fat muscle, fitness, libido, spine structure and the list goes on and on. Yes, you probably are saying, “Sign me up now!”. However, it is nut such an easy supplement to get due to excessive regulations due to the doping issues in professional sports.
It may be good that people can’t get it so easily as they often find great benefits from secretagogues or peptide therapies. Peptide therapies are amino acid combinations that are often injected by the doctor or self injected. These secretagogues stimulate your body’s own production of growth hormone which is much more beneficial than taking it exogenously.
As part of your overall anti aging regimen, we suggest you consider doing peptide therapy based on your personal needs. From your bloodwork panel, you will see if you have a deficiency of growth hormone and would benefit from peptide therapy. Most people over 40 are deficient in growth hormone and it continues to decline as we get order, stimulating muscle loss and skin sagging.
We suggest after you are well into your anti aging protocol after your stay with us that you return home and find a local anti aging doctor who can put you on peptide therapy. You will be well equipped with your most recent bloodwork provided in your anti-aging package at Phuket Cleanse. You will save lots and lots of fees from your anti aging clinic as you will already be well into an anti aging protocol and only need to provide your doctor with your bloodwork in order to presecribe you peptides if that is what you choose to do.
Your anti aging doctor will help you to maintain your hormone therapy and peptide therapy protocols by ordering your bloodwork in a few months after your trip to Phuket Cleanse. This will enable the doctor to get a picture on how to adjust your treatments.
You will most likely find it cheaper to return to Phuket Cleanse several times a year as we will do your bloodwork again. You will meet with the nutritionist and trainers and anti aging doctor to monitor and adjust your program.
